Here comes the nihil from the South...

Iowahawk on the watery hypocrisy of the mentally ill.

The car really exploded as three photojournalists were strolling by, even though the pictures show it is just burning. Honest it did.

Tyrant's NIGHTMARE.

Insuring homocidal nihilism.

BINGO.

Wearing a little thin three years after 911...

Cold Fury spells out 3 1/2 years of blogging very nicely indeed. (Hat tip Glenn.)

Hugh On Dhimmitude

Well, that's what I would call it:

The party of Truman and JFK has a problem when its advance media guard does not celebrate the rise of a democracy from the ashes of a dictatorship. More than a problem, actually, a collapse at the core. It is now, at best, the party of Henry Wallace and Teddy Kennedy, and that's not a party remotely close to the American mainstream.

And he also has a snapshot of the near complete silence of the leftist bloggers on the coming of democracy to Iraq...

"The Party Of Return"

I just heard Krauthammer on Fox News use the phrase "the party of return" to describe a lack of positive agenda and ideology by Saddam's dethroned thugs and their Qaeda "buddies". His point was they are all about going back to the way things were -- that is to the thugs having the power to slaughter, brutalize and starve their former victims.

The obvious question is: just what exactly has changed here?

The obvious answer is: their brutality is no longer covered up. Simple as that. Oh yes, and our military and more and more of the formerly oppressed Iraqi masses get to kill them back.

But then I got to thinking about the Dhimmi-crats -- and their lack of a positive agenda and a longing to return to "the way things were". And their support for thugs in Iraq -- and attempts to keep brutal murderers off of death row here at home -- makes perfect sense.

Doesn't it?

Atta girl!: "Free speech should be safe, legal and rare"?

Nihilism Is

As nihilism does.

As Michael points out in his piece, the Dhimmi-crat activists are well characterized as exhibiting Stalinist behavior.

Dhimmi-crats would also argue that there is no connection at leading from nihilism (capitalized : the program of a 19th century Russian party advocating revolutionary reform and using terrorism and assassination) to Leninism to Stalinism to maybe 100 million dead or so. Well I suppose you can argue with me all day and wear me down to only 30-50 million -- what was the point of that?

By the way, the word assassination is of either Persian or Arab origin.

And if the Dhimmi-crats don't live on character assassination then how to explain this?

Perfect evidence that they are themselves the victims of the very memory hole they are trying to impose on the rest of us...

But luckily there is no racism at the highest levels of American government.

And at night when he goes home to relax and put on his white pointed cap, he fumes that those brown people in the Middle East are too stupid for Democracy...

UPDATE: A comment on Roger's blog pretty well puts it in perspective:

Byrd filibustered and voted against the Civil Rights Act. If he had his way, not only would Condoleeza Rice not be secretary of state, she would not be allowed to vote.

In 2000, Hillary told a NARAL rally that the Republicans wanted to take away a woman's right to vote. In 2004, John Edwards told a NARAL rally Republicans wanted to take away a woman's right to learn to read. But only Robert K. Byrd stepped up and did anything about it, by gum

Byrd voted against both Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, votes that made him the only Senator to have opposed the only two black Supreme Court nominees in U.S. history.

Byrd wasn't just a member of the KKK but was a "Kleagle" -- an official recruiter who signed up members for $10 a head. He wasn't just a Klansman, he was a Klan pimp, spreading their poison for pretty pathetic pay.

Byrd wrote the following, three years after he claims to have ended his ties with the KKK: "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the Union."

Byrd also wrote that he would never fight "with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

Where is the Congressional Black Caucus (Democrats all, since they won't admit African-American Republicans) on this? Where is Barack Obama?

Makes me want to wretch at the lunacy of it all...

Did I mention that nihilism IS the Dhimmi-crat party?

UPDATED AGAIN: And did I mention they think of these people as their "friends"?:

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources expose a uniquely brutal Palestinian atrocity committed and videotaped last Friday, Jan 21, by Fatah-al Aqsa Brigades in the main square of the Balata camp south of Nablus.

Mohammad Mansur, 23, accused of collaborating with Israel, was not shot dead as Palestinians claimed; he was slowly dismembered. Knives and axes were used to chop off his fingers and toes first, then his limbs.

No ambulance permitted to collect his remains, which were thrown into a dumpster. Nablus governor and Fatah leaders issued dire warning against revelation of this horror.

Did I say wretch? That doesn't even begin to describe it...

Well, OK -- Finally, The Next Post Comes

It wasn't the next post but those two bullets were from the Merriam-Webster definition of the word "nihilism"!

The other missing definition snippets were:

• a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless.
• capitalized : the program of a 19th century Russian party advocating revolutionary reform and using terrorism and assassination.
• TERRORISM.

Surely your eyes are opening a bit at this point? Maybe more than a bit???

Sensing's Rope-a-Dope roundup.

Harsh

But it'll bring a smile to your face:

Ominous Foreshadowing

I am debating which of these best describes the current state of the Democratic party:

• A doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility.
• A doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths.

It's a difficult choice isn't it?

And if you don't think this is ominous foreshadowing then wait till my next post...

WHOOPS! I sense yet another historically momentus event that the MSM will attempt to flush down the memory hole just like the holocaust...

Sometimes I Think World War I Never Ended

The title of this post is a quote I overheard at a holiday party last year but was unable to follow up on due to already in progress departure. It has been knocking around in my head now for quite a while and finally spilled out onto the blog.

I have decided to correct it as follows: World War I never ended.

Yes, the "Nuremberg For Nothing" post finally precipitated it.

Stay tuned, a weighty post is in progress ... but going slowly under other pressing commitments...

How many tsunami victims died because of Dan Rather and his crew of betters? Makes me want to wretch...

YEEEOUCH !: "I should have been more skeptical of the Times, which has apparently gotten so unreliable that you need to turn to Reuters for more accurate reporting . . . ."

NYeT! Pravda was a piker...

Nuremberg For Nothing

Not often do I place an item on the "Jaw Dropper" list over right. Today we have a prime example of why "When my grandfather left Europe in 1937, the graffiti on the walls read, 'Jews go to Palestine'. Today the graffiti reads, 'Jews out of Palestine'. How soon Europe forgets." is over there.

Hitler rose to power by re-writing the history and aftermath of WWI to be that the German's were victimized from abroad and stabbed in the back at home (see the Dolchstosslegende) by the Jews and their sympathizers who "unduly influenced" the German military to lay down its arms prematurely.

The German's still hate the Jews and are attempting to kill by proxy the few million they didn't manage to finish off last time. Nobody -- least of all the Germans -- remember the lessons of the Nuremberg trials anymore. In fact, they're trying to bury the real lessons while using other related proceedings like the Geneva Conventions to enable the terrorists to kill more Jews and Americans faster...

