The One-Sided War

clipped from instapundit.com JOHN HINDERAKER: "I think it's fair to say that the bureaucracy's war against the Bush administration is more or less over, and the bureaucracy won." It was a pretty one-sided war.

The Capitalist Hipsters -- The End Of Western Civ

clipped from victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com I support globalization, and see that at its essence it is Westernization, and that bright people make the world better by allowing an exhange of ideas and life-saving appurtenances. But I want no part of the necessary globalized CEO, who believes in nothing, says nothing, knows nothing other than a sort of adolescent watered-down Gorism. Every MBA program should have one, just one introductory class in Western Civ to introduce to these historically illiterate that the basis for their present globalized system was the West, so that they might not so often preen that it was cobbled together from the Middle East, the Orient, Africa, in some sort of alaphabet soup concoction. And if global warming is a ‘must’ concern, then please, a commensurate class on the carbon footprints of Citations and Gulfstreams. and ultimately the real amoralists of this new century. Global warming and not overreacting to somebody with a suicide vest are their Mark and Luke.

Fred On Kucinich As America's Chavez

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com I had planned on talking a bit today about Venezuela. The president there doesn’t like the way his media is covering him, so he’s doing away with the free press. He’s established rules on what he thinks is fair, and he’s denying licenses to television and radio stations that don’t play by government rules. I can’t criticize him now, though. After all, how would it seem for me to complain about another country, when our own congressional leadership is trying to put the same sort of rules in place here? To do so, they’re pulling the Fairness Doctrine out of the dustbin of history. ... The real issue here is not what you “can” see or hear — which is what the Fairness Doctrine was about originally. It’s what you’re “choosing” to see or hear.

And how right that is...

Those Superior British

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com As I have written many times, engaging with the militias was the biggest mistake the British made. It legitimized people like Sayed Youssif and Moqtada al-Sadr. The US has made its share of mistakes as well, but we have always insisted that the only use of force for security had to come from the Iraqi government through the national forces we train, not by attempting to blend militias into a police force. The militias should have been fought and stamped out, as we are trying to do it Baghdad. Now what we have is all of the makings of a real civil war of the kind we see in Gaza now. We will have state-armed groups organizing into armies that will control territories and conduct operations against each other as soon as the British leave. With Teheran pulling the strings, the Shi'ite south could erupt into a new kind of internecine war that could undermine the Shi'ites in the national government.

More Red Meat

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com “With this bill, the American people are going to think they are being sold the same bill of goods as before on border security.  We should scrap this bill and the whole debate until we can convince the American people that we have secured the borders or at least have made great headway.”

Chlorine Gas? What WMD In Iraq?

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com Bill Roggio describes the battle between al-Qaeda and Coalition forces in Mosul and Diyala with the enemy sustaining heavy casualties, though more civilians have died in Diayala as the al-Qaeda attacked again with chlorine gas.

The Prospective First Blogger Asks The Question

clipped from pajamasmedia.com In the same editorial, Sowell also told a story about Churchill. When British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain died, early in the Second World War, Churchill delivered his eulogy. Though Chamberlain had turned a deaf ear, for years, to all of Churchill’s warnings that could have prevented that war, Churchill praised him. “He acted with perfect sincerity,” Churchill said. “However the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor when we have done our best.” Compare that magnanimity to what is going on in Washington and much of the Internet today. Sowell asks us, “In this day and time, can’t we have a responsible adult discussion of issues while the nation’s fate hangs in the balance in its most dangerous hour?” That’s the question. If the answer is going to be “yes,” it will be due in large part to sites like this one. So thank you for all you’ve done here and for all the encouragement you’ve given me. Hopefully, we’ll continue this conversation.

Welcome To Iraq Gun Control

clipped from instapundit.com 50 heavily armed men abduct 7 police: four them of them found dead, three missing, gun battles leave 20 dead. About a thousand people so far this year shot or decapitated. Iraq? No, northern Mexico, about a hundred miles south of here. Betting is that the gang was a drug lord's entourage.

Luckily There Was No Connection...

clipped from www.americanthinker.com This new al Qaeda document, when combined with the CNS documents, provides a sequential timeframe for the events and the human linkages to carry out the order from Saddam to his intelligence service to Ayman al Zawahiri to Mohammed Atef and then to his terror trainers. The revelation about Mohammed Atef comes just days after former CIA Director George Tenet caused a political and media stir with the release of his new book At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA. Tenet devotes a portion of the book to discussing al Qaeda-Saddam ties. In it he writes about the case of Ibn Sheikh al Libi, "a senior military trainer for al-Qa'ida in Afghanistan." Al Libi told his interrogators that "a militant known as Abu Abudullah had told him that...al-Qa'ida leader Mohammed Atef had sent Abu Abdullah to Iraq to seek training in poisons and mustard gas."

