U.S. Fumes Over Cuba's Seat on U.N. Rights Panel...What else can you say about the UN? It seems absurd to even have to continue to point out such farces. But go read some of the liberal blogs. You will find many spirited defenses of the UN.
Just to sum up for you:
The United States was on the commission from 1947-2001, at which time it was voted out. In other words, the greatest protector of human rights the world has EVER known was voted off the commission by a collection of dictators and rogue states.
LIBYA(!) is the actual chair of the commission.
Although the US is back on for 2003, Fidel Castro's Cuba(!) has been given a seat on the same panel.
CLICK HERE to see a list of member states. I'll make it easy for you and list some of the notables: Algeria, Cuba, Congo, Libya, Sierra Leone and Syria.
It's a real "who's who" of "death-by-machete" states.
posted by Nick 1:57 PM
Music Industry Sends Warning to Song Swappers...Evidently the RIAA IM'ed around 200,000 intellectual capital-stealers and informed them of the illegality of their actions. Some lawsuits against individual offenders have ALREADY BEGUN. It's about time. I hope they go on to file thousands of other lawsuits. I would like to see huge fines and long prison terms given out to some of these cocky grand-larceners.
"File sharing", as the stealing is often called, is quite possibly the all-time activity which the offenders will seek to justify, no-matter how backwards their logic. All the pro-stealing arguments boil down to this one basic tenet: "...but I LIKE to get music for free".
But the most dangerous argument is the: "...but Metallica/Bill Gates already has more money than they could ever spend. It doesn't hurt them. Therefore, I can do it". That argument asks you to accept the premise that wealthy Americans are no longer entitled to protection under US law. By virtue of their having ascended to the heights of dizzying success, we are now, as citizens, entitled to pillage their property and convert them into 2nd-class underlings. The fact that so many "law-abiding" Americans seem to accept this argument is what scares me the most.
Rick Santorum and All of His Followers and Most of His Opponents Are Wrong...Santorum is obviously scary because he seeks to codify the laws of the Catholic Church by way of his position in the Senate. He actually actively supports the idea that private sexual acts between consenting adults is criminal and punishable by jail time.
Then there are the gay groups that intend to be gay Republicans. They like to assert that Santorum is wrong because he likened homosexuality to incest (and other sex crimes), even though it is still logically OK to criminalize these "other" sex crimes. James D Miller argues just that. He purports to show that incest bears certain "externalities" which harm society in a way that homosexuality does not:
"...incest creates informational externalities. Family members are often affectionate with each other. It would be horrible if such affection were suppressed for fear that it would be interpreted as incestuous. In a world in which incest is taboo and rare most people won't interpret a hug from a relative as a sign of sexual interest. Consequently, whenever incest occurs it creates an informational externality that makes it more rational for relatives to misinterpret non-sexual affection for amorous advances. Incest between consenting adults therefore harms society and consequently is not just a private affair."
I must confess, I just do not follow his logic here. If one family has several members engaged in incest, then somehow that will negatively extend to all of society? Someone please help me out here. His thought process, to me, seems tortured and wishful. Almost as if he decided ahead of time what his opinion was, and then wrote the article to conform to that value-system.
"Homosexuality can also create informational externalities, but these externalities are unavoidable and so do not provide a justification for criminalizing gay sex. Many straight men fear being thought of as gay. One could argue that these men are harmed by the existence of homosexuality, which makes it possible for others to rationally misinterpret their sexual orientation. Criminalizing gay sex, however, would not reduce the number of homosexuals and would thus not decrease the probability of someone thinking any given heterosexual man was gay. In contrast, criminalizing incest would reduce the amount of incest and so would decrease the probability that someone would misinterpret a friendly kiss from a cousin."
Here, I think I should get one of my extremely un-PC observations out of the way: not ALL homosexuals are genetically so. I'm willing to accept that many of them have been shown to be by research. However, I personally know several people who thought it would be "fun" or "alternative" to experiment with homosexuality and, in fact, live the lifestyle. Just because some religious nuts like to assert that it's all choice, let's not make the same mistake on the other side and give all homosexuals a free "genetic" pass. Thus, there IS the distinct possibility that criminalizing gay sex WOULD reduce the number of homosexuals.
Having said all of that, I just don't see why the government should be involved at all- in ANY relationships. I still cannot understand why a young couple in-love would seek the final authority of the state to make their relationship complete. I have long advocated the position of only getting married "by law" if it enhances your tax status. Otherwise, why would I want a detested bureaucracy to have ANY SAY AT ALL in my affairs of love? All the gays that carp so much for "same-sex" marriages should be actually pushing for government to get out of the marriage business altogether.
posted by Nick 1:23 PM
Saturday, April 26, 2003
Due to a death in the family, I'll be out of town and not blogging for the next few days. Cheers.
posted by Nick 12:44 AM
I Hope This Plan Works...I had heard various reports of this in the past year. I had assumed it was more-or-less an urban legend until now. It's a bold idea at the very least.
posted by Nick 1:15 PM
Ah, Wretched Africa. I Can't Help But Smile at Your Monkeyshines...The Dark Continent: First it gave us Kofi Annan as the "leader" of the world. Now it gives us the wonderful healing glories of self-imbibed urine. All life began here, folks- then it immediately got a one-way ticket the hell out.
posted by Nick 1:13 PM
Speaking of the Fox News Channel...I nearly wet myself laughing last night when I saw their new "fair and balanced" ad campaign. The ad goes something like this (I'm doing this from memory- it's EXTREMELY paraphrased; if someone has the text, please post it in the comments):
The Constitution provides for a free press...
We at FNC take that idea very seriously...
We don't think "free" should mean being the LAPDOG for a dictator...
Or being openly against American military success...
