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BUSH SELLS OUT PAT ROUSH'S GIRLS:: [Rod Dreher] Pat Roush, whose two daughters were kidnapped by her Saudi husband over a decade ago, and who has been jacked around by the U.S. State Department for about as long, has effectively been told to get lost by the White House. Scroll down to read Ari Fleischer's words. Posted 11:21 PM | [Link] WHO'S FOOLING WHOM?: [Rod Dreher] This lengthy, extraordinary article from New Times Los Angeles details the old-boy network connected to Cardinal Roger Mahony, which protects child-abusing or otherwise sexually abusive gay clerics. It's an outrage, particularly if you've seen Mahony on TV this week presenting himself as an advocate of zero tolerance. After reading this, one doubts that any sex-abuse policy adopted by the bishops stands a chance of succeeding as long as such men run the Church. Posted 11:05 PM | [Link] MACCA-GATE [Andrew Stuttaford] Rod, yes, a knighthood for Mick Jagger (or Keef, for that matter) is just fine, but in claiming that the Rolling Stones are (were?) a "better" band than the Beatles, you go just too far... Have you no (rubber) soul? Posted 5:20 PM | [Link] SIR MICK: [Rod Dreher] I think Mick Jagger's knighthood for services to music is a fabulous idea. The Rolling Stones haven't made an album since Tattoo You (1981, if memory serves) worth listening to, but their run in the late Sixties and early Seventies, a period that included Let It Bleed, Beggar's Banquet, Sticky Fingers, and their peerless masterpiece Exile on Main Street, grants them rock and roll immortality. To hell with those who whinge about Jagger not being a proper role model for a knight; the "Sir" business is about Mick's artistic contribution, for one thing, and for another: Sir Elton John. I have only two complaints: 1) that the Beatles' Paul McCartney was knighted before Mick Jagger, inasmuch as the Rolling Stones were the better band, and 2) that Keef didn't get a knighthood too. Posted 9:41 AM | [Link] WHAT WILL THEY SERVE FOR DRINKS? [John J. Miller] Vlad the Impaler, the pride of the Transylvanian town of Sighisoara, at last will get his due: a Dracula theme park. Posted 4:43 AM | [Link] ISRAELI SUBS MAY HAVE NUKES: [John J. Miller] Here's the story. Posted 4:32 AM | [Link] GOOFUS, NOT GALLANT: [Rod Dreher] Isn't it, like, perfect that the American bishops put President Clinton's lawyer on their review board? How do you say in Latin, "That depends on what the definition of 'is' is"? I don't suppose they could have put BILL Bennett on the board, inasmuch as he's called for all the cover-up bishops to get the hell out of town. I've just come in from a very long postmortem panel discussion here in Dallas, at which Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Catholic World Report's Phil Lawler, Goodbye, Good Men author Michael S. Rose, Helen Hull Hitchcock and others spoke. Details to follow in Monday's NRO, but I gotta tell you, folks, the mood among orthodox RCs here is grim. This "hapless bench of bishops," as Bp. Bruskewitz called them tonight, couldn't even agree that the role of dissent and homosexuality in this catastrophe was worth studying. The conclusion is obvious: if reform is to come, it's not going to come from the bishops. Posted 12:52 AM | [Link]
REQUEST FOR A NAME CHANGE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Frank Keating is heading the bishops' conference's NATIONAL REVIEW Board on the scandals. I thought I was nuts, all day listening to the bishops on EWTN, every once in a while my head bopping up when I hear "National Review." We already have a National Review Board! And, I can't help but think all members of our board would be willing to focus on a laser on the root causes of this scandal: active homosexuals in the priesthood, in the seminaries--certainly moreso than say, board member Bob Bennett, the "bad Bennett brother," the one who defended President Clinton in the Lewinsky impeachment embarrassment. Posted 7:07 PM | [Link] FREE THE TERRORISTS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Amnesty International calls for the release of a Palestinian terrorist, head of the Popular front ofr the Liberation of Palestine. Posted 5:10 PM | [Link] THE CASE FOR ZERO TOLERANCE [Kate O'Beirne] As I watch the Profiles in Courage meeting in Dallas, it occurs to me that lay Catholics ought to be demanding "zero tolerance"--for unaccountable bishops. Bishop Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska just proposed an amendment to the new charter asking that the effects of toleration of dissent to the Magisterium's teachings on sexual morality and of homosexuals serving in the priesthood be studied in relation to the abuse scandal. The good bishop's amendment was seconded, but no other bishop chose to speak on the proposal, and it was quickly voted down on a voice vote. How did my bishop vote? I'll never know. Ignore the endless rhetoric about the bishops' newfound desire for transparency and accountability. The failure to allow for recorded votes on these fundamental issues makes it clear that the American bishops persist in ducking responsibility. Posted 4:51 PM | [Link] PLAIN ENGLISH IN COLORADO [John J. Miller] The Colorado Supreme Court today ruled unanimously in favor of Ron K. Unz's anti-bilngual education intiative, which is modeled on California's Proposition 227, passed by voters in 1998. The decision gives Unz about eight weeks to gather the necessary number of signatures to qualify for the November ballot. "I think we'll be able to do it, but it will be tough," says Unz. Posted 3:08 PM | [Link] "I LONG TO DIE AS A MARTYR [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Not to pick on Saudi Arabia or anything, but check out this interview with the Saudi ambassador to London, courtesy of MEMRI. Posted 2:35 PM | [Link] SAUDI TV [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Teaching kids about the "apes and beasts" (that would be "the Jews"). Posted 2:22 PM | [Link] CHICKEN OR THE EGG [Jonah Goldberg] I think one reason why people are so split over military tribunals, detentions-without-trial etc for al-Quaeda terrorists is the essential chicken-or-the-egg-legal problem. Clearly, known and dangerous terrorists shouldn't be treated with all the rights and benefits which accrue to normal civilian defendants. But it is very difficult to feel comfortable with the government's word that someone is actually one of these terrorists. In effect you can't know someone doesn't deserve a civilian trial until you give them one. I am not entirely unsympathetic to this point. Still, at bottom, the issue is one of trust. Do we trust the government of the United States to use this power at this time. My short answer is, yes. That doesn't mean the press, Congress and the public shouldn't do their best to make sure the government isn't abusing this power. And, that doesn't mean we can't change our minds if it appears that the government is being reckless. But, for now, since the government has the legal right to detain agents of foreign powers bent on killing Americans, the only argument for opposing the government's detention of people like Padilla is a slippery slope argument. And that is not sufficient. Saying "what's to stop the government from designating you or me a terrorist?" is at best a bad argument and at worst knee-jerk paranoia. Posted 2:17 PM | [Link] UNDECLARED WARS [Jonah Goldberg] Getting a lot of feedback on my syndicated column. As I anticipated, responses split pretty much evenly between people who think I am 100% wrong and those who think I'm 100% right. One point the critics raise I agree with: We should have a formal declaration of war. I don't see why we cannot declare war on al-Quaeda and all states and organization which provide aid and comfort to it. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see why this should be so complicated. Posted 1:56 PM | [Link] POLITICALLY INCORRECT ANIMALS [Roger Clegg] Earlier this week, Fox News reported on allegations that Dolpho, the lone police dog in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, engages in racial profiling while on his drug detection and patrol duties. Already, the current issue of The American Spectator had in it an article from “The Onion” that documented recent scientific studies of rampant sexism in the animal kingdom (for instance, as I recall, male alligators refusing the share the females’ offspring-nurturing roles). And now, in the issue of The American Enterprise that was delivered to our office this afternoon, this item: “Richard Espinosa claims the feline mascot of an Escondido, California library attacked his dog, and that the cat’s actions constituted a hate crime. He is suing the city for $1.5 million.” Seems to me that those who want animals to have civil rights need to have a little chat with their clients about one paw washing the other and all that. Posted 12:46 PM | [Link] A LOOPHOLE CLOSES: [Rod Dreher] The bishops just voted to close a loophole. They will now report *any* allegations against priests to civil authorities, and let them sort out the truth. This reflects their understanding that the public has no credibility in their judgment any longer. Just so. Posted 12:18 PM | [Link] WE ARE DEFINITELY... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...giving Richard Goldstein too much coverage. Posted 12:17 PM | [Link] THE GAY FISHBOWL [Jonah Goldberg] No, that's not the name of my glass-bottomed boat in the Florida Keys. But you do get a peak inside the gay left with this piece on Richard Goldstein, the fellow who denounces the "homocons" in the piece I linked to below. Posted 12:14 PM | [Link] EVER SEND AN E-MAIL TO THE WRONG PERSON? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Yeah, well, so has everyone else. Posted 12:13 PM | [Link] DAMNED IF YOU DO... [Jonah Goldberg] A reader complains:
Posted 12:09 PM | [Link] AUSTRIAN TEEN HACKS IN U.S. SECRETS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Maybe the Pentagon should hire this kid. Posted 12:03 PM | [Link] BISHOPS ARGUING: [Rod Dreher] The bishops are arguing right now over whether or not all allegations of sexual misconduct against priests be turned over to civil authorities. Some bishops are saying that this would amount to putting all priests at risk of losing their reputations over the accusations of lunatics, and they don't support the motion. Others, like Cardinals McCarrick and Mahoney, are saying that recent experience shows that the Catholic people no longer trust the bishops to use their own discretion in these matters, and it's better to let the civil authorities straighten matters out. Earlier, one bishop offered an amendment to the final proposal that would soften the final overall sex-abuse policy by saying it should be flexible enough to accomodate "lived experience." Galante, the co-adjutor bishop of Dallas, stood and said, in a slightly exasperated way, "It's very clear what the problem, [sic] and very clear what the solution is. People want us to act in a clear and decisive way. ...That's been the lived experience of the past six months. That's why we're here." Posted 11:57 AM | [Link] DALLAS CATHOLICS HEADS-UP: [Rod Dreher] Bishop Bruskewitz, who earlier today on EWTN was rather pessimistic about the bishops' meeting, will be part of a panel discussion tonight at 7 at St. Therese Academy, 2700 Findley Road, in Irving. Phil Lawler, editor of Catholic World Report, will also speak. This will be a great opportunity for faithful Catholics to take stock of the bishops' conference vote, and the prospects for the future. Posted 11:50 AM | [Link] HOPELESSNESS DOESN'T KILL PEOPLE, TERRORISTS DO [Jonah Goldberg] The Israeli Defense Forces website often translates useful info into English. Here's the PA calling suicide bombing "heroic." Posted 11:49 AM | [Link] GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Webmasterjammer Aaron Bailey tells me I should blog this Onion piece. But then this one's pretty good too. Posted 10:42 AM | [Link] WATCH YOUR "ER"S & "UM"S [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Each ur and um means something, a piece in Nature reports.... Posted 9:57 AM | [Link] I ALWAYS LIKED MINETA [Andrew Stuttaford] So, Norman Mineta's carefully crafted and intelligently thought-out security regulations have caused Al Gore to be frisked? You can say what you want, Kathryn, but Ken Starr never got that far. Posted 8:42 AM | [Link] YOU @ AIRPORT [NRO Staff] A friend of NRO is looking for examples of ridiculous extremes in our new airport-security schemes. If any of you have any, please e-mail them to security@nationalreview.com--with details of time and place. Thanks! Posted 8:39 AM | [Link] IN A JAM [Andrew Stuttaford] On the subject of freedom in the EU, the London Times is also running a story about a French jam-maker on hunger strike to protest the impact of EU regulations on his business. He is, apparently, being persecuted by an arm of the French bureaucracy known as the "Service for Investigations into Conformity with European Norms". Orwellian and unashamed of it, that's the EU. Posted 8:31 AM | [Link] DEMOCRACY IN THE EU [Andrew Stuttaford] The EU has never been very comfortable with countries being "too" democratic. This has prompted a delightful comment from British journalist Michael Gove in today's London Times: "You have to be a democracy to join, [but] you're not allowed to remain one once you're a member." Posted 8:21 AM | [Link] HEY, NORMAN, IF I WIN IN 2004.... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Evidently Al Gore did not look too happy when he and his belongings were searched not once but twice at Reagan National Airport on his way to a Democratic party fundraiser in Wisconsin. Posted 8:03 AM | [Link] THE HOMOCON THREAT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Jonah, if only it were just a long essay in The Nation. Goldstein has a whole book on Andrew Sullivan and company: The Attack Queers: Liberal Society and the Gay Right. Posted 7:57 AM | [Link] THANKS, BUT NO THANKS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Last night on the 700 Club, in covering the Catholic bishops' conference, Pat Robertson warned (lectured) that the problems (of gay priests?!) would not be solved unitil the celibacy vow is dropped for Catholic priests. I much prefer Christianity Today's take on RC celibacy. Posted 7:25 AM | [Link] WE'RE HERE! WE'RE QUEER! WE WANT LOWER TAXES! [Jonah Goldberg] Figures Andrew Sullivan would go on vacation the one week we need him most. The Nation wants to fight the Gay Right, in a long essay about the "Homocon" threat. Posted 6:33 AM | [Link] BLAME CANADA, AGAIN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Re the Toby Keith thing: Evidently when Peter Jennings heard the words to the Toby Keith 9/11 song, he nixed it from the 4th lineup. Keith's response: "I find it interesting that he's not from the U.S.," Keith says of Jennings, who is Canadian. "I bet Dan Rather'd let me do it on his special." Posted 6:31 AM | [Link] FREE TOBY KEITH [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Bet country-hating Rich Lowry would even agree: Let Toby Keith sing on the 4th, ABC! Posted 6:29 AM | [Link] SPECIAL G-FILE TODAY [Jonah Goldberg] I've got many place to do and things to be today. So, we're going to run my article on Ozzy Osbourne from the last issue as my column. Rich only let's me do this like once a year. So, thanks to Rich. Posted 6:28 AM | [Link] SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES [Jonah Goldberg] The US compound in Karachi was attacked in massacre bombing. Murdering 7 and injuring 45 others. The FBI Director and other officials were ridiculed in some quarters for suggesting that suicide attacks against domestic American targets were inevitable. Well, Karachi isn't America but it seems difficult to believe that if they can find people willing to do it there, they won't be able to find them here. Posted 6:19 AM | [Link] TWO CHEERS FOR LEVIATHAN [Jonah Goldberg] Jose Padilla, AKA the dirty bomber, is going to be kept in a hole according to the Washington Post. Meanwhile Moussaoui's going to represent himself, a development which will be sure to generate so much buffoonery it will only help those of us pushing for military trials. Speaking of which, here's my syndicated column where I express what some of you will no doubt consider my cavalier attitude toward Padilla's civil rights. Posted 6:14 AM | [Link] HOCKEY NIGHT IN AMERICA: [John J. Miller] Last night's Stanley Cup victory by the Detroit Red Wings was a great moment in hockey, with a storied franchise full of future hall-of-famers combining to bring the greatest trophy in sports back to the city that calls itself "Hockeytown," for the third time in six years. It was the final game for Scotty Bowman, a coach whose records will stand untouched for generations, at least. A couple of the game's most outstanding players, Dominek Hasek and Luc Robitaille, will have their names carved on the Cup for the first time. Team captain Steve Yzerman showed exquisite toughness; so did defenseman Steve Duchesne, another first-time Cup winner whose toothless smile, displayed as he lifted the trophy over his head, was the nasty result of a puck he took to the mouth earlier in the championship series against the Carolina Hurricanes (and he got right back on the ice). There was the steady example of MVP Niklas Lidstrom, a man who plays from the unflashy position of defenseman but makes his presence felt everywhere on the ice; the seemingly ageless Igor Larionov, who ended a triple overtime on Saturday night with a gorgeous piece of puckwork; the sharpshooters Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan; the workmanlike "grind line" of Draper, Maltby, and McCarty; Sergei Federov, one of the best skaters in the league and also one of its best shots; plus-minus warrior Chris Chelios; the scrappy Tomas Holmstrom. No other sport combines grace and power as well as hockey, and last night we saw one of the greatest teams ever assembled to play the game achieve its ultimate prize. Mitch Albom has a wonderful column in today's Detroit Free Press. Bob Wojnowski's write-up in the Detroit News is pretty good, too. Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post is just about the best beat writer in hockey; his summary of last night's game is short but sharp. Posted 5:27 AM | [Link]