And remember the "Previous Jaw Dropper"? Go over right and read it. The leg bone's connected to the ... big picture.

Hardly the last when you're mentally ill...

Farce.

Van Gogh in America. But the MSM says NYeT!

Leftist MSM pathos, Islamofascist ranting ... what was the difference again?

She votes on bills without reading them...

Beyond risible? You bNYeT!

Don't Worry

I'm too busy at work to need stress relief. Wait, I need to think about this some more...

The great sweep of human history is for freedom -- a reminder. But he knows nothing of course...

They call him flipper fripper.

Word Of The Day: Oblivious

Oblivious on Iraq.

Oblivious to reason.

Oblivious to the blogosphere STILL. What it means is here. Hoo-boy. Them'n's at that there high-fallutin' C-BS is way more high-brow den' us'n nose pickin' fools ... or C-BS staffers and Thornburgh lawyers could just be dumber than door nails! Yes, that would be the latter.

More Muslim Murder

And soon they'll also be denying that Van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim. For you see it was really a Mossad plant and only said he was a Muslim...

Dear Kos,

I control Karl, not vice-versa. Thanks very much for the respect and a polite good night...

On politeness.

The French Again

Provide "an excuse uglier than the guilt". No comment required. (Hat tip Glenn)

Some Boom Lowering

on the Pein twerp by Dr. Newcomer has already started out as a good read. But I'm turning in for the night. Go read it if you're still awake -- I'll have much more to say about this... (Hat tip Charles)

Of pajamas and bribery. (Hat tip Glenn)

False consciousness AND bad faith.

Muddle in the middle.

Sadly, I can only concur with Roger in the hope that Thornburgh was bribed...

I Am Not Paid To Blog

Let me make this clear for those with visual impairments:
I. AM. NOT. PAID. TO. BLOG.
Not only that but no Blogads either.

Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Only the "Jaw Droppers" and other useful stuff over right.

And I don't wear a tinfoil hat to protect myself from Karl Rove's influence.

He wears one for protection from me.

UPDATE WITH WARNING TO AVERT YOUR EYES:
AND. SCREW. KOS. 'CAUSE. I. CAN.
Just in case you think I was only talking about Williams...

And yes, it hurt to detract from one of my better punchlines in a while but what's right gets done around here. And that would be in the moral sense of the r-word...

AND ANOTHER: I forgot to mention that I really do feel bad now even using the S-word. Look at this if you want to know what the left really looks like. Hang in there Michelle! This is just nuts -- literally. Just to put this in perspective, I have been a serious email user since the early 80's and I don't think I've EVER sent anything that even APPROACHED having the S-word in it much less this appalling garbage.

My use of the S-word was entirely a fit of turnabout is fair play in light of the utter hypocrisy of Kos. If I had Kos' (or C-BS') ethics I would remove it from my site. But that would actually be an ethical lapse as a blogger.

So I issue an apology to my readers.

I'm still pondering whether it applies to Kos... (Not that someone like him would actually care of course.)

Maybe I'll have to switch and start calling them the Cuckoo-crats. No wonder they're rooting for the Islamists...

Don't need no stinkin' kuffars here. We'd rather have babies starve to death apparently...

UPDATE: Here's the kind of dastardly deeds they're trying to "protect" themselves from. Cuckoo ... Cuckoo ... Cuckoo.

Bolshevik -- in case you were wondering. Which you shouldn't.

And then there's always the insidious connection to the Pope...

Warren On He Who Hows.

Western Civilization is morally superior ... no maybe about it.

That number would be 150,000. Thanks and all glory be to Bill Clinton and Creighton Abrams...

Quote of the Day: "Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” -- Lao-Tzu (570 - 490 BC), Chinese philosopher and father of Taoism

When I If I can ever find an Islamic quote that isn't balderdash I'll print it in this space too. I'm still waiting.

The Non-Technical C-BS Post

contest is won by Cox and Forkum:


And while virtually all journalists are Victicrats they all put that aside every day at work and are completely objective.

Goebbels would be proud of them.

Their ability to tell the BIG LIE that is...

C-BS: Worse Than Whitewash -- Hogwash

Hugh has the best non-technical coverage of Ra^thergate. Start here and keep scrolling.

Well, OK, Power Line must be given its due :) Especially on this post:

The other thing I'd really like to know, though, is why CBS moved the 60 Minutes program up from the end of September to September 8. The Thornburgh report talks about this change, and blames it for the fact that the show was put together in too much of a hurry.

But why? Someone made the decision to move the program up; the report doesn't tell us who. I'll give you a hypothesis as to why it happened: the Kerry campaign was dying because of the Swift Boat Vets' attacks, and CBS was desperate--with or without explicit communication with the DNC and the Kerry campaign--to do something to stem the tide. To "change the momentum of an election," as Michael Smith emailed to Mary Mapes.

If that hypothesis isn't right, can someone give us another one?

Now you know to go to that post for sure but I also recommend scrolling up and down!

Well, OK, Dr. Simon has a take on the Grey NYeT perspective.

But so far, no evidence has emerged that the Thornburg/Bocardi panel has even seriously studied the pre-eminent technical analysis of the C-BS manure. There is exactly ONE reference to Dr. Newcomer's analysis in the report -- apparently via quoting of the Washington Post. While at least the Post reference to Newcomer's analysis is positive, considering this a sufficient technical treatment is far beyond risible. We will need to invent an entirely new word in fact.

Well, OK, we already have one that will do for semi-polite conversation where everyone clearly needs to be informed of the situation without quite saying what we REALLY think: HOGWASH!

The report doesn't come out and say that the documents are irrefutably technical forgeries. That would be because they have simply not seriously gone out the find the pre-eminent technical analysis available by an actual technical expert.

Dr. Newcomer's work is entirely sufficient to unequivocally prove forgery. And if they had any question about that they would have convened a technical panel that consisted of academic and industry experts -- Dr. Newcomer's PhD places him in both camps -- and subjected his analysis to a rigorous review. I would be quite impressed if they could find ANY SUBSTANTIVE ERROR in his analysis.

I think there are two primary possibilities why Thornburg/Bocardi didn't do this: 1) They had a pre-determined outcome they were shooting for based on political horse trading or 2) they are simply incompetent regarding how to analyze anthing technical. (Scientific method? Refereed papers? Techical panels? What's that stuff?)

It's hard to tell at this junction but I'm starting to lean toward BOTH as the answer.

This leads me to some additional thoughts on the role and future of the blogosphere in bringing sorely needed expertise to bear in the public square -- but I'm out of time for tonight.

Did I mention I have a Master's in Computer Science and if you read my resume you'd realize that I have more than a little credibility to bring to this as a technical problem? When you're spitting up blood do you just shrug and say it's too complicated to understand and it's not provable you're sick? Or do you call a doctor?

