 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
WORLD CUP UPDATE [Andrew Stuttaford] I know that Rich is the Corner's usual sports correspondent, but I thought that readers might be interested in one result from soccer's World Cup championship: Germany has beaten 'Saudi' Arabia 8-0. That's the biggest defeat inflicted on any side in the finals since 1982. Posted 11:52 PM | [Link] A TURKEY VOTES FOR THANKSGIVING [Andrew Stuttaford] There can, now, be little doubt that one of the objectives behind the current drive for deeper integration within the EU is to set up 'Europe' as some sort of countervailing force to the US. Sometimes it is explicit (as when the Swedish prime minister announced that european unity was needed to counterbalance 'excessive' American power) and sometimes it is implicit (as in EU Commissioner Chris Patten's recent laughable attempt to demonstrate the rise of an EU-patriotism with examples - such as the poor old Ryder Cup - mainly defined by some sort of opposition to the US). Relentlessly regulatory, hopelessly undemocratic and ceaselessly centralizing, the EU is the antithesis of America. If there is one example of this, it is the imposition of the EU's single currency, the Euro, on a largely unwilling population. Born amid budgetary chicanery, Europe's funny money is a lethal combination of economic illiteracy and political savvy: it can only succeed within the context of a fully federal EU and that, therefore, is where it will lead. Could someone please tell George W. Bush that this is something that the US should not welcome? Judging by a recent speech, he doesn't have a clue. Here is what Bush had to say to the German parliament on May 23: " When Europe grows in unity, Europe and America grow in security. When you integrate your markets and share a currency in the European Union, you are creating the conditions for security and common purpose. In all these steps, Americans do not see the rise of a rival, we see the end of old hostilities. We see the success of our allies, and we applaud your progress" . Thanks to blogger Airstrip One for highlighting Bush's words (you will need to scroll down or try here for the full text of the speech). Posted 10:13 AM | [Link] 9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORIES [Andrew Stuttaford] It was, I suppose, inevitable that an attack of the magnitude of 9/11 would give rise to conspiracy theories, but that doesn't make any of them true. Well, I may be dragged before Tailgunner Jonah and the un-Corner Activities Committee for saying so, but there's a fascinating article in, gasp, The Nation on just this topic. It's worth a read. Posted 9:08 AM | [Link] 12 DOWN, 4 TO GO: [John J. Miller] May I gloat? Posted 8:52 AM | [Link] TELE-MALARKEY: [John J. Miller] Jon & Ramesh: Something tells me we're just not going to agree on those telemarketing calls. Three quick points, though. 1. The TeleZapper isn't a miracle gizmo that stops all telemarketing calls--it stops only a certain kind. 2. Ramesh -- it is true that trespassing signs aren't paid for by the government, but laws against trespassing are; there ought to be something comparable for telemarketers, but there really isn't. 3. Readers who are as fed up with telemarketing as I am are encouraged to visit this website. Posted 6:36 AM | [Link]
MORE ON THOSE SAUDI VISA CHARGES [Andrew Stuttaford] Kathryn, various people have written in to say that those increased visa charges were not Saudi-specific: they seem to have been part of a general increase worldwide. Nothing to do with counter-terrorism, everything to do with something more traditional - government raising a bit of cash... Posted 8:50 PM | [Link] OH NO [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Jesse Jackson is going to the Mideast to give peace a chance. Posted 6:57 PM | [Link] MORE VIOLENCE IN ISRAEL [Dave Kopel] Early this morning a Palestinian terrorist began throwing grenades and firing an automatic Kalashnikov rifle at a Jewish kindergarten and Jewish homes in a West Bank settlement. A grocery-store owner named David Elbaz used his own rifle to wound the terrorist twice, and eventuall kill him, according to Ha'aretz. The village where the attack took place, Shavei-Shomron was the scene of a November 2001 drive-by shooting on a taxi, in which three people, including the village's rabbi, were injured. In a June 18, 2001 drive-by shooting, one man was killed and another wounded. On June 12, Israeli soldiers near Shavei Shomron were shot at, and one wounded. On June 11, someone planted a bomb on a road leading to Shavei Shomron. On June 2, 2001, Yassir Arafat had pretended to announce a cease-fire against Israel. In April 2001, a Palestinian terrorist set off explosives in booby-trapped car next to a school bus carrying for Shavei-Shomron children, but the bomb failed to kill anyone. Posted 6:21 PM | [Link] WHERE'S JEREMY LOTT WHEN YOU NEED HIM? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Mecca-gate watchers seemed to have missed this in today's Wall Street Journal, in a piece by Fred Ikle, a former Reagan DOD guy: "A nuclear war stirred up against the 'infidels' might end up displacing Mecca and Medina with two large radioactive craters." Posted 4:52 PM | [Link] THE SILBERMAN "INDICTMENT" [Jonathan Adler] I'm glad to see Tapped has given up relying on David Brock's credibility to impugn Judge Silberman. For the "full indictment," Tapped now refers us to this 1998 Salon hit piece by Jonathan Broder. And what is Judge Silberman indicted for? Let's see: A) He is a staunch conservative. B) He has a conservative wife. C) He has used colorful langauge in judicial opinions. D) He has criticized liberal journalists and called Nina Totenberg "the wicked witch of the airwaves." E) He has written opinions that were either overturned or criticized by liberals (or both). F) He allegedly told Judge Abner Mikva that "If you were 10 years younger, I'd be tempted to punch you in the nose." None of this measures up to Tapped's original charge that Judge Silberman is "the opposite of a man of principle" and potentially worthy of impeachment for violating the code of judicial ethics. Nor does Broder's article demonstrate that SIlberman has "a long and detailed record of engaging in inappropriate partisan activity while on the bench." Moreover, the only legal ethics expert cited in Broder's piece says a judge's personal politics are irrelevant. Indictment's are easy, but it's convictions that count -- and Judge Silberman was just acquitted. Posted 4:46 PM | [Link] AN ACT OF FAITH [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Boston, of course, has been the source of some of the worst news in recent months, but New York has been in no way immune. That the Church is able to still raise money, despite the public confessions and accusations of late, speaks, I think, to what many Catholics--the ones who are not getting quoted in news stories know: It's a Church that needs cleansing, but it is a largely good Church, with good people, doing God's work. While you root out the bad elements, you also have to make sure that the good does not suffer any more than it has already. There are children to be educated, sick to be healed, hungry to be fed...and that work is going on in the midst of the awful things that make the headlines. And that's what those N.Y. donors are giving to. It's a blessing that the folks in the Voice of the Faithful group are not leaving the Church, they want to stay and be "Erasmus" figures instead of Luthers, but there's a worthwhile counter-"sexual hysteria" message in the act of faith that is $11,555,041 collected in New York. Some will undoubtedly think them fools, but they're nothing of the sort. Posted 4:30 PM | [Link] FUNDRAISING IN THESE TIMES [Kathryn Jean Lopez] In a New York Times piece today on a recently started lay Catholic group in Boston called Voice in the Faithful (which Rod Dreher has written about for NRO), a member of the group is quoted as saying, "What we think is going to happen is that the Cardinal's Appeal will be lucky if it raises 50 percent of its goal--that's how deep the disgust is with the Catholic laity," said Jim Post, another leader of the group. Interestingly, though, here in New York, the annual archdiocesian fundraiser, the Cardinal's Appeal, seems to be doing well. Spokesman Joseph Zwilling tells NRO that "when comparing what donors from last year gave with what those same donors gave this year, we are ahead more than $4 million dollars." According to Zwilling: "As of 5/28 (the most recent figures available) the Cardinal's Appeal stood at $11,555,041. The Appeal is scheduled to run through the end of June." Posted 3:51 PM | [Link] COTTLE'S CAUTION [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Michelle Cottle's piece on The New Republic's website is worth reading. She takes the press to task for being so quick to buying Paul Marcoux's--the guy who accused Milwaukee's now-former-archbishop Weakland of something like "date rape"--victim line. This is not to in any way excuse Weakland's behavior--giving away $450,000 to this swindler with whom he had some kind of inappropriate relationship. But this is something to bear in mind, as more and more accusations come out in the press: Cottle writes: "[W]hile the secular press has noted how increasingly confusing this case has become for Catholics to process--what with the love letter and all--Marcoux has been treated with kid gloves. Which is much better than he deserves. Because while all those priests for whom child molestation became the hobby of choice are utterly contemptible, so is someone who poses as a victim in order to extort money from a church. And barring new revelations, it certainly seems as though that's what Marcoux has done. If so, someone needs to go after him for it--and not just for the sake of the $450,000 that he pocketed. You can bet that there are scores of morally flexible opportunists out there, watching to see how easy it would be to wring a bit of cash out of an embattled diocese." Posted 3:37 PM | [Link] THE CLINTONIAN FBI: [Rich Lowry] Check out Byron York's disturbing report about the Clintonesque congressional testimony of a top FBI official. Posted 3:25 PM | [Link] CALLING NORMAN [Andrew Stuttaford] Interesting article from Nicholas Kristof in today's New York Times. It's well worth reading. Someone should send a copy to Norm Mineta. Posted 1:08 PM | [Link] A MESSAGE? [Andrew Stuttafford] Pakistan is removing troops from the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan (where many al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are thought to be lurking) and redeploying them near the Kashmir border. Military necessity or a reminder to the U.S. not to lean too far in India's direction? Posted 12:59 PM | [Link] STATISTIC DU JOUR [Andrew Stuttaford] The Daily Telegraph notes that more than one hundred candidates in France's parliamentary election (the first round is next weekend) are under criminal investigation. Regular readers will remember that it was a senior French member of the EU "parliament" who described American democracy as degenerate. Posted 12:44 PM | [Link] 2ND AMENDMENT VICTORY [Dave Kopel] A Utah petition drive for a ballot initiative to prohibit licensed concealed handguns from grade schools, universities, and churches has failed. Forty-five thousands Utah citizens have concealed handgun permits. The proposal to mandate that institutions of worship and education become safe zones for terrorists, rapists, and other criminals gathered only about half of the legally required signatures. Last year, a petition drive to overturn Michigans licensed handgun carry law was abandoned. Posted 12:41 PM | [Link] BRITISH HOLIDAY [Andrew Stuttaford] British nudists have announced that they will be celebrating the Queen's Golden Jubilee with a tea party on Sunday. Presumably the mad hatter will not be invited. He'd be overdressed. Posted 12:29 PM | [Link] MORE ON VISAS [Andrew Stuttaford] That the US has been too lax in issuing visas to Saudis is a statement of the obvious. A spot of reciprocity would be a good first step in improving matters. Let's begin with tourists. The Saudi authorities will generally only admit US tourists if they are part of an approved tour group with an organized itinerary. The US should insist on the same rules for any Saudi tourists visiting this country. After tourists, businessmen. Foreign residents working in 'Saudi' Arabia are usually obliged to surrender their passports. Very well, the same requirement should be imposed on Saudis working here. Posted 12:20 PM | [Link] RE: SAUDI VISAS [Andrew Stuttaford] Kathryn, I've just been reading that story on the visa charges. The U.S. action is even more feeble than you suggest. Notarial fees have actually been cut and visas for something known as "official" travel are exempted from the increase. Why? Posted 11:58 AM | [Link] KRUGMAN VS. O'NEILL, II [Ramesh Ponnuru] Krugman also makes the standard comparison of American vs. European foreign-aid payments as a percentage of GDP. But why is percent of GDP the right measure? Doesn't it make one country look more generous than another when it really just has lousier economic policies? And what about the amount of money that American taxpayers spend on their armed forces, compared to the Europeans? Would the world's poor be better off if American power didn't serve as a force for stability? Or if Saddam had been able to control more of the world's oil supply? Would the Europeans be able to spend so much on foreign aid under those circumstances? Posted 11:01 AM | [Link] KRUGMAN VS. O'NEILL [Ramesh Ponnuru] The New York Times's smartest, and worst, columnist on the Treasury secretary and Bono: "The pair were visiting a village in Uganda, where a new well yielding clean water has radically improved the villagers' health. Mr. O'Neill's conclusion from this. . . was that big improvements in people's lives don't require much money--and therefore that no big increase in foreign aid is required." Krugman then strives to refute O'Neill's "conclusion." But he mischaracterizes O'Neill's argument, which is that the previous year's foreign aid would have been able to pay for clean water for the whole country if it had not been mismanaged. If the money is being poorly spent, that is an argument against increasing the flow. Posted 11:00 AM | [Link] MISSING THE PROBLEM [Andrew Stuttaford] American Airlines CEO, Donald Carty, is calling for some airport-security measures to be dropped, Apparently, he believes that a further attack against commercial airlines is unlikely. Mr. Carty, a man clearly unaware of the term 'hostage to fortune' also believes that the current checks may be too onerous. Mr. Carty is wrong. The problem is not that airline security is too onerous. The problem is that it is stupidly onerous. Travelers need more security, not less (and, yes, that may indeed be 'onerous') but they need security that is intelligent and effective. At the moment it is neither. Of course, we shouldn't be surprised. When it comes to domestic security this administration's approach is a blend of the frivolous, the feeble and the fatuous. And to anyone who thinks that is wrong, I have two words: Norman Mineta. Posted 10:57 AM | [Link] TAPPED STEPS IN IT [Jonah Goldberg] Recently, TAPPED, the American Prospect's entertaining blog bragged that it's gotten 70 thousand "hits" so far this month. Andrew Sullivan smelled something fishy, asking among other things, "What do they mean by 'hits'? No one really uses that terminology any more." TAPPED snarked back that a "hit" means "A request for a single document or other object on your web server." Well, sorry TAPPers, but this proves Andrew's point. No one uses hits as an idicator of anything because an "object" can be anything -- a picture, artwork, an artcle etc. NRO gets tens of millions of hits every month. A single visit to our homepage can generate 30-60 "hits." We use page views -- like everybody else -- because page views indicate someone read -- or visited -- an actual page. I don't know how many objects TAPPED has on a given page, but 70,000 "hits" so far this month is at best meaningless and at worst meager. Posted 10:27 AM | [Link] SERIOUS STUFF [James S. Robbins] Kathryn, thanks for the Gertz link. The shoulder-fired missile threat against U.S. aircraft is one that should be taken seriously. Soviet/Russian stule SA-7 launchers are particularly easy to obtain, and would be as effective as a Stinger against a large unsuspecting target like a commercial jet. The downside from the terrorist's point of view is that these weapons are hard to conceal, and they would have a difficult time getting away (if they wanted to) after firing because the noise and signature would be evident. Due to altitude range limitations they would pretty much have to use them within a few miles of. But it would probably be effective, and this is a hard type of attack to preempt. Posted 10:09 AM | [Link] A DIFFERENT WORLD [Andrew Stuttaford] Nice comment from Putin earlier this week, while studying the names of delegates at a conference he was addressing on Monday: "I see the name of a Mr. Engels from Germany on the list. Thank God he came without Marx." Posted 9:23 AM | [Link] MORE BROCK BLUNDERS [Jonathan Adler] This BuzzFlash interview with David Brock is filled with errors about the independent counsel law, the three-judge panel which oversees the independent counsel, the appointment of Ken Starr, and so on. This hasn't stopped Tapped from promoting the interview -- or from making errors of its own. Judge Silberman was a judge a on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. This is an appellate or "circuit" court, not a "district" court. Moreover, Silberman is no longer an active judge; he took senior status in 2000. Posted 9:23 AM | [Link] SO, RICH. . . [Ramesh Ponnuru] are you going to respond to George Will's column against arming pilots? Posted 9:23 AM | [Link] WE HAVE... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...a little technical glitch. Have no doubt that the random question marks you might be seeing on this page is not any legitimate questioning....should be fixed soon. Thanks to everyone who pointed it out. Posted 9:13 AM | [Link] KEEPING UP WITH O'SULLIVAN: [Ramesh Ponnuru] John has written a long review of Pat Buchanan's The Death of the West. I don't agree with every point in the review, but he makes several good points--and readers may be interested in his arguments against Christopher Caldwell, Ben Wattenberg, and Jonah Goldberg. John has also written an excellent article for NR on what American policy toward Europe should be, but so far, it's not available on the web. (My own take, which tracks his pretty closely, is.) Posted 8:49 AM | [Link] NOW, [Jonah Goldberg] If this all makes me sound jealous, it should. As I said, I think Slate's a good magazine and I wish we had the arrangement they have. Apropos of that, I also think Mickey paints a pretty rosy scenario when he "I suspect Slate will one day be profitable even if you subtract from its revenues what it would have to pay to buy the placement it gets on MSN and MSNBC." Ad rates may have plummeted since I looked into these matters, but if the numbers are anything close to the eye-gouging rates they offered National Review Online a few years ago (or if they are comparable to, say, the rates currently charged by AOL for similar placement), then Mickey will have to wait a very, very long time for Slate to make that kind of profit. Posted 8:46 AM | [Link] ACTUALLY... [Jonah Goldberg] As I said, I don't think there's anything unfair in what Slate is doing. But I think Mickey misses the point when he dismisses the comparison of Slate to USA Today. I say that large segments of Slate's readership do not proactively think about going to Slate. If they see a provocative headline--"Was Spock Gay?" for example--over at MSNBC or somewhere else at MSN they click on it and go over to Slate without any specific affinity for Slate. Mickey says, "But people who click on an article entitled 'Was Spock Gay' are presumably people who want to read an article on whether Spock was gay. They're as legitimate as any other readers lured by a teasing hed. Who cares if they bookmark?" Well I do, and Mickey and the editors at Slate should too. Presumably if it was the Vulcan tell-all article they hoped it would be, they would bookmark Slate. If they don't, it just might mean the article wasn't what they were looking for. Being bookmarked means people like your product. Getting a provocative headline at MSNBC reflects zilch on the quality of your editorial content, especially when it's by contract--at least when Drudge or some other major traffic driver links to a story, his endorsement is involved. The Slate-MSN links are just billboards, reflecting absolutely nada about the editorial product at the other end of the link. Lots of sites run articles with provocative headlines, NRO prominent among them. That doesn't take much skill. The skill comes