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WHAT'S UP, DOC?: [Rod Dreher] Dale Price notes that Jimmy Carter is likely the only Nobel laureate to have been attacked by a nautically-oriented rabbit. He also has some tart observations about Norwegians. Posted 6:41 PM | [Link] GRATITUDE [Andrew Stuttaford] This report, from today's New York Times, makes depressing reading not much more than a decade after American soldiers were killed in the course of the war that freed Kuwait from Iraqi rule. Here's the introduction: "KUWAIT, Oct. 11 — Muhammad al-Mulaifi, head of the information department at Kuwait's Ministry of Islamic Affairs, tried momentarily to suppress a smile, then broke into a broad grin when asked if he supported the terrorist attacks on the United States last year. "I would be lying if said I wasn't happy about the attack," he said, sitting on the floor of his air-conditioned home office, a carpeted, cushioned oasis amid the harsh heat of this small, dry country. Mr. Mulaifi said that many Kuwaitis were delighted about what had happened to the United States and that he had attended parties held in celebration." It would be interesting to know what the Kuwaiti government has to say about Mr. Al-Mulaifi, who is, after all, one of its employees. Posted 6:23 PM | [Link] BALI BOMB: [Rod Dreher] Fox News has pictures on now of the massive bombing of a tourist resort in Bali, Indonesia. It's terrifying, just terrifying. Sixty people are reported dead, many of them believed to be foreigners. No one has claimed responsibility for this yet, but Islamic terrorists have been doing this to Indonesian Christians for several years now, so it's pretty much a question of whether this was al-Qaeda or some other Islamic fanatics. Chalk up one more victory for the religion of peace. Posted 5:09 PM | [Link] OKAY [Jonah Goldberg] I wish you luck with your book. Seriously. But as for writing what you see, I'm reminded of the story about Richard Nixon. He explained to an interviewer that it was obvious the world was widly over-populated because wherever he went he saw huge crowds. Anyway, I don' think there's anything left to say about this except it's too bad you can't write it under the pseudonym Edmund Birkenstock. Cheers, Jonah Posted 3:41 PM | [Link] CRUNCHY, THE END: Finally, you criticize my approach as "overly journalistic." To this I can only reply that I'm writing about what I see. I had no idea these folks were out there until I first wrote about this phenomenon this past summer, and received hundreds of e-mails from people saying, "Me too!". I'm so curious now to learn more; if I do a book on it, once I've talked with and even visited crunchy cons, it should be possible to define them a little more clearly. Clearly there's something going on out there, and the best way to investigate it is by talking to these people and asking them how they arrived at their conslusions, and why they feel alienated from contemporary mainstream conservatism. You seem determined to conclude a priori that because they don't fit your theoretical construct, they can't be said to exist. But they do! You just have never met any of them, Beltway Boy. ;-) Hey, this has been lots of fun, Jonah. You and I should take this act on the road, hitting the conservative college circuit. Hillsdale! Dartmouth! Bob Jones University! Umm...umm... . Posted 12:03 PM | [Link] CRUNCHY, PART V: [Rod Dreher] About Kirk, I never claimed he was crunchy, only that crunchy cons adore him. It's silly to think crunchy cons imagine Kirk walking around in hemp clothing and Birks, any more than they imagine the traditionalist Catholic Oxford don J.R.R. Tolkien as a pothead, even though hippies went nutso for his work in the 1960s. As far as I can tell, the Kirk-admiring crunchy cons cotton to his belief that there are elements of human society that ought to be conserved in the face of modernity's onslaught -- and in particular, the tide of mass consumer culture and globalization, in the face of which too many who call themselves conservative fail to mount much resistance, or even to see the need to resist -- in part because they have fetishized, from the Right, individual choice as the highest goal of the good society, without much deliberation on the morality of what's being chosen. I get the sense that crunchy cons are really paleocons without the foreign-policy isolationism, and shorn of racialist suspicions. Posted 11:59 AM | [Link] CRUNCHY, PART IV: [Rod Dreher] Perhaps I've created part of the confusion by using the word "crunchy." If I had known that so many conservatives would sese themselves in my essays, I would have found a better term (and please readers, send in your suggestions). I thought that I and a few of my friends were just eccentric right-wingers; I had no idea so many people shared our sensibilities. "Crunchy" is the slang term used to describe people whose tastes in food and fashion run toward the stripped-down, the "natural" (e.g., "Look at that girl with no make-up; is she crunchy, or what?"). There's a lot of that among crunchy cons, but it really is about their ideas, and how they've implemented those ideas into their lifestyle. The only nod my own wardrobe makes toward crunchiness is the Birkenstocks; my hair is shorter than yours, Jonah. "Crunchy" came into it as a descriptive term only because I wanted to highlight the novelty that there are conservatives whose countercultural conservative (traditionalist?) beliefs cause them to rub shoulders at times with leftists outside the liberal mainstream. Posted 11:53 AM | [Link] CRUNCH, PART III: [Rod Dreher] You keep fixating on the "clothes and food" aspect of this phenomenon, which is certainly the least important part of it. I only brought in clothes and food insofar as they are cultural signifiers. Again, I think your experience growing up in NYC blinds you to the importance of these things elsewhere. Where I grew up, the only people who wore sandals were hippies 'n liberals; you could be as right-wing as the day is long, and have decided that Birkenstocks were really comfortable, and helped your foot pain -- but if you went out in public with them, you were telling the community that you were a liberal (cf. "Okie from Muskogee"). Same thing with the health-food store in town: only hippie liberals shopped there, irrespective of the actual health benefits of the food they served there. The point of my bringing it up was to highlight how silly and p.c. conservatives can be, dismissing and ridiculing food and fashion as emblematic of a political or cultural worldview. That doesn't really happen in place as diverse as NYC, but I can assure you it does elsewhere. My wife, who is from Dallas, laughed in telling me how hard it was to buy her first pair of Birks while in college, for fear of what her conservative friends would say. Surely you see, Jonah, that the point isn't that wearing certain clothese or eating certain foods has much to do with virtue; teh point is that many conservatives have a reactionary mindset that keeps them from thinking about how conservative thought and tradition might lead to conclusions at odds with what mainstream conservatism (or at least the GOP) espouses. In other words, the kind of conservative who looks at someone wearing open-toed sandals, or walking around with a copy of Organic Gardening under her arm, and says, "Liberal!", will probably be the kind of conservative who listens to (say) a right-wing criticism of unregulated sprawl, and says, "Socialist!" -- this, without having listened to the conservative's argument from conservative principles. Posted 11:49 AM | [Link] CRUNCH, PART II: [Rod Dreher] Yet in general, they believe that what does by the name "conservatism" these days gives short shrift to thing conservatism ought to be concerned about. They are more communitarian than mainstream conservatives. They believe that popular conservatism is too closely allied with the Chamber of Commerce, and tha tthis uncritical embrace of business interests can be harmful to conservative interests (e.g., the Baptist crunchy con in smalltown Minnesota who told me he was a rock-ribbed right-winger, but would be worried if Republicans gained control of the town council, for fear they would let developers run roughshod over the historic downtown). They