Add This to the LIst of Questionable Non-Disclosures...The AP reporter who added the word "gay" to Santorum's still-idiotic remarks, is married to the campaign manager for John Kerry's presidential run. While Santorum is a closet big-government guy with several dangerous ideas, it's very clear that the tie-in with Kerry should have been disclosed in the spirit of exposing possible conflicts-of-interest. Notice how all we hear about is how the evil Republicans are always making back-room deals with their equally evil cronies. It's one big conspiracy of scratched-backs and covered-up conflicts of interest. Further notice how the ACTUAL conflicts of interest are almost always reserved for the Left. (I've already catalogued several of them HERE). As the article notes, none of the major news outlets outside of FNC saw fit to make mention of this.
posted by Nick 1:03 PM
Lay Off Chelabi, Says Christopher Hitchens...Chelabi continues to be criticized for having not been "in country" in Iraq since the late 50's. Hitch rightly points out that the Dalai Lama, likewise, hasn't been in Tibet since the 50's. And Arafat was away from Gaza for more than 20 years. Yet you don't hear the "Free Tibet" or pro-Palestinian crowds grousing about this as they do about Chelabi. The Left is simply and utterly determined to find something to criticize no matter what the evidence.
posted by Nick 12:54 PM
An Interesting Piece from Michael Kinsley about Traffic Jams...For those of you who don't know, I am fully in favor of privatizing virtually all roads. London seems to be trying something in between with this $8 fee to drive into the city. (Hat Tip: Outside the Beltway)
posted by Nick 12:47 PM
My Last Word on the Dixie Chicks...I watched their hour-long self-pity fest tonight on PrimeTime Live. The entire broadcast was largely devoid of substance. (Diane Sawyer has to be about the most pretentious, unctuous interviewer on TV today, but that's another story). I think that people should stop attacking the Dixie Chicks as a group, per se, and only focus their criticism on Maines. And even now, the criticizers should start trying to get on with their lives and realize that celebrities say and do stupid things. Having said that, however, it really seems as if Maines doesn't understand why people got so mad at her. My feeling is that she's either stupid or she is just being intentionally facile.
The overriding point still remains: it is EXTREMELY obvious that she would never have made such a remark to, say, a rowdy crowd of Texans. Thus, her little diatribe can only be seen as pandering, self-serving and childish. All of these celebrities and protesters who constantly invoke the 1st Amendment as if it were all but dead don't seem to understand that there is nothing brave about publicly chastising American leaders. Number one- it's legal. And Number two- not only is it legal, but MY tax dollars will be spent on police protection to bend over backwards to accomodate the speech no matter how outrageous. I urge Maines to go to the Sudan or perhaps China and try speaking against the government.
Maines DOES seem to have found a tricky little device to distort the facts in her favor, though. She continues to say things to the effect of "I won't apologize for being angry before the war and it's my American right to speak my mind. People should not try to silence me..blahblahblah". By doing this, she is trying to take attention away from the fact that it was the CONTENT of her speech to which people objected so. I have yet to hear anyone credible or with any power assert that she had no right to say what she said. In fact, she herself mentioned that the reason for her "unplanned" outburst was because she had just gotten so darned fed up with President Bush's remarks about the protesters and his lack of compassion. Notice how SHE was allowed to be angry at HIS remarks and consequently react publicly to them. God forbid regular Americans would be entitled to do the same.
So, it's time to relegate this little vignette to the ashbin of history. We all learned that celebrities aren't inherently intelligent. We also learned that SOME asinine Americans take things so far as to burn CD's when they hear words with which they disagree. But mainly we learned that the 1st Amendment is fully intact and that incidents such as this will only be bumps in the road for the careers of the rich and famous. It's all good.
posted by Nick 12:36 AM
I've mentioned before that of Iran's population of 70 million, a full 70 percent are age 30 or younger. And many of them are students who are not only pro-West, but explicity pro-America! Another important fact is that Iran is not an Arab state. A revolutionary movement there doesn't feel the (false) heat of Arab nationalism. You should also realize that this base of young Iranians is happy that Bush included them in the Axis of Evil. To them, it meant that the might of the US was beginning to be focussed on bringing peace and democracy to Iran.
My bold predictions:
--The blistering success in the US's Iraq campaign will REALLY embolden the Iranian revolutionaries.
--Bush's "Axis of Evil" remark in his 2002 State of the Union Address will go down in history as the kick-starter of the re-shaping of the Middle East.
--Iran WILL fall to the young secularists by 2008.
--The collapse of the tyrannical, Islamicist regime will be helped along by limited US military involvement (Special Ops and the like).
Instead of getting bogged down wringing your hands about the fact that electricity hasn't been fully restored in Baghdad yet, you should take a step back and look at the historic sea-change taking place in the Middle East. You have a front-row seat. Soak it all in.
posted by Nick 12:53 PM
The Onion on Steroids...is how I would describe this piece from The Raving Atheist. (Warning: Not for the faint of heart). I'm glad someone has the guts to call out these religious nuts who like to attach symbolic, yet substantive, meaning to ANYTHING at all. For instance, remember how at Ground Zero they "miraculously" uncovered some I-beams from the wreckage that kind of looked like a cross? Hmm. Let's see. We had 2 ENORMOUS buildings collapse. The basic rule of their construction was one of perpendicularity. Beams were welded together at right angles literally hundreds of thousands of times throughout the structure of the towers! Yet, it still "meant" something that a couple of mangled beams turned up still wed together in blissful right-angularity.
posted by Nick 12:21 PM
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Husband of Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein to Profiteer off of Dead American Soldiers...Well, at least the headline would look something like that if the media were biased against liberals instead of in favor of them. Personally, I don't see any problem here. These contracts have to go out to somebody. This firm seems very able- just as Halliburton and Bechtel seem able enough at the tasks for which they were hired. I really had to dig to find this one out, though. Conversely, the Halliburton story seemed to be veritably bursting to be written by our corps of watchdog media elites.
