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 Saturday, March 16
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GOOD NEWS FOR BOY SCOUTS [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
This might speak to where most of America is. At least 39 United Way branches nationwide have stopped funding the Boy Scouts, that unlike the Girl Scouts (there are no formal ties between the two groups) bans homosexual leaders and includes God in their oath. But the United Way protest adds up to only three percent of the 1,400 United Way chapters in the U.S. The Boy Scout name might be dirt among elites, but not most of the country.
Posted
1:00 PM | [Link]
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ANYTHING BUT PROFILING [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
"We, like most Americans, are very uncomfortable with any form of profiling," Terry Hartle, vice president of the American Council on Education, quoted in a Washington Post story on education administrators lobbying against scrutiny of foreign students. Most Americans probably would prefer we not have another Sept. 11.
Posted
12:50 PM | [Link]
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A PLACE CALLED HOPE, IN TENNESSEE [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Among the Mecca-gate letters, I’ve seen a good presence from Tenn. conservatives who assure me Tipper Gore will never be elected from their state. And to the man who lives on the block where the Gores are house-shopping, we feel your pain—every American who was held up by the then vice president for 36 days after the 2000 election.
Posted
12:12 PM | [Link]
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WHITE HOUSE STUD [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Last night, falling asleep to C-SPAN (spare me the dork jokes), I heard a little of a replay of Mitch Daniels' budget testimony to the House Appropriations Committtee earlier in the week. Daniels was sparring with a Democrat about his role in the whole budget process. He noted: I always tell my daughters that Brad Pitt and I have something in common: We both got the same number of votes for president.
I just had to repeat that.
Posted
11:58 AM | [Link]
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TREK TIME [Andrew Stuttaford]
Kathryn has banned Star Trek talk from The Corner, so check out this piece from The Nation instead. It speaks for itself.
Posted
11:57 AM | [Link]
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GUNSMOKE [Dave Kopel]
Mark Pertshcuk, legislative director of one of America's largest gun-ban lobbies, spent ten years working for America's leading anti-tobacco lobby. He explains the difference between the anti-tobacco fight and the antigun fight, and show how antigun activists can learn from anti-tobacco activists.
Posted
11:55 AM | [Link]
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A TITLE BY ANY OTHER NAME [Jonah Goldberg] Today's Washington Post has a couple articles on the latest INS blunder -- giving visas to two of the now-dead 9/11 hijackers. One of the administrators who's being moved -- not fired, but moved -- as a disciplinary measure, holds the title of "assistant deputy executive associate commissioner for immigration services." If there were no other evidence on record, I would say that title alone proves that the INS is too bureaucratic.
Posted
10:59 AM | [Link]
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HEAVEN AS A WHOREHOUSE: [Rod Dreher] (No, this isn't a Catholic scandal blog!) David Gelernter of the Weekly Standard has written a tremendous essay about the crisis in Israel. Gelernter writes of the moral deformity of a people -- Palestinian Muslims -- who believe that if you blow yourself up in an effort to kill Jewish women and children, you will go to heaven and get laid by 72 virgins. I'm deeply depressed over what's being done to Israel. Israel is at war for its survival with fanatical anti-Semitic enemies who are exploding themselves in cafes daily -- and America presumes to tell the Israelis to defend themselves with delicacy! Growing up in the South, I observed how Southern men admired the moral courage of Israelis and the martial skill of their military. As I once heard a man say at the hunting camp, "I tell you what, those Jewboys don't take sh-t." That was the highest compliment a Southern man could possibly pay the Israelis. For what it's worth, I offer it again today.
Posted
9:56 AM | [Link]
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SMASHING SUCCESS: [John J. Miller]
Last night's missile-defense test was a hit--the fourth time the Pentagon testers have "hit a bullet with a bullet," as they like to say.
Posted
5:28 AM | [Link]
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SORRY [Jonah Goldberg]
I know, I know, this has not been my best week for publishing on time. But I did have to go to Las Vegas, weather a spam attack from the CAIR folks, take my dog to the vet and all sorts of other stuff. Anyway my column is up now.
Posted
1:58 AM | [Link]
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Friday, March 15
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YADDA YADDA: [Rod Dreher] Well, I was wrong; "The Point" is a half-hour show that airs at 8:30. I was on tonight with Eugene Kennedy, the ex-priest and Church progressive. We didn't get along. I said that asking about priestly celibacy didn't make sense, because no man who is unable to marry decides to take up sex with children or teen boys instead. I said the real question is: Does the fact that almost all these victims are teenage boys have something to do with the large number of gays in the priesthood, and is there something we can and should do about it. Host Anderson Cooper seemed freaked out by the very mention of this, which says to me that the media are going to be extremely uncomfortable about delicate facts, such as this one from my Boston sources: of the 80 priests whose names were turned in to cops, only two or three were true pedophiles; the other 77 or 78 (the numbers differ depending on who I talk to) were homosexuals who have been accused of seducing male teenagers. Anyway, Kennedy huffed and puffed about how this has nothing at all to do with homosexuality, and that the real question has to do with "integrated sexuality," or some psychoanalytical jargon. Amazing the stuff these guys will come up with to avoid facing the uncomfortable truth. I don't have the slightest idea to what extent this crisis is caused by gays in the priesthood, or what can be done about it once we figure that out. But I do know that issue, and not celibacy, is where our inquiry should begin.
Posted
11:41 PM | [Link]
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SCANDAL-WATCHERS TUNE IN TONIGHT: [Rod Dreher] Lots of news today, from coast to coast, about You Know What -- and I'll be talking about it tonight on CNN's "The Point," which airs at 8pm Eastern.
Posted
4:41 PM | [Link]
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RED TIDE [Ramesh Ponnuru]
A new survey commissioned by National Journal has bad news for Dick Gephardt. In counties that went narrowly for Al Gore in 2000, registered voters give President Bush a 71 percent approval rating--and more of them want Republicans to retain control of Congress than want Democrats to take it (46 to 39 percent). That’s an even bigger advantage for Republican congressional candidates than they have in the counties that went narrowly for Bush.
Posted
12:33 PM | [Link]
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SAUDI REALITIES [Andrew Stuttaford]
There's a report from Saudi Arabia in the London Daily Telegraph today, which, if accurate, is horrifying. The coercive role of the Kingdom's religious police is, of course, already a well-known phenomenon, but it raises an interesting, and more general, question. If fundamentalist Islam is as popular in Saudi Arabia as is usually claimed, why does it need the backing of such an extensive police presence?
Posted
12:32 PM | [Link]
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CLARIFICATIONS, ETC. [Rich Lowry]
I neglected yesterday to note the snarky clarification from Lloyd Grove, which can be added to the grudging correction online and a more forthright one over the phone from Jeremy Lott. Meanwhile, there's a perfectly fair and reasonable point near the end of Peggy Noonan's column today.
Posted
12:32 PM | [Link]
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A BELLESILES OF YESTERYEAR [Dave Kopel]
Writing for the History News Network, Professor Jerome L. Sternstein details a 1966 case of historical fraud similar to the contemporary fraud of Michael Bellesiles. In "Historical Fraud and the Seduction of Ideas: The Poulshock Case" Professor Sternstein discusses a book about the tariff debates in the late 19th century, in which the author's extensive "research" into the correspondence of politicians was almost entirely fabricated. The article also looks at Bellesiles, and the role of NR's Melissa Seckora in exposing Bellesiles. In 1966, Syracuse University Press immediately recalled all copies of the fraudulent book, once the fraud was exposed. But today, Knopf continues to promote "Arming America," and has even published a paperback edition. In 1966 and today, the professional historical societies have refused to warn their members about a book demonstrated to be a hoax.
Posted
12:31 PM | [Link]
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CAMPAIGN WARNING [Andrew Stuttaford]
So Tipper might run. The rumor is that her campaign literature will have to carry warning stickers, which makes sense. Innocent electors must be protected from this sort of thing.