CBS hasn't called the doctor -- because they don't want to know they're sick.

The value of the blogosphere is that the "ill" get the "housecalls" they need even if they try to lock the door and strap on their tinfoil hats. And no matter what "estate" they live on...

Read this as a warm-up for future posts on this subject.

By the way, Charles has been under DDOS attack but has some things to say on Discarded Lies in the mean time. And his voice deserves to be heard over the nutjobs.

And yes, this is a signature topic on this blog.

And it ain't going away as long as the hogs are squealing...

A beautiful ripost to snooty Eurabian ignorance.

Today's Religious Quotations

Here are some of the great quotes I've recently run across -- or been coming back to regarding religion:

"A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death -- the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders, we are not going to be judged." -- Czeslaw Milosz

(By the way, please read David Warren's column just linked to. And if you start it you have to promise me that you'll finish it -- for you'll be rather challenged by the last three paragraphs but possibly dismissive if you abort before reaching them. As for any possible relationship of Warren's experience to me, let's just say that I have been born again -- but any stereotyped conception of what that means in my case would be way too simple. As it is likely for most...)

"An egg which came from no bird is no more natural than a bird which had existed from all eternity." -- C.S. Lewis (NOTE: This is actually a CORRECTION from the version that I had listed here. My memory was foggy but at least I didn't get the semantics wrong :)

"The god of Islam requires you to give your son to die for him. The God of the Bible gave His Son to die for you." -- Unknown from Franklin Graham's "The Name"

How Long Will We Tolerate The Lies?

Today, Strategy Page shines its spotlight on the mess that is Syria:

January 7, 2005: Iraqi government officials, including the head of intelligence, are making a lot of noise about Syrian support for the anti-government forces. It's never been a secret that most of the anti-government activity was organized and funded by Iraqi Baath Party members. But the two main branches of the Baath Party have controlled both Iraq and Syria for nearly forty years. The Arabic word baath means “resurrection” or “renaissance.” The party had its origins in the desire of Syrian secular Arab nationalists to break with the medieval past and create a new form of government for Arab countries. The Baath Party was officially founded in 1947 and sought to create a secular and socialist culture in Arab countries. The Baath Party only caught on in Syria and, in 1954, Iraq. The Baath Party platform caught on, and in February, 1963, Baath took control in Iraq, and a month later in Syria. In Syria, Hafez al-Assad originally led the party. His son runs it, and Syria, today. In Iraq, Baath had trouble holding on to power. But by the late 1960s, Baath was in full control, and Saddam Hussein was running the party. That created a problem, however, as both Assad and Hussein insisted that their branch of the party was running the Baath movement. The two men could not agree on who was in charge, and became bitter enemies. For example, Syria sent troops to join the coalition assembled to oust Iraq from Kuwait in 1991, and has long supported any Iraqis that opposed Saddam (and Hussein returned the favor.)

But when Saddam was deposed in 2003, many senior Iraqi Baath Party members fled to Syria, and made peace with the Syrian branch of the party. This put the Syrian Baath Party in a tough position. Bashir Assad took over in Syria when his father died in 2000. Bashir was not groomed to run the country, but instead trained as a doctor. However, his older brother died in an accident, and it was up to Bashir to keep things together. This is not an easy job. Syria does not have Iraq's oil wealth, and the Syrian Baath Party is run by an even smaller minority (Alawite Moslems, 12 percent of the population) than was the case in Iraq (where Baath was run by Sunni Moslems, who were 20 percent of the population.) Worse yet, Al Qaeda considers Alawites just as heretical, and worthy of death, as the Shiites. To further complicate this situation, Syria has long been an ally of Shia Iran, mainly because Iran was a longtime enemy of Iraq.

The Syrian Baath party is in a very difficult situation. They became corrupt, as did the Iraqi Baath party, and turned into a police state. While not as brutal as Saddam's Baath, the Syrians were more effective. The elder Assad was not as eager to invade his neighbors (except for several failed attempts against Israel.) The Syrian Baath Party is thus less hated by Syrians than the Iraqi Baath Party was by Iraqis. But Syria is also full of unhappy citizens who would welcome a more honest and effective government. But like Arabs everywhere, most Syrians are either unwilling or unable to do the deed. And now the Syrian Baath Party sees, as its deadliest enemy, a democratic government in Iraq. Such an development could inspire Syrians to get rid of the Baath Party. Face it, being a dictator is like having a tiger-by-the-tail. It's tough to hold on, but letting go is fatal. So the Syrian Baath Party supports the remaining Iraqi Baath Party in their struggle to regain power in Iraq. But this is a dangerous game, especially as it becomes more and more difficult to deny Syrian support for Iraqi Baath violence inside Iraq. The Syrians try to have it both ways, by insisting that there is no support for Iraqi Baath, while having Syrian police and border guards look the other way as the Iraqis move money and people through Syrian into Iraq.

The Syrian Baath party also has things like loyalty (to fellow Baath members in Iraq) and greed (all that Iraqi oil money they are now getting) to worry about. They can't just tell the Iraqi Baath Party members to go away, despite American demands that they do just that. And then there is fear. A democratic Iraq will be an anti-Baath Iraq. Syria's only friend in the neighborhood is Iran. But even there, it is the minority of Islamic conservatives that dominate Iran, that supports Syria. The majority of Iranians see Syria as another oppressive police state, and an Arab one of that. Most Iranians have an ancient disdain for Arabs in general.

Syria, under the Baath Party, has no friends and few prospects. It cannot, or will not, turn on the Iraqi Baath Party, and, as a police state, certainly doesn't want an democracy next door. But Syria gains nothing by admitting any of this. It comes down to how long Iraq, and the coalition forces, will tolerate the lies.

Of the original axis of evil, now only Iran and North Korea remain. The problem is that it's become clear now that we can't get enough momentum in Iraq without dealing with some combination of Iran, Syria and the Saudis.

They have to make enough blood in Iraq to keep us distracted so that we don't move on to them. Of course the answer is that because they are doing this we MUST move on to them. The war never was about Iraq alone for heavens sake -- the war is entirely about solving the four color map problem in jarring the Muslim Middle East through an enlightenment. It may be near impossible without inflicting on them the level of damage we did on the Japanese -- the last relatively successful case of this sort of alien magnitude. But as with the Japanese, we wait for the sucker punch and then try to defeat them in a reasonable fashion. Don't forget that the Japanese were viewed as a freakishly alien culture prone to suicide death cults.

Of course, now the Japanese -- unlike France for instance -- really are one of our best allies.

But eventually, if we feel like we are headed toward losing or unable to gain a complete win then we will finally decide to do what it takes. Even if it takes the biggest intelligence failure of all time.

So who gets the next target on their back?

