Economics -- Woot.

GDP isn't the whole story of an economy, but this chart is happiness inducing. So are the new unemployment figures -- 2.2 million jobs created in one year. The jobs don't affect me personally, but it'll be ducky not to have people insult my intelligence with the "Worst economy since Herbert Hoover" thing for awhile, at least until the next recession.

Big thanks to: NRO's BuzzCharts.

Noam Chomsky and Holocaust Denial

Noam Chomsky wrote the preface to a book by French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson. A book within which Faurisson said:

"The alleged gassing and the alleged genocide of Jews are part of the same historical lie which has been the basis of a huge political and financial swindle of which the principle beneficiaries are the State of Israel and principal victims the German people, not its leaders, and the Palestinian people. . ."

Chomsky also wrote a ringing endorsement for another book, which teaches that Jews worship Satan and justifies the 17th Century Chmeilnitsky pogroms here in Ukraine, which killed thousands of Jews. Chomsky praised the author as: "an outstanding scholar, with remarkable insight and depth of knowledge. His work is informed and penetrating, a contribution of great value."

He also gives consent to anti-Semitic groups to publish his articles, and has even given lucrative publishing-rights to extremist groups.

Can you imagine the frenzy if a normal person did anything similar? It would be a toss-up if the pitchforks or torches would do him in first. But Chomsky gets a pass because he's the darling of the anti-Globalist Left. Pas d'ennemi à gauche, baby.

Check out the full article by Rachel Neuwirth.

Also, don't miss Oliver Kamm's amazing research on Chomsky and holocaust denial. Page down for article after damning article. Chomsky is like a Michael Moore who's been taught to shave and eat with utensils. It's schadenfreudelicious to watch him be exposed for what he is. Hat tip: Windmills on the Hill.

Michael Savage -- Embarrassment to the Right-Wing

A portion of radio-host Michael Savage's commentary on the tsunami disaster:

"I wouldn't call it a tragedy. ... We shouldn't be spending a nickel on this."

Some other quotes: "This is more a UNICEF deal, it's a U.N. deal, it's a Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, George Soros, Bill Clinton bleeding-heart-liberal deal. I don't want to send them any money. . . Many of the countries and the areas in these countries that were hit . . .were hotbeds of radical Islam. Why should we be helping them destroy us? . . . I truthfully don't believe in foreign aid."

This chucklehead is called a conservative. There's nothing conservative about this idiocy. A joyless, hyper-libertarian sect might make such statements, but not conservatism.

After all, it's conserving the mores of the Western, Christian heritage. The sacredness of human life, the duty to help the helpless, the justness of giving to the needy, this healthy humanism is what we're preserving. Find the Good Samaritan ethic anywhere in Savage's comments.

Conservatism shows respect for the collected wisdom that's accrued in custom and tradition over the ages -- what C.S. Lewis calls the Tao. Compassion, aid to the needy and the preservation of life run through the Tao. Savage jettisons this in favor of Ayn Rand's cold-blooded new morality. Fortunately, the rest of the conservative world has been very proactive in supporting tsunami relief.

Conservatism is warmer, deeper and more human than the sterile individualism Savage is selling. Allowing him to be one of our spokesmen both perverts the movement and plays into every false stereotype the critics make about us.

We justly critique the Left for embracing the fabrications and betrayals of Michael Moore. But we need to keep our own house in order as well.

Welcome, Insta-Peeps! Feel free to browse the rest of Le Sabot for first-hand Ukraine updates, conservative politics, and thoughts on gentrifying the Christian ghetto. :-)

Raimondo meets the blogosphere

It's been fascinating, and a little scary, watching my guests go to work on Justin Raimondo.

When people talk about how there's no accountability on blogs, I just roll my eyes. Raimondo, a Yushchenko-basher from antiwar.com, came on and made some accusations about the Orange Revolution which took in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Russia, Libertarianism, Abkhazia & Moldova and the Cold War.

In no time at all, incredibly knowledgeable people came out of the woodwork. Orange Ukraine, a Kievite, dropped science about Ukraine. The Argus took him to school with first-hand experience about Uzbekistan. Aris Katsaris took a fine scalpel to his points about Putin, ethnic Russians, and obscure breakaway regions.

Ivan Lenin took him to task for intellectual onanism. I answered his "points" about US money in the Orange Revolution. Morgana posted a full-length history of Raimondo's "intellectual" background and work that raises some ugly questions. Then a senior fellow from the Cato Institute piled on.

I tell you, only in the blogosphere. It continues to amaze me.

While I'm rhapsodizing about what Geek hath wrought, I also want to spare a few words of praise for Glenn Reynolds. Instapundit has been remarkably faithful about keeping the Ukrainian democracy movement in front of people. Thanks.

Move over, Miss Cleo -- My 2004 Predictions

Okay, let's see how I did with my Dec 31, 2003 predictions. . .

1. Republicans will gain 3 seats in the Senate and ten in the House.

We picked up 4 Senate and 11 House seats.