Oh, and let's not forget that Tom Daschle's wife, Linda, is one of the head lobbyists for the airline industry. You might remember them from such federal handout requests as "last-year's bailout" or "this-year's loan guarantees". Hey, Tom- where's your recusal, buddy?
posted by Nick 5:19 PM
Want to Know What Would Have Made SARS Less of a Threat?...The answer is: more capitalism in China. Were we not dealing with such an absurd, backwards police state in which public policy tends to be greatly affected by retrograde notions of "honor", then perhaps SARS could have been stopped in it's tracks. Instead, we had a puzzling cover-up of the true data. I'm still trying to figure out what, exactly, the communists thought they were accomplishing by not being truthful. My first theory was that they welcomed SARS as a powerful new agent of population control. Since their current policies are brutal and barbaric, I figured, why not just allow some new disease to kill off half the peasant population? However, I don't think this is the case. The sad fact is, communism subverts and destroys minds to such a degree, that I suspect some of these guys don't even know themselves why they do what they do.
Imagine if SARS had broken out in the US. It would have been immediately public, and our best and brightest minds would have set right to work figuring out what to do. As things stand now, it looks like SARS could really negatively impact the global economy.
Having said all of that, SARS scares me personally about as much as West Nile. Namely, zero. It seems as if healthy adults are almost certain to get over it.
posted by Nick 3:54 PM
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Kofi Annan Elected to the Enron Board?...If you read this investigative piece from the New York Times, you certainly might come away with the conclusion that he's qualified. I really urge anyone and everyone to think hard about the UN and it's place in the future of our world. Do you really want a circus comprised largely of despots with a strictly and openly anti-American mindset to have ANY say at all in matters of your national security and economic best interests?
posted by Nick 11:59 PM
Atrios Is At It Again...He's trying to draw a parallel between Tom Daschle's remarks back in March and Newt Gingrich's remarks of today:
I'm saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war. Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn't create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country."
Tom Daschle, 3/18/2003
"The last seven months have involved six months of diplomatic failure and one month of military success. The first days after military victory indicate the pattern of diplomatic failure is beginning once again and threatens to undo the effects of military victory."
Newt Gingrich, 4/22/2003
The intent of Daschle's remarks was clearly to lay the blame for any American bodycount at Bush's doorstep. The implied meaning of his statement was "Bush refused to try diplomacy and now our boys have to die". He makes the facile statement "forced to war" as if there couldn't have been a war 3 months later with more UN backing. He could at least have said "forced to UNILATERAL war". But he didn't. Daschle's aim was clearly to set himself up for political gain if the war went horribly.
Gingrich, conversely, does not imply blood being on anyone's hands. He is simply asking why the State Department should be allowed to bungle the successes of the military.
The undertones of the statements are vastly different, and thus deserve to be treated differently. Making glib comparisons just because they serve some partisan interest is not helpful at all.
posted by Nick 11:41 PM
Students Lose Web Use in Copyright Case...It's about damn time! The only way this thievery will stop is if law enforcement actually starts doing its job. I hope they start putting repeat offenders in jail. Stealing copyrighted material is stealing...no matter how you want to look at it. These college kids need to be jolted back into reality. Since their parents have done such a terrible job, I guess the law will have to repair the remnants.
posted by Nick 1:42 AM
Monday, April 21, 2003
Everybody Should Read This...The blogger reveals how back in 1998, a bill was passed into law calling for regime change in Iraq. Read the whole thing. Pass it around to as many people as you can. The Democrats just do not have a leg to stand on, except for perhaps their artificial limb of hypocrisy.
posted by Nick 11:24 PM
And Speaking of Huge Debts, Where is Bono?... You might remember several years back when the U2 singer toured Africa with then-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. He was on a crusade to bully the US into forgiving billions of dollars in debts to 3rd world countries. In many of the cases he highlighted, a brutal dictator had basically stolen the loaned money and left the starving populations saddled with the debts. Whatever the merits of his arguments were, I found it breathtakingly arrogant for a wealthy rock star to (in his own mind) occupy the moral high ground in demanding that people other than himself give away billions of dollars.
So, I ask, where is Bono now? Shouldn't he be appalled at the Franco-Russian efforts to continue starving the Iraqi people? Shouldn't he be in Paris and Moscow being wined and dined so that he might give his little feel-good spiel about debt relief in Iraq during dessert? I would hate to assume that the US is the only country he would want to single out for such an honor. I mean, the Iraqi people have just been through 3 decades of torture followed by 3 weeks of an unjust, imperialistic US war. If anyone deserves debt-relief, it's them. Why doesn't this wonderful man of humanity stand up now for the Iraqi huddled masses? My guess is that Bono rightfully assumes the best when it comes to France or Russia or China. He saves his real punches for the likes of the evil United States.
posted by Nick 12:55 PM
The French and the Russians Are Now Opposing the Lifting of Sanctions...against the Iraqi people. As we all know, the sanctions in their original intent where against Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party regime. Now that Saddam is gone, one would assume the lifting of sanctions would be a mere formality. Think again. You see, the Frogs and the Russkies are afraid that they will be left out of the rebuilding of Iraq. They want Iraq's oil flow to stay in the hands of the UN. If the sanctions are lifted, then basically they have no chance of recovering the billions of dollars owed to them by Iraq (a bill that was run up by Saddam).
Charles Krauthammer suggests a one-line resolution be introduced at the Security Council. He dares the Euros to veto this one:
Whereas the sanctions were imposed on the regime of Saddam Hussein; whereas that regime is no more; whereas sanctions are now needlessly preventing Iraq's economic recovery; the sanctions are hereby abolished.
