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:: Netmarcos' Notes ::

Musings and rambling commentary on current events, politics, music, and other cultural issues mixed with a few personal references.
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:: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 ::

There are limits to sanity, and the state of California is well outside the city limits on this one.
FOXNews.com
LOS ANGELES — A textbook review process in California has changed or eliminated references to everything from the Founding Fathers to hot dogs, leaving many to charge the state with distorting history in the name of political correctness.

:: Mark 7:06 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Still working on the Clinton Administration's Legacy
The London Telegraph's weekend revelations raise deeply disturbing questions about the extent and magnitude to which President Clinton, his national-security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, and senior terrorism and State Department officials — including Assistant Secretary of State for East Africa, Susan Rice — politicized intelligence data, relied on and even circulated fabricated evidence in making critical national-security decisions, and presided over a string of intelligence failures during the months leading up to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
Analysis of documents found in the rubble of Iraq's intelligence headquarters show that contrary to conventional wisdom, Iraqi military and intelligence officials sought out al Qaeda leaders, not the other way around, and ultimately met with bin Laden on at least two occasions. They also show that channels of communication between al Qaeda and Iraq were created much earlier and were wider ranging in scope than previously thought.

The timing of the meetings sheds important new light on how grave the Clinton administration's intelligence failures may have been.



The question of how that Clinton era will be viewed from a historical perspective is becoming more clear with each new discovery in Iraq...and it is not good for the Clintons.

:: Mark 9:35 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Say "Hallelujia!"
Spam Sent by Fraud Is Made a Felony Under Virginia Law
n the toughest move to date against unsolicited commercial e-mail, Virginia enacted a law yesterday imposing harsh felony penalties for sending such messages to computer users through deceptive means.
The law would be enforced against those who use fraudulent practices to send bulk e-mail, commonly known as spam, to or from Virginia, a state that is headquarters for a number of major Internet providers, including the nation's largest, America Online.

:: Mark 9:19 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 ::
World's Smallest Political Quiz
The ORIGINAL Internet Political Quiz


:: Mark 5:42 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This does NOT sound good. God have mercy on the soul of this curious courier.Egyptian Sailor Dies in Brazil from Anthrax.
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - A crew member of an Egyptian merchant ship has died in northern Brazil, most likely from anthrax, after opening a suitcase suspected of containing the substance which he was taking to Canada.
A spokesman for Brazilian federal police in the Amazon state of Para said on Monday an autopsy of the Egyptian man, whom he named as Ibrahim Saved Soliman Ibrahim, showed that he had died after vomiting, internal bleeding and organ failure.
"He was the victim of anthrax," said Fernando Sergio Castro, adding that police were 90 percent certain that Ibrahim had died of anthrax. A second test confirming whether it is anthrax should be ready on Tuesday.

:: Mark 10:47 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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L.T. Smash has penned a letter to M. Chirac
It has often been said that Americans take a short view of History. This American does not.

Jaques should read it...and so should you.

:: Mark 10:39 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Monday, April 28, 2003 ::
More from a junior member of the Axis of Weasels
Iraqis target Gen. Franks for war crimes trial -- The Washington Times
Mr. Fermon said the complaint will ask an investigative magistrate to look into whether indictments should be issued against Gen. Franks. If an indictment is filed against the general and other U.S. officials, they could be convicted and sentenced by a Belgian court.

:: Mark 4:14 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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It all depends on who is doing the reporting.

Portsmouth Herald Local News: New Englanders among nation’s stingiest
The Chronicle of Philanthropy released a study today based on data from federal taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of $50,000 or more who itemized deductions. They represent about 18 percent of all U.S. taxpayers but account for nearly 80 percent of the total amount of money donated to charity by individuals.


Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Gift for giving makes Fort Worth No. 2 on list of charitable cities
When it comes to supporting charities and local churches, Fort Worth residents are among the most generous in the nation.


The Cincinnati Enquirer: Salt Lake City tops in giving
Among the nation's major metropolitan areas, residents of Salt Lake City-Ogden are the nation's most generous, and people in Hartford, Conn., are the least, according to a study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Salt Lake City-Ogden residents who itemized their federal tax deductions gave nearly 15 percent of their discretionary income to religious and nonprofit causes, according to the study being published today.



:: Mark 11:40 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Tony Blair as the Anti-Christ, Saddam as Abaddon the Destroyer from Rev. 9:11, the end is near...and the Canadians don't believe it!
A Time/CNN poll has found that 17 per cent of Americans -- nearly one in five -- believe that the end of the world will come in their lifetimes, and 59 per cent believe that the prophecies about the end of the world found in the Christian New Testament Book of Revelations are true and will happen, if not in the near future.


Ya gotta read this one!

:: Mark 11:30 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Wartime comedy is great stuff.WorldNetDaily: Arabs go wild for Saddam jokes
"Saddam, why did you disappear?"
Response: "I decided to destabilize the enemy by splitting up his search parties."

:: Mark 11:23 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Anne Bayefsky tries to explain why the U.N. seems so... confused.
The U.N. Charter is rooted in the essential principles of equality among human beings, and nations. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights spells out universal human rights standards. The U.S., as a founding member, understood those human-rights principles to be consistent with American values.
The U.N.'s Iraq fiasco demands an answer to the unambiguous question of how U.N. bodies have performed against those fixed and indispensable principles. Is it still true that Americans can anticipate a common core agenda? With the conclusion last week of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights annual session, the record speaks for itself.


Read it all. It's good stuff, if only because things at the U.N. are so bad.

:: Mark 10:39 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Robert Bartley has been "Thinking Things Over" in regards to the situation in North Korea adn has come to the following conclusion:.
Having played the chess game into this impasse, the arms control crowd is now demanding of the Bush administration: OK, what are you going to do next? In this view, the problem is that the administration's candor has upset the fiction that the problem has been solved.
What will not work is to solve the problem once again with another arms control agreement. The record shows that arms control is not a solution; its pretenses are a large part of the problem.


It is sound analysis and you should read it all.

:: Mark 10:32 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Friday, April 25, 2003 ::
Perhaps the worst job in America: Man Makes Living "Arming" Cows

Thanks to Dave Barry

:: Mark 2:06 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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I am sorry, but you must read this:Nokia - Unauthorized cat video

:: Mark 2:04 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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I don't know about you, but I am getting fed up with the misdirection and disinformation that is constantly being bantered about concerning the need for "democracy" in Iraq. Maybe it is the reult of a simple, but profound misunderstanding of the definition of the word. I hope that that is the case, but I fear that this misunderstanding is being exploited by those who know better.

The United States of America is not a democracy. We are a republic. Don't scoff at the apparent hair-splitting; the differences are profound. In a democracy, each member/citizen has an equal voice in all matters and the majority wins the day. A republic provides for the popular voice of the people to select representatives to take up their causes in the governing process. To whit, our senators and representatives place votes on our behalf to decide the law and policy of the nation. If we disagree with their positions on the issues, we don't vote for them, but those who are elected have the responsibility to set public policy, not the individual voter.