in running provocative articles to match those headlines. Posted 8:46 AM | [Link] MORE SLATE [Jonah Goldberg] The inestimable Mickey Kaus--now the in-house blogger at Slate -- responds to my gripe that Slate's high traffic is largely the product of incessant flogging of Slate's wares throughout the MSN network. His response: "It's called leveraging monopoly power, buddy! You got a problem with that?" This is precisely the sort of response you’d expect from someone who’s gone over to the Dark Side. Perhaps we should be calling him Darth Mickey from now on? Actually, Dark Kaus sounds more plausible. Posted 8:45 AM | [Link] WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] MEMRI, that powerhouse of truth, has a translation of an awful Egyptian weekly piece on Condi Rice, calling her a snake, among other things, saying she’s "damaged the world of the blacks." Oddly, too, it manages to compare her to Madeleine Albright among others. The conclusion, thank Allah we control our women: "These are some bad examples of the women who rule America. We thank Allah that there are no similar [women] in our Arab world, otherwise our lives--we men--would be absolute hell and we would become prisoners to the declarations of Condoleezza Rice and the other vulgar women!" Posted 8:38 AM | [Link] NOW WE'RE GETTING TOUGH ON THE SAUDIS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The Arab News reports that the U.S. embassy is hiking up prices on visas (from $45-$65). Posted 7:50 AM | [Link] THEY'RE HERE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Bill Gertz reports that there are shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles in the hands of terrorists within the U.S. Posted 7:39 AM | [Link] JUNK-SCIENCE BUSTER [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The air down at the WTC wasn’t the danger the media worried it was. Posted 7:32 AM | [Link] BLOCK YOUR OWN CALLS [Jonathan Adler] As much as I like John Miller -- and as much as I hate telemarketers when I work at home -- I do not share his sanguine view of federal government restrictions on telemarketing. There are many ways to avoid telemarketers -- caller ID, call screening with an answering machine, Jim Harper's "Telezapper," turning off the ringer at dinner, and so on. Some of these cost money (just like the proverbial "no trespassing" sign), others don't. Some phone companies even offer a service that blocks calls when caller ID is blocked unless the caller will give their name. (It operates similarly to some automated collect call systems.) A federal "do not call" list sounds nice, but it is likely to be overly restrictive, ineffective, or both. Telemarketing can be very annoying, but that's no reason to make a federal case of it. Posted 7:29 AM | [Link] MUGABE UNPLUGGED [Dave Kopel] The New Yorker provides a detailed expose of the evil Mugabe regime which is destroying Zimbabwe and perpetrating state terrorism on a massive scale. Now wouldn't it be better if the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, whites included, owned plenty of firearms, with which to save their lives from the Mugabe murderers? Posted 6:05 AM | [Link]
BOGUS NUMBERS [Jonah Goldberg] Instapundit., C-Logand Tapped (three blogs) have been having some interesting discussions about inflated numbers for web traffic and newspapers – all seemingly inspired by the profile of NRO in the Columbia Journalism Review. Well, this is a perfect opportunity for me to raise my web traffic pet peeve: Slate's reported 3+ million unique visitors a month. Now, I grudgingly believe that they get that many visitors (roughly 3 times what NRO gets). But consider Glenn Reynolds point about USA Today getting a big boost from its free distribution to hotel guests: "When you present your product free at someone's door," Reynolds writes, "they may read it or they may chuck it in the trash. I don't think that it shows the same degree of reader interest as a subscription or a newsstand purchase." Well, how about Slate? Because it’s owned by Microsoft, Slate is imbedded throughout the monstrously huge MSN network. Slate's wares are constantly being touted prominently at MSNBC.com which mixes its content with, among other things, Newsweek. I would bet a big share of Slate's readers (half? Two-thirds?) have never bookmarked Slate.com and rarely if ever type out the URL. Instead they see a tease somewhere in MSN.com or MSNBC – something like "Is Torture Good?" or "Was Spock Gay?" --- and click on it. This isn't to say Slate's not a good magazine, it is. And I don't think it's unfair for them to do this. I would leap at a similarly "unfair" arrangement for NRO. But I just don't buy that their product and their product alone attracts anywhere near 3 million people a month. Posted 3:07 PM | [Link] FYI: [Rich Lowry] I'm scheduled to do Inside Politics on CNN around 4:30. Posted 2:11 PM | [Link] THE FISH HAS FRIENDS [Andrew Stuttaford] Catching up on some e-mails and it is interesting to see that my recent pizza posting (which included an anti-anchovy comment) has riled up a surprising number of Corner readers. There are a lot of anchovy aficionados out there. Madness. Posted 2:06 PM | [Link] PATTON BOGGS UPDATE [Andrew Stuttaford] There's a rumor going round that Patton Boggs have also signed up Tom and Jerry, the Klingons and the Romulans and, some say, the Montagues and the Capulets. Posted 12:47 PM | [Link] BIPARTISAN [Andrew Stuttaford] Jonah, Ramesh, Patton Boggs represent the Saudis and the Title IX folks? That's quite an achievement: somehow I don't think there's much talk about female access to sporting facilities back in Riyadh. Posted 12:42 PM | [Link] REALLY!? [Jonah Goldberg] Ramesh - I had no idea. Does this mean Patton Boggs favors beheading male and female soccer players in equal proportions? Posted 12:38 PM | [Link] PATTON BOGGS: [Ramesh Ponnuru] They also represent the Saudis, Jonah, so I don't think shaming them is going to be an effective strategy on Title IX. Posted 12:14 PM | [Link] RAMESH CORNERED [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Rich, April (Soon-to-be-Mrs. Ponnuru): Can we just have Ramesh here 24/7? Posted 12:01 PM | [Link] ABORTION AND CLONING: [Ramesh Ponnuru] Instapundit says that some people are arguing that the Brownback bill to ban cloning would also ban abortion. That piqued my curiosity. I thought that someone might have drafted the bill too broadly. But when you follow his link, you find a story quoting pro-cloners making the familiar arguments 1) that opposition to cloning is incompatible with support for legal abortion and 2) that a ban on cloning would therefore undermine the legal underpinnings of abortion rights. Ho hum. I laid out my own view on the abortion-cloning connection, and on such other chestnuts of the debate as that a ban violates federalism, in an exhaustive (and probably exhausting) piece in NR a while ago. Posted 11:50 AM | [Link] SORRY, JOHN: [Ramesh Ponnuru] Putting one's name on a national "do not call" list run by the FTC isn't quite the same as hanging a "do not trespass" sign on your lawn, as my colleague John J. Miller writes. Unless, that is, the federal government is buying the sign for you and enforcing it. John complains that people who object to telemarketers shouldn't have to buy products to block their calls. But on an analogous argument, it's unfair that he has to buy a "do not trespass" sign. Telemarketing calls can be annoying, no question. So can Jehovah's Witnesses and Girl Scouts selling cookies when they ring your doorbell. Even if they and other unwanted visitors were to show up a few times a week, federal intervention to block them would not be justified. Posted 11:35 AM | [Link] COHEN ON CLONING: [Ramesh Ponnuru] Kathryn, I don't read Cohen as saying that opposition to research cloning is rooted in ignorance (although that's a possible inference from his religion vs. science set-up), but that a ban on it would mean we have less knowledge. That may very well be true. That said, Cohen, whose columns I often like even while disagreeing with them, has produced one of the dumbest pro-cloning polemics I've seen. There are two especially odd claims. First, that Gerald Ford is an example of someone who is a "pretty implacable" abortion foe but supports cloning. No doubt Ford would say he opposes abortion, in the same sense that Hillary Clinton does. But he's a firm supporter of abortion rights, and has been for years. Gerry Ford counts as an implacable abortion foe only if Hillary Clinton does too. Second, that the cloning debate is "about sex," just as the abortion debate is. As far as I can tell, this is true only in the sense that cloning opponents think that embryonic humans should be created the fun, old-fashioned way. Posted 11:32 AM | [Link] HOW ODD [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ABC bleeped out “Jesus” on it’s daytime chick show The View. This from the Media Research Center: The View is hosted by Meredith Vieira with Joy Behar, Star Jones and Lisa Ling. In recent days, viewers followed Joy Behar's dieting with daily on-air weigh-ins, which ended May 22. On the May 23 show, Meredith Vieira made note of that fact, to which Behar replied: "Yes, and thank you, thank you, Jesus, is all I have to say!" But by the time the New York-based show was rebroadcast to West Coast audiences, Behar's comment was reduced to "thank you, thank you, BLEEP!" The cast discussed their disapproval on May 28, with the show's Star Jones summing up their exasperation: "They let us say all kinds of things on TV, but they beep Jesus? That makes no sense!" It makes no sense, of course, unless you consider Jesus Christ offensive. Posted 11:31 AM | [Link] I'VE JUST LEARNED.... [Jonah Goldberg] ...that the Patton Boggs law firm is lobbying for the Women's Sports Foundation to keep the Title IX quota system in place -- Pro Bono! They should be ashamed. Posted 10:53 AM | [Link] WHAT’S FRIGHTENING… [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ….is to realize that there are people who think this Richard Cohen column makes sense. Cohen (besides seeming to think that cloning is some kind of magic wand that will immediately cure Parkinson’s Disease) believes that we are on the verge of banning both cloning and abortion in America (in my dreams). Both, he says, come down to the Vatican and the like imposing its morality on the U.S. And, he says, it’s ignorant. In other words, the roughly 50 percent of Americans who support abortion restrictions and the 60+ who oppose cloning are just “poor, uneducated and easy to command”? Posted 10:42 AM | [Link] CRANKERY [Jonah Goldberg] Paleocon crank Paul Gottfried has had his knickers in a twist about me and National Review for quite a while. This has caused him to commit any number of unforced errors and deliberate calumnies when writing about either subject. In the current issue of the British Spectator– a wonderful magazine – he continues this trend with a gassy tirade against virtually the entire American conservative "establishment." I don’t take offense or really care – this time, at least, he doesn’t misquote me or assign to me views I do not hold. But I don’t like him saying that Victor Davis Hanson is "even smarmier" than me. I am, far and away, the smarmiest writer at National Review – especially when I want to be. For the record, Paul, I’m not a Senior Editor of National Review and Groundskeeper Willie of "The Simpsons" first coined the phrase "cheese-eating surrender monkeys." It’s a TV show. Posted 10:06 AM | [Link] COOL GUY, COOL SITE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Bob Hope turned 99 yesterday. Posted 9:48 AM | [Link] DERVISHES, TURKS, MEXICANS...Et Al. [Jonah Goldberg] Dave - I'm really glad you mentioned this, as it gives me the opportunity to extend and revise my remarks further. Yesterday's column has garnered the oddest split among my readers. Some think it was just an awful column, others think it was one of the best. I have no idea who's right. Regardless, you're right that the Dervishes would probably fight with us, as a number of folks have pointed out to me. Also, the Turks would probably stick with NATO, because the Turks are civilized, smart and loyal. And, I've also learned, a great number of the nations in the Organization of the Islamic Conference aren't even majority Muslim, so we can assume that a lot of those countries would stand pat too. I also didn't mention that all of Latin America would probably sign-up for the brouhaha. My point was that according to the Jihad-fantasy folks all Muslims would be forced to choose sides between the infidels and the "Islamic world" and they would choose the Islamic world. As I did indicate, even if the Jihadists could orchestrate a major world war along these lines, my guess is that hundreds of millions of Muslims would either say "no thanks" or eagerly fight with the good guys. But according to the fantasy, all Muslims would sign up for Jihad. The fact that this would never happen just further illustrates how loony the fantasy is. Posted 9:26 AM | [Link] WHIRLING DERVISHES [Dave Kopel] You see, the Dervishes are a type of Sufi Muslims--a mystical branch of Islam that got started in the Middle Ages, back before the Wahabbis started using petrodollors to stamp out Islamic diversity. When the Wahabbi-inspired Taliban took over Afghanistan, they quickly began oppressing the Sufi as viciously as they oppressed women. So when Uncle Sam showed up in Afghanistan and showed he was serious, many Sufi quickly rallied to our cause, and when the Taliban fell, the Sufi celebrated joyously. The Whirling Dervishes seek mystical understanding of God through all-night ecstatic spinning dances. So if our side wins the war, the Dervishes can whirl to their hearts' delight, and eventually become fabulously wealthy by selling video instruction tapes at Phish concerts. If bin Laden wins, the Dervishes become as illegal as women driving cars. What our Daisy Cutters don't kill, Dervish scimitars will. Posted 9:18 AM | [Link] COUNT AMONG OUR ALLIES [Dave Kopel] Jonah's latest column points out that bin Laden's fondest dream--an all-out war between the West and Islam--would be about as one-sided as an all-out brawl featuring the Justice League of America, the Avengers, and the X-Men teamed up against Wile E. Coyote, Cathy, and the Trix Rabbit. Yet Jonah in fact underestimates the size of the freedom army that will rally to our side. He notes the Ladenite fantasy of "a bunch of Dervishes pouring into downtown Cleveland whirling their scimitars." Sorry Mr. Laden, but the Whirling Dervishes are going to fight alongside the good old U.S. of A. Posted 9:17 AM | [Link] CRIME CURE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The south London area of Lambeth has been experimenting with leniency on pot users, allowing law enforcement to focus on more serious crimes. The result: Last month there were 468 robberies and muggings, compared with 916 in October. According to the BBC, “so far this year, robbery is down by 18%--the highest street crime reduction in London.” Posted 9:09 AM | [Link] TESTING TERRORISTS? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] From this morning’s Washington Post: “About a year and a half ago, the Educational Testing Service began noticing something odd at some of the 400 U.S. centers that administer its English proficiency test. Digital photos and surveillance videos of test-takers showed the same two men taking the computerized test repeatedly, using the names of different Middle Eastern students.” Posted 9:06 AM | [Link] IMAGINE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Students at Harvard are circulating a petition asking the administration to nix senior Zayed M. Yasin from the program. One of the three planned student speakers, Yasin, who has helped raise money on campus for the Hamas-front group the Holy Land Foundation, plans on giving a talk titled “American Jihad.” Yasin defends his title, anxious to explain what jihad really means to his fellow students: “Jihad is not something that should make someone feel uncomfortable. It’s a matter of other people deciding what they think jihad is and attributing to the word the product of their own imagination.” Try telling that to the folks down at the Ground Zero ceremony today. Posted 8:44 AM | [Link] NEWS ALERT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I'm told the National Review softball team creamed The Nation last night. Posted 8:32 AM | [Link] POINT OF CLARIFICATION [Jonah Goldberg] I sort of assumed people knew where I was coming from in yesterday's Goldberg File. But a sizable minority of readers are complaining that I don't "get it." They feel I'm being too dismissive of the Islamo-fascists. Maybe I am, but I do understand that al-Quaeda & Co. are a very serious threat. My only point was that they are nuts; their belief that a global war between Islam and everybody else would end in their favor is proof of that. This doesn't mean we shouldn't be worried about them getting bombs and killing people. After all, I could write a very similar column about the stupidity of Communists thinking a Marxist utopia was possible. That doesn't mean we were wrong to take the Soviets seriously. Posted 8:02 AM | [Link]
SCORE ONE FOR THE INDIANS: [John J. Miller] The California legislature has rejected an attempt to ban schools from using Indian team names. Posted 6:46 PM | [Link] THE FRONTLINES OF TERRORISM [Dave Kopel] An Israeli teacher and a school security guard teamed up Tuesday night to shoot a pair of Al Aqsa terrorists who were attacking a high school, and who had already killed three students. In America, however, such an event would be much less unlikely to happen, since the "Million" Mom March and other gun-prohibition groups work hard for "gun-free school zones," thus ensuring that terrorists attacking high schools will enjoy the same protection from "gun violence" as do their colleagues on airplanes. Posted 4:11 PM | [Link] YES…: [Rich Lowry] ..on Charlie Daniels. In fact, a friend growing up had one of his records—the old vinyl kind. Otherwise, country music is a blank to me. Posted 4:03 PM | [Link] Elaine Donnelly…: [Rich Lowry] …on the readiness/Iraq question, in an -email: “I believe that the Joint Chiefs and regional military commanders are justifiably concerned about chronic shortages and readiness problems that have been somewhat overshadowed by the superb performance of a small number of Marines and special ops troops in Afghanistan. Every week in the military press (Army/Navy/Air Force Times), there are stories about grounded aircraft and worn-out equipment that have not been replaced after eight demoralizing years of Bill Clinton. Our military people cannot continue to fly, sail, and deploy on the ground on the strength of pure adreneline in the aftermath of 9/11. With forces that are one-third to one-half smaller than they were ten years ago, the chiefs and regional commanders do have reason for concern. They also have a solemn responsibility to be candid about strengths and weaknesses in the armed forces when asked to testify before Congress. They provided honest testimony weeks ago, and shouldn't be faulted for that. Gen. Shelton, by contrast, created a huge "credibility gap" because he constantly made rosy statements to Congress about readiness that the troops knew were exaggerated. Remember the Apache helicopters that never saw combat in Kosovo? That's what happens when maintenance accounts are constantly raided for dubious purposes, as they were repeatedly during the Clinton years.” Posted 3:57 PM | [Link] GONE COUNTRY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Rich, just curious, but was today your first Charlie Daniels encounter? Had you ever heard of Toby Keith before? If you ran into Lonestar in concert, would you be waiting for the main act? Just curious. (It's a slow day in The Corner, folks. Recovering from putting away another awesome dead-tree edition (see details below from Mr. Lowry). It happens.) Posted 3:51 PM | [Link] The Charlie Daniels fans are now out in force: [Rich Lowry] Here's one of his 1980 hits. Posted 3:38 PM | [Link] SMITH'S SERENDIPITY [Jonathan Adler] The Legal Times provides an interesting account explaining Senator Biden's vote for the embattled judicial nomination of D. Brooks Smith. Posted 1:57 PM | [Link] PAYING TO PRESERVE [Jonathan Adler] The federal government will buy back oil and gas lease rights near the Everglades and along Florida's Gulf coast, President Bush announced today. Most of the news coverage, like this Washington Post story, focus on the politics: By stopping oil and gas development, Bush scores points with greens and helps brother Jeb. More significant, however, is the fact that the Bush Administration is paying for the rights -- at a cost of over $200 million -- instead of regulating them into oblivion. How refreshing to have an administration that abides by the Fifth Amendment's admonition "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." Posted 1:56 PM | [Link] HELLFIRE: [Rich