Posted
9:51 AM | [Link]
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COOL DOWN: [John J. Miller]
The new movie Ice Age gets strong reviews today, which is good because the Miller tikes haven't been to the theater in a while. The Washington Post's critique is typically smart--the Post has some of the best movie reviews in the business--but Ann Hornaday concludes on a bizarre note. "More disturbing to some older viewers may be the liberties 'Ice Age' takes with the theories of what ultimately caused the extinction of [the Pleistocene-era animals of North America, such as the wolly mammoth and saber-toothed cat]," she writes. "The filmmakers suggest that man's inhumanity to animal is the culprit ... but that is by no means a settled-on fact. ... All of which raises a question: Why is it that Oliver Stone is routinely pilloried for exercising artistic license in movies directed at presumably educated adults, when a blind eye is turned to films that are just as factually challenged but are aimed at kids who haven't yet developed critical thinking skills?" She's correct in one sense: Nobody knows for sure why these animals died off. Climate change and disease are both possible causes. So is overhunting by humans settling the Americas 10,000 years ago--in other words, the ancestors of the nature-loving eco-Indians who starred in Dances with Wolves. (See Shepard Krech's outstanding book, The Ecological Indian, for details.) Comparing moviemakers who speculate about unknown parts of the prehistoric past to Oliver Stone is way too brutal--and brutal disservice to the researchers who think overhunting may have had a lot to do with the disappearance of these magnificent creatures.
Posted
9:35 AM | [Link]
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NOW, THE DIOCESE OF BROOKLYN: [Rod Dreher] Priests in the NYC area have been wondering where and how the sex abuse crisis was going to hit here. They have their answer. Several stories in the New York papers today about priests accused of molesting kids in the past, and allegations of Church cover-up. Check out Newsday on allegations made by a current priest and his brother, against an older priest who is still pastor in a Brooklyn parish. The Times (link requires registration) reports on a trio of nuns going public about what they consider the Brooklyn bishop's careless handling of a case they reported years ago.
Posted
9:25 AM | [Link]
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DISCOVERING MUGABE [Dave Kopel]
The world's recent discovery that Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe is a mass-murdering, lying, thieving tyrant is akin to the "discovery" that Dean Martin likes to drink. The Spectator points out that Mugabe's evil has been well-known for decades, yet Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair continued to shower him with foreign aid. The people of Africa are victimized by a racist double standard, by which dictators who murder blacks or Arabs by the tens of thousands are allowed to get away with it, as long as they act polite towards the leaders of nations on other continents.
Posted
9:24 AM | [Link]
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WHAT'S NEWS ABOUT ZIMBABWE [Dave Kopel]
What makes Zimbabwe different from most African nations is not that the dictator stole the most recent election, but that an election took place at all. Almost all the "governments" of Africa are kleptocracies which suppress all human rights. While colonial rule in Africa was hardly a model of good government, the majority of African nations, both Arab and black, would be better ruled today by England or France or Belgium or Germany or Portugal or Italy than by the thugs which currently rule those nations. By every possible standard, the few remaining colonies of Europe (e.g., the Falkland Islands) are far better governed than almost all African nations. These days, European colonial rulers do not perpetrate genocide, do allow a free press and religious freedom, do allow independent unions and farm groups, and operate colonial regimes that appopriate a much smaller fraction of the nation's wealth than do African governments.
Posted
9:24 AM | [Link]
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THE WALZER PIECE [Stanley Kurtz]
The Michael Walzer article, linked below by David Kopel, is extraordinary, and its effects are bound to be important. Not only is Walzer the editor of Dissent, he is the recognized expert on “just war” theory. Either this will start a major internal debate on the Left, or it will not (which would itself be revelatory). What struck me about the piece is how, if taken seriously, it would be impossible to confine the critique to foreign policy. Walzer keeps slamming the Left for its refusal to blame third worlders, even when they are dangerous or wrong. But that same mentality is what drives the left’s double standards on the treatment of minorities domestically. It all goes back to the sixties, as Walzer notes. So I’m not sure that the Left can take Walzer seriously without committing suicide or transforming itself radically. I don’t think that will happen any time soon. But I do think the Left may be paralyzed by internal debate and simply stop growing–for as long as the war goes on. As I said last week that is why they are so desperate to end the war.
Posted
9:23 AM | [Link]
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HAPPY IDES OF MARCH: [John J. Miller]
And many happy returns...
Posted
9:23 AM | [Link]
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THIS IS WAR! [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
No, not the war you're thinking of. The National Organization's press release applauding the Senate's killing of the Pickering nomination warns that he was "just the beginning." NOW President Kim Gandy: "Pickering was just one in a long line of ultraconservatives hand-picked to reverse women's and other civil rights. If all the Bush nominees are confirmed, the federal appellate courts will be in conservative alignment, so fewer bad decisions will even get a review by the Supreme Court. We need judges committed to justice for women, not ideologues dedicated to turning back the clock."
Posted
9:22 AM | [Link]
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WORTH HIGHLIGHTING[Kathryn Jean Lopez]
This quote from the Walzer piece: "When we blame America, we also lift ourselves above the blameworthy (other) Americans. The left sets itself apart. Whatever America is doing in the world isn't our doing. In some sense, of course, that is true. The defeat of fascism in the middle years of the twentieth century and of communism in the last years were not our doing."
Posted
7:52 AM | [Link]
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GET OVER IT [Dave Kopel]
Writing in the journal Dissent, Michael Walzer asks "Can There Be a Decent Left?" He argues that it is time for the Left to get over its blame-America-first mentality, which after September 11 has reached the point of absurdity. Walzer points out that English and French leftists in the first part of the 20th century were able to criticize their nations' imperialism while still loving their nations.
Posted
7:50 AM | [Link]
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ABOUT 24/7 [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
The inbox is full of questions about false advertising this morning. “The Corner claims to be 24/7,” you point out, and yet, the gaps in posting. “Wassup?” Well, I could give you legitimate excuses—software’s been down, NROniks are working for once, etc. But the real truth is probably: Yesterday was our first real spring-like day here in NYC and the kids had class outside so to speak. What can I say? And as for the general gaps, unlike the rest of the site, on The Corner, a bunch of us have the ability to update anytime, anyplace (within reason), without relying on the talents of people we’d have to otherwise wake up at 2AM to post. So, there’s always the possibility you’ll see new stuff when Rich Lowry has insomnia at odd times, as you have seen. I can’t promise it will always, every day be 24/7, but there is always the possibility. Thanks for continuing to check. And even to nudge.
Posted
5:41 AM | [Link]
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FATHER JUDGE AND DIGNITY: [Rod Dreher] Several readers have written to ask me to clarify an earlier comment that Fr. Mychal Judge, a good man who died heroically on 9/11, was unfaithful to the Church on sexuality. I have no reason to believe he was personally unchaste. What I meant was he was active with Dignity, marched in gay rights parades, and advocated behind the scenes for gay rights. Read more about that here.
Posted
2:34 AM | [Link]
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Thursday, March 14
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I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE FROM THE STATE [Jonah Goldberg] Lord knows I'm with the forces of truth and justice when it comes to security, but: Wow.
Posted
5:47 PM | [Link]
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DAMN YANKEES [Andrew Stuttaford]
Jonah, While we are on the subject of attacks on British institutions, it might also be worth taking a look at the current issue of NR, which features an onslaught on Marmite so vicious that I choked on my Twiglets. To attribute the fall of the British Empire to this tasty delicacy is unfair and unworthy. Everyone knows that salt and vinegar crisps were to blame.
Posted
4:00 PM | [Link]
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NYT UTOPIA [Stanley Kurtz]
What would a liberal utopia actually look like? The answer is available on page A29 of today’s New York Times. There, in an article entitled, “19 Who Defied Odds Win Times Scholarships,” we see a picture of 19 smiling young people, not a single one of whom is a white male. These students were all high academic achievers who did well in school despite tough life conditions. Obviously, the committee of Times reporters and editors who awarded the scholarship felt that just being a white male disqualified anyone from such an award. It’s good to know that all of the young white males in Appalachia, or in orphanages, or wherever, have pretty much got it made in life. No doubt the reporters and editors who awarded the prizes are also careful to keep the concerns of white males (and any non-white males sufficiently swathed in false consciousness to collaborate with white males) out of the pages of the New York Times itself.
Posted
2:08 PM | [Link]
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TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
To answer all the e-mails I have been getting this morning (my favorite: "It's Satire, Stupid"), yes, the Onion link is a satire and yes I knew that when I linked to it.
