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A BROAD CHURCH [Andrew Stuttaford] Can you believe this? Posted 4:24 PM | [Link] THE REAL BULLY [Andrew Stuttaford] More on the EU attempt to browbeat the smaller countries of Eastern Europe over the International 'court' from the London Guardian today. The report is predictably - and heavily - slanted ("While Washington bullies, Brussels warns...") but is worth reading nonetheless. The leaders of those states that have now emerged from behind the Iron Curtain need to ask themselves one question. Who was it that did more to help them achieve their freedom? Was it the countries at the core of the EU or was it the US? While they make their minds up, they might wish to reflect on the fact that the EU Commission is led by Romano Prodi, a man once content to govern his native Italy with the support of that country's hard-line 'refounded Communists'. In other words, they are being threatened by a 'statesman' prepared to work hand-in-glove with the supporters of the very ideology that brought so much misery to the lands of Eastern Europe. They should tell him to take a hike. Posted 4:09 PM | [Link] PHEW [Andrew Stuttaford] Another asteroid is coming 'close' this weekend. Should we be worried by the fact that it was only spotted on July 14? That's not much warning, even for Bruce Willis. Posted 3:06 PM | [Link] DEAD ALREADY? [Andrew Stuttaford] Shoppers at The Gun Store on Las Vegas' Tropicana Avenue can buy targets on which they can practise their aim. Featured evildoers include Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and a man with a suspicious resemblance to the guy from Survivor. Interestingly, Saddam Hussein had sold out, but Bin Laden had not. Could this mean that savvy Vegas shooters are betting that Bin Laden is no longer with us? After all, it's not so much fun shooting at the target of a dead man, although in the case of Bin Laden... Posted 2:58 PM | [Link] SLIPPERY SLOPE [Andrew Stuttaford] Greenpeace has been showing pictures on its website comparing the current state of some glaciers in Svalbard (an island some five hundred miles to the north of Norway) with how they used to be some eighty years ago. The picture (ice then, rocks now) seems to give further weight to the global warming hypothesis. A dramatic story? Well, no. It turns out that the Greens didn't bother to check the facts. The London Daily Telegraph, however, did. One of its correspondents took the trouble to consult with the marvelously named Professor Ole Humlun, a leading glaciologist in that part of the world. The result? It turns out that the glacier melted back in the 1920s. As yet, there has been no change to the Greenpeace website. This embarrassment comes a few weeks after the New York Times was shown to have misstated the degree of warming in Alaska. If the case for man-made global warming is so clear-cut as we are always told, why the need for all the exaggeration? Posted 2:36 PM | [Link] HILL'S EYES ON THE PRIZE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] More talk about Ms. Rodham's return to the White House. Posted 9:49 AM | [Link] A CHECKLIST: BRAIN SCAN OF LOWER PRIORITY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I do think it might be advantageous to get straight some simpler terrorist-detection devices first: not handing out visas to just anyone, keeping track of people who are here on visas (especially--forgive me for being such a profiler, from the Mideast), airport-security agents who use commonsense, yada, yada, yada. Posted 9:33 AM | [Link] SECURITY SCAN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I think I woke up this morning in the Twilight Zone: NASA brain-monitoring devices at the airports? Talk about going over Norman Mineta’s head. Posted 9:32 AM | [Link]
SLAP HER . . . SHE'S FRENCH [Jonathan Adler] Here is a movie Jonah should like. Posted 6:14 PM | [Link] SOMETIMES... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...Some Corner writers really need to stand in a corner without Corner access for a few days. Watching the other kids have fun might prove to be disciplining. Posted 4:23 PM | [Link] REST YOUR MIND, JAY: [Rod Dreher] Bro. Nordlinger wonders aloud today if the brilliant Apple ad campaign featuring shiny happy people who switched over from the PC system could possibly be true. It is! (he said, hiding under his desk to escape K-Lo throwing something at him for raising the issue again). Posted 4:20 PM | [Link] WFB ON FRANKLIN GRAHAM: [Rod Dreher] "The charges by the Reverend Franklin Graham are not only justified, they are unanswerable," writes WFB in his column today. Graham, as you may have heard, is cheesing off Muslim activists by saying that imams and the Islamic faithful have been insufficiently contrite, or at least publicly condemning, of the 9/11 mass-murders, which were carried out in the name of Islam. If Muslim leaders, in this country at least, would spend as much time speaking out without qualification against violent extremism in their own ranks as they do whining over the fact that others notice their silence, Franklin Graham wouldn't have a leg to stand on. But they don't, so he does, and he is to be congratulated on his willingness to speak truth. Posted 4:12 PM | [Link] HURRAH! BUSH MAY GET PRO-INVESTOR AGENDA: [Rich Lowry] "Bush Says He May Offer New Tax Breaks to Spur Economy (Update2) By Ryan J. Donmoyer Crawford, Texas, Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said he's considering new tax breaks for small investors to help spur the flagging U.S. economy. "Interesting ideas'' such as increasing the amount of capital losses that can be deducted from taxes, raising limits on contributions to 401(k) retirement plans, cutting capital gains taxes and eliminating "double taxation'' of dividends came from an economic forum at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, on Tuesday, Bush said. "I'm going to analyze and think about some of the suggestions'' and put together a "well-thought-out plan,'' the president told reporters after meeting with local volunteers who assist his entourage when he visits his ranch in Crawford." Posted 3:56 PM | [Link] JONAH GOLDBERG: COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENTS: [Rod Dreher] A reader, noting my observation that President Bush's chronic ignoring of Jesse Jackson is causing the Revvum to crack up, says, "this sounds like a perfect example of Jonah's theory of inactivism in action." Just so! Posted 2:51 PM | [Link] NEWS ALERT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] INS chief James Ziglar is "retiring." Posted 2:49 PM | [Link] FDNY BLASTS BUSH: [Rod Dreher] Some New York firefighters are considering boycotting President Bush's 9/11 appearance. Posted 2:49 PM | [Link] RE: MEN AND MARRIAGE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A reader emails in response to the post about the British marriage study: "I think the researchers could have saved a lot of time and expense if they had just read St. Paul (1Cor. 7:9) '..it is better to marry than to burn.....' Obviously, a man ahead of his time - and with no degree in Psychology either!" Posted 12:33 PM | [Link] OTHERWORDLY: [Rich Lowry] Isn’t it incredible that critics of going after Iraq say on the one hand that we shouldn’t invade Iraq because Saddam might use WMD against Israel, and then on the other hand say Saddam poses no threat. If he’s willing to launch a bio or chem attack against one of our allies, isn’t that a threat? Also, critics claim we need further provocation. Well, as Condi Rice pointed out the other day, he is trying to shoot down our pilots every single day. Trying to kill Americans isn’t a provocation