believe that contemporary conservatism behaves as if man was made to serve the free market, not the other way around. They tend to pay more attention to the importance of art and architecture in creating a humane public square, and reject the mainstream conservative lack of interest in same as a kind of utilitarianism/Philistinism. (Side note: a decade ago, I had a conversation with Pat Buchanan (!) in which he lamented that aside from a few thinkers and opinion leaders on the Right, the extent of mainstream conservative interest in aesthetics was, "Defund the National Endowment for the Arts.") Crunchy cons adopt a more adversarial stance toward consumerist mass culture than most conservatives (and liberals for that matter -- which is where crunchy cons find something in common with left-wing counterculturalists). Posted 11:32 AM | [Link] CRUNCHING BACK, PART I: [Rod Dreher] Jonah, you really are missing the point of this thing. For one, I'm not trying to describe or craft a coherent political philosophy here; this is, as far as I can tell, a sensibility. That's why you'll find me using the phrase "tend to" when I write about what crunchy cons believe. I've heard from Christian crunchy cons and atheist crunchy cons (all self-identified as crunchy cons), and they can't possibly agree on everything. From what I've been able to tell, crunchy cons share the general conservative concern with taxes, defense, the overweening federal government, etc. They all disdain the utopian, permissive, spineless, grievance-ridden mess that contemporary liberalism has become, in large part because it misdiagnoses the human condition, and prescribes false, unjust and destructive remedies. Posted 11:22 AM | [Link] BOMB ATTACK IN FINLAND [Andrew Stuttaford] Kathryn, that's awful news from Vantaa, the suburb (near the airport) just outside Helsinki where the attack occurred. Here's a little more from the local press, but the killer's motives, so far, are a mystery. Posted 11:06 AM | [Link] SPOOKY SATURDAY [Andrew Stuttaford] Russell Kirk believed in ghosts? Good grief. I remember once, years ago, being invited to stay in a very old house back in England. Coming down that morning, I found the entire family waiting expectantly over their breakfast (Rod: it was almost certainly bacon, eggs, fried bread and mushrooms. Delicious!) for a terrified and shaken Stuttaford to come down the stairs. Apparently the guestroom was infamous for the ghosts that were said to lurk there. Generations of unsuspecting guests had 'seen things'. Not me. Slept like a log. Ghosts? No such thing. Now there's a pointless controversy for the weekend. Posted 10:45 AM | [Link] SMOKING, AGAIN [Andrew Stuttaford] Jonah, of course, federalism - and thus local - control does not always lead to results that gladden the libertarian heart. And there's currently no better example of this than, yes, Nurse Bloomberg's current crusade against smoking in bars. As to what that ban could mean, here's an interesting insight from Andrew Sullivan yesterday: "Riding through Commercial Street tonight, I saw something new. Around the entrances to various bars, there were mounds of strewn cigarette butts. They banned smoking in bars here a week or so ago. I wonder if these piles of debris, all gathered in one place around exits and entrances to buildings will one day be deemed the hallmark of this particular time. And what people in the future will think of that." They will think that we were nuts, that's what. Manhattan is a densely populated island with no clear distinction between residential and commercial areas. Forcing smokers to gather outside bars at night will inevitably increase the disruption, noise and litter for those who live in the neighborhood. Not that that seems to worry the Nurse. 'Quality of Life', it seems, was a Giuliani thing. Posted 10:23 AM | [Link] ISLAMIC FAMILY VALUES: [Rod Dreher] Please, spare me the stories about how tolerant Islamic societies are of non-Muslims. In moderate Jordan, a Christian widow has gone into hiding because an Islamic law court has ruled that she must turn over her children to her estranged Muslim brother. This case highlights the fact that under Islamic law, non-Muslims have few rights. Human rights groups are begging King Abdullah to intervene. (Don't bring up the Vatican and Edgardo Mortara example to me; what the Church did to that child was wicked, but it also happened in the 19th century, and the Church has reformed; this is happening NOW). Posted 10:16 AM | [Link] KEE-RUNCH!: [Rod Dreher] I don't visit the Corner for 12 hours, and look what happens! Now that I'm jacked up on my morning six cups of coffee, I'll write my response. Fear not, Kathryn, I plan to stand down after this (shouldn't we all be getting dressed for Ramesh's wedding later today?), though I should note that readers, whether they side with me or Jonah, report that they've really enjoyed this exchange. I think it's good when we can find an issue on which NR editors disagree, and discuss it in The Corner. Posted 10:10 AM | [Link] YOU GUYS ARE SO NICE... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...I bet many of you would be willing to send me a gift subscripton of National Review on Dead Tree if I asked. Since my job perk is I get a free copy of each issue (sometimes, though, only tear sheets from the pages I specifically worked on), think about giving one to a family member, friend, or colleague (enemies, cool, too--we won't question motives) as a Christmas gift. It's much easier to carry around with you to flip through on the bus, in a restaurant, or wherever, than NRO. Posted 10:09 AM | [Link] IT SOUNDS INCREASINGLY LIKE SPEICHER WAS DEFINITELY CAPTURED [Kathryn Jean Lopez] From the AP: Navy Secretary Gordon England on Friday changed Speicher's official status to missing/captured. "I have no evidence to conclude that Captain Speicher is dead," England wrote. "While the information available to me now does not prove definitively that Captain Speicher is alive and in Iraqi custody, I am personally convinced the Iraqis seized him sometime after his plane went down. Further, it is my firm belief that the government of Iraq knows what happened to Captain Speicher." Posted 9:50 AM | [Link] SAPPY SATURDAY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] This is nothing new, but I have been getting a lot of great e-mail lately. As my Corner colleagues know, we have terrific readers—who send great ideas, suggestions, complaints, and comments. I am still amazed by the pre-8 AM e-mail that came in yesterday as the Carter thing hit the news, but then it’s really not all that uncharacteristic of you’all. We’re honored you read us, interact with us, and send our links to your family and friends. We may not always write back—I, personally, am admittedly terrible at e-mail management and admire those who are better at it—but we’re always reading them and appreciating them, and making them a part of our work. (Is it the Couch or Cosmo who would now ask “You call that work?”) Please keep them coming. And, thanks. Posted 9:44 AM | [Link] SNIPER INFO [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A few readers have actually e-mailed in the last day or two asking for the law-enforcement phone number for reporting any information on the sniper. And, so, if you need it, and have credible info to report (as opposed to conspiracy theories), it is: 1-888-324-9800. Posted 9:43 AM | [Link] SNIPER PROFILING [John Derbyshire] Colin Ferguson, the Long Island Railroad killer of December 1993 did his deed on the train just ahead of mine. My train was delayed for an hour and a half. When I got home my wife was worried sick (this was pre-cellphone). The neighbors had come in to rally round. They had all been watching the news coverage on TV. Rosie reports that people kept saying: "It must be a black guy. If he was white, they would have told us...." Posted 9:21 AM | [Link] DON'T WORRY K-LO [Jonah Goldberg] I think I've got it out of my system. I am done with the Crunchy con thing. Posted 9:20 AM | [Link] THE T WORD [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A Fox reporter just referred to the sniper murders as “acts of terror” and followed up with Ari at his press briefing yesterday addressing it (making it clear it is, so to speak, a "homeland" issue--I do hate that word). Doesn't have to mean a jihadist. Seems even if the murder(s) are not, terror is the right word. Posted 9:17 AM | [Link] WONDERING [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Seems there's reporting that witnesses have seen two people in a white van, possibly one blond woman we heard yesterday from a gas-station witness in Spotsylvania, but the police/FBI are offering no description of the suspects. I'm not talking about profiling here, and maybe the FBI/police are getting too many differing stories, but whenever there's no description of the suspects, you can't help but wonder. And in a quick scan of the stories, I notice references to authorities bringing people in who “fit the description" of the suspects, so they appear to have a sketch to work off. The public silence seems to give more credence to the Jim/Jonah theory. Just a thought. Posted 9:16 AM | [Link] WONDERING [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Seems there's reporting that witnesses have seen two people in a white van, possibly one blond woman we heard yesterday from a gas-station witness in Spotsylvania, but the police/FBI are offering no description of the suspects. I'm not talking about profiling here, and maybe the FBI/police are getting too many differing stories, but whenever there's no description of the suspects, you can't help but wonder. And in a quick scan of the stories, I notice references to authorities bringing people in who “fit the description" of the suspects, so they appear to have a sketch to work off. The public silence seems to give more credence to the Jim/Jonah theory. Just a thought. Posted 9:16 AM | [Link] ANOTHER BOMBER IN ISRAEL STOPPED MINUTES BEFORE AN ATTACK [Kathryn Jean Lopez] This time due to the work of U.S. Embassy security (he was at a Tel Aviv cafe by the U.S. embassy) and a cafe security guard. Posted 8:55 AM | [Link] EVERYONE NOTICE THIS HELSINKI BOMBING? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Little to no motive talk, so far as I can see. Six dead. Posted 8:52 AM | [Link] THERE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE FIVE PLANES? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] New 9/11 info. Posted 7:50 AM | [Link] BEHIND THE FAMOUS MONTANA AD [Kathryn Jean Lopez] John Berlau reports that the internal polling on both sides found that the Taylor-Baucus race was much closer than other polls were reporting. And, interestingly, the ad was a national project, a project of the DSCC. Posted 7:46 AM | [Link] I LOVE FOX [Kathryn Jean Lopez] They are showing a photo of the Carters with Castro from earlier this year, right now. Posted 7:24 AM | [Link] MAYOR BRAT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I don't know how much people in the outside world care about this story--I'm not even sure how many New Yorkers or even Italians do--but Mayor Bloomberg made a silly mistake in inviting cast members of The Sopranos to the big city's Columbus Day parade. But instead of just taking the private group's decision and walking without "my friends," he's boycotting the parade now. Anyone could have warned Bloomberg this would have played out this way. Maybe he just has other things he wants to do Monday and needed an excuse? Posted 7:23 AM | [Link] LETTER OF THE MONTH [John Derbyshire] For connoisseurs of "Letters to the Editor." The cover story of the October 5th issue of The Economist was about the election in Brazil, with a banner headline THE MEANING OF LULA. This was a reference to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, head of the country's biggest left-wing party. Well, the current Economist carries a letter from one Asif Niazi, address given only as "Canada." The letter reads as follows: "Sir--'The meaning of Lula' (October 5th) in Urdu is penis." Posted 6:48 AM | [Link] SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I TURN OFF THE COMPUTER! [Kathryn Jean Lopez] :-) Posted 6:46 AM | [Link]
AND LASTLY [Jonah Goldberg] There is federalism. In a properly constituted republic, local communities could be as crunchy or as libertarian as they like. I have always supported the right of local communities to be as Christian or as gay or as whatever they want to be. Federalism solves almost all libertarian-conservative battles. And that, too, is not a new point in the conservative arsenal. Posted 4:39 PM | [Link] AS FOR SMOKING AND BEER.... [Jonah Goldberg] I agree with you entirely that there are areas where politics and lifestyle intersect very closely. And I'd like to reduce the number of areas where that happens. The Left made smoking a political issue, not the Right. And that is instructive because it shows what happens when people make lifestyle and politics inseparable. Now, I am not a libertarian and nobody would ever accuse me of being one. But for a movement which in your words is skeptical of the free market, smoking and beer do not strike me as the best examples because if the free market were allowed to function properly, bars would be allowed to decide for themselves whether they wanted to allow smoking and the government would not be granting favors to the big brewers. Posted 4:36 PM | [Link] KIRK’S REAL PASSION [Jonah Goldberg] Let me put it another way. Let’s stick with Russell Kirk. Kirk believed in ghosts, spirits and other things which go bump in the night. He was passionate about their existence and even admitted to having spoken with many of them in his Mecosta, Michigan manse. And unlike anything remotely resembling Crunchy Conservatism, he wrote widely on the subject including numerous ghost and horror stories. Indeed, one of the three most important awards he ever received was the Radcliffe Award from the Count Dracula Society. Indeed, digging deeper, you’d find that not only Kirk, but C.S. Lewis had interesting things to say about ghosts. And perhaps Chesterton. Digging deeper still, you’d find that the gnostics and the Lord knows who else had cool things to say about ghosts. Now, if you were to announce that you wanted to hear from the many readers of NRO who believe in ghosts, I have no doubt that you would receive more than enough feedback to make it seem like there is a movement of ghost-conservatives out there. And maybe in fact there are some interesting things to say about ghost conservatives. But we should not lose sight of the fact that it is you who is imposing a larger meaning on these people that previously did not exist (the people existed of course). You continue to discuss crunchy cons as if there is a level of consciousness about this "movement" independent of you. There isn’t. Now it’s possible, as did happen with media drumbeat over Gen X, that you will be able to "educate" people into believing this is an important distinction. And perhaps enough people will buy into it so that it becomes an important distinction. But why exactly do you want to do that? If you have real problems with the free market and corporations I can respect that. Make the movement about those ideas not what the members of the movement buy at the store. Richard Weaver’s book was called "Ideas Have Consequences" not "Clothes Have Consequences." Posted 4:24 PM | [Link] THE JOURNALISTIC CONCEIT [Jonah Goldberg] The problem with your approach to this, in my eyes, is that it is overly journalistic. Much like the Gen X craze which claimed to ascribe tangible and unique political views to tens of millions of people of diverse backgrounds simply because they were born between two arbitrary dates, you are taking a bunch of conservative people who don’t fit the conservative stereotype in terms of what they wear and ascribing to them a coherent and distinct political philosophy. Just like some Time magazine reporter who found five random Gen Xers who’d agree that social security was problem and then concluded that Gen Xers care about social security, you’re finding a bunch of people who happen to have pony tails or sandals and asserting that these are a distinct demographic. I’ve met plenty of blue blazer Republicans who love smart growth and want to keep their local woods intact, are they not allowed in the Crunchy Con Club because they don’t fit the dress code? Posted 4:23 PM | [Link] WELL... [Jonah Goldberg] Okay, since Kathryn isn't here I will engage in some cross crunch