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<% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%>PERSIAN GULF? ARABIAN GULF? [John Derbyshire]
Good grief! I've been calling it "The Sumerian Gulf" all these years.
Posted at 05:49 PM
RICH'S SHOOTING KIT [John Hillen]
Derb,
I’ve got Rich and his colleague quipped with a blaze orange hat and shooting vest – we won’t let our editor in chief go down because he was mistaken for flora.
But, I really must let readers know that when I offered Rich my upland bird shooting chaps (which, when worn over pants allow you to stride briskly and unhindered through the toughest brambles), Rich mustered all the umbrage he could – standing there in my gear room – and said “um..….no. That’s my standard answer when anybody offers me chaps.”
A good answer….until he’s stuck in the brambles. Alas, it looks like we’ll not have the NR dude ranch experience any time soon.
Posted at 05:47 PM
FURTHER PROOF [KJL]
the world lives by Google.
Posted at 05:44 PM
RAMESH RIGHT, EJ WRONG [Peter Robinson]
Just had a conversation with my Hoover colleague John Cogan, a distinguished economist who served with Pat Moynihan on the President’s Social Security commission. Ramesh, no reader of the Corner will be surprised to learn, is entirely correct: Any new borrowing would simply shift forward, to the present, a portion of the liabilities that the Social Security system has already incurred. Net increase in costs? Zero.
Posted at 05:30 PM
WOULD THAT BE LARGE, KIRBY, OR EXTRA LARGE? [Peter Robinson]
My friend Kirby Wilbur, radio host extraordinaire at KVI Seattle, took umbrage at an item I posted yesterday and has now challenged me to a bet. The item: I said, because it is the simple truth, that in matters of college basketball Kirby suffers a delusion. This year, he honestly believes, the Washington Huskies will defeat Stanford.
The bet? When Stanford defeats the Huskies, Kirby will broadcast his show wearing a Stanford sweatshirt supplied by yours truly, at the same time posing for photos that yours truly will make sure get seen far and wide over the web. (And should the Huskies defeat Stanford, to name a purely hypothetical possibility that belongs, if anywhere, inside parentheses, yours truly will parade around the Stanford campus for a day in a Washington sweatshirt, posing for photos that Kirby will post on the web.)
So, Kirby, my man, how do you like your sweatshirts, baggy or snug?
Posted at 05:28 PM
RE: SNAP, CRACKLE, AND POP [Peter Robinson]
It’s been a long, long time since I attended business school. During the summer of 1989, when I spent a purgatorial ten weeks as a junior investment banker for Dillon Read (an institution that no longer exists, having been swallowed by other investment banks, and, really, who misses it?), you had to go downstairs to the firm’s library to find annual reports. Nowadays? You just look ‘em up online. Silly me. I should have guessed.
Anway, to get back to Carlos Guttierez and his leadership of Kellogg’s, there is, my many Corner correspondents have informed me, bad news and good news.
The bad news: The increase in sales during Guttierez’s five years running the company—an increase of 30 percent, and not, as I stated below, of 43 percent—resulted less from brilliant marketing than from a single, large acquisition: In 2001, Kellogg’s, which had sales of $6.9 billion, bought Keebler’s, which had sales of $2.8 billion. In effect, Guttierez simply purchased that 30 percent increase in sales.
The good news: The market seems to have approved of Guttierez’s tenure at Kellogg’s all the same. Five years ago, a share of Kellogg’s stock went for about $34. Today that share of Kellogg’s stock will cost you $44. That’s an increase of about 29 percent—a lot lower than the rate of growth in the hottest hedge funds, but a lot higher than the rate of growth in the gross domestic product.
So what’s the word on Carlos Guttierez? He took a stable, old-fashioned business and did pretty darned well with it.
Carlos, Tony the Tiger says GRRRRR-acias!
Posted at 05:25 PM
THANKSGIVING [Jonah Goldberg]
I refrained from posting all of the nasty email I've gotten response to my Thanksgiving column in large part because 98% of the responses were very generous, patriotic and kind. But 2% were amazingly anti-American. Most were from Americans who, on the merits, despise their country. But this one just came in over the transom from a Canadian address (which I'd be glad to share with the secret service) and it should give you a good sense of the general tenor of the whole batch (though the spelling here is particularly sub-par):
Janoh, I have just read your article. You should be ashamed of yourself, are you blind.It is a bunch of morons like you that reelected the stupidest President
in US history. That SOB is a war criminal
The best thing that could happen would be that somebody would shoot the
basterd before he ruins the US
You should have the troops in Irak read your story. But do not go
yourself, they will linch you, you MORON
Posted at 05:20 PM
THE GREAT 2004 IQ HOAX EXPLODED [John Derbyshire]
Several readers asked where I could find Steve Sailer's debunking of the Great 2004 IQ Hoax. Here it is.
Makes no difference, though. I guarantee that 20 years from now you'll *still* be hearing how "it's been proved" that Democrats are smarter than Republicans.
Posted at 05:13 PM
RE: PHEASANT [John Derbyshire]
Just one more, Rich.
There's a reason why those garish, visible-a-mile-away, can't-possibly-be-mistaken-for-foliage, gentleman's checked jackets worn by the British upper classes are called "sports jackets." The sport in "sports jackets" is shooting.
You might want to get one.
Posted at 05:05 PM
CHIRP...CHIRP...CHIRP....CHIRP... [Jonah Goldberg]
Those are cricket chirps and that's all you can hear when you ask the question: "Who really cares that Tom Ridge is leaving?"
Posted at 05:01 PM
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? [Mark Krikorian]
I should have expected the responses I’m getting from many, many readers to my statement that “gallicide” means killing chickens, not Frenchmen.
Oh, and Rich, it also means the killing of pheasants.
Posted at 04:59 PM
AN ANSWER FOR E. J. [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Dionne ends his column today thus: "[I]f Social Security privatization is supposed to be about making 'younger workers' better off, as Bush has said, will he please explain why piling yet more debt on their backs should make them grateful?"
There are, as I'm sure Dionne would concede, circumstances under which increases in the national debt are good for young people. Going into debt to win World War II, for example, was probably a good investment that made the young people of 1941 a lot better off over the course of their lives. Would adding personal accounts to Social Security yield benefits that are worth an increase in the national debt?
Maybe--but we don't need to answer the question. Dionne should re-read the supposedly damning quote he uses to lead into his conclusion. "'The president does support personal accounts, which need not add over all to the cost of the program but could in the short run require additional borrowing to finance the transition,' [OMB director Josh] Bolten said. 'I believe there's a strong case that this approach not only makes sense as a matter of savings policy, but is also fiscally prudent.'" E. J. continues: "A huge new borrowing -- 'from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars over a decade,' as [New York Times reporter Richard] Stevenson notes -- is suddenly 'fiscally prudent' in the administration's eyes."