2. Bush will get 52% of the vote, and it will be closer than analysts predicted because of heavy GOTV work by unions and liberal fear-mongering among minorities and the elderly.

Well, I was close on the number and the fear-mongering, anyway. Bush got 51%.

3. President Musharraff of Pakistan will be killed by former clients of his regime.

Well, better luck this year, militants. . .

4. The frequency of attacks in Iraq will be halved over the next year as the Ba'athist and Fedayeen survivors are attrited.

Well, worse luck this year, militants. . .

5. Someone will publish a very cheesy Christian equivalent to Harry Potter, which will sell like hotcakes.

I'm not in a position to know. Has this one happened yet?

6. Al Sharpton will definitively eclipse Jesse Jackson as the leading voice of "Civil Rights" activism.

Done. The Reverend (and how I revere him) Sharpton has actually been rehabilitated, in the Soviet meaning of the term.

7. In spite of Dean's loss, his wing of the party will remain in ascendancy. . .

Done, big time. The Dems nominated the 1st and 4th most liberal Senators in the country as their candidates, have Pelosi in charge in the House, and the moderate farm team was decimated in both houses of Congress.

8. Michael Jackson will be acquited after a circus trial that makes OJ's look sedate. . .

The jury's still out on this one. So to speak.

China -- Strategic Competitor

The Weekly Standard reminds us that America's "strategic competitor" China hasn't been idle. I don't know why people like Chirac throw conniptions about the unipolarity of the world situation -- the rise of China will soon stake out a new pole. Do some reading on the growth of the still-unnamed megalopolis growing out of the fishing village of Shenzen. From 30,000 people in 1982, it will likely have 40 million inhabitants in ten years. It is a sea of modern skyscraping buildings.

Along with economic growth, the Chinese military is also eating its Wheaties, snatching any military tech it can and copying it. They're also fielding a blue-water navy for the first time.

The nationalistic autocrats of China will be the 800-pound gorillas of the Pacific Rim. Witness the situation with the Philipines over the Spratleys, or their constant bullying of Taiwan.

The world will soon be multipolar again, and the United States had better prepare itself for that. I'm not saying that they should seek to make an enemy of China. But they do need to recognize that the Chinese see themselves as aggressive competitors, and that these competitors take a very dim views of human rights and democracy.

the final chapter of the CIA-Crack Cocaine story writes itself

The American Spectator (quite literally) eulogizes the old "The CIA sold crack in Compton" story. The reporter who broke invented the story is dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. No doubt something else for the tin-foil hat brigade to construct a conspiracy theory around.

Elitism, Immigration and Turkish Accession

According to the latest reports, Europe won't drink the Kool-Aid of Turkish accession for another ten years or so. Not that it makes any difference. Europe will continue to drift toward Muslim majorities with or without Turkey in the EU, both due to low European birthrates, and continued mass immigration from Muslim countries.

This is strange, given that these are ostensibly democratic countries, and every poll I've seen on the subject shows large majorities favoring reduced immigration levels. Just as polls show the same in the United States.

However, the elites of both continents have decided that the immigration issue can only be read through the prism of race, not culture or economics. This allows them to demonize as racist anyone who objects to a mass transformation of their society on Islamic lines. The actions of both European and American governments on immigration can only be called elitist.

A foundational premise of a democratic system is that the people have a right to decide what sort of society they choose to live in. But the rapid Islamization of Europe constitutes a massive social transformation done completely contrary to the will of the people. The Latinization of the United States is a more benign, but equally elitist hijacking.

For an example, see this Pew Trust poll where 77% of Americans "mostly agree" with the statement that "we should restrict and control the number of people coming into our country more than we do now." Then square that with any of the actions of the Bush or Clinton administrations.

Another Gender-Based Double Standard

The Egalitarianism Uber Alles types abandoned social justice in favor of social power ages ago. Which is why the demands of these aggrieved groups are so rife with double standards. It is less about equality, and more about securing social or economic advantage at the expense of other groups.

Example #14,965 came recently when Well's College went co-ed. Women in comfortable shoes lined up to protest the decision. They even took the college to court.

I'm curious if they feel the same sense of injustice whenever an all-male social club or organization is forcibly opened to women by the power of the state?

Given that even one dollar of federal student aid makes a Uni answerable to all Federal anti-discrimination laws, how do these discriminatory all-female colleges even exist? And given that such places DO exist, on what grounds did they hound VMI into admitting women?

But don't try asking them -- this isn't about fairness.

(Middle) Eastern Logic?

One hears a lot about the distinction between Western, linear thinking, and the more global thought of the East. This must be an example:

"Arab and Islamic states have rejected a U.S. effort to launch a democracy and reform campaign in the Middle East.

Instead, Arab and Islamic states said reform and democracy in the region would be linked to the Arab-Israeli conflict. They dismissed a U.S. appeal that reform begin without any connection to political disputes in the region."