any more? I would think that would upset even Pat Buchanan. Posted 12:13 PM | [Link] SPEAKING OF McCAIN…: [Rich Lowry] …why do I have the feeling that being left out of the Hagel/Scowcroft et al media lovefest must be driving part of him crazy? I’m probably not giving him enough credit, but I can’t help thinking that McCain must be awfully tempted to start saying that going into Iraqi is awfully “complicated,” “risky”, etc., etc. Posted 12:12 PM | [Link] CHUCK HAGEL, SOPHISTICATED FOREIGN-POLICY MIND: [Rich Lowry] Chuck Hagel is now deemed a foreign-policy sophisticate for mindlessly repeating over and over that there are “risks” to invading Iraq. Golly, Chuck, really? Hagel MUST have a Ph.D. in international relations or something to have developed such a nuanced view of American foreign policy. Who knows how many thousands of hours of study and thought it took Hagel to come to the conclusion that invading Iraq is “complicated” and “risky”? I bet Nebraska has never been blessed with such Metternich-ian savvy, possibly ever. So, it’s really too bad that Hagel debased his foreign-policy genius in the New York Times today by resorting to the most shamelessly stupid of peacenik arguments: “Maybe Mr. Perle would like to be in the first wave of those who go into Baghdad.” Ohhh, Chuck—your rhetorical powers are over-awing us here in The Corner. How long did it take you to think that one up? Now, is it Hagel’s position that no one should have a view on American foreign policy who isn’t a member of America’s military? That we should ditch constitutional democracy for a system more like Sparta? Hagel obviously thinks it’s hypocrisy for anyone to advocate a position that they aren’t willing to implement themselves. So, maybe Hagel should stop saying growing corn is a good thing and go grow it himself. Or stop saying arresting criminals is a good thing and go arrest some himself. Seriously, if Hagel thinks arresting crack dealers is such a good thing—presumably—why isn’t he willing to go help make the busts? At least John McCain, another Republican maverick, is interesting and has a kind of charm. Hagel is just a bore. Posted 12:09 PM | [Link] SO PREDICTABLE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] This morning I was in Duane Reade buying a Diet Coke. I was only half paying attention to the radio playing. Not sure the station. Not sure it matters. The story was this one about NYC recognizing domestic partnerships/same-sex unions from jurisdictions where they are legal. It was clearly a progress report—a good, benefits and the like extended, etc. These goods were spelled out. The story closes: “Predictably, conservative groups are upset.” That’s it. We’re just predictable knee jerks. Who needs to know more? Posted 12:07 PM | [Link] MORE ON SCOWCROFT: [Rich Lowry] An e-mail: "I was just reading Jack Matlock's account of the collapse of the Soviet Empire. In August 1992 it was Scowcroft who advised President Bush not to try to help Yeltsin, but make the first steps towards conciliation with the communists behind the coup attempt. How, in diplomacy-speak, does one say `weenie?'" Posted 12:07 PM | [Link] THINGS OF THE SPIRIT [John Derbyshire] In his excellent column on today's NRO, Michael Novak uses the phrase "things of the spirit." I doubt if you could ever track down the first person to utter such an obvious combination of simple English words, but one of the most famous 20th-century users of it in a political context was Calvin Coolidge: "We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp." Film-maker John Karol has taken the phrase as the title for his fine documentary movie about Coolidge. Posted 11:55 AM | [Link] THE CASE AGAINST IRAQ [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Dr. Rice lays it out on British TV: This is an evil man who, left to his own devices, will wreak havoc again on his own population, his neighbours and, if he gets weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them, on all of us. Posted 11:52 AM | [Link] FOR CHURCHILL BUFFS [John Derbyshire] For a perspective on the 20th century from Churchill's surviving daughter (and a testimony to the importance of religion in bringing up children) see this. Posted 11:41 AM | [Link] THOMPSON UPDATE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Looks like the gig is official. Posted 11:40 AM | [Link] LIFE AFTER THE SENATE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The Hollywood Reporter says Fred Thompson may be headed to Law and Order. Should be a refreshing change from his days investigating the Clinton White House. Posted 11:22 AM | [Link] PETA TRIES TO GET FISHING BANNED [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted 10:50 AM | [Link] GEEKS IN LAS VEGAS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Andrew, some pointers for money making (or incarceration). Posted 8:17 AM | [Link] WHICH REMINDS ME… [Kathryn Jean Lopez] …Anyone hear how “security” is looking at Norman Mineta Airport in San Jose? Posted 8:14 AM | [Link] POOR CYNTHIA MCKINNEY[Kathryn Jean Lopez] They’re renaming Cynthia McKinney Parkway is being renamed Memorial Parkway in honor of those murdered on 9/11. (She’s getting another segment of a highway named after her to make up for it.) Why on earth was there a highway named after Cynthia McKinney? Besides the fact that she’s a nutcase, she’s a living, breathing, annoying member of Congress. Wait until she retires, at least. (The question, of course, would still remain: Why would you ever?) Posted 8:13 AM | [Link] THERE IS SOMETHING WORSE THAN SMOKING [Kathryn Jean Lopez] For men, at least: being single, according to a British study. Posted 7:55 AM | [Link] IT'S NOT YOUR ADMINISTRATION ANYMORE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Fred Barnes writes about the Clintonites who won't go away, but there are a few Bush 41's whose input we could do without, too (BRENT SCOWCROFT, as Rich mentions a few below here). Posted 7:44 AM | [Link] SPEAKING OF ELVIS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] We’ll have a terrific piece by Kevin Cherry (who has written about Springsteen, the Beach Boys, and The Who recently for NRO) on the King (no, not of the Saudis—we occasionally talk about things besides the Saudis and Norman in The Corner) up later this morning. In the meantime, here’s my interview with WFB last summer about his book Elvis in the Morning, which Cherry says (totally unprovoked by anyone employed by NR/NRO, I might add) is the best book catching Elvis as he was out there. (And he knows of what he speaks.) Posted 7:37 AM | [Link] SAUCE [Andrew Stuttaford] Years of traveling in the Southwest mean that the sight of some sinister bottle of chili sauce is no surprise to me. Normally these bottles are decorated with wild-eyed burros, leaping cowboys, or people with smoke coming out of their ears. Well, here on the Strip, someone is selling "Burn in Hell Osama" - a "pure evil hot sauce". Good taste? I'm not sure - but it's impossible to disagree with the sentiment. Posted 4:38 AM | [Link] ELVIS A CONSERVATIVE? [Andrew Stuttaford] Of course he was, although this encounter with a notorious centrist needs some explaining. Posted 4:31 AM | [Link] THE JOURNAL ALSO SAYS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] That Elvis was a conservative. Posted 4:02 AM | [Link] SAUDI STATUS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The Journal has the goods on the Kingdom. Posted 4:01 AM | [Link] LIVING UP TO STEREOTYPES [Kathryn Jean Lopez] This one’s perfect for an August Friday: Bill McGurn’s adventures in Irish-whiskey tasting. Posted 3:49 AM | [Link] GOSH, I MISS YOU GUYS [Jonah Goldberg] As you can probably tell, I''ve basically taken this week as a vacation (don't tell Rich). Anyway, we leave Saturday for the Canadian rockies and points South and South East. I should be posting a lot more frequently then. Posted 2:35 AM | [Link]