Consider this excerpt from a 1928 War Department training manual on the defenitions of the two forms of government:


CITIZENSHIP Democracy:

A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of "direct" expression. Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic--negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether is be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences. Results in demogogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy

CITIZENSHIP Republic:

Authority is derived through the election by the people of public officials best fitted to represent them. Attitude toward law is the administration of justice in accord with fixed principles and established evidence, with a strict regard to consequences. A greater number of citizens and extent of territory may be brought within its compass. Avoids the dangerous extreme of either tyranny or mobocracy. Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment, and progress. Is the "standard form" of government throughout the world. A republic is a form of government under a constitution which provides for the election of

(1) an executive and (2) a legislative body, who working together in a representative capacity, have all the power of appointment, all power of legislation, all power to raise revenue and appropriate expenditures, and are required to create (3) a judiciary to pass upon the justice and legality of their government acts and to recognize (4) certain inherent individual rights.

Take away any one or more of those four elements and you are drifting into autocracy. Add one or more to those four elements and you are drifting into democracy.

Atwood. Superior to all others.--Autocracy declares the divine right of kings; its authority can not be questioned; its powers are arbitrarily or unjustly administered. Democracy is the "direct" rule of the people and has been repeatedly tried without success. Our Constitutional fathers, familiar with the strength and weakness of both autocracy and democracy, with fixed principles definitely in mind, defined a representative republican form of government. They "made a very marked distinction between a republic and a democracy * * * and said repeatedly and emphatically that they had founded a republic."



"By order of the Secretary of War: C.P. Summerall, Major General, Chief of Staff. Official: Lutz Wahl, Major General, The Adjutant General.



This is the best concise comparison of the two terms that I can find at the moment. I suggest that you read it carefully. And the next time that you hear someone demanding democratic government, look carefully to their motives.


Update:
I reccommend the following collection of comments on the merits of each as well.
"The government of the absolute majority is but the government of the strongest interests; and when not effectively checked, is the most tyrannical and oppressive that can be devised. [To read the Constitution is to realize that] no free system was ever farther removed from the principle that the absolute majority, without check or limitation, ought to govern."
--John C. Calhoun


:: Mark 1:39 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This article , over at The Christian Scince Monitor adds even more fuel to the firestorm surrounding British MP Gearge Galloway's dealings with Iraq.
The Jan. 14, 2003, document, written on Republican Guard stationary with its Iraqi eagle and "Trust in Allah," calls for the "Manager of the security department, in the name of President Saddam Hussein, to order a gratuity to be issued to Mr. George Galloway of British nationality in the amount of three million dollars only."
The document states that the money is in return for "his courageous and daring stands against the enemies of Iraq, like Blair, the British Prime Minister, and for his opposition in the House of Commons and Lords against all outrageous lies against our patient people...."


Go read the whole thing.

Update:

Instapundit has links to a few of Galloway's supporters. Somehow, I doubt that the support of Scott Ritter, Fawaz Zureikat, and The Arab News will swing public opinion in his favor.

:: Mark 9:55 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Isn't it comforting to have such supportive allies?
Even as the U.S. works to stabilize a postwar Iraq, Turkey is setting out to create a footprint of its own in the Kurdish areas of the country. In the days after U.S. forces captured Saddam's powerbase in Tikrit, a dozen Turkish Special Forces troops were dispatched south from Turkey. Their target: the northern oil city of Kirkuk, now controlled by the U.S. 173rd Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade. Using the pretext of accompanying humanitarian aid the elite soldiers passed through the northern city of Arbil on Tuesday. They wore civilian clothes, their vehicles lagging behind a legitimate aid convoy. They'd hoped to pass unnoticed. But at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Kirkuk they ran into trouble. "We were waiting for them," says a U.S. paratroop officer.

By Wednesday U.S. paratroopers were holding 23 people associated with the Turkish Special Forces team. Some were drivers and aid workers. But a dozen of them, says Col. Mayville, were identified as soldiers. "We held them for a night, brought them in, fed them and watched their security. After all," he says wryly, "they are our allies." Early Thursday morning American troops escorted the Turkish commandos back over the border.

:: Mark 9:49 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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The U.N. doesn't get it. The American Left doesn't get it. The French certainly don't get it. But the working class of Zimbabwe does!
On the eve of the strike workers at the firm had been seething. "If only George Bush would come here and Saddam us," said one. "But he won't and so we will have to strike, and be arrested and beaten. We have no choice.


I think that I mentioned once or twice before that the Bush doctrine would change the world.

:: Mark 9:38 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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And this just in from the realm of the bizzare.
Washington - The Illinois journalism program that had students try to find the identity of the Washington Post's "Deep Throat" informant "should be disaccredited" and the teacher who oversaw the project "should be spanked," said Carl Bernstein, one of the reporters whose stories on the Watergate scandal led to President Nixon's resignation.
"The last thing students in a journalism class should be doing is trying to find out who other reporters' sources are," said Bernstein, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine who broke the stories with colleague Bob Woodward. "They should be learning how to protect sources."


Hypocrisy is alive and well in Carl Bernstein's world.

:: Mark 9:35 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Thursday, April 24, 2003 ::
You may not believe this even if you do see it.

:: Mark 4:31 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Looking for a new car? How about the Batmobile?

Batmobile. Purchased directly from the creator of this spectacular car, George Barris, this example has been fully restored and is ready for display or exhibition. Believed to be one of several cars Barris built to use as a promotional display at car shows across the country.


You can see the whole list of auction items here.

:: Mark 4:29 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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BBC NEWS | Middle East | The 'Apache' farmer's tale
"You probably remember the gallant Iraqi peasant who shot down a US Apache using an old weapon, the Brno," the Iraqi leader said on 4 April.
"Strike at your enemy strongly. Strike at your enemy with your strong faith wherever he comes close to you."
But a Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Rai Al-Am, says it has now tracked down the farmer, albeit with considerable difficulty.


You will be SHOCKED, but not awed, by what he has to say about the incident.

:: Mark 4:16 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Jim Miller on Politics notes the following:
The Other Telegraph Boxes: A sharp eyed Telegraph reader noted a detail that I had missed when I first read David Blair's story of the discovery of the boxes. The Galloway files were found in a box file labeled "Britain", but there were more boxes:
Two more box files were labelled "Britain". Others were labelled "United States", "Security Council" and "France". Each appeared to contain all the appropriate documents that had crossed the desk of an Iraqi foreign minister.
If the Galloway story is any indication, there will be many more interesting stories to come from those boxes. And, it is interesting that he does not mention any boxes labeled "Russia" or "Germany".

:: Mark 4:12 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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WND attempts to educate celebrity pundit about the true meaning of the 1st Amendment
the First Amendment prohibits governmental interference with political speech. It offers no immunity from criticism, indeed, revulsion by consumers of your movies or by organizations that extend you opportunities to speak.

:: Mark 12:36 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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The Sun is even more critical.
THE world has produced some evil, twisted men throughout history. Saddam Hussein is one of them.
Treacherous Labour MP George Galloway is another.
The so-called Honourable Member for Glasgow Kelvin emerged last night as the paid mouthpiece for one of the most despicable regimes of torture and mass murder in modern times.