Lowry] E-mail: "Shortage of high tech weapons is a myth or we should fire all the admirals and generals in the procurement area of the pentagon and start over. It has been 90+ days since the heavy bombing was completed in Afghanistan and it has been more than 8 months since the great wake up call on September 11th. Hellfire missiles and JDAM bomb guidance systems are basically trinkets much like TV sets and Personal Computers except they are produced at much lower volumes (so perversely their factories take little time to build and modify - factories to build things at very high volumes take much longer to build or modify). However "low volume" is a relative thing. Remember that Hellfire missiles were meant to stop Russian attacks carried out by forces comprising tens of thousands of armored vihicles. The real Pentagon hang-up about Iraq is probably aircraft carriers and tanker aircraft which steeply lose effectiveness as range to target increases. It would take much of the currently available aircraft carrier Navy to force an entrance into the Persian gulf and protect three or four carriers while they primarily do offensive operations." Posted 1:22 PM | [Link] WE’VE JUST FINISHED LATEST NR: [Rich Lowry] Jonah wrote a piece on Ozzy. Two things about it, the first surprising, the other not: 1) he delivered it on time; 2) it’s a lot of fun, and makes an original point about the drug war. Also, Rod Dreher has a nice take-down on Saudi flack Wyche Fowler. Plus, John Miller has the cover piece, making the crucial point about our homeland security director—the problem with Tom Ridge is not Tom Ridge, but his impossible bureaucratic position. But I doubt the White House, or Ridge, will like the cover very much. But you’re going to miss it all, unless you subscribe! Posted 1:19 PM | [Link] ALL IN GOOD FUN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The good folks at the Postmodern Generator, today’s NRO cool site of the day, have rerouted traffic coming from NRO to Noam Chomsky’s website. If you wanna check out the actual cools site (we’re good sports, the little cyber game they’re playing makes them all the more cooler), copy the address from here http://www.elsewhere.org/cgi-bin/postmodern and paste it into your browser window. Posted 1:03 PM | [Link] SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE [Mike Potemra] In a 1936 sermon, Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath observed that there are "many timorous souls who take strenuous exception to the discussion of so delicate a problem as birth control from the pulpit.... [It is considered] a decidedly indecent and distasteful subject to be scrupulously avoided in public speech." Many conservative Catholics are making the same complaint today, though in the opposite sense.... Posted 12:38 PM | [Link] I HATE COUNTRY MUSIC...: [Rich Lowry] ...but here's a fun e-mail: "Did you happen to see the Academy of Country Music Awards last Wednesday night? Most noteworthy was a song performed (for the first time) by Toby Keith `Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue.' Here is part of the text (transcribed by me, so perhaps a couple mistakes): Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist And the people will fly, and there’s gonna be hell When you hear mother Freedom start ringing her bell And it’ll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you All brought to you courtesy of the Red, White and Blue Justice will be served and the battle will rage. This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage. And you’ll be sorry that you messed with the US of A. We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way." I HAVEN’T…: [Lowry] …been able to keep up with all the arming pilots e-mails from last week, but here’s one last one that seems smart: “An airliner's cabin pressure is maintained by compressor bleed from the engines and is vented outside from the cabin to keep the air from getting stale. The compressor can easily keep up with a 5 or 6 inch hole in the skin, the vent regulator would just close up. You could give the pilots an MP5 machine gun with armor piercing bullets and he couldn't depressurize the plane with an entire 30 rd magazine. The real danger is hitting the cabin floor and risking damage to flight control systems. But that is mitigated by redundancy and separation. Since the pilots will be staying in the cockpit, they only have to prevent the intruder from entering so any combat will be at point blank or contact range and thus would entail little or no risk to passengers. To comments on the "violent maneuver" strategy of our less than illustrious Transport Sectr. 1) The passengers must already be at grave risk from the hijackers before the gun issue even arises and 2) there is already vivid evidence of the harm violent turbulence does to passengers. People have suffered broken bones and even death from being tossed about in the cabin. Who will absorb the legal liability for all of the injuries in a hijacking incident. An extended period of maneuvers could conceivably cause some sort of actionable injury to everyone on the plane. The personal injury lawyers would line up for that feast because it would be a question of judgment as to whether the maneuvers were excessive.” Posted 12:33 PM | [Link] HELP I--FBI: [Rich Lowry] If you have any startling thoughts/info about the FBI reorganization, let me know. I’m supposed to do TV on it later this afternoon. HELP II--HELLFIRE: [Rich Lowry] I should have noted yesterday in my Ricks piece that the WSJ yesterday had a news article with a much less dire interpretation of the state of the Chiefs than Ricks. This is further evidence that Ricks may have over-played the story. But this puzzles me: the WSJ news report yesterday had the Chiefs worried about a shortage of Hellfire missiles, while Michael O’Hanlon has a persuasive WSJ op-ed today pooh-poohing the idea of a Hellfire shortage. Anyone have any idea what the truth is? Posted 12:23 PM | [Link] GREAT QUOTE [Mike Potemra] Comparative-religion scholar Frithjof Schuon puts his finger on "the spiritual exaltation" of medieval art, as exemplified in its cathedrals: "When standing before a [medieval] cathedral, a person really feels he is placed at the center of the world; standing before a church of the Renaissance, Baroque, or Rococo periods, he merely feels himself to be in Europe." Posted 10:40 AM | [Link] THIS IS AMERICANA TODAY? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] O. J. Simpson case DNA samples at the Smithsonian. Posted 9:49 AM | [Link] TO DIE FOR [Andrew Stuttaford] A good obituary is one of life's pleasures. This one is to die for. Posted 9:46 AM | [Link] PROOF! [Jonah Goldberg] I received the following email last night and have received Mr. Potts’ permission to reprint it below. I hope this settles the matter. Jonah: I see that your colleagues have been giving you a rash in The Corner so I thought I'd check in. That was me toting Owen Potts in the papoose at Turkey Run. I can attest that my family's encounter with yours happened as described, and that one can approximate hiking on those trails (it helps to have a head ravaged by Dinkel Ackers). Let me know if you need an affidavit. Oliver Potts, One of Your Twisted Fans Posted 8:49 AM | [Link] ALAS.... [Jonah Goldberg] My syndicate asked to pass on my debunking of the "M" article in the New York Times. They felt I should have done more reporting. I'm sympathetic to their position. But kind of hard to do in one day. So, I'm saving the column and will return to it soon. I'm still deeply, deeply skeptical that this story is completely legit. My favorite "tell" is the suggestion that a dance instructor in a supposedly urban area has never met an openly gay man before. By no means am I saying that you've got to be gay to teach dance. But I am saying that you cannot avoid meeting a gay dude if you decide to make that your career, especially in an urban or semi-urban part of California. Anyway, we will come back to this, I promise. Posted 8:03 AM | [Link] TITLE IX HEATING UP [Jonah Goldberg] The campaign to scare the administration out of touching Title IX is set to go into overdrive. A similar campaign to blame all this fuss on Jessica Gavora seems to be in the works as well. From today's USA Today: "There certainly have been warning signs that this administration is not a friend to Title IX and is going to be reviewing and opening up things that people thought were well settled for decades," said Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center. One potential sign: A senior policy adviser in the Justice Department, Jessica Gavora, is the author of Tilting the Playing Field, a new book that largely accepts the argument made by the wrestling coaches. The Justice Department is defending the Education Department in the case. Posted 7:55 AM | [Link] USEFUL IDIOT [Andrew Stuttaford] Connoisseurs of 1970s leftist stupidity will remember Philip Agee, the former CIA man. These days, he lives in Havana (after Carter’s visit I am beginning to wonder what is it about that city that attracts the dimwits of the disco era) and runs a travel business. Speaking to Newsweek, ex-agent Agee announces that he supports “the Cuban Revolution for the same reasons that [he] quit the CIA…The US doesn’t give a s—t about free and fair elections, and nowhere else in Latin America has the power of the oligarchs been eliminated.” Er, Philip, old chap, ‘oligarchy’ means the rule of the few. Do you think that there is something that you might have, well, overlooked about the current regime in Cuba? Posted 7:33 AM | [Link] CLUELESS KLEIN [Andrew Stuttaford] The British papers are a day old in Stockholm at this time in the morning, and so, slumped here in yet another departure lounge, I’m out of date. Nevertheless, certain idiocies are, like the opinions of Jimmy Carter, capable of retaining their power to irritate even when they are stale. Writing in a supplement to yesterday’s Guardian, “America’s leading political commentator” (that’s Joe Klein, by the way), writes: “Europe is becoming less fun…there are right-wing demagogues, there are right-wing demagogues being assassinated…” Ah yes, that would be Pim Fortuyn: Murder, it seems, is not enough to stop a caricature. Posted 7:28 AM | [Link] NO MARX [Andrew Stuttaford] Another thing worth noting about that rally was that it took place on Karl Marx Boulevard, a street that has not been renamed since the days of the former East German regime. And that is wrong. Karl Marx was a second-division thinker who inspired first-division murderers. While he cannot, of course, be said to be directly responsible for the cruelty committed in his name, it does seem indelicate (to put it mildly) to continue to honor him in this way in the city of the Berlin Wall. It is, I suppose, yet another example of Europe’s curious moral and historical blindness when it comes to the crimes of its communist past. Posted 7:21 AM | [Link] THE IRONY CURTAIN [Andrew Stuttaford] Nearly twenty thousand leftists gathered in Berlin last week to object to the visit by George W. Bush. Newsweek's international edition has a description of the event illustrated with a few photographs. Demonstrators are shown with placards objecting to American ‘terrorism’. According to Newsweek, the protestors marched “amid a sea of colors …[including] Soviet flags, not to mention the red banners of the communists…” Hmm, peace-loving demonstrators marching under the banners of a system responsible for the slaughter of tens of millions of civilians? And they say Americans lack a sense of irony? Posted 7:11 AM | [Link] JOHN MCCAIN -- THE MOVIE: [John J. Miller] His "dream" is to have himself played by Edward Norton, according to this report. Posted 4:42 AM | [Link]
