David M

Baseball ethics

2008-08-07T18:10:00.003-04:00

Go check out "Ranking baseball’s ethical transgressions," a description of a recent Willy Stern class at Carlton College.

Then go rank the hundred-odd real-life baseball scenarios yourself.

Which was worse—the murder of minor-league ump Samuel White in 1899 by a player who didn’t like one of the ump’s calls and smashed the poor man over the head with his bat, or the decision to exclude African-Americans from organized baseball for decades?

What about the catcher who heaved a potato (that looked like a ball) into left field in a seemingly failed effort to pick off the runner at third, only to tag the runner out with the real ball when he trotted home?

Obama and ex-Nation of Islamer Keith Ellison

2008-08-07T17:44:00.005-04:00

Keith Ellison, a guy with pretty solid record of affiliation with anti-Semitic organizations, is featured on Obama's campaign web site, on a page titled "Arab Americans for Obama." Ellison is the lead character in two videos on that page.

PowerLine's Scott Johnson wrote in June that "Despite the natural alliance that should exist between them, Obama has scrupulously avoided Ellison." Apparently that avoidance does not carry over to elements of the campaign targeting at Arab Americans.

In Obama's defense, Ellison is a duly (if unwisely) elected member of Congress; but I seem to recall Obama taking a wee bit of heat for failing to repudiate some unfortunate affiliations earlier in the campaign.

Yon: We won in Iraq.

2008-07-14T15:54:00.002-04:00

From Michael Yon, the single best commentator on military affairs in Iraq:

But by my estimation, the Iraq War is over. We won. Which means the Iraqi people won.

He's got some stats (in a Powerpoint document) to back it up.

But he's a bit gloomier on Afghanistan, where "we clearly are losing." On the upside, though, he concludes that "if we could turn things around in [Iraq], we might be able to do the same in Afghanistan."

(Via Instapundit.)

Shameless self promotion

2008-05-20T16:44:00.005-04:00

I've got to start carrying myself with a far more august and intellectual bearing.

This blog has been cited in a real live academic paper by real live paper-writing academic types (namely, by Dina Mayzlin, associate marketing professor at the Yale School of Management; et al). The citation is right there in all its glory. Well, actually, it's in teeny tiny print at the end of footnote 7 at the bottom of page 10. But hey, you take what you can get. Here's the citation in toto:

⁷ For example, one irate blogger complained in his blog about a discovery that he had been plagiarized, “I recently lost out on a boatload of potential new readers because a blogger plagiarized my work verbatim. A high-traffic blogger (Michelle Malkin) then unwittingly linked to the plagiarist's blog instead of mine, and I missed out on all the traffic that came before I found the mistake and asked Michelle to fix the link.”
http://davidm.blogspot.com/2004/10/serial-plagiarism-exposed.html

The paper is called "Link to Success: How Blogs Build an Audience by Promoting Rivals," and you can read the whole thing at this link. The paper must be a good one, because it contains lots of stuff that makes no sense whatsoever to a layman like me. Like this:

The sufficient condition for this equilibrium to hold is: V(u,u) − V(u,n) > V(u,d) − V(n,n)

Commentary's "Contentions" is on a roll

2008-03-28T13:44:00.002-04:00

Bernard Lewis describes the presidential canditates as
competing Chamberlains and the hope of a Churchill.
Sam Munson posts Geert Wilders's film Fitna on radical Islamism (also available here). Go watch it. I've got no doubt that many Muslims see Islam as the religion of peace portrayed here. But that doesn't mean that the radical Islamism portrayed by Wilders is any less real, or any less of an existential threat to civil society.
Abe Greenwald writes that McCain's new ad is directed at Obama:
If everyone else is still toying with the idea of Hillary’s triumphant superdelegate finale, no one’s been told at McCain headquarters.
(See the ad here.) I'm not as quick to count out Clinton. And Jennifer Rubin doesn't count out Gore.

Boola boola, who's managing Harvard's moola?

2008-03-28T13:33:00.004-04:00

Heh. Apparently Harvard's incoming endowment manager is a Yalie through and through. She has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Yale and is currently employed as an advisor to Yale's "top-performing" endowment:

Yale University president Richard C. Levin said Mendillo was once one of his favorite economics students. "We're delighted to see the Harvard endowment in the capable hands of a Yale graduate," he said.

Delegate quotas and the DNC

2008-03-22T00:36:00.004-04:00

I noted in a prior post that lots of state Democratic party rules called for surprisingly strict ~~quotas~~ goals around race, age, gender, income, and even (lack of) education among their delegates to the national convention.

Delving around a bit, it turns out that much of this silliness is mandated from the top, specifically from the Democratic National Committee's "Delegate Selection Rules for the 2008 Democratic National Convention." Of the 21 rules listed in the document, three are entitled, "Non-Discrimination," "Affirmative Action," and "Inclusion Programs."

A certain narrative emerges from those three DNC rules.

We've got a history of voting discrimination.
Let's compensate for that history.
Let's identify groups that need help.
Let's establish target numbers.
But let's be sure not to call the target numbers "quotas."
Except for in the man/woman thing. We kinda need quotas there.

Here are some quotations from the rules to support the narrative. The quotations are snippets out of context, but the themes are unmistakable:

We've got a history of voting discrimination:
... right to vote have not always been extended... groups of Americans have been explicitly denied the right to vote... subjected to discriminatory and exclusionary practices... denying them voting rights.... past history of discriminatory denial of the franchise.... effects of past discrimination.... groups of Americans...may be under-represented in Party affairs.
Let's compensate for that history:
... a program of effective affirmative action is hereby adopted... Discrimination on the basis of “status” in the conduct of Democratic Party affairs is prohibited...efforts to include groups historically underrepresented in the Democratic Party’s affairs... each state party shall develop and submit Party outreach programs... to achieve full participation by such groups and diversity in the delegate selection process and at all levels... shall adopt and implement affirmative action programs... such affirmative action shall be to encourage participation in the delegate selection process... approved Affirmative Action Plan.... encourage the participation of minority groups... not gerrymandered to discriminate... achieve the full participation of members of these and other groups
Let's identify groups that need help:
... race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation or disability... African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian/Pacific Americans and women. ...priority of consideration shall be given to African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian/Pacific Americans and women... African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian/Pacific Americans or women.... encourage the participation and representation of persons of low and moderate income.... the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gendered] community and people with disabilities...
Let's establish target numbers:
... implement affirmative action programs with specific goals and timetables... if such priority of consideration is needed to fulfill the affirmative action goals... Plans shall provide for equal division between delegate men and delegate women and alternate men and alternate women... as far as mathematically practicable, also provide for equal division between district-level delegate men and delegate women and district-level alternate men and alternate women... State Parties may use goals to achieve these ends....
But let's be sure not to call the target numbers "quotas":
... shall not be accomplished either directly or indirectly by the Party’s imposition of mandatory quotas.... in no event may such participation be accomplished by the use of quotas.
Except for in the man/woman thing. We kinda need quotas there:
Notwithstanding sub-paragraph A.(2) above [the paragraph that forbids mandatory quotas], equal division at any level of delegate or committee positions between delegate men and delegate women or committeemen and committeewomen shall not constitute a violation of any provision thereof.

Democratic convention quotas? (Sorry, I meant "goals")

2008-03-21T15:14:00.010-04:00

This excerpt from the 2008 Delegate Selection Plan of the New York State Democratic Party needs no parody:

SECTION D. Representation Goals

1. Goals:

(a) The following are representation goals of this Plan based on the analysis set forth in Appendix D:

(i) African Americans, 28% (78 delegates and 11 alternates); 21
(ii) Latinos, 18% (50 delegates and 7 alternates);
(iii) Asian/Pacific Americans, 7% (20 delegates and 3 alternates);
(iv) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Americans, 8% (22 delegates and 3 alternates);
(v) Disabled Americans, 5% (14 delegates and 2 alternates); and
(v) [sic] Native Americans, at least one (1) delegate.

Move along, no quotas to see here. You can't make this stuff up. It continues:

(b) The State Convention shall ensure that representation in the Delegation fairly reflects, consistent with Democratic voting population as a whole, including African-Americans, Latinos, Asian/Pacific Americans, women, Native Americans, persons under 30 years of age, persons over 65 years of age, persons of low and moderate income, workers, persons with a high school education or less, persons with disabilities, lesbians and gays, bisexuals and transgender persons, rural Democrats, veterans and ethnic and other groups historically underrepresented in Party affairs, if necessary by selecting members of those groups as at-large delegates.

Did I read that right--the New York State Dems will go out of their way to make sure that "persons with a high school education or less" are represented? Wow.

And lest you fret, gender is addressed earlier in the document:

2. Equal Division: The Delegation shall be equally divided between delegate men and delegate women and, separately, alternate men and alternate women, with a variance in each group (“the Variate”) no greater than one. The Variate in one group shall be the opposite gender of any Variate in the other group.

Ah, it's clear now: The Variate in one group shall be the opposite gender of any Variate in the other group. Either a reference to a high school dance or something from a seventh-grade biology lesson. You really can't make this stuff up.

Betsy Newmark comments on similar "goals" for California Dems:

Looking at those requirements and I can't help envisioning that that is what the Democrats would love to do for admissions offices at every state university in California if not the rest of the country.

Indeed.

See Mickey Kaus's "Can we go back to ignoring race now?," which seems to be the first major blog to have blogged on the California "goals."

Update: The NJ Dems are no different. Their 2008 Delegate Selection Plan contains the following "affirmative action goals." The list includes the "underrepresented constituent group," the "proposed representation goal %" and the "proposed representation goal # for 2008 delegates":

C. Affirmative Action Goals

Total Delegates: 127+ 18 alternates = 145
African-American (Non-Hispanic): 14% 20
Asian-American: 7% 10
Disabled: 2% 3
Hispanic : 15% 22
LGBT: 8% 12
Native-Americans: 1% 1
Youth (18-35): 8% 12
Arab American: 2% 3

Total 83 of 145

Same deal for Connecticut Dems. See the top of page 22 of their Connecticut Delegate Selection Plan for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Update: Turns out this stuff is more-or-less mandated by the DNC. Details here.

Classic NY Magazine cover

2008-03-21T13:12:00.001-04:00

Heh.

That man sure can talk

2008-03-19T14:05:00.010-04:00

Barak Obama is, to my mind, the most powerful orator of any major American politician today.

His speech yesterday was masterful. The topic--race relations in America--was controversial enough. Add to that the catalyst for the speech--the revelations of some fairly horrific sermons from the preacher Obama has chosen for most of his adult life--and you've got a tough basis for a campaign topic.

And yet by the end of the speech I was thinking, Yeah, I like what this guy could do for race relations in this country. He's good. An effective talk: putting black anger in the context of our nation's history; looking at prejudice, black and white; and framing all of this in the continuation of the Founding Fathers' efforts to form a more perfect union. He was on the defensive and turned it around.

But now for the quibbles.

First, Obama's repeated invocation of Geraldine Ferraro reeked of the same politics he claims to be avoiding.

Second, and more important, the asides were problematic. When straying from the issues of race, Obama managed to remind me that his policy instincts are by and large antithetical to mine. What purpose did those asides (condemning war; assailing the greed of corporate culture; sneering at profits; or implying that it is up to the government to invest more in healthcare, education and the like) play other than to reinforce that--inspirational rhetoric aside--his politics are no different from a long line of left liberal political candidates? Ah, well.

Update: Virginia Postrel's take on the Obama speech reflects my views. (And as of this week, Postrel is a TV star for her donation of a kidney to an acquaintance.)