Ouch!


:: Mark 9:46 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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It is not getting any better for Labour MP Gearge Galloway, as The Guardian reports
George Galloway conceded last night that intermediaries in his fund-raising activities could have siphoned off money from Saddam Hussein - but insisted he had never done so.

:: Mark 9:43 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 ::
The OpinionJournal's Featured Article is a compliation of idiotic assessments made by various writers of the war in Iraq. This is entertaining reading, but it still leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Here is a sample:
"According to a dozen or so military men I spoke to, Rumsfeld simply failed to anticipate the consequences of protracted warfare. He put Army and Marine units in the field with few reserves and an insufficient number of tanks and other armored vehicles. (The military men say that the vehicles that they do have have been pushed too far and are malfunctioning.) Supply lines--inevitably, they say--have become overextended and vulnerable to attack, creating shortages of fuel, water, and ammunition. Pentagon officers spoke contemptuously of the Administration's optimistic press briefings. 'It's a stalemate now,' the former intelligence official told me."--Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker, April 7 issue (published March 31)

:: Mark 12:02 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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A great new word to add to your vocabulary list from Ole Eichhorn:
Fehlervorhersagefreude: a word which means "a malicious satisfaction in the mispredictions of others".

:: Mark 9:16 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Over at Descent into Madness is another example of the tolerance displayed by the multi-culturist left on our university campuses.
Everyone knows how tolerant the left really is.

In a recent display of tolerance, 25 students here at Madison demanded the cancellation of a lecture by Daniel Pipes, the founder of CampusWatch, an influential Middle Eastern Scholar, and newly appointed to the board of the US Institute for Peace:

At Monday's occasionally heated meeting, several speakers said Pipes' work is unsound and his appearance at UW-Madison would discredit the university and insult the Muslim and Arab communities.

"How is the normal American on the street being benefited by coming in and listening to this, excuse me, xenophobic bull***t," UW-Madison graduate student Mohammed Abed said.

Well, at least he was polite.


I find the intellectual bankruptcy manifest in such behaviour to be exhausting. Recent events, such as the efforts to silence critics in the name of multi-cultural sensitivity on campuses across the country, peace activist Sean Penn's stolen handguns, Tim Robbin's claim that, in voicing their displeasure at his statements, his detractors have somehow violated his right to free speech and therefore should shutup, seem to signal some cosmic shift into the Twighlight Zone, but it has always been this way. The militant free speech advocate will attempt to silence opposing views, the peace activists resort to violence to get their point across, gun control is only to be applied to the groups that oppose the causes of the lobbyist, animal rights activists, who are wholly convinced of the truth of Darwinism, insist that man's actions are violations of the natural order. Intellectual integrity is a commodity as scarce as common sense, common courtesy, or common decency.

:: Mark 9:07 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 ::
There are dark forces at work in this world...and if Steven Den Beste has read the data correctly, France is up to its turned up nose in them.
One thing I've noticed about some autocratic regimes is that there comes a point where the failure of the regime becomes manifest, and the autocrats change modes. They cease trying to play the game on behalf of their nations, which is to say that they cease trying to make themselves more powerful by trying to make the nation they lead more powerful. Instead, they concentrate on trying to extend the game as long as possible so that they can continue to enjoy the fruits of privilege, while also preparing exit strategies so they can get out into rich exile once they cease being able to extend their rule.
In this mode, they command a sinking ship, but try to make sure it sinks as slowly as possible, and that their own staterooms remain dry and comfortable and well provisioned, and that there are lifeboats carefully preserved for them when the ship finally goes down so that they won't be among those that drown. They place armed guards at the stairwells who use violence to keep those below decks from coming up to escape the rising water. And they ignore the dying shrieks of those in lower decks.
In some cases this can go on for decades. In many cases it can only be ended by outside intervention.
That's what the Sauds are doing, for instance. You saw the same thing with Marcos in the Philippines, Amin in Uganda, Suharto in Indonesia, and Mobuto in Zaire, and we're seeing it now with Kim in North Korea. It's arguable that the USSR went into this mode, maybe even as early as 1965. We just saw it in Iraq. It's happening now in Zimbabwe. There comes a point where the rulers become dedicated to maintenance of their power, maintenance of their own comfort and privilege, and to making sure they have big untraceable foreign bank accounts. This leads to increasing repression and brutality against the population, often preposterously great expenditures on the lifestyles of the ruling elite (sometimes openly paid for out of the government treasury), and accelerating breakdown of the national economy in part due to graft, mismanagement, cronyism and embezzlement.



:: Mark 12:06 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This can't be good for George Galloway's political future in Britain.
In the papers, which were found in the looted foreign ministry, Iraqi intelligence continually stresses the need for secrecy about Mr Galloway's alleged business links with the regime. One memo says that payments to him must be made under "commercial cover".
For more than a decade, Mr Galloway, MP for Glasgow Kelvin, has been the leading critic of Anglo-American policy towards Iraq, campaigning against sanctions and the war that toppled Saddam.

:: Mark 8:37 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Monday, April 21, 2003 ::
This story begs the question:" Has there ever been a case in which sex between an agent and his informant has turned out to be a good idea?"
It was in the latter role, authorities allege, that she developed sexual relationships with two FBI counterintelligence agents and was able to steal U.S. secrets for the Chinese government.

:: Mark 4:19 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Jesse over at Alternative Voice posted this from a Marine Only Bulletin board.
A different perspective on our German allies
Sunday, 30 March 2003
As usual I was running late. So, you can imagine my frustration level as I approached the main gate of Ramstein Air Base only to find traffic backed up! Nearing the checkpoint I realized that not only was there a long line of cars, but traffic had come to a complete stop as a result of all entrance gates being closed.Over the past 18-months, there have been many opportunities to practice our patience as we have had to "hurry up and wait" as a result of heightened security.While we realize the necessity,it's still frustrating at times for even the most easy-going folks. This was one of those times for me! I needed to be where I was going, and I needed to be there NOW! The German soldiers, the ones manning the entrances of American military installations here in Germany, were just milling around, chatting as if those of us in line had all the time in the world.Things seemed to go from bad to worse! The German gate guards began walking among the stopped cars, asking us to turn off our engines and headlights. I realized that no traffic was exiting or entering the Air Base. My feelings of frustration began to turn to ones of concern. Just what was going on? A few minutes later I noticed blue lights approaching from the direction of the air terminal. Close behind were two military medical buses with their RED CROSS Lights on in the buses and I.V.bags could be seen hanging. It was then that I realized that these were more of our wounded warriors being transported from the battlefields to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for treatment.I certainly wasn't prepared for what happened next.All of the German soldiers, our gate guards, began walking toward the concrete barriers that divide the inbound and outbound lanes of traffic.As the blue lights neared, more German soldiers seemed to appear from nowhere, lining the road, shoulder to shoulder. Right on cue, without a word being spoken, these soldiers snapped a sharp salute as the buses drove pass, rendering arms until well after the last bus had passed.Needless to say, I was speechless and deeply moved. What a show of respect for fellow soldiers!(Name Withheld)



That, together with this , serves to further illustrates the divide between the Schroeder government and the German people.