Well, of course it could be fiscally prudent. Dionne doesn't pay attention to some important words in Bolten's comment: "need not add over all to the cost of the program" and "in the short run." Bolten is clearly envisioning a plan that moves some of the future costs of the program into the present without increasing those costs--and he almost certainly has in mind a plan that reduces those future costs substantially. While any such plan could involve imprudence, it isn't obvious that it does. And over the long run, such a plan would not pile more debt on young workers.
Posted at 04:56 PM
RE: PHEASANT [John Hillen]
Sound advice Derb.
Rich is on his own on this one – I’m merely his outfitter.
I’m off to the Persian Gulf with our new national security advisor and a few Senators. We’d all rather be shooting with Rich though.
Posted at 04:50 PM
THE GREAT 2004 IQ HOAX EXPLODED [John Derbyshire]
Several readers asked where I could find Steve Sailer's debunking of the Great 2004 IQ Hoax. Here it is.
Makes no difference, though. I guarantee that 20 years from now you'll *still* be hearing how "it's been proved" that Democrats are smarter than Republicans.
Posted at 04:47 PM
RE: PHEASANT [John Derbyshire]
Rich, John:
To steady your hand when shooting, make sure you take in a viewing of that great James Mason classic THE SHOOTING PARTY before you leave.
"You were not shooting like a gentleman, Gilbert!"
(Why is this beautiful movie not on DVD?)
Posted at 04:45 PM
THE MOOSE [KJL]
says the Solomon decision is bull.
Posted at 04:42 PM
RE: DUTCH ABYSS [Rod Dreher]
For me, the news that the Dutch are euthanizing babies brings back one of the most unsettling mornings of my life. It is 1990, and I am riding in the car through the tranquil, pastoral pastures of rural eastern Holland. My driver is a middle-aged Dutchman who speaks little English. He is sad, and trying to tell me why. We pass a brick farmhouse. He points to it and says, "Last night, suicide." We drive a little further, and he points to another. "Three months, suicide. And there, another suicide." Between my pidgin Dutch and his rudimentary English, I understood that he could not figure out why so many of his neighbors were murdering themselves. In his country, they had peace and general prosperity, hardly a material care in the world. And yet, they were dying from despair. One wonders if a culture that kills its newborns can survive. One wonders if it deserves to.
Posted at 04:39 PM
EWE ASKED FOR IT, DERB [John Derbyshire]
In response to my sheep placenta posting, a reader says: "In the morning when asked how you slept you can say 'Not Baaaaaad'!"
Posted at 04:36 PM
RICH'S FIRST SHOOTING TRIP [John Hillen]
Derb, I’ve sent Rich to a “Gentleman’s Preserve” where they will clean his birds while he eats lunch and pack them on ice for the drive home. All he’ll have to do is pop them in the oven when he gets home.
And, avoid shooting the guide’s dog. That is a capital offense in West Virginia and due process takes place right there in the field.
And Rich, if that happens, make sure they send my gear back to me (a variation of the Spartan “With Your Shield or On It)….cleaned please.
Posted at 04:34 PM
MORE ON PHEASANTS [John Derbyshire]
There is a pheasant joke on page 56 of Prime Obsession.
I just thought I'd mention that.
Posted at 04:31 PM
CONSERVATIVE GUYS CALENDAR [John Derbyshire]
Hard to know which of my stud muffin shots to send in. This one, perhaps?
Posted at 04:27 PM
STILL DEPRESSED AT NEWSWEEK [Tim Graham]
Newsweek's badly named "Conventional Wisdom" box (the one with the cutesy up and down arrows and snarky Jonathan Alter blurbs) shows how unconventional Newsweek is this week. Dan Rather gets a sideways arrow with this mourning note: "As Bush Senior said, Don't judge him by one episode. We' miss his passion, his edge and even his corn pone." I believe Bush Senior said Rather shouldn't be judging him entirely by Iran-Contra, which was exactly what Rather was doing in that 1988 interview. (You can still watch it online here, BTW.)
Newsweek also gives a sideways arrow to George W. Bush, with this whining aside: "No Baghdad turkey photo-op this year. Too busy giving thanks to unemployed Ohioans who voted for him anyway."
Posted at 04:25 PM
HOW NOT TO GET [Ramesh Ponnuru]
a Cabinet position.
Posted at 04:18 PM
OR.... [Jonah Goldberg]
Maybe Bill Kristol in some fireman overalls without a shirt...
Posted at 04:18 PM
CONSERVATIVE CALENDAR.... [Jonah Goldberg]
I can see it now... Ramesh Ponnuru leaning way back on a rock, by a waterfall. Steven Hayes with a cheesehead and a can of Pabst....
Posted at 04:14 PM
GLAMOUR WHINE REMINDS ME [KJL]
There's a Conservative Women Calendar from the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute. I know there are only 12 months so I won't complain about omissions (Kate O'Beirne! Elaine Donnelly!...). So who's doing the male-con calendar? Surely there are enough right-wing stud ducks, to borrow a phrase.
Posted at 04:08 PM
ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD [John Derbyshire]
Jonah:
Though I'll confess to reading the foreign news in the NY Times, it's been years -- actually, come to look at it, *decades* -- since I paid much attention to the Op-Ed page. I think of it vaguely as a sort of elephant's graveyard for burned-out pundits. Is it not so? Can you recall a single thing that Anthony Lewis wrote in his last, oh, 20 years on that page? Tom Wicker? See what I mean?
Hang on a minute, there's someone on the phone here... Sorry? David who?....
Posted at 03:56 PM
SATANAUT [John Derbyshire]
Do NRO readers have an answer for everything, or **WHAT**?!?!??!?!!
"Mr. Derbyshire---With apologies to the late, great Flip Wilson, he of 'the devil made me do it' fame, a Satanaut is one who takes no responsibility for his transgressions, but, rather, blames someone else: in this case, Old Scratch. Thus, if I were to libel someone by publishing forged Texas National Guard memoranda, and if my calumny were to be exposed as a fraud, as a full-fledged Satanaut, I would exclaim, 'Hey, don't look at me; Satan ought to take the rap.' Ergo Satanaut."
Posted at 03:53 PM
MY APOLOGIES [Jonah Goldberg ]
The Key Monk notes that he was the first to launch the Me-for-Safire's-Gig bandwagon.. This appears to be true, but he made the mistake of doing this while I was on a cruise.
Posted at 03:48 PM
BTW [KJL]
I'm pretty sure I have absolutely nothing against Kelly Ripa. But she's a semi-media type, so I used her. She doesn't belong in that company, but...it made the post feel more worthwhile.
Posted at 03:46 PM
HIGH HOPES [KJL]
Reminds me that I am disappointed yet again that I was skipped over by Glamour's Women of the Year awards again. I mean, really. Do they know the power of NRO?! Kelly Ripa? Judy Blume? Helen Thomas? What do they have...ok, nevermind.
Posted at 03:43 PM
WHY INDEED? [Rich Lowry]
Here is a good example of a certain way of thinking.
