Hitch Delivers

the political equivalent of the Maxell commercial. Just to calibrate you, this is perhaps one of the least remarkable of its paragraphs:

At once, one sees that all the alternatives [to the invasion of Iraq] would have been infinitely worse, and would most likely have led to an implosion--as well as opportunistic invasions from Iran and Turkey and Saudi Arabia, on behalf of their respective interests or confessional clienteles. This would in turn have necessitated a more costly and bloody intervention by some kind of coalition, much too late and on even worse terms and conditions. This is the lesson of Bosnia and Rwanda yesterday, and of Darfur today. When I have made this point in public, I have never had anyone offer an answer to it. A broken Iraq was in our future no matter what, and was a responsibility (somewhat conditioned by our past blunders) that no decent person could shirk. The only unthinkable policy was one of abstention.

When that's the thin gruel, you need to sit down in your comfy chair and savor this work of art and logic for the better part of the day...

W's perpetually blood-soaked Groundhog Day farce. It's clear to me that he's missed some critical history lessons -- or is keeping them inside of Al Gore's lock box...

More and more dangerous.

More On Democrats "Projecting" Democracy's Failure

The al-Reuters/ Liberal Democrat party line is that Democracy is bound to fail with (those stupid brownie) Muslims:



WHOOPS! Looks like al-Reuters let a dose of actual reality from Afghanistan get by their thought police! I'm sure it will be noticed and taken down soon. Problem is, I've linked to a copy on Power Line so just like my previous post on the Palestinians, they can memory hole to their hearts content but to no avail...

Has anyone noticed the irony of our "Democratic Party"?

They're the one's who don't think democracy is working in America! (W "stole" the election, yada, yada, yada... The last one to the tune of some 3 million votes as I recall -- did I forget to mention that I control Karl Rove?)

Is it any wonder they don't think democracy can work anywhere else?

Can you say projection?

The Trouble With The Internet

"Palestinians flying airplanes into New York. Hmm. Why does that not give me a warm, cozy feeling?"

The trouble with the internet is that it makes it harder to bury history like this over at LGF:

Atlas Shrugs on misogyny and apocalypse.

There are no more than, oh, say, tens of millions of conservatives a lot like this. But the lamestream brainwashing goes on...

Look around you. You might see some people like this.

I love the lamestream media. (HT Power Line for the terminology -- and a nice reminder what amazing folks are keeping us free...)

UPDATE: And check out WoC's take on it -- especially the last paragraph...

The very large distraction.

And then there were 3. Not to mention Mickey and Minuteman.

"To stay cheerful when involved in a gloomy and exceedingly responsible business is no inconsiderable art: yet what could be more necessary than cheerfulness? Nothing succeeds in which high spirits play no part."

He invented the internet war.

Did I forget to mention that tribal mysogyny leads to ... INBREEDING?

Rethinking Viral Terrorism

WOW:

"Cindy Sheehan just finished her morning media event. When asked by reporters, Sheehan said she believes that while she supports the continued hunt for Osama bin Laden she believes the U.S. should withdraw from Afghanistan and “stop bombing innocent people.” She also described Osama bin Laden as being “allegedly” behind the attacks of 9/11." -- The Buzz

In other words: Osama didn't do it, and we should withdraw from Afghanistan but still hunt for him.

Cuckoo. Cuckoo. Cuckoo.

It appears that just as a meme has arisen about treating terrorism as a virus, the MSM/Dems have a virus of their own to contend with -- terror lunacy.

This raises the disturbing possibility that they're actually NOT Gramscian neo-Syndicalists.

They're just escaped inmates. Time to enforce the laws, folks.

Specter Into Danger???

One could be forgiven for reading this letter from Sen. Specter to FBI Director Mueller as evidence that Specter is not a lightweight after all.

Interestingly, the Captain seems to speculate that it's the FBI who refused the meetings -- but Shaffer seems to be saying that it was the Special Ops legal eagles that caused the Able Danger folks not to show up for the meetings.