Posted
12:02 PM | [Link]
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LESS IMPRESSIVE [Jonah Goldberg]
Meanwhile, in the same issue, there’s a hysterical piece by Eamonn Fingleton on America’s trade deficit. What’s funny about it, first and foremost, is the way it starts: "Economics is known for extraordinary fads and fallacies – for episodes that in retrospect are regarded as sheer lunacy." He cites 17th century Dutch tulip mania, the roaring twenties and, later on in the piece, the Wall Street Journal’s and Cato Institute’s infatuation with free trade as evidence of such silly fads. Now, if you don’t know who Fingleton is, you might not get the joke. This guy was, is and forever shall be Japan Inc.’s Paul Begala. He’s been standing on the deck of the MITI Titanic throughout Japan’s ten-year recession declaring how that country is poised to eat America’s lunch. He’s like a 17th century intellectual who, after seeing thousands of investors lose their life-savings in the tulip crash, insists that the flowers are more valuable than ever. Seriously, in 1995 he declared "Japan is still on track to overtake the United States by the year 2000." Just four days ago, he wrote an op-ed for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette supporting Bush’s outrageous steel tax because, among other things, steel is a mainstay of Japan’s "continuing success." In 1998, when I was producing the PBS series "Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg," we interviewed Fingleton. The title of the program was "What Happened to Japan Inc?" and, in effect, his answer was, like the Monty Python sketch about the dead parrot, "it’s only resting."
Posted
10:28 AM | [Link]
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COVERING THE ATLANTIC [Jonah Goldberg]
I read Christopher Hitchens’ outstanding, though depressing, revisionist cover story on Winston Churchill in the April issue of The Atlantic on the way back. Hitchens still likes Churchill but he certainly does yeoman work bringing him down a peg or two (did you know that several of Churchill most famous 1940 radio broadcasts – "we will fight them on the beaches," "finest hour" etc were actually read by an actor impersonating Churchill?). It’s not on the web yet, but if there are any Churchill experts who’ve read it and can tell me where and why Hitch is wrong, I’d love to hear from you. Please, no emails saying things like "I didn’t read the piece, but Churchill was a hoss!" I can cover that territory on my own.
Posted
10:24 AM | [Link]
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PROBLEM SOLVED [Jonah Goldberg]
My travel this week did give me one excellent insight into what to do about the detainees in Guantanamo: Let’s makes these guys fly in and out of BWI for the rest of their lives. I can think of nothing crueler. Oh wait, putting them on planes probably not a good idea.
Posted
10:23 AM | [Link]
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HOME, AGAIN [Jonah Goldberg]
I’m back from Vegas. Got into BWI at 1:30 AM, home by 2:30 AM. Still getting angry emails from angry Muslims (and, what exactly did I do?). I know we’re supposed to show you the "best" ones, but I don’t even open them anymore. Though the ones with the subject headers like "say bye bye to your family," "MY SHIT ON YOUR FACE MY ASS HOLE"[sic] and "death is coming" are tempting, I think I will judge a book by its cover, as it were.
Posted
10:22 AM | [Link]
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RIGHT ON [John Derbyshire]
Stanley Kurtz's argument in The Corner this morning ends up at the same point as my "Minoritarianism" piece a few weeks ago. Kurtz: "This strikes me as yet another case where what is best for a small minority is profoundly harmful to society as a whole." Derb: "Why, to put it bluntly, should the 97 percent of the population who are not homosexual permit themselves to be jerked around by the three percent who are?" The point of balance between tolerance for the rights of harmless minorities, and respect for the attitudes and institutions of the majority culture, has been mislaid. If anyone finds it, please let us know.
Posted
9:58 AM | [Link]
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CHAT WITH SHAKEDOWN AUTHOR:
The National Review Book Service is pleased to announce an interactive chat with Kenneth Timmerman, author of SHAKEDOWN: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson.
Date: Thursday, March 14
Time: 7:00PM EST
Location: http://www.NRBookService.com/townsquare/nrb_chat.asp
Get the behind the scenes story of the first in-depth investigation into the man who perfected the "art" of turning racial grievances into breathtaking wealth...
We are anticipating a big turnout for this chat. Please submit your questions in advance.
To join the live chat, click here. Order your copy of SHAKEDOWN now!
Posted
9:26 AM | [Link]
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WHAT IF [Stanley Kurtz]
Let us say that there was a fundamental change in Boy Scout policy toward homosexuals. Let us say that homosexual scout leaders, both open and not, were admitted in large numbers (naturally, on the condition that they remain sexually aloof from the boys). Then let us say that, as a result of the policy change, child-abuse scandals began to break out nationally in any number of Boy Scout troops, to the point where the fundamental confidence of parents in scoutmasters was put in jeopardy, and indeed the survival of the organization itself seemed at stake. At that point, couldn’t defenders of the scout’s new policy toward gays point out that only a minority of gay scout leaders were involved, and that the vast majority of gay scout leaders did valuable work? Couldn’t these defenders actually call for more of the closeted gay scout leaders to be open about their sexuality, in the hope that this would encourage a separation in the public mind between the relatively small number of abusive homosexual Scout leaders and the larger number of good ones? Can anyone blame the Boy Scouts for not wanting to be put through this scenario? Does anyone claim that if gay scout leaders were admitted, that all, or even most, of them would abuse their charges? Hasn’t the fear always been that only a minority would do so, but that this minority would be sufficient to do irreparable harm, not only to many young boys, but to the Boy Scouts as an organization? All of this has already happened in the Church. Clearly, the acceptance of celibate homosexuals into the priesthood has had important positive consequences for these men, and for the people they serve. Yet the dangers to the Church of such a policy are also, clearly, profound. There is a difficult balancing of goods here. But what seem to me to be the entirely sensible concerns of those who resist the notion of homosexual priests or Boy Scout leaders cannot be dismissed as hysteria or prejudice, simply because not every homosexual Boy Scout leader or priest would end up abusing boys or young men. This strikes me as yet another case where what is best for a small minority is profoundly harmful to society as a whole. The trade-off is tragic, but real.
Posted
9:21 AM | [Link]
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THE VAST RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY EXISTS! [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
David Brock appeared on The Today Show this morning talking to Matt Lauer about his new “conscience-clearing” book, Blinded by the Right. You’ll recall that Matt Lauer was the interviewer the morning Hillary Clinton outed the “vast right-wing conspiracy” that was out to get her husband. Lauer remembers. This morning he asked Brock: “Were you part of that vast right-wing conspiracy?” “I was.” Brock was shocked that morning watching Lauer’s interview with her. Finally, somebody “gets it,” he told Lauer this morning. And, his book well documents that conspiracy, he says. Right alongside all those other fine history books by Joe Conason & Gene Lyons, Alan Dershowitz, Molly Ivins...
Posted
7:56 AM | [Link]
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EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL ANIMALS[Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Annie Secunda, a Boston-based females'-rights advocate, said swift action must be taken to address the problem of sexism within the animal kingdom. This, from an Onion must-read.
Posted
7:28 AM | [Link]
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ANDREW AND ME, AGAIN: [Rod Dreher] Andrew Sullivan has another long blog about our dispute this morning. I don't have time to answer him properly here; I literally have a train to catch in 35 minutes. I'll try to get to it tonight, when I am back to a computer. But very briefly: 1) I mentioned the contradiction between his sex life and his Catholicism simply because he has been so public about both in his writing; no disrespect was intended. If I made a habit of holding myself out as a Catholic in good standing, but wrote publicly about sleeping around outside of marriage, or using contraception within marriage, why shouldn't people question me about it? 2) Andrew confesses today to being a Catholic dissenter, to rejecting the Church's teachings in certain key areas. This makes no sense to me as a Catholic, and is exactly what American Catholics love to do: pick and choose which of the Church's teachings they're going to follow. That's between them and their confessors, but what really bothers me is that many of them, including priests, teach this dissent as authentic Catholicism. It is not. It has been my experience that there is a clear connection between sexual activity forbidden by the Church and theological dissent. 3) Let me be clear: I do not believe that homosexuality (by which I mean male homosexuality) mandates child abuse. I do not believe many, or even most, gay men abuse minors. I am unpersuaded, though, that the culture of homosexuality in the priesthood has nothing to do with the numerous scandals, which almost always involve boys. If Tailhook were a widespread phenomenon, then we would be right to question whether an abusive culture of heterosexuals in the Navy contributed to the problem. Now, as Ian Shoales says, I gotta go... .
Posted
7:10 AM | [Link]
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Wednesday, March 13
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MAGGIE SAYS:: [Rod Dreher] Here's Maggie Gallagher's "cri de coeur" over what's happening to the Church.
Posted
9:52 PM | [Link]
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THE ULTIMATE NRO PIECE [Mike Potemra]
In which I call for nuking the pedophile priest who writes for The Moose website.