Charles Murray, too, liked the speech. As did Peggy Noonan, who writes in "A Thinking Man's Speech,"

I thought Barack Obama's speech was strong, thoughtful and important. Rather beautifully, it was a speech to think to, not clap to. It was clear that's what he wanted, and this is rare.

More from Murray here. Like me, he cannot vote for Obama; like me, he was impressed by this speech.

Name that party

2008-03-18T10:28:00.010-04:00

The New York Times today covered two stories that broke yesterday about politicians involved in unsavory sexual situations. One of the two politicians is a Republican, one is a Democrat. Guess which one the Times identified by party?

The first story is about a New York City Councilman who pleaded guilty Monday to two misdemeanors connected to unwanted sexual contact. The second sentence of the Times story mentions the guilty party's party:
Mr. Gallagher, 43, a Queens Republican, told the court in a non-emotional tone that he touched the 52-year-old victim against her will....
The second story is about New York's new governor who, soon after his inauguration Monday, admitted that he and his wife had carried on extra-marital affairs. The Times reporter must have had a hard time tracking down the new Governor's political affiliation, because in the nine-paragraph article he neglected to mention that the new governor is a Democrat.

Update: Yeah, I posted this before Taranto did. Yeah, he used my stuff without linking me. Yeah, I sent him the link to my piece before he published. And though he did credit me (by my non-blog name, in the list at the bottom of the page), he is well enough steeped in blog etiquette to know he shoulda linked me. James, James, James.

This should quell any doubts about whether post-Castro Cuba is free

2008-03-14T15:51:00.001-04:00

AP:

Cuban sports officials were stunned by the desertions of up to seven soccer players at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Florida.

Obama pork tit for tat?

2008-03-14T14:26:00.002-04:00

This does seem a bit cozy.

Within months of Obama's swearing in, his wife got a huge raise in the department of her hospital that presumably lobbies for government grants. The next year, Obama apparently requested $9 million in pork for the hospital. Hmmm.

Here's the timeline:

2004: Michelle Obama's pay at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she was executive director for community affairs, was reportedly $121,910.

2005: [January] Michelle Obama's husband Barack becomes a United States Senator.

2005: [May] Mrs. Obama is promoted to vice president for community and external affairs at the hospital, and her pay reportedly jumps to $316,962 (260% of her 2004 salary).

2006: Senator Obama requests $9 million in earmarks for the institution, according to a list of earmark requests released by the Obama campaign:

"In 2006, Obama requested $8 million for Human Genome Expression at the University of Chicago."
"In 2006, Obama requested that the University of Chicago receive $1 million to support its Construction of New Hospital Pavilion."

Looks like the hospital got its money back--and then some--from Mrs. Obama's raise.

Obama's family has other connections to the institution as well:

"Top campaign adviser and friend Valerie Jarrett is the Chair of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board and also Chair of the Executive Committee of that board. She has also been named Vice-Chair of the University's Board of Trustees. "
"Obama taught at the U. of Chicago law school and the Obama's two daughters attend school there."

Sine, cosine, cosine, sine/Three point one four one five nine/Gooo team!

2008-03-14T13:14:00.003-04:00

If St. Patrick's day is around the corner, it can only mean one thing: Pi Day! (3/14 -- get it?)

Here are some videos on the topic

Podhoretz and Dickens

2008-03-13T11:43:00.003-04:00

It makes me feel better about my own inability to wade through Dickens when I find out that I'm in good company: Norman Podhoretz can't either.

Spitzer

2008-03-13T09:16:00.005-04:00

If you're interested in Eliot Spitzer's background, motivations and methods as attorney general, check out Roger Donway's 2005 analysis. Here's a sampling:

... In the case of business, he seems to begin with the moral principle that self-interested behavior, such as moneymaking, is at best a merely practical activity, and if not constrained by noblesse oblige a positively malign one. ... Spitzer therefore wages war against the self-seeking, moneymaking bourgeoisie in the name of the little guy. All he asks in return is ever more power to do so.

... Spitzer's moral outlook has definite, discernible contours, and at its core are three elements that have shaped his crusades against business.
First is an antipathy toward anything he perceives as greed. He may not be a socialist who wants to eliminate the pursuit of economic self-interest altogether, but he demands that self-interest be restrained and decorous—a necessary evil
Secondly, Spitzer is profoundly egalitarian in his outlook. He assumes that conflicts of interest between the classes are manifold, and the danger of exploitation constant. With that conviction, he invariably sides with workers and small investors against the wealthy and successful.
Third, and worst of all, Spitzer is a Jacobin: he is willing to sacrifice the political principles of a free society—individual rights, the rule of law, and democratic processes—when they stand in the way of his moral views.

Name that party

2008-03-12T11:22:00.001-04:00

Mark Hemmingway:

As a sidebar to an article at ABC news about Elliot Spitzer, they've helpfully put together this slideshow of 13 politicians involved in famous sex scandals.(Collect them all!) Anyway, it's rather interesting that of the 7 Republicans on the list, all of them save one are identified by ABC as Republicans. Of the six Democrats on the list, only one is identified by party affiliation.

David Mamet changes his mind

2008-03-12T10:39:00.005-04:00

David Mamet in the Village Voice: "I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind."

As the good professor says, read the whole thing.

(Hat tip: my sister.)

Hypocrisy -- some quotations from the Spitzer record

2008-03-10T18:07:00.006-04:00

In light of today's revelations, here are some choice Spitzer quotations (all emphasis mine):

From Spitzer's Jan. 2007 inaugural address:
"And so in order to return to policies of opportunity and prosperity, we must change the ethics of Albany and end the politics of cynicism....

"If ever there was a time that called out for introspection by those in government, it is now. Lincoln spoke of listening to "the better angels of our nature." Indeed, those of us who work in the great building behind me must hear and heed the serious responsibility that public service demands and rise to this moment and show the public in words and in deeds that we understand that our responsibility is to the people of New York."
From a Jun. 2006 statement by Spitzer regarding pending legislation:
Another important issue that needs to be addressed is the problem of sexual predators. For over six years I have been pushing for legislation allowing the civil commitment of such individuals, and we should not let another year pass without action.
In addition, we need legislation to punish those who engage in human trafficking. This is a particularly heinous crime that primarily targets women and immigrants, including those forced into prostitution. This is a growing crime, and we need strong provisions allowing us to address it.
From an Apr. 2004 press release from Spitzer's office:
Attorney General Spitzer said today that 18 people associated with popular "escort services" operating in New York City, Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey have been indicted for promoting prostitution and related charges.
The indictments by a Staten Island Grand Jury follow a lengthy investigation of the escort services, which authorities believed were really a front for a massive prostitution ring.

"This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multi-tiered management structure," Spitzer said. "It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring, and now its owners and operators will be held accountable."
From a Feb. 2004 press release from Spitzer's office:
New York State Attorney General Spitzer announced the indictment by a Dutchess County Grand Jury of the operators of a travel agency on charges alleging that they used their tour business to solicit customers for prostitution rings operating from South East Asia.
The defendants... are charged ... with Promoting Prostitution in the Third Degree, a class "D" felony, and Promoting Prostitution in the Fourth Degree, a class "A" misdemeanor. If convicted on the charges, the defendants face up to seven years in state prison.
From an Oct. 2003 description of Spitzer's "Clean Sweep" program from Neighborhood Watch: A Report from New York 's Attorney General Eliot Spitzer:
To qualify for this initiative, a house, apartment or store must ... have been the site of repeated convictions in recent years for drug dealing, prostitution, or other type of illegal business...

Attorney General Spitzer remains committed to filing Clean Sweep
cases wherever appropriate.
From an Oct. 2003 press release from Spitzer's office:
Attorney General Spitzer today announced that a Monroe County couple were arrested and arraigned on a[n]... indictment filed by an Erie County Special Grand Jury, charging them both with running a prostitution business in Erie, Monroe and Niagara counties.
The defendants... are each charged with two counts of Promoting Prostitution in the Third Degree, both are class "D" felonies....
From an Aug. 2003 press release from Spitzer's office:
Attorney General Spitzer today announced a lawsuit against the operators of a travel agency operating in Dutchess and Queens counties that arranged tours of South East Asian bars that serve as a venue for illegal prostitution.

"The company ... promotes prostitution and the abuse of young women," Spitzer said. "This suit seeks a halt to this egregious conduct."
... Joselito A. Jimeno, Acting Head of Consular Post at the Consulate General of the Philippines said:
"The Philippine Consulate General in New York hails the lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General against "sex tour" operators as an important move in the international battle against crimes against women and children.

(Disclosure: My view of today's news may be a bit colored by the hit my pocketbook took from then-Attorney General Spitzer's aggressive approach to prosecution.)

Say it ain't so, Andy

2007-12-13T16:19:00.001-05:00

The subtitle of Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte's book:

Targeting A Life Of Integrity & Purity

From the back cover of Pettitte's book:

While life as a big league baseball player has brought Andy Pettitte fame and accolades, it has also brought with it temptation. However, Andy learned to deal with temptation long before he donned his first major league uniform. While still a teenager, Andy committed himself to Christ and a life of purity. With his target identified early on, he has been able to hit the strikezone throughout his life.

From the Mitchell report on steroids in Major League Baseball, released today:

McNamee said that Pettitte called him while Pettitte was rehabilitating his elbow in Tampa, where the Yankees have a facility, and asked again about human growth hormone. Pettitte stated that he wanted to speed his recovery and help his team.

McNamee traveled to Tampa at Pettitte’s request and spent about ten days assisting Pettitte with his rehabilitation. McNamee recalled that he injected Pettitte with human growth hormone that McNamee obtained from Radomski on two to four occasions.

That's some razzle dazzle

2007-10-29T10:30:00.001-04:00

The other events of a big sports weekend (Sox win Series, Giants win in London, A-Rod opts out of contract) pale in comparison with Trinity University's 15-lateral, come-from-behind, 60-plus-yard touchdown play with no time on the clock.

Quote of the day

2007-10-03T13:43:00.001-04:00

Joba Chamberlain, rookie pitching phenom for the Yankees, quoted in Sports Illustrated:

I get to come here on a weekend day and watch a major league game for free -- and maybe even get to pitch in it. What could be better than that?

An Intelligent Reader’s Guide to the Iraqi Conflict

2007-09-26T17:23:00.001-04:00

Willy Stern (a relative of this blogger) has recently returned after a stint in Iraq embedded as a journalist with the First Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas. His embed was co-sponsored by two running magazines, Runner’s World (U.K.) and Marathon & Beyond. Stern’s thoughts on the conflict follow.

You want the shirt off my back too?

I’m crammed into the back of a C-130 cargo plane flying into BIAP, Baghdad’s international airport. There are 50 others in the cargo hold with me, mostly soldiers, and two pallets of equipment. The temp is 124 outside. Inside the plane, there is no A/C. I suspect it’s 130 degrees, maybe more. U.S. Army regulations require that we wear long pants, long-sleeve shirts, body armor and a Kevlar helmet on these transports. We are packed in so tight that the soldiers on either side of me have their bodies crushed against my side. We are allotted exactly 20 inches of butt space per person on the bench. The female soldier across from me has her knees in my crotch. My knees are shoved up against her thighs. Rucksacks sit heavily across laps. The heat is unbearable. The soldiers all have brought large bottles of water. Some also have camelbacks. I have no water and am sweating profusely. The flight time is around 1 hour and 20 minutes, but if we take ground fire, it could be far more. The soldier across from me and to the right sees that I am dehydrating quickly. He pulls out a water bottle and offers it to me. We’re all wearing earplugs. There’s no way to talk over the roar of the engines. But he hand-motions that he has more water in his ruck. I reluctantly take a swig and hand it back. He insists I keep it. Over the next 90 minutes, I slowly drain the bottle. He declines repeated offers to share. It isn’t until we are close to landing that I realize he has given me his only water bottle.