E-mail: "Rich Lowry’s attempt to characterize those crying foul over Ohio’s well-documented electoral anomalies falls utterly flat. Lowry’s poo-pooing of the fraud and voter suppression that occurred in the Buckeye State fails to address any of the most salient questions. Why were the exit polls in Ohio (as well as Florida) wildly inaccurate in places where votes were recorded electronically, with no verifiable paper trail? Why were these discrepancies found *only* in such places and nowhere else? Why are U.S. elections being adjudicated by Republican-supporting business entities (such as Diebold) using proprietary software that citizens aren’t allowed to examine or audit? Why in 21st-century America should anyone of any race or political stripe be forced to wait in line for upwards of 12 hours? And why were the vast majority of these logistical cockups borne by poor African-American Democrats — the working people least likely to have the time to spare for such shenanigans?
Despite the glib aspersions Lowry casts upon electoral 'conspiracy theorists,' the answers to the above questions all point to one clear answer: the 2004 presidential election was stolen, using burglar tools that include rigged electronic ballot tabulation systems (see blackboxvoting.org for details) and systemic voter suppression (e.g. the inexplicably long lines at the polls in Ohio and Florida). Given the many questions that Bush-boosters like Lowry seem bent on either ignoring, suppressing, or ridiculing until long after His Fraudulency Dubya is safely re-inaugurated, I think it’s the 'coincidence theorists' who must be seen as crazy."
Posted at 03:40 PM
RE: RE: SELLING YOURSELF SHORT [Shannen Coffin]
Jonah, what makes you think Andy Rooney is ever going to retire, or anyone at 60 Minutes for that matter? He's 142 years old, isn't he? You need another 5 or 6 decades under your belt before you can qualify for such company. But I'll leave you alone for your lobbying campaign. Barbara Comstock is one hell of a PR person, so you might want to consult her. And we all know you are just kidding. Wink wink. Nudge Nudge. Say no more.
Posted at 03:38 PM
WE ARE CLOSER TO THE DUTCH THAN MOST THINK [KJL]
Besides the culture of death embraced by New Jersey and California on human cloning (we can clone as long as we kill that new life), the courts insistence on legal infanticide re disallowing partial-birth-abortion bans, and, of course, Roe, Shannen Coffin reminds me that two federal judges here ruled that the government had to pay for abortions of anencephalic babies because they had no chance of survival, i.e., no value to life. (Fortunately, some cooler heads prevailed in the court of appeals where one of those two decisions was reversed (another is pending in the dreaded Ninth Circuit.) How far off are we, really?
Posted at 03:32 PM
RE: SELLING MYSELF SHORT [Jonah Goldberg]
Folks, just to be very clear. I'm not really lobbying for the Safire job, nor do I think I have the remotest chance in the world of ever getting it. I think it's kind of funny to talk about though. I am very happy where I am with NRO, with my syndicate, etc.
That said, Shannen, while I wouldn't ever want Rather's job, there is one CBS gig long time readers know I want. Andy Rooney's. I think he's got the greatest racket in the world. He probably makes good ducats doing it and he gets to write on the side anyway. I would love, love, love to have a minute or two to gripe about odd things and impoortant things every week on "60 Minutes." I honestly think I could be great at it and I would be eternally grateful if my flying monkeys mounted a massive campaign for me the moment Rooney announces his retirement. Though it's beyond me why he would ever retire from a job like that.
Posted at 03:29 PM
SELLING YOURSELF SHORT [Shannen Coffin]
Jonah, why limit yourself to the New York Times op-ed page? There is an empty anchor chair at CBS beckoning. Of course, you'll have to overtake odds on favorite Bill O'Reilly for it. And what about the 2008 nomination? That's always out there too. Really, who can resist your charms anyway?
Posted at 03:21 PM
RE: BABY BURGER [John Derbyshire]
Kathryn: This isn't *really* the same thread, since this variety is not human. In Australia, apparently, they swear by it.
Posted at 03:14 PM
GAYS IN THE MILITARY & CLINTON [Jonah Goldberg]
Several readers have offered this complaint:
Hi Jonah, your "Party Over" column does a fantastic job of putting the Republican victory into a wider perspective. One quibble: It's the second time in recent weeks that you've listed "gays in the military" as evidence of Clinton's liberal agenda when he took office. But Clinton didn't seek out that issue, it was a brilliant (though I believe cynical) move by Republicans in Congress that brought the issue to the fore, a move that effectively dashed his brief honeymoon. There's no way Clinton, who never took a major public stand for gay rights, would have sought out that fight, a clear loser at the time. All the best, Andrew.
Me:This isn't exactly how I remember it, but I'll go look it up.
Update Woops. I didn't mean to include the emailer's name. But since it's there, I should clairfy that it's not from that Andrew.
Posted at 03:09 PM
HEAVEN HELP US [KJL]
Netherlands is killing infants.
Netherlands may be a little bit aways, but some recent laws in the U.S. set us on that kinda path.
Posted at 02:57 PM
FIRING IRISH [KJL]
Notre Dame has fired their head coach.
Posted at 02:54 PM
I'M BAAAAACK [Jonah Goldberg ]
I did this discussion with David Brooks for the CloseUp Foundation. It'll be on C-Span this Friday at 7:00 PM. It was a good time and I had lunch with Brooks afterwards. Unfortunately, I learned next to nothing about the Times gig, except that there is not a lot of buzz about yours truly and that nobody at the Times knows about this.
Posted at 02:50 PM
NASCAR [John Derbyshire]
Kathryn: Black tie for a NASCAR event? Well, yes -- so long as it's a bolo tie.
Posted at 02:47 PM
THAT THREAD IS SO BANNED [KJL]
Derb, don't even think about posting a recipe--they are just now flooding my in-box. Placentas banned from The Corner.
Posted at 02:44 PM
PHEASANT [John Derbyshire]
Rich:
As readers of James Clavell will recall, pheasant must be hung for a few days before eating. In Northamptonshire we used to hang 'em by the feet till they dropped (i.e. the leg joints rotted through so the body fell to the floor -- the floor of the game pantry, that is).
One other thing: get yourself a good pheasant plucker. I mean, a really nice fellow.
Posted at 02:38 PM
RE: PLACENTA POST [KJL]
Can I stop reading The Corner now?
Posted at 02:32 PM
RE: BABY BURGER [John Derbyshire]
As a further illustration of what I mean, and to be read ONLY if you have finished your lunch: My wife Rosie, when a child in China, was rather weak & sickly. Her mother, who was a hospital nurse, dealt with this by feeding her placenta. Yes, human placenta.
"How did she prepare it?" I asked -- after a very long pause -- when Rosie told me this. Fried, apparently. In a wok.
Now *there's* multi-culti for you.