BULLIED KILLER GETS 50 YEARS: [Rod Dreher] Andy Williams, a bullied teenager who went on a shooting spree at his California school and killed two students, was sentenced to 50 years in jail today. This is just; his victims were not his tormentors, and it was cold-blooded murder. That said, I mourn for this kid. The stories of how horribly he was bullied in school, chiefly back in his Maryland home, cut me deeply. Anyone who has been badly bullied as a teenager understands at some level the temptation to kill the bullies. I am grateful for whatever stability I had that kept me from doing that; God knows I thought about it, and I have never forgotten what 8th through 10th grades were like. Andy Williams took two innocent lives, thus throwing his own life away. So be it. But the teenage S.O.B.s who tortured that boy bear some moral responsibility for what happened. If you ask me. Posted 10:15 PM | [Link] SCOWCROFT, BRILLIANT STRATEGIST: [Rich Lowry] Here's the Wash Post from October on Brent Scowcroft. He opposed even toppling the Taliban! (He wanted to cozy up to Iran first): "Though in 1990 Scowcroft advocated a strong military response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, today he counsels patience. He believes that overthrowing Saddam Hussein is not feasible. His reluctance to engage in regime change extends to Afghanistan, where he says it would be simpler diplomatically to send U.S. forces in to snatch bin Laden. Scowcroft also favors building a strong coalition of Arab nations, even if that means applying more pressure on Israel to exert restraint in its conflict with the Palestinians. And he believes the United States should make every effort to reestablish a constructive relationship with Iran, arguing that the United States should not be simultaneously at odds with the two most populous Persian Gulf states." Posted 4:48 PM | [Link] PRODI'S PRESSURE [Andrew Stuttaford] Want more evidence that the EU bureaucracy is arrogant, domineering and hostile to the US? A reader kindly sent in this link. Read the article and judge for yourself. Posted 3:31 PM | [Link] LOVING DICK LUGAR: [Rod Dreher] ...isn't the sexiest political pastime, but The New Republic's Mike Crowley does, and he apologizes to the Indiana Republican for being a smarty-pants years ago. TNR's website now demands that you register, but it's worth it to read this piece. Posted 3:25 PM | [Link] DON'T MESS WITH THE IDF: [Rod Dreher] Three cheers for the Israeli Army. "Come out with your hands up!" the Israelis told a wheelchair-bound terrorist leader. "Rat-a-tat-tat!" was his belligerent reply, delivered with a gun. So the Israelis bulldozed the murderer's house on top of him. Posted 3:16 PM | [Link] HIGH TECH AND PRO-LIFE: [Rod Dreher] General Electric's new ultrasound imaging software shows what pro-choicers are in favor of permitting to be killed. Thanks to Amy Welborn for pointing this out. Posted 2:55 PM | [Link] LSU CHEERS: [Rod Dreher] "...come on, Tigers, poosh, poosh, poosh!" I don't know about the rooster cheer, but by far and away the most delightfully obnoxious one came whenever the Tigers played the Rice Owls. I can't even bring myself to put it on The Corner, because the Asian Anti-Defamation League, if such a thing exists, would be all over us for crude speculation about bowel movements of Chinese males. What this has to do with the Rice football team only LSU grads of a certain age can tell you (and don't e-mail me, people, because I'm not going to reveal it). Posted 2:53 PM | [Link] SOMEONE E-MAILS... [Rich Lowry] "Ask Rod about a few LSU cheers, such as `Hot Boudin, cold couscous' and, `I had a little rooster.' The latter may pre-date him, or, more likely, he was too drunk at the games to remember." So Rod, what about those LSU cheers? Posted 2:46 PM | [Link] TOP GUNS [Andrew Stuttaford] Kathryn, if accurate, that story looks to be yet another reason to dump Mineta. I was interested to note that, according to the report, a marksmanship test was dropped because too many applicants were failing. Can this be true? After all, didn't the administration tell us that one of the reasons to deny pilots (many of whom are service veterans) the right to bear arms was that they didn't know how to shoot straight. Of course, it's too easy to blame underperforming Norman for all this. The real responsibility lies with the man who hired him and evidently lacks the guts to fire him: George W. Bush. Posted 2:45 PM | [Link] JONAH SIGHTING [Kathryn Jean Lopez] If you didn't notice yet, the G-Man checked in in the wee hours over here. Posted 2:40 PM | [Link] WITH HOOKAHS IN VEGAS [Andrew Stuttaford] Michael Bloomberg's plan to ban smoking in NYC bars is based on junk science, flawed morality and lousy economics, but if you are looking for a compromise Las Vegas' Hookah Lounge (no snickering, please) may have the answer. The main feature of the lounge is a collection of hookahs (I said, no snickering). Ask the hookah guy, and he will fire one up for you. The experience is a smoke like no other. Inhaling the flavored tobacco (I chose pistachio) is like breathing in cool, slightly flavored, air and there is (Mayor Bloomberg please note) relatively little secondary smoke. The health consequences for the smoker are, doubtless, disastrous, but it's a relaxing - and, for a reactionary, an appropriately 19th Century way to spend the evening. Alas, no absinthe was available to complete the experience, so I made do with something called 'Genie's Navel' - and very good it was too. Posted 2:31 PM | [Link] MORE AIR-SECURITY TROUBLE[Kathryn Jean Lopez] Evidently the air-marshal program is a mess. Mineta mission creep. Posted 2:22 PM | [Link] WILL THE STATE DEPT BE CALLED BY THE DEFENSE? [Andrew Stuttaford] Breaking news from the Press Association: "Relatives of September 11 victims have launched a trillion dollar lawsuit accusing members of the Saudi royal family of helping to finance al-Qaida. Three Saudi princes are named in the £651 billion lawsuit filed by more than 600 family members together with firefighters and rescue workers. Their group Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism is also suing seven banks, eight charities and the government of Sudan in a Washington DC District Court for allegedly bankrolling al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban." Posted 2:10 PM | [Link] THE VATICAN'S P.R. PROBLEM [Rod Dreher] You may have seen yesterday's report quoting "informed sources" saying that the Vatican was going to send the U.S. bishops' zero-tolerance policy back to them for more work. This would not be surprising to people who follow this stuff closely. Canon lawyers have been saying since Dallas that Rome can't possibly agree with the American bishops on this, because the Dallas norms violate the due process guarantees given to accused priests in canon law. Even Fr. Tom Doyle, the canon lawyer who has been second to none in advocating for the rights of victims, says the Dallas policy is seriously flawed on these grounds. Predictably, though, one already hears outraged rumblings that Rome is going soft on pedophile priests. It's hard to blame people for seeing it this way, given that they're being asked to weigh something abstract -- canon law and due process -- against something as concrete and heinous as the sexual abuse of children by pederasts. Nevertheless, the Church cannot leave innocent priests vulnerable to false accusation. But who from the Church can make that case