Only some “quagmires” get reported

Three thousand seven hundred and forty-six American soldiers have been killed since the Iraqi conflict started in March, 2003. Every death is a tragedy. Over the same time period, Mothers Against Drunk Driving reports that around 75,000 people have been killed on roads here in the U.S. by drunk drivers. That’s about twenty times as many as the Iraqi death toll for our soldiers. Yet, Sen. Kennedy and his ilk are only concerned about the deaths in Iraq. To be sure, it’s not a perfect apples-to-apples analogy. Still, the mainstream media can turn any situation they choose into a crisis, whilst ignoring others. If we were forced to read the daily death counts from drunk drivers on the front pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post, then the “quagmire” of drunk driving would be a national crisis too.

Should we trust Gen. Petraeus?

Last week, I spent 2 ½ hours with General David H. Petraeus, commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq. I met him at his Baghdad residence. (I can’t disclose the location for security reasons). We went for a 5.7-mile run and then did a 90-minute workout together at an improvised gym next to his office. We talked of many things—his family, his years at Princeton, the novels of David Ignatius, his favorite run at Fort Leavenworth, the proper technique for push-ups, the building of the Panama Canal, his philosophy on management and hiring, the time he got shot through the chest, his fastest marathon (sub-3 hours), even his fears, hopes and dreams. (That story will appear in one of the magazines that sent me to Iraq.) But I can say this: Like many of you, I’ve spent the last two days watching moveon.org, Rep. Lantos, Sen. Biden, et alia, desperately and crudely try to impeach the credibility of Gen. Petraeus. I understand the peculiar and mean-spirited nature of partisan politics and posturing as well as the next guy. Nonetheless, these attacks are just plain wrong. They say more about the attackers than the attacked. Petraeus has his faults; he is off-the-charts competitive, way too intense and focused in the extreme. But he is man of uncommon integrity. He could no more lie or deceive Congress than he could rob a bank. I asked him, in front of several senior members of his staff, when was the last time he talked to his wife. “It’s been a few weeks,” he said, clearly sheepish at the lack of communication. But he told the truth. That’s who he is—rock solid and honest to the core. Anyone in the U.S. Congress who thinks Petraeus is capable of deceit either doesn’t know the man or is willfully lying. (Petraeus did say he was in daily email contact with his better half.)

What about that op-ed from the soldiers in The New York Times?

As most of you know, on Aug. 19, 2007, The Times ran a fascinating op-ed piece, “The War As We Saw It, in which seven active duty soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division expressed strong skepticism about “recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable.” To anyone remotely familiar with the Times’ anti-war, anti-military bias, this op-ed was no surprise. But imagine this: Imagine that The Times ran a story on sales at Wal-Mart, in which they only quoted seven Wal-Mart employees, and that each of these employees worked a cash register at the check-out counter at the same Wal-Mart location. Imagine further, that The Times’ editors decided to place more validity on this very narrow sales analysis than they placed on the tallies from the executive vice-president at corporate headquarters who is seeing system-wide revenue numbers. The Times would never do it because it’s not responsible journalism. But the analogy holds. No doubt, the reality on the ground for these seven brave soldiers—two of whom have since been killed—is that Iraq is a big mess. But their experience is in no way indicative of what is going on across Iraq. Only the general officers, high up the chain of command, can see the big picture. Sadly, for The Times editors, the big picture indicates that we are winning, and The Times editors simply cannot have that. My sincere condolences, by the way, to the families and friends of the two fallen soldiers.

Is the surge working? Depends who you ask:

CNN loves to stick a microphone in an enlisted man’s face to hear his impression of whether the surge is working. That makes for compelling TV, and is a clever way for the network to pursue its anti-war agenda. But it’s not honest reporting. It’s a cheap trick. That soldier has an extremely narrow view of Iraq. After two weeks in Iraq, my unscientific survey indicates that 95% of officers believe that the surge has been effective and that conditions are improving—at least in some areas. By the same token, 95% of the enlisted ranks—the frontline soldiers—disagree. These are the grunts who are leaving the relative security of the bases, going “over the wire,” and putting themselves in harm’s way. They tell me that there’s still a lot of “activity” out there, soldier-speak for getting shot at, or risking getting blown up by an IED. So who is right? To be sure, my suspicion is that few get promoted in the U.S. military by sending up a report indicating that his/her unit just isn’t able to complete the mission. Still, the soldiers are being sent to patrol the hot spots; it’s no wonder their boots-on-the-ground thinking is that the war is a mess. That is their reality. The officers read daily reports about all sectors under their command. If Gen. Petraeus and his senior staff say conditions are improving, I’d trust them far more than the grunts.

How safe is it?

That’s the question I am most often asked in communiqués with folks back home. People are getting killed here, both citizens and soldiers. Most trouble comes in one of four forms: (1) soldiers leave the safety of the base, go “over the wire” on patrol and get shot at by the bad guys; (2) The bases are subject to frequent indirect fire. That means the enemy lobs, however inaccurately, mortars or rockets up over the protective walls onto the bases; (3) Convoys are hit by an IED or EFP; and, (4) Accidents. Two helos crash in a sand storm or a Humvee rolls. But these are mostly things you read about, not experience. The mainstream media cover them all, giving the impression things are far worse than they are. Imagine if you lived in Norway, and every day there was an article on the front page of the Oslo paper about the latest violent crime in Nashville. A murder tonight. A rape the next night. You’d think Nashville was far too dangerous to visit. But who do any of us know who has actually been a victim of violent crime in Davidson County? Our troops are winning the war on the ground but getting undermined at every turn by the western media.

Media bias in Iraq? I’m shocked…

The two journalists are from The Daily Telegraph in London. It’s 4 in the morning and we’re waiting for a C-130 transport. They have a swagger about them that comes from having done three earlier tours in Iraq. The shooter is chain-smoking something that smells nasty, but he doesn’t say much. The British scribe is talkative. He’s explaining how to manipulate the “PAOs”, the Army personnel tasked with looking after journalists. “We’re here to show that the surge isn’t working. But we tell the PAO that we want an update on the surge. So he’ll get us some colonel who will feed us the party line. We smile and write it down. Then we’ll embed with a unit for a few days, do a patrol and get the quotes we need from the front-line soldiers. It’s an easy story.”

Who says public service is dead?

It’s 2:17 a.m., and I am in a holding area at a military base in Baghdad, waiting to ride in a Rhino (essentially an armored bus) to take me down to the International Zone. I fall into conversation with a reservist, an enlisted man, who helps the U.S. Embassy do projects with the locals. I need help figuring out how to open and prepare a MRE, the “meal ready-to-eat” that soldiers subsist on in the field. He recommends the chicken, since they are best to “rat-fuck.” That’s the Army term for combing through the MRE contents and picking out the best items. The chicken MREs have both M&Ms and pumpkin bread. Some hour into our conversation, he lets on that in civilian life, he is an attorney with a fairly powerful job in Washington D.C. He volunteered for the gig in Iraq. “Nobody at the State Department would take it. Too dangerous. I thought it was the best way to serve my country.” He rides around in the back of armored Humvee and gets shot at sometimes.

Need a taxi?

I flew over the Red (i.e., not safe) Zone of Baghdad yesterday in a Blackhawk helicopter. It’s a sprawling, ugly city. But what I saw below was the epitome of normalcy. Taxis were trolling for passengers. Lots of cars and pick-up trucks were on the roads. Washing was strung out on lines in the backyard to dry. Shops were open. Men were out sweeping the streets. Sure, the electricity only works a few hours a day. Sewerage is a problem in some parts of the city. Many doctors have fled to Jordan and Syria and the hospitals are barely functioning. It’s a mess out there. But these Iraqis are resilient people. It was clear from the air that life goes on.

What’s a Rhodes Scholar like you doing in a place like this?

I went for a run the other day with the commanding general of the U.S. Army in Iraq, David H. Petraeus, and some of his senior staff. Gen. Petraeus has a Ph.D. from Princeton. His legal advisor, Col. Mark Martins also was along on the run. Col. Martins is a Rhodes Scholar with a Harvard Law Degree. Petraeus’s aide-de-camp ran too. He has a Duke MBA. They are all very fast. More to the point, these are also impressive human beings of superior intellect who share an unfaltering commitment to serve their country. What was John Kerry thinking?

Well, there is the Geneva Convention, for our side anyway…

We’re in a shower trailer at the transit camp at Striker in Baghdad. I’m drying off after my shower. There’s one other soldier in the trailer, a 19-year-old kid from Alabama. He’s shaving what little facial hair he has. I ask him where he’s been. He’s down from one of the smaller FOBs (forward operating bases) up north. “I’m an MP. I guard the captured enemy. We had 61 of those fuckers at our FOB. My unit is tasked with looking after them. We give them three square meals a day and they get a Koran. They get A/C too but we make them sleep on the floor. My buddies and I talk a lot. If we was (sic) captured by them, we’d be dead. And we’d of wasted these guys too if they’d let us. I would have fuckin’ killed every one of those fuckers. But that’s not how we do things in the U.S. Army.”

The next generation IEDs

IEDs have gotten much press coverage back in the U.S. But the term on everybody’s lips here is EFPs. These are “explosively formed projectiles” that spew copper that is so extremely hot that these devices can penetrate armored vehicles. True or not, soldiers believe, and tell horrific stories about, EFPs that have gone right through Humvees, Bradleys, Strykers, even tanks. The widespread belief here is that are coming in from Iran. It’s unclear to me that the Army has found an answer for them yet. Another sign of a vicious enemy that is quick to adapt in the field.

Shot once, in the back of the head

He was 19 when they came to get him at his apartment in one of the poorer districts of Baghdad. They took him out into the street, made him kneel on the ground, then shot him in the back of the head. His crime? He worked as a janitor at the U.S. Embassy complex in the International Zone. He was, in the eyes of the insurgents, cooperating with the infidels. That’s why he was murdered. I’m not sure what the best path is to a secure, democratic society in Iraq. But of this I’m certain: If the U.S. pulls out in the near future, it would be a death sentence to all the brave Iraqis who are currently working side-by-side with the Coalition Forces to build a better Iraq. I wonder if Harry Reid really wants those deaths on his hands.

Shoot that generator!

According to the “psy-ops” people here—those who debrief captured enemy—the goal of the mortars and rockets which get lobbed regularly onto the military bases here is not to hit the dining facilities, where dozens could be killed (we eat in clusters). No, they captured enemy say they want to knock out the generators, in effect killing our A/C units and ability to cook, wash, etc. That way, they think, we’ll be as miserable as they are. It’s hitting 115-120 degrees here pretty regularly.

Scrub those hands!

I cannot get over how clean these soldiers are. They are required to scrub their hands thoroughly before every meal. They do so willingly, as well as every time they are finished using the latrine. Not the cursory clean you see back home in public restrooms. From high-ranking officers to the lowliest of enlisted men and women, they scrub hard and well for 10-15 seconds. My daughter’s kindergarten teacher would be proud.

You get a line and I’ll get a pole, honey

Baghdad is hot, sticky and barren. Everybody has a sniffly nose from the constant sand and dust. There is no wildlife, save the occasional wild dog or—in the desert--camels. But Saddam had dug out several artificial lakes and canals near Camp Liberty in Baghdad. Hundreds of troops here must cross a small footbridge over a canal three times a day on their way to the dining facility. There are many fish (carp, I’m told) and a few eels and turtles in the water. Soldiers will often take a piece of bread after supper, stop on the bridge and feed the fish. It’s a tiny connection to some sense of humanity in the craziness of this prolonged war.