Posted at 02:29 PM
IRAQ NATIONAL GUARD [Rich Lowry]
Here is an e-mail from someone who is in a position to know:
“There are bright spots in the ING, and many of the rank and file have great potential. Leadership, however, is an issue. It's similar to the problem Lincoln had during the Civil War - leadership posts were political posts. Competency was secondary if considered at all until well into the war. Often one couldn't tell that a man would be a crappy leader until after his unit folded in combat. These operations are part of identifying, training and preparing ING leaders and establishing a professional ethos within the army. The leadership in the ING is still hit or miss. We haven't reached a `critical mass’ yet that allows for the continuation and self-policing of professional military leadership. But we will. Give us time.”
Posted at 02:26 PM
CANADIAN PATHOLOGY [Rod Dreher]
President Bush is in Canada now, which can only mean one thing: more whining from Canadians about what unbearable people we Americans are. Canada is a pleasant enough country, and I've had great times in Toronto. The fact that they produced the splendid novelist Robertson Davies covers a multitude of sins. But good grief, do they ever need to get over their pathological obsession with the US. One of the most agonizing nights I ever spent was in a train car from Nice to Milan in the company of two horribly boring Canadian college students who could not be persuaded to remove the massive chip from their shoulder and shut up about America getting all the attention. If Canada were a TV character, it would be Jan Brady, perpetually whining, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" about the United States.
Posted at 02:07 PM
WHERE'S PINSTRIPE RICH? [KJL]
Didn't you go fly-fishing a while back? You're so red state now. (Nothing wrong with that, don't get me wrong.) But what's next? A rodeo cover story? Taking up some "sport" I can't even mention because I've never heard of it. All I would have recommended is listening to a regular diet of Gatlins. Next you'll be opening a Nashville satelite office and guest voicing Hank Hill's new best friend.
Posted at 02:02 PM
HELP--PHEASANTS [Rich Lowry]
I'm going on a hunting trip in a few days that, if all goes well, should produce a few pheasants. If anyone has any tips, recipes, etc., about how to cook these birds I would appreciate it--so long as it doesn't involve deep frying.
Posted at 01:35 PM
PAT SAJAK BLASTS HOLLYWOOD [KJL]
RE: the Van Gogh murder.
Posted at 01:32 PM
THE CRAZY GANG [John Derbyshire]
In response to my remark about the Three Stooges not being funny, a reader -- may his hair and teeth fall out! -- has reminded me of the Crazy Gang. If you didn't grow up in Britain in the 1960s, you don't know about the Crazy Gang -- and believe me, you should give heartfelt thanks for that. Their act was so un-funny, watching it left you glum for a week. They were practitioners of anti-humor (like anti-matter), and I think only survived at all because the Queen Mother, who had *very* eccentric tastes, liked them.
By comparison with the Crazy Gang, the Three Stooges *were* funny. But then, by comparison with the Crazy Gang, the Black Death was pretty funny.
Posted at 01:30 PM
BABY BURGER [John Derbyshire]
After 30 years of hanging around with Chinese people, there are some things I still don't get. The lurking obsession with cannibalism, for instance, famously explored by the 20th-century writer Lu Xun in his "Diary of a Madman." (See also Jasper Becker's Hungry Ghosts, and Anthony Burgess's novel The Wanting Seed for more on this.)
And now a reader has sent me this.
Er...
Posted at 01:27 PM
RE: BROOKS [Tim Graham]
As Brooks noted, Tim Russert also had a religion-pundit panel on Meet the Press, and blew it by inviting the "bozos" Falwell and Sharpton. NBC looked like they were booking a segment on the old Geraldo CNBC show with these two worn-out spokesmen. Richard Land and Jim Wallis were fine, less boisterous guests. But ABC's bookers clearly looked smarter than NBC's on Sunday, picking Flake instead of Sharpton if the goal were some racial balance, and picking a Catholic scholar (Weigel) to match with Gary Bauer.
Actually Falwell had some great lines slamming the leftist panelist Wallis for being a peacenik, but it's clear that he is the cartoon the media love to book most, and not the figure that most of the religious right -- evangelical, and also Catholic and Jewish -- would pick first. TV bookers are often lazy and dread new guests, who might after all be dreadful television performers. They prefer old TV reliables from a yellowed Rolodex, even if the whole show sounds like a repeat of a hundred other shows.
The real issue of the Russert panel, though, is Russert. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6601018/ The transcript shows that Russert threw text-panel hardballs at Falwell and Land, using past (quite dated) comments that were wildly controversial, such as Falwell's declaration two days after 9-11 that gays and lesbians and feminists brought this attack from the Almighty.
So why didn't Russert have anything controversial from the past of Al Sharpton? Start with Sharpton at the NARAL dinner as a presidential candidate in 2003, drawing big cheers by proclaiming that the "Christian right" ought to meet the "right Christians" who favor abortion. He also claimed abortion promoters were the "real patriots" because they favored "freedom for all Americans." (That's not even getting into Sharpton's real forgotten past as a racist agitator.) For Wallis, Russert only quoted from his own newspaper advertisements, and not any quote found controversial by his ideological opponents. That's probably due to liberal bias -- NBC surely reported on controversial Falwell statements, but not Wallis statements. And Wallis has never been a televangelist, whom the TV news types prefer when choosing their religious stereotypes.
Posted at 01:24 PM
RIDGE RESIGNS TODAY [KJL]
MSM reporting
Posted at 01:14 PM
HOW NOW, MAO? [Cliff May]
I’m in Denver, one of my favorite cities but a place hardly immune to the viruses of popular culture. I just walked past a very chic little restaurant: “Mao,” an “Asian bistro and sushi bar.”
Isn’t that special? Perhaps the proprietor might consider opening next: “Adolf,” a “German bistro and dumpling bar.” Or “Stalin,” a “Russian bistro and vodka bar.”
Posted at 01:08 PM
NASCAR [KJL]
takes Manhattan. Surely Derb's going to their black-tie gala.
Posted at 12:48 PM
TIME-WASTERS [KJL]
More optical illusions (blame JJM, blame Jonah, don't blame me).
Posted at 12:45 PM
WE'RE NOT WORRIED ABOUT TERORRISTS, WE'RE FRENCH! [KJL]
Read Omar.
Posted at 12:37 PM
TYPO [John Derbyshire]
I am sorry I called Steve Sailer a "Satanaut." I meant, of course, "Datanaut" -- i.e. one who is expert at navigating his way through great oceans of data.
"Satanaut" would be... what? This is one of those typos that you can't help thinking OUGHT to be a word.
Posted at 12:32 PM
THREE STOOGES [KJL]
This, from a professional comedian:
K-Lo,
In response to Derb's query about the Stooges, but mostly for the benefit of Jonah and the other Simpsons maniacs out there, I give you the greatest moment in television history.
From the episode "Homer the Heretic", written by oddball genius George Meyer, known to those with inside scoop as the true voice of the Simpsons and its greatest single contributor:
Homer has decided to stop going to church on Sundays. Instead we find him blissfully alone on his sofa, with the family dog at his feet, watching television. From the sound we know he's watching the Three Stooges. He chuckles, then turns to the dog.
Homer: "Moe is their leader."
I swear to you, nothing beats it.