U-M faces rest room complaint: [Rich Lowry] “When architects announced plans for expanded rest room facilities at the renovated Hill Auditorium at a good-bye ceremony in April, many fans of the Ann Arbor performance landmark cheered. But at least one patron doesn't think 30 toilets for women is nearly enough. Now, the University of Michigan faces a gender equity complaint over women's rest room facilities. Ann Arbor attorney Jean King filed the complaint Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Education, saying the 30 women's toilets included in a $38.6 million renovation should be increased to 44, double the number of new men's facilities. Failing to provide 44 women's rest rooms would violate Title IX…” Thanks to Zach for pointing it out. Posted 2:49 PM | [Link] SPEAKING…: [Rich Lowry] …of that Mowrbay piece on “Visa Express,” Sean Hannity has been talking about it today. And Joel is scheduled to be on Hennity & Colmes tomorrow, and Fox & Friends over the weekend talking about it. Posted 2:27 PM | [Link] THE "SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP" [Ramesh Ponnuru] Another terrific piece in Tod Lindberg's Policy Review, this one by former Thatcher speechwriter Robin Harris. Harris argues that the "largest single obstacle to a revivified special relationship" between Britain and America is the European Union, adding that "in different degrees both the U.S. administration and the British government are in denial about it." A lot of solid analysis here, but I diagree with the defeatism of Harris's comment that "[t]he United States cannot at this stage, even if it wanted prevent the emergence of a rival European megastate with its own identity and ambitions" and should instead limit the damage done by this development. On the contrary, preventing the emergence of a centralized European state should be an American policy objective (although I'm not sure whether it should be an announced one). Posted 2:21 PM | [Link] AS YOU ALL...: [Rich Lowry] ...know, NR has made waking Washington up to the nature of the Saudis one of our causes. Rod Dreher had an excellent piece on Wyche Fowler, and other suck-up Saudi ambassadors, in the last issue. Pat Roush had very kind words about it in her congressional testimony the other day. In the new issue we have a very nice piece by Joel Mowbray on how the State Dept. has basically let Saudis waltz into this country no questions asked with the "Visa Express" program. Posted 1:58 PM | [Link] JUST DID...: [Rich Lowry] ...Title IX syndicated column. Let me recommend to NRO readers, one more time, Jessica Gavora's excellent Tilting the Playing Field. If you want men's track, swimming, wrestling and baseball to survive, buy this book, educate yourself, and start writing your congressman and senators. Posted 1:54 PM | [Link] EXCELLENT...: [Rich Lowry] ...op-ed in WashPost on prison rape, one of this country's great disgraces. Eli Lehrer wrote an NR piece on it a while ago. We'll try to get him to do an up-date for NRO, in light of a new bill that has been introduced in Congress on the matter. Posted 1:49 PM | [Link] FYI [Jonah Goldberg] My beloved bride is scheduled (breaking news can always bump) to be on Crossfire this evening. Not sure exactly what time. Posted 1:47 PM | [Link] TEXANS AGAINST HOUSTON: [Rich Lowry] E-mail: "I believe the liberal hatchet job on Houston was deserved. As a Texan, I will be the first to say that Houston is unlovely and soulless. It is big, crowded, stinks, and has a horrible traffic problem. To find the true soul of Texas, go to San Antonio. From the Alamo downtown to the hill country north and the cattle ranches south, San Antonio is truly Texas with a capital T. While Dallas, Ft. Worth, Amarillo and El Paso all have their charms and uses, it is San Antonio that shines. I don't even mention Austin as it has become Marin County east." Posted 1:15 PM | [Link] JOSHUA CLAYBOURN...: [Rich Lowry] ...is a patriot and a gentleman. He writes: "I turned 21 on June 10th. When everyone asked what I wanted for my birthday, I simply told them I wanted them to subscribe to NR." Posted 1:14 PM | [Link] LAST COUNTRY MUSIC POST: [Rich Lowry] This e-mail sounds definitive to me. If not, too bad, I'm "moving on": "That Southerner was right. I once had a (non-leftist/not-particularly-righty) history professor in college say "No, George Strait ruined country music! It wasn't country once they kicked all the rednecks out." And this is very very true. Even the saddest "country" music today can't bring tears to your eyes like "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" by Willie Nelson, and can't put you in a fighting mood like "Fightin' Side of Me" by... I forget, one of the old rednecks. I like to refer to it as "fiddle pop." There's a bunch of good country singers of the old school out there, but they can't seem to get big. However, even in the old school we've got the despicable David Allen Coe, who hooked up with Pantera sometime last year for a bit, and Hank Williams Jr. is just a damn showboat who takes unseemly pride in being a screwup. His daddy was a screwup too but wasn't quite so boisterous about it. There are the new boys, Robert Earl Keen Jr (Pres. Bush is a big fan) and Cory Morrow and a few others, but they're obscure enough that you nearly have to be from Texas AND go to college in Texas to have heard of them. They get tons of support and sell out show after show, but their appeal isn't all that broad. At least bluegrass is still bluegrass, even if the potheads have hijacked it. So hurray for your Southern writer. Mind you, if you're looking to the South for country music, you're a few hundred miles too far to the East. I believe you're looking for Texas. We're not the South, Yankee." Posted 1:08 PM | [Link] BETTING ON BOMBINGS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A Palestinean suicide-bombing gambling ring. Posted 11:55 AM | [Link] COVERUP CONTINUES [Jonah Goldberg] Another cat crime dismissed as "accident." Posted 11:37 AM | [Link] MISSING THE POINT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Much of what they said one could not disagree with. There are serious problems in the church that need to be addressed, etc. And, no doubt, there will be and should be more lay involvement in the Church--but these are not the people who the Church needs in leadership positions. You'd think that the likes of CNN had set up the panel, because the lineup was exactly what the mainstream media--the ones who neither get the Church nor get the problems in the Church--would have wanted. It's not, unfortunately what the Church needs right now. Those voices are always heard, and it's helped get us this scandal (as Michael Novak has noted on NRO). Posted 11:10 AM | [Link] LOOK WHO'S TALKING [Kathryn Jean Lopez] "Where is [Fr. Richard John Neuhaus? Where is [Michael] Novak? Where is George Weigel? Where is Mary Ann Glendon?" Eternal Word Television Network news director Raymond Arroyo asked during his live coverage of the bishops' conference on Thursday. After a strong opening address by USCCB president Wilton Gregory, which included talk about the imperative to clean out the seminaries (although the "Elephant" itself was not mentioned). The very first panel at the bishops' conference this week included two lay liberals talking about the need for more lay participation in the church. Posted 11:09 AM | [Link] WOOPS [Jonah Goldberg] I see that Kathryn scooped me on the al Quaida thing. Sorry. Posted 10:39 AM | [Link] ISLAM MEANS PEACE CONT'D [Jonah Goldberg] Al-Quaida spokesman says that according to Islamic Law, they have the "right" to kill four million Americans. Thanks again to MEMRI for translating. Posted 10:30 AM | [Link] OH, BY THE WAY... [Jonah Goldberg] The subject header for the outraged feminist email below was: "In God's name - STOP!" I only bring it up because so many of you enjoyed the letter. Posted 10:18 AM | [Link] WE NEVER REUSE TITLES HERE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Here's Jim Robbins's piece on the death of the ABM Treaty from December. Posted 10:13 AM | [Link] HILARIOUS [Jonah Goldberg] The ChiComs oh-so-grudgingly apologize for being snookered by an Onion story. "According to congressional workers, the Onion is a publication that never ceases making up false reports," the Evening News said. Posted 10:11 AM | [Link] TRUE STORY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Bob Barr is suing Clinton, Carville, and FLynt for emotional distress. Jonah, if he wins on some alternative universe, think we can get a cut? Posted 9:56 AM | [Link] MORE ABM [Jonah Goldberg] John, here's another piece on the sad fight to save the ABM. Posted 9:37 AM | [Link] THE INCREDIBLY SHRINKING ABM TREATY: [John J. Miller] The major papers today make almost no mention of the fact that the ABM Treaty is now a piece of history. (Yesterday's Washington Post has a short piece on last-minute left-wing efforts to keep the treaty alive.) Remember, this moment was supposed to destablize the world and inaugurate a fearsome new arms race. I've written an obituary for the treaty here. Posted 9:04 AM | [Link] FOR THE RECORD [Jonah Goldberg] I knew that the movie with Cool Hand Luke in it was called "Cool Hand Luke." I was joking. Please stop sending me email saying "the name of the movie was Cool Hand Luke!" Posted 8:53 AM | [Link] CHICKS FOR "ARROGANT POMPOUS TESTOSTERONE POISONED JERKS OF THE WORLD" [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Jonah, I'm thinking of starting a fan club. Your mug will be the first on the clubhouse wall. Posted 8:03 AM | [Link] PAYDIRT [Jonah Goldberg] My favorite email in response to yesterday's G-File. Apologies for it's length: Who on earth gave you a column? Who thought you could write? Posted 7:52 AM | [Link] ALSO IN THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Former NR publisher Wick Allison suggests all the bishops resign! Posted 7:20 AM | [Link] THE LEADERSHIP FACTOR [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Bill Bennett warns that bishops--like Cardinal Law--need to be held accountable--i.e. forced to resign--before any other reforms can proceed. (Warning: Dallas Morning News will make you register if you haven't.) Posted 7:14 AM | [Link] BIN LADEN'S LEGAL BILLS... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] are piling up. Posted 6:40 AM | [Link] A $1 BILLION MISPRINT? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Evidently Tom Ridge can't explain why the Homeland Security plans have 80 percent of this California lab's budget going to the new Homeland department but only 4 percent of its staff. He suggests a misprint. Posted 6:37 AM | [Link] NOT SO SECRET [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Europeans are watching our spy work on satellite TV. Posted 6:31 AM | [Link] "SAUDI SECURITY": [John J. Miller] K Lo, the most unnerving part of the story you just mentioned on al Qaeda targeting American planes in Saudi Arabia is this: "[Sources] said [the terrorist] and others cased U.S. air bases and one night easily evaded Saudi security forces while attempting to shoot down an American plane." Um, did anybody else realize that the safety of our pilots and planes depended upon "Saudi security"? Couldn't we at least hire a few mall cops to walk the perimeter? Posted 5:07 AM | [Link] CARTER'S NEXT TRIP: [John J. Miller] Jimmy Carter apparently enjoyed his visit with Castro in Cuba so much he's decided to take a jaunt down to Venezuela to prop up its left-wing ruler, Hugo Chavez. Stephen Johnson of the Heritage Foundation has the latest. Posted 4:57 AM | [Link] AL QAEDA IN SAUDI ARABIA... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...tied to shoot down U.S. Air Force planes. Posted 4:39 AM | [Link] SOMETHING GOTTI WON'T GET: [John J. Miller] Mobster John Gotti won't get a funeral Mass in Brooklyn, says the Catholic diocese there. That's a brave and interesting decision. Now if only Catholic universities will quit inviting pro-abortion speakers to give commencement addresses... Posted 4:34 AM | [Link] RE: NR EMPLOYEE POLICY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] John, based on the times of some of our postings, I think the NR--or at least NRO--policy is clear. (And, come to think of it, I haven't had anyone's life in my hands recently.) Posted 4:32 AM | [Link] NR EMPLOYEE POLICY: [John J. Miller] Rich, have you seen this story about the move to limit the number of hours medical residents work? Here's the first paragraph from the Washington Post story: "The group that oversees doctor training in the United States announced yesterday that it will impose strict new limits on work hours for medical residents in response to mounting evidence that workweeks of up to 120 hours are detrimental to young doctors and perhaps their patients as well." They want to limit the work week to 80 hours and have mandatory rest periods. I was wondering if we could have a similar policy here at NR. Posted 4:25 AM | [Link]
SHOULD KNOW BETTER [Andrew Stuttaford] Castro's proposed constitutional amendment has, today, been accompanied by the usual 'spontaneous' demonstrations of support throughout his fiefdom. CNN's international edition (I know, I know, but Fox News is not on offer in this Helsinki hotel room) is reporting these events in a fairly skeptical manner, but the 'crawl' at the bottom of the screen is describing these carefully choreographed and often compulsory rallies as a "protest" by "millions of Cubans" against US policies, language that implies that such parades are some sort of genuine expression of popular feeling. They are, of course, nothing of the sort. Posted 4:52 PM | [Link] PARTY ON [Andrew Stuttaford] In the wake of Carter's crawl to Castro, the Cuban dictator is now proposing to amend his island's constitution to spell out the fact that the country is ''socialist" and that such a state of affairs is "untouchable". Perhaps Jimmy told his pal Fidel something about the 1980 election. Posted 4:33 PM | [Link] AND WOULD YOU BELIEVE... [John J. Miller] ...that I won a Pulitzer for my first NR piece? Posted 4:15 PM | [Link] MY PRO SPORTS CAREER: [John J. Miller] Rich, I thought we had an agreement not to discuss my career as a professional athlete. But since you raised it, I'd just like to say that I'm more proud of scoring a hat trick in my first NHL game. Posted 4:14 PM | [Link] HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM???: [Rich Lowry] Just got this e-mail: "Call me a homer, but I was more than slightly irritated at the hatchet job that Randall Patterson did on the city of Houston in the most recent New York Times Magazine. This follows on the heels of a similar article in Salon.com a few months ago. Since I am a faithful reader of The Corner on NRO, I know that you were recently in our fair city. I would be interested in your take on the city versus a left-winger like Mr. Patterson (who incidentally spent eight years in Houston as a writer for the "alternative weekly" Houston Press)." I by no means want to endorse liberal snobbery toward Houston, but I have to say the city hasn't yet grown on me. I can see where it has its charms--when friends took me to an excellent Tex-Mex place a lizard jumped out of our chips and salsa (and we were eating inside). The people seem great--I like the relaxed, beer-drinking attitude. But I'm not a fan of all the parking lots and 12-story parking garages, and all the "feeder" roads, getting on and off the freeways. But I'm returning in the fall to give a talk at a right-to-life event, so maybe it will grow on me more then... Posted 1:20 PM | [Link] I HAD . . . : [Rich Lowry] . . . a very "NRO moment" going to VDH's celebration last night. First, I have never met him before, which is the way it works with most NRO-niks: none of us have met or know anything about each other, which is why we all get along so well. Then, when I did actually meet VDH (a wonderful guy), the first thing he said, on this glorious night receiving the Breindel award, was, "Please, tell Kathryn I'll have my piece to her over-night." Spoken like a true NRO writer... ALSO...: [Rich Lowry] . . . all the country fans out there should know that, in response to all the e-mails last week, I tried to commission a magazine piece on country music and patriotism by one of our down-home, Southern NRO writers (who will go nameless -- but how many do we have?), but he begged off because he thinks contemporary country music is pap. I think I should nonetheless get some credit for at least trying... Posted 1:06 PM | [Link] FEINGOLD'S SHAME: [Rich Lowry] I'm just emerging from a mag deadline so excuse me if this has already been pointed out. But has anyone noticed that Russ Feingold is the "The Senator Who Would have Made It Illegal to Act on the Phoenix Memo?" The Phoenix memo, of course, came from the FBI field office there in July 2001, and recommended that the FBI canvas flight schools nationwide for suspicious Arab students. But with his "End Racial Profiling Act of 2001," Feingold would outlaw "a law enforcement agent relying, to any degree, on race, ethnicity, or national origin in selecting which individuals to subject to routine investigatory activities, or in deciding upon the scope and substance of law enforcement activity." So, while the rest of the nation rues the missed clue in the Phoenix memo, Feingold should be glad--the FBI, in passing it up, was already operating on his principles. WHILE WE'RE...: [Rich Lowry] ...at it, did anyone notice that Marcus Thames the other night became the first Yankee to hit a home-run in his first major-league at-bat since someone named . . . John Miller? Posted 12:54 PM | [Link] MY COLUMN... [Jonah Goldberg] On the dirty bomber and profiling. Posted 12:41 PM | [Link] BREAKING THE SILENCE ON SILENT SPRING [Jonah Goldberg] Outstanding column by my friend Ron Bailey on the shaky silence behind Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Posted 12:38 PM | [Link] THE GOOD NEWS... [Jonah Goldberg] Is that I've confirmed that you cannot copyright Elvis sightings (see #58). Posted 12:29 PM | [Link] SORRY FOR THE RADIO SILENCE [Jonah Goldberg] We had to take Cosmo to the vet. He appears to be fine. But bloodwork comes in tomorrow. Instead of a lolipop, he got some of our pastrami sandwiches afterwards. He is a lover of cured meats. Then again, who isn't? Posted 12:08 PM | [Link] WHY THEY FIGHT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] "We have the right to kill 4 million Americans - 2 million of them children - and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, it is our right to fight them with chemical and biological weapons, so as to afflict them with the fatal maladies that have afflicted the Muslims because of the [Americans'] chemical and biological weapons."