Pssst. Wanna’ great deal on a Harley?

Just outside the d-fac (dining facility) at Camp Liberty next to the Baghdad airport, there are posters advertising Harley Davidson motorcycles for sale. For $14,791, you can buy a “Night Rod” Harley. Shipping is included. Soldiers orders books off Amazon.com; one soldier said a book got to him in Iraq four days after placing the order. At the PX (post exchange), you can buy darn near anything. A 21” flat screen TV from JVC goes for $159. There’s a fairly decent selection of Rosh Hashanah cards too—far better than at my CVS in Nashville.

A hard case

He’s the platoon’s master sergeant, an enlisted solider, with 22 hard years in the U.S. Army. He is crusty, old school, by-the-book and could care less what you think of him. He’s having trouble adjusting to the new Army, including his boss, a female lieutenant. He despises the media—thinks we tend to be lazy, left-wing scumbags who only write negative stories about the Army. He’s been away from his wife and daughter a lot the past two decades. He doesn’t complain.

Clearly, he doesn’t care for me, yet another media guy passing through Iraq for a few weeks and sounding off like an expert. In two days, he’s barely acknowledged my existence, except to chew me out for possibly violating “opsecs”—meaning doing something which runs counter to operational security that could put his troops at risk.

A few of his soldiers are trying to convince me to hop on a convoy run with them through the “red” (i.e., unsafe, unsecured) zone outside Baghdad on Friday to drop off a generator. I’m chewing it over.

The first sergeant suddenly chimes in. “Don’t do it. We have to go. You don’t. Life is too precious, son.” I didn’t even know he was listening. Or cared.

From Booz Allen to Saddam’s palace

I’m making conversation with the 1-star general’s “XO”—a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy who sits outside the general’s office and runs the show. We are in one of Saddam’s former palaces; there are gold-inlaid bidets in the bathroom. I’m early for my appointment with the brigadier general; his executive officer is graciously filling the blank airtime. He’s got a bum knee, and can’t run, which is frustrating him. It finally comes out that he is a reservist who graduated from the Darden, the business school at the University of Virginia, a few years back. Since then, he’s been humping it for Booz Allen Hamilton; he’s a management consultant in the firm’s Washington D.C. office. He volunteered for duty in Iraq. He is working 80- and 90-hour weeks. This decision will set back his path to partnership at Booz. He believes service to his country in time of need is more important.

Those naughty, rule-breaking Jews

In an effort to be sensitive to the local Muslims—only some of whom are trying to kill us—all U.S. military bases here forbid porn and alcohol. They take the ban seriously. Not so the Jews. I showed up at 1830 last night for Shabbat services in a mini-chapel over at Camp Victory. The Army had flown in a baby-faced reservist rabbi—the ever-smiling Rabbi Mark Sachs—from Pittsburgh. The nine of us in Rabbi Sach’s Baghdad “congregation” that night sat in desk chairs that we had arranged in a semi-circle around our preacher. M-16s and M-4s lined the back wall. Those in attendance included a top executive with Kellogg, Brown & Root (the contractor that performs many non-military services here), three enlisted guys, and one female (a commander in the U.S. Navy). Afterwards, someone went into the backroom and came out a case of kosher red wine. I guess Jewish customs trump Muslim ones. Our final prayer was in celebration of the United States of America. I couldn’t take notes (the rabbi was orthodox and they have some sort of prohibition about using writing instruments on the Sabbath). But there was a line in there where we all prayed for the president of the U.S. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard a rabbi say a single nice word about President Bush.

Are we playing laser tag, or trying to kill terrorists?

Before riding a convoy through the Red Zone, the convoy commander gathers everybody—including a visiting journalist—around to go over the mission. We congregate around the hood of an armored Humvee in the 115-degree heat. All but two of the soldiers are smoking or dipping. The sergeant spends a fair amount of time on the rules for “escalation of force.” That means how the soldiers can respond if they sense trouble. If a vehicle approaches, they must first issue voice and hand commands, indicating the vehicle should stop. If that doesn’t work, they can “lase” the vehicle, that is, shine a green laser light on the vehicle. If that doesn’t work, they may shoot non-lethal rounds. If that doesn’t work, they may try to disable the vehicle. Finally, if all else fails, they can, in his words, “shoot the motherfuckers.” It’s clear that some of the enlisted guys think these multiple cautions are ridiculous. They believe that these rules are driven by risk-averse officers high up the chain of command who are fearful of bad press if something goes wrong. I agree. The enemy isn’t playing by these rules or worried about getting hammered in The Washington Post.

How much does the U.S. taxpayer shell out per fact found?

I was at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad the same day as Sen. Joe Biden. I actually preceded him by about 45 minutes in the TV studio where he gave his obligatory, “I’m here in Baghdad and…” press conference. The soldiers despise this sort of grandstanding and with good reason. Politicians (on both sides of the aisle) spend a lot of taxpayer money coming to Iraq—typically for 24-to-48 hours—on these so-called fact-finding missions. They stay in the Green Zone, do a photo-op, a meet-and-greet with a few soldiers from their home district and needlessly tie up a lot of personnel here. It’s hard to fathom how they could learn anything of value. But they’re awful good at then calling a news conference and saying, “Well, I was in Iraq last week, and I can tell you that, blah, blah, blah.” They use these trips not to fact-find, but to try to give legitimacy to their own views. Sen. Biden, with his superficial anti-war rhetoric, is one of the worst. Well, I did hear about one Congressman from Washington State who actually changed his mind after one of these visits. He went from anti-war to pro-war. I wish somebody at the U.S. Embassy could remember his name. A true rarity: A politician with an open mind who is trying to educate himself.

The Olympian

I met a major this morning in Baghdad who was on the U.S. shooting team at the Olympics after college. He was three points off the bronze. After some prying from a visiting journalist, he finally acknowledged that if three of his 9s had been 10s, he’d have been on the metal stand. It’s clear that he doesn’t think much about it now. Like everybody else over here, he’s trying to accomplish the mission. He sits in a swivel chair at a desk. He was a world-class athlete not long ago, but unlike Michael Vick, et alia, doesn’t have an ounce of self-promotion about him. He’s devoted his life to serving his country.

How many Poles does it take to design a military uniform?

Every soldier in the U.S. Army in Iraq must be in uniform at all times, except in the privacy of his/her hooch. The standard uniform is high desert boots, long pants, undershirt, and long shirt. In the brutal summer heat, that’s a lot of clothing. Throw in a Kevlar helmet, armored vest, 40 pounds of equipment and a M-16. They get awfully hot. Not so the Polish soldiers. They have a uniform which is, essentially, shorts and a t-shirt. These Poles are much envied, for their uniform anyway.

Tiger Woods had better watch out…

I had dinner last night with a retired U.S. Army colonel. He is now a consultant for CBS Radio, doing on-air commentary. The colonel had spent the previous afternoon hitting golf balls at a range some outfit had built at Victory Base Complex, next to the Baghdad airport. Who’d a thunk?

Hey, wanna’ make $67,000, tax-free?

She was a waitress back home in Texas without a high school diploma. She heard about well-paying jobs in Iraq from a friend. She went to the KBR (Kellogg, Brown & Root) website and filled out an application. Now she has a cushy job helping out at the fitness center at one of the U.S. Army bases outside Baghdad. KBR pays her $67,000, tax-free. She hands out towels to soldiers who stop in to pump some iron and relieve stress. These are the same soldiers who are going over the wire daily, putting themselves in harm’s way. Most of these enlisted men and women make less than $25,000. The mainstream media seems obsessed with the fact that KBR was a subsidiary of Halliburton, which Dick Cheney used to run. That connection is, of course, irrelevant to KBR winning contracts in Iraq. The media would do better to focus on the huge pay disparities between the skilled soldiers, who put their lives at risk, and the unskilled contractors, who largely stay safely on the bases.

Are you crying?

He’s spent the last 15 months in an elite U.S. military unit in Iraq, although I’ve promised him I won’t identify him or the unit by name. It’s around 3 a.m. and he’s sitting alone at a picnic table at a military base eating a Big Mac. I can’t sleep either and join him with my 6-inch meatball sub from Subway. Yes, outlets for these fast-food restaurants are open all night on some bases here. After telling me he doesn’t trust anybody in the media, we make small talk. Finally, he has this to say, “I had a broken bone in my lower leg, but I hid it from the doctors so I could ship out with my unit. It hurt like hell. I couldn’t run without pain. But I wasn’t going to let my buddies down. They are my family now. We’ve been threw a lot of shit together. Some of them aren’t coming home.” This is followed by a long silence when it’s clear he’s trying not to cry. “That’s it. These are the best people I know, but it’s all gone to shit here.” My guess is he was 20 years old, tops.

Update: Thanks for the links from Liz Garrigan, Luke Froeb and A.C. Kleinheider.

Update 2: Just added the last vignette, "Are you crying?," which had been inadvertantly omitted.

Stat of the day

2007-09-26T16:34:00.001-04:00

Who knows your kids best?

Males:
You - 44.5%
Your spouse/partner - 53.4%

Females:
You - 92.0%
Your spouse/partner - 5.9%

Source: BIGresearch

Want to support the troops?

2007-03-01T10:51:00.001-05:00

A few ways to support the troops:

Donate to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
Attend the Gathering of Eagles in Washington March 17 in order
[t]o stand silent guard over our nation's memorials, in honor of our fallen, and in solidarity with our armed forces in harm's way today.
Send a care package.
Next time you vote, vote for someone commited to victory in the War on Terror.

The whys and wherefores of the Jewish vote

2007-02-14T21:50:00.001-05:00

Dean Barnett is a guy who is generally insightful (his taste in baseball teams aside). Today he posted a piece on "Why Do Jews Not Vote For Republicans?":

SO WHY DO JEWS VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS? ... There are two main reasons: First, the social issues drive Jews into the Democrats’ sweaty embrace; second, it’s a tribal thing.

As far as the social issues are concerned, most Jews are liberal. Very liberal. They’re pro-choice, and they’re very concerned about the separation between church and state. These are serious matters for them.... The American Jewish community in general is very uncomfortable with the virtually every position the Republicans hold on social issues.

Spot on, in my experience.

And then there’s the church-and-state thing. Jews are concerned about being a powerless minority. The Holocaust haunts them; for a lot of Jews, it still lingers as a cautionary tale of how quickly and totally things can go south even in a society into which they’ve fully assimilated....

In Jews of my (40-something) generation and younger, I see this church/state/Holocaust issue as a lot less of a political motivator than the social issues above.

The other reason so many Jews vote reflexively and exclusively Democrat is because it’s a tribal thing. Their grandparents voted only for Democrats. So too their parents. Many of today’s Jews are going to do the same thing.

I think he misses part of the tribal aspect. It's not just that their parents and grandparents voted Democrat, but that there are elements of being immersed in an echo chamber full of folks who believe that to be a decent person is simply inconsistent with voting Republican.

I’ve had conversations with Jews whose primary concern is Israel’s well-being. I point out to them that Israel has never had a better friend than George W. Bush. Objectively, that fact is unassailable. And yet Jews who are tribal Democrats refuse to even engage the issue. The notion that George Bush, an Evangelical Christian of all things, is a friend to Israel is so far outside their conceptual framework they can’t process it. They lack the bandwidth.

A considerable number of the NY-area Jews I encounter regularly are part of the Angry Left which pretty well sees President Bush as the personification of evil and incompetence. Regardless of the logic, it's not the place to start in an effort to engage them.