So. . . The fact that some Arabs are oppressed is a good reason that ALL of them should be oppressed? What is that, some sort of masochistic Solidarity movement?

I think I'll stick with Western logic.

Update from Kiev

I just popped into an internet cafe for a minute to update everybody. . . Things today are moving much more quickly than yesterday.

We've spent the day surrounding the Parliament building. Unfortunately, the Communists have kept on the side, and so there was no quorum to overturn the vote. Nevertheless, the Opposition gave some great speeches on the Parliamentary TV channel that'll be heard all over Ukraine. Needed, needed information, given the blackout the mainstream channels are keeping up.

Reuters is reporting about 200,000 people outside parliament. Add to that about an equal number on main street and a bunch more in other parts of the city, and you begin to get an idea how big this is getting. Yesterday the militia enforced a near-blockade of Kiev, but today a lot of buses were able to get in to support us.

I'm heading down to Independence Square after this. Yuschenko is going to do an unofficial sweatring-in to underscore his legitimacy as the real elective choice of Ukraine. And then it's back to the barricades. Our tent town has grown since this morning, which is encouraging.

The Prime Minister threatened a crackdown this afternoon in a press conference. We'll have to see. I think there are probably too many journalists still paying attention for him to hit us tonight. I did see a column of thugs from Donetsk in pseudo-military garb and Yanukovych banners marching in the Arsenal District on the drive to Parliament, which is not a good sign.

A Dispatch from the Barricades in Kiev!

I'm only home for a few minutes, so this is a quick blog. Check out TulipGirl.com for the latest on the elections here in Ukraine -- she'll be updated regularly.

I'm living in the tent city down on main street here in Kiev. You can see a small part of it on webcams from Independence Square, but the majority of us are farther down the street, extending about half a kilometer. The people are incredible -- everything from earthy-crunchy college types up to a cluster of Ukrainian babushkas. Volunteers bring hot tea or vareniki or old blankets to us at the perimeter.

This election was stolen through forced voting, a murder, acid attacks, ballot stuffing, ballot box theft, and literally thousands of other premeditated acts of fraud or violence. A quick example -- voting in the oligarch candidate's region was at 96%. Can anybody say "North Korea"? Despite millions of stolen votes, the oligarch candidate still only managed to win by 2%.

Anyway, the Opposition has established a tent camp and barricades downtown. The government announced it would send in troops to drive us out at 2 am last night. They gathered special forces troops (and eight buses of thugs from Donetsk) over by the Dneiper River last night, but I guess there were too many witnesses and foreign journalists. So for last night, at least, we were spared.

The Kiev city government has rejected the election as illegitimate, and several other cities are following suit today. I'm heading now to the parliament building, where we're demonstrating for them to also declare the election invalid. That would be a huge victory for a free Ukraine.

It's an amazing thing to be given such a vivid, historic chance to "work for justice." And I've been able to share with a ton of people about Christ and about the Reformation -- the fact that I'm a Protestant at a "protest" (the words are also almost identical in Russian) makes for good conversation. And the color of the Opposition is the same as that of the Reformation -- orange. Ukraine has a sense of history, and this is interesting to people.

Everyone here feels like we're making history -- a real "Chestnut Revolution". I pray that we are.

"Our" Man at Turtle Bay?

It looks like Kofi is finally going to pay a price for the incompetence, partisanship, nepotism and corruption of his regime. The UN staff is set to vote No-Confidence against him.

Considering that Bush is often criticized because the Iraq war lacked the support of France or the imprimatur of the UN, it's useful to reflect on the nature of those two factions. Expecting the UN or France to aid our national interests is about as realistic as PETA asking Ted Nugent to poster-boy a 'Deer Are People, Too' campaign.

Many have probably forgotten this, but Kofi was the guy we backed for Secretary-General last time around, while the French were pushing for the improbably named Boutros Boutros-Ghali. It's indicative of the reflexive anti-American slant of the UN that even the lesser of two evils turned out to be such a headline-mugging hack.

There's no realistic way for us to pull out of the UN. But we should allow and even encourage it to continue to sink into irrelevancy.

2 For 1 Specials in Baghdad

3 Frenchmen killed fighting alongside the insurgents in Iraq.

For Those Rushing to Judgement.

From a Marine on his second tour in Iraq, via National Review's The Corner:

"This is one story of many that people normally don't hear, and one that everyone does.

This is just one most don't hear:

A young Marine and his cover man cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with Ak-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor (doctor)!" He is badly wounded, lying in a pool of his own blood. The Marine and his cover man slowly walk toward the injured man, scanning to make sure no enemies come from behind. In a split second, the pressure in the room greatly exceeds that of the outside, and the concussion seems to be felt before the blast is heard. Marines outside rush to the room, and look in horror as the dust gradually settles. The result is a room filled with the barely recognizable remains of the deceased, caused by an insurgent setting off several pounds of explosives.