I honestly don't see how anyone can doubt the wretchedness of the UN. It's amazing how all those people who charged the US with trading "blood for oil" can willfully ignore the actual machinations of countries like France and Russia. Not only did they not want to see a free Iraq; but they actually seek now to prevent the free flow of Iraqi oil so that they might have the chance of gaining lucrative contracts to offset the dubious debts which they incurred in dealing with a murderous tyrant. Unbelievable.
William Safire has a great EDITORIAL on this topic in today's NYT.
Think for a minute of the cost-benefit analysis of this war. It entailed the full-scale invasion of a country the size of France, guarded by a band of totalitarian thugs, in a region seething with anti-American hostility. Yet critics' complaints about this war was that it took too long! But no military campaign in the history of the world has achieved so much so quickly. And it was done by a country 7,000 miles away, with only one front, denied at the last moment one critical division in the north, and with only two real military allies.
posted by Nick 12:20 PM
I Just Finished Reading Dereliction of Duty...The author is an ex-White House military aide who was entrusted with safeguarding the "nuclear football" for President Clinton. I found him to be basically credible and generally interested in spreading substance, as opposed to having a partisan political axe to grind. If he is to be believed, then fundamentally every sterotypical image of the Clintons is true. Clinton is at heart a pathological liar, self-aggrandizer and cheating scumbag with an utter inablity to be serious about ANY issue. He smugly used the US military to forward his own petty PR interests. Oh, and Hillary Clinton is worse than he is! It's a short read which I recommend.
posted by Nick 12:17 PM
Thursday, April 17, 2003
Neil Boortz Makes An Interesting Point About John Rocker...and Tim Robbins. Namely, where exactly was Tim Robbins when the "chill wind" was blowing John Rocker to the bottom echelons of baseball? (For those of you unfamiliar with the current situation between Robbins and the Baseball Hall of Fame, CLICK HERE) Rocker certainly didn't do anything illegal. Yet, he was run out of Atlanta on a rail, all for just speaking his mind. Hey, Tim, isn't fringe speech the most important speech to protect? Shouldn't you have been out there defending to the hilt Rocker's right to say what he would? Since Civics classes don't seem to be doing a good job of teaching the First Amendment to the nation's students, I find the recent trend of celebrities whining on the subject to be particularly distressing. My theory is that these people have become so accustomed to having their actions divorced from consequences (via a fawning media and fan base), that it is only natural for them to be outraged when their words are taken at face value and a fed-up middle-America slams their collective pocketbooks shut.
posted by Nick 1:07 PM
Certainly the Anti-war Crowd Will Be Convinced of Just How Wrong They Were...by simply taking an objective summary of the war into account and consequently changing their world view. Right? The Vodka Pundit doesn't think so.
posted by Nick 12:50 PM
123 Iraqi Prisoners Have Been Found Underground...in a horrible subterranean torture pit. I could go into long detail about how this makes the "peace protesters" look even more complicit in the mass murdering and torturing of Iraqis, but I won't, since RACHEL LUCAS does it so well for me.
posted by Nick 12:41 PM
--The finding of an underground labyrinth at the Al Tuwaitha nuclear site which probably has enough plutonium sitting around to supply al-Qaeda with dirty bomb ordance for the rest of time.
PLUS the aforementioned discovery of a terrorist training camp outside of Baghdad. Come on, folks. You have to be REALLY naiive (or intentionally blind) to not start connecting the dots here.
posted by Nick 11:42 AM
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
Rodney King Recovering After Slamming Vehicle Into House...Can't we all just get along? And by this I mean "Can't we all just allow hopped-up law breakers to careen through city streets in high-speed police chases and be rewarded with multi-million dollar settlements after they lead a media feeding frenzy against cops brought up on trumped-up charges?".
Have you noticed how the anti-war crowd has suddenly found it in themselves to denounce the Iraqi looting and see it as evidence of failure of the Bush war plan? Let's rewind about 11 years to the LA riots. Liberals everywhere insisted that we must "understand" the rage the rioters were feeling. They made excuse after excuse for these savages. And now, after 34 years of living under the heel of an oppressive regime, SOME Iraqis have taken to looting. Of course, liberals now refuse to put this in perspective. Rather, "the arrogant Bush military complex has failed to 'police' post-war Iraq". Right. 79 people died in the LA riots. I'm still waiting for the first death from the Baghdad looting. Looting, I might add, which is largely directed at former Baath Party buildings and which is NOT about merely destroying property (a la the LA riots).
posted by Nick 1:57 PM
Monday, April 14, 2003
When Will the Politicians and Celebrities Stop Whitewashing the Cuban Regime?...Read this WALL STREET JOURNAL PIECE and also stop by THE LIGHT OF REASON for more analysis on the topic.
Steven Spielberg spent the day with Castro back in November and described it as "the eight most important hours of my life". (Keep in mind that this is the same guy who cinematically lectures us about the evils of slavery and Naziism.) Somehow, I don't think he was referring to having his eyes opened to the day-to-day horrors of a murderous regime. But here's the thing that really gets me
"Andy Spahn, a Spielberg rep at Dreamworks, said that the director was in pre-production and could not be reached for comment. Mr. Spahn went on to say, though, that the recent crackdown had been "provoked" by James Cason, a U.S. diplomat in Havana, who is reported to have met with Cuban dissidents in their homes in February."