Such displays of support from the ones that really count are as welcome and satifying as a hot bowl of mom's own chicken soup on a cold winter's afternoon.

:: Mark 4:10 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Peter Wood on Gratz v. Bollinger & diversity on National Review Online asks what John Payton meant by "I think that decision which would say that we have to choose, would be a Hobbesian choice here.
His defense of racial preferences in undergraduate admissions was amazingly inept. Listening to it, I began to wonder whether diversiphiles are paying an unexpected price for having ostracized all dissenting opinions for the last two decades. Perhaps by having refused to debate the issue on campus, they now don't know how to debate it in Court.
No, that's probably not it. Maybe Mr. Payton was just having a bad day. Justice Scalia asked him why, if the University of Michigan put such a high value on diversity, it didn't just lower admission standards for everybody. Mr. Payton thought that approach would impose an unwelcome choice, which is what prompted his remark about a "Hobbesian choice." What in the world is a Hobbesian choice?


It is a great read and a scathing indictment of the diversity movement with a gentle touch, brilliantly done.

:: Mark 2:42 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Clifford D. May has a great piece over at NRO that is worth a read.
The challenges ahead in Iraq — and in the rest of the Arab and Muslim worlds — are enormous. They will only be made more difficult by the those who called 12 years of indulging Saddam a “rush to war,” who called three weeks of combat a “quagmire,” and who now imply that the sacking of a museum vitiates the liberation of a nation from Baathist tyranny.


:: Mark 2:21 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This is enough to make you lose some sleep.
South African scientist offers to sell FBI deadly bacteria - theage.com.au
"This will show the Americans what we are capable of," Mr Goosen said ...

:: Mark 12:12 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Dr. Abdulhamid Al-Ansary write in Arab News about the Arab media’s conduct during war being indicative of a deeper malaise
For how long will we be cursed by attaching ourselves emotionally to defeated heroes? Why has it been written about us that we are a nation which does not learn from our defeats? And within one generation, there are other nations who have suffered defeat once and have risen from its ashes.

The question is: Why did the Arab media consent to align itself with the Iraqi regime while at the same time pretending that it was with the people?


Overall, an excellent article that poses some profound questions that have much broader application beyond the current situation.


:: Mark 11:30 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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More details on Burt Rutan's SCALED COMPOSITES' latest cool project.SpaceShipOne

Check this out.

:: Mark 11:18 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Burt Rutan is back and flying high. MSNBC:Private manned space plane unveiled.
“We seem to be making acronyms for engineer welfare instead of having the courage to fly something.”

:: Mark 9:23 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Robert L. Bartley, over at the OpinionJournal, asks, "President Bush is a Christian. Why does that bother people?"
On net, religious impulses are probably growing. September 11 persuaded others besides George Bush that evil is an active force in the world. The science of the Big Bang and DNA looks much more like the work of a creator than the cold world of Newtonian Laws and Darwinian evolution. And at least indirectly the horrors of the 20th century showed that the latter provides no moral compass.

The Scopes Monkey trial of 1925, the great defeat of the fundamentalists, has in particular come in for reassessment. Noting for example that the ACLU advertised for a plaintiff, a 2002 PBS documentary let the people of Dayton, Tenn. say that they were not the dolts depicted by the news dispatches of H. L. Mencken and the 1960 movie "Inherit the Wind." And in his new Mencken biography "The Skeptic," Terry Teachout points to the unlovely side of the philosophy animating his account: A disdain of democracy, for example, in favor of credo of Social Darwinism, applying survival of the fittest to human communities, and its corollary of eugenics, shortly later discredited by the Third Reich.

As for the Iraq war, what do the pope and liberal theologians make of the cheering crowds in Baghdad and Saddam's torture chambers? The president's success has confounded his critics. His decision, whatever role Divine Guidance played, clearly was what psychologists call inner-directed. His war cabinet meetings did not include people such as Karl Rove, Karen Hughes or Ari Fleischer. Somehow it's better, I suspect, for a president to talk to God than to talk to pollsters.

Go read it.

:: Mark 8:58 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Friday, April 18, 2003 ::
What are we to think of this bit ?
The Senate minority leader is ordered to stop calling himself a Catholic.
TOM DASCHLE may no longer call himself a Catholic. The Senate minority leader and the highest ranking Democrat in Washington has been sent a letter by his home diocese of Sioux Falls, sources in South Dakota have told The Weekly Standard, directing him to remove from his congressional biography and campaign documents all references to his standing as a member of the Catholic Church.

:: Mark 9:50 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Daniel Henninger invokes Milton To frame the debate over the battle between good and evil, and those who are reluctant to accept that such a struggle may exist.
If this is true--that years of declining belief have diluted evil to an abstraction--it isn't surprising that for a great many people in the Iraq debate the idea that Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi regime were evil enough to require elimination from the civilized world simply did not compute; that's been deleted from their software. Despite the beheadings of women and the severing of dissenting tongues (Amnesty International report, 2000), the now-revealed prisons for children, the torture chambers with meat hooks, nine years of meticulous U.N. archiving of programs to produce weapons of mass destruction, the homicidal gassing of Shiites and Kurds, and a son, Uday, whose life reveals the Husseins to be, more than anything, Neronic voluptuaries, despite what this so obviously adds up to, it could never be "sufficient cause."
Milton thought that should evil win, then earth's base was "built on stubble." Not yet.


It is truly astounding to me that so much of the "enlightened" world would deny the very existence of evil when evidence of its power are so clearly displayed in the chaos that surrounds us.

:: Mark 9:32 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Hugh Hewitt isn't pleased with the tactics being used by Yale lecturer Jim Sleeper, whom he sarcasticaly labels "Tough Guy".
Notice how the left quickly abandons its own self-professed ideals when confronted with publicity. Where are the Critical Legal Studies scholars to note that the power hierarchy of the university is being employed to silence first-year students? Where are the Women's Studies professors to note that an old white male is using verbal brickbats to silence young women seeking to be heard?

Help will not arrive from the usual suspects. Sleeper and his kind, however, are reminders of how far the campuses have slid into intellectual chaos. The absurd are tenured and the truth-tellers are freshmen. Alumni should take note. Is this where you want to invest your dollars?

My producer contacted Sleeper with an offer to appear on my radio program to discuss his article. "Sorry, I don't do radio interviews," he e-mailed back. What a surprise. Professor Sleeper only tackles freshmen.


It was this comment from Sleeper that set him off:

Yale's duty is to help the American experiment get a learning curve. Unlike us in 1968, though, none of you has to risk your life, fortune, or sacred honor for your convictions. You haven't had to oppose this war by risking imprisonment and life as a felon. You haven't had to support it by serving in it -- and I note that none of the Fedayeen Uncle Sams who've intimidated people here has enlisted, as did many Yalies whose names and dreams outlasted their 20s only on those icy, marble walls.