The Marines' remains are gathered by teary eyed comrades, brothers in arms, and shipped home in a box. The families can only mourn over a casket and a picture of their loved one, a life cut short by someone who hid behind a white flag. But no one hears these stories, except those who have lived to carry remains of a friend, and the families who loved the dead. No one hears this, so no one cares.

This is the story everyone hears:

A young Marine and his fire team cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with AK-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor (doctor)!" He is badly wounded. Suddenly, he pulls from under his bloody clothes a grenade, without the pin. The explosion rocks the room, killing one Marine, wounding the others. The young Marine catches shrapnel in the face.

The next day, same Marine, same type of situation, a different story. The young Marine and his cover man enter a room with two wounded insurgents. One lies on the floor in puddle of blood, another against the wall. A reporter and his camera survey the wreckage inside, and in the background can be heard the voice of a Marine, "He's moving, he's moving!"

The pop of a rifle is heard, and the insurgent against the wall is now dead.

Minutes, hours later, the scene is aired on national television, and the Marine is being held for committing a war crime. Unlawful killing.

And now, another Marine has the possibility of being burned at the stake for protecting the life of his brethren. His family now wrings their hands in grief, tears streaming down their face. Brother, should I have been in your boots, i too would have done the same. . .

For those of you who sit on your couches in front of your television, and choose to condemn this man's actions, I have but one thing to say to you. Get out of you recliner, lace up my boots, pick up a rifle, leave your family behind and join me. . .

I am a Marine currently doing his second tour in Iraq. These are my opinions and mine alone. "

Are You Red State or Blue State?

This is a flashback for some of you, but I thought I'd repost it in the wake of this week's Instalanche. . .

So, take the quiz?

Oil-For-Influence and the UN

Saddam's illegal 'Oil-for-Food' profits are now estimated at $21.3 billion. The UN continues to stonewall the investigation. Which makes sense, since they're complicit in the crimes.

This money was used to buy weapons and influence. Some of the big bribe recipients include French and German politicians, and the Russian Orthodox Church. In other words, the primary critics of the war.

Reviewing this, you can see how hollow Kerry's promise to bring in the UN, France and Germany really was. And what a rigged game it was to criticize Bush for lacking their support. They'd already chosen sides long before.

Bipartisanship? Let the Healing Wait.

Now that the Dems have lost yet another election cycle, they're issuing the same calls for bipartisanship. The wiser heads are also calling for "healing" between the two parties.

But the Dems as they're currently constituted don't DESERVE bipartisanship, except in the most limited and tactical ways. Not so long as respected party leaders are embracing America-haters like Moore. Not so long as the hard Left remains a vital force in their party.

The Republicans long ago jettisoned their own crazy aunts. For instance, the John Birch Society and Pat Buchanan both lie unmourned in unmarked political graves.

Until the Dems perform a similar housecleaning, they've forfeited their place at the grownups' table.

I'm Not Sorry.

Here's MY response to the chuckleheads at SorryEverybody.com.

Update: Be sure also to check out We're Not Sorry for more unrepentant Americans.

Dems as Born-Again Federalists?

One of the memes bouncing around Democratic circles these days is that Blue States are now paying taxes to a federal government under the complete control of the Red States. Now they know how the Red States felt from about 1952-1994. Their sense of grievance is only heightened by the fact that their states pay more to the Feds than the Reds do.

There seems to be a nascent tax revolt brewing. You get lots of comments about not paying for Red "welfare states." And suddenly having an intrusive federal government running roughshod over local preferences is a lot less fun. Social engineering and federal bullying was hunkey-dorey when it was nice limousine liberals running things. But the shine wore off when Texans took over.

Here's a nice solution for our Blue brethren -- tell the federal government to mind its own business! Remind Washington that we were founded as a nation of separate states. That each state is a laboratory of freedom, and that state-level diversity should be celebrated! Tell them you don't want Washington bureaucrats micro-managing things that should be handled from your state or local capitol.

Then hope to God the Republicans listen better than you did when we said the same thing.

Hugh Hewitt is wrong on Specter

Hugh Hewitt has staked out a brave, if lonely position on the Specter-Judiciary Chairman kerfuffle. While the rest of conservatism is lobbying to have Specter sidelined, Hewitt is practically the sole conservative voice supporting him. He's wrong on this, but he isn't out to lunch.

Read the column -- he makes some good points. But his premises don't necessitate his conclusion. I think we should recognize that the Republican Party is a coalition, and not monolithically conservative. And it's better to keep our moderates in the fold with some concessions than have them pull a Jeffords.

That doesn't mean we're required to put a knife to our own throat. Two of the key fights of the next session will likely be tort reform and a Supreme Court nomination. Specter has a 43% approval rating from the ACU. He has proven time and again that we can't trust him. He's the Republican most beholden to trial lawyers. We want HIM on point for tort reform?

Hewitt ends with: Jeffords. Jeffords. Jeffords.

My response: Bork. Bork. Bork.

Prayer in Schools? Are You Insane?