conversation. And since we’re all out in the open now we can both dispense with the usual – and sincere caveats – that we’re all friends here. Let me try this again: Rod, why on earth you think that because someone picked up and liked Russell Kirk they are a "crunchy conservative" is beyond me. Kirk wasn’t crunchy in any sense. He was a 19th century patrician who dressed in a dignified manner every day of his life as far as I know. The fact that a bunch of people who wear crunchy clothing now like Kirk doesn’t change that. Why do you put the focus on the clothes and the food preferences rather than on the ideas? If you had written a cover story about conservatives who are rejecting the free market approach of the mainstream conservatives, I’d say "now that’s a good story." If you’d written about the renaissance of Kirkian conservatism or the need for such a renaissance, I’d be keenly interested in such an article as well. But do you really want to say that people who are interested in Kirk are necessarily inclined toward organic food and people who don’t like Kirk aren’t? Why marry the lifestyle to the ideas when there is no reason to think they have anything significant to do with each other? I can guarantee you (as you acknowledge in your piece), that libertarians as a group are far, far, far crunchier than Kirk-followers and they like the free market a great deal. So if you can be crunchy and on the crunchy right but disagree with crunchy cons, shouldn’t we drop the word crunchy and come up with one that defines the holders of ideas rather than the holders of Fresh Fields tote bags? Posted 4:22 PM | [Link] ONE SEC ROD.... [Jonah Goldberg] I just got back from playing with Cosmo. A response will be up in a moment. Posted 4:05 PM | [Link] CRUNCHY PART II: [Rod Dreher] A quick example of the reason I think crunchy-con is a real thing, and why it says something to conservative nonconformists who live in Red America. One Midwestern reader wrote to say he'd always considered himself conservative, but couldn't figure out why his instincts led him to more "liberal" positions on certain issues (e.g., the environment). Then he read my crunchy-con articles, picked up Russell Kirk for the first time, and discovered that his "liberal" instincts were actually pretty conservative -- but conservative in a Kirkian sense. "The problem is that most mainstream conservatives aren't reading Russell Kirk," he wrote. "They're reading Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity." Now, don't get me wrong, I like both Limbaugh and Hannity, and am grateful for their work. But there is a lot more to conservatism than what our most popular personalities espouse, and what the media tells us. People should know about it, and shouldn't be made to feel that they're some kind of liberal for adhering to this strain of conservatism. Posted 3:20 PM | [Link] CRUNCHY FALLOUT: [Rod Dreher] I could be wrong, but my e-mail suggests that not a few readers are getting a kick out of reading Jonah and me sparring over this crunchy-con thing. So I'm game for keeping it up for a couple more days if you are, Jonah -- as long as we have useful things to say. I'd like to respond to your contention in the current G-File that crunchy-con is merely a cover for a way of politicizing lifestyle choices. I think you're wrong, and for a couple of reasons. For one thing, at times, lifestyle can't help but be political, inasmuch as politics is the process by which we agree on the rules we're going to live with. Look at the anti-smoking charge NYC's Mayor Bloomberg is on. For his supporters, this is about defending the rights of non-smokers to breathe smoke-free air in bars; for his opponents, this is about defending the rights of bar owners to set the rules in their own establishments (I'm with the bar owners, by the way). To smoke or not to smoke is a lifestyle choice, but when it happens in public, it's political. The same principle applies to something as seemingly esoteric as, say, beer. Say you don't like mass-produced beer, and are partial to microbrews. You may have to get involved politically to open up the market and distribution systems to small brewers. You could say that that's about a bunch of fancy-pants yuppies politicizing taste, or you could say that it's about expanding the market, about supporting small businessmen, about reviving the old craft of artisanal beer-brewing, etc. My point with the crunchy-con thing is that too many mainstream conservatives are quick to write off these things as mere questions of taste, when in fact there are political considerations inherent in the choices (if only by creating a place in the public square where conservatives who want to make those choices, e.g. homeschooling, can do so). Posted 3:13 PM | [Link] PAPA GOLDBERG: [Rod Dreher] I'm thrilled you're going to be a daddy, Jonah. You can't possibly imagine now how wonderful it is, and how it shakes up your assumptions in unexpected ways. I may dread saying this, because few things are as annoying as people writing about their kids, but I do hope you'll make Life with Baby a semi-regular G-File topic. I suspect you'll have really interesting things to say about what being responsible for another life does to one's politics and passions. And if Jessica ever wants to know how to make healthy baby food at home, without spending good money to buy factory-regurgitated crap, you know who to call. Posted 3:02 PM | [Link] MISSING-CAPTURED [Kathryn Jean Lopez] More on the change of status, which has been in the works... Posted 2:49 PM | [Link] EXPLODING BRAINS [John Derbyshire] OWLS. "Exploding owls." That's it. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Don't know what's the matter with me today. Prob. something to do with these letters from enraged Hiberno-fascists NR keeps faxing to me. (BTW Julie: the green ink doesn't come through too well on fax, cd you please photocopy before sending? And no, there is no need to send on those big bulky packages with Boston postmarks, I'll pick them up next time I'm in the office... Next year, perhaps....) Posted 2:40 PM | [Link] ROD... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...just read Andrew's review of Amis, save yourself time. Posted 2:36 PM | [Link] EXPLODING E-MAILS [John Derbyshire] Sorry, sorry: I meant "exploding habits." Think Franciscan suicide bombers. Posted 2:33 PM | [Link] EXPLODING HOBBITS [John Derbyshire] Sorry, typo: that subject line should of course have read "exploding hobbits." Posted 2:32 PM | [Link] KOBA'S TALLY: [Rod Dreher] Someone gave me a copy of Martin Amis's Koba the Dread, which is about Stalin and his Western defenders on the intellectual left. I'm reading Hitchens' book on Orwell now, and I hadn't planned to read Amis anytime soon. Nevertheless, I just glanced at the first page, and shuddered when I read this: Here is the second sentence of Robert Conquest's The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine: 'We may perhaps put this in perspective in the present case by saying that in the actions here recorded about twenty human lives were lost for, not every word, but every letter, in this book.' That sentence represents 3,040 lives. The book is 411 pages long. Why does the moral rottenness of the left European intellectuals who choose the Nobel Peace laureates come to mind...? Posted 2:28 PM | [Link] EXPLODING RABBITS [John Derbyshire] Oh, I get it! "Who... Who... Who..." sounds like an owl, see? Brilliant! My opinion of Amiri Baraka's poetic skills just went up a notch... from -6,491 to -6,490. And yes, thanks, I am now thoroughly familiar with Senator Theodore G. Bilbo of Mississippi, and aware that he was, though very short in stature, definitely not a hobbit. Posted 2:12 PM | [Link] THE SPEICHER STORY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] If you need a refresher. Posted 2:00 PM | [Link] BREAKING [Kathryn Jean Lopez] From CNN: The U.S. changes the status of Navy Capt. Scott Speicher, shot down over Iraq in January 1991, to missing-captured. Details soon. Posted 1:54 PM | [Link] HERE YOU GO.... [Jonah Goldberg] Cosmo is not only real, he is an avid NR subscriber. He particularly likes Derbyshire's articles about the Chinese, because, you know. Posted 1:39 PM | [Link] THE SUNDAY SHOW SCHEDULE!!! [Staff] Posted 1:28 PM | [Link] RE: I DON'T UNDERSTAND [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I think they just think he's too cool to be real or something odd like that. I don't know, they are your fans. Posted 1:22 PM | [Link] EXHIBIT A [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The most recent Washington U posting was incorrectly attributed to me instead of the Man, Stan. You know who did that. Posted 1:21 PM | [Link] I DON'T UNDERSTAND [Jonah Goldberg] How can people think Cosmo isn't real? If I knew how to post pictures in the Corner I'd put 'em up. But how can people think he's not real? As for Kathryn sleeping -- of course she doesn't sleep. I mean, how could she? Posted 1:19 PM | [Link] FAQ [Kathryn Jean Lopez] One of the most frequently asked questions I get, after, "Is Cosmo real?" is "Do you sleep?" The answer: Not often. And you can tell. Posted 1:10 PM | [Link] THE NOBEL VOTING HAS ENDED [Kathryn Jean Lopez] My inbox has exploded. Thanks to everyone who voted. Check in this weekend for results (gotta keep you coming back). Posted 1:08 PM | [Link] RE: TRY AGAIN [Jonah Goldberg] In fact, I'm seeking reparations from the Egyptian government for the enslavement of the Hebrews. Though, I should say, there is some controversy about whether the Hebrews actually built the pyramids. But, that's a different kettle of fish. Posted 1:06 PM | [Link] LATEST FROM WASHINGTON U [Stanley Kurtz] It looks like the current case of p.c. extremism at Washington University Law School is no fluke. A reader tell me that about a year ago (before or after 9/11?) the school voted to deny tuition wavers to graduates planning military law careers–even though the waivers were offered to students planning other government careers. The reason given, of course, was the “don’t ask, don’t tell,” although you can bet that a general hostility to the military was at work as well. My reader isn’t certain, but he thinks the block on waivers for the military was rolled back by public outcry. Clarification from readers on this and other Washington University history would be welcome. Posted 12:53 PM | [Link] TRY AGAIN [James S. Robbins] Former Jordanian Ambassador to Iraq Bassam Qakish on all the fuss about Saddam Hussein's palaces: “The pharaohs built the pyramids, and nobody blamed them because thousands of people died." Except maybe Moses? Posted 12:47 PM | [Link] VEHICLE PROFILING [Jonah Goldberg] I am outraged, however, by all of this talk of pulling over only "white vans." Why only white vans? What about black vans? In this age of political correctness are white vans the only vans it's okay to harass these days? I mean what have things....oh forget it. Posted 12:38 PM | [Link] THE SNIPER [Jonah Goldberg] I'm with Jim in thinking this is part of the Fall offensive, along with the attacks in Kuwait and off the coast of Yemen. Obviously, we won't know for sure. But what I find most persuasive is the possibility that this is a two man team. That just strikes me as way too professional. Also, the syntax on the "Dear Mr. Policeman" note was weird (though sacriligious). Also, and this, I think, might be a bit of a stretch, but the fact that so many victims are people pumping gas sounds like it might be symbolic. All of these al Quaeda types make such a big deal about our foreign policy being a product of our thirst for oil to feed our cars. Maybe that means something. Or maybe, it's just that gas purchasers make easier targets. Anyway, it's getting pretty bad around here. Posted 12:28 PM | [Link] RE: DEMOCRACY V. ISLAM V. NYT [Stanley Kurtz] Yes, Jonah. People sometimes forget how slow the expansion of the franchise was, even in Europe. It took time for a population unschooled in democracy, and often illiterate, to acquire democratic habits and understand democratic principles. Even as great a liberal democrat as John Stuart Mill was adamant that democracy and universal suffrage were unworkable if the underlying cultural conditions were not first in place: “When a people have no sufficient value for, and attachment to, a representative constitution, they have next to no chance of retaining it.” Posted 11:56 AM | [Link] RE: CONSOLATION [KJL] Andrew, it's the only consolation, but, man, is it sweet. Posted 11:47 AM | [Link] CARTER'S PRIZE : A CONSOLATION [Andrew Stuttaford] Bill Clinton is mad as hell. Posted 11:46 AM | [Link] BY THE WAY.... [Jonah Goldberg] The Goldberg File is up and, while I don't normally say this sort of thing, you should probably read the whole thing. You'll see what I mean. Posted 11:28 AM | [Link] DEMOCRACY V. ISLAM V. NYT [Jonah Goldberg] Stan, I agree entirely that democracy comes slowly, especially in Islamic countries. This in fact has been the cause of my biggest peeves with the New York Times. The Times has always argued that democracy trumps any threat to the rule of law. They editorialized in favor of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s return to Iran because they couldn’t stand the Shah and his friendship with the US. They argued that Khomeini should be allowed back in Iran because he was so popular and, well, popularity is the heart of democracy. I wonder if they’re still pleased with how things turned out. They editorialized against the decision in Algeria a decade ago which prevented Islamic extremists from taking over despite their successful and popular campaign based on the Koran and a promise to abolish democracy. And just last Sunday, the Times denounced the Turkish military for its power to veto any election which might serve to repeal a secular government and replace it with religious fanatics. The Times has always believed it's better to have one free election – and just one – then the longstanding rule of law and the prospect for a permanent democratic culture. This is my biggest fear about a post-War Iraq: the New York Times crowd will force the US to implement a flimsy democracy on Iraq too soon because the New York Times has never learned from its own mistakes. Posted 11:20 AM | [Link] RE: NO OFFENSE... [Stanley Kurtz] You’re right Kathryn. Musharraf is still essentially a dictator and still has the power to override or dissolve the parliament. Having consolidated that power, he was willing to risk a baby-step back toward democracy. But that baby-step has tripped him up. It undermines his legitimacy, and makes a coup by a disgruntled public aware of their own increasing unhappiness with their pro-American leader more likely. It also complicates efforts in the area near Afghanistan, because even if a local government of fundamentalists can be overridden, they can be a nuisance. But the real significance of this vote is the warning sign it gives about moving toward democracy before the groundwork has be laid. What if Pakistan really was a full democracy? Then the rise of the fundamentalists would be a very serious problem. That’s what we have to remember as we move into a post-war Iraq. Posted 11:19 AM | [Link] RE: ANOTHER BELTWAY-AREA SHOOTING [James S. Robbins] I wonder when the authorities are going to figure out the the sniper attacks are part of al Qaeda fall offensive? Posted 11:13 AM | [Link] ANOTHER BELTWAY-AREA SHOOTING [KJL] Posted 11:13 AM | [Link] ONE MORE... [James S. Robbins] Also there was a huge bomb blast in Chechnya. The bad guys are on the offensive everywhere Posted 10:58 AM | [Link] NO OFFENSE... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...but, can't Musharaf still just do what dictators do, ignore the election? Posted 10:56 AM | [Link] NOT SO EASY [Stanley Kurtz] Aside from the practical problems, the Pakistani election is a real warning sign for those who look for a quick an easy establishment of democracy in the Muslim world. Here is a case where even a cautious move toward a restoration of democracy and parliamentary government has seriously undercut pro-American forces and given a major boost to Muslim fundamentalists (who pledge, not more democracy, but expulsion of U.S. forces and establishment of Islamic law). Even Islamabad, filled with the middle classes and the governing elite, elected a fundamentalist, to the surprise of all. In the long term, we need democracy in the Middle East, but too quick a transition, before a liberal civil society has been built, will only play into the hands of fundamentalists. Posted 10:55 AM | [Link] AND IN PAKISTAN... [Stanley Kurtz] Sobering news from Pakistan today, where pro-American president Pervez Musharraf’s party was badly set back in parliamentary elections. The problem was less the strong showing of the secular opposition parties than the surprising rise of the Muslim fundamentalists–who took up to 30 seats, when their best previous showing was 9. The result is a loss of legitimacy for Musharraf and the takeover of the province near Afghanistan by a local fundamentalist government. This will weaken Musharraf nationally, and make it much harder for Americans to root out al-Qaeda flooding into Pakistan from Afghanistan. Posted 10:54 AM | [Link] LISTENING TO AL QAEDA [James S. Robbins] An excerpt from the al Qaeda intercepts (Salmane is Lazer Ben Khaklifa, an al Qaeda operative known as "the Postman" because acts as a courier for forged documents. The Postman is a Tunisian. This comes courtesy of Corriere della Sera, a Milanese daily.): [Salmane] Yes, there are new developments. It is up to you. You remember the "program" I mentioned to you the other time? The one that strengthens faith? Posted 10:53 AM | [Link] TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM [Jonah Goldberg] From CNSNews.com:
Posted 10:52 AM | [Link] MORE FROM ITALY [James S. Robbins] Italian police have also apprehended five Pakistanis video taping the Gigli shopping mall near Florence. Three of them had no identity paers. They claimed to have making the tape as a souvenier to show family back home, but why were they filming scenes of the parking lot? Posted 10:48 AM | [Link] SCORE ANOTHER ONE FOR ITALY [James S. Robbins] Italian police have moved against a four man al Qaeda cell operating in Naples and Milan after intercepting a phone call from Switzerland in which one of the terrorists said, "We are ready to start the match." Chillingly similar to the NSA intercept from September 10, 2001 (interpreted too late, alas), "The match starts tomorrow." More evidence that we are in the middle of a new phase of the war. We're still winning, but stay safe out there. Posted 10:47 AM | [Link] THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS [James S. Robbins] In an interview in the Saudi magazine Al Majallah, Al Qaeda spokesman Abd-al-Rahman al-Rashid states that Saddam Hussein "is at the top of Al-Qa'ida's assassination list." He goes on to say that "Saddam is exactly like Bush in barbarism, cruelty, and unbelief." Sure would be ironic if Osama's crew brought about regime change for us. Conversely, if Saddam hands over the al Qaeda leadership, would we pay him the reward money? Posted 10:45 AM | [Link] THE EVIL OF IRAQ [Jonah Goldberg] This is simply riveting reading. It's an interview with a German lefty who knows Iraq first hand and is quite honest about its horrors. This is excellent ammunition for people who say comparisons to Hitler and Stalin are overblown. Posted 9:45 AM | [Link] CAN FRANK LAUTENBERG WRITE THE G-FILE FOR ME? [Jonah Goldberg] Following is the script of "The Lesson," a commercial running in New Jersey (thanks to the Hotline): BOY NO. 1 [taking a test]: Aw man, I can't do this. I quit! Teacher? TEACHER: Yes? BOY NO. 2: If I fail this test, can I have Frank Lautenberg take it for me? ANNOUNCER [v/o]: Torricelli and Lautenberg are teaching our children the wrong lessons. BOY NO. 2 [playing basketball]: Aw, I'm losing. I quit! Let Frank Lautenberg play for me. ANNOUNCER: Tell your children you don't just quit because you're losing. BOY NO. 2: Torricelli can quit, I can quit. I'm not gonna lose. (On screen: Paid for by the NJ State Republican Comm. George Buckwald, Treasurer. Without the consent, coordination or authorization of Forrester 2002) Posted 9:40 AM | [Link] ACTUALLY.... [Jonah Goldberg] Jay Nordlinger's take[s] on Jimmy Carter, HGM, are more authoritative and comprehensive than the column I linked to below. Posted 9:34 AM | [Link] DERB.... [Jonah Goldberg] How do you deal with Miami University in Oxford Ohio? Posted 9:29 AM | [Link] JIMMY CARTER!? [Jonah Goldberg] He's history's greatest monster! Posted 9:25 AM | [Link] ARE UNION LEADERS ANTIWAR? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Do read Steve Silbiger's piece. Posted 9:18 AM | [Link] DISORIENTED [John Derbyshire] Can anyone tell me why Washington University is in St. Louis? I mean, why isn't it in Washington? Sheesh, I have enough trouble with Washington DC and Washington State. Posted 9:07 AM | [Link] REX REED, OF ALL PEOPLE: [Rod Dreher] Mark Shea points out that movie critic Rex Reed, of all people, is sick of lefty blowhard Michael Moore's exhibitionism. (Scroll down for the review). Posted 8:55 AM | [Link] UNHAPPY ADMINISTRATORS [Stanley Kurtz] Washington University administrators are clearly reeling from the public’s angry reaction to their suppression of the pro-life student group. Last night, they appeared before the Law Student’s association and said that the scandal was doing real damage to Washington University’s reputation. They were hoping the students would come around and recognize the pro-life organization, but the law students refused. The administrators don’t want to reverse the student’s decision. The argument now being used against the pro-lifers is that they are a “single issue” group with a “narrow political agenda.” Actually, there are several pro-life issues at stake, and the law school already recognizes OUTLAW, a group advocating tolerance for those who are ”sexually diverse.” This is obviously a politically motivated double standard that flies in the face of the most basic belief in freedom of association. (Here’s Erin O’Connor on campus free association.) The students and administrators of Washington University have acted deliberately, repeatedly, and shamefully to suppress the pro-lifers. Washington University deserves every bit of bad publicity that it gets. Posted 8:09 AM | [Link] WASHINGTON U. UPDATE [Stanley Kurtz] Washington University Law School continues to withhold recognition from a student pro-life group, even after much adverse publicity from FIRE. Corner readers did excellent work yesterday flooding Washington University with e-mails. Read this account of the outrage and send more e-mails, if you like, to the addresses at the bottom. Oh, and here’s a taste of the sort of reply you might get. Posted 8:07 AM | [Link] DECLINE AND FALL [Andrew Stuttaford] Three American presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize: Roosevelt (1906), Wilson (1919) and, now, Carter... Posted 8:00 AM | [Link] WILL MCNAMARA APOLOGIZE TO CASTRO? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Cuban Missile Crisis vets retreat to Havana. Posted 7:47 AM | [Link] I'LL STOP GRUMBLING, SOON... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...but it was the lead story on The Today Show. Congress votes to give the president authorization to move into Iraq and Jimmy Carter's meaningless award is the top story. Of course, it's not meaningless when it was meant as a slap in the face to the current administration. Posted 7:03 AM | [Link] GIVE ME AN EVIL PRIZE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Tunku Varadarajan at the Journal wants nothing to do with a peace prize. Posted 6:57 AM | [Link] NOOOOOOOOOOO [Andrew Stuttaford] Carter's Nobel prize: mush for the wimp? Posted 6:54 AM | [Link] HOW SWEET [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat exchange holiday greetings. Posted 6:34 AM | [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 6:34 AM | [Link] MR. HUMAN RIGHTS, REALLY? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] We'll post this on the homepage in a little bit, but in the meantime, here's an excerpt from a Jay Nordlinger piece from May on the peace man: Care for a quick walk down Memory Lane? Joshua Muravchik reminded us of some Carter nuggets in a 1994 piece for The New Republic. While in office, Carter hailed Tito as "a man who believes in human rights." He said of Ceausescu and himself, "Our goals are the same: to have a just system of economics and politics . . . We believe in enhancing human rights." Since leaving office, Carter has praised Syria's late Assad (killer of at least 20,000 in Hama) and the Ethiopian tyrant Mengistu (killer of many more than that). In Haiti, he told the dictator Cédras that he was "ashamed of what my country has done to your country." Posted 6:18 AM | [Link] OKAY, SO VOTE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Who would you have given the Peace Prize to? (pretend the thing actually has meaning. Just pretend.) I'll publish results sometime this weekend. NOTE: Subject line should read VOTE. Thanks. Posted 6:14 AM | [Link] JUST LIKE THE GARDEN STATE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Of course, at John Derb will tell you in a few hours on the main page, that's not too far off from the poet laureate of New Jersey. Posted 6:10 AM | [Link] AND FROM JORDAN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] "As for you, black Condoleezza Rice, swallow your tongue, remember your origins and stop talking about liberation and freedom. Have you not been taught by your cowboy masters that 'slaves' cannot liberate themselves, that they are not capable to capture the large Islamic world whose cultural roots are planted in the depths of history The slaves who are happy with their enslavement, O Condoleezza, will continue to be enslaved. They will never be free and will never free others." Posted 6:10 AM | [Link] EGYPTIAN OPPOSITION TO DR.RICE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Condi Rice made comments on bringing democracy and freedom to Iraq and an Egyptian newspaper said thus (translation, of course, courtesy of MEMRI): In the Egyptian opposition weekly Al-Usbu', National Security Advisor Rice is the subject of a vicious attack by the columnist, Hani Zaid, who wrote under the title: "Condoleezza Rice—National Security Advisor in the rank of a little prostitute": "Ms. Rice persists in treating the Arabs as the masters treated the slaves or the students who have not reached the age of maturity in one of the American schools... Rice talks about teaching us democracy and freedom. She ignores the racism which prevailed when she was a child in Alabama where she attended segregated schools for blacks because she was a black Negro from African origins. She passed her holidays in parks specifically designated for blacks, and she was not allowed to enter restaurants for white people only. When she was 9, she participated in the funerals of four of her Negro friends who were murdered in a racist attack at a Baptist church in Westminster. She has forgotten all of this. What she remembers is the study of Zionism in the hands of Joseph Corwellthe father of Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state, in the faculty for political science at Stanford (sic) ... All there is for me to say to this lady and to her administration...[is] we do not need lessons from anybody." Posted 6:07 AM | [Link] I AM OFFICIALLY AMAZED... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...about the number of Corner readers who have emailed me at this hour to complain about the Carter prize. Posted 6:02 AM | [Link] ARGH [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Here's Reuters: The committee also criticized President Bush and his campaign to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Carter has said it would be a tragic and costly error for the United States to attack Iraq without U.N. support. Posted 6:00 AM | [Link] NEXT UP [Kathryn Jean Lopez] You know next year it'll be Kofi Annan (again) for trying to stop bloodthirsty American cowboys from attacking Iraq. Posted 5:53 AM | [Link] IT COULD'VE BEEN BONO [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I don't see it one the wires yet, but a reader from Norway e-mails that Jimmy Carter has been named this year's Nobel Preace Prize winner. (Here's who was in the running.) Posted 5:52 AM | [Link] SOMETHING FEELS OFF... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...when NYers are protesting Hillary. Posted 12:02 AM | [Link]
THE AD THAT CHANGED MONTANA POLITICS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] How did the Democrats get away with this? Imagine if this had played out differently: If a Republican ran a hairdresser ad about his Democratic opponent like this. Watch the ad. Listen to the music. You'll see what I mean. Posted 9:54 PM | [Link] MUSLIMS FOR THE AMERICAN WAY [ Mike Potemra] Thanks to Stephen Schwartz for pointing out this website--it's run by patriotic Americans who practice the Muslim faith. Islamic spirituality-like all other religions-flourishes in our pluralistic country, and these Muslims join their fellow Americans in defending our (freely chosen) ways of life against the terroristic would-be theocrats. Posted 6:51 PM | [Link] READER WANTS A RETRACTION [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Aforementioned quoted Oxygen-viewing reader sends me an emergency email: "I do NOT watch the Oxygen network, thus the disclaimer of "just flicking through". It was the Iraqi dissident that caught my attention. I just hung around long enough to discover Oprah's shocking reaction." I suspected. Posted 5:59 PM | [Link] :-) [Kathryn Jean Lopez] You saw that coming, didn't you? Posted 5:53 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 5:52 PM | [Link] WE DO NOT... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...by the way, endorse you reading a friend's copy. Every man, woman, child, even dog (Ask Cosmo), deserves his own subscription to National Review. Posted 5:52 PM | [Link] NRO KILLS TREES TOO [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A faithful reader writes: You know how you always talk about the Dead Tree edition? Well, I happen to kill more trees with NRO than I would subscribing to NR (I read my friend's copy, so don't worry, I read it.). I daily print off the NRO articles (where's the G-File?!?!). Granted, I use the "Print Version," but I still print at least 20 pages a day (I print the Corner, too). And I know I'm not the only one. I see oher NRO readers on MARTA all the time. Posted 5:45 PM | [Link] EVEN WORSE THAN BIDEN [Jonathan Adler] Roll Call provides more evidence that Senator Leahy is more partisan, and far less-disposed to fair play, than Senator Biden ever was as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy deep-sixed a vote on judicial nominee Dennis Shedd -- despite prior assurances that there would be a vote -- because Shedd would have won a committee vote. As Biden told Roll Call, "If there is a vote on Shedd, Shedd wins." Posted 5:12 PM | [Link] CAN MONTANANS PULL A TORRICELLI? [Jonathan Adler] The GOP Senate candidate in Montana has withdrawn from the race, and now there's talk of a replacement. Stay tuned. Posted 5:12 PM | [Link] WHO KNEW... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] ...that Corner readers also watch Oxygen?! Posted 5:09 PM | [Link] MORE CHEERS FOR OPRAH [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A reader writes: I watched about twenty minutes of "After the Show" by Oprah on the Oxygen network last night. Just flicking through, and saw an Iraqi dissident speaking. Posted 5:09 PM | [Link] CDL. PULJIC, RECONSIDERED: [Rod Dreher] A Catholic American friend who served with US forces in the Balkans writes to take strong exception to the comments of the Archbishop of Sarajevo, which I blogged earlier today. He says that despite Cdl. Puljic's apparent openness to religious dialogue, he is in fact a movement Croat nationalist who had to be forced to sit down to talk with anybody. This reader cautions not to be fooled by the cardinal archbishop's kind and reasonable words, and says that Puljic was a nasty character who had it in for Bosnian Muslims until the U.S. troops arrived to stop him. Me, I don't know, but I trust my friend's judgment. Anybody else have any insight? Posted 4:13 PM | [Link] PASSED! [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The House resolution on Iraq. Posted 3:34 PM | [Link] OUR IRAQ POSITION IS OFFICIALLY COOL [Kathryn Jean Lopez] More on Oprah. It seems she had Stanley's man Kenneth Pollack on (a Clintonite), along with Judith Miller of the NYT. A well-informed NRO friend who watched--and swears he was given a heads-up, he does not watch regularly--tells me: "of all that I have seen, or heard, politics be damned, i would use this show to convince the masses." It was "a well thought out indictment of Saddam." Posted 3:12 PM | [Link] @#$% FUNNY [Jonah Goldberg] I think this is hilarious. Be warned it has curse wrods in it -- for those of you who complain about not being warned of such things. Posted 2:50 PM | [Link] OPRAH'S ON? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] My e-mail box suggests that Oprah Winfrey might be pro-Iraq invasion. Anyone want to educate me? Posted 2:44 PM | [Link] SUPERSTITION WATCH [Andrew Stuttaford] Here's a piece from the Independent on Europe's first school of witchcraft. The curriculum is, apparently, "downright scientific". Amongst other scientific subjects, the course includes, ahem, astrology and ritual magic. Posted 1:55 PM | [Link] NASTY OR NICE? [Andrew Stuttaford] Britain's Tories are currently agonizing over they whether they are or are not 'nasty'. Blogger Natalie Solent has something to say about this. Posted 1:43 PM | [Link] VULTURES [Andrew Stuttaford] The gun control nuts of the 'Violence Policy Center' are doing their best to profit from the Maryland shootings. Tom Diaz, a senior policy analyst at the VPC, is quoted on Bloomberg News clearly attempting to link these murders with something that the VPC refers to as "a growing sniper subculture in the United States". The VPC does at least have the honesty to acknowledge it has no idea who the shooter is, raising the question as to how it is that the organization is able to speak speak so authoritatively about the killer's 'subculture'. Posted 1:22 PM | [Link] SILENT CAL IN CUBA [John Derbyshire] Readers of my novel Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream will recall that the plot hinges on the existence of a professional actor who travels round the country doing a one-man show in which he impersonates Calvin Coolidge. That character was based on Jim Cooke of Quincy, Mass., who actually does do such a show. Now I hear from Jim that he is trying to get a booking in Cuba. See, Silent Cal was the only U.S. president to visit Cuba while in office, and next January is the 75th anniversary of that visit. Jim wants to be there to commemorate the event. Anyone care to estimate his chances of a gig? (And BTW, if your school, company, or club would like to have the 30th president drop in, Jim is available for bookings at Jkoolcal@aol.com.) Posted 12:57 PM | [Link] THE WORST CIVIL-RIGHTS VIOLATION: [Rod Dreher] Reader Jason McCrory draws attention to an upcoming civil-rights march against abortion in the black community, scheduled for Birmingham. Posted 12:56 PM | [Link] PEKING [Andrew Stuttaford] John, in that piece, Jay asks whether anyone remembers 'Peiping'. The answer is yes - Corner readers. When I mentioned 'Peking' in a post a few months ago, a number of Peiping loyalists wrote in to complain about my new-fangled ways. Posted 12:53 PM | [Link] CRUNCHY CHRISTIAN? YES. CONSERVATIVE? WELL...: Tom Sullivan sends along this provocative essay written by Greg Wolfe, the Catholic editor of the arts journal Image. He was apparently once a student of Russell Kirk's, and worked at National Review. He's not on the team anymore, but he has some interesting ideas about the problematic relationship political types have to art and literature. Here Wolfe is bemoaning the "hyper-politicization of our social order," in an observation I think crunchy-cons can agree with: "There is some debate about just how deep the divisions in the culture wars go, but I think it's fair to say that, at the level of public discourse, we witnessed a slide into increasingly shrill, utopian ideological rhetoric on both sides of the aisle. Politics may be a noble calling, but it is always in danger of becoming an end in itself. Political struggles take place over issues that are defined by the underlying culture. And culture, in turn, is nourished by art and religion. With all respect to my elders and betters, I think my generation, which grew up after the '60s, is less interested in manning the ideological battlements and more interested in cultivating the spiritual and imaginative sources of our common life." Posted 12:51 PM | [Link] YOU SAY LIGORNO, I SAY LEGHORN [John Derbyshire] Jay Nordlinger tackles the toponymic snobs in his "Impromptus" today. I did a piece on this a while ago, planting a firm marker for a conservative approach to both toponymy and ethnonymy. Posted 12:39 PM | [Link] CAMPUS RESEGREGATION REPORT [Stanley Kurtz] Speaking of the dangers of an organization like MEChA, an important report has just been issued by the New York Civil Rights Coalition, an organization that favors integration and opposes most forms of affirmative action. The report details the problem of resegregation on college campuses that provide special housing to ethnic groups. Of course, this segregation is a key motivating factor behind the rise of neo-racist organizations like MEChA. Posted 12:01 PM | [Link] RACISM WELCOMED [Stanley Kurtz] While pro-life groups are being banned at Washington University, an organization of Mexican students that is openly racist is thriving on campuses throughout the country. Read David Orland’s chilling account of MEChA over at Boundless. This group may have a right to organize, but that doesn’t mean that it’s racism shouldn’t be condemned and its attempts to stifle the speech of opponents exposed. And by the way, you’ll find in Orland’s piece more evidence of the invaluable work done by FIRE. As I said on NRO last month, if you want to contribute to an organization that really does something about campus p.c., FIRE is for you. Posted 12:00 PM | [Link] BANNING FREE SPEECH AT WASHINGTON U [Stanley Kurtz] Last month I had a piece on NRO about the important work being done by FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). FIRE’s latest case involves a truly outrageous effort by Washington University in St. Louis to prevent a pro-life student group from organizing on campus. The university even pressured this group to include an anti-death penalty plank in its platform–as if it’s their place to tell a student group what position to take. At the bottom of the story linked above, you’ll see e-mail addresses of Washington University officials, to whom you can direct protests, and of the head of the pro-life student group, to whom you can direct help. Posted 11:57 AM | [Link] FAME'S THE SLUR [Kathryn Jean Lopez] So that's what "paleoconservative" means! Posted 11:31 AM | [Link] IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE IN PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Bat Yeor, the Jewish Egyptian-born author of four books on non-Muslims living under Islamic rule, including, most recently, Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide--and a frequent NRO contributor (her most recent piece is here another here, another here ), will be speaking at Brown tonight at 7:30, topic: "Dhimmitude Past and Present: An Invented or Real History?" It's free/open to public and at the Salomon Center for Teaching on "The College Green," Room 001. She's travelling in the U.S., giving a few talks; I'll dig out the Boston, New York, and D.C. info as soon as I make it back to my in-box. Posted 11:24 AM | [Link] UNITED WE STAND! [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A friend reports on the state of the Senate floor right now: Tom Daschle is giving the same speech GWB gave at the UN weeks ago! He's on the floor of the senate trashing Saddam and talking about how he flouted UN resolutions. Posted 10:54 AM | [Link] MEMORY LANE [Jonah Goldberg] If you saw "Law and Order" last night you might recall that they prominently featured a bar called "Cannons." Just a little personal trivia: Cannons was my bar. I started going there regularly with friends from high school in 10th grade and continued going well after college. Whenever my NYC buddies and I get together -- increasingly rare -- that is where we meet. It looks very respectable now, but it used to be a serious Irish dive on the edge of Harlem -- it'd have to be to serve a bunch of underage reprobates like us. I've never given up my love of dives and I owe it all to Cannons. This is probably too much information, but so be it. Posted 10:47 AM | [Link] ANOTHER MARKET NOBEL [Jonathan Adler] Yesterday Vernon Smith of George Mason University and the Mercatus Center was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work developing the field of "experimental economics." Posted 10:40 AM | | |||||||||||||||
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