Sleeper is just one more name added to the list of those expressing nostalgia for the days when social activism meant supporting his side of the debate.

:: Mark 9:13 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Thursday, April 17, 2003 ::
Syria Won't Allow Inspection, Wants WMD-Free Region
Asked by reporters in Cairo whether Syria would allow inspections, Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said: "No...After this initiative, this Syrian proposal (at the United Nations)...Syria won't allow any inspection.

"It will only participate with its (Arab) brothers and all of the states of the world in turning the Middle East into an area free of weapons of mass destruction."

It was not clear if his remarks were a departure from Syria's previously stated position that it would only allow weapons inspections if they applied to all regional states, including Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear arms.



More on this later...

After giving this some thought, it appears to be the same old line that many of the Arab states have held for years. The real issue is still Israel's continued existence. If Israel is to survive in the current environment, it must maintain the immpression that it would resort to the most drastic measures to protect itself. A sort of cold war strategy. You know, MAD and all that. The difference here is that the other side, unlike the USSR's opposition to the US, is not known to have the means to assure Israel's destruction, while Israel is assumed to have the capacity to inihilate its neighbors. The true nature of the problem lies beneath this reality: a nation's possesion of nuclear, or other non-conventional, weapons does not, in itself, constitute a danger to the world; it is that nation's willingness and ability to use those weapons that constitutes a threat. Therfore, to get to the heart of the matter, you need to ask just a couple of questions. First, if left to its own devices, free of any consequence, would Israel attack or invade any of the established Arab states? And second, under the same rules, would any of the Arab states take the opportunity to eliminate the state of Israel?

Syria's contention that Israel should be subject to weapons inspections as a condition for clearing the air about their own weapons programs is the equivalent of the assault suspect demanding that a search warrant be issued for the victim's property as well.

:: Mark 4:06 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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There are many things in this world that will never change, but it is becoming more obvious at each passing day and with each pundit's grave review of the effects of the American military campaign in Iraq, that some things have changed. Shock and Awe, the over-used hyperbole used to describe a miltary strategy never truly implemented, can be better employed to describe the world's reaction to the swift, efficent, devestating power of the combined might of the coalition forces. Every military organization on this earth is now tearing through footage and analysis of this war and re-evaluating their own capabilities and readiness. The balanced usage of both high-tech and low-tech, in concert and in the appropriate proportions, has been brilliantly executed. When a GPS guided block of concrete is used, with devestating effectiveness, to counter high priced, dug in, heavy armor and artillery, it is time for a re-think. I realize that this is not really new, as noted here, but the overall vision that it represents, of applying only the force necessary to achieve the desired objective, does signal a near complete abandonment of the cold war military doctrines of both the East and the West.

:: Mark 1:30 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, brought this to my attention: Anatomy of the Three-Week War from Victor David Hanson over at NRO
...the energy of our soldiers arises from the ranks rather than is imposed from above. What, after all, is the world to make of Marines shooting their way into Baathist houses with Ray-Bans, or shaggy special forces who look like they are strolling in Greenwich Village with M-16s, or tankers with music blaring and logos like "Bad Moon Rising?" The troops look sometimes like cynical American teenagers but they fight and die like Leathernecks on Okinawa. The Arab street may put on shows of goose-stepping suicide bombers, noisy pajama-clad killers, and shrill, masked assassins, but in real battle against gum-chewing American adolescents with sunglasses these street toughs prove to be little more than toy soldiers.


Great analysis, good reading.

:: Mark 1:04 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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James Schlesinger has something to say about the war's impact on world opinion over at OpinionJournal.(Registration may be required)
The war has most dramatically conveyed the following realities:

1.) The U.S. is a very powerful country.

2.) It is ill-advised to arouse this nation by attacking or repeatedly provoking it--or by providing support to terrorism; and

3.) Regularly to do so means a price will likely be paid. Far less credence will now be placed in the preachments of Osama bin Laden regarding America's weakness, its unwillingness to accept burdens, and the ease of damaging its vulnerable economy, etc.



It is a good read.

:: Mark 10:10 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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From Ann Coulter over at WorldNetDaily, comes a litany of misdirection, duplicity and hypocrisy from Saddam's support group in the US and abroad.
At least Saddam wasn't at Tailhook!
Despite liberals' calm assurance that Iraq wasn't harboring terrorists, this week Abul Abbas, mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, was captured in Baghdad. This is the second time the United States has caught Abbas. But the last time, the Europeans let him go. That's why liberals are so eager to have Europeans "help" with the war on terrorism. They did a bang-up job last time.



Read it all.

:: Mark 10:04 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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WorldNetDaily reports that :Baghdad Bob may have commited suicide
Al-Sahhaf became an international star in the final days of fighting, making hard-to-believe claims about Iraqi successes and U.S. failures, including:


"Let the American infidels bask in their illusion";

"We have placed them in a quagmire from which they can never emerge except dead";

"God will roast their stomachs in hell at the hands of Iraqis";

"I triple guarantee you, there are no American soldiers in Baghdad."


Either way, I triple guarantee you, Muhammed Saeed al-Sahhaf will live forever...in SNL skits at least.

:: Mark 9:58 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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The more vocal opposition groups speaking out against the Bush administration's foreign policy are now facing some detractors of their own.
"Let's face it … they're getting an awful lot of flack for this — they had to have known that going into it,"



:: Mark 9:45 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Josh Chafetz has a response to the Not in Our Name crowd. This is a great followup the this post.

:: Mark 9:23 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 ::
This is a frustrating situation. I can post all day long and use the extended international character set, but let me try to get a simple "ñ" to display correctly in my template and the whole thing comes apart. ¡Qué las pulgas de mil y un camellos invadan a los sobacos del Pte. de Blogger! ¡Caray!

:: Mark 11:34 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Chatting it up with White House Chief of staff Andrew Card.

:: Mark 11:02 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Life under a totalitarian regime can be hard, but the mental torture that you will undergo as you realize just how badly you were deceived can be harder.

A captured Iraqi colonel being held in one of the hangars listened in astonishment as his information minister praised Republican Guard soldiers for recapturing the airport.

He looked at his captors and, as he realised that what he had heard was palpably untrue, his eye filled with tears. Turning to a translator, he asked: "How long have they been lying like this?"


Glenn Reynolds has some good analysis over at TechCentralStation today.

Go read it.

:: Mark 10:02 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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It appears that several nations have taken notice of the American militay's success in Iraq and are now taking a hard look at their own capabilities in light of this new reality. The Russians are particularly interested.

"The key conclusion we must draw from the latest Gulf war is that the obsolete structure of the Russian armed forces has to be urgently changed," says Vladimir Dvorkin, head of the Russian Defense Ministry's official think tank on strategic nuclear policy. "The gap between our capabilities and those of the Americans has been revealed, and it is vast. We are very lucky that Russia has no major enemies at the moment, but the future is impossible to predict, and we must be ready."
The swift victory by mobile, high-tech American forces over heavily armored Iraqi troops dug in to defend large cities like Baghdad has jolted many Russian military planners. "The Iraqi Army was a replica of the Russian Army, and its defeat was not predicted by our generals," says Vitaly Shlykov, a former deputy defense minister of Russia.