Posted at 12:29 PM
ARMENOCIDE [John Derbyshire]
Oh dear. I really should have checked with Mark before putting his remark in my column. I am sorry; that is a real breach of etiquette, and I shall be much more scrupulous in future. I hope it is clear at least, from my use of the word "horrible," that the Armenian massacres are not something I take lightly. They were indeed... horrible.
The cult of victimology -- the endless obsessive picking at old grievances in pursuit of moral advantage -- is such a tempting target, we sometimes put the *real* horrors on which those grievances are based at the back of our minds when lampooning it.
Posted at 12:22 PM
HOWARD DEAN [KJL]
for DNC chair! The not-yet-retired (call it subtle gloating) Kerry Spot tracks the bandwagon and maybe even encourages it.
Posted at 12:20 PM
A LIE CAN TRAVEL ROUND THE WORLD... [John Derbyshire]
...while Truth is lacing up her boots. Thus spake Mark Twain, and he never said a truer thing.
Case in point: The famous chart purporting to show IQ by state, with states that voted Gore in 2000 ehibiting a higher IQ than Bush states. The chart was a hoax, though even The Economist (yes, I know, some people would dispute that "even") was taken in by it. Steve Sailer, the best Satanaut on the Right, expertly and thoroughly debunked the whole thing.
It's still out there, though. Someone quoted it at me at a Thanksgiving party, unaware the whole thing had been exploded. Now this morning, reading New York magazine in the dentist's office, here is Kurt Andersen trotting it out again. (Though it's not altogether clear if Andersen believes it.)
This one will run and run. Twenty years from now you will be hearing about how "it has been proved" that Dem states have higher IQs than GOP ones.
Billy Bunter mis-construed the Latin tag magna est veritas et praevalebit as: "The truth is great and shall prevail a bit." He got THAT right.
Posted at 12:17 PM
UKRAINE: WINNERS AND LOSERS [KJL]
John O'Sullivan: "A week ago any realistic compromise would have meant Yushchenko accepting a bogus Yanukovych victory in return for political concessions by the new administration. Today, the international success of the orange revolution has reversed the odds. With both Kuchma and the Russian foreign office accepting that new elections may be unavoidable, it may be Yanukovych who concedes to Yushchenko in return for certain assurances. "
Losers? Putin, Chirac, U.N., Annan...
Posted at 12:14 PM
HOWARD COSELL [Rich Lowry]
Monday Night Football ran some bits from vintage Howard Cosell half-time highlight shows last night and I was glued to the screen. I'm weirdly fascinated by Cosell. I don't know whether it's because he was so good or he was so bad, but I'll watch anything Cosell-related. (He knew nothing about baseball, however, and was positively atrocious on Monday Night Baseball.)
Posted at 12:10 PM
SNAP, CRACKLE, POP [Peter Robinson]
Running Kellogg’s for the last five years, Carlos Guttierez, the man the President nominated yesterday to become the next secretary of commerce, expanded the company’s sales by 43 percent. How?
There can’t be many big, established consumer goods companies that expanded their sales half as dramatically during the past five years. Did Guttierez somehow enable Kellogg’s to steal market share from Post and Quaker Oats? Diud he introduce an array of new products? Or did he increase sales overseas, persuading millions of Chinese and Indians to start their mornings with Frosted Flakes?
There must be dozens of twenty-two or –three year old analysts on the island of Manhattan at this very moment who have access to Kellogg’s last few annual reports. Would one or two of you kindly drop me a line? The Rice Krispies boys, Tony the Tiger, Sam the Toucan and I all want to know how Gutierrez turned in such remarkable performance.
Posted at 12:07 PM
STIM-U-DENT [John Derbyshire]
Many, many kind readers have e-mailed in to tell me that Stim-U-Dent are available on Amazon.com.
Posted at 12:02 PM
THEY MAKE GREAT CHEESE, THOUGH [John Derbyshire]
A friend in Atlanta: "Derb---The worst, or best, example of parody tone deafness that I've encountered are the Dutch. They have absolutely no concept of irony or sarcasm as humor. They always asked why I said something if I did not really mean it. To them, humor is very much a 'Three Stooges' type affair. Slip on a banana...hilarious, clever play on words...huh?
"This trait might also be shared by other Germanic/Scandinavian folks - I don't know. I just know the Dutch's sense of humor is nowhere near as sophisticated and clever as Anglo humor. No sense of idle chit chat either. Hell is being in a social environment with gorgeous Dutch girls who speak perfect English but it is not possible to engage in light, flirtatious banter...what a waste. After two years of talking past each other, I could not wait to get out of de Nederland."
Apropos which, and at the risk of enraged mobs descending on my house: Is there anyone out there in NRO-land who finds the Three Stooges *funny*?
Posted at 11:57 AM
RE: ALEXANDER [John Derbyshire]
VDH has indeed commented on this aspect of Alexander, on his own website.
Victor's comments confirm the following large truth about attitudes to male homosexuality in the ancient world, and in a great many other times and places, too: An easygoing acceptance of men taking their masculine sexual pleasure with girlish men or boys, combined with contempt and loathing for "the man who plays the part of a woman." You may say that this attitude doesn't make much logical sense, and you may be right; but as a matter of historical fact, that is how most people viewed the matter in most times and places down to the present-day West.
Posted at 11:53 AM
IRAN DECLARES VICTORY [KJL]
Posted at 11:26 AM
ARMENOCIDE [Mark Krikorian]
Derb is going to get me in trouble with my fellow Armenians, in the item in his November diary
In any case, while I haven’t found any instances of “Hibernicide,” there are plenty of other examples of groups essentially claiming that killing one of their members is qualitatively different from ordinary homicide: Femicide, Negrocide, Judeocide, Arabicide, Islamocide, Japanocide, Anglocide, Tibetocide, Hispanocide, and Christianocide. I also found Gallocide, but that means killing chickens, not Frenchmen.
Posted at 11:23 AM
BITS'N'PIECES [KJL]
With all of the scavenger hunt talk yesterday, I'm sure Jonah and Peter are rushing to answer Derb's November math puzzle.
Posted at 10:58 AM
OUR TAKE... [Rich Lowry]
...on Sensenbrenner and the intelligence reform bill and also the question of delaying the Iraqi elections is up on the home page.
Posted at 10:52 AM
SOBERING... [Rich Lowry]
...report today in the NY Times about the performance of Iraqi troops and police. There have been bright spots, but the overall picture doesn't look so great at the moment. Check out the Marines referring to a helicopter carrying Iraqi police as the “clown car.” Or the bit about an Iraqi National Guard unit's complicity in the abduction and killing of its own battalion commander. Some Iraqi forces are so terrified of being identitified that they don't tell their own families what they are doing. I know the Times accentuates the negative (see post below), but this report more or less conicides with what plugged-in hawks have been telling me about the performance of the Iraqi forces--bright spots, but much work to be done.
Posted at 10:49 AM
CHURCHILL'S BIRTHDAY [Andrew Stuttaford]
His comment on his 75th Birthday: "I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter."