Posted
6:00 PM | [Link]
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ON LANGUAGE [John Derbyshire]
Two language notes for Jay: (1) "Heighth" is in Milton, though in a variant spelling: "That to the highth of this great argument..." (PL I.xxiv). (2) "Oriental": a reviewer of my Coolidge novel chid me for referring to Chinese people, born and living in China, as "Orientals." That's OK for rugs and antiques, she instructed me, but for human beings the correct form is "Asian-American." So I guess Mao Tse-tung was an "Asian-American," just as (see the current print NR) Vonetta Flowers was "the first African-American from any country to win gold at the Winter Olympics."
Posted
5:24 PM | [Link]
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WHAT WOULD NORMAN SAY? [Andrew Stuttaford] It is a sad sign of the times, but (as I discovered today) travellers to the U.S. from Stockholm's Arlanda airport are now subjected to a certain amount of additional screening when compared to those flying to other international destinations. This is only common sense, but what would Norm Mineta say? Wouldn't the transportation secretary find it "unfair" to "single out" a destination in this way?
Posted
4:47 PM | [Link]
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TAKING THE AP TO TASK[Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Great memo from Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee on the AP's inability to tell the born babies from fetuses. I have a piece on it elsewhere on NRO today, too.
Posted
4:32 PM | [Link]
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BUSH VERSUS ENGLISH: [Roger Clegg]
Today the English-language advocate group ProEnglish is launching a lawsuit against the Bush administration for its enforcement of a Clinton-era policy that requires those receiving federal funds to make their programs available in languages other than English. The policy is based on the silly premise that speaking English is national-origin discrimination, and the lawsuit is being filed in a Virginia federal court on behalf of ProEnglish and four doctors affected by the dubious policy. The principal relief sought is an injunction against the enforcement of Executive Order 13166, signed by President Clinton, and policies of the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services that equate speaking English with national-origin discrimination. So why doesn’t Bush just revoke Clinton’s order?
Posted
3:30 PM | [Link]
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IN THE MEANTIME: [Jonah Goldberg]
You might want to check out my syndicated columnon Bush’s steel tariffs. I’m linking to the JewishWorldReview version because that will be more likely to annoy some of my e-mail correspondents today.
Posted
3:29 PM | [Link]
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SORRY FOLKS: [Jonah Goldberg]
I’ve got to hit the road earlier than I planned this morning. So there won’t be a G-File again today. I will try to write one on the flight back and post first thing in the AM. No promises though.
Posted
3:28 PM | [Link]
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GROVE-GATE: [Rich Lowry]
I hate to say it, but I do enjoy sparring with Lloyd Grove—he’s a clever guy. But there are two big problems with his item today: 1) It doesn’t mention that the infamous Mecca discussion occurred in the course of a discussion of how to respond to a hypothetical nuclear bomb detonating in a U.S. city. That’s rather important context. 2) He selectively quotes me. He has a big ellipsis before he picks up my statement about “Mecca seeming extreme, of course, but [insert outrage here].” The sentence before that is “This is a tough one, and I don’t know quite what to think.” The sentence before that (also left out) is “Then there are those who think we really can't do too much differently than what were doing now (my original proposition).” Include those two quotes and you have me basically not knowing what do if we’re nuked, but thinking we might have to do what we’re doing now. Not such a juicy item any more. I talked to Lloyd about this and he says about his first omission: “That’s a fair point, I suppose some context could be provided on that score.” But on the second point he says, “The selective quotation I will stand by.” (Whether this makes Lloyd more or less responsible than our friend Jeremy Lott, I’ll let the fans at home decide.) Anyway, he says he might run an item clarifying the first point in tomorrow’s paper (I’m sure he says this to all his aggrieved subjects). Be warned Lloyd: Readers of the Corner will be watching, and we’re nuclear armed! (Note to Jeremy: That’s not to be taken seriously. The last thing I need is the Committee of Concerned Journalists or something coming after me too.)
Posted
3:07 PM | [Link]
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LOTT-GATE: [Rich Lowry]
Jeremy Lott is considerably less straightforward about his distortions in his semi-apology in the Prospect than he was over the phone. Oh, well, there’s always tomorrow. Since this guy gets slowly more journalistically honest with everything he writes, it may be a long process. (To give you an example of the sort of thing he did in his original piece, he quotes me saying “the time for seriousness . . . is now rather than after thousands and thousands more American causalities.” He suggests that this is me agitating for a decision to hold Mecca at risk right away. But he cuts out from the middle of this a clause that was in dashes: “including figuring out what we would do in retaliation, so maybe it can have some slight deterrent effect.” He can’t quote that clause because it will be clear that I’m not advocating any particular position. This is a cheap shot, and the sort of thing he was very apologetic-sounding about over the phone).
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2:52 PM | [Link]
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MORE ON BLOOD LIBEL [Dave Kopel]
The Jewish holidary of Purim fell on February 25 this year. The holiday celebrates the story told in the Bible's Book of Esther, in which Queen Esther saves the Jews in Babylon from a genocide plot. According to the Saudi government newspaper, Jews celebrate Purim by making pastries filled with blood extracted from Muslim or Christian teenagers, who are confined in a special barrel containing sharp needles. "There is another way to spill the blood: The victim can be slaughtered as a sheep is slaughtered, and his blood collected in a container. Or, the victim's veins can be slit in several places, letting his blood drain from his body." When the Saudi people are fed such blood-filled lies by their government, is it any wonder that some of them become terrorists?
Posted
1:14 PM | [Link]
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SPREADING TOLERANCE [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
According to a Saudi government daily, Jews need human blood for Purim pastries. Thanks, as always, to MEMRI for translating and reporting. Read all about it here.
Posted
1:10 PM | [Link]
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YOU ASKED, WE PROVIDE [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
As you've no doubt heard, NROniks are experiencing a CAIR spam campaign at the moment. To read what the religion of peace inspires, click here. Warning: some of these e-mails ainclude explicit language.
Posted
12:46 PM | [Link]
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ONE OUT OF THREE [Jonah Goldberg]
In 1993 then Washington Post reporter Michael Weisskopf got into a lot of trouble for describing evangelical Christians as "largely poor, uneducated and easy to command." I don’t know about poor or uneducated, but I think you can certainly say at least some American Muslims are easy to command. I’m getting hundreds of emails from people demanding and denouncing NR, me, Rich, Rod, NRO etc. And what’s funny is how clear most of these people are simply following the orders of CAIR without knowing what they’re talking about. Some of these emails make Lloyd Grove’s bitchy column today look fact-filled and responsible--and that’s saying something. A huge chunk of these folks, don’t know what Rich said, what National Review is, who I am, what "The Corner" is etc. But that doesn’t stop them from venting their ignorance in huge clouds of outrage, manufactured or otherwise. It kind of makes CAIR look like even more of a fraud than it already is. Anyway, we are compiling the most entertaining, odd, absurd, and offensive ones for publication.
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12:13 PM | [Link]
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COUNTRY BUMPKINS [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Did everyone catch this bit of condescension in Richard Cohen’s column on Judge Pickering yesterday? “It’s apparently true that in his hometown, the minority community likes him just fine, but they are judging the man and not the jurist. It is the latter who could do real damage to the body of laws that protect civil rights. . .” It’s the national civil-rights groups that have the broad perspective to grasp what’s important, you see. And people like Richard Cohen.
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12:05 PM | [Link]
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MECCAGATE—BREAKING NEWS: [Rich Lowry]
Just talked to Jeremy Lott. He basically disavows his smear job from the other day: “It was unfair, but not intentionally dishonest,” was the best spin he could put on it. He says he will have a piece for The American Prospect today apologizing for misquoting me. When I asked whether he would apologize for the much broader mischaracterization of my postings, he was unclear, although he said he said his new piece would try to “contextualize” what I wrote. Nice—contextualizing after the fact. When I asked how his first piece could accord with any standards of journalistic honesty, he said “that’s what today’s piece is about.” Hmm, so smear first, get journalistically honest later. I feel a little sorry for him—he sounds like a nice kid, who just doesn’t quite know what he’s doing yet.
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10:56 AM | [Link]
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ANOTHER CANDIDATE FOR QUOTE OF THE DAY [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
"It seems to me we are still back in the days of the Salem witch trials." -- Andrea Yates defense lawyer George Parnham
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10:55 AM | [Link]
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WHAT WOULD NORMAN SAY? [Andrew Stuttaford]
It is a sad sign of the times, but (as I discovered today) travellers to the U.S. from Stockholm's Arlanda airport are now subjected to a certain amount of additional screening when compared to those flying to other international destinations. This is only common sense, but what would Norm Mineta say? Wouldn't the transportation secretary find it "unfair" to "single out" a destination in this way?