Is it just me, or is the movement for prayer in schools the most quixotic group since the Anti-Masonic Party fell apart? Let me get this straight.

The National Education Association is openly adversarial towards conservative Christians. While there are many Christians in the Democratic Party, its hierarchy is aggressively secular and certainly opposed to anything religious in school (unless it's an apologetic for Islam or something involving tree spirits.) NEA educrats comprise about 1/3 of all Democratic Convention delegates.

And THESE are the people you want leading your kids in prayer?

Great idea. And once we get that through, we can appoint Ralph Nader as Commerce Secretary. Or better yet, Arlen Specter as Chair of the Judic -- wait, bad example.

Several Nickels Worth of Free Advice for Dems

If you read only one advice column for Dems, let it be Take That Advice and Shove It at TechCentralStation. It features a 'reasoned' dialogue between the author and the soul of the Democratic Party.

"Look, this whole make-nice-with-the-fundies thing is hard for us, okay? Half the reason we became Democrats was to get away from small-town Babbitt-flavored bible-thumpin' bigotry."

Which leads to my next point: "If you don't want religious Americans to think that you hate them and their beliefs, maybe you should stop hating them and their beliefs."

Some other sound advice:

Tips for a New Democratic Majority at Gweilo Diaries.

Soros-sponsored Lefty Uber-blog DailyKos.com has advised his minions to Ride the backlash.

"Second, gut any Bush hopes for legitimacy. Find the places in Florida and Ohio and every other state where a plausible argument for Republican vote fraud can be made. It doesn't matter whether it did happen or not. What matters is if it can be plausibly alleged to marginal Bush supporters and to the media."

Also check out Fat Steve, Young Curmudgeon and Moderate Voice.

"Guests for an opening night screening of Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” last week included Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, Montana Sen. Max Baucus, South Carolina Sen. Ernest Hollings, Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, New York Rep. Charles Rangel, Washington Rep. Jim McDermott, & Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe.

Afterwards, McAuliffe raved about the movie, replied in the affirmative when asked if it “was essentially fair and factually based,” and seemed to sign on to Moore’s bizarre claim that we invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 in order to put in an oil pipeline."

Hat tip: The Command Post

Who decided that Maureen Dowd was clever?

The woman is a one-string guitar, and her jokes and allusions are consistently hokey. Post-election, the hard Left has been making a lot of snarky remarks about philistinous Red Staters. But I just think to myself, "Yeah, but your people actually think Maureen Dowd is a national treasure." It's as incomprehensible, and pathetic, as the French infatuation with Jerry Lewis.

Read her post-election screed and ask yourself if any halfway smart liberal blogger couldn't have done just as well, and with half the hysteria. She's another sign of decline at the Times.

We CAN Stop Specter.

And we need to. Okay, he was a pitbull for Clarence Thomas. And I'm thankful for that. But he's also part of the reason that Robert Bork's last name is now a verb. (Hat tip: The Spoons Experience.)

Bork could have been one of the great Supremes in our history, if not for Specter's opposition to his nomination. In other words, Specter is 50-50 on this issue. Which almost matches the 42% approval rating the American Conservative Union gives him.

With federal judges aggrandizing the people's powers to themselves, we NEED Supreme Court judges who will stick with the Constitution. But Specter is in line to be the next Chair of the Judiciary Committee. We can't trust him there.

Here are the numbers for the Republican Senate Judiciary Committee:

Hatch (202) 224-5251
Grassley (202)224.3744
Kyl (202) 224-4521
DeWine (202) 224-2315
Sessions (202) 224-4124
Graham (202) 224-5972
Craig 202/224-2752
Chambliss (202) 224-3521
Cornyn 202-224-2934

Call your senator, too. You can find the number at: Senate.gov.

Hope in Ukraine!

The Central Election office is still refusing to announce who won last week's election, but everyone knows it was the Reformist, Yuschenko. The Opposition is fired up, as this photo shows. Even the government admits that over 100,000 people turned out to support Yuschenko.

On the street, the mood has shifted, too. A month ago everyone said, "I support Yuschenko, but the oligarchs will steal the election." People are much more positive now. The myth of invincibility has been broken.

Discoshaman vs. Bambi Zogby!

And Discoshaman drops him like a bad habit. . . Examine the record:

Zogby called the race at 5pm ON ELECTION DAY. Here was his best guess:

311 KERRY
203 BUSH

AS OF NOV 2ND 5pm

Discoshaman, a full day earlier, thusly prognosticated:

Bush 282
Kerry 256

Final Tally:

Bush 286
Kerry 252

Humility almost keeps me from pointing out that I totally called the bogusness of the "Youth Vote". I also had Bush taking the popular vote, though I was 1.5% off on the total. I called Daschle, and every single Senate race correctly, with the happy exception of Alaska. I misunderestimated the Republican tide in the House a little, giving them only +2.

Still though, I took Zogby out like the trash. Discoshaman -- the name you can trust.

One More Reason We Won. . .