Posted at 10:42 AM
I WONDER [KJL]
what Cosmo Goldberg and Boris Derbyshire think of this.
Posted at 10:42 AM
SPEAKING OF SPECTER [KJL]
Do read Ann Coulter's latest. "It is as certain that Arlen Specter will double-cross Republicans as it is that Bob Shrum will lose his next presidential campaign. You can add this to a certain infamous list that already includes 'death' and 'taxes.'" But there's much more, as you can imagine...
Posted at 10:39 AM
THE NEW NIHILISTS [Rich Lowry]
John Podhoretz nails it today in the New York Post, where he argues that the left doesn't believe in anything overseas anymore besides despair. Paul Johnson made a related point in a piece for us a while ago--that the left's new faith, now that socialism has died, is pessimism. I'm struck by this when I'm on college campuses. I want to say to these kids (and professors), “OK, you think Bush's foreign policy is a disaster, but what do you believe, what's the alternative, what's your vision?” There is none. These people believe in nothing. They aren't even soft-headed idealists anymore because Bush's idealistic rhetoric has prompted them to reject idealism. All they have is a smug faith in American failure, that whatever we do--literally whatever we do: whether its militaristic or altruistic or something in between--is wrong and doomed to fail.
Posted at 10:32 AM
VERY NICE... [Rich Lowry]
...David Brooks column this morning, calling Jerry Falwell a “bozo” and pointing to a more serious evangelical figure, John Stott.
Posted at 10:26 AM
WHERE ARE ALL THE BUSH HATERS? [KJL]
Canadian protests of Bush visit aren't all that.
Posted at 10:24 AM
AROUND NYC II [Rachel Zabarkes Friedman]
Random bit of news: This is now the second day in a row I've seen a helicopter flying over the East River, and then circling over northern Manhattan, with what appear to be big orange flags trailing behind it. There's nothing written on the flags; they're just big and orange. Kind of interesting... I wonder whether there's some connection to the Ukrainian election.
Posted at 10:21 AM
AROUND NYC [KJL]
Today was the first day I've ever heard someone report their bus being stopped enroute from NJ to the Port Authority Bus terminal being randomly stopped and searched. It's something I've expected to hear/see/experience more of, but haven't. Seems like a good thing to be doing, and the kinda thing to advertise--you won't get through, so don't try it. And then, of course, cross your fingers.
Posted at 10:18 AM
A DALEY GOES TO THE ARMY [KJL]
Mayor Daley's only son enlists.
Posted at 10:15 AM
HAPPY BIRTHDAY WSC [Steven Hayward]
Today is Winston Churchill's birthday, always an excuse for a cigar and a snoot of brandy. To connect this with a previous thread, here's the concluding fragment of Leo Strauss's lengthy spontaneous remarks to his students in class upon hearing the news of Churchill's death in 1965 (many of Strauss's classes were tape-recorded, and transcripts circulate in samizdat form):
"The death of Churchill reminds us of the limitations of our craft, and therewith of our duty. We have no higher duty, and no more pressing duty, than to remind ourselves and our students of political greatness, human greatness, of the peaks of human excellence. For we are supposed to train ourselves and others in seeing things as they are, and this means above all in seeing their greatness and their misery, their excellence and their vileness, their nobility and their triumphs, and therefore never to mistake medicority, however brilliant, for true greatness."
And Gertrude Himmelfarb had this to say some years back: "When I meet a historian who cannot think that there have been great men, great men moreover in politics, I feel myself in the presence of a bad historian. And there are times when I incline to judge all historians by their opinion of Winston Churchill--whether they can see that, no matter how much better the details, often damaging, of the man and his career become known, he still remains, quite simply, a great man."
Hear, hear. Happy birthday, Sir Winston!
Posted at 10:12 AM
SOLOMON APPEAL [Stanley Kurtz]
The Justice Department seems likely to appeal the Solomon Amendment case (especially if they hear from the public). Up to now, the question of the Solomon Amendment and the military on campus has gotten only limited attention. But this issue now seems headed for the Supreme Court, and much more public prominence. For some reason, I'm having trouble reading the PDF version of the decision in the case, but you can find some key arguments in the case here, here, here, and here. And you can find the earlier decision upholding the Solomon Amendment--the one just reversed by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here.
Posted at 10:09 AM
DOJ & ROTC [Stanley Kurtz ]
The Justice Department has said it continues to believe that the Solomon Amendment is constitutional. The department has the option of appealing the decision to the full 3rd Circuit Court, or to the U.S. Supreme Court. It's important that both the administration and the courts hear from the public. If this case is abandoned or lost, the denizens of the academy will be free to line their pockets with federal money, while barring not only military recruiters from law schools, but the ROTC, and every other representative of the military, from campus. Congress and the Pentagon ought to be using the Solomon Amendment to bring the ROTC back to our campuses. The Solomon Amendment's protections need to be strengthened, not eliminated. Empirical surveys have confirmed what everyone already knows that our college campuses have contemptuously cut themselves off from mainstream Americans. Now the academy adds insult to that injury by insisting on the right to bar our soldiers, while also benefiting from their sacrifices--and taking the public's money to boot. Neither congress nor the administration ought to take that lying down. This case must be appealed.
Posted at 10:06 AM
WHAT’S COMPELLING? [Stanley Kurtz ]
A couple of things stand out here. First, if the government’s interest in military recruiting is not compelling, what government interest is? The military is not the equivalent of a private organization. It protects us all, and none of us can opt out of the benefits of that protection without leaving the country. Colleges can criticize military policy all they like, but they cannot actively bar military recruiters and fairly expect to receive federal funds. If congress cannot require colleges to do something as basic as admit federal personnel to campuses in return for the public's generous aid, then the academy will have effectively turned federal money into an open-ended entitlement. This decision mistakes free speech rights for an entitlement to government funding. If these colleges really believe that federal policy is bigoted, why are they so willing to take the government's tainted money? If they don't want to admit the military, they are perfectly free to refuse federal funds.
Posted at 10:03 AM
BANNING THE MILITARY [Stanley Kurtz ]
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has found the Solomon Amendment unconstitutional. That means colleges can now ban the military with impunity. The Solomon Amendment bars federal funding to colleges and universities that exclude military recruiters from campus. Faced with the loss of federal funds, several prominent law schools have admitted military recruiters they would prefer to have barred. Supposedly, these institutions want to exclude military recruiters because the schools object to the military's policy on gays. In reality, the ban on campus military recruitment is part of a deep lying and much broader hostility to the armed services that has kept the ROTC from some of our most prestigious schools for decades. Justice Ruggero John Aldisert issued a sharp dissent in the 2-1 decision. Aldisert argued that the majority had given insufficient weight to the compelling government interest in staffing the military. He also took issue with the majority's claim that the Solomon Amendment violates the rights of free speech, saying that the mere presence of military recruiters on campus does not prevent schools from protesting government policy.