convincingly on TV, which, alas, is what really counts? Here's some advice to Rome: collect the resignation letters of a dozen bad bishops, and the public will be willing to accept that you guys are serious, and not just playing canonical games. Posted 11:58 AM | [Link] ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER [Jonathan Adler] RIchard Cohen writes: "If, as Coulter says, liberals control the media and much of the animal and plant kingdoms, then how is it that the president du jour and others of recent times -- Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush the Elder -- happen to be conservatives? I must be missing something here." How about this: There's only one conservative on the list. "BLAMING THE SHREW" [Jonathan Adler] After reading today's column, I decided that Richard Cohen doesn't like Ann Coulter very much. Posted 11:41 AM | [Link] ALBA, R.I.P. [Jonathan Adler] The glowing bunny has died. Maybe there's still hope for Ron Bailey's rainbow-colored day bats. Posted 11:38 AM | [Link] STUCK IN THE SWAMP [Jonathan Adler] The federal government took quite a while to make a mess of the Everglades. Now the Washington Post reports that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will take its sweet time cleaning things up. Posted 10:33 AM | [Link] LIBERALS AT JUSTICE? [Jonathan Adler] It may be hard to believe, but Novak reports that the bureaucracy at the Department of Justice is overrun by liberals hostile to the Bush Administration's agenda. Posted 10:31 AM | [Link] THE SYRIAN TWO-STEP [John Derbyshire] K-Lo: With Syria, as with Egypt and the Saudis, I suspect the true reason for our silence is that the govts. of these nations have mastered the delicate art of (A) sounding militantly anti-American enough to keep their "streets" decently quiet, while (B) providing sufficient service to Uncle Sam to keep us happy, or at any rate not dangerously unhappy. Said services presumably include intelligence --selective, no doubt, but highly useful--and the rounding up and "interrogation" of serious nuisances in the terrorist community. In other words, they have a foot on each side of the War on Terror. They have squared the circle, and are safe for a while (these are not long-termists) from both their own militants and from us. Posted 10:30 AM | [Link] ONE WAY TO MAKE KIDS STUDY… [Kathryn Jean Lopez] And win reelection, too! Jeb Bush makes a wacky classroom bet/bribe. Posted 9:44 AM | [Link] MORE ON SYRIA [Kathryn Jean Lopez] From The Middle East Quarterly (home of Martin Kramer and Daniel Pipes), "Guile, Gas and Germs: Syria's Ultimate Weapons" by Dany Shoham, newly online: "The United States is still preoccupied with Iraq and Iran, alongside which Syria appears benign. But at this moment in time, it is a fact: Syria has more destructive capabilities than either of them. The West is often accused of a double standard—of tolerating Israel's possession of WMD, while preventing those same weapons from coming into the hands of Arabs or Muslims. But if there is such a double standard, then how does one explain the West's silence, if not complicity, in the building of Syria's CBW capabilities? A simple explanation would be to say that Syria outwitted the world. But that explanation may be too simple. Many parties profited from the Syrian build-up, and foreign strategists thought that a strong Syrian deterrent might give Hafiz al-Asad the confidence to make peace. He never did, however, and now that he is gone, war seems as likely as peace." Posted 9:38 AM | [Link] THE SYRIA PROBLEM [Kathryn Jean Lopez] If Michael Freund is right, however, Syria’s way to close to Iraq for comfort. Posted 7:41 AM | [Link] ON THE OUTS WITH THE SAUDIS> [Kathryn Jean Lopez] So says the London Times. Our "friends" are not cooperating with the U.S. much any more (you know "you can't conduct your war from here" and such). The Times also says that Syria is filling in a little where there’s now a friendship gap with the Saudis. Posted 7:40 AM | [Link]
HEY-HEY HO-HO MINETA'S GOT TO GO [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Andrew, while you've been in Nevada, the blogosphere has taken on the "Ditch Mineta" cause that you've so consistently been a leader in. Instapundit--he, too, a dump Mineta guy--has been doing some serious rallying. If only the White House had a blog site... Posted 10:21 PM | [Link] WAS I ABDUCTED? [Andrew Stuttaford] Mike, perhaps the trip to Area 51 country did not go as smoothly as I thought. Unless I've returned to a parallel universe, is it right to describe Susan Sarandon as a believer in tolerance and free speech? So far as I've seen, she's mainly been an activist for tolerance and free speech for her side. I could be wrong, but when it comes to defending the rights of those with whom she disagrees (which, as you imply, is the real litmus test to see if someone believes in freedom), I have the impression that Ms Sarandon doesn't have much to say. Posted 10:18 PM | [Link] STILL DEFENSELESS [Andrew Stuttaford] USA Today has been running a series detailing reactions both among air traffic control and amongst those in the skies in the hours that followed the 9/11 attacks. For those in charge of planes that had not yet landed, the situation was terrifying. Fearing that there might be hijackers on board, aircrew looked for anything they could use as weapons: crash axes, steak knives, even bottles of wine. Nearly a year has passed since that terrible day, but, if hijackers strike again, pilots will still be forced to resort to chardonnay as their last line of defense. The Bush administration has, of course, removed the steak knives. Posted 9:57 PM | [Link] MADMAN [Andrew Stuttaford] Spotted in Death Valley today: a jogger. It was about 120 degrees at the time. I celebrated his feat later with a frappuccino and a choc ice. Posted 9:50 PM | [Link] EXPLAINING IT TO JESSE: [Rod Dreher] Jesse Jackson, who still hasn't explained his dodgy finances, was on Hardball just now, promoting his planned September 13 march on Washington to protest against what he considers President Bush's hard-hearted attitude toward black America (translation: bigmouth Jesse's not getting into the White House, and his feelings are hurt). "Nine hundred thousand black men in jail, 600,000 black men in college," Jesse told Chris Matthews. "Isn't that suggestive?" Yeah. It suggests that more black men should crack the books instead of other people's heads. Next question, Reverend? Posted 9:47 PM | [Link] DESERT GLOOM [Andrew Stuttaford] John, if you want pessimism, you should listen to some of the calls into the talk radio station I've been listening to as I drive round Nevada. Did you know that a vast tented city is being prepared on the Canadian border ahead of the coming UN coup? On a cheerier note, there's a commercial running for one candidate in this fall's election. Amongst her selling points? She won't solicit contributions from strip clubs. Well, it beats arguing about smoking in bars. Posted 9:43 PM | [Link] REPENT! THE END IS AT HAND! [John Derbyshire] You think I'm a pessimist? Check out Fred. Posted 9:30 PM | [Link] CRUNCHY? [Andrew Stuttaford] Rod, you're a connoisseur of 'Red State' dining, so here's another eatery for you - El Marques, a great Mexican place in Tonopah, Nevada, the perfect place for a steak after a day on the edge of Area 51 (which is not to knock the out-of-this-world 'alien burgers' available at the Little A'Le'Inn, ET's favorite diner). Posted 9:28 PM | [Link] FARM BILL [Robert A. George] The president was in Iowa today, and called on CEOs to adopt, "the good old-fashioned farm values." Does that mean Wall Street, instead of cooking the books, should just take