More "Dirt" For The Weak Horse

clipped from www.michaeltotten.com And so all the fretting about “respect” and “dialogue” amount to more than just comforting creations of the western imagination and impositions of a hoped-for reality. For the Iranian regime they are yet another layer of evidence vindicating a set of beliefs about America's inability to stand up for its interests -- or even for its citizens. Meanwhile, inquiry into the more plausible sources of Iran’s actions, such as the regime's ideological contempt for America and its need to demonstrate revolutionary strength and western weakness, continues to be avoided. In 1981, after the American embassy hostages had finally been released, Iran’s chief negotiator said, “We rubbed dirt in the nose of the world’s greatest superpower.” His comrades are no doubt saying the same thing today about their newest hostage, Haleh Esfandiari.

If You're Not Reading Lewis...

clipped from opinionjournal.com Stage One of the jihad was to drive the infidels from the lands of Islam; Stage Two--to bring the war into the enemy camp, and the attacks of 9/11 were clearly intended to be the opening salvo of this stage. The response to 9/11, so completely out of accord with previous American practice, came as a shock, and it is noteworthy that there has been no successful attack on American soil since then. More recent developments, and notably the public discourse inside the U.S., are persuading increasing numbers of Islamist radicals that their first assessment was correct after all, and that they need only to press a little harder to achieve final victory. It is not yet clear whether they are right or wrong in this view. If they are right, the consequences--both for Islam and for America--will be deep, wide and lasting.

... you're not getting it. RTWT. (via Glenn)

And The New "White Flight"

clipped from www.donaldsensing.com If the insurgents emerge emboldened, what next? In five years’ time, there will be even more of them, and even less resolve on the part of the French state. That, in turn, is likely to accelerate the demographic decline. Europe could face a continent-wide version of the “white flight” phenomenon seen in crime-ridden American cities during the 1970s, as Danes and Dutch scram to America, Australia or anywhere else that will have them.

Welcome To The Quiet Death

clipped from www.donaldsensing.com There is no longer a single country in Europe where people are having enough children to replace themselves when they die. Italy recently became the first nation in history where there are more people over the age of 60 than there are under the age of 20. This year [1998 - DS] Germany, Greece and Spain will probably all cross the same eerie divide. [link]

How Bad Is It?

clipped from instapundit.com How bad is it? Even Democrats mostly disapprove of Congress. Only 37% of the majority party's voters think that Congress has performed well; Gallup doesn't mention the percentage that disapproves, but it seems almost certain that it outstrips 37%, unless more than 26% are clueless. Congress gets its worst ratings not from Republicans (25%), but from independents (24%). That should get the attention of leadership in both chambers, who owe their majorities to those independents.

The Forgotten Lobotomies

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com This curious relationship implies that in actuality multiculturalism is playing a losing game with itself; and that the eventual outcome of Western multiculturalism advancing side by side with a confident and ascendant Islam will not be multiculturalism at all but simply a form of Islamic society. The Brussels Journal sees this absurd result and explains that multicultural theorists, having lobotomized themselves have already forgotten their lobotomies. I have heard individuals state point blank that even if Muslims become the majority in our countries in the future, this doesn’t matter because all people are equal and all cultures are just a mix of everything else, anyway. And since religions are just fairy-tales, replacing one fairy-tale, Christianity, with another fairy-tale, Islam, won’t make a big difference. All religions basically say that the same things in different ways.

The Background (Music): Fred On Guillen Landrian

clipped from www.townhall.com If Moore wants a subject for a real documentary, I would suggest looking into the life of Cuban painter and award-winning documentarian Nicolás Guillén Landrián. He was denied the right to practice his art for using the Beatles' song, "The Fool on the Hill," as background music behind footage of Castro climbing a mountain. Later, he was given plenty of free Cuban health care when he was confined for years in a "mental institution" and given devastating, repeated electroshock "treatments."

Mental Institution Michael...

clipped from www.breitbart.tv

We Have Always Been At War With Eastasia

clipped from www.claytoncramer.com Remember in 1984, where Winston's job was to revise newspapers of the past to keep up with the ever changing present? This is very interesting. A couple years ago, during the Katrina disaster, I linked to a CNN report and quoted it: Overnight, police snipers were stationed on the roof of their precinct, trying to protect it from gunmen roaming through the city, CNN's Chris Lawrence reported. One New Orleans police sergeant compared the situation to Somalia and said officers were outnumbered and outgunned by gangs in trucks. "It's a war zone, and they're not treating it like one," he said, referring to the federal government. ... One of my readers ran into that posting of mine--and noticed that the CNN report at that link no longer said anything like that. It was much, much more upbeat. Nothing about the police snipers on the roof. Did I copy the wrong link? Did I have a brief attack of delusion, and make something up?