The main page of ABCNews.com has a section entitled:

"Has the Election Made You an Emotional Wreck?"

The news that President Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry has left people grappling with a range of emotions from relief to despair. Do you know how to cope?

Can you imagine something similar if Kerry had won? Of course not. Because Republicans don't cope. We deal with it.

Which is why Bush got re-elected. The American people aren't going to trust a group of people who have panic attacks and hysterical fits over an election.

They don't want a President who will cope with terrorism. They want one who will deal with it.

Monsieur Kerry. . .

. . .pourquoi le visage allongé?

Kerry's Math Skills. . .

. . .seem to be even weaker than Bush's powers of pronunciation. Unless I'm missing a step.

So far as my own feeble math skills allow, Kerry seems to be setting us up for another Florida debacle (and four more years of howling, gnashing bitter Lefties) because of the following scenario:

BEST CASE SCENARIO -- there are 250,000 provisional ballots in Ohio.

Then. . .

BEST CASE SCENARIO -- every single one is accepted, which is quite magical, given that a 20% acceptance rate is considered high.

Then. . .

BEST CASE SCENARIO -- these votes split 210,000 Kerry vs. 65,000 Bush. This despite the fact that many of the ballots came from Republican precincts.

Having accomplished all of this, he'll have just managed to TIE Bush's 145,000 vote lead.

Either Kerry believes in Santa Claus and sugarplum fairies, or this is a stalling tactic to avoid a concession speech and buy his lawyers time. This move shows us two things:

1. Kerry underestimates how much regular Americans want this campaign to be done and buried, and how much they loathe the idea of another Florida-style dogfight.

2. Marrying up brings money, but it doesn't buy you class.

Update-

Kerry made the right decision for the country as a whole, despite the pressure from his base to reenact the siege of Petersburg. He deserves a lot of credit for that.

In Praise of Low Voter Turnout

One thing people of a certain sort (think snotty Canadians) like to ding America for is low voter turnout. They rhapsodize about the high numbers in Europe, and call Americans apathetic. Well, they should be happy with the turnout this year, which seems to be in overdrive. But is this a good thing?

Before the New Deal, the average American could live his whole life only seeing one federal employee – the postman. The federal government was a faraway irrelevance to daily life. So there was no real urgency to vote.

In Sweden, 70% of the people might come to the polls. Which makes sense. The choice you make that day has big consequences – for example, which slate of bureaucrats is going to be spending 80% of your income that year.

As our own Leviathan encroaches ever further into daily life, we can be expected to Rock the Vote, too. But don’t pretend that’s a boon to liberty. It’s a symptom of freedom’s decline.

Ukrainian Elections: The Best Money Can Buy

Well, the first round of voting is done. It's been done for a long time, but we still haven't heard the official results. They were supposed to be released at noon today. I stood in Independence Square with a group of good government activist types for 2 hours, and then we finally went home.

The independent exit polling gave Yuschenko a solid 8 point lead. But when the tally came out from the government election committee, the oligarch candidate is up about a point, with 94% of the vote in. The problem for the oligarchs is that a LOT of the remaining votes are from Kiev, the Zakarpattia region, and other Yuschenko strongholds. Which means the one point margin will probably flip over to a Yuschenko lead.

In other words, even with the incredible levels of fraud and corruption, the oligarchs haven't "encouraged" quite enough votes their direction. So it seems they're trying to remedy that.

Regardless of which candidate gets the plurality, neither will garner the 50% needed to avoided a run-off. But the momentum of winning the first round will be huge, and they'll move heaven and earth to deny Yuschenko that Mo.

Update:

I loved this comment from Blog de Connard --

"International Observers from OSCE are saying that the vote was riddled with irregularities. In other news, the Pope is catholic, a bear does s*** in the woods, the sky is blue. . .

Tomorrow -- Europe's Most Important Election

Ukraine goes to the polls tomorrow. This will likely decide their near future -- will they finally move towards real reform, or default into an Axis of Backwaters alongside Russia and Belarus?

Please be in prayer, that the people will make the right choice, and that their choice will be honored. Given the rampant corruption, it's too late for fair elections. But I'd settle for a happy ending.

Oh, par for the course, the Orthodox Church is planning an election-day procession for the oligarch candidate -- a twice-jailed thug running the ugliest power grab since the Revolution. Apparently, Ukraine received both her religion AND her politics from the Byzantines.

More on Rathergate!

It's possible to interpret Rathergate as a mere journalistic fumble, but it requires a childlike faith. A more rational interpretation is this: it's a clear-cut example of what conservatives face every election cycle -- a constant headwind from the blowhards of the Fourth Estate.

Let's break it down:

1. This isn't Tom Brokaw or Peter Jennings. It's Dan Rather, the most openly partisan of the three, working for the most openly partisan of the Big 3.

2. Rather has a history not only of partisanship, but of "breaking" dubious but damaging stories late in the election cycle. Example: he's the one who gave a national airing to Ross Perot's paranoid rantings about George Bush plotting to ruin his daughter's wedding.