Posted at 10:00 AM
PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION BACK IN COURT [Shannen Coffin]
Yesterday, the Justice Department filed its first appellate brief challenging trial court rulings which struck down the federal ban on partial birth abortion. It is here. In Carhart v. Ashcroft, the government argues that a Nebraska federal district court failed to accord proper respect for the findings by Congress, developed after 8+ years of hearings, that the partial birth abortion procedure is never medically necessary. While the central issue in the case is the constitutionality of the ban, it also raises important issues about the relationship between Congress and the courts. The government will be filing separate briefs in cases in both the 2nd Circuit (New York) and 9th Circuit (California). Briefing in these cases is expected to take several months, with argument not likely to be scheduled anytime soon. Expect these cases to take some time, then, to make their way to the Supreme Court.
Posted at 09:50 AM
TITLE IX [KJL]
goes to Court today
Posted at 09:40 AM
AND FROM THE LEFT... SPECTER TO RECEIVE SPINE DELIVERY [KJL]
from ACT-UP, on World Aids Day.
Posted at 09:37 AM
SEE YA IN A BIT [Jonah Goldberg]
I'm taping something for the CloseUp Foundation & C-Span this morning with David Brooks. Dunno when it will air. Fear not: I will grill him for 411 about Safire's replacement.
Posted at 09:31 AM
WITCHES [Jonah Goldberg]
In order to head-off any more Mobty Python emails, let me just post these two:
Jonah, I saw you rrecent post in the Corner regarding determining if a woman is a witch. As a resident of Salem MA and someone who has viewed Monty Python & The Holy Grail approximately 178,091,645 times, I can with utmost certainty assure you that Hammurabi's code has absolutely nothing to do with determing if a woman is a witch.In order to properly determine this, you must realize that witches burn. What else burns? Wood does. And since wood floats, and ducks also float, if a woman weighs the same as a duck, she is in fact a witch. At that point you may burn her without fear of recriminations.
I'm glad to be of help, and if in the future, please let me know if you need help satisfying the demands of any Knights who say "Ni!" The answer involves shrubbery.
Good day.
And...
An even better skit involving witches and the matter of them floating comes from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". I've attached the relevant scene altough I'm sure it is too lengthy for the corner.Danny [last name withheld]
Houston, Tx
-----------------------------------------
Scene 5CROWD: A witch! A witch! A witch! We've got a witch! A witch!
VILLAGER #1: We have found a witch, might we burn her?
CROWD: Burn her! Burn!
BEDEMIR: How do you know she is a witch?
VILLAGER #2: She looks like one.
BEDEMIR: Bring her forward.
WITCH: I'm not a witch. I'm not a witch.
BEDEMIR: But you are dressed as one.
WITCH: They dressed me up like this.
CROWD: No, we didn't - no.
WITCH: And this isn't my nose, it's a false one.
BEDEMIR: Well?
VILLAGER #1: Well, we did do the nose.
BEDEMIR: The nose?
VILLAGER #1: And the hat - but she is a witch!
CROWD: Burn her! Witch! Witch! Burn her!
BEDEMIR: Did you dress her up like this?
CROWD: No, no... no ... yes. Yes, yes, a bit, a bit.
VILLAGER #1: She has got a wart.
BEDEMIR: What makes you think she is a witch?
VILLAGER #3: Well, she turned me into a newt.
BEDEMIR: A newt?
VILLAGER #3: I got better.
VILLAGER #2: Burn her anyway!
CROWD: Burn! Burn her!
BEDEMIR: Quiet, quiet. Quiet! There are ways of telling whether she is a witch.
CROWD: Are there? What are they?
BEDEMIR: Tell me, what do you do with witches?
VILLAGER #2: Burn!
CROWD: Burn, burn them up!
BEDEMIR: And what do you burn apart from witches?
VILLAGER #1: More witches!
VILLAGER #2: Wood!
BEDEMIR: So, why do witches burn? [pause]
VILLAGER #3: B -... 'cause they're made of wood...?
BEDEMIR: Good!
CROWD: Oh yeah, yeah...
BEDEMIR: So, how do we tell whether she is made of wood?
VILLAGER #1: Build a bridge out of her.
BEDEMIR: Aah, but can you not also build bridges out of stone?
VILLAGER #2: Oh, yeah, yeah... right.
BEDEMIR: Does wood sink in water?
VILLAGER #1: No, no.
VILLAGER #2: It floats! It floats!
VILLAGER #1: Throw her into the pond!
CROWD: The pond!
BEDEMIR: What also floats in water?
VILLAGER #1: Bread!
VILLAGER #2: Apples!
VILLAGER #3: Very small rocks! (A fine example of scientific knowledge)
VILLAGER #1: Cider!
VILLAGER #2: Great gravy!
VILLAGER #1: Cherries!
VILLAGER #2: Mud!
VILLAGER #3: Churches - churches!
VILLAGER #2: Lead - lead!
ARTHUR: (Dramatically) A duck.
CROWD: Oooh.
BEDEMIR: Exactly! So, logically...,
VILLAGER #1: If... she.. weighs the same as a duck, she's made of wood.
BEDEMIR: And therefore - ?
VILLAGER #1: A witch!
CROWD: A witch!
BEDEMIR: We shall use my larger scales! [yelling]
BEDEMIR: Right, remove the supports! [whop] [creak]
CROWD: A witch! A witch!
WITCH: It's a fair cop.
Posted at 09:29 AM
TIME TO START WORRYING [Jonah Goldberg ]
Big honkin' (mildly depressing) G-File up, btw.
Posted at 09:04 AM
HAMMURABI'S CODE [Jonah Goldberg]
Derb - eeeenteresting. I wonder if that's where the whole medieval thing about testing to see if a woman is a witch comes from. If she sinks, she's not a witch! (but she also drowns).
There was a great SNL skit on this theme with Steve Martin btw.
Posted at 09:00 AM
NAACP’S MFUME TO LEAVE [Roger Clegg]
USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham reports today that NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Mfume will announce his departure from the organization today, amid rumors he is being forced out by chairman of the board Julian Bond. Other media reporting this, too.
Posted at 08:46 AM
REPLACING SAFIRE [KJL]
A reader suggests: "Maybe Maureen Dowd's brother Kevin should take the conservative columnist spot in the NYTimes. "
If you try to avoid Dowd columns, meet Peter and Kevinhere.
Maybe the Dowd brothers will share snarky things The Corner says about MoDo at Christmas...
Posted at 08:27 AM
THE TRUTH ABOUT KID’S BOOKS AND CHRISTMAS! [Jack Fowler]
OK, OK, OK – kids want toys and gizmos on Christmas. Heck, I’ve got five (kids), and my house looks like a KB Toys outlet. But I also know that those big toys under the tree often . . . fail. You HAD to give your kid that big expensive ridiculous thingamajig (heck, you road all over the state hunting for it, and had to wrestle it away from fellow insane shoppers) only to see it unwrapped with a shrug ("why the ungrateful little brat!") and then heaved into a pile. And now that toy and all those other cost-a-fortune, broken-after-five-minutes Christmas presents are tossed under a bed, befriended only by dust bunnies. Truth be told, a book is likely to get a shrug on Christmas morning. For some kids, a book is little better than a sweater from Aunt Alice. But a good book will lie in wait. it is that cold and sleeting day in February, when a book (“I guess that book”) must be read for school, and the child reaches for it, grudgingly, and opens it, and begins reading, and then . . . and then falls in love with the magic of beautiful literature. That is when the book pays off, and becomes a dear friend – a lifelong friend – to your child.