--al Qaeda spokesman, published by the Center for Islamic Research and Studies, translated and distributed by the MEMRI Posted 11:54 AM | [Link] CLONING COMPROMISE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Evidently Sen. Brownback is floating a two-year moratorium on all cloning as a compromise to a permanent ban. (A moratorium is more likely to pass.) Posted 10:53 AM | [Link] AMC FEATURE: [John J. Miller] NR's Washington intern, Matt Continetti, is starting to make his presence felt around the office--and I'm not just referring to the valet-parking service he provides for Kate O'Beirne. Today, Matt has an excellent piece on FBI director Robert Mueller's odd decision to appear at an upcoming American Muslim Council conference. Check it out here. As soon as Matt's done sweeping the sidewalk, we're going to let him write something else. Posted 10:32 AM | [Link] REMEMBER DOLLY KYLE BROWNING? [Jonathan Adler] Bill Clinton and his lawyers sure do, and might for awhile given this court decision. Posted 10:19 AM | [Link] GOD'S JUSTICE AND SCALIA'S [Jonathan Adler] Justice Scalia's provocative essay from First Things on capital punishment, Catholicism, and the courts is finally available online here. Posted 10:16 AM | [Link] FATHER OF THE YEAR [Kathryn Jean Lopez] "I don't see a difference between a chimpanzee," he says, "and my 4 1/2-year-old son." --Animal-rights activist/lawyer Steven Wise Posted 10:13 AM | [Link] THE VODKA WAR [Kathryn Jean Lopez] An area where Russia and the U.S. still have some issues. Posted 9:45 AM | [Link] EYES ON YEMENIS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The INS is (profiling?!) Yemenis coming in and out of the country. Posted 9:43 AM | [Link] LOOPY [Dave Kopel] An excellent, short web video by FlashBunny explains the "gun show loophole" hoax. Posted 7:38 AM | [Link] DOUBLE STANDARDS, AGAIN [Andrew Stuttaford] There's been electoral success in Europe this week for a party linked with the continent's totalitarian past. These days that might not be so surprising. What is surprising is how little response there has been. If there have been anguished editorials in the international press, I haven't read them, if EU officials have issued dire warnings, I haven't heard them. The elections in question were local elections in Italy in which a supposedly centrist coalition won control of eight out of ten major cities. This coalition included the so-called 'Fascist Refoundation' , a party that broke with the original Fascists when they transformed themselves into a moderate, fully democratic party. Oh, I'm sorry. I got that wrong. The party that did so well was not the 'Fascist Refoundation' . It was the 'Communist Refoundation'. I guess that's all right then. Or at least that's what the European elites seem to think. Posted 5:46 AM | [Link] VDH [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Here's the Post's write-up. Posted 4:30 AM | [Link]
AND THE WINNER IS... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Kudos to our very own Victor Davis Hanson, winner of the Newscorp Breindel award for excellence in journalism! Congratulations for a well-deserved win. (Our Jay Nordlinger won last year.) Posted 7:08 PM | [Link] FOODIES [Andrew Stuttaford] The UN is holding a summit in Rome on the subject of 'world hunger'. Delegates, however, risk putting on a pound or two. The London Times is reporting that the menu for the opening lunch (attended by 3,000 delegates) included the following: foie gras, lobster and goose stuffed with olives. Posted 5:32 PM | [Link] MORE BAD NEWS [Andrew Stuttaford] Corner readers will be sad to know that following France's exit from the World Cup (in the worst performance ever seen by a defending champion) 'Saudi' Arabia has also been knocked out of the championship following the 'Kingdom's' 3-0 defeat by Ireland. Posted 5:15 PM | [Link] NO SEXUAL INSECURITY HERE [Jonah Goldberg] This all comes from some deranged -- though sadly mainstream -- Egyptian columnist. It's mostly an attack on Condoleeza Rice, but it includes some other snippets of bile. He concludes, "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!" Why not just tell Muslim men "if we have democracy, your you-know-whats will shrink and women will laugh at your naked bodies." Or maybe I'm reading too much into this. Posted 4:04 PM | [Link] MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: SEXPOT JEWESS [Jonah Goldberg] I know, I know, it doesn't take much work to find absurd things in the Arab press, but this is the Turkey Dinner of hilarious hate. I'm sure you knew that Bill Clinton was "in love with the childish Jewess Madeleine Albright." But did you know that some have called Condoleeza Rice "an insolent woman, like the dangerous anaconda snake that attacks anyone in its path. She is suited only to work at a nightclub or to make her bed in the heart of the jungles and forests of Brazil, as a predatory woman!" Posted 4:01 PM | [Link] HOW DOES SHE DO IT? [Michael Ledeen] I don't know what one has to do to be denounced by these movements. God knows I've tried. I've got a book coming out next month, and I'd be thrilled to be attacked by The Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between People, but fear I will have to settle for its local affiliate, the New York Times. How does Fallaci get so lucky? Probably because she writes so much better than the rest of us. But we should admire her anyway. Hell, if she were a bit younger, and I were single...I might propose. Yes, she's that good. Posted 3:19 PM | [Link] FRANCE FRIED [Michael Ledeen] There is lots of good news from Paris. The French national team failed to score a single goal in the World Cup, and must now return home to hoots and jeers. The French left has been decimated, and will now consume its own. And the French "Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between People" has denounced Oriana Fallaci for Islamophobia and "racist delirium." Fallaci's terrific book, The Rage and the Pride, which broke Italian records for book sales, just came out in France and is promised to American readers in the fall. It's a wonderful book, not least because of her amazing understanding of America, but also because of her wonderful way with words, as in "the children of Allah spend their time with their bottoms in the air, praying five times a day." And her descriptions of Arab leaders, above all of Arafat, are real classics. Posted 3:19 PM | [Link] MY FIRST CATHOLIC POST! [Jonah Goldberg] I love this cartoon. Posted 3:18 PM | [Link] ANOTHER BISHOP GOES [Rod Dreher] Auxiliary Bishop James McCarthy of New York--a former personal secretary to late Cardinal O'Connor--has resigned after admitting to several affairs with women. Posted 3:07 PM | [Link] WHAT A TOWN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Folks who live on Sodom road in New York State are petitioning for a name change, I can't say I blame them. However, the road's name maybe be appropriate given the town it's in: Clinton, N.Y. (Apologies to Dewitt Clinton.) Posted 2:40 PM | [Link] WHAT BABY BOOM? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Nine months after Sept. 11, talk of a "9/11 boom" may be exaggerated. Posted 2:11 PM | [Link] CONSPIRACY THEORIES [James S. Robbins] Jonah, here's another dot. On February 15, 2002, the Manila Kabayan newspaper reported that according to captured Abu Sayyaf Group co-founder Edwin Angeles, terrorist mastermind (until he got caught) Ramzi Yusuf had a meeting with Terry Nichols in the Philippines in 1993 to discuss the Oklahoma City and World trade Center bombing plots. Tie that one up with Jose Padilla and John Doe #2. Let's toss in a grassy knoll while we're at it. Posted 2:06 PM | [Link] FAN MAIL [Ramesh Ponnuru] "Please let the author of the article I read in the nytimes today, a Mr. Poannau - sorry, I cannot remember the spelling- that I enjoyed his article very much, except his sexist language, which is inexcusable in any case, and exponentially inexcusable in a senior editor. He referred to all senators as he, instead of including women in his he, that is, stating he or she, when referring to a senator. I won't read an article of his again if he continues to ignore half the human race in his gender challenged prejudice. We are senators and we are she. Women. Sincerely, KYA." Clearly, this is just the person from whom writers should be taking English usage lessons. Posted 1:57 PM | [Link] SCHOOL DAZE: [Rod Dreher] Got this from Jim Findley, who taught me high school history, echoing K-Lo's comments about the terrible position anyone who deals professionally with minors are in today: "Your post yesterday in The Corner brings to mind a few changes here at your alma mater since you graduated, specifically how we have to deal with female (and male) students. Last week, during the first week of summer school, I had a young lady sitting in my cubicle discussing her progress (or lack of same) in Economics when I recalled a 'caution' against being alone with students of the opposite sex. My first response was, 'Good Lord, I'm almost old enough to be her grandfather.' But then I remembered that the same could be said of some of the priests your church is having to deal with. It's a sad commentary, and it deals with just about every aspect of daily life." Posted 1:39 PM | [Link] NO FREE SPEECH FOR SWEDEN?: [Rod Dreher] Focus on the Family reports on a so-far successful move in Sweden to outlaw criticism of homosexuality. Christians fear that gay activists will be able to have arrested anyone who defends Biblical teaching on the subject. Posted 1:24 PM | [Link] RE: FAST TIMES AT 215: [Rod Dreher] Crimony, I wish I had been there! I would have guzzled Kierke-tinis, taken a leap of faith to the karaoke machine, and led us all in obnoxious rounds of Monty Python's Philosopher's Drinking Song. I-i-i-i-manuel Kant was a real piss ant/Who was very rarely stable/Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar/Who could think you under the table.... On second thought, we're probably all better off that I was in Amsterdam. Posted 1:18 PM | [Link] FAST TIMES AT 215 [Richard Brookhiser] Kathryn, Jonah should have been up last week, when we had the philosophers' drinking contest. Staff were randomly assigned Aquinas, Locke or Nietzsche. You had to correctly recite one full paragraph of your philosopher, then drink a boilermaker. 