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8:45 AM | [Link]
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PARDON ME [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Guess what? Roger Clinton was deeply involved in the Clinton "Final Days" Pardongate. Hillary brother Hugh is a liar, too. And, SURPRISE! the junior senator from New York is no angel in all of it.
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6:46 AM | [Link]
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MORE ON THE PEACEFUL RELIGION [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Jonah, I WISH I had the nerve to print the most recent CAIR-ite e-mail. It uses the f-word too often and says to many nasty things sbout Christians and Jews and their eternal future for me to put it up. What an education in Islam CAIR is providing!
Posted
6:19 AM | [Link]
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ISLAM MEANS PEACE [Jonah Goldberg]
Here’s a fun e-mail from one of the peace-loving folks from CAIR. "Mehdi" writes:
"If anyone should be nuked, it should be devil, Zionist Jews who thrive today due to scripture changed by Jewish scribes of old. Scripture changed for racist gain. Zionists who are the heirs of a mentality that made stealing birthrights and the changing of scripture, saying it was sanctioned by God, okay. Zionists who today barbarically steal land and kill and imprison innocents. God damn Zionists Jews. God damn Sharon, Netanyahu and all that support them." [SIC]
Posted
6:16 AM | [Link]
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COLLATERAL DAMAGE [Jonah Goldberg]
Rich is on the receiving end of a CAIR email assault for his wildly misreported and misinterpreted "nuking Mecca" comments here in The Corner. I’ve been spammed by CAIR before and it’s not fun. Which is why I am less than delighted by the fact that CAIR seems to think it is vital that I be cc’d on all or lots of these emails. Some folks responding to CAIR’s "Action Alert" somehow think I’m in a position to fire Rich despite the inconvenient fact that he is my superior in the NR chain of command. So, if you folks are reading this, please stop sending me your e-mails. I will not fire Rich--despite my many efforts in the past. Moreover: I don’t think very highly of CAIR and I’m impervious to your heckling.
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6:15 AM | [Link]
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CABLE-TV SURPRISE [Dave Kopel]
Amazingly, a new made-for-television movie makes the case for less government. Wednesday night, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time (that's 4 p.m. Hawaii Time, and 9:30 p.m. in Newfoundland), Court TV premieres the movie Guilt by Association, which takes a critical look at mandatory drug sentences, and how they impose punishment grotesquely disproporationate to the crime. The movie stars Mercedes Ruehl. Although the plot is fictional, as Court TV's special report on mandatory minimums explains, the inflexible laws sometimes result in minor accessories being given punishments more severe than the main perpetrators; the ring-leader turns in some small-time characters who, not knowing anyone else to turn in, get the full mandatory sentence.
Posted
6:14 AM | [Link]
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ALAS, HE'S NOT HERE TO PICK IT UP [Mark Krikorian]
News flash: The INS just approved Mohammed Atta's application to go to flight school. I am not making this up. The school in Florida just this week received the INS approval letter, mailed from a service center in Kentucky last week. This kind of thing happens all the time, but not to terrorists, so it doesn't get in the news. All the more reason for an immigration pause, at least for a while, so the INS can rebuild from the ground up.
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6:12 AM | [Link]
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ELECTION MUGGER: [John J. Miller]
It appears that the thug Robert Mugabe has won Zimbabwe's presidential "election," though pollwatchers there say the "vote" was "deeply marred by irregularities and ruling party violence." The story of Zimbabwe, of course, is exceedingly depressing--it showed so much potential 20 years ago, but instead it sank into the muck of African political corruption and now is no different than any of its basket-case neighbors (whose recent behavior defending Mugabe is shameful). In his book Our Votes, Our Guns, British journalist describes Mugabe as the prime cause of Zimbabwe's collapse: "Determined to remain in power, he used all the resources of government to attack his opponents, sanctioning murder, torture, and lawlessness of every kind. ... The cost of this strategy has been enormous. Zimbabwe has been reduced to a bankrupt and impoverished state, threatened by economic collapse and catastrophic food shortages. ... [For Mugabe] violence has paid off in the past; he expected it to secure the future." And apparently it just has.
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5:37 AM | [Link]
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AS IF I CAIR-ED: [Rod Dreher] Oh dear. The big old girls over at the Council for American-Islamic Relations, who never met an Islamic mass murderer they couldn't find an excuse for, have called on Rich and me to be horsewhipped for our theoretical discussion of what the United States might do if one of CAIR's buddies nuked an American city. "Hate speech" they call it. The opprobrium of Islamofascist apologists like these cats is a badge of honor, and it puts me in touch with my inner Mike Moran.
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12:00 AM | [Link]
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Tuesday, March 12
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JONAH'S CONFUSED (IF NOT DAZED) Ramesh Ponnuru
Jonah, I wouldn't mind ads saying that drug abuse ruins lives--although I'm not sure it's the federal government's job to pay for them. But the point the critics of the ads have made is that drug purchases wouldn't subsidize large-scale criminality and terrorism if not for the drug war. That's a big part of the argument for legalization, and if it's true it makes it foolish to use the money flow from drug purchases to murderers as an argument for prohibition. Before the folks at the drug czar's office start trying to pin other people with the blame for indirectly causing violence, they might try looking in the mirror.
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7:18 PM | [Link]
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GUILTY Kathryn Jean Lopez
Nothing of course, will ever bring the Yates children back. But thank God, after months of excuse-making, the jury affirmed her guilt. Yes, she is sick, but she is a murderer too.
Posted
7:16 PM | [Link]
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THE MAN WHO STARTED A NATIONAL SCANDAL (SORT OF): [Lowry]
Here's an email from famous "moderate" Gregg Fanselau (he sent it to the Prospect too-we'll see if they publish it):
"Mr. Lott should be ashamed of his sloppy work.
"Lowry's note on NR's "The Corner" asked readers what should be done if terrorists used weapons of mass destruction against the US. In a follow-up, he quoted an e-mail from me. Mr. Lowry quoted it anonymously, which makes sense since I'm no public figure, but it was obviously quoted. More than that, the lead-in noted literate readers to his use of sarcasm in declaring it a `moderate' position. Mr. Lott then quoted it as if Mr. Lowry had said it himself without a disclaimer.
"If you're going to blast anyone for `advocating' use of nuclear weapons, the person to go after would be me. Then again, since I'm obscure that wouldn't serve your fund drives too well. I'm just an ordinary working stiff who sees a need for the US to deter further acts of aggression. Look at blogs like Sgt. Stryker, VodkaPundit, Live from the WTC and you'll see I'm far from alone -- even if Mr. Lowry and the NR crew don't agree with me.
"Please send Mr. Lott to a reading comprehension class before assigning him another article!"
Posted
4:52 PM | [Link]
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MECCA-GATE…: [Rich Lowry]
…gets bigger and bigger. Lloyd Grove of the Washington Post just called about it. I directed him to the spot on The Corner where the item occurred. He seems likely to write about it in tomorrow’s paper. I told him that when I wrote that nuking Mecca would “send a signal,” it was sarcastic understatement, but I suspect this will now become—at least for a few days—a very widely quoted statement. I would much prefer to be quoted about the things I actually do think we should consider nuking—deeply buried WMD sites—but there you go. Again, as I wrote last week, I suspect that all we could do in response to a nuclear attack is a version of what we’re doing now, but I don’t have any great answers, and we should have a strategy and response figured out before such an event, not afterward.
Posted
4:36 PM | [Link]
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IT'S OFFICIAL: [Jonah Goldberg]
Mikhail Gorbachev finally admits Communism was a hoax. Now could someone please call the guys at the Nation and let them know?
Posted
4:17 PM | [Link]
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WHY I WON’T: [Rich Lowry]
Jeremy Lott apparently doesn’t have much of a sarcasm detector (for instance, I don’t really think that it’s “moderate” to want to nuke Baghdad, Tehran, Gaza City, Ramallah, Damascus, Cairo, Algiers, Tripoli and Riyadh). For the record: I don’t know what we should do in retaliation for an al Qaeda nuclear strike. That’s why I wrote: “This is a tough one, and I don’t know quite what to think.” For the record, also: I think all of this should be thought through. That’s why I wrote: “[A]s a general matter, the time for seriousness—including figuring out what we would do in retaliation, so maybe it can have some slight deterrent effect--is now rather than after thousands and thousands more American casualties.” That seems inarguable to me. But Lott, who has—I hate to say--occasionally written for NRO, doesn’t see fit to quote or explain any of this (he also leaves the impression that I wrote words that were in an e-mail I quoted). What a cheap shot.