So what can Republicans do about this? Pretty much nothing.

I've got a glimmer of hope. The RJC thinks Jews are starting to budge. Here's my prescription: (1) Keep supporting Israel and (2) focus the Republican party more on limited government and championing the war on terrror than on social issues. (Hey, that wouldn't be a bad idea, anyway.) Maybe we'll start making some progress.

These things take decades to change. The attitude of the far left to Israel will drive some Jews to consider voting Republican, but nowhere near a majority. The South took a century after the Civil War to even consider supporting Republicans.

Pro-nuke Greenpeace? 'Fraid not.

2007-02-07T15:50:00.001-05:00

In today's White House press briefing, Tony Snow gave reason to be optimistic that Greenpeace was taking a pro-nuke position:

We're talking about nuclear development, which is now championed by, among others, Greenpeace.

But alas, nothing on Greenpeace's web site confirms the optimism.

There's this from Greenpeace's "campaigns" page:

We have always fought - and will continue to fight - vigorously against nuclear power because it is an unacceptable risk to the environment and to humanity. The only solution is to halt the expansion of all nuclear power, and shutdown existing plants.

Then there's this from Greenpeace's January 2007 statement on the proposed McCain-Lieberman climate change legislation:

Regrettably, the Senators have also included subsidies for nuclear energy which is inherently dangerous and provides no real solution to global warming.

And finally Greenpeace's January 2007 "energy [r]evolution: A Blueprint for Solving Global Warming" (pdf) leaves no doubt where the organization stands on nukes, as these statements show:

To make the energy [r]evolution real and to avoid dangerous climate change, greenpeace recommends that the United States:
• Phase out of all subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy....

"The risk of nuclear accidents, the production of highly radioactive waste and the threat of proliferating nuclear weapons are only a few reasons why nuclear power needs to be phased out."

A new UN agency is needed to tackle the twin threats of climate change and nuclear proliferation by phasing out nuclear power and promoting sustainable energy, in the process promoting world peace rather than threatening it.

Sorry, Mr. Snow. It's plausible that some within Greenpeace privately promote nukes, but I see no evidence that the organization is moving that way.

Who is Nicholas Lemann?

2007-01-24T22:16:00.001-05:00

I am shocked--shocked!--that Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia's journalism school and the man who hired leftist Victor Navasky to run Columbia Journalism Review, would pen a piece hostile to the Bush administration and get his facts wrong in the process.

(Hat tip.)

What passes for conventional wisdom at the New York Times

2007-01-24T09:11:00.001-05:00

Opening paragraph of a book review by Michiko Kakutani, regular NYT book reviewer:

Even as more commentators on both the left and the right are using the adjective “incompetent” to describe the administration of George W. Bush, historians like Douglas Brinkley, Sean Wilentz and Eric Foner have begun to argue that Mr. Bush is in contention for the title of worst president in history, citing reasons like the metastasizing war in Iraq, a ballooning deficit, the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina and a widening credibility gap.

Well, maybe the Iraqis, and the U.S., and the world, and the War on Terror, too, but who's counting them?

2007-01-17T18:40:00.001-05:00

Joe Klein at a Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum:

If the policy [President Bush has proposed for Iraq] succeeds, the only ones who would benefit are those in the administration.

Quote of the day

2007-01-11T13:00:00.001-05:00

Loren B. Thompson, December 2006:

The controversy over what to do about Iraq has congealed into two camps: supporters of the President who lack a clear plan for achieving victory, and critics of the President who have a detailed plan for America's defeat.

(Via this path.)

Quote of the day

2006-12-21T16:52:00.001-05:00

Victor Davis Hanson, describing Robert Kagan's new book, Dangerous Nation:

[A] tragic admission that the American character always wishes to do right, usually has the power to match word with deed, but not always the patience or wisdom to succeed.

On Iran

2006-12-18T12:24:00.001-05:00

Some articles to get up to speed on current goings-on regarding Iran, presented here in reverse chronological order:

"Iran to Become an Established N. State" (Fars News Agency--apparently Iran's "semi-official" news agency, Dec. 18):
Government Spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said that Iran will be announced as an established nuclear state during the coming Ten Day Dawn (1-11 February) ceremonies.
"Mr. President, If I May Be So Bold..." (John Hinderaker for Power Line, Dec. 14):
Commandeer a half hour in prime time to tell the American people, and the world, that we have clear evidence of Iran's involvement in killing American servicemen. Show the captured munitions. Explain exactly how they have contributed to American casualties. Display aerial photos of the training camps. No doubt there is much more evidence that can be presented or described.

You should say that Iran's supplying of weapons in order to kill Americans is an act of war. In the dramatic finale of your speech, announce that thirty minutes earlier, American airplanes stationed in the Middle East took off, their destination, one of the munitions plants or training camps of which you have shown pictures. That training camp, you say, no longer exists. You say that if Iran does not immediately cease all support for, and fomenting of, violence in Iraq, we will continue to strike military targets inside Iran.
"Iranian Weapons Arm Iraqi Militia" (Jonathan Karl and Martin Clancy for ABC News, Nov. 30.):
U.S. officials say they have found smoking-gun evidence of Iranian support for terrorists in Iraq...
"Getting Serious About Iran: A Military Option" (Arthur Herman in Commentary, Nov. 2006):
Unless the current regime and its backers are willing to change course, decisive military action could open the way for an entirely new Iran.

The key word is “decisive.” What has cost us prestige in the Middle East and around the world is not our 2003 invasion of Iraq but our lack of a clear record of success in its aftermath. Governments in and around the Persian Gulf region are waiting for someone to deal effectively and summarily with the Iranian menace. Saudis, Jordanians, Egyptians, and others—all feel the pinch of an encroaching power. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to stop the Iranian advance.

... Do we intend to dither until suicide bombers blow up a supertanker off the Omani coast, or a mushroom cloud appears over Tel Aviv, before we decide it is finally time to get serious about Iran?

No minced words quote of the day

2006-12-18T09:37:00.001-05:00

The Examiner: "There appears to be no bottom to the pit of specious vacuity in which former president Jimmy Carter has been falling...."

(Hat tip.)

Spring around the corner?

2006-12-11T17:24:00.001-05:00

Mattingly is moving up the ranks and Pettitte is back in pinstripes--can pitchers and catchers be far away?

And broadcaster Suzyn Waldman is belting out Christmas carols on stage. (O Derek the captain, Was alive as he could be, And the children say, He could laugh and play, Just the same as you and me.)

RIP, Jeane Kirkpatrick

2006-12-08T16:47:00.001-05:00

Jeanne Kirkpatrick died today. Norman Podhoretz eulogizes,

Having enlisted [in the Cold War] as a young woman, she went on to perform brilliant service on the ideological front, where she stood up magnificently for this country at a time when it was under a relentlessly vicious assault at home no less than abroad. It was as a hero of that war that she made her mark, and it is as a true American hero that she will be remembered.

It was an article by Kirkpatrick in Podhoretz's Commentary magazine ("Dictatorships & Double Standards," November, 1979) that caught Ronald Reagan's eye thus launching Kirkpatrick into the national political and intellectual spotlight.

(Hat tip.)

A treatment plan for Sam McGee

2006-12-07T11:40:00.001-05:00

Heh:

Because Mr. McGee is placing himself at risk for tissue damage by virtue of his refusal to accept a reasonable thermal environment, I recommend that he be apprehended, committed under the Mental Health Act of the Yukon Territory and conveyed to Whitehorse General Hospital for psychiatric observation. All measures should be taken to ensure he is kept warm during transport. On arrival, thyroid studies should be undertaken, the cold intolerance being suggestive of hypothyroidism. Meanwhile, sedatives may be given to assure a calm patient during his removal from the boiler and transportation to Whitehorse.

Mr Speaker, I promise to get to the bottom of it

2006-12-07T11:24:00.001-05:00

A bit of levity in Canada's parliament:

(Hat tip.)

Sportsman of the Year: Where have you gone, Roger Federer?

2006-12-07T09:49:00.000-05:00

Sports Illustrated has named Dwyane Wade Sportsman of the Year. He is a heck of a ballplayer who had an incredible run in the playoffs. And Sports Ill tells a touching story of Wade's overcoming boyhood adversity in the ghetto (broken family, drug-addicted mom, raised essentially by big sis, moved in with dad who wouldn't give any positive feedback) to become a superstar.

But my Sportsman of the Year is Roger Federer:

Federer's 2006 numbers are astonishing: a record of 92–5, 12 titles, three majors and the final of a fourth, his third Masters Cup, and a record $8.3 million in prize money. Federer is so far ahead in the rankings that if he decided to vacation until March, he would remain no. 1 in the world and break Jimmy Connors's record for consecutive weeks on top (160).

Also notably absent from the list of Sports Illustrated honorees since 1954 are Wilt Chamberlain and Joe Montana , arguably the best in their respective sports. (Not to mention Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.)

A video indictment of Canadian healthcare

2006-12-07T09:40:00.000-05:00

A Short Course in Brain Surgery.

(Hat tip.)

Actually, I'm from New York

2006-11-29T21:48:00.000-05:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Inland North
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

12345

2006-11-22T10:23:00.000-05:00

Several times in recent days, most recently at about 9:50 this morning, the Dow was at 12345.

Hat tip: The Honorable Mom.

The UN does it again

2006-11-21T15:19:00.000-05:00

Anne Bayefsky:

On November 17, 2006 the UN General Assembly "reconvened" its "Tenth" Emergency Session to condemn Israel. The Tenth Session began in 1997and has now been reconvened 14 times. No other emergency session of the General Assembly has occurred on any other subject in these ten years - not even on Darfur, Sudan with 2.5 million people displaced and over 400,000 dead. And once again, the General Assembly adopted another resolution condemning Israel without mentioning Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran or Syria, which are openly acting to bring about Israel's annihilation. Just seven of the UN member states voted against the resolution – the United States, Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, and Palau. The European Union voted in favor.

In the midst of this display of visceral hatred of the Jewish state and the Jewish people, inimical to everything the UN was created to oppose, came a singularly powerful voice for reason, dignity and honesty – Ambassador John Bolton. The crowd assembled in the General Assembly hall was hostile to the man and to the country he represents. But Ambassador Bolton took the podium and spoke with no rancor and no double-talk. Here is part of what he said: "This problem of anti-Israel...is endemic to the culture of the United Nations. It is a decades-old, systemic problem that transcends the whole panoply of UN organizations and agencies...The consequences of this persistent, unconstructive, biased approach are painfully clear - not one single Palestinian is helped and the United Nations continues to be discredited by its inability to confront...the Israel-Palestinian conflict in a serious, responsible manner."

[ CONTINUED ... ]

Nobody clapped – in contrast to the applause which the same crowd had lavished on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez when he referred to President Bush this past September as the devil. John Bolton, however, wasn't looking for accolades. In a room where the US has one vote among 192 states, he simply spoke truth to power. "We believe that the United Nations is ill served when its members seek to transform the organization into a forum that is little more than a self-serving and polemical attack against Israel or the United States."

Gaza terrorists implicitly recognize Israel's moral authority

2006-11-21T11:05:00.000-05:00

Did you see yesterday's news about Gaza?

In an effort to reduce or eliminate casualties, Israel alerts a leader of a Palestinean terrorist organization to evacuate the area before commencing air strikes.

The leader of the Palestinean group--which has a history of deliberately targeting Israeli civilians for death--uses Palistinean civilians as human shields.

Can there be any doubt as to where the moral authority lies in this case? The terrorists themselves recognize that Israel respects human life more than they do.