JUST PLAIN SUICIDE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] It turns out that Nancy Crick, the Australian woman who killed herself last week at the end of a public campaign in support of “the right to die” was not terminally ill—something that Crick, family, friends, and supporters knew. Posted 7:16 PM | [Link] NOW FLIPS OUT [Ramesh Ponnuru] "The field of credible Democrats running for President was significantly narrowed today when two rumored candidates insulted every employed woman, every woman in business, and every woman who has been a victim of violence in this country." That's NOW president Kim Gandy's take on the votes by Senators Joe Biden and John Edwards to confirm Bush judicial nominee D. Brooks Smith. This seems like a real overreach. Activist groups and movements have to be careful not to make idle threats. Conservatives sometimes disobey this rule. Liberals do so less often, but it's nice to see when it happens. Posted 6:52 PM | [Link] WHY THEY HATE US [James S. Robbins] If you want an example of the globalization phenomenon at work, read this enthusiastic Arab review of Fuddruckers. I'm sure Osama is spinning in his cave. Posted 3:33 PM | [Link] THE FIRST HISPANIC JUSTICE [Ramesh Ponnuru] It won't be Alberto Gonzales, according to Eugene Volokh. Posted 3:07 PM | [Link] THE U.S. CAPITOL, POST-9/11 [Kathryn Jean Lopez] New security restrictions and massive construction underway. Posted 1:48 PM | [Link] LIKE, THE VIRGIN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Yahoo, in providing wire stories, includes typically useful links to other stories and websites about names and places mentioned within a given story. One browsing reader points out, however, that the feature, like the spell check on your word-processing program, works better in theory than in execution. For instance, in a story on President Bush with Pope John Paul II today, a mention of a Madonna medallion the pope gave the president links to, you guessed it, pop-star Madonna. Posted 1:45 PM | [Link] COSMO IN ROCK CREEK [James S. Robbins] Well I was just trying to reconcile the definition of "hiking" between you and Kathryn, being a mountain guy and all. Turkey Run could be challenging if one were scrambling about on the escarpment. BTW, if you spent so much time in Rock Creek Park, how come the legendary Cosmo did not make that recent singular discovery? Posted 1:41 PM | [Link] MISSING THE BIG PICTURE [Jonah Goldberg] Jim, everybody. You're missing the point of the story. First of all, I didn't say that I was navigating the trails like I was the last of the Mohicans. I admit it: I was sweating like a fat man eating five-alarm chili on an unairconditioned bus. Indeed, I just assumed that was implied when I wrote that I went hiking. Second, I take Cosmo on trails in Rock Creek or Battery Kemble Park virtually every single day. Third, there are some real trails at Turkey Run you could look it up. Regardless, the point was that Cosmo is a legend! Recognized by strangers as the "Wonder Dog" in much the same way the US Postal Service recognized Kris Kringle as Santa Claus in "Miracle on 34th Street." That is all. Posted 1:01 PM | [Link] ABOUT TO…: [Rich Lowry] …post a Bush and Iraq piece on the site. I agree with John O’Sullivan: "There is one overwhelming reason why Bush will invade Iraq in the next year or so: He will not be re-elected if Saddam is ruling in Baghdad in 2004. That prediction may sound foolhardy when Bush's ratings still hover above 70 percent. But the domestic side of the Bush presidency is going badly--especially from the standpoint of his conservative base. Bush's main domestic political achievement is an education bill, from which all Republican initiatives had been stripped. His pandering on steel and lumber tariffs has derailed his free trade agenda--Congress now looks likely to give him "fast track" negotiating authority on tariffs only with Democrat and protectionist riders attached. Above all, federal spending is out of control--and the bill is likely to be presented long before November 2004. Bush's current popularity and his re-election chances both depend, therefore, upon his reputation as a bold and successful war leader. If he loses that, he loses all." Posted 11:34 AM | [Link] ANOTHER ANGLE ON THE JONAH STORY [James S. Robbins] Isn't this dispute really over what constitutes "going hiking?" Strolling through Turkey Run Park isn't quite like hiking Old Rag mountain. But maybe it's a matter of perspective. Posted 11:28 AM | [Link] IN MY DEFENSE [Jonah Goldberg] Kathryn - I can certainly understand the skepticism. Even my wife -- who was there -- can sympathize with incredulity about me going hiking. But, Jessica will vouch for me, and her integrity is beyond reproach. Second, I never said I liked hiking, which would stretch the boundaries of plausibility. Posted 10:40 AM | [Link] FAKE JONAH SIGHTINGS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Jonah, dear, you sure that story of yours about the family you ran into wasn't, ahem, embellished? I have no proof, but everything about it seems a little off. You were hiking? You just happened to run into NRO readers--who know Cosmo? You didn't offer them Jessica's book? Posted 10:34 AM | [Link] ADVENTURES IN CELEBRITY PARENTING: [Rod Dreher] The New York Post's Page Six has the scoop on professional lesbian Chastity Bono's new autobiography. In it, Chastity reveals that as a teenager, she was seduced by an adult lesbian friend of her mother's, in whose custody Cher left the child while she was out being Cher. Chastity isn't complaining; in fact, she's grateful that "Joan" introduced her to the pleasures of lesbian sex. Page Six quotes Chastity as saying when she told Cher years later what Joan had done to her, Cher said it was a learning experience. Now, if Joan had been a Catholic priest... . Posted 10:25 AM | [Link] THE STAR WARS MOVIE [Mike Potemra] I finally broke down and saw Episode II last night, and I can strongly recommend it. Science-fiction is not a genre I'm especially interested in, but this is a rousing spectacle, deeply and fully imagined by a team of extremely gifted visual artists. More than that, it raises some important issues about the nature of power, and the consequences of hatred and the desire for vengeance. These issues-along with the plentiful use of memorable musical leitmotifs by John Williams-are strongly reminiscent of Wagner's Ring. A couple of lighter notes. The main female character, Padme, reminds me of Hillary. After two terms as queen, she must step down to be a senator; and she falls in love with a man who is taken over by the Dark Side of the Force (okay, okay, the analogy isn't perfect). And I couldn't help thinking that if President Bush met the movie's villain-Count Dooku-he'd give him the nickname "Dookie-Dook" and charm him into joining our war on terrorism. Posted 10:20 AM | [Link] TRUE COSMO STORY [Jonah Goldberg] Yesterday the lovely Jessica and I took Cosmo to Turkey Run a state park next to the CIA and on the Potomac. As we were hiking down a trail we passed a nice-looking couple with a toddler and a baby. The mom wanted to introduce the toddler to our dog. She asked if he was friendly and what his name is. Jessica answered that he’s super-friendly and that his name is Cosmo. The dad, said "Oh sure I know Cosmo. He’s the Wonderdog. He’s famous." Jessica’s reaction? She shouted up the trail to me, "Jonah! It’s one of your twisted fans." Posted 10:09 AM | [Link] THE ETERNAL MANHATTAN [Mike Potemra] I was just rereading Thomas Pynchon's novel V.--a true masterpiece--and came across this passage: "Profane took a Lexington Avenue local up to Grand Central. As it happened, the subway car he got into was filled with all manner of ravishingly gorgeous knockouts: secretaries on route to work . . . It was too much, too much. Profane hung on the handgrip, weak. He was visited on a lunar basis by these great unspecific waves of [longing], whereby all women within a certain age group and figure envelope became immediately and impossibly desirable. He emerged from these spells with eyeballs still oscillating and a wish that his neck could rotate through the full 360 [degrees]." Pynchon's 1963 novel describes events in the 1950s, but the "Lexington Avenue local" is our same old beloved 6 train, and the description is as accurate today as it was then. The 6 still goes to Grand Central, and das Ewig-Weibliche remains aboard, more beautiful than ever.... Posted 10:03 AM | [Link] MORE FAKE "M" [Jonah Goldberg] I've decided to write my syndicated column about the "M" article and the issues it raises. If you've got any thoughts worth sharing, pass 'em along. But, again, please no email after 1:00 PM. Thanks. Posted 9:23 AM | [Link] FAKE "M"? [Jonah Goldberg] Now that I've had a couple days to think about it and a number of readers have concurred, I'm beginning to think the NYT Magazine profile of "M" may be, ahem, embellished. Obviously, I don't have proof. The article is written so that it's unverifiable. But the article is so overwhelmingly convenient and so overwhelmingly ideological at the same time it just doesn't smell right to me. A mother doesn't know her daughter is pretending to be a boy? "His" friends don't notice "he" throws like a girl? They don't notice "he's" weird about bathroom stuff? They didn't notice that "he" changes clothes in a special room? All the girls are hot for "him"? Etc. Etc. I'm sorry, kids are morons about all sorts of things, but they are brilliant at discerning what makes their schoolmates different. All of the special handling by teachers and the subterfuge sound plausible on paper, but in the real world it would smell awfully fishy. Even more implausible: M is supposed to be a popular member of the in-crowd. Popular kids, especially in junior high, have a razor-sharp eye for anything that might raise their standing, or lower someone else's, in a clique. It would be one thing if M kept a low-profile, but the author says M is part of the "school's elite social group," and that just doesn't wash. Just to be clear, it's a big deal to accuse a journalist of fraud, so I want to be careful here. Let me just say I don't believe this story accurately or believably reflects the reality of the situation. Maybe the author just leaned on the facts too hard, but I just don't buy it. Read the story for yourself. Posted 8:49 AM | [Link] DIGGING FOR DIRT [Jonathan Adler] Senator Leahy refuses to hold a timely hearing on Miguel Estrada, nominated over one year ago to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. It seems Leahy hopes the delay will enable People for the American Way and other groups to dig up incriminating information on Estrada. Thus far, they've come up with nothing, but they are undaunted. Today the Washington Post chastises Leahy for digging for dirt in all the wrong places. Posted 8:48 AM | [Link] WHITE HOUSE COMIC [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Last week at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual dinner, OMB director Mitch Daniels gave this as an example of philosophical conversations he and his college-age daughter have: "If James Carville and Geraldo Rivera were both drowning, and you could only save one, would you read the paper or eat lunch?" (Click here for another example of Daniels’ daughter-inspired humor.) Posted 8:29 AM | [Link] THE FRIENDS OF YOUR "FRIENDS"… [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Saudis bolster ties with Yemen. Posted 8:02 AM | [Link] A SCAM, I TELL YOU [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The ever-funny Joe Bob Briggs on frequent-flyer miles. Posted 7:52 AM | [Link] MORE ON SPEICHER [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Retired Navy Commander Bob Stumpf, who commanded a Fleet F/A-18 Squadron and the Blue Angels in Baghdad at the same time as Speicher went down, wrote a primer on the Speicher case on NRO earlier this year. Posted 7:32 AM | [Link] POW IN IRAQ? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Republican senator Pat Roberts believes Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher, who was among the first fighters in Iraq in the Gulf War, is alive. Posted 7:29 AM | [Link] BRIGHT IDEAS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Mineta should hire this kid. Posted 7:28 AM | [Link] CRUNCHING BERRY: [Rod Dreher] The Mighty, Mighty Eve Tushnet takes apart a September 11-themed sermon by rural eco-guru Wendell Berry, who fulminates against the evils of capitalism, technology and other aspects of American life. Even if you don't know Berry's work, you should take a look at this, because the observations Tushnet punctures in her commentary (scroll down a bit on her blog, to "Hayseeds and Straw Men") are leftie pieties commonly heard these days. I admit to having a general sympathy with Berry's "small is beautiful" viewpoint, about which I have only a vague knowledge, but I came away from La Tushnet's dissection much less impressed with his thinking. Posted 7:24 AM | [Link]
AMERICAN MENACE[Andrew Stuttaford] Celebrations of Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee (she became Queen in 1952) are beginning to get going here in London. Royalist tchotchkes are for sale in souvenir stores and the Mall (the avenue that leads up to Buckingham Palace) is festooned with flags ahead of celebrations next weekend. Most newspapers are running special supplements to commemorate the anniversary, including today’s London Times which has a year-by-year summary of various stories run by the paper over the last fifty years. Here’s something from November 1959. As this extract reminds us, European concerns over American culture are nothing new. “Book publishers in London were quick to express their apprehensions…over the repercussions likely to arise on the British market from a sudden torrent of cheap, lurid and near-obscene American paperback books which are expected to be reaching the public soon. The recent lifting of restrictions on unlicensed importation of cheap American fiction is viewed with mixed feelings…” There were, apparently, fears that an estimated one million “unhealthy and lurid” novels would arrive over the first weekend. The horror, the horror.. Posted 6:09 PM | [Link] MARS ATTACKED [Andrew Stuttaford] Well, that didn’t take long. I wondered yesterday whether environmentalists would start grumbling about the prospects for Mars now that the discovery of vast reserves of water-ice has greatly enhanced the prospects of a successful manned mission. Well, here is what London’s leftist Independent is saying today: “The trouble with tourism is that there are just so few really unspoilt places to go these days…Now Mars is the next destination for those who want to see new places and mess them up. Even before people landed on the Moon…the red planet served as that essential of the human imagination - the place just out of reach where anything can happen…it is the object of our fantasies, such as Ray Bradbury’s fable of colonization and the yearning for the simple life. What will we do when settlers really live there and leave their Volvic bottles all over the polar ice cap?” Yes, of course this editorial is largely tongue-in-cheek, but you can bet that there will be more in this vein to come, and it will, ridiculously, be serious. Posted 6:01 PM | [Link] NO WAY JOSE [Andrew Stuttaford] French lout Jose Bove has been on European TV screens today grumbling about George Bush's visit to France. Jose Bove? He's the 'anti-globalization activist' convicted of trashing a McDonalds two or three years ago. In other words, he's the arrogant jerk who took it upon himself to decide what his compatriots may or may not eat. A few weeks ago the Economist ran a piece showing what the French really thought about the Golden Arches: France now can boast nine hundred Mcdonalds' restaurants, more per capita than most of its European neighbors (other than the UK: but anyone who has ever eaten in a home-grown British burger joint will understand why that is). As the Economist notes, the chain's French sales and profits rose by over 9% in 2001- a year when McDonalds' worldwide income fell by 17%. The anti-globalization movement is about depriving consumers of choice, and there's no better proof of that than Bove. As for me, I'll go for the cheeseburger with fries and so, it seems, will those cheeseburger-eating surrender monkeys, the French. Posted 5:39 PM | [Link] MEMORIALIZING THE BAYOU: [Rod Dreher] This is a sad day for LSU alums of a certain bent. The best dive bar near campus, the place where your faithful correspondent spent many an irresponsible evening in the company of fellow college journalists obliterating brain cells, has burned to the ground. The Bayou bar on Chimes Street was a pit, a hole, a cesspool of vile aromas and viler intentions. And if you are 19 years old and a campus trouble-maker, it is -- or was -- just the spot. Steven Soderbergh filmed some of "sex, lies and videotape" there. R.E.M. played there before anybody knew who they were. The dour campus socialists drank there, madman Andrei Codrescu practiced his courtship rituals in its recesses, Catholic right-wing gadfly and FrontPage columnist J.P. Zmirak was a regular, and you'd even see a YAF-fer pie-eyed on occasion. If you ever partook of Double-Drunk Night, click on this link and see the photo of the dear old dump consumed by flames. Sic transit gloria mundi, y'all. Posted 4:38 PM | [Link] HOME RUNS+STRIKEOUTS+STEALS+EXCITEMENT=SORIANO: [Lowry] Here's a good ESPN story on Alfonso Soriano, "whom Yankee officials now openly consider their best hitter." Posted 2:44 PM | [Link] SNACKING FOR TERRORISM [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Egyptian company >launches snack food line to raise money for Palestinian Authority. Posted 12:47 PM | [Link] MAYBE IT LOSES SOMETHING IN TRANSLATION [James S. Robbins] The Russian press reports: "A humorous incident that occurred during dinner at Novo-Ogarevo was recounted by Putin during the two-hour visit to the Hermitage today. It turns out that, while discussing the dishes, Putin told Bush that some of the caviar with which guests are regaled in Russia is obtained from fish which are then sewn up and released back into the Volga. 'Everyone laughed, but only the US President believed me,' Putin said genially. Putin said nothing about the conclusions about Bush's IQ that could be drawn from such a joke, which proved a real test of the US President's wits." Well maybe the president was just trying to figure out why this "joke" was supposed to be such a thigh-slapper. I mean, come on, Putin is clearly no Drew Carey. Posted 12:43 PM | [Link] MORE BELLESILES [Melissa Seckora] The Newberry speaks. Posted 12:37 PM | [Link] SULLIVAN MISSES THE POINT, I HOPE [Jonah Goldberg] Just catching up on some old reading. Andrew Sullivan writes: "I guess he's just being honest, but Mickey Kaus says it's "intensely disappointing" that Condit might be legitimately cleared in the Chandra Levy investigation. Excuse me? Wouldn't it be better, if facts warrant it, for the real killer, whoever he is, to be identified?" I have to assume that Sullivan is misreading Kaus. I have to assume Micket means that he'd be disappointed if it turned out Condit didn't do it. That's a bit different than hoping an innocent man gets nailed for a crime he didn't commit. Posted 12:26 PM | [Link] COSMO'S WORLD [Jonah Goldberg] Rich, yeah I saw that headline. Alas, romance in my Cosmo's world has to be translated into many ways because, well, the direct way was taken care of at the pound, if ya know what I mean. Posted 12:08 PM | [Link] HELP: [Rich Lowry] If you have any specialized knowledge of the West African oil market, I'd love to hear from you for a piece I'm writing. Posted 12:02 PM | [Link] TELL ME ABOUT IT: [Lowry] New York Times headline from yesterday: "Romance, in Cosmo's World, Is Translated in Many Ways." Jonah, over to you (try to keep it clean). Posted 11:51 AM | [Link] NICE EXCHANGE BETWEEN BUSH AND DAVID GREGORY: [Lowry] From Wash TImes: Mr. Bush was responding to Mr. Gregory's question about anti-American demonstrations in Germany, Russia and France during the president's visits to these nations since Wednesday. "I wonder why it is you think there are such strong sentiments in Europe against you and against this administration?" the reporter said. "Why, particularly, there's a view that you and your administration are trying to impose America's will on the rest of the world, particularly when it comes to the Middle East and where the war on terrorism goes next?" Turning to Mr. Chirac, he added in French: "And, Mr. President, would you maybe comment on that?" "Very good," Mr. Bush said sardonically. "The guy memorizes four words, and he plays like he's intercontinental." "I can go on," Mr. Gregory offered. "I'm impressed — que bueno," said Mr. Bush, using the Spanish phrase for "how wonderful." He deadpanned: "Now I'm literate in two languages." Posted 11:47 AM | [Link] MORE TERRORISM [Kathryn Jean Lopez] After two failed attacks at the end of last week, >another suicide bomber hits a mall in Israel. Posted 11:30 AM | [Link] MORE TITLE IX [Jonah Goldberg] FYI: the lovely Jessica Gavora had the lead op-ed in the Arizona Republic yesterday. Posted 9:58 AM | [Link] WHERE’S THE PARTY? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] October political conventions? Is there a point to having them at all anymore? Posted 8:20 AM | [Link] FULL DISCLOSURE [Jonah Goldberg] I was drenched with this stuff in college. For a more thorough discussion of my feelings about this topic, see my column "Dress-Up Games in Academia." Posted 8:18 AM | [Link] "HIS" [Jonah Goldberg] For example, the author uses male pronouns -- "he," "him," "his" -- throughout. This is standard practice in many quarters these days when referring to girls who believe or pretend they are boys (and vice versa for boys who think they are girls). But it is a deeply political act to do this, betraying profound sympathy for a specific and radical agenda which says sex may be biological but gender is entirely "socially constructed." My favorite sentence in the Times piece: "M. started getting his period two years ago." His period. Logically, this is no different than writing "her penis" or "his womb." But the Times has no trouble with it whatsoever. Posted 8:15 AM | [Link] GENDER SHMENDER [Jonah Goldberg] The NYT Magazine piece Kathryn mentions below is a classic. It has been a longstanding project of The New York Times to make "transgender issues" a national priority. I have no doubt that "M" has serious problems and real desires, but it would be nice if the Times could occasionally concede how deeply and radically ideological it is on these subjects. Treating these hyper-fringe issues as central and common incidents in American life is a real disservice and more than a bit dishonest. Posted 8:13 AM | [Link] SINGLE TERRORIST, NEEDS BRIDE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] "Single, with a free house and a reliable allowance, all he needs is a bride," writes a Portuguese newspaper about 24-year-old Annan Mohammed Hamis Tanjeh, one of the exiled Church of the Nativity terrorists. >This, from “The Palestinian Authority's delegate general in Portugal, Issam Beseisso”: "He is not married, he does not have a girlfriend. We are looking for a bride for him." Guess he's not waiting for the virgins? Posted 8:13 AM | [Link] POOR DAVID GREGORY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The president helps make the reporter news in France. Posted 8:11 AM | [Link] IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARY [Mike Potemra] Fifty years ago yesterday, on May 26, 1952, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a decision by New York censors to block exhibition of Roberto Rossellini's film "The Miracle." The censors said the movie was sacrilegious; the Supreme Court said that's no legal basis for forbidding the showing of a movie. I learned about this historic Supreme Court case from Martin Scorsese's terrific four-hour documentary, "Il Mio Viaggio in Italia," about the great Italian films of the postwar era that so influenced Scorsese. His documentary is really wonderful and deserves a broader distribution.... Posted 8:10 AM | [Link] PICKS & PANS: [John J. Miller] Learn how al Qaeda selects its targets. Posted 4:26 AM | [Link]
REYNOLDS RAP [Kathryn Jean Lopez] >Great column by George Will on terrific Bush Dept. of Ed. civil-rights man Gerry Reynolds. Posted 11:48 PM | [Link] MEMORIAL DAY LOGISTICS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] We’ll be posting only a few pieces later this morning, leaving up our Friday and weekend sections on the front page. And, of course, stay tuned to The Corner for holiday postings. Posted 11:18 PM | [Link] COOL SITE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] David Blankenhorn and his Institute for American Values—a real treasure--has a webblog. Definitely worth bookmarking if you are interested in a carefully considered conservative take on the state of marriage and the family. Posted 11:18 PM | [Link] MEMORIAL DAY REMINDERS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] If you have been meaning to do some reading or war-movie viewing, here are our war-movie and book lists. If you have been there and done that, you might want to hit the brand-new NRO summer-reading list. Posted 11:15 PM | [Link] "M." [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A terribly disturbing piece in the New York Times Magazine (isn’t there often?) about a 13-year-old girl living as a boy (right down to having a girlfriend who doesn’t know; and evidently as a boy she’s something of the school stud), all with the support and assistance of school staff and family. Posted 11:07 PM | [Link] HBO’s IN MEMORIAM > [Kathryn Jean Lopez] These images and sounds--of people falling to their deaths, scared for their lives and the lives of loved ones, their raw reactions, do need to be replayed every few months, as they are being, reminding us of why we are in this war. (The program—which is more graphic than anything that has been aired on TV thus far—will be re-aired on Tuesday night. Posted 11:05 PM | [Link] RUMSFELDISMS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The color of his speech in profile in the New York Times. Posted 10:38 PM | [Link] GAY SPIES AND GAY PRIESTS [Rod Dreher] Here's a provocative scandal analysis from the current issue of Catholic World Report. Prof. James Hitchcock finds startling parallels between the homosexual subversion of the British government in the Cambridge spy scandal, and homosexual subversion of the Catholic priesthood. Hitchcock says in both cases, the elitism of men who could and should have stopped them prevented action. Posted 10:35 PM | [Link] OUR SAUDI FRIENDS [Andrew Stuttaford] Here's a piece by Michael Barone on 'Saudi' Arabia. It's well worth reading. Thanks to Instapundit for pointing it out. Posted 6:08 PM | [Link] SAUDI CIVILIZATION [Andrew Stuttaford] Former anti-apartheid activist Ronald Segal's fascinating new book Islam's Black Slaves has a depressing section on the survival of slavery in certain parts of the world today. Needless to say, those progressive Saudis make an appearance. Although 'Saudi' Arabia finally abolished slavery in the early 1960s (in theory, at least), Mr. Segal cites one report from as late as 1982 alleging that the Saudis were probably still "the principal importer of slaves". Segal doubts that this is now the case (slavery would be such bad PR) but, as he explains, "a multitude of imported temporary settlers, mainly from Asia, for use as contract laborers or domestic servants, often involving in practice a form of servitude distinguishable from slavery only in the absence of ownership, has made traditional slavery somewhat superfluous". Posted 1:37 PM | [Link] PIE IN THE SKY [Andrew Stuttaford] The report that vast quantities of water-ice have been found just below the Martian surface is a significant boost to hopes of a successful manned mission to that planet. That's the good news. The bad news is that we can probably expect to hear soon from agitated environmentalists. After all, some greens want to declare the Moon a 'wilderness area' and off-limits to any sort of exploitation, so imagine how they will react when confronted with the prospect of a whole new 'ocean' to save. And why not? There could be frozen whales in those frozen seas. Posted 1:08 PM | [Link] CLUB FED [Andrew Stuttaford] There's a deeply disturbing story in today's London Sunday Times on Guantanamo, and its conclusion is not what you might expect. The source is William Tierney, an interpreter who spent six weeks working in the interrogation cells. Tierney lost his job after a dispute with the Pentagon, so he may well be a hostile witness. Nevertheless, what he has to say is worrying, and all too believable. Full access to the report takes a paid subscription, but this brief extract is a fair summary of what it is about: "The detention centre...is a ludicrously soft touch to men toughened in the rigorous training camps of The Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Cowed by criticism, the Pentagon runs a politically correct regime that puts prisoners' complaints ahead of intelligence gathering". Posted 12:31 PM | [Link] TRADE, NOT AID: [John J. Miller] "The biggest request we are making of Western countries is to open their markets," says President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda in today's New York Times. "Debt relief has saved us some money, but the real money will come from trade. Give us the opportunities, and we will compete." Posted 4:50 AM | [Link] PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: [John J. Miller] In his new book Wealth and Democracy, the famous ex-Republican Kevin Phillips argues that government is the cause of economic prosperity. He's also duped by an old Lincoln forgery, writes Richard Jensen of the University of Illinois at Chicago. As much as a few people on the Left would like to believe it, the 16th president never wrote these words: "It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war." Posted 4:23 AM | [Link] |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
<% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%>