:: Mark 9:33 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 ::
About Navy Lt. Thomas Mullen Adams, killed along with six members of the British Royal Navy when two Sea Knight helicopters flying from the carrier Ark Royal crashed March 22: "He's Just Pining." These are the words that are carved into the white stone marker that was placed over his grave yesterday in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.



:: Mark 5:40 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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We have experienced a minor family catastrophe. The cool little chiminea that we have on our patio cracked in half yesterday...before the hotdogs had been roasted! The poor thing split top to bottom and the misses and little ones had to break out the fire extinguishers. Major tragedy was averted and hotdog roasting was relocated to the gas grill. Not as cool, but it got the job done.

:: Mark 5:05 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This bit from Dorothy Rabinowitz is also a must read critique of the media's coverage of the war in Iraq.

The most noteworthy specimen to date, though, must be the lead Talk of the Town item in the April 14 New Yorker, in which Hendrick Hertzberg writes: "By the end of last week--even though American troops who, by all accounts, have fought honorably and without undue cruelty, were at the gates of Baghdad--it was too late for the rosy scenario of the cakewalk conservatives." We may take it, from that "undue cruelty" reference, that Mr. Hertzberg is willing to credit American troops mainly because they failed to perpetrate war crimes. It is a pronouncement worth remembering, and not for what it says about the troops.

:: Mark 1:59 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Brendan Mintner has an excellent editorial on religios freedom at OpinionJournal entitled God-Free School Zones in response to the firestorm that followed Education Secretary Rod Paige's statement in an interview with the Baptist Press that, "All things being equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school where there's a strong appreciation for values, the kind of values that I think are associated with the Christian communities, and so that this child can be brought up in an environment that teaches them to have strong faith and to understand that there is a force greater than them personally."


What the New York Times and Washington Post may really be afraid of, though, is something Mr. Paige isn't even pushing. That all of this may clear the way for local school boards to allow curriculum to include serious and honest debate about the role religion has played in society. One day public schools students might seriously consider the ideas behind the Protestant reformation or the role of religion in America's founding.
If that happens, students would graduate from public schools with a better understanding of many of the major events that have shaped Western civilization. These students would be prepared to challenge many of the assumptions made by the liberal elites now in control of public education.


Public-school students would be able once again to read and openly debate the letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association on Jan. 1, 1802, in which he described the First Amendment as a "wall of separation between church and state." Responding to a letter from the Baptists complaining about Congress and state governments declaring days of prayer and fasting, Jefferson argued that the First Amendment permits government-supported religious expression, which, he argued, in no way interfered with the Baptists' right to believe or practice their religion. Jefferson--the deified deist of the left--ended the letter: "I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessings of the common Father and Creator of man."

Read it all.


:: Mark 1:53 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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The account of Ali Ismail Abbas is, to me, a stinging indigtment of the basic morality of the press corps. It also highlights the disingenuous duplicity of America's detractors. To leverage this young boy's pain and suffering for ratings, readership, or to advance any agenda other than to secure adequate medical intervention for his care, is the basest and most vile act of exploitation imaginable. The American journalists mentioned herein have little in common with the US Army or the U.S. Marine helicopter squadron that evacuated an injured 15 year old Iraqi girl to safety on the USS Saipan back on March 22nd. The detractors that hold this up as an example of the insincerity of the US claim that no harm is intended to the civilian poplulation of Iraq, do not know the generosity of the American people.

:: Mark 1:43 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Andrew Bolt of the Herald Sun takes the Australian anit-war crowd to task in fine fashion.
The sentiment expressed here should be broadly applied to similarly self-serving narcisists world wide.

WHEN protesters marched to stop this war of liberation, Saddam Hussein was filmed gloating to his generals.

"They support you," he crowed.
So where are you today, you whom Saddam reckoned among his friends?

Where are you who waved anti-war banners that pouted: "Not In Our Name"?

Did you see the Iraqi people kiss and hug the allied soldiers -- our soldiers -- who gave them their freedom after decades of terror?

Now say it again, if you dare: Not In Our Name.


And my personal favorite:
Saddam is gone, and his worst weapons will be found and destroyed. His people have lost a tyrant. Terrorists have lost a sponsor. Iraq's neighbours have lost a threat. Dictators elsewhere have lost sleep. And to all this, our anti-war protesters said: Not In Our Name.


Read it all.

:: Mark 1:12 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Monday, April 14, 2003 ::
I recently ran across a site dedicated to identifying those responsible for the policies, decisions, and actions leading up to the terrible environmental disaster precipitated by the breakup and sinking of the oil tanker Prestige off the coast of Spain. I have posted a description along with the links in both English and Spanish in the links section to the left.


:: Mark 2:26 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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It is a source of constant amazement to me that so many educated people in this nation, and elsewhere, can be so blind to simple logic. Post 11 September 2001, President George W. Bush stated, with no qualifiers whatsoever, that we, as a nation, would identify and remove the roots of terrorism that posed a threat to U.S. interests anywhere and everywhere they could be found. We have pursued that mission since that time. Our first target was UBL and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that provided him support and protection. We lent a helping hand to the Philippines and others as they confronted al Qaeda sympathizers in their own countries. Next came Saddam Hussein, who has been a vocal and active opponent of the U.S. for more than a decade and a known supporter and financier of terrorist organizations. His regimes penchant for violence and proven willingness to use horrific means to infilct harm on their enemies, foreign and domestic, moved him to the next spot on the list. If confrontation with Syria, or some other nation escalates to armed conflict, this will not signal some grand new plan for world domination. This has been, and will continue to be, part of the same effort. Namely, to minimize or eliminate known threats to U.S. interests by whatever means necessary. Frank, undiluted statements of position are the norm, not diplomatic double-talk. If this offends the sensibilities of the international diplomatic corps, so be it. We will state our position clearly, and pursue all reasonable measures to reach an accord peacefully. But if that fails to elicit the response that we are seeking, more forceful measures will be employed. This will continue until those forces desiring the destruction of our nation and society are deprived of the means, and if possible, the will, to carry out such designs.

If there is honest disagreement with this policy, let it be heard, but let's not look at each situation as an isolated case. Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, DPRK, et al are each dealt with based on this policy, not the whimsy of the moment. So, let's stop the posturing over each new situation, and decide whether the policy is sound or not. But agree that, once a determination is made that it is, the only decision left is whether or not a nation or group warrants classification with those already mentioned. If it is determined that this is not a sound policy to follow, then there had better be some viable alternative identified that can achieve the aforementioned goal.


:: Mark 2:00 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Superman Saddam
There is additional proof that Saddam was a looney, as well as an evil genius. He has a special gem implanted in his arm that makes him bulletproof. He has connections in the spirit world. His mother is a magician.

Read it all...and you will still be shaking your head in disbelief three days from now.