Sad, Sad Nancy

clipped from www.nypost.com May 15, 2007 -- How often has President Bush warned of a strong al Qaeda presence in Iraq - to derisory hoots from such critics as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? "Hey, no al Qaedas there," say the Dems. "They're all hiding out in Pakistan, where Dubya let 'em escape to after 9/11." Or words to that effect. Well, yesterday, al-Qaeda-that's-not-in-Iraq issued a press release - boasting of having taken three American GIs captive in Iraq, and threatening to kill them if U.S. forces continue to hunt for them. "Your soldiers are in our hands . . . What you are doing in searching for [them] will lead to nothing but exhaustion and headaches," said the online statement from the Islamic State of Iraq - one of al Qaeda's Iraqi incarnations. The warning recalls Pelosi's words from 2006; she said she felt "sad" over President Bush's insistence that al Qaeda is operating in Iraq.

And I do mean sad...

107-0

clipped from www.opinionjournal.com "Universal" government health care has once again returned as a political cause, with many Democrats believing it's the key to White House victory in 2008. They might want to study last week's news from Illinois, where Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich's tax increase to finance health care became the political rout of the year. The Democratic House in Springfield killed the proposal, 107-0, after Mr. Blagojevich came out against his own idea when it became clear he was going to be humiliated. Only a month earlier he had said he was prepared to wage "the fight of the century" in defense of his plan to impose a $7.6 billion "gross receipts tax" on Illinois businesses.

Wish Sarkosy Luck...

clipped from www.commentarymagazine.com So what chance, really, is there for a change in 2007? Interestingly enough, three of the four front-runners as of the end of March—Sarkozy, Bayrou, and Le Pen—were not enarchs. Of the four, Sarkozy, openly pro-American and a (cautious) critic of the welfare state, was probably the only candidate to have given serious thought to France’s necrotic condition, hinting at various constitutional reforms—from the abolition of the prime minister’s office to a stronger parliament and stronger parliamentary commissions, not to mention progressive cuts in the civil service—that would bring the republic closer to the American political model. Not to be outdone by Sarkozy, Bayrou announced in early April that, if elected, he would abolish the ENA altogether. But suppose a reforming, anti-statist president were actually elected. Who would assist him in carrying out his declared program, when enarchs and other state servants are all there is?

... he's going to need it...

And The U.S. Is Not Far Behind

clipped from www.commentarymagazine.com What used to be said of Prussia—other states have armies, but Prussia is an army that owns a state—applies to France today, with a slight difference. Other countries may have a state bureaucracy, but France is a state bureaucracy that owns a country.

France: The 130 Percent Problem

clipped from www.commentarymagazine.com But what is called public debt in France is less than half of what would be listed under that heading in countries like the United States or Canada. The category does not include the retirement funds for the civil service (between 800 billion and a trillion euros), the national-health-service deficit, or various private debts (like that of Crédit Lyonnais) taken over by the state. In fact, the true public debt amounts to something like 2.7 trillion euros, or 130 percent of GDP. Marseille warns that it may double over the next fifteen years. This is on the scale of the debt of the Ottoman empire in the late 19th century.

Russia Upgrades To Western Weapons

clipped from www.strategypage.com In theory, Russia is correct. South Korea would be in a better position to deliver weapons of mass destruction if it had the Global Hawks. The real reason the Russians don't want the South Koreans to have Global Hawk is because they don't want such a splendid reconnaissance vehicle operating in their neighborhood. The Russians know that the North Korean communist dictatorship is going to collapse soon, creating a united Korea with an economy much larger than Russias, and with about half the population of Russia. It's an old Russian custom to be paranoid about neighbors, and this is another manifestation of that. But Russia has gotten with the times, and is deploying lawyers and publicists to keep the Global Hawks away from their borders, rather than hauling out the traditional tanks and warplanes.

Lawyers, that is...

Nothing Else Matters

clipped from www.strategypage.com Labor unions are illegal, yet workers have formed them anyway, demonstrate, and end up brawling with police and Islamic conservative irregulars. The workers want jobs, and are increasingly willing to get organized, and get out in the street and fight. Meanwhile, the lifestyle police have been ordered to crack down on women who do not cover up, and thousands have been warned, or arrested. This has sometimes led to street violence, and in some neighborhoods, the lifestyle police stay away, unless they are prepared to come in force and ready to fight.      The government sees no reason to change course on its nuclear program, nor its attitude towards the threat of economic sanctions from Europe and the UN. Iran is on a Mission From God, and nothing else matters.