In other words, the actual victims of the crackdown have themselves to blame for having the ill fortune of being born in Cuba! Notice how it is impossible to find ANY words of condemnation from the American Left. I'm am really struggling to understand how supposed "liberals" continue to find such admiration for and common cause with ALL the dictators of the world. Why should this be? Is it simply a function of being so anti-Bush and anti-American that they will get in bed with ANYONE who doesn't like the US? I honestly don't understand.
posted by Nick 12:30 AM
Obvious Hyprocrisy of the Day...Liberals are always complaining that Fox News Channel overtly leans to the right and that head honcho, Roger Ailes, carries lots of Republican baggage dating back to his relationship with Nixon. "CNN", they always say, "is a fortress of fair and balanced reporting". Am I the only one who remembers that CNN was founded by Ted Turner? You'd have to try pretty hard to find someone even close to the mainstream who's as liberal as Turner. This is a guy who virtually nominated himself for Person of the Century after he donated $1 billion to the UNITED NATIONS! Back in January and February, I'm sure there was no conflict of interest over at CNN as it breathlessly reported on the need to "let the UN weapons inspections continue".
posted by Nick 12:13 AM
Sunday, April 13, 2003
The More I Think About It, The More Obvious It Becomes...that we should not let this CNN guy off the hook for his journalistic cover-ups. His PATHETIC ATTEMPT AT SELF-INDICTMENT AND MEA CULPA should not be indulged. Jordan wails about how he saw:
"...awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff."
However, later on upon learning of a plot to assassinate King Hussein, he:
"...felt I had a moral obligation to warn Jordan's monarch, and I did so the next day.
Somehow, I don't find it very comforting that this guy only went out of his way to protect other retrograde despotic monarchs. While King Hussein was clearly no SADDAM Hussein, he still persecuted his people from atop his throne. In other words, it was okay to throw a few commoners into the fire as long as he got to warn a tyrant in time. Nice priorities.
This entire episode again begs the question of cost/benefit analysis. In spending over a decade misleading much of the world about the true horros of the Iraqi regime, Jordan clearly contributed to the delay in its downfall. I've no doubt that this allowed the death (by torture) of perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. That's why I find the last paragraph of this flaccid quasi-atonement so revolting:
"I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me. Now that Saddam Hussein's regime is gone, I suspect we will hear many, many more gut-wrenching tales from Iraqis about the decades of torment. At last, these stories can be told freely."
He should have added: "...because me and my cronies over at CNN are no longer intentionally providing cover for sadistic cutthroats in order to promote our own careers".
The president also witnessed two Marines becoming U.S. citizens. Individuals wishing to serve as Marines can do so if they have a green card.
Bush said watching the naturalization of two men — one from Mexico and one from the Philippines — was the most touching part of his day. Bush signed an executive order last summer that allows green card holders wounded in military action to get immediate citizenship.
"People who had gone overseas, people who had risked their lives for peace and security and freedom, wearing the uniform of the United States. It was a very profound moment," he said.
I saw the president make these comments on TV, and he definitely got a little teary-eyed. I think I would have too. These two gentleman were willing to literally be shot at in order to gain their citizenship. I'd be curious to hear the anti-America crowd's take on this one.
Yesterday On the News, I Saw One of the Stupidest People of ALL TIME!...The report was about how US troops were having to go building-to-building in search of Baath Party members. I suspect the troops were operating with at least some kind of tentative intelligence reports, but it still seemed like about the scariest thing you could think of having to do. Anyway, they made their way into a hotel. In the lobby, there were many Iraqi women and children, some crying. The whole time, the squad leader was yelling "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! Civilians!". But, above the din, you could hear an English-speaking voice screaming at the top of her lungs. The camera panned over and there was a small group of "protesters". I'm assuming they had come to Iraq to be human shields or something like that. The disgusting virago in charge of this group was shouting, over and over: "NAZIS, GO HOME! NAZIS, GO HOME!". It appeared that the soldiers did the exact right thing and completely ignored her. But, man, I bet they wanted to shoot her between the eyes.
For those of you who continue to insist on equating Bush and the Americans with Hitler and Naziism, I suggest you read the Vodka Pundit's Lebensraum. If you are still unconvinced, please feel free to accept his invitation.
posted by Nick 1:37 PM
The News We Kept to Ourselves...Check out this predictable, yet still sickening, account from a CNN higher-up about the ruthlessness of the Iraqi regime. I'd be interested to know just which side the author was on in regards to the war.
"Then there were the events that were not unreported but that nonetheless still haunt me. A 31-year-old Kuwaiti woman, Asrar Qabandi, was captured by Iraqi secret police occupying her country in 1990 for "crimes," one of which included speaking with CNN on the phone. They beat her daily for two months, forcing her father to watch. In January 1991, on the eve of the American-led offensive, they smashed her skull and tore her body apart limb by limb. A plastic bag containing her body parts was left on the doorstep of her family's home."
Just remember that this status quo was perfectly acceptable to all of our "peace loving" friends (France, Democrats, protesters, etc.). At no point did they ever propose ANYTHING that would have ended this reign of terror. Not only did they propose nothing; they could not even summon the motivation or will to merely denounce the regime! The goal of the UN inspections was NEVER to take Saddam out of power. I don't know how these people sleep at night. Presumably, it's beneath a warm glow of undeserved self-satisfaction.
posted by Nick 1:29 PM
"If we spent $80 billion to kill Saddam Hussein that’s $79 billion too much".