A bit more background: The terrorist organization in question, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), is a Palestinean group which, among other activities, deliberately and admittedly targets civilians for death. Read background on PRC here, here and here. Recent PRC activities have included lobbing shells into populated Israeli towns.

When Israeli officials decided to take out the home of PRC leader Mohammed Baroud with an air strike, they called a few minutes ahead to alert Baroud to evacuate his house. Instead of evacuating, Baroud headed to his local mosque and rounded up civilians to serve as human shields. The Israelis saw this and cancelled the air strike.

Milton Friedman, RIP

2006-11-16T15:03:00.000-05:00

Milton Friedman has died.

President Bush said of Friedman in 2002:

He has used a brilliant mind to advance a moral vision: the vision of a society where men and women are free, free to choose, but where government is not as free to override their decisions.

That vision has changed America and it is changing the world. All of us owe a tremendous debt to this man's towering intellect and his devotion to liberty.

More tributes here and links here.

Obits:

Quote of the day

2006-11-08T14:17:00.000-05:00

The Belmont Club ruminates on the Democrats' newfound legislative power:

There is now a much smaller chance that the terrorist problem can be resolved at a low level of conflict. There is a greater likelihood that it will be allowed by neglect or paralysis to metastacize into a canker which will develop into a catastrophic confrontation in five or ten years time. A likelihood, but not a certainty.

(Hat tip.)

Vindication for the global cooling alarmists?

2006-11-07T13:20:00.000-05:00

"All regions near to or below normal temperature." So reads a report on October 2006 weather from the federal government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (via Drudge).

Is this vindication, at last, for those in big media who warned us of the dangers of global cooling? Some may accuse the global-climate-change-will-lead-to-worldwide-catastrophe crowd in big media of being scare-mongerers who selectively and unskeptically repeat questionable scientific conclusions in order to produce sensational stories. But the NOAA data may provide some evidence that the global-climate-change folks were more right than we knew. Did we let their warnings of three decades ago go unheeded?

Here is what big media was writing:

From a June 24, 1974, article in Time entitled "Another Ice Age?":
[W]hen meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.

Telltale signs are everywhere —from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest.Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F....

Whatever the cause of the cooling trend, its effects could be extremely serious, if not catastrophic. Scientists figure that only a 1% decrease in the amount of sunlight hitting the earth's surface could tip the climatic balance, and cool the planet enough to send it sliding down the road to another ice age within only a few hundred years.
From a an April 28, 1975, article in Newsweek entitled "The Cooling World":
There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth.... The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it.... The central fact is that ... the earth’s climate seems to be cooling down. Meteorologists... are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. ...resulting famines could be catastrophic....

A survey completed last year by Dr. Murray Mitchell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveals a drop of half a degree in average ground temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere between 1945 and 1968. According to George Kukla of Columbia University, satellite photos indicated a sudden, large increase in Northern Hemisphere snow cover in the winter of 1971-72. And a study released last month by two NOAA scientists notes that the amount of sunshine reaching the ground in the continental U.S. diminished by 1.3% between 1964 and 1972.

Update: Apparently my humor is not transparent to everyone. Yes, I understand that one month does not make a trend. And yes, I understand that NOAA essentially believes in global warming. (Here is what NOAA writes on the matter: "Most striking is the fact that each record reveals that the 20th century is the warmest of the entire record, and that warming was most dramatic after 1920.")

Quotes of the day

2006-11-03T11:30:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry, did the New York Times just put on the front page that IRAQ HAD A NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM AND WAS PLOTTING TO BUILD AN ATOMIC BOMB?--Jim Garaghty

Wait a minute. Iraq had WMD programs?!? Iraq was 'on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away'? ... And here I thought Bush lied.

Seems that the New York Times owes Judith Miller an apology. Or at least a hat tip.--TigerHawk

That night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

2006-10-30T14:45:00.000-05:00

A recitation on video of the Robert Service classic by a guy who looks a lot like the man that's known as Rock.

Ahh, the Left

2006-10-30T14:01:00.000-05:00

Left-wing, anti-war group ANSWER held a rally in New York at the UN Plaza this past Saturday. Some telling placards from the rally:

The U.S.A. MUST BE DEFEATED, NOT APPEASED!
Jews, denounce Zionism for the evil it is and the Zionist state of Israel a heretic Country Whose Supporters will spend eternity in Hell!!
NORTH KOREA NEEDS NUKES TO DETER THE U.S.

At least one banner tried to counteract the ANSWER folks:

If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence.
If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.

(Hat tip.)

Quote of the day

2006-10-23T14:38:00.000-04:00

Keith Olbermann, the ESPN anchor-turned-liberal-political-polemicist last week (video here):

[W]e now face... [a] government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from.

Right, Keith. No real need to concern ourselves with Islamist terrrorists determined to kill us as long we keep the evil neo-cons in check.

Update: Turns out this is par for the course for Olbermann. Here he is on Oct. 23:

But the leading terrorist group in this country right now is the Republican Party.

(The latter quote via Stephen Spruiell, who comments, "the only difference remaining between Keith Olbermann and some 'peace activist' moron with a 'George W. Bush is the Real Terrorist' sign is that Olbermann has a TV show.")

Quote of the day

2006-10-18T09:54:00.000-04:00

"Act locally, think globally: Shop Wal-Mart." --Michael Strong (via John Tierney)

Obama knocks Knox appearance for Colbert

2006-10-18T09:44:00.000-04:00

Heh. And on the official Senate site to boot.

(Hat tip.)

Columbia and Ahmadinejad: One wonders

2006-09-21T12:48:00.000-04:00

Columbia University officials have invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia this Friday, according to the Columbia Spectator and The New York Sun.

Let's review some of Ahmadinejad's high-profile public statements, shall we?

"Death to Israel." Israel "must be wiped out of the map of the world."
"And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States...."
The Holocaust is a myth: "They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred.... The West has given more significance to the myth of the genocide of the Jews...."

Now, by way of background, let's review Columbia's discrimination policy: The University

is committed to providing a working and learning environment free from discrimination... and to fostering a nurturing and vibrant community founded upon the fundamental dignity and worth of all of its members. ...[I]t is the policy of the University not to tolerate discrimination ... in any form....

The policy further states that discrimination may occur by

treating members of a protected class less favorably because of their membership in that class. The protected groups are based upon race, color, religion, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, citizenship, ....

One wonders if Columbia deems inviting to campus a political leader who calls for the annihilation of Israel to be part of fostering a nurturing environment towards people of Israeli origin.

One wonders if Columbia deems inviting to campus a man who publicly appeals to God for a world without the United States to be part of creating a vibrant community for those of American origin.

One wonders if Columbia deems inviting to campus a high-profile Holocaust denyer to be reinforcing of the fundamental dignity of those of Jewish religion.

One wonders.

Update: Ahmadinejad accepted the invitation, but then Columbia rescinded it because of security and logistical issues, university officials told the Columbia Spectator. Would've been nice if they'd rescinded the invitation on principle, because the guy is a thug. But I guess some folks seem to like him, seem to think President Bush could learn a thing or two from him.

Further update: The New York Sun is reporting that Columbia's president announced that he did rescind the invitation on principle.

(Hat tips: K. J. Lopez and G. H. Reynolds.)

The great unanswered question (or, Who has my toothbrush?)

2006-09-21T09:54:00.000-04:00

William F. Buckley writes this week that "The great unanswered question in modern political thought is: Who speaks for Muhammad?"

Speaking as a guest at my college two decades ago, Buckley urged us students to be precise in our use of language. And so I pose the question, is his question really the great unanswered question, or just one of them? Let's see what others have written on the matter:

Time magazine (Dec. 15, 1941) on Pearl Harbor: "Over the U.S. and its history there was a great unanswered question: What would the people, the 132,000,000, say in the face of the mightiest event of their time?"
The Wired Librarian (Jul. 1983): "One great unanswered question still lingers: Who has my toothbrush?"
The publisher of Choosing War (Mar. 2001): "Fredrik Logevall examines the last great unanswered question on the [Vietnam] war: Could the tragedy have been averted?"
Jeffrey Herbst in Foreign Affairs (May/Jun. 2001): "[W]e still do not have a good answer to the most basic question: Why? Why did tens of thousands (if not more) of Hutu citizens join with their government to kill their Tutsi neighbors, their Tutsi wives, and fellow Hutu thought to be Tutsi collaborators? .... Mahmood Mamdani has written When Victims Become Killers in order to address this great unanswered question."
William M. Lunch in the Oregon Stater (Dec. 2004): "The great unanswered question is whether 2004 was a 'realigning election,' one in which new political divisions became evident that will last for a generation."
The New York Times (Jan. 17, 2005) on the UN oil-for-food audits: "The great unanswered question is who dropped the ball and why."
Physicist Freeman Dyson (2006): "The great unanswered question is, whether we can regulate domesticated biotechnology so that it can be applied freely to animals and vegetables but not to microbes and humans."
David Pogue in The New York Times (May 4, 2006): "Why this, of course, is the great unanswered question: Does the Ultra Mobile PC exist because regular laptops are too bulky?"
Dominic Casciani for BBC News (Jun. 14, 2006) on illegal immigrants in the UK: "What ministers now do about these people is the great unanswered question...."
John Rentoul (Aug. 24, 2006): "It is still the great unanswered question of British politics. No, not 'When will Tony Blair go?', but 'What will the voters make of Gordon Brown?'"

Perhaps Mr. Buckley should have chosen somewhat more precise language: "A great unanswered question in modern political thought is: Who speaks for Muhammad?"

The hinged and the unhinged on Chavez

2006-09-21T00:44:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't been paying attention, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez took to the floor of the UN General Assembly Wednesday to rant about Bush being the devil, American exploitation, pillaging, hegemony and the like. (Video is here.)

The best comment on the speech:
"Wow. With one speech, eagerly applauded, Hugo Chavez did more today to show what’s wrong with the United Nations than some of us have managed in years of gumshoe reporting." - Claudia Rosett (the journalist who did as much as anyone to expose the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal)
And a somewhat different perspective from the Left:
"While the oil companies rake in obscene profits by the hour from the high price of oil, Chavez, who is in town this week for the UN General Assembly, keeps devising new schemes to use Venezuela's oil bonanza to benefit the needy around the world." - NY Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez
[Gonzalez would do well to read Thor Halvorssen or Betsy Newmark, who have a somewhat different take on Chavez: "a tyrant who is repressing dissent at home and well on the way to ruining his own country's economy despite their oil wealth."]

Speaking of the Left, some of Chavez's Bush equals devil language sounded a lot like Angry Left reasoning. I decided to check out the Democratic Underground coverage of the address. I was shocked--shocked!--to find quite of bit of sympathy for Chavez's sentiments among many of the DU commenters. A sampling:

35: "Beautiful. Not a word out of place. No matter who it offends."

36. "This is the REAL DEAL! Who can deny it?"

41. "All I can say is WOW! Wonderful speech. He is so on target on all the issues."

52: "I wish Hugo were my president!"

53: "Chavez speaks for me. Seems like you have to be someone outside of U.S. politics to speak the truth anymore. This guy tells it like it is."

71: "Chavez speaks the Truth."

73: "You know what - Hugo Chavez had the cajones to say exactly what the rest of the world thinks of Bush. Okay, so it may have not been the most diplomatically presented speech, but I bet there isn't anyone, not even the people who may have criticized Hugo, who doesn't agree with his statement today, even if its silently."

At least one had a sense of humor:

26: "Whatever happened to the Great Satan? Can't we get a little more respect than 'the devil'?"

Stick to sports, Mike

2006-09-20T20:31:00.000-04:00

I'm a New York sports fan. And Mike Lupica is the best New York sports columnist writing today. Maybe best in the nation.