3. Mary Mapes, CBS's chosen fall-girl, is an ardent, outspoken liberal who loathes Bush. "Liberal" is the one universal tag her colleagues have applied to her in interviews. As per USA Today: "Mapes, 48, was described by colleagues on Tuesday as a dogged and talented journalist who made no secret of her liberal political beliefs. . ."

4. These two chuckleheads accepted a mentally-unstable political gadfly with a known vendetta against George Bush as an unimpeachable source. Tell me the same would have happened if the party affiliations were reversed. Tell me in what alternate universe this guy is an unimpeachable source.

5. In their eagerness to run a damaging anti-Bush story, Rather and Mapes ignored the reservations their own experts had about the memos.

5. Mapes colluded with the Kerry campaign in connection with these memos.

Rather knew his hand was in the cookie jar. Which is why he violated CBS's own internal regs on how to handle an anonymous source. SOP there is to give as much information as one can about the source, such as "an administration official" or "a road safety expert". I can understand Rather's reluctance though -- the phrase "an imbalanced partisan hack was quoted as saying" might have detracted from the scoop.

Beatifying Victimhood

The great thing about timeless literature is that it's, well, timeless. I came across this depiction today in Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd:

"This child was one of the Coggans. . . He always had a loosened tooth or a cut finger to show particular friends, which he did with an air of being elevated above the common herd of afflictionless humanity -- to which exhibition people were expected to say "Poor child" with a dash of congratulation as well as pity."

What a perfect glimpse of our present day Cult of the Victim -- and the Democratic Grievance Coalition in particular.

Over 30,000 Rally for Yushchenko

We hit the big Yushchenko rally yesterday in European Square. He had been poisoned, and spent last week in a Vienna hospital recovering. His opposition is suspected in the attack. His voice was still weak and his jaw seemed tight as he spoke. It was in Ukrainian, so I didn't perfectly understand, but it was awesome when he called out to the crowd, "But they can't poison all of us!"

You don't need a weatherman. . .

While conservatism in the last decade seems less grounded than in years past, it's amazing to reflect on the progress we've made. From a handful of books and newsletters in the early 50's, we've built an entire counter-establishment -- a political nation within a nation. From being an almost pejorative term in the post-WWII era, conservative is now a label to embrace, while no one wants to be a liberal. Even French-looking Democratic presidential candidates officially stand for "conservative values."

It's encouraging to compare two studies of student opinion -- one from National Review in 1969-70, and the other from UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute's 2004 survey of college students.

In 1971, 3/5ths of students self-described "liberal", with a full 17% preferring the term "radical." At the time, over half believed that organized religion was harmful or worse.

Today, 24% are Libs, another 21% claim conservatism, and 50% are "middle of the road."

Dems are also giving way among campus activists. Critical Mass points out:

"While College Democrats of America has disappeared altogether from 20 states, its chapters dwindling from 500 in 1992 to fewer than 300 now, the College Republican National Committee has 1,148 campus chapters, and its membership has tripled since 1999.

Conservatism is a condition normally contracted upon the birth of ones first child, or the payment of one's first income tax, so the fact that so many students are prematurely conservative is a very hopeful sign.

The Government They Deserve

The Ukrainian people are facing an incredibly decisive election in a few weeks. Unlike in Russia, they've actually been blessed with a clear choice between an oligarch-supported thug (Yanukovych) and a genuine, if flawed, reformer with a proven record (Yuschenko.) And I really think they're going to elect the thug.

Yanukovych's people have hired criminal gangs to beat Yuschenko supporters. They have attacked pro-Yuschenko journalists and arsoned their offices. They own most of the TV stations, and issue Soviet-style temniki to tell their pet journalists exactly what to report. They've hired Nazi groups to march in support of Yuschenko. It looks now like they organized a fatal bombing in a local market in order to discredit Yuschenko. They have used the organs of government to arrest, harrass and investigate Yuschenko's major supporters. And then there are the "accidents" involving Yuschenko people and Kamaz trucks.

The Ukrainian people by and large know that there is a massive disinformation campaign going on. They know that Yanukovych's oligarch friends are stealing the election. The outrage factor? About two on a ten scale.

I've always admired the fatalistic endurance of the Ukrainian people. They made it through Mongols, Turks, Russians, two Great Famines, Nazi occupation and the Soviet Union.

But lately I've realized something. Maybe that same fatalistic endurance explains WHY every surrounding nation has found it so easy to subjugate them. If an individual or nation craves victimhood, there will always be someone willing to oblige.

Remembering Reagan. . .

Ronald Reagan is dead, and with him goes one of the brightest, most sentimental parts of my childhood. His presidency spanned the time between my earliest memories and my entry to high school. While other kids looked to Arnold Schwartzenegger or Joe Montana to see what a man should look like, I had Reagan. I gathered impressions and anecdotes about him the way other kids collected baseball cards. This has never changed. During our last months in the States we made a trip to Tampico, IL, and I was able to show my son Reagan where his namesake had grown up.