I don't think she even knows what she meant by that one. Certainly she would never proclaim "We need to spend $1 billion on killing Saddam Hussein- and not a penny more!". Most likely, she meant to say "Hey! Look at me! I'm the least qualified person to ever serve in the Senate! Whoopeee!". Come to think of it, that's a decent paraphrase of the actual quote.
posted by Nick 1:21 PM
Mona Charen Writes About the Most Humane War of All Time...Our troops in southern Iraq are evidently sneaking in bottled water against orders to give to the civilian population- often at the price of their own thirst. I'm really dismayed by the fact that the Left (and most of the world) is not only willfully ignoring this type of thing, but is also making up false objectives (conquest, imperialism,etc.) and assigning them to us. For shame.
posted by Nick 1:15 PM
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Another Great Side-Effect of the Embedding of the Journalists...has been the chance for lesser-known newspapers to break huge stories. The nuclear facility story that just broke was first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, whose reporter happened to be embedded with the Marines at the site. I'm for anything that helps to reduce the stranglehold of the New York Times and LA Times on our print media.
posted by Nick 1:52 PM
These Incidents Are Ugly, But Necessary...No doubt, the Iraqi people have loads of pent-up frustration and anger that has finally been released. I think it will be good for them to purge themselves of their hatred by taking it out on the appropriate parties. Think of it as an extended Mussolini or Ceaucescu effect. It will be much more productive if they can take out their rage on the correct people right up front. Doing this will also give them more of a personal sense of achievement in the liberation; they will not have to feel as if the Allies did the entire thing alone. Like I said- It might not be their finest moment, but it's something that must be done.
posted by Nick 1:47 PM
I Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Hope...that the finding of THIS NUCLEAR SITE turns out to be the "smoking gun" in the search for Iraqi WMD's. So much has been made of Saddam's chem/bio weapons, that the possiblity of nukes really seems to have been swept under the rug. If this place turns out to be what it looks like it is, then the libs and protesters will have nowhere at all to run. They will have found themselves on the completely wrong side of history. It would have been one thing to find chem/bio stuff, but nukes? And let's not forget that this site was visited by Hans Blix's team just last year. Somehow (read: vast incompetence), they came away without discovering the vast labyrinths right beneath their feet. "But the inspections were working..." Right. And Kofi Annan comes from a country that celebrates human freedom.
posted by Nick 1:36 PM
Only in America Can You Have This...The Marine who hung the American flag (executioner-style) on the Saddam statue is a great "melting-pot" story:
"Edward Chin and his family are ethnic Chinese from Myanmar, formerly Burma. They moved to the United States when Chin was 1 week old and live in Brooklyn."
And this guy proceeds to graduate from Bronx Science, join the Marines and make history. His father said the following about him after watching his actions on TV:
I thought, "Oh, my son, you are making history, you are part of the Iraqis' liberation".
His mother added:
"We like our children have a good life, good schools. We want American freedom. Now Edward bring American freedom."
Today we witnessed the Iwo Jima of our generation. And the Marine who authored the image is a microcosm of all that is great about America: The unwashed masses coming from around the world for a taste of freedom, and finding themselves so grateful that they volunteer to defend our shores.
--I can't help but wonder what kind of spin the Left will manage to put on this one. I mean, we LITERALLY have Iraqis dancing in the streets kissing pictures of George W. Bush and chanting "Bush is like a father to us". If your worldview led you to march in anti-war parades holding placards that read "We stand in solidarity with the Iraqi people", then how in the hell can you possibly reconcile your beliefs with what has actually taken place today?
--Child prisons. Even if you were against the war with every fiber of your being, aren't you at least a little bit glad when you hear that the US has liberated a literal children's prison? I suppose not. I doubt very highly we'll hear any recanting from the holier-than-thou crowd.
--The much maligned name "Operation Iraqi Freedom" doesn't seem so silly now that we see real, live humans wildy and gleefully celebrating something that most of us take for granted.
--Al Jazeera is history, at least insofar as it being like it was before today. The "Arab Street" was shocked today when they found out that Moustache-less Bob had been feeding them ridiculous lines all along. Perhaps we will finally have some semblance of a free press in the Middle East.
--US weapons are bad-ass, but our infantrymen are even more bad-ass. The power of a 22 year-old American soldier with the motivation of freedom at his back is a hell-spawn to be reckoned with.
--So long (hopefully) to the ghosts of Vietnam. The failure of the battle to deteriorate into "Quagmire Baghdad" should serve to heal some of the mental wounds of that war.
--So long to our long-time allies, the French. May their contributions to the rebuilding of Iraq be limited to repairing sewage plants and to handing out flowers to the Iraqi population for them to throw at the Allied troops.
Women waved from balconies, girls threw flower petals at young Marines leaning across gun turrets. One woman held her baby aloft. Tank crews picked the flowers from the tops of their fighting machines, smelt them and grinned. Crowds of Shia men beat their chests in the streets."
U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A
I want all you libs to email me so I can send you a complimentary WetNap. You guys are going to need all the help you can get to wipe all that egg off your collective face.
And so much for FoxNews being biased. Read THIS REPORT of the celebrations in Baghdad, and you will see how even-handed they are in quoting anti-US Iraqis also. Memo to libs: It would be much easier for you to be right some of the time if you would just do a 180 on every single view that you have.
You Won't Hear Race Mentioned in This Gruesome, Saddening Report...but I'm willing to bet that the perpetrators were black. These sick, sadistic teens actually beat to death a harmless retarded guy (who WAS black, by the way). It's funny how race gets swept under the rug whenever the story reflects poorly on one of the annointed minority groups of the politically correct movement. This horrible instance of black-on-black crime won't generate as many sensationalistic headlines as it would if it were an interracial incident.
And what's the root cause of these atrocities? Poor parenting. Sky-high illegitimacy rates. A culture of moral relativism. A (black) culture that celebrates violence and underachievement. But wait. We'd better not mention or even think of these things. Correctly identifying and addressing the serious problems in the black community might result in actually making things better. We'd all be better served by pretending things are great and petitioning our congressman for more federal dollars to fight "poverty".
posted by Nick 12:40 AM
Tuesday, April 08, 2003
A Good Piece About Why Fox News Channel...is easily the best of the bunch. I really agree with Grimes' points about the over-seriousness of CNN. Watching FNC is like having a friend of yours tell you what's going on. Watching CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS or MSNBC, is like having a stern authority figure austerely and condescendingly inform you of news of which you are obviously too much of a dullard to really understand. I honestly don't think Fox leans politically one way or the other. But when it comes to the war, Fox is openly pro-US. So what. That's a "bias" that I just have a very hard time caring about.
posted by Nick 12:20 AM
In addition to the moral issue, it should be remembered that Palestinian refugee camps are UN property and funded by the UN, so that all expenses involved in the name change may be from the UN budget. Likewise it should be checked to what extent UN salaried officials are involved in agreeing to the name change and implementation.