Around and around we go ... orbiting the invisible Jamie Gorelick the whole time.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EUROPE: "A Belgian city, having banned wearing the burka, has convicted and fined the first offender. But since the woman is on benefits, the city will almost certainly pick up the 125 Euro fine. One wonders, had there been a prison sentence, whether the city would have provided someone to serve the time for her. " (HT WoC)

D'OH. (HT WoC)

"That's the difference between the terrorists and us," Chaplain Wilson kept saying. "Don't you understand? That's the difference." (HT Glenn)

UPDATE: Hugh reminds us that Thucydides had some words relevant to Michael Yon and the soldiers he follows: "The secret to happiness is freedom and the secret to freedom is courage."

My ELCA appears to have joined some wonderful racist company...

The Innumerate Left (Part 42,643)

I have made previous posts about the left's innumeracy in assessing the war's casualties. Now, Power Line hits one into the left field bleachers:

Sometimes it becomes necessary to state the obvious: being a soldier is a dangerous thing. This is why we honor our service members' courage. For a soldier, sailor or Marine, "courage" isn't an easily-abused abstraction--"it took a lot of courage to vote against the farm bill"--it's a requirement of the job.

Even in peacetime. The media's breathless tabulation of casualties in Iraq--now, over 1,800 deaths--is generally devoid of context. Here's some context: between 1983 and 1996, 18,006 American military personnel died accidentally in the service of their country. That death rate of 1,286 per year exceeds the rate of combat deaths in Iraq by a ratio of nearly two to one.

That's right: all through the years when hardly anyone was paying attention, soldiers, sailors and Marines were dying in accidents, training and otherwise, at nearly twice the rate of combat deaths in Iraq from the start of the war in 2003 to the present. Somehow, though, when there was no political hay to be made, I don't recall any great outcry, or gleeful reporting, or erecting of crosses in the President's home town. In fact, I'll offer a free six-pack to the first person who can find evidence that any liberal expressed concern--any concern--about the 18,006 American service members who died accidentally in service of their country from 1983 to 1996.

The point? Being a soldier is not safe, and never will be. Driving in my car this afternoon, I heard a mainstream media reporter say that around 2,000 service men and women have died in Afghanistan and Iraq "on President Bush's watch." As though the job of the Commander in Chief were to make the jobs of our soldiers safe. They're not safe, and they never will be safe, in peacetime, let alone wartime.

Did I forget to mention that there are an average of over 40,000 TRAFFIC FATALITIES ALONE in the U.S. each year?

And they happened on McChimpy's watch! He simply MUST be impeached!!! Why even Hitler never killed this many innocent and gullible motorists!

Holy Ground Of Contrasts

Mr. Ott hits one out of the park. The meat of it starts like this:

Dear Mrs. Sheehan,
You have asked me to identify the noble cause for which your son died. I have not answered you personally out of respect for the nobility of your son's sacrifice.

Being president forces me into the spotlight, but I would rather stand in the shadows of men like Casey Sheehan.

Directing national attention on my response to your protest creates a distraction from what matters. The focus of our attention, and our admiration, should rest on people like Casey Sheehan, who stand in the breach when evil threatens to break out and consume a helpless people.

The running story on the news networks should be the valiant efforts of our troops -- the merchants of mercy who export freedom and import honor. They trade their own lives for the sake of others.

As a result, we live in a nation where a woman can camp outside of the president's house and verbally attack the president for weeks on end without fear of prison, torture or death. And the number of nations where such protest is possible has multiplied thanks to the work of our military.

You ask for what noble cause your son died?

In a sense he died so that people like you, who passionately oppose government policies, can freely express that opposition. As you camp in Crawford, you should take off your shoes, for you stand on holy ground. This land was bought with the blood of men like your son.

READ. IT. ALL.

The holy ground reference made me think about why there is no one monument for Christianity that would cause us to become unhinged if it were destroyed -- unlike the Muslims. Yes, the Catholics would get plenty mad if the Vatican were wiped out, and even us Protestants would be plenty ticked.

And maybe the Jews would get rather irritated were the wailing wall to really be destroyed. But I still can't imagine this being even close to the kind of fury that seems to be provoked in Muslims at even the thought of the destruction of their holy stone in Mecca.