But I will not be reading his stuff much anymore after his recent rant about "Bush's America, where the people in charge think that if they tell a lie often enough it eventually becomes the truth."

As Taranto noted, isn't Lupica supposed to be a sportsranter?

E-mail of the week

2006-09-19T10:19:00.000-04:00

"Can you teach me the Jewish Republican handshake?"

Sent to me by a 40-something lifelong Twin Cities Jewish Democrat concerned by the ascendancy of congressional candidate Keith Ellison, a man tainted by his refusal to denounce ties to anti-Semitic organizations.

A reason to vote Republican

2006-08-05T10:29:00.000-04:00

If Democrats were in power now, and were responsive to their voters, the United States would distance itself from Israel.

56% of Democrats think the US should take a more neutral posture in Arab-Israeli affairs or align itself more with Arab countries. Compare that with the 64% of Republicans who think the US should continue to align itself with Israel.

Similarly, in the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, only 29% of Democrats think Israel has acted properly, compared with 64% of Republicans.

Michael Barone analyzes the data in his blog:

Let that sink in: A majority, 56 percent, of Democrats think Israel did not act properly, while an even bigger majority, 64 percent, of Republicans think Israel did act properly. That's a pretty sharp difference....

Left-wing anti-Israel sentiment is not confined to a few odd corners of the academic world; it has become a mass constituency in the Democratic Party. Nor is the view that the Palestinians and Hezbollah are virtuous and deprived Third World victims while Israel is a First World oppressor limited to old media (see CNN, BBC, large parts of the New York Times, etc., etc.). It's also the view of a mass constituency in the Democratic Party.

Hat tip: Power Line's Scott Johnson, who notes that Barone and others are drawing parallels to 1930s Europe.

News about news

2006-08-05T02:14:00.000-04:00

Via Daniel Freedman, a survey on news consumption from The Pew Research Center. Here are a few snippets:

Declining MSM

Americans who regularly watch network TV news: 60% in 1993 and 28% in 2006.
Americans who read a newspaper yesterday: 58% in 1994 and 40% in 2006.

Credibility

CNN, which has the highest viewer credibility in radio and televisions news, has also seen the largest decline in credibility since 1998. 60 Minutes has the second highest viewer credibility; ABC News, CBS News, NPR and MSNBC have the lowest.
The Wall Street Journal and US News have the highest credibility in print media.
Republicans trust Fox News Channel and The Wall Street Journal more than Democrats do.
Democrats trust the other 16 media outlets in the study more than Republicans do.

Traits associated with higher news knowledge*

Male
White
Educated
Republican
Get news from Weekly Standard, New Republic, Rush Limbaugh, New Yorker, Atlantic.

Traits associated with lower news knowledge*

Female
Black
Young
Democrat or Independent
Get news from CNBC, MSNBC, morning news shows, religious radio.

* News knowledge was based on correct identification of the Secretary of State, the President of Russia and the party that controls the House of Representatives.

The Flags of Our Sons

2006-08-05T01:24:00.000-04:00

Maybe it's just my recent lack of sleep, but this NYT story of a fallen marine brought tears to my eyes.

The disconnect between those who serve and those of us who are beneficiaries of their service has always felt great to me, but never greater than at that moment.

The mom and dad stepped away from the man in the T-shirt and to another window, still not touching, their movement synchronized by grief. They waited until the marine in charge came back up from the runway to escort them to a government vehicle. I went to my car and drove to work with no ambition for the day other than to be worthy.

Hat tip.

I'm back

2006-08-05T01:19:00.000-04:00

Well, not really back blogging, but back to being Jonah Goldberg's research assistant. Just like old times.

Requiem for Thurman Munson

2006-08-02T23:59:00.000-04:00

On this, the anniversary of Thurman Munson's death, I refer you to "One Fewer Hero."

Observations on the flag burning amendment

2006-06-28T13:55:00.000-04:00

US Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 (k):

The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.

Jonah Goldberg:

Any respect for the flag that requires a constitutional amendment or congressional statute is respect in name only.

Quote of the day. (It's summertime; has anyone seen my flip flops?)

2006-06-27T10:50:00.000-04:00

You'll never guess who was bemoaning that politicians were

considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy. Their sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop withdrawal dates, without adequate stability, is an invitation to failure. The hard work of rebuilding Iraq must not be dictated by the schedule of the next American election.

It was John Kerry, addressing the Council on Foreign Relations.

(Hat tip: Taranto.)

Summer reading

2006-06-21T10:51:00.000-04:00

Just read NRO's summer reading list (or in the case of Daniel Casse, a summer avoidance list).

I then ordered

America: The Last Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of Discovery to a World at War by William Bennett,
Baseball Between the Numbers by the Baseball Prospectus folks and
The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway.

First usage of fisk as a verb: Tim Blair

2006-06-07T12:50:00.000-04:00

Note from Aussie blogger Tim Blair:

Re the first use of "fisking" as a verb, I believe I may possibly have some claim.

He's right. Blair used the term in this Dec 19, 2001 post, the first use of "fisk" as a verb to my knowledge. Here's the quote:

He deserves a righteous kicking, and I think Natalie might be first in line with the Fisking boots.

Note that Blair's post predates Glenn Reynolds' first use of the term by five days. Between Blair's Dec. 19 post and Reynolds' Dec. 24 post, the term began to migrate in meaning from physical pommelling to oratorical pommelling. The source of the term is British journalist Robert Fisk. Fisk was beaten by a gang of Afghani thugs and then wrote sympathetically about his attackers. The blogoshere proceded to rip apart Fisk's work.

For more complete background, see my history of the term, which I have updated to include Blair's contribution.

By way of background, Blair is my favorite Australian blogger. His exceptional coverage of the 2003 Bali terror was second to none. He blogs here now.

FMA

2006-06-01T17:04:00.000-04:00

Two good reasons for conservatives to oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment:

Second, a constitutional amendment defining marriage would be a radical intrusion on the nation's founding commitment to federalism in an area traditionally reserved for state regulation, family law. There has been no showing that federalism has been unworkable in the area of family law.

Third, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage would be an unprecedented form of amendment, cutting short an ongoing national debate over what privileges and benefits, if any, ought to be conferred on same-sex couples and preventing democratic processes from recognizing more individual rights.

(Hat tip.)

What is a progressive?

2006-06-01T16:58:00.000-04:00

By most of these definitions of progressive, I qualify.

"World Trade Center"

2006-05-19T11:23:00.000-04:00

I'm not generally a fan of Oliver Stone's attempt to recreate history, but I'm looking forward to "World Trade Center."

Trailer here.

Update: John Podhoretz is unimpressed with Oliver Stone's take on 9/11:

A trailer has just been released for "World Trade Center," the story of the last two men saved from the Ground Zero wreckage. The trailer is horrifying and bombastic, overdrawn and overdone - everything "United 93" was not. But that is to be expected from its director, Oliver Stone.
Stone's last circulated commentary on the al Qaeda attack came on Oct. 6, 2001, when he appeared on a panel at Lincoln Center. He began ranting in terms that can only be described as insane about movie-studio bosses and their connection to the attacks. Sitting next to him was the essayist Christopher Hitchens.
Stone: "They control culture, they control ideas. And I think the revolt of September 11th was about 'F--- you! F--- your order.' "
Hitchens: "Excuse me - 'revolt'?"
Stone: "Whatever you want to call it."
Hitchens: "It was state-supported mass murder, using civilians as missiles."
Stone: "The studios bought television stations. Why? Why did the telecommunications bill get passed at midnight, a hidden bill at midnight? The Arabs have a point!"
The Arabs have a point - these are the words of the man who has now directed a movie called "World Trade Center."
Words fail. Again

On United 93

2006-04-27T14:25:00.000-04:00

Todd Beamer's dad:

This film further reminds us of the nature of the enemy we face. An enemy who will stop at nothing to achieve world domination and force a life devoid of freedom upon all. Their methods are inhumane and their targets are the innocent and unsuspecting. We call this conflict the "War on Terror." This film is a wake-up call. And although we abhor terrorism as a tactic, we are at war with a real enemy and it is personal.

There are those who would hope to escape the pain of war. Can't we just live and let live and pretend every thing is OK? Let's discuss, negotiate, reason together. The film accurately shows an enemy who will stop at nothing in a quest for control. This enemy does not seek our resources, our land or our materials, but rather to alter our very way of life.

I encourage my fellow Americans and free people everywhere to see "United 93."

Be reminded of our very real enemy....

May the taste of freedom for people of the Middle East hasten victory. The enemy we face does not have the word "surrender" in their dictionary. We must not have the word "retreat" in ours. We surely want our troops home as soon as possible. That said, they cannot come home in retreat. They must come home victoriously. Pray for them.

Recycle a story; give it some anti-Bush flavor; win a Pulitzer

2006-04-27T14:03:00.000-04:00

Don Surber:

Dan Riehl asks was Dana Priest's Pulitzer Prize-winning story on secret prisons a repeat of her 2002 reporting? Good question. But the 2005 rendition of her 2002 story left out this paragraph, according to Riehl:
The Clinton administration pioneered the use of extraordinary rendition after the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Riehl has a lot more in his examination. Read it.

The Washington Post is a good newspaper. Surely Riehl should ask its omsbudswoman to explain this.

State gas taxes

2006-04-27T12:17:00.000-04:00

New York has the highest gas taxes in the country: 44.5 cents per gallon. This is on top of the nationwide federal tax of 18.4 cents for a total of 62.9 cents per gallon. [August 2005 data from the American Petroleum Institute.]

New Jersey's state gas taxes of 14.5 cents per gallon are 30 cents less than New York's. And it shows at the pump. Which is why I fill up every time I find myself across the Hudson.

Here are the data:

Click on image to enlarge in separate window (which is still a bit hard to read).
Or for a clearer version, see the original pdf from the American Petroleum Institute.

On a related note, despite the media and political hype, gas prices have been fairly flat in real-dollar terms since 1979. At least that's the case for this guy who has kept track of all the gas he's purchased for 26 years and adjusted it for the consumer price index.

(Hat tips: Betsy's Page and Instapundit.)

Wilentz on Bush

2006-04-21T15:00:00.000-04:00

Reader AKA sends a reference to Sean Wilentz's attack piece on Bush in Rolling Stone ("The Worst President in History?").

Maybe it's just me, but I prefer James Taranto and Mark Steyn's mockeries of Wilentz to Wilentz's writing.

Snippets from today's Wall Street Journal

2006-04-21T11:58:00.000-04:00

From the that's-a-relief category, here is Daniel Henninger:

I don't think the blogosphere is breeding cannibals.

From the what-the-heck-is-he-talking-about? category, here is a theater review by Terry Teachout:

...a preternaturally earnest ensemble of Stanislavsky-worshipping leftists...

Great minds

2006-04-20T23:24:00.000-04:00

David M, April 16:

UN slips further from relevance as Iran becomes vice chair of Disarmament Commission

Sen. Norm Coleman, April 18:

Iran's election to a leadership role on the UN Disarmament Commission is another outrageous and saddening reflection of the lack of credibility of the United Nations.

2006-04-20T02:46:00.000-04:00

The Yankees played their 14th regular season game on Wednesday. And for the first time this season, they scored fewer than 9 runs and still won.

Going to be hard to win a World Series with A+ hitting and B+ pitching.

Beware those anonymous web site operators

2006-04-20T02:37:00.000-04:00

According to Strategy Page, some "pro-terror" web sites were really run by the good guys trying to collect information from the bad guys. Since this has been exposed,

many potential users of such sites are now reluctant to get involved. These pro-terror web sites have long been a powerful recruiting tool. Not so much any more.