I'm sure the New York Times will be all over this one. Expect a hard-hitting, tough piece of investigative journalism detailing just how this might possibly be traced back to the UN. Or not.
BREAKING NEWS: The Flower Throwing Has Commenced...Those of you who are regular readers of the RR will be very familiar with my prediction of Iraqi civilians showering the coalition liberators with flowers and proud slogans. Well, in an early "I told you so", the fragrant fusillade has evidently begun in Basra:
A jubilant crowd of about 100 Iraqis surrounded two British tanks near a Saddam mural and cheered the soldiers inside, giving one soldier a small bunch of yellow flowers.
And my favorite proud slogan uttered thus far is: "Thank you very much, Mr. Boss".
I hope you libs are prepared for yet another round of finding out that everything you've staked your political futures on is uninformed and wrong.
UPDATE: Here's a LINK about US soldiers in Karbala "proudly wearing flowers" given to them by celebrating Iraqis.
From now on, when I see various celebrities wearing ribbons or flowers on their lapels to let us know that they "support" some cause, I'm going to assume that that cause is "Hollywood Actors United to Give Flowers to Liberated Iraqis So That They Can Then Give Them to Coalition Troops" or "HAUGFLITTCTGTCT" for short.
I Like the Way That Religion Prevents...the devout from ever performing a cost/benefit analysis of any kind. I'm getting tired of guys like the Pope yapping about "unnecessary killing of the innocent" and things of that sort. Seemingly, the only thing these people can ever see or know is the exact civilian death toll from any military conflict. Their imagination is such that they can't even think to themselves, "Hmm...Perhaps if Saddam Hussein is allowed to continue subjugating the Iraqi population, then maybe hundreds of thousands of innocent people will die- many of them children. Therefore, it's clearly better to have him removed in the cleanest way possible- the way in which the Americans will certainly operate". But no. They argue that the inspections were "working" and that now we are needlessly slaughtering innocent Iraqis. I hope that 1 billion Catholics don't accept these facile proclamations at face value.
posted by Nick 10:35 PM
Looks Like I Am Right About Global Warming...being nothing more than a front for junk scientists who are propped up by communists and anti-American interests throughout the world. I'm waiting to see just how prominently this new outlook on climate change will be featured in the media. Somehow, I don't see our esteemed professors in academe burning through their budgets ordering new textbooks with the updated information. How long will it be before this anti-capitalist sham will stop being orthodoxy?
Here's another LINK with even more info from one of the guys on the Harvard team. (Hat tip: Amerikan RealPolitik and Steve Maglin).
posted by Nick 10:22 PM
Friday, April 04, 2003
Another Good Idea for What to Call the Iraqis...was suggested by Mike M over at Vodka Pundit in response to our idea of "Stachies" being the new moniker. His idea is "Bernies". As in "Weekend at Bernies", because they all keep pretending like Saddam is alive. Good one. I like it.
posted by Nick 12:52 PM
Ranting Rationalist Repeats Predictions...Before this war is over, American soldiers will be showered with flowers thrown by grateful Iraqi civilians. There will be triumphant parades. There will be a general recognition of the goodness of America. Just wait. All of this will happen once the people are convinced that Saddam has been vanquished.
posted by Nick 12:41 PM
China Apologizes for Covering Up SARS Cases...Awwwwwwww. Ain't that grand, folks? Now we can all rest easy- a brutal communist regime has finally found a tiny bit of conscience. I guess this means they really ARE worthy of hosting the 2008 Olympics. Evidently, the apology "came at a news conference to which foreign news organizations were not invited". Hmmm. Sounds like one hell of a news conference.
Atrios Has It Wrong...As Usual...For those of you who don't know, Atrios is one of the most prominent left-wing bloggers. In one of his more recent posts, he discusses the differences between the Clinton Kosovo campaign in 1999, and our current Iraqi war.
When a government seeks to paint any opposition as unpatriotic and any dissent as treason, when it uses its allies in industry and the media to hound skeptics and blacklist celebrities, when it attempts to paint legitimate questions of policy as either a vote for America or a vote for dictatorship, that's not freedom any more.
I completely agree with these statements. And, fortunately for us, these events have not transpired.. I have yet to hear anyone in our current government define dissent as treason. If anything, the government has bent over backwards to accomodate our wonderful "peace protesters". And which celebrities exactly have been blacklisted? If any have, it's clearly been at the hands of other "dissenting" Americans, and not at the behest of any government operatives.
Last September, then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) posed the ludicrous question, "Who is the enemy here? The president of the United States or Saddam Hussein?".
I don't see what's so ludicrous about it. We have John Kerry, Democratic hopeful, yesterday calling for a "regime change in Washington" in the same sentence in which he mentioned Saddam Hussein's regime. Comments like that are reckless at best. If prominent Democrats (Kerry voted FOR the war, by the way) insist on using rhetorical buzz words like "regime" to describe a sitting administration in the midst of a war, then I find Lott's dichotomy to perfectly appropriate.