But try as I might, I cannot strain my neck to see the kind of lunatic hatred that any slight to Mecca stimulates among Muslims ever being provoked from Christians over the destruction of any place or thing. Quite an irony for us Christian "materialists".

Because Christians are tasked with carrying the holy wherever they go -- even to near a ranch in Texas.

The contrast is stark:

The love of Christ infused with the wonders of Einstein on the one hand.

And the tribal idol worship and misogynistic hair-triggered hatred of the Caliphascists on the other.

We will pray. They will hate-in-rote.

The great mystery continues.

But how long is there before the apocalypse on the ground of Planet Zongo?

Cindy Sheehan -- useful idiot for Supreme Overlord Q'klogmu.

"Why did they take the word of two terrorists over that of two high-ranking American intelligence officers when constructing this timeline?"

A Wee Bit Of Perspective

... For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. ...

from Ben Franklin care of Glenn.

Of course, we do have some chutzpah trying to do this with what may be the original builders of Babel!

But I grow so weary of our Gramscian neo-Syndicalist Dems going on and on about how what they're effectively calling the "backward brown-skinned people" aren't "good enough" for democracy. And then they call me the racist...

"Thurgood Marshall, former chief counsel for the NAACP, lion of civil rights litigation and hero of Brown v. Board of Education, Sweatt v. Painter and Murray v. Pearson agreed with Roberts’s advocacy position 67 percent of the time — nearly the same as Scalia and Thomas and more than O’Connor, the justice who upon her retirement was praised as “moderate” by many of those now opposing Roberts.

Unless Roberts’s opponents are prepared to call Thurgood Marshall a civil-rights extremist they need to acknowledge that Roberts’s advocacy positions, as well as his judicial decisions are squarely within the mainstream."

Posted without requiring comment to non-Xenorxians.

The political hemophiliacs take on that old-time caliphascism.
UPDATE: If you found Bryan's post so mesmerizing that you forgot to click through to Frum and his letter writers, don't forget to do so!

UPDATED AGAIN: Glenn has more.

Very close to what even I would consider Jaw Dropper material. Not quite a cigar though...

200-1

"Can’t you just smell a peaceful state emerging?"

"... These Hollywood liberals spend their lives negotiating. They believe that when the time comes they will sit down with Osama bin Laden and cut a deal. Imagine how surprised they’ll be when the cold blade hits their necks..." (HT Roger)

Let Me Make This Perfectly Clear

I have always thought Pat Robertson a dope at best and a stain on the reputation of Christianity at worst. Lest there be any ambiguity, let me say the following: You're not a valid religious leader if you call for the killing of ANYONE, no matter how vile and brutal that person may be.

No double standards here: This means that Pat Robertson does not qualify as a religious leader in my book -- right along with what is probably the vast majority of Imam's in the world. Comprende padre?

With that out of the way, Scrappleface has nailed the big picture just beautifully:

Robertson Issues Fatwa Against Venezuela's Chavez
by Scott Ott
(2005-08-23) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez beefed up security at his residence and offices today after reports that Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson has issued a fatwa calling for the assassination of the South American communist dictator.

Venezuelan police have begun detaining and searching "clean cut, Bible-toting men in unfashionable clothing" as likely followers of the wealthy, charismatic religious personality. However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) immediately lodged a protest with the Venezuelan government over the "profiling" of '700 Club' devotees by security forces.

Mr. Robertson is revered among his fanatical TV viewers, who each year contribute millions of dollars to advance his so-called "ministry," as much as he's feared by the teams of U.S. journalists who track his movements and record his remarks.

The Pentagon immediately denied that Mr. Robertson's name had previously appeared on any Defense Department "watch list," but a spokesman discouraged news networks from airing video of the Robertson fatwa announcement, fearing his remarks might contain coded instructions for Christian cell groups around the world.

Hoo haw!

The ACLU will come to Pat Robertson's rescue right about the time of the rapture I would venture!