It Works Like This

clipped from www.strategypage.com May 8, 2007: All the blather from some circles in the U.S. about an imminent attack on Iran only plays into the hands of the Islamic radicals who control the government there. It works like this. If we don't attack, they'll cite their readiness to defend themselves as having successfully deterred the "Great Satan." If we do attack, the Iranian radicals can cry about being beaten up by the Great Satan, and rally the country (which generally despises their clerical rulers). This is why most of the talk about the U.S. attacking Iran is coming from Iran.

The Cosmic Coffin

clipped from www.theaugeanstables.com Perhaps the most striking element of the modern progressive concern for the “other” — and one of the great ironies of our “other”-oriented post-modern age — is that the “other” is really an abstract. He or she has no face, no autonomy, no concrete presence and personality — a mental construct. And so despite all the concern in Western thought about meeting, experiencing, and dialoguing with the “other” — itself an exceptional (and civic) cultural development — the most prominent practitioners seem the least ready to really meet, really experience, and really speak with the Muslim “other.” And anyone who dares suggest that the experience might not be very pleasant is banished as an Islamophobe. We may be committing suicide with our lack of willingness to have the courage to live up to our own values and actually encounter the “other” as an “other” and not as a pleasing projection onto the cosmic coffin of our narcissistic souls.

Because Power Is All That Matters...

clipped from instapundit.com Funny how Bush 41 led a hugely successful military effort with Gulf War I yet lost an election because of the perception that "it's the economy, stupid." Now, Bush 43 is in the tank because of the perception that Gulf War II is a disaster based on lies and gets no credit for a remarkable economic turnaround with record stock market highs, low unemployment, and huge chunks taken out of the budget deficit. How does that happen?

The RIGHT Kind Of Dem

clipped from qcexaminer.wordpress.com Exhibit D: Further, one of my favorite Iowegian bloggers, IowaVoice was forced to consult with an attorney after a liberal blogger and his minions set up a parody site also called “Iowa Voice” and searched court records in an attempt to dig up dirt, not only on the blogger, but the blogger’s wife. Exhibit E: On the Illinois side, amazingly enough this left-wing blogger has also been subject to blackmail and intimidation by Democrats. Apparently, it’s not enough to be a Democrat, you have to be the RIGHT kind of Democrat if you expect to blog in peace.

Happy Mothers Day!

clipped from www.amazon.com In Mommy Knows Worst, you’ll be treated to a visual feast of past parenting neuroses—as well as insight into why concerned moms and dads were driven to buy “delicious” baby laxatives, douse their baby in oil and put him in the sun, and strap Junior into a car seat that bore a strange resemblance to scrap metal. If you’re a baby boomer who lived through this childhood torture, well, we’re sorry. But if humor really is the best medicine (rather than bicarbonate of curd and mustard plaster, as was previously recommended for childhood ailments), then Mommy Knows Worst is cheaper than therapy. Photographs, advertisements, magazine articles, and government-issue parenting guides, which seemed so helpful in their day, are given a whole new slant by the master of the genre, James Lileks. Mommy Knows Worst is a rollicking tribute to old-fashioned parenting that gives us a whole new reason not to forget our past—it’s hilarious!

Leave it to Likeks to point out that it used to be much worse -- if you can believe it

Bumbling The Apocalypse

clipped from www.suntimes.com Most terrorists seem like bumbling losers if they're caught before the act: That's certainly true of the Fort Dix jihadists who took their terrorist training DVD to the local audio store to be copied. It was also true of the Islamists arrested in Toronto last year for plotting to behead the prime minister, one of whose cell members had a bride who wanted him to sign a prenup committing him to jihad. The Heathrow plotters arrested while planning to blow up U.S.-bound airliners included a Muslim convert who'd started out as the son of a British Conservative Party official with a P. G. Wodehouse double-barreled name and a sister who was a Victoria's Secret model and ex-wife of tennis champ Yanick Noah. But then Mohammed Atta and the 9/11 gang would have seemed pretty funny if you'd run into them in that lap-dance club they went to before the big day where the girls remembered them only as very small tippers. Most terrorists are jokes until the bomb goes off.

Zion Bill

clipped from instapundit.com Apparently, in their minds, a fascist must always have a swastika prominently displayed on the sleeve at all times - otherwise he’s just a victim working out grievances. These journalists wouldn’t recognize fascism if it smacked them over the head with a hammer and sickle, which is the Soviet version of swastika. They probably wouldn’t have believed me if I were to tell them that in the twisted minds of these ultra-nationalist maniacs, all Westerners were under the suspicion of being Zionist running dogs working to enslave and destroy Mother Russia. To appreciate just how crazy they were, consider the fact that one of their worst imaginary Zionist enemies was Bill Clinton.