billions of dollars in federal subsidies? If you were the target of an election-year bill, would you prefer getting $170 billion in farm welfare -- or face 10-20 because you made some accounting errors? With a choice like that, it's back to the farm everybody!!! Posted 9:21 PM | [Link] BATON ROUGE SERIAL KILLER: [Rod Dreher] The Baton Rouge serial killer seems to have dropped off the national media radar screen, just as his behavior has become even more chilling. In the past week or so, he has attempted four abductions, even in broad daylight. One can hardly imagine the terror women in Baton Rouge must be feeling now. If he tries to grab another woman, I hope she's packing heat and sends this monster straight to hell. Posted 7:49 PM | [Link] A NYC FIREMAN WRITES: [Rod Dreher] Regarding yesterday's "America, Be Angry" piece: "I'm a NYC fireman assigned to [deleted]. Nine members of my company were murdered on 9/11. On August 8th, we buried the last of our recovered brothers. We grew up together, he was engaged to be married in October. I spent many weeks working at ground zero, as everyone knows. There are many of my co-workers who are suffering from pretty bad respiratory ailments. I know you've heard all this before, but I wanted to context my comments on your article. When I read 'America, Be Angry' I applauded aloud, and cheered. Thank God someone else sees what I and my brothers see. I'm tired of going into restaurants and seeing young, bodybuilder-type men, all tanned, slugging down beers. Why aren't they in Camp Lejeune doing push-ups, preparing to defend their country. They are sponging off the freedoms paid with by the blood of the WWII generation. Know it's time for this generation to pay the bill, and no one is reaching in their pocket. I requested a waiver for military service but was told 'sorry' (I'm 38). There are 9,000 fellow firefighters who are truly motivated, and would like nothing more than to be clearing caves in Kabul. But I don't see this sense of urgency, anywhere. The MTV generation is still too self-absorbed. Everyone wants to get some Prozac and 'cope' with their stress. F*** that, join the military and do something about it. I'm saddened to say if this generation was to switch places with previous ones, we'd either being speaking Japanese or German. Thank you for nailing the sentiments of myself and my brother firefighters. We sit around and we question whether we're the only ones who see this. Clearly we're not." Posted 7:38 PM | [Link] THE PEACE-LOVING MUSLIMS STRIKE AGAIN: [Rod Dreher] This time, massacring more Christians in Indonesia. One of these days, all the dead Christian bodies from Muslim pogroms are going to add up to something, and even the U.S. State Department won't be able to pretend this isn't happening. Posted 6:42 PM | [Link] GET 4 FREE ISSUES OF NATIONAL REVIEW! That's right: We'll send you 4 FREE issues of National Review at absolutely no risk to you. If you're impressed by National Review's superior writing style, analysis, and wit, we'll send you the next 12 issues — for a total of 16 in all! — for only $19.95. Click here for details. Posted 6:09 PM | [Link] WHAT DID YOU SAY? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] You don't subscribe to NRODT, you say? Let the little blurb above help you change that. Posted 6:09 PM | [Link] CORRECTING GARRY WILLS [Rod Dreher] I've heard from a couple of people who said they read Garry Wills's recent article in the New York Review of Books, in which he says that Fr. Joseph Fessio and I called John Paul II's papacy a "failure" on the PBS show Uncommon Knowledge, which we recently taped with Wills. I should set the record straight (as I have in a letter to the publication). On the program, Peter Robinson, the host, read a quote from papal biographer George Weigel in which Weigel predicted that the pontiff would one day be known as "John Paul the Great." Robinson wanted to know if we on the panel agreed. I told him that yes, in time, that would be history's judgment, but the Holy Father's failure to govern the Church well, which has led to this sex-abuse scandal, will make it harder for many to reach that conclusion, at least anytime soon. Fr. Fessio declined to answer the question -- which I thought quite significant, but that's not the same thing as saying that John Paul's pontificate is a "failure." Posted 6:06 PM | [Link] REST ASSURED [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Another jammed-packed issue of NRODT has been put to bed (yes, including Byron's terrific piece--a must-read). I promise they'll be something more in The Corner before remaining Cornerites are. Posted 5:57 PM | [Link] CORRECTION: [Rod Dreher] In my piece on anger and 9/11 earlier this week, I referred to the Newseum as being owned by Gannett. It's not. My bad. Posted 4:12 PM | [Link] TIME MAG GETS SPUN: [Rich Lowry] If you thought that the Time mag cover story last week on Clinton’s secret “plan” to win the terror war was BS but didn’t know exactly why, you should check out Byron York’s excellent dissection of the piece in the new print NR. Time, of course, reported that the Clinton team urged the Bush White House to act on this war “plan,” to no avail. York, among other things, quotes a former Clinton official: “There were certainly ongoing efforts throughout the eight years of the Clinton administration to fight terrorism," the official says. ”It was certainly not a formal war plan. We wouldn't have characterized it as a formal war plan. The Bush administration was briefed on the Clinton administration's ongoing efforts and threat assessments." Posted 4:05 PM | [Link] ONE LAST MASCOT POST: [Rich Lowry] E-mail: "The most twisted baseball mascot of all time was the San Francisco Giants' "anti-mascot" - Crazy Crab. He was meant and marketed by the Giants to be hated. The fans at Candlestick Park, particularly on those cold Candlestick nights, would boo him, beat him and throw objects at him when he was trotted out once a game. Even the players used to beat on and abuse the Crazy Crab. It got so bad, that the guy in the crab suit quit. After one year (and a lawsuit by Crazy Crab against the Giants because a San Diego Padre tackled him, causing a back injury) that was the end of Crazy Crab." Posted 3:59 PM | [Link] VATICAN TO BISHOPS: TRY AGAIN [Rod Dreher] WINS Newsradio in New York is reporting now that the Vatican has rejected the U.S. Catholic bishops' "zero tolerance" rules. This would be big news anyday, but it's especially so today, inasmuch as Rome wasn't expected to rule on zero tolerance for months. This isn't exactly a surprise -- canonists had been predicting this for weeks, saying the Dallas rules are against canon law -- but it will be very hard to explain to the public why Rome has acted this way in the face of the worst scandal in the history of the American church. Posted 2:00 PM | [Link] RADIO FANS [John Derbyshire] Radio fans please note: The 27th Annual "Friends of Old Time Radio" Convention will be held on October 24-27 at the Holiday Inn North by Newark Airport. It will feature stars and memorabilia from the golden age of radio, with live performances of classic radio plays: "Chicken Heart" from Lights Out, and "Sorry, Wrong Number," from Suspense. Full program information is available here. Posted 1:42 PM | [Link] WHAT SUSAN DOESN'T GET [Mike Potemra] Sarandon seems to believe that America really has become what a very small minority of Americans want it to be-an inflamed mass of seething animosity against some foreign target selected by the U.S. government. What she doesn't understand is that the vast majority of Americans-those of us who believe in an uncompromising war on