LGF has an update on Syria:

This is not just a story about Syria behaving as a rogue state; it is also a glaring example of the UN system failing. For UN Security Council membership from early 2002 through 2003 did not lead to more moderate Syrian behavior but rather to the exact opposite: a more defiant posture than was even witnessed during the years in which Hafiz al-Assad ruled Syria. And in December 2004, General George W. Casey, Jr., the U.S. commander in Iraq, has disclosed that the Iraqi insurgency was being run by former Iraqi Baath Party officials from Syria, itself. The current Iraqi leadership in Baghdad has suggested the involvement of the Syrian security services in the insurgency, as well. Indeed, US troops uncovered photographs of senior Syrian officials when they stormed insurgent strongholds in Falujah last November. A captured insurgent in Najaf told the Iraqi security authorities that he had gone through training camps in Syria. In short, Syrian fingerprints are all over the insurgency.

This latest deterioration in Syrian international behavior should not come as a complete surprise. For during those critical years in 2002 and 2003, Syria was promoted to sit on the UN Security Council without any pre-conditions. True Syria had been on the U.S. Department of State’s terrorism list since its inception in the late 1970s. But from the standpoint of the UN, Syria could sit on its most august body without having to modify its behavior in the least. What message did the Syrians internalize from this promotion in their international status? If the UN, from the Syrian standpoint, was the “source of international legitimacy,” then Syrian behavior was viewed in the morally-skewed universe of the UN as legitimate.

Amidst all the talk about UN reform, including the expansion of the UN Security Council from fifteen to twenty-four members, the story of Syria and terrorism is a sharp reminder that for the UN to have any positive influence in the future, its changes cannot be structural alone. The UN must demand minimal standards of behavior of its member states; if not, it risks becoming an entirely bankrupt idea. The original UN of President Roosevelt was born in 1945 in a moment of moral clarity, at which time new members had to declare war on one of the Axis powers. Unless that clarity is restored, the UN will not promote world order, but will inevitably turn into an instrument for global chaos instead.

The U.N. risks becoming an entirely bankrupt idea??? If it's possible to be more than bankrupt then the U.N. has managed it!

Anyway, the most interesting gating question about making Syria next is whether they actually do have any of Saddam's WMD. And while it's all over the headlines that Iran is going after nukes, there are also rumblings and hints about nuclear Saudis and Egyptians.

So what is it? Syria? Iran? Saudis? Egypt? Pakistan? Unfortunately, the answer is simply "yes".

What's A Little Rehab?

among "liberals":

< time_out_declared >
Yes, of course. Communists have hijacked the word "Liberal" in its modern incarnation in U.S. politics. If "classical liberals" hadn't allowed it to be hijacked then I would be a liberal of course. Sheesh.
< /time_out_declared >

among "liberals":

If simulated drowning is torture, wouldn't real drowning be torture? Doesn't this make Senator Kennedy a torturer? Is there any statute of limitation on torture? Couldn't Attorney General Gonzalez have Teddy arrested and prosecuted on this charge? If not, why not?
Posted by: Jabba the Tutt on January 7, 2005 10:01 AM

Some may find Kennedy's objections to waterboarding grotesque, but to exploit the death of a young woman to score cheap political points--to even make jokes about it--is despicable.
Posted by: Dave Laurel on January 7, 2005 10:23 AM

Dave,

I think the way Kennedy behaved before, during and after abandoning the woman is far more despicable.

Somehow I don't think Mary Jo would mind any ridicule of Kennedy seeing as his grossly negligent actions and choices led to her demise.
He hasn't paid much of a price for this crime otherwise, has he?
Posted by: jag on January 7, 2005 10:30 AM

ted kennedy has never accepted responsibility nor been called to account for his role in Mary Jo Kopechne's death.

he is, therefore, fair game. and where, apparently, you see a joke i see a serious question of credibility and competence.
Posted by: steve on January 7, 2005 10:36 AM

Now what was I saying again?

Oh, yeah. That was from the Balloon Juice comments I linked to earlier.

Now in here somewhere is a clue why libs are always forever and constantly in favor of claiming that even Saddam Hussein -- or Teddy Kennedy [even Teddy Kennedy? ed.- I always get my evens mixed up with libs; somehow they always seem to be odd?] -- can be rehabilitated.

I seem to be too distracted to remember why but I'm sure you can figure it out... or not... the libs will try to distract you from even thinking about it you know...

UPDATE: Did I mention that "liberals" somehow always seem to be in "rehab clinics"?

Here's about all you need to know about how loony the left really is -- that you realize you may know even one of them who could mistake this for a serious news report. And speaking of Teddy Kennedy, here's all you need to know about HIS credibility. (Hat tip Glenn)

It Turns Out That Clinton Was Right After All

about rendition. What a sad state of affairs...

God and a perfect world...

A misogyny duh-oh in Dhimmi-land...

There Are No Secrets: An Insider's View On The MSM

Well here's a comment from Senator Cornyn at the Gonzalez confirmation hearing that you won't hear highlighted by the MSM:

CORNYN: Well, Judge Gonzales, thank you very much for your response to those questions and your appearance here today. My experience, just in the brief time I've been in Washington, is that there are very few secrets, because this place leaks prolifically.

And if you want to find out what's going on in Washington or at the highest levels of government, all you have to do is pick up the daily newspaper or watch cable news and you will find out almost as much as you do by sitting in on classified briefings.

That's been my experience; it may not be typical.

After all, they want you to think that it's what makes them worth the big bucks.

But let's think about this.

If it is part of the value the MSM is trying to charge us for then it's nothing but a true fifth column instead of a useful fourth estate. They're whistling all the way to the bank selling us the rope to hang ourselves with.

You're nuttier than a Cuckoo-Clock if you think that we should applaud people who work hard to get all our secrets exposed in the middle of a war! By all means, if we've got the equivalent of a new Manhattan Project under way then let's be sure to publish anything we hear about it! I can hear Washington, Lincoln and all the Roosevelt's clamoring to leap out of their graves and shout "Danger Will Robinson!" right now.

But if it isn't part of the value that the MSM provides, if they're really running a "false flag" operation to cover up and distract us from the fact that we've got a government that is ITSELF the fifth column then at best they're getting paid for no value at all and at worst they are part and parcel of a fifth column even larger than we imagined.

Of course, Cornyn may also be lying.

But I don't think so.

UPDATE: Ummmm... The MSM probably won't highlight this either...

Abe and Old Jew Deja Vu

Remember this from "Could There Be A Reason?":

When someone is 55% right, that's very good and there's no use wrangling. And if someone is 60% right, it's wonderful, it's great luck, and let him thank God. But what's to be said about 75% right? Wise people say this is suspicious. Well, and what about 100% right? Whoever says he's 100% right is a fanatic, a thug, and the worst kind of rascal. --AN OLD JEW OF GALACIA

Well of course you don't because ... hey! Why are you reading this blog anyway? But I digress. Now, what was I going to say...