Cool.

(Hat tip: my brother-in-law.)

Approval ratings

2006-04-20T02:14:00.000-04:00

Are the President's approval ratings dependent almost entirely on the price of gas? If these data are to be believed, the answer could be yes.

Jonah Goldberg speculates that the same things that raise gas prices reduce Bush's approval ratings. (Think Katrina.)

(Hat tip.)

Of Treos, ships and Blackberries and cabbages and kings

2006-04-20T00:25:00.000-04:00

Just ordered a Palm Treo 700w. Other contenders were the Treo 650 and a Blackberry. Did I choose right?

Mark Steyn's new book: America Alone

2006-04-20T00:18:00.000-04:00

Whenever I sense myself starting to go wobbly, a good strong dose of Mark Steyn or Victor Davis Hanson is always an effective cure. I'm looking forward to Steyn's forthcoming America Alone: Our Country's Future as a Lone Warrior.

Honest Hamas?

2006-04-19T15:41:00.000-04:00

Mediacrity:

Hamas won't play the hypocritical game, first begun by Yassir Arafat, of condemning terrorism while sponsoring it at the same time. These guys endorse terrorism while sponsoring it at the same time. Hey, that's honest! You got to give them credit for that.

The Yale president, special students and the Taliban man

2006-04-19T14:13:00.000-04:00

Ensuant to the Yale Taliban kerfuffle, Yale president Richard C. Levin has issued a statement on Yale's special student programs. The statement never mentions the Yale Taliban--a former Taliban official now enrolled as a special student at Yale--but it does mention the increased media attention since February 2006 (when incidentally the Yale Taliban story broke).

Apparently there are 58 to 72 students admitted annually to Yale's special student programs, some on a degree track and most not. Levin mentions twice that these students

do not live on campus, do not receive financial aid, and do not compete for admission with the 1300 members of the freshman class in Yale College.

This is presumably an effort by Levin to ensure that people know that the Taliban is not taking anything away from regular (that is, non-special) Yale students.

First, a trivial quibble with the statement: some students (including the Yale Taliban) do receive financial aid. This aid does not come from the University, though, and so Yale should not be held accountable for it.

Second, a more substantive quibble: special students do compete with regular Yalies for university resources. For classes with unlimited space, the more students in the class, the more diluted is the professor's attention. For classes with limited enrollment, some students are routinely turned away.

Here is my understanding/recollection of how the decision to turn students away is made:

For some classes students are turned away based on formal criteria. For example, economics major undergraduates are admitted first, then other undergraduates, then economics graduate students, then other graduate students.
Other classes use more subjective criteria. For example, students might write a note of why they want to be in the class, and the professor chooses a mix of students that will make for the most interesting classroom environment.

So, despite Levin's implicit protestations that the Taliban did not take a spot from a Yale freshman, it is quite plausible that the Taliban is indeed taking classroom space from that same Yale freshman (or upperclassman or graduate student). And given the apparent cap of 72 special students, the Taliban man certainly appears to be taking a special student spot that could otherwise have gone to someone who never was a high officer with a terrorist regime at war with the United States--a high officer who incidentally has never publicly renounced the policies of that regime.

Update: Clint Taylor comments on other aspects of the Levin statement here.

The movies

2006-04-18T23:36:00.000-04:00

Two based-on-reality movies I'd like to see: United 93 and The Lost City.

Ergasiophobia

2006-04-18T23:16:00.000-04:00

Ergasiophobia is one of those words that does not get nearly enough use.

It apparently means "fear of, or aversion to, work."

And guess what comes up first in a search for the word?

Thoughts on calls for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation

2006-04-17T11:17:00.000-04:00

When some retired generals state very publicly that they want Donald Rumsfeld gone, it reminds me of candidate John Kerry's very public statement listing the retired generals and admirals who supported him, when in fact ten times as many had declared themselves against him.

That said, I do not have a firm opinion on Donald Rumsfeld's job performance. My knowledge of the man comes primarily from Midge Decter's (none-too-neutral) hagiography as well as the (none-too-neutral) media headlines.

Yale Taliban update

2006-04-17T09:28:00.000-04:00

Per the latest from John Fund, more people of all political stripes are coming to realize Yale's foolishness in admitting the Taliban man.

For example, liberal Yale alumnus and editor of the New Haven Advocate Mark Oppenheimer was making silly comments about how this was an issue promoted by "right-wing boobs... doing their fake-fury thing." Fund reports that Oppenheimer has changed his thinking on the matter and that Oppenheimer attributes his earlier, misguided point of view to a gut reaction that the right must be wrong:

Mark Oppenheimer, a Yale grad who edits the New Haven Advocate, an alternative weekly, says he has "finally come to the conclusion" that "Yale should not have enrolled someone who helped lead a regime that destroyed religious icons, executed adulterers and didn't let women learn to read. Surely, the spot could have better gone to, say, Afghani women, who have such difficulty getting schooling in their own country."

Mr. Oppenheimer attributes his prior reluctance to realize Yale had erred to "basic human stubbornness" and says he finds it "awfully upsetting to agree with jokers like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly," both of whom have discussed the Yale story on Fox News Channel. "The harder they flogged this issue, the more I became convinced that they had to be wrong. I just feel better across the fence from them. . . . I think it's utterly fair to blame the right wing for making me so desperate to dissemble."

UN slips further from relevance as Iran becomes vice chair of Disarmament Commission

2006-04-16T17:00:00.000-04:00

From Anne Bayefsky at Eye on the UN:

Believe it or not: Iran becomes UN disarmament leader

On April 10th the UN Disarmament Commission elected Iran as one of its three Vice-Chairpersons.

Afterwards, the UN's Under Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Nobuaki Tanaka, said the Commission "played a unique role" with "the advantage of being a fully universal deliberative body." This is the UN fiction which brings us closer to nuclear war with each passing day. The allusion is to universal democracy, though the majority of voters are non-democratic and include thugs, racists and war-mongers.

What next, Sudan on the Human Rights Commission?

2006-04-14T14:39:00.000-04:00

Jewish Week:

Reform Movement Goes Silent On Its Anti-War Stand

Almost six months after putting Judaism’s largest denomination on record calling for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, a divided Reform movement has let languish the resolution it passed with great fanfare at its November biennial convention.

The Union for Reform Judaism resolution, which demanded “a clear exit strategy ... with specific goals for [U.S.] troop withdrawal,” marked the first — and still only — official stand by a major Jewish organization against the war....

Who let the Jews out?

2006-04-14T14:36:00.000-04:00

Video here.

(Hat tip.)

2006-04-14T14:25:00.000-04:00

Does this mean than Donald Rumsfeld is on his way out?

The South Park Mohammed censorship kerfuffle

2006-04-14T00:02:00.000-04:00

It's a classic case of life imitating art imitating life.

Comedy Central censors an image of Mohammed on a South Park episode poking fun of media that censor pictures of Mohammed.

Michelle Malkin is all over it with video clips, links and commentary. She's posted the key clip here.

One of the South Park characters, a kid named Kyle, makes a pretty good speech on the issue of free speech and the Mohammed controversy:

Kyle: You can't do what he wants just because he's the one threatening you with violence.

TV exec: I can't be responsible for people getting hurt, especially me.

Kyle: Yes, people can get hurt; that's how terrorism works. But if you give into that..., you're allowing terrorism to work.

And Thom Zaler writes to Powerline on the juxtoposition of the censureship of mundane Mohammed images with the showing of outrageous images of Bush and Jesus:

The episode was built around a network and the free speech/Mohammed hypocrisy. Mohammed's appearance in the cartoon was of him handing off a football, purposefully tame. That's when the "Comedy Central won't air this part" popped up. Then, in the cartoon, the Muslim extremists react by making their own offensive cartoon, including the images of Jesus and Bush defecating on themselves and the American people.
That, to me, is the brilliance of it. They knew Comedy Central wouldn't air Mohammed, but would air the Jesus/Bush images. They not only called out their network's callowness, they illustrated it, and further showed how Americans DIDN'T riot upon seeing those images. Unless there was a story I missed this morning.

And take note of this memo (as quoted in the New York Sun) from Comedy Central executives in response to a prior freedom of speech controversy:

As satirists, we believe that it is our First Amendment right to poke fun at any and all people, groups, organizations and religions and we will continue to defend that right. Our goal is to make people laugh, and perhaps if we're lucky, even make them think in the process.

Certainly a First Amendment right to free speech is different from an obligation to broadcast offensive speech. But it does not seem right to block only speech that might offend to those who threaten violence. Leads to conclusions like this one:

Still, either way the point is the same: Don't like people mocking your religion? Threaten them with violence. It seems to work pretty well.

The Jib Jab boys do Passover

2006-04-13T23:58:00.000-04:00

A video of Jib Jab's hip hop Passover anthem is here.

Slate: Quite simply stupid

2006-04-12T23:42:00.000-04:00

Jonah Goldberg on a particularly silly (and anti-Conservative) lead line in Slate:

Even accounting for poetic license, this is quite simply stupid. That this line made it by Slate's editors tells us quite a bit about the entire enterprise.

Notre Dame pass right video

2006-04-09T00:45:00.000-04:00

Remember that Notre Dame pass-to-the-right story?

Here is the video. I could not watch it with a dry eye.

Draft mistake

2006-04-08T23:29:00.000-04:00

With the fifth pick in the 1992 baseball draft, the Reds picked Chad Mottola; with the sixth pick, the Yankees chose Derek Jeter.

Though the end of 2005, Mottola had 21 big league hits; Jeter had 1,936.

Oops.

(And Jeter's number does not include his post-season hits or the first-inning homer he hit tonight.)

"Democrats are smarter, so they get all the advanced degrees"

2006-04-08T12:18:00.000-04:00

From Thomas Sowell's recent column, "Classroom brainwashing":

Unfortunately, there is much confusion about both free speech and academic freedom. At too many schools and colleges across the country, teachers feel free to use a captive audience to vent their politics when they are supposed to be teaching geography or math or other subjects.

... The lopsided imbalance among college professors in their political parties is a symptom of the problem, rather than the fundamental problem itself.
If physicists taught physics and economists taught economics, what they did on their own time politically would be no more relevant than whether they go swimming or sky diving on their days off. But politics is intruded, not only into the classroom, but into hiring decisions as well.

From a response from Sarah Stravinska, a professor of dance at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette:

A possible answer to what Sowell sees as imbalance in faculty politics is:

a. Republicans are teaching in private, Christian colleges.

b. More Democrats choose the teaching profession.

c. Democrats are smarter, so they get all the advanced degrees.

d. All of the above.

I hope Prof. Stravinska's teaching of ballet is better than her understanding of politics. But then she presumably sees no problem injecting politics into unrelated areas in the classroom, as she implies when writes in response to Sowell, "To strictly limit a professor to 'the subject at hand' is to limit the students’ education and the opportunity to learn the relevance of the subject to real life."

(Hat tip: Phi Beta Cons.)

2006-04-07T21:52:00.000-04:00

Heh.

David Gelernter on Federalism

2006-04-05T15:10:00.000-04:00

David Gelernter in The Weekly Standard:

The Founders designed a vast garment for America that hugs where it should hug and stretches where it should stretch; each state creates its own society, and the Constitution stitches them all together into a comfortable, sensible union suit.

Date and clock games: 1-2-3-4-5-6

2006-04-04T17:20:00.000-04:00

Tonight (well, early tomorrow), at three seconds after 1:02 a.m., it will be 01:02:03, 04/05/06. If you miss it, there's always next millennium.

Cool.

(Hat tip: my brother)