I'm still trying to figure out why our leftist friends, such as Atrios, continue to assert a crackdown on First Amendment rights. As far as I can tell, Campaign Finance Reform is the most visible assault on the First Amendment; and most lefties enthusiastically are on board with it. As far as free and open debate goes in this country, I don't think I've ever witnessed bigger portions of it than I have over the last 6 months. It just so happens that the pro-war crowd came out on top- over 70% of Americans support the war. So, liberals, don't get mad- just move on to another issue and try your hand at that. The First Amendment will still be there- proudly enshrouding your right to advance silly arguments.
If you would like to be taller than you are, do you think that joining a basketball team would help? After all, statistics prove that members of basketball teams are taller than other people.If this seems like a strange way to reason, it is the same kind of reasoning used by those who argue that minority students need affirmative action to get into top-rated colleges and universities, because graduates of those institutions have more upscale careers.
"Imagine this. In the spring of 1945, around the world, the sight of a twelve-man squad of teenage boys, armed and in uniform, brought terror to people's hearts. Whether it was a Red Army squad in Berlin, Leipzig, or Warsaw, or a German squad in Holland, or a Japanese squad in Manila or Seoul of China, that squad meant rape, pillage, looting, wanton destruction, senseless killing. But there was an exception: a squad of GIs, a sight that brought the biggest smile you ever saw to people's lips, and joy to their hearts.
That really does perfectly sum it all up. I continue to marvel at the seemingly irreconcilable dichotomy inherent in the US soldier: so incredibly honed in the violent arts, yet so tender-at-heart and well-meaning. What can you do but be in awe of this unique picture of humanity which only America could have created?
The Idea of Embedding the Journalists with the Troops...has really been triumphant, in my opinion. These usually captious reporters have been virtually forced to sympathize and empathize with the soldiers. They have gotten a very real taste of the esprit de corps which fuels our fighting men and women. Try to read this account without tearing up yourself:
Martin Savidge of CNN, embedded with the 1st Marine battalion, was talking with 4 young Marines near his foxhole this morning live on CNN. He had been telling the story of how well the Marines had been looking out for and taking care of him since the war started. He went on to tell about the many hardships the Marines had endured since the war began and how they all look after one another. He turned to the four and said he had cleared it with their commanders and they could use his video phone to call home. The 19 year old Marine next to him asked Martin if he would allow his platoon sergeant to use his call to call his pregnant wife back home whom he had not been able to talk to in three months. A stunned Savidge who was visibly moved by the request shook his head and the young Marine ran off to get the sergeant. Savidge recovered after a few seconds and turned back to the three young Marines still sitting with him and asked which one of them would like to call home first, the Marine closest to him responded with out a moments hesitation “ Sir, if is all the same to you we would like to call the parents of a buddy of ours, Lance Cpl Brian Buesing of Cedar Key, Florida who was killed on 3-23-03 near Nasiriya to see how they are doing”. At that Martin Savidge totally broke down and was unable to speak. All he could get out before signing off was “Where do they get young men like this?”.
Where indeed. Just more evidence of the general good-heartedness of Americans.
I've Often Thought That the Best Part of...being a soldier must be when you get the opportunity to free POW's. The reports are starting to trickle in of just how the operation to rescure Jessica Lynch went down, and it's impressive, to say the least. If you've ever wondered why the US has the highest morale of any fighting force in the world, it's because of hardcore stuff like this. You know that if something terrible happens to you, your fellow soldiers will imperil themselves to come after you. Leave no man behind- 4 of the most beautiful words in the English language.
posted by Nick 10:32 PM
"They were made to feel un-American and risked economic retaliation because of what was said. Our democracy has taken a hit," Gore said. "Our best protection is free and open debate."
Why doesn't the media ever call these idiots out on their purposeful intellectual dishonesty? Our Democracy has taken a hit? Why, Al? Because other Americans decided to exercise their right to free speech via their pocketbooks? This scumbag is perfectly well aware that "free and open debate" is all that actually occurred. But why let reality get in the way of an opportunity to jump on an anti-Bush bandwagon? Gore is another person whose patriotism I happily call into question. I honestly believe he does not have the best interests of America at heart.
Read THIS LETTER that a Navy airman wrote to the Dixie Chicks. As Andrew Sullivan would say, here's the money quote:
"But for you to travel to a foreign land and publicly criticize our Commander in Chief is cowardice behavior. Would you have so willingly made those comments while performing for a patriotic, flag-waving crowd of Texans in Lubbock. I would imagine not."
Exactly. These vapid crooners have the right to go overseas and say what they said; just like I have the right to point out that it was clearly a cowardly, obsequious, pathetic ploy to garner some cheap self-aggrandizement from an anti-American audience. Sure sounds like our democracy has been dealt a devastating blow, what with the free and open exchange of ideas and all.
Halliburton Opts Not to Bid on Iraq Reconstruction...Well, Thank God! I don't know how much more I could have taken of Dick Cheney getting rich from our invasion of the innocent Iraqi population. It isn't enough that he influenced US energy policy to his own personal gain for many years. Quite the contrary. After 9-11, he opportunistically seized upon American fears to orchestrate the mass bombing of women and chlidren. That idiot Bush was such an easy puppet for Cheny to control.
Man, this leftist bullshit sounds stupid when you say it outloud.
Our Troops Need to Find a Nickname for the Enemy...Military historians will tell you that most armies come up with degrading (and often humourous) nicknames in order to dehumanize the enemy. It's much easier to turn men into killing machines if they think they're shooting at caricatures rather than real human beings. Here is a partial list of the nicknames from US war history:
So, the question at hand is, What to call the Baathist Iraqis? Well, the one physical trait I seem to always notice is the absurd, oversized moustaches a la Saddam Hussein himself. Therefore, I officially nominate "STACHIES" (pronounced stash-ees) as our dehumanizing, cartoonish nickname for the enemy. Pass it on.
posted by Nick 12:07 AM