:: Mark 8:55 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Friday, April 11, 2003 ::
"Democracy already flourishes in countries with very different cultures and historical experiences. It would be cultural condescension, or worse, to say that any people prefer dictatorship to democracy. Who would voluntarily choose not to have the right to vote, decide to purchase government propaganda handouts instead of independent newspapers, prefer government to worker-controlled unions, opt for land to be owned by the state instead of those who till it, want government repression of religious liberty, a single political party instead of a free choice, a rigid cultural orthodoxy instead of democratic tolerance and diversity?" - Ronald Reagan
Ronnie asked some great questions. Does anyone care to dispute the obvious answers?

:: Mark 10:25 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Thursday, April 10, 2003 ::
Tom Toles' editorial cartoons generally infuriate me, but this time he got it right.

To be fair to Tom, I don't think that he meant this the way I interpreted it.

:: Mark 1:10 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Cathy Young has some Homeland Security vs. Rights analysis over at Reasononline that you should read.

Yes, this is a different America than it was on Sept. 10, 2001. But it wasn't Ashcroft, President Bush, or the Republican Congress who conspired to rob us of our freedom; it was the terrorists. And while we feel less safe and less free than we did before, the terrorists haven't won.

Read it all.

:: Mark 1:07 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Dennis Miller rips U.N., France, Germany
Comedian calls on Americans 'to circle the SUVs' in self-defense

I may not always agree with Dennis, but I have to give credit where credit is due. He does not mince his words.

"you only have to watch one session of the General Assembly [and] you want to prescribe Ritalin to a glacier, they're so ineffective."
Truth is a very effective weapon. Truth presented with such comic eloquence is unstoppable.




:: Mark 12:54 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Marines find tunnels under nuke complex
Captain at underground discovery: 'How did the world miss all of this?'

I am sure that this is just the beginning of what will be discovered in Iraq. I hope that it won't be as bad as it looks, but the credibility of the UN and the various inspection regimes is not going to be worth a plug nickle.

:: Mark 12:48 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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ScrappleFace is a genius and his analysis of the Iraqi response is worth reading.

:: Mark 11:22 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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There ia an excellent David Ignatius column in the Washington Post that is worth a read.

The whole thing is good, but it ends on this high note:

The intelligence officials offered a tantalizing coda for conspiracy-mongers. They said the "crude forgery" received by U.N. weapons inspectors suggesting the Iraqis were trying to buy uranium from Niger as part of their nuclear program was originally put in intelligence channels by France. The officials wouldn't speculate on French motives.

What's up with that?

:: Mark 11:12 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Some pithy analysis from Victor Davis Hanson at the National Review.

:: Mark 11:07 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Ewan Gewargis, 67, an Iraqi exile living in the United States since 1973, has said that the United States is the "only savior of the Iraqi people and the only government that should be trusted by the Iraqi people".

I agree with him, but that view is not universally held.

:: Mark 11:01 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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And then there is this:
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who opposed the war, was reported as saying he welcomed the sights from Baghdad as it was a sign that the conflict would be over soon.
CNN's Stephanie Halasz in Berlin said: "The overwhelming feeling among Germans was one of skepticism.
"How is the future of Iraq going to square up? Are the Iraqis capable of forming a democracy? And there is concern about those Iraqis who have died or who are injured."


I don't know about the rest of you, but I am nauseated by the constant grumbling from European leaders and intellectuals that the Iraqi people may not be capable of living under a democratic government. The arrogance and prejudice of these statements is appalling. Are we to understand from this question that they believe that the Iraqi people are too feeble minded or childish to make their own decisions? That they are somehow mentally inferior to the grand European masses? The truth is the opposite. They fear that the Iraqis are all too capable of self-governance. They do not want to see a free and democratic Iraq. The Baathist regime gave them a simple, single point of contact and control to better serve their purposes. It will be increasingly difficult to exploit the populace and resources of Iraq as the people of Iraq gain control. With Saddam in power, all that was needed was to convince Saddam that the deal you were offering would benefit him, and that could be done in private, out of the view of the rest of the world. In a free Iraq, such arrangements will be subject to some degree of public review and open discussion.

The truth of this can be found at the end of this article.

Chirac, Schroeder and Russia's President Vladimir Putin are to meet this weekend to discuss a post-war Iraq, with the likely emphasis on pushing for an increased U.N. role.
Italy's La Repubblica criticized the anti-war grouping, saying in an editorial: "The battle lines are drawn and this time the countries that opposed the coalition war are ready to muscle in and demand a piece of the Iraqi pie."



Indeed.

:: Mark 10:53 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 ::
This has to be the most candid and honest quote of the war.

"They stand, they fight, sometimes they run when we engage them," Brigadier-General John Kelly said.
"But often they run into our machine guns and we shoot them down like the morons they are."


I have always favored straight talking leaders. Donald Rumsfeld must be proud of this guy.

:: Mark 4:05 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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A case of Spy vs. Spy?

A RUSSIAN diplomatic convoy that came under fire as it evacuated Baghdad might have been carrying secret Iraqi files that US intelligence officers wanted to seize, a Russian newspaper reported.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta claimed today that US forces opened fire on the convoy in an attempt to seize classified materials it was taking out of Iraq - the outcome "of a dangerous game involving the SVR and the CIA."
"One was taking out classified Iraqi archives, and the other was trying to hamper it by force," the newspaper said.




:: Mark 1:17 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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The view is a bit different from Bahrain.
Defiant Iraqis last night ruled out surrender after US warplanes, tanks and artillery pounded Baghdad and troops pushed into the city from several directions.



:: Mark 1:11 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Even the BBC has to admit that things have gone better than they had expected in Iraq.

There has not been one moment of victory - or defeat - in Iraq but a new type of rolling victory.



:: Mark 1:06 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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They will never learn when to give it a rest.

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats on Tuesday called for an investigation into whether Bush administration contracts to rebuild Iraq favored a company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Halliburton's Texas subsidiary was selected without competitive bids to extinguish oil well fires.


If they were interested in the truth, they might do a bit of research and discover that this is the same company that put out the fires in Kuwait the last time we had to clean-up behind Saddam. The crews that work for this company are the best in the world for this assignment, and in some cases, they are the only ones qualified for the job. Politicians only whine about competetive biddding when it fits their political agenda. If this contract had been given to a friend of Waxman and Dingle, we might be hearing from the other side that the process was unfair. In many cases, however, the right decision is made in the interest of expediency. In this case, Kellogg, Brown & Root have the ability, and we don't have time to waste on petty bickering between no-nothing-neebies with favors to repay.

And so it goes.




:: Mark 1:01 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This is a good example of what I was talking about.

US marine infantrymen sit blackened and exhausted after battle, eating popcorn and chocolate hearts under a defaced Saddam victory monument, one of many in Baghdad.

Just down the road, two young men steer a yellow and white grain harvester, straight off the showroom floor, past smouldering Iraqi tanks. The thieves wave and laugh at a US marine convoy taking a small group of journalists on a tour of Baghdad's so-called liberated south-east.