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2:44 PM | [Link]
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WHADDAYA MEAN?: [Rod Dreher] A reader wants to know how I can make an assertion that the Jesuit order has become heavily gay, and liberal. Where does one start? Try this Garry Wills review.
Posted
2:25 PM | [Link]
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NOT A SEX STORY: [Rod Dreher] The murder of a Long Island priest saying mass this morning was apparently not related to a sex scandal, as many have feared. According to Newsday, the alleged shooter was a church custodian who had recently been fired for stealing from the collection box.
Posted
1:36 PM | [Link]
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RETHINKING THE OUTRAGE [Jonah Goldberg]
I just saw another one of those anti-drug ads featuring teenagers saying, "I helped kill a police officer," "I helped kill a judge in South America," etc. etc. These ads have received a great deal of ridicule, including from Ramesh who, after seeing one such ad during the Super Bowl, commented in The Corner that he was "appalled" by the ads. Ramesh, at least, conceded that the ads might be true, but others – including I believe Saturday Night Live – have not been so even-handed. I’ve decided they’re wrong, at least on one point. Why is it so terrible to say that one (illegal) product subsidizes unsavory and immoral behavior? Conservatives tout consumer boycotts of innumerable legal products from smutty movies, to Disney (for its gay-friendly policies). The proceeds of these products do not support murder, kidnapping, terrorism, prostitution or even the workaday degredation of drug addiction. These commercials may be ineffective or oppurtunistic, but they aren't any more inaccurate or intellectually inconsistent to any exhortation to boycott a product and I would hope we'd see more efforts like them if the legalization crowd gets its way.
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1:01 PM | [Link]
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HELP ME OUT [Ramesh Ponnuru]
I'm looking into the record of human-rights groups post-9/11. If anyone's seen any good articles on the subject or has a brilliant
insight to share, e-mail me at rponnuru@nationalreview.com.
Posted
11:49 AM | [Link]
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GOODBYE, GOOD FATHER FESSIO: [Rod Dreher] Terrible news from the West Coast this morning. The Society of Jesus is persecuting and humiliated Father Joseph Fessio, one of the few orthodox Jesuits left in this country and a source of hope and inspiration to countless faithful Catholics through his Ignatius Press and other good works. In an apparent move to punish him for founding Campion College, they have assigned this brilliant priest to be a hospital chaplain in Duarte, Calif. (he will still be allowed to run Ignatius Press, as best he can). Because he is a faithful Jesuit, Fr. Fessio will obey. The vindictiveness of the faithless liberals who run the heavily gay Jesuit order is staggering.
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11:35 AM | [Link]
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WHAT COMES NEXT [Ramesh Ponnuru]
ABCnews.com publishes an excellent political round-up every morning at
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/TheNote.html. Today's lead covers ethnic politics in Texas's races for Senate and Governor this year. The arresting opening: "The United States, inexorably, is becoming an Hispanic nation. . ."
Posted
11:12 AM | [Link]
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AS CALIFORNIA GOES, SO GOES TEXAS, PART II: [Rich Lowry]
From the Times: "`At the most, a strong Republican candidate like George Bush can count on 35 percent of the Latino vote in Texas,' said Richard Murray, director of the Center for Public Policy at the University of Houston. `A weak candidate facing a Hispanic Democrat will get closer to 15 percent.'"
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11:01 AM | [Link]
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WOW: [Rich Lowry]
I spend most of my waking hours being outraged by things the New York Times writes about arms-control and nuclear policy, but today's editorial, "America as Nuclear Rogue," really is something to behold. For hysteria and moral equivalence, it's hard to top. I'll be posting something on it on the site soon.
Posted
10:58 AM | [Link]
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MORE TEAM NAMES [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
With direction from the director of Native American Student Services at the University of Northern Colorado, “American Indian, Anglo and Hispanic players,” have formed "The Fighting Whities," an intramural basketball team, seeking to raise awareness of cultural stereotypes. Specifically, they are protesting a nearby high school’s "Fightin' Reds."
Posted
10:36 AM | [Link]
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DAVE COOLIDGE, REST IN PEACE [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
A friend of NRO has died. David Coolidge contributed to NRO and other conservative publications, on the topic of gay marriage, among other things. He was a delightful man as well as a smart one, with the ability to softly steer the waters of the most controversial of issues. A year or so ago after querying him about an article idea, his assistant informed me that he was out of the office indefinately, having just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Since that time he and his young family, especially his wife Joan, have been an inspiration to all those around them. On Sunday morning he passed from this life, at home, with his family at his bedside, only days after his son’s fourth birthday.
If you know Dave or Joan and would like funeral and other details, they are here.
Posted
7:59 AM | [Link]
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THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE [Andrew Stuttaford]
Mikhail Gorbachev has now finally admitted that Soviet Communism was "pure propaganda," thereby ending any chance he had of a teaching career at an American university. The next revelation (due in around ten years) from the former Soviet leader will be the announcement that the world is not, after all, flat.
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6:28 AM | [Link]
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Monday, March 11
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WAR CHANT: [John J. Miller]
A pair of readers from Kentucky have replied to my item on Sports Illustrated's surprising new poll on Indian team names by sending along a link to this poll of "American Indian Opinion Leaders." But I don't think it proves anything, except that "American Indian Opinion Leaders" are even more out of touch with the people they claim to represent than we might have assumed.
Posted
10:30 PM | [Link]
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NOT FREE TO CHOOSE: [John J. Miller]
Looking up something in Milton and Rose Friedman's memoirs, Two Lucky People, I happened upon another thing that's wrong with France. The Friedmans call it "the only European country in which the program [Free to Choose] was never aired." This means that even the Albanians got to see it, for crying out loud.
Posted
10:23 PM | [Link]
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CHINESE GOV'T CITES PRIEST ABUSE [John Derbyshire]
Doing my daily trawl through the China news, I see that the Chinese govt. has come out with a strong rebuttal of the U.S. State Dept. report on human rights in China, issued a few days ago. The Chinese report, in a tone of high self-righteousness, accuses the U.S. of all sorts of human-rights abuses, and does its best to paint this country as a hell on earth. Among the charges, according to the AP story: "Violence against women and sexual abuse of children are common. [The Chinese report] cited sexual molestations of children by American clergy, calling that 'the greatest scandal in the United States following the Enron case'."
Posted
8:51 PM | [Link]
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HE WAS A SOLDIER [Andrew Stuttaford]
One of the few advantages of being stuck on long aeroplane flights is the opportunity to catch up on all those magazine articles that I should have read weeks ago. Anyone who has seen Mel Gibson's "We Were Soldiers" should check out James B. Stewart's wonderful piece in the February 8 edition of the New Yorker on Rick Rescorla. Rescorla, a Brit by birth, was a veteran of the fighting in the Ia Drang and was to die a hero's death, over thirty-five years later, in the WTC attack. He was a fascinating, brilliant individual, and a credit to his (and my) native land. RIP.
Posted
8:49 PM | [Link]
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A LONG DEM AGE [John Derbyshire]
Good grief, Rich! With Texas, California, and New York solid for the Dems, and Florida right behind, how will Republicans ever again get power? Perhaps we are headed for a decades-long stretch of one-party rule, like Japan (eek!) or Mexico (aaargh!), with an "institutional" party kept in power by an ever-thickening base of client and dependency groups. Is this going to be America's future?
Posted
8:48 PM | [Link]
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VIEW FROM THE TRENCHES: [Rod Dreher] Hey, Ramesh, a parish priest who was once a seminary official just wrote me the following: "Many upright homosexual priests are among our most effective pastors, while many unchaste homosexual priests are bold apologists for the gay rights movement. The chief difference between the two is genuine belief in revealed religion and the power of grace to shape virtuous human lives in the truth of the Gospel. The crisis in the Church is not caused by what arouses the erotic desire of priests; the crisis is caused by what priests believe and how those believes shape their lives." He goes on to say that the Church in this country is largely run by those who have lost their faith in Catholic teaching, and that until this "guild of dissent is stripped of its influence in the naming of bishops and the administrations of dioceses, seminaries, and religious communities, the culture of promiscuity and mendacity will continue to thrive and clerical sexual crimes will go unaddressed until and unless civil legal authorities become involved."