15 seconds per quote-and-drink, and if you went on to the next round, you couldn't do a paragraph from the same work. The surprise winner was Dorothy McCartney playing Nietzsche, although Jay Nordlinger finished a strong second with Aquinas. Posted 1:10 PM | [Link] THE CLINTON LEGACY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Sorry, folks. It wasn't a right-wing conspiracy urban legend. The GAO reports that the Clintonites left the White House with $20,000 worth of damage. Posted 12:48 PM | [Link] THE TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIANS [James S. Robbins] Readers of the Corner may remember the controversy noted here May 27 over an alleged joke about Sturgeons told by Vladimir Putin that President Bush "did not get" ("MAYBE IT LOSES SOMETHING IN TRANSLATION"). But the Moscow Times reports that in fact Russians really do extract caviar from fish surgically, and then stitch them back up. Furthermore, Vladimir Putin had recently visited a caviar-harvesting facility and had seen the process. He wasn't joking, and Bush knew it. So in fact, of the many luminaries present, only the two presidents were up to speed on state-of-the-art caviar harvesting. People should have a little more faith in their leaders to know the important stuff. Posted 12:46 PM | [Link] MANNA FOR CONSPIRACY THEORISTS [Jonah Goldberg] The dirty-bomber and the missing McVeigh accomplice look like they were separated at birth -- at least according to this picture over at Junkyardblog. I don't know if the picture's legit, but no matter what it won't be long until Cynthia McKinney "connects the dots." Posted 12:35 PM | [Link] THE FRENCH DON'T EVEN HAVE A WORD FOR "VICTORY"... [Jonah Goldberg] at least according to Homer Simpson. The news that the surrender-monkeys didn't even score a single goal in the World Cup has to be good news to lovers of French-haters everywhere. In a sense it's even better than the old joke about the 10,000 rifles for sale on eBay -- a real bargain: never fired, only dropped once. Posted 12:30 PM | [Link] THE ROUSH GIRLS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Rod, don't forget that our own Kate O'Beirne also had a heartbreaking piece on the Roush ordeal. You can read it here. Posted 12:23 PM | [Link] SAUDIS: CHILD THIEVES: [Rod Dreher] The Wall Street Journal's Bill McGurn tells the powerful story of Pat Roush, an American mom who has spent nearly two decades trying to get her kidnapped daughters out of Saudi Arabia -- with no help from the U.S. State Department. I quoted Pat in my recent NR piece about the shameful pro-Saudi lobbying done by former U.S. Ambassadors to Saudi Arabia. She'll be telling a House panel her story this week. It is a disgrace that the U.S. government is more concerned about appeasing the child thieves of Saudi Arabia than in helping American citizens kidnapped by their Saudi father return home. Posted 12:19 PM | [Link] PRISONERS, ISLAM AND LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY: [Rod Dreher] As we know, the accused would-be dirty bomber Jose Padilla converted to Islam while in prison, and changed his name to something suitably Mohammedan. This fact got me to thinking about an instructive passage from The Close, a dreadful book written by Chloe Breyer, an Episcopal priestess-in-training who chronicled her first year in her leftist seminary in Manhattan. Breyer writes of leading a Bible study course for prisoners under medical treatment at Bellevue Hospital. She was having trouble reaching them with her postmodern "it means whatever you want it to mean" take on Christianity. Finally, a Muslim says the Koran doesn't pussyfoot around, and he implies that Muslims, unlike Christians, know what they believe. Writes an befuddled Breyer: “They want answers, not questions. ...The more contradictions I point out in the Bible, the more the inmates decide there is no point in wasting their time with a religion that lacks answers.” Smart guys, those crooks. If you want to read more of this exchange, check out the review I wrote a year or so ago in Touchstone. Posted 12:05 PM | [Link] RACIAL PROFILING IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH [Jonah Goldberg] if you're a dog. Posted 11:15 AM | [Link] ALSO ON THE TIMES OP-ED PAGE [Ramesh Ponnuru] I write that the war should be a partisan issue: "The conduct of the war--especially the question of whether to use force against the Iraqi regime--is one of the biggest issues before the country. Why shouldn't it be an issue in the November elections?" (Actually, I think the war is THE biggest issue, but the Times felt that I shouldn't say so without an argument to back it up.) Posted 10:38 AM | [Link] KRUGMAN WATCH [Ramesh Ponnuru] He's got the skeleton of a decent column today, about the Bush administration's sellouts of principle. But his habit of always believing the worst about Bush and the best about Clinton ruins the piece. Thus, Clinton is presented as a simon-pure free trader whose "scrupulousness continued to the end." No mention that the Seattle trade talks collapsed because Clinton wouldn't put our anti-dumping protectionism (among other things) on the table. No mention of the tariff requests to which Clinton acceded. At the end of the column, Krugman suggests that Bush's opportunism might lead to another Smoot-Hawley. That's just neo-liberal hysteria. Posted 10:20 AM | [Link] FYI [Jonah Goldberg] In case you missed it, my better half (though in a literal sense she's more like my better third or quarter considering the disparity in mass) has a nice piece in National Review Online. Posted 10:05 AM | [Link] PROJECT ELIMINATION [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Poll finds majority of Palestinians admitting that the destruction of Israel is their goal. Posted 10:03 AM | [Link] LAW AND ORDER DEMOCRATS [Jonah Goldberg] Could this ever happen at a Republican meeting? Posted 9:46 AM | [Link] MONKEY BUSINESS [Andrew Stuttaford] Over the last year or so a number of legal theorists have suggested giving some legal rights to our primate cousins. Well, with rights come responsibilities. Should this perp be prosecuted? Posted 9:42 AM | [Link] ADDENDUM TO YESTERDAY'S COLUMN [Jonah Goldberg] In yesterday's G-File I noted that the arrest of the "dirty bomber" -- which is so much easier to spell and say than his adopted Muslim name and therfore will be used by pundits everywhere, I predict -- will be used to argue that racial profiling doesn't work. I'm still sure that's true. But a point I should have made -- and will make in the syndicated column I'm writing today -- is that his arrest demonstrates profiling is working. Al-Quaeda has already realized that it's risky to send Arab, North African or South Asian infiltrators into the US. The fact that they sent an ethnically Hispanic agent here is a sign that our profiling (which isn't primarily racial anyway) is working. They thought he had the best chance to get through our defenses. This is good news because the universe of willing Latino or Anglo converts to Islam must be fairly limited. Posted 9:38 AM | [Link] OH NO! BACKSTREET BOYS FANS ARE AFTER ME! [Jonah Goldberg] Last Friday, I participated in a silly debate, with Robert Conrad, on Crossfire about celebrity "expert" witnesses to Congress. The newspeg was Senator George Voinovich's comments that he had nothing to learn from some guy named Kevin Richardson from the Back Street Boys. Richardson claims to be an expert on mountain-top coal mining in West Virginia and Voinovich showed admirable skepticism about said expertise. Anyway, to make a long story short, I echoed Mr. Voinovich's skepticism and I am now hearing from very earnest eco-disciples of Mr. Richardson. Many of them are cross with me for calling the 30 year-old Mr. Richardson a "kid," when I'm only a bit older. "He's a grown man!" shrieked a few rabid defenders. Point taken. Although, I've noted out in my defense, maybe fewer people would make this mistake if he didn't prance around for a band called the Back Street Boys. This made them even angrier. Posted 9:08 AM | [Link] JONAH... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] You really shouldn't give away glimpses inside 215 Lexington away like that for free. Posted 8:29 AM | [Link] NEW YORK, NR [Jonah Goldberg] I popped in to National Review's international headquarters, based in NYC, yesterday (which is why I failed to post to the Corner). I really should show up more than once every year or so. The place is so, so whacky. Why, when I showed up Michael Potemra and Ramesh Ponnuru were huddled together conspiring to do something. Before I could say "What's up?" I heard Potemra insist in a loud whisper: "Let's water-balloon Brookhiser! He has to pay for saying Charles Fourier directly influenced the Fabian Socialists! The mad fool!" But before they could act out their dastardly plan, Brookhiser burst into the hallway with a can of silly-string in each fist and drenched the conspirators, cackling "You dare doubt me! Hah ha ha!" Meanwhile, Lowry missed all of the shenanigans because he was busy showing the interns how to shotgun a beer. Good times, good times. Posted 8:21 AM | [Link] ANDY FERGUSON WEIGHS IN ON TELEMARKETERS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted 8:15 AM | [Link] ANOTHER BISHOP STEPS DOWN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The Catholic bishop of Lexington, Kentucky has resigned, amid charges of abuse (which he has denied). Posted 7:47 AM | [Link] WAR AVERTED? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] India is calling back warships, naming an envoy to Pakistan. Much different tune than a week ago. Posted 7:33 AM | [Link]
HALFTIME'S THE SAME [Kathryn Jean Lopez] In Japan, water use was working on a halftime schedule during the Russian-Japan World Cup game Saturday. Once the midway point arrived, water use was at a high, Reuters reports. Wonder if anyone is claiming their men turn on the women during halftime, too? Posted 6:47 PM | [Link] RILYA'S NOT ALONE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Remember Rilya Wilson, the 5-year-old girl Florida "child-protection" services lost, not even realizing it for a year. Well, turns out she is not the only one--there are at least 120 children Florida's Department of Children and Families can't account for. Posted 6:19 PM | [Link] ST. JACKIE O.: [Rod Dreher] Things must be getting desperate at Washington's white-elephant Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, which doesn't receive many visitors. Tomorrow they'll open a special exhibit of Catholic tchotchkes owned by Jacqueline Kennedy, and are planning a special concert for her birthday. If this celebrity Catholic thing brings in the warm bodies, why stop at Mrs. Onassis? Andy Warhol was a Catholic, of a sort. Can't you see it: "The Icon of Celebrity: Religious Themes in the Paintings of Andy Warhol." Or go thoroughly pop, and have Ozzy Osbourne show up to open an exhibit of artwork depicting Catholic visions of Hell. Or: "Britney Spears: Like a Virgin?", an exhibition examining the relationship between popular culture and purity. Etc., etc., ad nauseam.... Posted 6:14 PM | [Link] UNFORTUNATE ENTERTAINMENT [Andrew Stuttaford] Life for the British troops in Bagram is not easy, but the entertainment on offer may have made it worse. Deprived of the opportunity to enjoy watching or listening to England's World Cup victory over Argentina, the Financial Times reports that the soldiers had to make do with what was on offer from the BBC World Service: a serving of Albanian jazz. Albanian jazz? Who knew? Posted 6:04 PM | [Link] PRISON MINISTRY [Andrew Stuttaford] Jailhouse ministries, Christian, Muslim and otherwise, are, undoubtedly, responsible for a great deal of good. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that, judging by CNN reports, the American suspected of being a would-be dirty bomber seems first to have encountered Islam in the slammer. As I recall, over in the UK the same was also true of the alleged shoe-bomber. Do we have any idea of who is preaching what to whom behind those prison gates? Posted 5:26 PM | [Link] POSTAL PRIVATIZATION... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...in Saudia Arabia? (We're really behind the times.) Posted 5:12 PM | [Link] ANNOYING YOUR FRIENDS [Andrew Stuttaford] Courtesy of the Iranian (!) news agency, Instapundit notes the results of an interesting survey amongst the relatively well-educated young in a number of Muslim countries. The conclusion? That the West is not so unpopular after all, at least among those countries' future elites. This, of course, is precisely the crowd most likely to be disenchanted by America's current support for the status quo in totalitarian theocracies such as 'Saudi' Arabia, and it is made up of exactly the sort of people who, in their disillusion with the US, tend, ironically, to turn to the most vicious theocrats of them all: bin Laden and his followers. Something for Bush to ponder ahead of the next invitation to a Saudi 'prince' to Crawford? Posted 5:09 PM | [Link] RE: BLAMING THE BISHOPS: [Rod Dreher] Point taken, Kathryn. I only brought the bishops into it because their gross mishandling of allegations in the past has now put so many people on edge that common sense has gone out the window. Perhaps, as you seem to suggest, things would be not much different at all even if the bishops had done the right thing all along. But it would be nice to be in the position of finding out. What times we live in. A good priest friend of mine was visiting his family not long ago, and his young nephew, whose dad no longer lives with them, was desperate for some attention from an adult male. His priest uncle, heartbreakingly enough, had to keep the poor child at arm's length, lest someone get the wrong idea. Can't be too careful these days. It's just a guess, but it seems to me if the bishops had been getting rid of the real abusers all along, the cloud of suspicion wouldn't rest on every priest. Posted 5:02 PM | [Link] I'LL REPOST, YOU DECIDE [Ramesh Ponnuru] Blogger Radley Balko wrote a horrifying story about abuses at Straight, Inc., a drug-rehab center, and about its politically connected founders. The story ran on Fox News's website for two weeks, before it was pulled for reasons that remain unclear to the author. Balko has more about the controversy on his site. Posted 3:56 PM | [Link] BLAMING THE BISHOPS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Rod, I totally agree that in the current climate, your pastor's career could have been ended and name been made mud by a ridiculous accusation, had no one backed him up (your wife not been standing there, etc.). But, sadly this is the state of life in a lot of spheres. Teachers, doctors, have to be extra careful all the time for fear that a wrong look or pat on the back out of context will be misinterpreted and turn into a career ender (and a lawsuit, of course). Heck, in most offices adults don't even want to be seen closing the door with another adult in the room anymore. I'm not sure you can blame the bishops for the crazy woman or a saner person who might have had similar thoughts. Surely some of the bishops' mangling of this all hasn't helped things any, but you'd likely be hardpressed to find many teachers who would have tickeled your son either, without a worry in the back of his head (or a witness cautioning him afterward). Posted 3:37 PM | [Link] FAMILY MATTERS: [Rod Dreher] Tapped complains about Midge Decter reviewing Joshua Muravchik's new book favorably in Commentary, alleging that -- scroll down to see the item -- Decter is Muravchik's aunt. Trouble is, it's not true. The American Prospect's blog used the item to make a nasty, off-the-point dig at Decter's son, NRO movie writer John Podhoretz. You have to wonder if this is TAP co-editor Robert Kuttner's way of paying Pod back for walloping him back in March in his (Pod's) New York Post column, for having written that "George W. Bush is, in his own way, as frightening as al-Qaeda." Posted 2:45 PM | [Link] ANATOMY OF A POTENTIAL SMEAR: [Rod Dreher] Yesterday after mass, I was standing outside our parish talking to friends, when my wife, who had lingered with our little boy in the church to talk to our pastor, ran to get me. She said there was a crazy woman in there laying into the monsignor for tickling our kid. I ran inside to take up for the priest, a kind, holy elderly priest who adores our son, who adores him right back. According to my wife, who was standing right there, and other witnesses, the priest had done nothing wrong, but this strange woman, a visitor to mass, excoriated him for child abuse. I jumped in to defend monsignor, who was handling himself well, but it took some doing to get the lunatic out the door and on her way. Now, what monsignor did was entirely innocent, and indeed our boy's mother was standing right there the whole time. But I can easily see this disturbed woman taking it upon herself to call the bishop and report the poor old monsignor for child abuse. Luckily, there were four or five other witnesses present who could testify to how out of line this