terrorism, without any kind of emotions of racial or religious hatred-are basically fighting for the values of Sarandon herself. She believes in tolerance, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and so on-and the evildoers we're fighting against don't. That's what the war is about-and Susan needs to realize that we, the American people, are on her side (and will even defend her right to disagree). Posted 12:24 PM | [Link] POOR SUSAN! [Mike Potemra] Susan Sarandon really needs to get out more. There is plenty of dissent in America about war-related issues-indeed, NRO recently has featured attacks on the American people as insufficiently fervent in support of the war. But the American people, by and large, are not haters or jingoes-they have nothing against Muslims wanting to live as Muslims if they choose to do so. If, however, some group claiming to act in the name of Islam kills innocents, and threatens the lives and liberties of Americans, we will resist them to the death, and punish them with fearsome might. Posted 12:23 PM | [Link] BIG VATICAN NEWS BREAKING THIS AFTERNOON: [Rod Dreher] Word is that some big news concerning the Church scandal is coming out of the Vatican later this afternoon. Watch this space for an update the moment we have something confirmed. Posted 12:17 PM | [Link] CELEBRATE CHARLTON HESTON [John Derbyshire] The news of Charlton Heston's affliction--he has announced he is suffering from Alzheimers--is very sad. He would not want us to be sad, though: so in a spirit of celebrating a great American life, I urge everyone to read Heston's brilliant autobiography In the Arena. The book was not ghosted (as I mistakenly told some NR colleagues the other day): he wrote it himself. The most striking thing about it is, that it's full of craft--you could build a pretty good acting course out of it. Heston is a pro. As a rule I am not much impressed by actors. I tend to think there isn't much to it, and am inclined to side with Dr. Johnson in that famous exchange on the topic. (BOSWELL. "...we respect a great player, as a man who can conceive lofty sentiments, and can express them gracefully." JOHNSON. "What, Sir, a fellow who claps a hump on his back, and a lump on his leg, and cries 'I am Richard the Third'?") Heston reminds me how wrong this is. Heston's grandfather, like mine, was a north of England coal miner. In the Arena therefore got my attention right at the beginning with this: "Like most men who've succeeded on their own, my father was a firm conservative. But at the height of World War II, when President Roosevelt threatened to jail John L. Lewis, the radical leader of the United Mine Workers Union, for striking the miners in wartime, my grandfather said in an interview: 'You can't pay a man too much money to dig coal.'" Damn right. Get the book--it's in most libraries, and there are plenty of secondhand copies on Abebooks. Posted 11:56 AM | [Link] WHEN IN EUROPE...DOWN AMERICA [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Evidently Susan Sarandon had to go to Edinburgh to complain about the "cowboys" in the U.S. who have put Americans "in a lock-down in terms of information and a certain point of view, and if you challenge that point of view, you’re anti-American.” Posted 11:11 AM | [Link] GROWN-UP THINKING ON THE MIDEAST [John Derbyshire] Strictly for those who like grown-up geostrategic thinking: (but the link to STRATFOR doesn't work). Posted 10:59 AM | [Link] SPEAKING OF USING REASON [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A sensible column on airline stupidity, also at TechCentral. Do be prepared to drink whatever fluids you have on hand when boarding a plane--especially if you are a young (or elderly!) Caucasian woman. Posted 10:08 AM | [Link] REASONABLE RAMESH [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Our own Ramesh Ponnuru has a great piece up on TechCentralStation (the always-cool site with the odd name) making the reason-based case against cloning. Posted 9:51 AM | [Link] THE ABA URGES ACTION [Jonathan Adler] The American Bar Association adopted a resolution calling on the Senate to act "promptly" to fill judicial vacancies. The resolution was a compromise between a watered down statement and a more aggressive proposal put forward by former White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray. Posted 9:24 AM | [Link] DOESN’T ANYONE RESIGN IN SHAME IMMEDIATELY ANYMORE? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Four months after the news broke about five-year-old Rilya Wilson, the girl who went missing in Florida state custody in January 2001--no one checked on her for 15 months—the head of Florida’s Department of Children & Families just resigned yesterday. At least she did resign, eventually. People like Norm Mineta could follow her lead, however belatedly, and do us some good, too. I recall a certain 9/11 piece from Michael Ledeen on 9/11 calling for resignations. As he would say, “Faster, please.” Posted 9:15 AM | [Link] I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I will never bring up comic books again. Jonah and Andrew will set me straight when they return. Posted 9:09 AM | [Link] NYT FACT-CHECK? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Loyal Corner comic-book readers have a bone to pick with the New York Times piece on the gay Green Lantern sidekick I mentioned in passing this morning, saying the Alpha Flight character “Northstar” is gay and his gayness framed an arguably major storyline. I post this so no one else will tell me about it. Posted 9:08 AM | [Link] AGAIN, THE PRIORITY PROBLEM [Kathryn Jean Lopez] New Zealand vs. Saudi Arabia. I have no doubt they were doing their job here, but how about all the time? How about a little profiling in terms of prioritizing? Posted 7:49 AM | [Link] WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE’S JONAH?! [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Green Lantern gets a gay character. Beer’s good for you. I’m totally unqualified. Posted 7:46 AM | [Link] "UNAUTHORIZED LANDSCAPING" [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I, for one, would NEVER complain, nevermind sue, if someone decided to mow my lawn. Posted 6:14 AM | [Link] NORMAN MINETA, YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Can we please give up the GI Joe toy-gun seizures already? You know Barbie's shoes--especially the high heels--can be used for ill, too. Just ask Ken. Speaking of, ever consider what could be hiding in his head? Posted 6:10 AM | [Link] ACT OF CONTRITION [Kathryn Jean Lopez] You ever see a critic say "I was wrong?" Terry Teachout eats crow with his usual grace. Posted 5:58 AM | [Link] PEACE IS FLOWING [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Muslim leaders in Britain are warning the U.S. and U.K. of the jihadist dangers looming if Iraq is attacked. Posted 5:54 AM | [Link] BILL GERTZ SAYS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Iraq has an active germ-warfare plant. Posted 5:43 AM | [Link]