Posted
4:31 PM | [Link]
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MARSHAL LAW [Dave Kopel]
John Lott explains why Norman Mineta's opposition to handguns for pilots is so dangerous: 30% of stun gun uses fail because the target is wearing thick clothing or shoes with rubber soles. Meanwhile, fewer than 1% of U.S. commercial flights have sky marshals. As Barron's reported last week, if you're not flying to or from Washington, D.C., or the Olympics the odds of a sky marshal on your flight are virtually nil. Endangering passenger safety for the sake of political correctness, Secretary Mineta is even worse than his Clinton predecessors.
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4:05 PM | [Link]
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DEFINING SUFFERING DOWN [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
After the amazing footage of that hellish day in September on CBS last night, I thought it was a grave disservice to those who lost someone, barely escaped death, and have gone through piles of ruble day after day only to find body parts to have Susan Sarandon tell us all that FEMA-funded counselors can help us all “feel free to feel better.” One of the things I realized while watching 9/11 was no matter how scared I was on Sept. 11, even as I coughed on the smoke and smelled the smell that became all to familiar, trapped in the city, worried about my family, my experience of the day was nothing compared to what some had to live, only thirty or so blocks away from where I sat doing nothing but keep NRO alive and help get out another issue of our magazine--as the world ended for thousands, many so close by. Sure, people will all suffer in their own ways and to different degrees and should get help if they need it, but the commercial seemed inappropriate given who and what we had just seen and heard.
Posted
3:56 PM | [Link]
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RE: WHICH GAY PRIESTS: [Rod Dreher] There's nothing wrong with homosexually oriented priests, Ramesh, as long as they honor their vows of celibacy, and uphold the teachings of the Church with regard to sexuality, and everything else (the minimum standard for heterosexual priests as well). Give me a chaste, orthodox priest who struggles with his homosexuality over a straight libertine or dissenter anyday. That said, the problem with the enormous number of gays in the priesthood goes far beyond personal chastity. It's an entire culture they bring with them, a culture that is redefining American Catholicism. I'm reading the galleys of a blockbuster soon-to-be-released book, "Goodbye! Good Men," in which author Michael S. Rose documents in absolutely devastating detail the ways the so-called "lavender mafia" blackballs straight guys from the priesthood, and persecutes them within seminaries -- while being protected by the bishops, who lament the so-called "vocations crisis." And just today, I heard from a reader who says the new priest in her parish is turning things upside down by pushing pro-gay messages in all his homilies, and changing the parish's teaching in other overtly pro-gay ways. She has no reason to believe he's unchaste, but Father is destroying the substance of the Catholic faith in that parish all the same.
Posted
3:55 PM | [Link]
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THE NEW ABM TREATY [Rich Lowry]
Look for the so-called “Negative Security Guarantee” to become the new ABM Treaty for the arms-control set—a hangover from the 1970s on which all of world security is said to depend. The Carter-era guarantee says that we won’t nuke a non-nuke country, so it would be a violation of it, say, to nuke a deeply buried Iraqi bio-weapons site. But only the most fervid arms-control wishful thinker would let this bit of flotsam stand in the way of an American president considering a full-range of military options—including the nuclear one—in a real crisis.
Posted
3:48 PM | [Link]
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TIMES GOES NUCLEAR: [Rich Lowry]
Interesting to watch the freak-out coverage in the Times of the administration's new nuclear posture. Today, for instance, there are three stories: one front-pager on what a radical departure building a low-yield nuke would be, another inside on how hard it would be technically to build such a nuke, and finally a third on the U.S. struggling to explain itself on this issue overseas, where "the unofficial response was frequently caustic." In contrast, the Washington Post has just one story headlined, "Allies Unperturbed By U.S. Nuclear List." (I, of course, recommend my own piece on all this in the current NR, but that's only because I'm a self-referential blogger).
Posted
3:47 PM | [Link]
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AS GOES CALIFORNIA, SO GOES TEXAS?: [Rich Lowry]
Pro-immigration conservatives should take a look at the Post story today about how Texas will slip away from Republicans the way California did, thanks to large-scale Hispanic immigration. According to the Post, Bush pollster Matthew Dowd says "that demographic trends will eventually make the Lone Star State a competitive swing state again. `That is probably four to six years off,' Dowd said." Hmm, comforting.
Posted
3:46 PM | [Link]
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MORE GUNS, LESS TERRORISM [Dave Kopel]
The Jerusalem Post reports that a would-be suicide bomber fled the Israeli town of Karkur on Thursday, March 7, after he was confronted by an Israeli citizen carrying a pistol.
Posted
3:45 PM | [Link]
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I SING MARYLAND [Dave Kopel]
Political correctness has taken aim at "Maryland! My Maryland!" the state's official song. Legally adopted in 1939, the nine stanzas were penned in 1861 by a Marylander outraged by the violent suppression of civil liberty and of the functioning of the state government in Maryland. The song begins, "The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland! His torch is at thy temple door, Maryland! Avenge the patriotic gore That flecked the streets of Baltimore, And be the battle queen of yore, Maryland! My Maryland!" (The tune is "Lauriger Horatius," better known as "O Tennenbaum.") As the 1939 legislature recognized, there is no modern risk that the song would spur Marylanders to join the Confederate State of America. The song does, however, extol violent resistance to tyranny, even domestic tyranny. And the song reminds us of Maryland's divided nature during the Civil War. This makes a lot of folks uncomfortable. In 1894, a schoolteacher wrote some alternate lyrics which, after an opening genuflection to "light and liberty," extol Maryland's geography and present a collection of platitudes about how nice it is to live in Maryland. Appropriately, the milquetoast version removes the exclamation points from the title. A few weeks ago, Democratic Senator Jennie Forehand (who represents Montgomery County, a major bedroom community for federal employees), offered Senate Bill 19 to replace the martial "Maryland! My Maryland!" with the sappy geography tribute. Her bill was defeated 6-3 in a State Senate Committee in late February. The previous year, a House Committee had rejected a bill by Delegate Peter Franchot (also a Montgomery Democrat) to simply abolish the state song. So sing again: "Thou wilt not cower in the dust, Maryland! Thy beaming sword shall never rust, Maryland!...Come to thine own heroic throng, Stalking with Liberty along, And chaunt thy dauntless slogan song, Maryland! My Maryland!"
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3:43 PM | [Link]
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RE: WHICH GAY PRIESTS [John Derbyshire]
Ramesh's point is a good one. Ever since Darwin, one of the keenest discussion points about homosexuality has been: how does a trait that is so obviously an evolutionary negative manage to survive? Roger Scruton has suggested that the tender care and concern that adult homosexuals feel towards young men and boys makes them terrific teachers, mentors, and leaders (e.g. in hunting and military endeavors), thus bringing sufficient value-added to any human groups as to be a net positive for the species. However, the delicate balance of respect on which this benefit depends is upset if a homosexual seeks physical outlet for his urges. In short: Ma Nature likes homosexuals, but only in small numbers, and only repressed ones. If there is any truth in this theory, it demonstrates once again the great conservative principle that life is seriously unfair. (However, American friends that I have tried the theory out on tell me that it is, like Scruton -- and me, for another 29 days -- "very British.")
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1:46 PM | [Link]
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WHICH GAY PRIESTS? [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Rod, what’s wrong with “the presence of gays in the priesthood”? I thought (perhaps mistakenly) that the Catholic Church teaches that while homosexual conduct is sinful, a homosexual orientation is not. I would think that someone who accepts that teaching would regard a celibate homosexual as something of a moral exemplar. If by “gays” you mean sexually active homosexuals, then it seems obvious that they should be rooted out—as their heterosexual counterparts should also be. The Church (again as I understand it) does not regard itself as “discriminating” against gays because it claims that there is a moral standard for sexual conduct that applies to everyone, even if the consequences of that standard are harder on gays than on others. If the Church’s standard is not based on conduct and neutrally applied, it’s a lot harder to defend against the charge of discrimination—and a lot harder to defend, period.
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11:36 AM | [Link]
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LIFE SUDS [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
A young woman is violently raped and finds herself pregnant. She tells a male friend that she wants to abort the child and he persuades her not to, proposing they marry instead, and tell everyone the child is his. She agrees.
A pre-sexual-revolution fairy tale? Try a storyline on the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives. And it’s not unique. Funny, their audience is women. Maybe women aren’t represented by their National Organization after all.
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11:20 AM | [Link]
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NEVER FORGET WHO THE ENEMY IS: [Rod Dreher] Everybody who saw the "9/11" film last night seems to have been deeply moved by the images testifying to the heroism of the New York firefighters. Do not forget, though, how the Arab street reacted to the events the Naudet brothers documented. The Palestinians, the same people who are now blowing up Israeli civilians in cafes, danced in the streets. They weren't the only ones. Here's what one reporter saw in her immediate post-9/11 travels. Neither the Very Special Episodes of "Oprah," nor the soft-focus reporting of diversity-conscious journalists, nor the interminable whining of CAIR should obscure these facts.