All the above said, Hugo Chavez is a vile and brutal blossoming devil -- Jimmy Carter's defense of his "election" is pretty much all you need to know in confirmation.

Like a stopped clock, Pat Robertson can be right twice a day. But I don't need waste my time listening for it -- I can count on the venal MSM to point those occasions out to me whether I want to know about them or not...

Maybe not so disastrous after all?

Ad Hominem Ad Nauseum

"Well, you've succeeded in thoroughly confusing us." Hello ELCA and Presbyterian puerile fascifists! Anybody home?

Accident? Theft? No -- something else to the Pharoah!

Phillpott pastes Prague poster.

Clement Attlee Channeled

... via Aristides over at Wretchard's:

"The Germans Islamists kill not only men, but ideas."

[Extra channeling help courtesy We The Free.]

WOW.

The connections are all over the place including here and here and here.

Steyn via Power Line was mighty fine...

More and more dangerous?

... a little Iraqi girl named Grace.

Hiding In Plain Sight Update

"The notion that Gorelick's memo had no effect outside the DoJ does not stand up to scrutiny at all, once the fact and intent of including Scruggs and the OIPR become known. This shows why Mary Jo White objected so strenuously to this memo and its implementation, and why she went out of her way to antagonize her bosses at the DoJ with a second and more heated memo predicting, correctly, that such a policy would leave America unprotected against the very people she had just successfully prosecuted.

It's bad enough that Gorelick erected that wall in 1995. It's ludicrous that four years after 9/11, people waste their time defending her and her participation in the 9/11 Commission as a panel member instead of a witness."

Big Mushroom Moderate Herbicide Considered

Shrinkwrapped over at Wretchard's has today's update on the looming mushroom clouds:

Blanknoone
said...

Wretchard,
The Pope is (mis)projecting a Christian philisophical perspective on the Muslim world, and it will fall on deaf ears. Muslims know what Islam teaches...and that is why there is virtually no denunciation of radical Islamists by the supposed Moderate Muslims...."

On the contrary, I think the Pope knows exactly what he is talking about. Much of what we are doing in Iraq, what the Israelis are doing in Palestine, and what the Pope is saying is designed to avoid a world wide conflagration which will occur if the West becomes frightened and enraged by further atrocities. Our responses remain measured, but an Islamic nuke, or a successful chemical weapon attack with mass deaths and, while no one can predict in advance what will tip us, once it happens we will "Let loose the dogs of war" and the Muslim world will be devastated. (I leave out bio attack because if an infectious disease spreads it will destroy the third world via "blowback" much more than damage us.) No one can truly desire such an outcome and thus we wage war with one hand tied behind our back. It is up to the Islamic world to recognize what they are risking and begin their reformation and join the civilized world. Thus far, the omens do not look good but we need to do all we can to diminish their risk and ours. 8:39 AM

However, if we are finally forced to let loose the dogs, any use of nukes by us will likely be quite limited. People forget the fire bombings of Tokyo and Dresden -- I have no doubt that we have modern "black programs" that will produce results just as deadly...

Faiths, Laws and Looming Apocalypse

Wretchard points out that the new pope comes to bat in an eerie and oh so tentative parallel to the fiery beginning of John Paul's reign:

Therefore, the Pope seems to say to the Muslims in the room, survival is in our hands and that means yours too. "You guide Muslim believers and train them in the Islamic faith. Teaching is the vehicle through which ideas and convictions are transmitted. Words are highly influential in the education of the mind. You, therefore, have a great responsibility for the formation of the younger generation."

But W and his State Beheader Apologist Department IS HAVING NONE OF IT. They know oh-so-much more than us little people.

UPDATE: Wretchard's commenters are sharp today. Herewith james h.m. :

Muslims might wish to take note that, for reasons both obvious and obscure, freedom of religion and equal rights for women go hand in hand with prosperity and advancing civilizations. (And so WHY is the US tolerating the prospect of a country we liberated from a hideous dictator becoming an Islamic republic in which individual liberties are circumscribed from the outset and surely will be restricted further in these Islamist times?) 9:24 AM

Has State come up with blackmail material on W?