Ah, yes. There are a couple of elections coming up and one big and one smaller one just under our belts.

W won the big one with 51%. The Old Jew would understand.

Yuschenko won with 52%. The Old Jew would understand.

In the death-cult havens of the West Bank and Gaza, Abbas will win with something far in excess of 75%, my guess is over 90%. Think about it. Have you seen a single press report on the opposition? The only ones I have seen were about Bargouti coming in and out of the race from his jail cell. The Old Jew has something not very complimentary to say about this if it materializes.

The Iraqi election is a little harder to figure. It depends on how the "slate" system turns out and whether the Sunnis actually try to vote or not. If the Sunnis don't vote then we may be 75% territory -- but given what the Old Jew knows about Saddam's thugs he may declare an exception...

And Abe would second it.

UPDATE: Not to pat myself on the back too early but more evidence of the 90's for Abbas just was seen on Fox. Turns out there is a challenger other than Bargouti but he is campaigning for the Hamas/Islamic Jihad, etc vote -- and the rest of the report was about how they're all now planning to boycott the election!

Today we learn that neither shame nor embarrassment imposes any limits on their conduct.

You don't want to miss Brother Ledeen on "Values and Interests". Really.

Utter garbage gets the financial ripost it deserves.

Honoured By A Vessel ... And More

My recent "MSM-porer Watch: More Thoughts On "Open Source" Media..." is posted in this week's Carnival of the Vanities hosted by Vessel of Honour. Thanks Vessel! (And to Glenn as usual.)

And reinforcing the derision of my reference in "MSM-porer Watch" to Cory Pein of the (so-called) Columbia Journalism Review, Power Line devastates what remains of the stinky carcass thrown aside by Charles:

I could go on, but there is little point in doing so. CBS ostensibly "worked" on the National Guard story for years. They took fake documents from a notoriously unstable source who had no first-hand knowledge of President Bush's National Guard career, and who could not account for where he got them. On their face, the documents looked nothing like authentic National Guard memos of the 1970s that were in CBS's possession, but CBS asked no questions. CBS carried out no investigation to determine whether the memos were genuine, and made a point of not talking to people who were ostensibly quoted in the memos to determine whether the documents were accurate. They put the documents before the American public in the heat of an election campaign, and closely coordinated their story with a Democratic National Committee advertising campaign which dovetailed perfectly with the fake documents, and which began the morning after their broadcast. When questioned about the documents' apparent fraudulence, they stonewalled, and Dan Rather guaranteed the American people that the documents were authentic, because they came from an unimpeachable source.

The bloggers, on the other hand, began questioning the documents within hours after they appeared; raised many logical questions about their authenticity, the vast majority of which turned out to be valid; pointed out anachronisms within the documents that proved that their contents were false; and were ultimately proved correct in their suspicion that the documents were fakes. Nearly all of which occurred, not over a period of years, which CBS had to pursue its "story," but over the space of twelve hours.

And the Columbia Journalism Review thinks it's the bloggers who are blameworthy in this story. Sad. Very sad. But I guess we know whose side the "journalists" are on.

Yes -- and I know what side I'm on also.

And my side doesn't stink of suicidal lunacy infested by hero-worship of barbaric thugs.

(More on Melanie's latest soon. Your assignment is to RTWT for now -- that means downloading the whole PDF! But start with Power Line if you only have a few minutes now.)

Michael exposes the other Green Communism. (HINT: Submission is a common thread.)

Drugged Dhimmi Dogged Daze

Roger notices Dhimmi Britain on screen -- and sets the proper tone of depression for those with still functioning grey matter. Here's enough to make you realize that you need to go read it ASAP:

And even more alarmingly, this:

'According to experts, the vile campaign of the Zionist lobby in Britain against the July visit of prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi has backfired and cemented the position of British Muslims in society. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) concluded that there was no legal ground to prosecute Sheikh Qaradawi as requested by Henry Grunwald QC, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The mayor of London has further apologized on behalf of the people of London for the fuss that overshadowed Qaradawi’s visit and invited the prominent Muslim scholar back to the United Kingdom in October 2005'.

Let us remind ourselves that Sheikh Qaradawi supports human bomb terrorism against Jews, the execution of homosexuals and domestic violence against women.

No doubt IslamOnline would also have claimed, had their deadline permitted, the following additional British cultural scalp, reported in the Sunday Times on Boxing Day:

'THE Inland Revenue is considering recognising polygamy for some religious groups for tax purposes. Officials have agreed to examine "family friendly" representations from Muslims who take up to four wives under sharia, the laws derived from the Koran. Existing rules allow only one wife for inheritance tax purposes. The Revenue has been asked to relax this so that a husband’s estate can be divided tax-free between several wives.The move is bound to create controversy if it leads to a change in the rules. It is seen as a breakthrough by Muslim leaders who have been campaigning to incorporate sharia into British domestic law.'

Hoo-haw! Those without grey matter somehow smugly advocate that we must be tolllllllerant of polygamists, wife beaters, pedarasts and people who throw gays off of roofs for entertainment.

But don't you worry, it's me that's the intolerant one for suggesting that Einstein's kinfolk might not deserve to be slaughtered by the millions.

Whatever drugs these leftist idiotarians are on they sure must be wicked.

And poor Tony Blair -- the only one in the crowd that has occasional days of lucidity...

Today's arrogance update.

Did Hillary miss her best chance?

The New "Moderate" Senate Victocrat Leader Projects Racism

... and is in way, way over his head already as Eugene vivisects with the help of James. He's either a dimbulb or seethes subconscious racist hate to the point where it overpowers his rational faculties. My guess is both are true.

You're always going to be making nutty mistakes like this when your whole life is a lie. You become one big parable of projection.

MSM-porer Watch: More Thoughts On "Open Source" Media...

Check this out from Powerline:

Listening to Austin Bay on Hugh's show tonight, I was struck by the thought that it's no wonder that many journalists feel threatened by the new media. The fact is that very few of the smartest people around are journalists. And today, people aren't forced to get their news and commentary from journalists. It's a good thing.

Sadly, the 4th estate is not only the Emporer with no clothes, but on balance not swift enough to realize it. The subtext that journalists love to propagandize is that their ranks are filled with the sharpest tacks in the whole world's box.

Simple evaluation buttressed by the law of averages illuminates that not only isn't the MSM uniquely endowed with wattage, but that blogs are becoming to the MSM what (in my profession) open source software has become to companies that attempt to purvey shoddy and/or over-priced software: A brutal and well-deserved ripost.