Didn’t a great book influence you as a kid? And isn’t this Christmas the perfect opportunity for you to afford that son, daughter, grandchild, niece, or nephew that same special experience? It is. That is why we heartily recommend to you our wholesome collections – the original and Volume Two editions of The National Review Treasury of Classic Children’s Literature, and the perfect-for-new-readers The National Review Treasury of Classic Bedtime Stories – as ideal Christmas gifts. Whether or not they get oohs and ahhs on Christmas morning, sooner or later their pages will be opened, and the wonder of Twain, Kipling, London, Alcott, Carroll, Burgess, Burnett, Baum, and countless other giants of literature will work their charm.
We have many copies of these big, beautiful, lavishly illustrated books available. You can order these wonderful Christmas presents right here http://www.nationalreview.com/store/book_group.asp.
Posted at 08:18 AM
MARIA SHRIVER: ANOTHER DEM DUMPING ON KERRY [Barbara Comstock]
From Reuters: "Everyone assumed that I was supposed to marry someone like a John Kerrys, some preppy that had gone to Harvard or Yale," she said. "I didn't want to marry those boys. I did not like them. I had been around them my whole life. I interrupted the story line. I wanted out of that suffocation. I wanted someone different. I married my authentic self."
Posted at 07:58 AM
RE: WEIGEL [Tim Graham]
George Weigel was also featured Sunday on a religion roundtable on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos with Tony Campolo, Floyd Flake, and Gary Bauer. Weigel suggested the American people were disturbed with how John Kerry said his most deeply held religious beliefs would be utterly left out of his public policy decisions. He also said the it's a challenge for the next ten years for the pro-life movement to show it's the next great civil rights struggle, like the openly religious civil rights movement of the 1960s. It was a rare appearance (Nexis said he's only been on ABC four times in the last decade or so), but a nice booking for ABC.
For his part, Stephy was a quiet moderator, and his only offense (especially for Ramesh) was quoting from Leon Wieseltier in The New Republic: "The believer lives in the darkness more than he lives in the light. He does not wallow in God's guidance, he thirsts for it. And when God's guidance comes, it does not come in the form of policy recommendations, unless he has created God in the image of his desire." Earth to ABC and Leon: so you think the Bible doesn't have anything to tell us about how to live or govern? Maybe you should read it sometime.
Posted at 07:53 AM
IT'S NOT TOO EARLY... [Steve Hayward]
. . . to think about Christmas dinner. I also cook a standing prime rib roast on a Weber; the middle turns out a perfect medium rare. (Who needs Mortons?) I suppose Robinson will want photographic proof of this, too.
Posted at 07:53 AM
COULD THE BABYLONIANS SWIM? [John Derbyshire]
I have just been reading Hammurabi's code of laws.
Just take a look at that law number 2: "If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser."
I wonder if the ancient Babylonians knew about... swimming?
(I recall that in Arthur Koestler's THE LOTUS AND THE ROBOT there is an Indian holy man whose most admired miracle is his power to float in deep water without drowning.)
Posted at 07:48 AM
ALEXANDER [John Derbyshire]
After reading Mary Renault's THE PERSIAN BOY and its sequel (can't remember) around age 20, I got hooked on Alexander and read up everything I could find about him. I don't remember many of the details, but I do remember coming to the firm conclusion that Big Al was most likely asexual -- Hephaestion, Bagoas, and the wisecracking Cynics ("Alexander was defeated only once -- by Hephaestion's thighs...") notwithstanding. Be interested to hear Vic Davis Hanson's opinion, though.
Posted at 07:45 AM
THE UKRAINE: WHO'S WHO [Andrew Stuttaford]
Mark, John: ethnic questions in the Ukraine are immensely complex and are far too big a topic for one brief post, but I think it's worth saying that, whatever some Russians are saying, over seventy percent of Ukraine's population describe themselves as 'ethnic Ukrainian' (although high rates of intermarriage between Russians and Ukrainians make the determination of ethnicity even less reliable than is usually the case). It's also important to note that the idea that Ukrainian culture (as we now understand it) is solely, or even primarily, the product of those parts of Western Ukraine/Eastern Poland annexed in 1939 is quite wrong. There was clearly a distinct sense of Ukrainian identity in the pre-war Soviet Ukraine - and that was why Stalin spent so much time trying to exterminate it. As for identifying the the difference between Ukrainians and Russians, you can possibly draw a very rough comparison with the difference between the contemporary English, the Scots and the Welsh - it's difficult to define, but you know it when you see it.
It's also not quite right to draw too sharp a distinction between Georgia and the situation in the Ukraine today. Georgia is, in fact, very far from being an ethnically homogenous state, but its rose revolution began in the Georgian heartland. In fact, in a possibly ominous precedent, it has yet to be extended to the whole country.
The key point is that the decision to preserve the republican boundaries of the old USSR (which were often drawn up in a way designed to stifle local nationalisms) has meant that there are very few clearcut ethnic boundaries anywhere within that vast territory.
Posted at 07:00 AM
"COMMUTERS CAN EXPERIENCE GREATER STRESS THAN FIGHTER PILOTS GOING INTO BATTLE OR RIOT POLICEMEN" [KJL]
What Jonah and his couch have to be grateful for.
Posted at 06:32 AM
UNDERSTANDING ELECTION 2004 [KJL]
George Weigel:
What Kerry’s secularist supporters can’t seem to understand is that the evangelicals, the John Paul II Catholics, and the observant Jews don’t need explaining; what needs explaining is the Harvard faculty club, Michael Moore, and most of the op-ed regulars at the New York Times – people who’ve persuaded themselves that a profound belief in the God of the Bible, expressed in a commitment to live by the Ten Commandments, is the fast track to fascism. They’re the anomaly, not the believers. If they’d ever take a field trip out of their secularist bunkers to meet the rest of America, they might find we’re not so scary after all.
Posted at 06:26 AM
RUSSIAN M.D. [John J. Miller]
So the Russians have successfully tested a missile-defense system, according to this report. Will the American Left now rise up and condemn Moscow for threatening to destabilize international relations, as it did when President Bush withdrew from the ABM Treaty and forged ahead with U.S. missile defenses? I won't hold my breath.
Posted at 05:32 AM
THE WHEEL DEAL [John J. Miller]
Start your day with the world's coolest optical illusion.
Posted at 05:02 AM
BANK RUNS [KJL]
in Ukraine
Posted at 04:48 AM