woman was, but given the current environment, a bishop might feel that he had to suspend the priest anyway, pending an "investigation." The pastor's name would be dragged through the mud in the press ("Monsignor suspended pending child abuse investigation"), and there would be some who would never believe him to be innocent. All because a kindhearted priest was innocently affectionate to a little boy who loves him. This is the world into which the American bishops have delivered us all. Posted 2:10 PM | [Link] TECHCENTRAL TAKES EUROPE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted 12:04 PM | [Link] LEAGUE OF DISSIDENTS [James S. Robbins] Reuters: "The United States blames Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network for the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks on the United States that killed 3,000 people." Compare to: "The United States blames Austrian-born dissident Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Germany for the September 1 attack on Poland that caused World War Two and killed 60 million people." Posted 11:49 AM | [Link] BIN LADEN, DISSIDENT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] So says Reuters. Posted 11:48 AM | [Link] PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE [James S. Robbins] What this incident really shows is that defensive measures on the ground are helpful but the most important means of defending ourselves is pre-emption through good intelligence. Somehow we knew this guy was coming, and he was nabbed. Just shows how good our guys are at what they do. Posted 11:41 AM | [Link] OUR DIRTY-BOMB CATCH [James S. Robbins] The Chechens claimed to have used one in Moscow, but it was discovered and didn't do much. So-called "radiological" (as opposed to nuclear) weapons use fissile material but do not create fission, they use conventional explosives to scatter radioactive debris--fallout without the nuclear blast. The damage would mainly be health problems of dealing with radioactivity, but the size and strength of the fallout plume would depend on how much radioactive material was involved. The initial problem would be knowing it took place--there would be an explosion, but it would not be immediately evident that it was a radiological incident unless there were radiation detectors nearby. Radiation casualties would begin to hit the hospitals within a day, but again, unless people knew radioactivity was the culprit they might mistake the symptoms. The greatest impact would be to generate fear and chaos; doubtful the enemy would have enough material to cause thousands of deaths. Posted 11:40 AM | [Link] CLANCY ANSWER [John J. Miller] Perhaps it shouldn't surprise me that Cornerites are big Tom Clancy fans--but I was astonished by the number of very helpful responses to my query this morning. For those keeping score at home, the ASAT episode I mentioned occurs in Red Storm Rising, and the pilot is a woman named Amelia Nakamura. Why, dear readers, am I interested in this? You'll have to read a forthcoming issue of the magazine to find out. A hearty thanks to all who emailed! Posted 11:14 AM | [Link] U.S. @ WORK [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Terrorist caught. Posted 10:48 AM | [Link] INTERNATIONAL MEN OF MYSTERY [Andrew Stuttaford] Interesting crowd in my hotel this morning. Tough looking fellows in military uniform, officials in flowing Arab dress, burly bodyguards: all from Qatar, apparently. Fair enough, but why are they here? I should mention that this hotel is in downtown Helsinki. Could this be the beginning of the Finno-Qatari alliance that the world has feared for so long? And what is Rummy going to do about it? Posted 10:36 AM | [Link] AIRPORT SECURITY: [Rod Dreher] My family and I just returned from Europe via Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, which deserves great credit for making nervous passengers (us) feel better about security. We had our carry-on bags X-rayed once, and when the grommets on my boots set off the walk-through scanner, the security guard gave me a thorough patting-down that was much more serious than anything similar I've experienced in American airports. Believe it or not, our carry-ons were X-rayed again at the boarding gate (as were everyone's), and each passenger was personally, and politely, questioned in some detail about what we did in the Netherlands. The Dutch pulled this off cleanly and efficiently, and we were grateful for their professionalism and thoroughness. On the other hand, this only makes one more aware of the scandalous sloppiness and laxity at American airports -- particularly at JFK (which, by the way, is a dirty, dowdy, and altogether crummy place; how embarrassing that JFK is the first look foreign visitors have of our country). Posted 10:35 AM | [Link] NEWSROOM SENSITIVITY [Andrew Stuttaford] There's a lengthy article in the June 10th New Yorker on recently-appointed New York Times executive editor, Howell Raines. It's media-junkie stuff mostly, but one passage may be of wider interest. Mr. Raines reportedly likes to invite colleagues into his offices for a drink at the end of the day. Apparently this practice, "along with Raines's frequent sports and military references, [has] begun to make some women in the newsroom uncomfortable." These delicate souls were bothered by "sports and military references"? That's strange. Last time I checked, the Gray Lady was dressed in combat jacket and running shoes: The New York Times endorses a more active role for the gentler sex both in the military and (through its enthusiastic endorsement of the wide application of Title IX) sports. It seems like some of its female journalists need to read their own editorials. Posted 10:26 AM | [Link] ANOTHER REASON TO HATE SOCCER [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Russia loses, someone dies. Posted 8:29 AM | [Link] EPA'S MUTINY [Jonathan Adler] Bob Novak confirms the suspicion that the EPA did not give the White House advance warning of its controversial climate report. This is hardly the first example of mutinous behavior by Christie Whitman's shop. The only question is whether Christie, or someone else, will be forced to walk the plank. Alas, Nick Schulz doubts it. Posted 8:28 AM | [Link] FEAR THE FOOD POLICE [Jonathan Adler] The campaign against tobacco was just a warm-up. Now they are after potato chips and soda. Can tax proposals be far behind? Posted 8:27 AM | [Link] WOULD TAPPED PLEASE MAKE UP ITS MIND [Jonathan Adler] Tapped has already admitted that David Brock is an unreliable source for its allegations against Judge Silberman. In Tapped's words, Brock "can be fairly challenged on his credibility." No matter. Unable to find other corroboration, Tapped is back to using Brock for its borking. Posted 8:27 AM | [Link] VOICE OF REASON ON THE CATHOLIC CRISIS [Mike Potemra] Cardinal Avery Dulles has a very intelligent op-ed on the priest-pedophile issue in this morning's NY Times. He raises some important questions about the "zero-tolerance" proposals. Posted 8:26 AM | [Link] NON-NONSENSE LOU [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Lou Dobbs isn’t backing down: It’s "the war against Islamists" on Moneyline. Posted 7:24 AM | [Link] GLBT HOME [Kathryn Jean Lopez] It's for seniors. Posted 7:14 AM | [Link] HOW RUDE IS YOUR OFFICE? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted 7:12 AM | [Link] EGYPTIAN CONTRIBUTION TO WAR ON TERROR [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Egypt may be set to release this man. Posted 5:32 AM | [Link] ARAFAT'S THREAT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] If Israel doesn't pull back, there will be "disastrous explosion that will impact stability of the whole world," Arafat warns. This, our "peace process" partner. Posted 5:31 AM | [Link] CLANCY QUERY: [John J. Miller] I'm told that somewhere in the Tom Clancy corpus, there's a character who is an ASAT ace--i.e., a pilot who has shot down a satellite (ASAT = anti-satellite). Does anybody know what I'm talking about? If so, please email me here with source information, page numbers, vague recollections, or whatever. Posted 4:49 AM | [Link] NK BABY KILLING: [John J. Miller] A horrific story about infanticide and forced abortion in the people's paradise of North Korea. Posted 4:30 AM | [Link]
MEVROUW DUISENBERG: [Rod Dreher] I just got back from Holland, Andrew, and was not the least bit surprised when Wim Duisenberg's wife went nuts with the Palestinian flag. It was shocking to me to see how many people, in the land of Anne Frank and Corrie ten Boom, are completely without sympathy or regard for the Israelis. I won't say that the people I spoke with personally are anti-Semitic, because I don't know that to be the case, and would be surprised if that were so. Still, one cannot but wonder why so many otherwise decent people behave as if the Israelis deserve suicide bombing and the rest, and that nothing the Palestinians do is worthy of condemnation, because the Israelis drove them to it. As one pro-Israel Dutch Christian said to me, "You mustn't forget that of all the Nazi SS units from occupied territories, Holland's had the most volunteers." Posted 10:52 AM | [Link] |
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