And once you strip away the curtain from the little MSMan, the only really key advantages he has are 1) generally above average writing (and propaganda!) skills, 2) momentum and capital (including advertising revenue) in controlling the traditional channels of distribution, 3) the ability to use that capital to distribute reporters to where "it's happening", and 4) connections and access to newsmakers (which are also often obscured on purpose as in "highly placed sources within the administration..." ).

The analogies with software are 1) change "writing skills" to "software writing skills", 2) lift as is except perhaps delete the ad revenue, 3) the infrastructure to extract "domain knowledge" from key customers and markets and 4) probably not applicable except perhaps a weak relationship in situations where there are key "lead customers" in developing a new market that may be financially "locked up" through discount plans.

While open source software hasn't exactly destroyed traditional software yet, it's clearly made some serious inroads as follows:

1) While professional software firms by definition have strong software design and writing skills, there are plenty of talented software writers that aren't necessarily employed by the mainstream firms -- many who do it as a passionate hobby. Sound familiar? In fact, many of them are encouraged by their employers (often computer hardware-focused companies) to make life difficult for the mainstream software firms in order to compete on a "substitution" basis and try to maintain a grip on a larger chunk of the total system revenue stream.

2) The internet has emerged as an effective alternative distribution source. Sound familiar?

3) The internet has enabled software folks from all over to collaborate easily and find insiders to work with to extract "domain knowledge". Often this may be the writers themselves! Sound familiar?

4) Bottom line is that the "lead customers" no longer need to wait for big software firms to come to them -- they can even initiate new projects themselves! Sound familiar?

So, how to dismember the MSM? Well, some in the MSM have already examined this subject and concluded that blogs can't win because "blogs bear little resemblance to a glossy publication".

Hmmmm... Yes, in the same way that a personal computer bears little resemblance to ENIAC I suppose. And as I recall, Ken Olsen, the founder of the now gobbled up Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) couldn't for the life of him think of a reason why anyone would want a personal computer!

But in the end it's all about value and respect. The "folks" are realizing that they're not getting good value from their daily MSM brainwashings even when it's tolerably well written or produced. The folks look around and -- gosh! -- everyone they know DOESN'T seem to be stealing from Tiny Tim or eating Arab children's brains for breakfast! It turns out that that kind of stuff only happens in the imaginations of big city MSM-emporer-type poorly-behaved smart-asses after a night of poor-quality drugs. (As I've pointed out before, you gotta love projection...)

And when folks get REALLY tired of their letters to the editor not being printed, they discover the "Publish Post" button.

And huge numbers of the folks are WAY smarter than ANY MSM-porer when it comes to their "domains of expertise". Columbia Journalism Review has just put out a perfect example that has been nicely dissected by Charles here.

Did I mention that I have a Master's in Computer Science and I know ra^ther a lot more of whence I speak than the apparently vacuous Corey Pein about Dr. Newcomer's analysis?

Did I mention that the MSM-porer has no clothes and that ad revenue is the last prop that can possibly steady him?

Hmmm... Buggy whip time anyone? Time to steal some blogging time and start collaborating on a new advertising software idea methinks. And there may be serious money in them-thar hills -- but I might even give it away for the MSMajor satisfaction of it all...

This would be all you need to know about the smugly daft left for today... UPDATED ALREADY: Never say I don't admit my mistakes!

Did I mention that "nuttier than a cuckoo clock" isn't even in the right universe to describe these fruitcakes?

It's Not Cool To Be Smart (Part 34267)

I knew there was some sort of a problem with Al-Jazeera but just couldn't put my finger on it. Could it be stuff like this? Nah. Everybody knows that he's just a home-grown Arab hero. In fact, Ramsey Clark will be defending him so he's just got to be innocent.

Oh, well. I'm just not smart enough to figure out the problem...

Just a little old WHOOPS. Especially that last bullet...

A New Year's Toast

to my betters at the U.N.

Why I'm a Lutheran.

UPDATE on New Year's Eve: Maybe miracles DO happen after all. Unfortunately, it only lifts my opinion of the general behavior of the Vatican only a few inches out of the gutter. I'll watch for a trend though. But I'll be very careful not to turn blue...

More Projection: Today's Oppressed Spoiled Lib Bourgeois

Did I forget to mention that Orwell said "The idea that you can somehow remain aloof from and superior to the struggle, while living on food which British sailors have to risk their lives to bring you, is a bourgeois illusion bred of money and security."? Oh yeah, I did.

Did I forget to mention that the libs nowadays constitute the "oppressed" bourgeois? It must be true -- Hitler was a Christian you know so therefore W and me are the Nazis that are doing the oppressing ... ummmmmm ... did I mention that Hitler was a pagan atheist who killed probably more Christians than Jews? Did I mention that that's really saying something?

Well, OK then, let's not forget that I'm the only known Norwegian descendent of Ferdinand so that's all the libs need to know. That's the ticket! All those Nazi Gomer Christians all uniformly voting against the enlightened libs who with superior humanity agree with enlightened barbaric Muslims chanting that wiping the Jews from the earth will solve all the world's problems.

Did I mention that Ferdinand likely incinerated more Jews than Moors?

Did I mention that it's really the libs and Ferdinand -- and Hitler -- that are the real soulmates in this picture?

The Current Jaw Dropper
"In a series of e-mails I patiently explained that Bush couldn't be Hitler since Hitler was dead. He also couldn't be a "new Hitler" since the two men have policies almost diametrically opposed. Most significantly, Bush is attempting to replace genocidal dictatorships with secular democracies. Hitler did everything he could do to destroy democracies and replace them with genocidal dictators. I thought my sister might understand the difference. I also pointed out that Hitler was a starving artist who joined the National Socialist Party, supported gun control, abortion, government control of corporations, was an athiest with an affinity for paganism, hated Jews and allied himself with radical Muslims. I then noted that the Democratic Party, not the Republicans, had a platform which came closest to Hitler's. In other words, using objective reality, not delustional rantings, Hitler is closer politically to the Democrats than to Bush."

And that being on the other side like they are is "a bourgeois illusion bred of money and security."

And that their claim to being oppressed is pure horsepucky hip deep?

The libs don't understand what Emmet Fox calls the the greatest and most fundamental "Laws of Mind": What You Think Upon Grows.

What you think upon grows. This is an Eastern maxim, and it sums up neatly the greatest and most fundamental of all the Laws of Mind. What you think upon grows.

What you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind you magnify in your life. Whether the subject of your thoughts be good or bad, the law works and the condition grows. Any subject that you keep out of your mind tends to diminish in your life, because what you do not use atrophies.

The more you think about your indigestion or your rheumatism, the worse it will become. The more you think of yourself as healthy and well, the better will your body be.

The more you think about lack, bad times, etc., the worse will your business be; and the more you think of prosperity, abundance, and success, the more of these things will you bring into your life.