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10:41 AM | [Link]
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MISSING PEARL LINK [Dave Kopel]
My latest "Eye on the Media" column for the Rocky Mountain News looks at some overlooked aspects of the Daniel Pearl murder, and criticizes media use of the phrase "Big Tobacco."
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9:45 AM | [Link]
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THE OTHER ARMY MARCHING [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Was just listening to The Today Show which recounted the work of the Salvation Army in Newfoundland, Canada, in a town whose population tripled on Sept 11 when a flight was grounded there. The Salvation Army wasn’t in the news post-Sept. 11 as much as some other charity-groups because there was no scandal there. Instead there was amazing drive, death-defying speed getting down to the site of the attack in NYC, and everywhere else they were needed. The Army is a remarkable organization as I learned working on a piece about them for the Capital Research Center earlier this year.
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9:42 AM | [Link]
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DEFINING SUFFERING DOWN [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
After the amazing footage of that hellish day in September on CBS last night, I thought it was a grave disservice to those who lost someone, barely escaped death, and have gone through piles of ruble day after day only to find body parts, to have Susan Sarandon tell us all that FEMA-funded counselors can help us all “feel free to feel better.” One of the things I realized while watching 9/11 was no matter how scared I was on Sept. 11, even as I coughed on the smoke and smelled the smell that became all to familiar, trapped in the city, worried about my family, my experience of the day was nothing compared to what some had to live, only thirty or so blocks away from where I sat doing nothing but keep NRO alive and help get out another issue of our magazine, as the world ended for thousands. Sure, people will suffer in their own ways and to different degrees and should certainly get help if they need it, but the commercial seemed inappropriate given what and who we had just seen and heard.
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8:00 AM | [Link]
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BUDDHA LIVES! [John J. Miller]
Afghanistan's Bamiyan Buddhas may be gone forever, thanks to the Taliban, but one archaeologist thinks a big surprise lies just beneath the sands somewhere else in the country.
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5:34 AM | [Link]
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AMERICAN IN BAGHDAD Bill Gertz reports this morning that Iraq may be holding an American Navy pilot, shot down during the Persian Gulf War. This ought to tip the scales in favor of the sooner-rather-than-later argument.
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5:32 AM | [Link]
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SAME IN ANY LANGUAGE [Andrew Stuttaford]
In Stockholm today on a business trip. A brief extract from the 9/11 documentary was a lead item on one of the morning TV news programs. It had been subtitled for the benefit of those few Swedes who don't speak perfect English, but I doubt if the Swedish text added anything to the terrible power of the images on screen. Glimpses of Hell need no translation.
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5:27 AM | [Link]
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Sunday, March 10
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RE: DON'T COME AROUND HERE: [Rod Dreher] A couple of years ago, a Dutch friend of mine lamented the rise of anti-immigrant political sentiment ("the far right" he called these people, but by Dutch standards, New York's "Republican" Mayor Bloomberg is Jesse Helms). "But you can understand why this is happening," said my friend, "because anytime anyone from a mainstream political party brings up our immigration problem, they're immediately denounced by everyone as racist." Then my friend went on to complain that he could never hope to afford housing in the heart of Amsterdam, but the Dutch government subsidized choice apartments there for Third World immigrants.
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11:12 PM | [Link]
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DANCES WITH PROPERTY RIGHTS [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Following up on Jonah's column: The Political Economy Research Center has a short paper by Terry Anderson on the actual ecological practices of American Indians. Turns out that when and where they were good environmental stewards, it was because they respected property rights.
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6:10 PM | [Link]
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DON’T COME AROUND HERE [John Derbyshire]
In my Friday column I recounted a conversation with a Danish woman, who told me how fed up the Danes are with unrestricted immigration. The Netherlands seems to be trending the same way. The big winner in last week's local elections in Rotterdam was Pim Fortuyn, a magazine columnist who has been agitating for a freeze on immigration. Fortuyn is running as an independent, having been expelled from his party for calling Islam "a medieval religion." Reporting this, the London Daily Telegraph notes that in next-door Belgium, the anti-immigration Vlaams Blok is now the biggest party in Antwerp. Meanwhile in Germany, the hotly tipped Bavarian candidate for Reichskanzler, Edmund Stoiber, has said he thinks Germany should halt all immigration. Jorg Haider's Freedom Party is in the national government in Austria, Umberto Bossi is in the Italian cabinet, and Jean-Marie Le Pen's anti-immigrant Front National still polls well in France--it is effectively the third party in national politics--in spite of loud intra-party bickering and exclusion from the respectable media. Fortress Europe?
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6:09 PM | [Link]
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FLANNERY O'CONNOR: RACIST: [Rod Dreher] Not long ago, a Catholic school in Opelousas, Louisiana, banned the works of Flannery O'Connor from its classrooms because some of her stories, which are set in the 1950s South, use the word "nigger." It didn't matter to outraged black parents that O'Connor was using realism to make an anti-racist point. Nor did it matter to the cowardly local bishop that he was banning the greatest Catholic fiction writer of the 20th century because ignoramuses mau-mau'd him. Well, it's happened again, at a Catholic school in Houma, Louisiana, run by a knothead nun whose brain has been devoured by political correctness. Here's what the local newspaper editor says about it.
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4:11 PM | [Link]
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READING LIST: [John J. Miller]
Just finished reading First Blood, by W.A. Swanberg, about the Fort Sumter crisis in 1860 and 1861. I've read lots on the subject and inexplicably had not gotten around to this wonderful book until now. It's the best there is.
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3:02 PM | [Link]
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PEOPLE DON'T KILL... [Andrew Stuttaford]
More news from gun-control Britain. The Sunday Telegraph is reporting that
the number of crimes involving knives in London has increased threefold over the past year.
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7:29 AM | [Link]
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JUSTICE SERVED [Dave Kopel]
The Maryland Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, has rejected another abusive lawsuit against a handgun manufacturer, in the case of Halliday vs. Sturm, Ruger [This link requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.] In 1999, a Maryland man bought a Ruger pistol from a gun store in Maryland. The pistol came with a free lock box, with an instruction manual containing numerous warnings and instructions about firearms safety, with safety warnings written right on the gun itself, with a safety pamphlet from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and with an offer for a free safety training course, which the buyer declined. The gun itself had a safety lever which must be disengaged in order to fire. Ignoring these safety materials, the buyer put the handgun in his bedroom, where his three-year-old son found it, and fatally shot himself in the head. The boy's mother sued the gun store and Ruger, for allegedly failing to provide sufficient warnings, and for not incorporating various design features which would make the gun impossible for small children to fire (and which would also reduce a gun's utility for emergency self-defense by an adult, or which would make the gun difficult to use by a person with weak hand strength, such as an elderly woman). The Court of Appeals ruled 6-1 that the suit was improper as a matter of law. The court explained that the Maryland legislature, which has enacted an extensive set of gun controls while rejecting other proposed controls, has already conclusively determined what kinds of guns with what kinds of features are legitimate to sell in Maryland.
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7:28 AM | [Link]
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DOING THEIR PART [Andrew Stuttaford]
Moderate Muslim update. It turns out that a senior member of the supposedly moderate Muslim Council of Britain was busy last year--circulating material written by the "freedom fighter" Osama bin Laden. This happened before 9/11 but (as the Sunday Telegraph points out) well after the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
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7:24 AM | [Link]
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CITIZENS AGAINST TERRORISTS [Dave Kopel]
The Chief Deputy Director of the Philippines' Anti-Kidnapping Task Force has announced that he favors arming citizens to resist kidnappers. The Philippines has been victimized by dozens of kidnappings orchestrated Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group which is allied with al Qaeda and which is attempting to overthrow the nation's democracy and replace it with an Islamic dictatorship.
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7:23 AM | [Link]
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KIM JONG-IL [Dave Kopel]
Asia Times writer Aidan Foster-Carter produces an excellent three-part series on North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-Il, pointing out that his obstinate embrace of Stalinism will lead to his downfall. Foster-Carter suggests that the "Dear Leader" has avoided change because the old guard of the Communist Party doesn't want it, but Kim Jong-Il's chances are greater if he angers the party elders and appeases George Bush, rather than vice versa.
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7:21 AM | [Link]
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