WHEN A "CHOICE" IS NOT A CHOICE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted 7:44 PM | [Link] ANTI-COMMUNIST? YOU MUST BE NUTS [John Derbyshire] The Chinese communists have taken up the old Soviet practice of putting political dissidents into lunatic asylums. See this report from the London Times. Posted 6:31 PM | [Link] STEVE MOORE-INSPIRED E-MAIL: [Rich Lowry] I’m not a Red Sox fan, but ranking Bonds above Williams does seem dubious at best. E-mail: “Let's compare the greatest hitter of all time with Barry Bonds. These are lifetime numbers, with Bonds's numbers updated through last night. Games AB BA 2B Hits SLG OBP OPS RBI BB SO BB/Ks Williams 2293 7706 .344 525 2654 .634 .482 1.116 1839 2019 709 2.84 Bonds 2397 8216 .294 506 2415 .592 .425 1.017 1615 1858 1320 1.40 In fewer games and less At Bats, Ted had more Hits, Doubles, RBIs, and Walks. Of those walks, Ted had 86 intentional walks. I do not have the statistic for Mr. Bonds but he must have close to 50 in each of the last two years, alone. Ted leads in EVERY offensive category, save Home Runs, having played fewer games and fewer years. Additionally, Ted missed five prime years while serving in the Marines during WWII and Korea. Is there any doubt what his numbers would be if he played in '43, '44, '45, '52 and '53? If he merely averaged 35 home runs /year, which is lower than what he had hit in prior years, he would have had an additional 175 HRs, giving him a total of 696 HRs. You may place Bonds in the top five, but he couldn't hold Ted's bat in the on deck circle, let alone be placed above him in any kind of offensive list for All-time sluggers.” Posted 5:05 PM | [Link] CONSERVATISM: MAKING BETTER WAL-MART SHOPPERS?: [Rod Dreher] We get the most interesting e-mails here: "I agree with your column about anger, but I admit that I'm always confused when conservatives worry about things like the American incapacity for sustained righteous anger. If there's a soft, equivocating, decadent streak in American culture, then conservatives are just as responsible for it as anybody. As far as I can see, what 'conservatism' stands for these days is a sort of suburban super-profligacy: drive bigger cars, 'conserve' nothing, burn more oil, buy more, buy more, buy more. It's really a consumerist ideology, there's nothing flinty or tough or even 'conservative' about it. I'm reminded of hearing Limbaugh complain about how football fans can't trust their favorite team to stay in their city. It's like: that's the free market corporate system, brother, got a problem with that? This is the first 'war' in world history in which the commander in chief has instructed the populace to prepare for battle this way: go shopping. One can only hope that there DOES exist that 'Jacksonian America' out there, far from anyplace I've ever lived." Posted 4:45 PM | [Link] YEP, YEP, YEP [Kathryn Jean Lopez] If you had a subscription to NRODT, you'd have read all about the Torch and his terrorist friends back in March. Pitch over...we're working on an issue of the Dead Tree edition right now. Posted 4:39 PM | [Link] GET 4 FREE ISSUES OF NATIONAL REVIEW! That's right: We'll send you 4 FREE issues of National Review at absolutely no risk to you. If you're impressed by National Review's superior writing style, analysis, and wit, we'll send you the next 12 issues — for a total of 16 in all! — for only $19.95. Click here for details. Posted 4:37 PM | [Link] SEAN HANNITY LISTENERS, LOOK HERE (EVERYONE ELSE TOO) [Kathryn Jean Lopez] If you're one of the people who has been searching NRO for the piece Hannity read earlier today about Bob Torricelli and his terrorist pals, click here. Posted 4:36 PM | [Link] YEAH, THAT'S IT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Whenever we are silent for a few hours, it's because of power overusage. Posted 3:36 PM | [Link] WHERE ARE THE REPUBLICANS?: [Rod Dreher] An NRO reader writes to say he thinks the Democrats are gutless on the war, yet, he writes, "the Republicans are not faring any better. They seem just as willing to let the Saddam, Osama bin Laden and radical Islamists off the hook and stick their heads in the sand and hope for the best. I’m still waiting for my President to instruct me in what I need to do as a civilian to prepare for a long and protracted war (please Mr. President, no more getting back to normal). I’m ready to follow my leaders but they aren’t leading, they aren’t preparing, they have abandoned the ideals that have made this a great nation – one to be defended at all costs." Posted 3:29 PM | [Link] WHERE'S JOAH WHEN YOU NEED HIM?: [Rich Lowry] E-mail: "Given the Angels knack for, shall we say, weak finishes (blowing 2-0 lead in best of 5 1982 LCS; 1986 up 3-1 and one strike away; giving up double digit lead to Mariners in late 90's), could one speculate that their Rally Monkey is of the cheese-eating surrender variety?" Posted 2:25 PM | [Link] MORE MONKEYS: [Rich Lowry] E-mail: “Party Marty, the human mascot of the Brooklyn Cyclones, uses rally monkeys as well. There's also a race between three human-sized Nathan's hot-dogs-- one topped with relish, one with ketchup, the other with mustard. Wild things out in Coney Island. Granted, the Cyclones are a Mets team (and it shows once the music starts playing), but it's Brooklyn Baseball and we gotta do what we gotta do.” Posted 2:24 PM | [Link] AN IRAQ POINT: [Rich Lowry] One of the more other-wordly aspects of the Iraq debate is that everyone is weighing very seriously whether we should trample Iraq’s sovereignty by invading and changing the government. But we trample Iraq’s sovereignty every day! Literally every day we fly war-planes over Iraq patrolling the no-fly zones. And we’ve already half-dismembered the country. All those Bush critics who worry about getting bogged down in Iraq should wake up—we’re already bogged down in Iraq! So should all those critics who fear that we may pull the country apart (what is the thriving Kurdish north but a function of an essentially “pulled apart” Iraq?). Bush critics should at least be consistent and come out against the no-fly zones, which by their line of reasoning have bogged down the U.S. military for a decade, dangerously threatened the territorial integrity of Iraq, and are a daily provocation to Arab opinion (shouldn’t Arab opinion--again by the critics’ line of argument--be outraged by infidel war-planes flying over Iraq every day?). Posted 2:23 PM | [Link] MONKEYS, RABBITS, & DA MOOSE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I'm suddenly trying to remember the last time I saw Rich and Jonah in the same room. Posted 1:28 PM | [Link] JUDICIAL SELECTION -- A BETTER WAY? [Jonathan Adler] The Senate confirmation process is grid-locked, and the public is increasingly disillusioned with elected judges. Is there a better way? Howard Bashman surveys some of the alternatives on his How Appealing, and notes they all have their problems. The solution? At the federal level, Bashman agrees with sentiments expressed in The Corner (and elsewhere): "One way to improve the federal method is to restore federal judges to the traditional role of judging rather than forcing them to be arbiters of the most difficult social/legislative issues of the day." Hear, hear! Posted 1:17 PM | [Link] ANGRY NRO-NIKS: [Rod Dreher] Lots of e-mail on my column today. The overwhelming consensus, even from Red America readers, is that I'm right, that the American people are not as riled up about 9/11 as they should be. And many readers blame both the media and America's political leadership -- even President Bush -- for not doing a better job at keeping the American people focused on what practical things all of us can do to support the war on terrorism, and prepare ourselves for what's to come. The idea that we should get back to normal, you're saying, was wrong, and even dangerous. I strongly identify with those of you who complain about the multiculturalists in the media who appear more concerned that some American somewhere might think an unkind thought about Islam than they are about providing the American people with frank and factual reporting and analysis about contemporary Islam, and the threat it poses to the West. Posted 12:38 PM | [Link] A GOOD POINT!: [Rich Lowry] E-mail: "Curse of the Moose? I doubt it. Otherwise, the Yankees would have never won another pennant after trading away Moose Skowron