The more you think about your grievances or the injustices that you have suffered, the more such trials will you continue to receive; and the more you think of the good fortune you have had, the more good fortune will come to you.

This is the basic, fundamental, all-inclusive Law of Mind, and actually all psychological and metaphysical teaching is little more than a commentary upon this.

What you think upon grows (Phillippians 4:8)

The Roe Effect will nicely accelerate the libs extinction. But Emmet Fox knew the real reason why they are toast -- it's the libs that are nihilism's soulmates.

Not us dim and happy Gomer Christians.

Did I mention that all the self-centered and ill-behaved lib whining and invective reminds me of my children on a bad day? Well, if I did I'm taking it back since it would be unfair to them...

And now you know why they're called the "Victocrats".

Did I mention that would be spelled with a "victim" and not a "victory"?

I Love My Two Little Entities

I love my two young sons dearly -- certainly right from when I saw them in mid-gestation courtesy of ultrasound technology. If you haven't had the experience of seeing ultrasounds of your child then I respectfully suggest you're rather less than qualified to flap your gums about when life starts.

James puts the libs problems with "entities" and the realities of life in a pretty stunning light with this entry:

Where Do Babies Come From?
You probably heard about this horrific story that broke just as we were leaving on vacation: A woman was charged with murdering another woman in Missouri. The victim was eight months pregnant, and the suspect, who wanted a baby, allegedly cut the victim's womb open and took the . . . well, what did she take exactly?

A Dec. 17 Associated Press headline read, "Search On for Fetus Cut From Mother's Womb." But the first sentence of the story reads: "Police were trying to find an infant they believe could still be alive after being cut from the womb of its mother." So was this a fetus or an infant? The young entity eventually was found alive, and a Dec. 19 CNN.com headline seems to answer the question definitively: "Dad United With Kidnapped Girl."

Read the rest...

Emmet Fox On Liars

"The punishment of the LIAR is that he cannot believe anyone else." -- Make Your Life Worthwhile, Harper Collins, p. 42

Who said the left is never punished?

Moi?

NORM MINETTA -- nuttier than a Cuckoo Clock. Sorry folks, but this one is signed, sealed and delivered...

Redux Deluxe

In "The Year Of Blogging Dangerously", I realized that I missed Beautiful Atrocities take on the liberal film critics -- don't you make the same mistake!

There is a war going on in Iraq, it's just not the one you read about in the mass media. How illegitimate of them!

Michelle knows why I call it the NYeT...

Roger on "The Khan Game" -- And Orwell On The AP

Roger has a great title for this post, don't you think? And one of his commenters nicely ties together Monsieur Khan with Saddam and the AP Fifth Column:

I keep waiting for the Saddam connection to surface in this. According to a story by William Safire about a year ago, Saddam was buying rocket propellant from China and having it transshipped through France into Syria. Saddam was also working with other terrorist states in the area, why not also with Col. Kadahfy. Saddam was certainly stealing enough money from the "Oil for Food" fiasco to front the money and he couldn't build it in Iraq with the American flyovers and Satellite coverage. Plans for a 10 kiloton bomb, that would certainly give the AP a story wouldn't it if they had their camera's all set up for a "demonstration" say in New York. Wonder if they would tip off the police or would that also be against their ethics of being neutral?

That would be correct -- absolutely against their ethics... And you won't find them quoting Orwell on the topic of themselves either:

Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, ‘he that is not with me is against me’. The idea that you can somehow remain aloof from and superior to the struggle, while living on food which British sailors have to risk their lives to bring you, is a bourgeois illusion bred of money and security. Mr Savage remarks that ‘according to this type of reasoning, a German or Japanese pacifist would be “objectively pro-British”.’ But of course he would be! That is why pacifist activities are not permitted in those countries (in both of them the penalty is, or can be, beheading) while both the Germans and the Japanese do all they can to encourage the spread of pacifism in British and American territories. The Germans even run a spurious ‘freedom’ station which serves out pacifist propaganda indistinguishable from that of the P.P.U. They would stimulate pacifism in Russia as well if they could, but in that case they have tougher babies to deal with. In so far as it takes effect at all, pacifist propaganda can only be effective against those countries where a certain amount of freedom of speech is still permitted; in other words it is helpful to totalitarianism.

"[A] bourgeois illusion bred of money and security" pretty much nails the problem the West faces, doesn't it?

The AP's excuse for avoiding this sort of proper historical context provided by the true greats is that that would be too intellectual for you. No, I don't think that's it somehow. Orwell had a general ripost to that as well:

‘Mr Orwell is intellectual-hunting again’ (Mr Comfort). I have never attacked ‘the intellectuals’ or ‘the intelligentsia’ en bloc. I have used a lot of ink and done myself a lot of harm by attacking the successive literary cliques which have infested this country, not because they were intellectuals but precisely because they were not what I mean by true intellectuals. The life of a clique is about five years and I have been writing long enough to see three of them come and two go — the Catholic gang, the Stalinist gang, and the present pacifist or, as they are sometimes nicknamed, Fascifist gang. My case against all of them is that they write mentally dishonest propaganda and degrade literary criticism to mutual arse-licking. But even with these various schools I would differentiate between individuals. I would never think of coupling Christopher Dawson with Arnold Lunn, or Malraux with Palme Dutt, or Max Plowman with the Duke of Bedford. And even the work of one individual can exist at very different levels. For instance Mr Comfort himself wrote one poem I value greatly (‘The Atoll in the Mind’), and I wish he would write more of them instead of lifeless propaganda tracts dressed up as novels. But his letter he has chosen to send you is a different matter. Instead of answering what I have said he tries to prejudice an audience to whom I am little known by a misrepresentation of my general line and sneers about my ‘status’ in England. (A writer isn’t judged by his ‘status’, he is judged by his work.) That is on a par with ‘peace’ propaganda which has to avoid mention of Hitler’s invasion of Russia, and it is not what I mean by intellectual honesty. It is just because I do take the function of the intelligentsia seriously that I don’t like the sneers, libels, parrot phrased and financially profitable back-scratching which flourish in our English literary world, and perhaps in yours also.

Ra^ther I suspect the AP are quite glad to keep the word Fascifist from coming back into style at all costs lest it inevitably find its proper mark. Perhaps today Orwell would have noticed that "sneers, libels, parrot phrased and financially profitable back-scratching" has some application to AP's brand of "journalism", no?

Did I forget to mention that Orwell's "Pacifism and the War" is over right in my "Classics" section? I've cajoled you to read it before -- it's short. And timely for being written over sixty years ago...

The Coloradoan does still screw up once in a while and print something resembling a decent Conservative Soapbox. I think I can hear their teeth grinding all the way over here in the opposite corner of Fort Collins when they do!