Here a man drives a new white forklift. There a family pushes a donkey cart laden with chairs from a military school. An old woman, wearing a black burqa, rolls a drum of fuel along the road. And a teenage boy struggles to carry an electric generator.

"Looting has got really bad in the past 24 hours," said US marine Warrant Officer John Collins, as the fight for Baghdad rages across the swirling dark waters of the Diyala River.

"It's out of control," he said. "But the shackles are off after years of repressive rule ... you can see, people are happy."


A good read.

:: Mark 11:55 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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The video coming out of Iraq today has been inspiring to watch. What must it feel like to a man that has been under fear of death, or worse, for 30 years to suddenly find himself free of that fear? I can only try to imagine. These people have a long hard road ahead of them in rebuilding their nation's infrastructure, security, and economy, but with the right assistance and minimal U.N. meddling they should be alright.

:: Mark 11:51 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Monday, April 07, 2003 ::
The lyrics from an old CSN&Y song have been on my mind a lot lately. Can't imagine why.

Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you, lay your body down
Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you, lay your body down


May God bless those who find the courage risk all they have to defend that which you have.

:: Mark 4:50 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Lileks is the man.

Passed the TV this morning, and heard an Arabic-accented voice passionately denouncing the war. He was Western in appearance, telegenic, articulate, and he described the Iraq War as a “catastrophe” for the entire Arab world. I stuck around to see what he meant - catastrophic in the sense that another series of illusions were being destroyed before their very eyes? Allah will help them! But Allah has declined the invitation. The Americans will never fight a ground war! But there they are, on the ground, more methodical and efficient than one could have ever imagined, and they are losing one soldier for every 1000 Iraqis they kill. The combination of training, technology, dedication and lethality is worse than the Arab world could have possibly imagined - and the soldiers' primary motivation is getting the job done well so everyone can go home. Imagine what they would do if they were truly, deeply pissed.

The lesson of Mogadishu: don’t draw any lessons from Mogadishu.

The guest, it turned out, was the ambassador from Syria, a nation whose bootheel has been pressed against the Lebanese jugular for how many years now?


Read it all here.

:: Mark 4:12 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Elie Wiesel seems to disagree with his fellow Nobel peace laureate Jimmy Carter about the war in Iraq nad claims that the war... is justified and blamed unnamed European countries for failing to prevent it through pressuring President Saddam Hussein

Read it all.

:: Mark 10:44 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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The King of denial?

They are sick in their minds. They say they brought 65 tanks into center of city. I say to you this talk is not true. This is part of their sick mind," Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said. "There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad at all."

:: Mark 10:24 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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I have been quite impressed with the progress and discipline of the armed forces over this past weekend. I would also like to add my name to the list of those expressing a sense of loss at the passing of David Bloom. His reporting of this conflict has been excellent. My wife is particularly struck by his death. She and my kids have been following his reports on a daily basis and making note of how his tan got darker while his hair has lightened in response to the weather and stress of his assignment. He, along with Michael Kelly, represented the best that the journalist corps has to offer. They will both be sorely missed. God bless their families and loved ones.

:: Mark 10:17 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Friday, April 04, 2003 ::
The obfuscation and outright misinformation spewed forth by the advocates of Afirmative Action in the name of righting historical wrongs and promoting "diversity" and "multiculturalism" get some exposure over at the Washington Times.

:: Mark 11:39 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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There has been much said about Chirac's France of late. It is comforting to know that noble frenchmen still exist. Read this essay from the dissidentfrogman.

:: Mark 9:47 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Thursday, April 03, 2003 ::
Do the events involving Pfc. Jessica Lynch require that we answer the question of whether the women in the armed forces are just soldiers like all of the men. Ramesh Ponnuru thinks that there are questions that we need to ask...and answer.


"But it appears that people do not want to consider whether our captured women are being subjected to special tortures, or even being tortured at all. Here's how Kerry Sanders reported the tip-off about Lynch on CNBC: "The information about an American POW still being alive is information that had been flowing to the U.S. Marines on almost a daily basis. Even yesterday, somebody came up to me and said, 'You're a journalist, you need to know there's an American soldier who's being held in the hospital. She's being tortured. Please make sure that the people who are in charge of the U.S. military know that she's alive."

The New York Post online quoted Sanders, but left out the sentence about torture."


Read it all.

:: Mark 5:36 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Joel Mowbray has the latest on the Sgt. Asan Akbar case and his ties to Saudi money in an article named "The House that Raised Akbar
"
. Interesting stuff.

:: Mark 5:28 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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The diversity debate continues on the Wall Street Journal Op/Ed page.


Diversity. Everyone talks about it. Everyone pledges support for it. It has become a civic religion. It is the backbone of the University of Michigan's legal argument before the Supreme Court this week: that racial discrimination is acceptable if the purpose is to achieve diversity.

But what if diversity isn't all it's cracked up to be? What if it actually has a negative impact when its adherents pursue it too zealously?

Those are the questions raised by a study conducted by three distinguished political scientists who surveyed 1,600 students and 2,400 faculty members and administrators at 140 institutions of higher learning. The authors are Stanley Rothman, a professor at Smith College, Neil Nevitte of the University of Toronto and Seymour Martin Lipset of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Mr. Lipset has formerly headed the American Sociological Association as well as the American Political Science Association. In reporting on their findings, the New York Times acknowledged that "the study's authors have earned respect from academics on all sides of the affirmative action debate."

As they say, "Read it all."

Update: Stanley Kurtz has more coverage here.

:: Mark 9:04 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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I saw a reference to this story on Instapundit. It's must be read.

:: Mark 8:58 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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:: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 ::
The essence of US foreign policy is contained in the quote from Mr. Paine below. Most Americans believe that if all of the world's people were to be granted the same liberty and opportunities secured to us by own own institutions, that the threats to our own freedoms would be decreased. That simple reality is a grave threat to all who profit from subjugation and oppression of any portion of the world's populace, including some within our own borders. Whenever US interests are threatened by world events, we will act to secure our own tranquility. It is our view that the best way to ensure our own freedom is to offer it to all and to intervene when the oppression of one nation threatens the stability of our own interests or those of our allies.

So, in spite of all of the second guessing of America's motives in the current conflict, and the fallout of the international brinksmanship, diplomacy, blackmail or whatever you wish to call it, the US position will remain as stated above. If world events threaten our interests or stability, will we intervene? You can count on it. Will we rush to provide humanitarian aid if you are in crisis? Like no one else in the history of the earth. Will we put our own sons and daughters in harms way to defend you from oppression? If such an action is needed, we will take the point. Will America come to the aid of France, or anyone else, the next time they cry for assistance? Perhaps not eagerly, but we will come because that is who we are.

God bless America.

:: Mark 3:04 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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The fears of American "Empire Building" and US hegemony are primary held by those with dreams of holding that position themselves and the knowlege of what they would do with such power if they could obtain it. It is a common weakness to project your own fears and desires onto others and to analyze their actions based on your own frame of mind. The thief thinks that everyone is in the same condition. The liar rarely trusts what others say. And so it goes.

:: Mark 2:44 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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