in 1963." Posted 12:31 PM | [Link] IN CASE ANYONE MISSED IT…: [Rich Lowry] …Bob Novak had quite an outburst on Cap Gang last weekend, defending Saudi Arabia and attacking the NR cruise: “So you have had, you had immediately, I went on a, right after 9/11, I went on a National Review cruise, and I couldn't believe my fellow conservatives were attacking. They said Saudi Arabia is the enemy.” So, there you have it—NR cruises offer fun, food, and prescient geo-political analysis! All the more reason to sign up here. Posted 12:16 PM | [Link] E-MAIL: [Rich Lowry] “The weirdest "Rally animal" belongs to the Milwaukee Brewers, who always flash the Rally Rabbit on the replay screen. The Rally Rabbit is a grown man dressed in shorts, old tennis shoes, a Brewers jersey and an Easter Rabbit head. Just before the bottom of the 8th or 9th of a close game at Miller Park, they show this strange creature (who I'm sure would scare small children) prancing around the parking lot and then playing some drum set in front of Miller Park. They even brought out the Rally Rabbit before the bottom of the 9th of the All-Star Game. It's not very effective, judging by the Brewers' record.” Posted 12:08 PM | [Link] O CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN! [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Welcome back, Richard! Come again, and often. And bring friends. Posted 11:55 AM | [Link] FLIP IT: [Rich Lowry] I’m not a big defender of this Waco summit nonsense. But I suppose every administration engages in this sort of PR. But PR isn’t worth much unless you have a policy to sell. And as Ramesh has tirelessly pointed out, this is where the administration is so lacking. The moment is practically crying out for some pro-investor tax cuts. The Democrats--with all their rhetoric about how important it is to protect the interests of investors and, indirectly at least, how important it is for investors to make money—have set themselves up perfectly for Republicans to outflank them as the pro-investor party with cap-gains cuts and other measures. Now would be a perfect time for a strategic pivot to flip the corporate debate and make it not just about punishing wrong-doers, but about helping investors and growing the economy. What will the Democrats say? “Oh, actually, we don’t really care that much about investors’ after-tax profits”? Posted 11:46 AM | [Link] SPEAKING OF…: [Rich Lowry] rally caps. I was in Southern California for vacation and caught two Yankees games at Anaheim Stadium, which features a rally . . . monkey. That’s right, a rally monkey. They flash a little monkey on the scoreboard in late innings, and people have lanky stuffed monkeys that they wave and tie around their hats. Silly, but—together with fellow NRO-nik Andrew Suttaford—I’m a bit of a monkey aficionado, so I found it charming. Anaheim is a nice place to watch a game. I discovered late during one game that I happened to be sitting a couple of rows away from a guy who is a huge NR/NRO fan, which I should have been able to guess from his intelligent, well-informed (if very pro-Angel) comments on the game. Posted 11:44 AM | [Link] THE CURSE OF THE MOOSE???: [Rich Lowry] Baseball fans are generally a superstitious lot. Which is why baseball features rally caps and other such nonsense. And also why an admittedly absurd thought occurred to me the other day: Has my relentless battering of The Moose (you remember, our friendly herbivore who thought campaign finance reform—you remember, that bill about something or other that passed sometime not too long ago--would magically restore America’s faith in politics) may have jinxed formerly masterful Yankee pitcher Mike “Moose” Mussina. If so, was defending the First Amendment from The (Bad) Moose worth The (Good) Moose’s 4.90 era? A very close call… Posted 11:41 AM | [Link] NOMINATION SOLUTIONS [Jonathan Adler] Judicial nominations were a hot topic at this year's American Bar Association confab. Former White House Counsel, and founder of the Committee for Justice http://www.committeeforjustice.org/, offered a resolution calling upon the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on all judicial nominees within six months of their nomination. Senator Patrick Leahy's spokesman, David Carle, called Gray's proposal "preumptuous," "flagrantly hypocritical and partisan." I don't like Gray's proposal either -- it's too soft. Instead, I would propose reintroduction of the "Judicial Emergency Responsibility Act of 1998." This bill would prevent the Senate from recessing without a full Senate vote on any judicial nomination to fill a vacancy classified as a "judicial emergency" that has been pending for more than 60 days. I expect Mr. Carle's endorsement shortly -- the Judicial Emrgency Responsibility Act's was first proposed by Senator Leahy. Posted 11:34 AM | [Link] LEO CALLS ON BUSH TO GO GREEN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Did you know there was such a thing as "Green Cross International"? Jonathan probably did... Posted 9:38 AM | [Link] WE NEVER DO LEARN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] So, about this plan to fingerprint Middle Easterners at the airports….read the list carefully: We including: “All nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria.” Repeat after me: “15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists were Saudis.” Now, I know, our constant “Saudi watch” refrain probably gets a little tiring here in The Corner, but some things are just common sense—like profiling people coming from the country from which most of the Sept. 11 murderers hailed. Why are the people responsible for “homeland security” not getting this? Posted 9:32 AM | [Link] YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Iranian President Mohammad Khatami thinks America is too angry, post-9/11. Evidently he hasn’t met Rod. Posted 8:58 AM | [Link] GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] He loves Anna Nicole’s show and wants this couple to be the parents of the world’s first cloned baby. Posted 8:56 AM | [Link] DONATING YOUR BODY…TO “ART” [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Andrew, this one’s for you (this is why). That dead-body art exhibit is getting populated. Posted 8:54 AM | [Link] MORE FROM THE FRONTLINES [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Mark Steyn at the airports. Posted 3:30 AM | [Link] FBI'S LATEST TIPS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Glad there was some security left over for the dam, Andrew. Unidentified Chicago landmarks, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Brooklyn Bridge should have long waits, but lots of security for the next few days. Posted 3:12 AM | [Link] DAM SECURE [Andrew Stuttaford] I've never visited the Hoover Dam before, but I suspect that the security arrangements are an innovation in the aftermath of 9/11. And that's fair enough. There was a police checkpoint and, at the entrance, airport-style screening. Well, 'airport-style screening' , but with a difference: it worked quickly, well and efficiently. Norm Mineta is not in charge of security at the Hoover Dam. Posted 3:04 AM | [Link] A GLIMMER OF LIGHT? [Andrew Stuttaford] Dave, Kathryn, in Nevada, needless to say, some people seem to be looking at a different - and more constructive - approach to the drug war. There's a proposal on this fall's ballot, which, if approved, would take the Silver State a big step along the way to decriminalizing possession of up to three ounces of marijuana. What the electors will have to say about this is anyone's guess, but even in | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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