And I neglected to make you aware of this Christmas laugh on time with all the hustle and bustle with the boys. But it's still worth reading! Nice job George!

Memory Hole Off The Port Bow...

I missed this one. It pretty much seals the existence of the MSMemory Hole:

John Hawkins: Do you think the left has largely gotten a pass for being so completely, utterly, and entirely wrong about the effects of Reagan's decision to abandon detente and challenge the Soviet Union?

Ann Coulter: The fact that there still is a Democratic Party proves that.

LOL

My New "Sunny" Attitude?

Wretchard has absolutely MUST READ thoughts on sunshine. As in, the AP where the sun don't shine...

A key item in the dictator's toolbox.

Quote Of The Year

"The great sweep of history is for freedom." Surely you know who said it?

In an effort to hang on to the CHRISTMAS SPIRIT, I'm going to refrain from the harsh words I was just about to use on the MSM and let Glenn sum things up somewhat more diplomatically ...

"Free speech can go so far"? Since it's Christmas Eve day I won't use the language I would like to -- Christian self-censorship if you will. But let's just say that Sikhs would seem to be intent on catching up to Muslims on the list that Christians would have if they weren't so -- well -- Christian. (Hat tip Glenn)

Ridiculous? Yes, that would pretty much describe the AP -- again given it's Christmas Eve day. But not those who don't believe a word they print anymore. Maybe they can become full-time Ra^ther apologists while they're at it...

OK, one final jab at the nutcase libs over the Ukraine -- by someone who knows a bit about the region -- before I finally go extract that cork... (Hat tip Glenn)

We all need a good laugh before Christmas eve... I don't know about you, but after a hard day of snow sledding and shoveling with the boys, it's time to go remove the cork on something...

All You Need To Know About Israel (And Europe)

Is well summarized in this article (for those who are very short on time).

And this longer but very worthwhile "View from the Eye of the Storm" which addresses the importance of Eurabia as the pivotal battleground -- as it has been for the past two millenia. [UPDATE: Well really more like one milennia, but it certainly feels like two...]

P.S. You do remember the scorecard -- don't you?

WE THE FREE CLASSICS WATCH: Just a reminder that everything you know may well be wrong...

This morning's food for thought... (Even if you're a lib!)

Rehabilitating The French?

out-of-band-introduction
Not sure why I have been holding off on posting this one for so long -- maybe it had turned into a sheltered child of some sort. Anyway, here is the last Soapbox left that I had submitted to the Fort Collins Coloradoan that they chose not to print. As I pointed out a few months ago when I de-anonymized We The Free, "Blogs are the letter to the editor that the editor does not want to print." So even though I was (sacre bleu!) underestimating the scale of corruption of the French and the U.N., I'm publishing it here unaltered as I submitted it -- I think it has obviously stood its nine-month test of time quite well... Enjoy!

P.S. Needless to say, one of the joys of the blog is no editors -- especially for titles! While I give the Coloradoan credit for printing my Soapbox bodies unaltered, they never would print my submitted titles. They probably would have headed this one "War Monger Hates Our Founding Fathers' Best Ally" if they had chosen to print it ;) Just one of the not-so-hidden secrets of the MSM...
/out-of-band-introduction

Rehabilitating The French?

No sooner than the Spanish had proven to Al Qaeda that European democracy was no match for terror than Osama’s targets grew and somehow the French are now in need of violent rehabilitation for their transgressions with “wine, pigs, loose morals and nudity” according to CNN.

As someone with a proven track record of psychoanalyzing the French, comments are in order.

But first – surprise! – I would like to give a big, solid B+ to Cheryl Distaso for her recent Soapbox in the Coloradoan (“Whether Bush’s or Clinton’s war, oppose it”, 3/18/04).

It’s OK -- I’ll pause now while the gentle reader climbs back onto their chair.

You see, the first thing that Cheryl did right was to actually pay attention to the counter-protesters at her organization’s recent event. This shows that she has some degree of consideration for alternate viewpoints.

And she must have had some level of respect for her critics – for how else to explain that she spent a meaningful portion of her column rebutting her critic’s charges of hypocrisy and clarifying that she protested Clinton’s wars also. I believe Cheryl is consistent.

Another mark in Cheryl’s favor is the somewhat levelheaded tone of her piece. While she did make reference to “the Bush administration is promoting violence”, her words about “Clinton’s ruthless military actions” were certainly negative.

Where Cheryl fell short was in the following two areas: putting real meat on the foundations of her position and admitting that she is likely a minority in her organization regarding consistency. Were the protest crowds locally and around the world opposing Kosovo even within an order of magnitude of those opposing Iraq II? I certainly don’t recall it – perhaps I can be proven wrong?

As for the foundations of her position, there are two likely alternatives: complete, consistent pacifism and “transnational progressivism”. If she is a complete pacifist then I grudgingly admire her consistency. It’s fascinating to contemplate a world where Lincoln didn’t fight the Civil War and Hitler was unopposed in WWII.

More likely (my best reading since she didn’t completely clarify it) she believes that wars should only be undertaken based on some form of “international law”. Most often, this seems to take the form of a “democratic” vote by the U.N.

The problem with this line of logic comes in when the “democratic vote” is cast by the ambassadors of dictators. Other than Israel, Turkey and someday the now fledgling Iraq, there are no democracies in the Middle East! How can voting rights for dictators not be an affront to the very concept of democracy?

And while the French and the rest of the Europeans may be largely democratic, they are vulnerable to bribery and corruption for their U.N. votes. You see the GAO now estimates that Saddam skimmed north of $10 billion through kickbacks under U.N. auspices in the “Oil for Food” program supposedly meant to feed starving Iraqi children. The U.N.’s Kofi Annan now admits “It is highly possible that there has been quite a lot of wrong-doing but we need to investigate and get to see who was responsible.”

Who do you suppose the new Iraqi government accuses of being a key player in taking Saddam’s corrupt “commissions” alongside Russians and Chinese? Anti-war for oil, tres bonne affaire?

So now the French need rehabilitation according to not just me and George Bush but the Islamists and shortly U.N. investigators.

Unless the French veto the U.N. investigators as well.

Alas, efficacious vetoes may be more difficult with the Islamists. “Fire sale” on Bordeaux wine anyone?

Bob Gronlund
Fort Collins
bob_wtf@comcast.net

Cool!

And thanks to Ravenwood's Universe for accepting my "Pulling Democracy From The Constant Memory Hole" for this week's Carnival of the Vanities! And as usual, thanks to Glenn for keeping COTV in his spotlight.

Another entry that you should DEFINITELY read this week is Dean Esmay's little vivisection of the latest "National Debt" panic.

Certified to be imperialism-free -- by thugs, a**holes and their leader. (Hat tip Centerfeud)