While it's no longer fashionable to have heroes, Reagan was mine -- both as a person and as a symbol of a country that I love. People called him the Great Communicator, and his detractors like to pretend that his success came merely through a facility with speeches. But they miss something vital -- it was his message that made him a great communicator. He transmitted to the American people a vision of the basic goodness and optimism that animates our country. And I was listening.

Reagan's list of accomplishments is a long one. He defeated the Soviets, cowed Ghadaffi, freed the hostages, brought the economy back to life, rebuilt our hollowed military and intelligence services and restored America's confidence in herself. One more accomplishment can be added to this list, one almost inconsiderably small in the grand scheme, but great to me -- he passed on to me an undying affection and loyalty for our country that has nothing to do with politics or party; a love for our way of life that forms a basic part of who I am. I'm going to miss that man.

Some Needed Common Sense on Iraq

Charles Krauthammer has written a must-read column on the situation in Iraq. Not only does he quote from John Keegan, in my opinion possibly the world's greatest military historian, but he punctures some of the key myths of the anti-war crowd and those who forsee or desire our failure there. It's a timely bit of common-sense.

He also pointedly demonstrates the bêtise and hypocrisy of those who declaim the Iraqi transitional government because it contains a large number of former exiles.

"Then comes my favorite: The new government has no legitimacy because it is composed of so many exiles. What kind of political leadership does one expect in a country that endured three decades of Stalinist tyranny in which any expression of opposition met with torture and death?

Strange. I do not remember any of these critics complaining about the universally hailed Oslo peace accords that imposed upon the Palestinians a PLO government flown in from Tunisia composed nearly entirely of political exiles.

Ah, but Yasser Arafat, thug and terrorist, instantly wins legitimacy in the eyes of Western intelligentsia . . .

Who better than these exiles -- some rather heroic, many of whom created and sustained organized political opposition for decades -- to run a transitional government? Note: Transitional. Unlike the Palestinian Authority, a tyrannous kleptocracy that grabbed power and has not relinquished it for 10 years, this Iraqi government will be out of business in seven months. Its major function is to prepare elections, which will ratify the rise of indigenous leaders who have emerged in the (by then) year and a half since the fall of Hussein."

South Korea, Part II

Foxnews.com echoes a lot of my own thinking on South Korea. The article fills in some relevant statistics as well. For instance, that the South Korean economy is 25 times larger than the North's. There are about 11,000 Norhern artillery pieces in range of Seoul, yet the South devotes less than 3% of its GDP to defense. Why should they, with 37,000 Americans functioning as human speedbumps for North Korean tanks?

While the older generation has been consistently pro-US, the younger people are like spoiled, long-pampered children who could use a sharp dose of reality. These days, the South is constantly verbally sniping at us while romancing the North. The article makes a good point:

"Where’s the outrage in South Korea of one million, or even two million, fellow Koreans being starved to death by the North’s unbending brutal system? Where’s the outrage at the North’s extensive gulag, a series of Stalinist prison camps holding some 100,000 or more Koreans in subhuman subjugation?"

I don't wish anything ill on the people of Korea. My sister is Korean, and any country with such an enormous number of Presbyterians can't be all bad. But why continue to sacrifice when our sacrifices aren't honored? Get US out of South Korea.

A Public Service Announcement From Andy Warhol

Michael Moore -- your 15 minutes are now officially up. You are well into the 70's-Elvis period of your fame. I recommend a similarly quick departure from public life in order to retain something of your dignity. In the interests of aesthetics, might I also suggest that you emulate his steady regimen of diet pills?

Of Prisons and Pendulums

The prison abuses in Iraq will (rightly) lead to a good deal of introspection and hopefully, reform. Unfortunately, it'll probably also lead to an equally destructive overreaction. Much like reaction to some perceived excesses by our Intel services in the 70's shackled the agencies in ways from which they still haven't recovered.

While it's unpleasant to face, the fact is that we live in a dangerous world. It's dangerous in large part because of dangerous people who are difficult to find. They are protected by slightly less dangerous people who are often reluctant to share their location with people like us. This is where a process known as 'interrogation' comes in.

Interrogation, by its nature, entails things like humiliation, stress, discomfort, bad words, and other things not in accordance with Hoyle's Rules of War and General Pleasantries. That's life in the big, scary world.

That said, it needs to be done by professionals. It needs to be done in a controlled environment, and with definite goals and boundaries. In other words, not by Beetle Bailey of the Arkansas Nat'l Guard and his concubine, PVT Lynndie England.

My concern is that in rightly responding to one problem, we'll create more unintended ones. One of the great factors in 9/11 was a lack of Intel in general, and hampering restrictions on our intelligence gatherers. My hope is that we aren't poised to compound this problem.

Fundamental Nuances in Islam

Just a short post to point out an interesting article on The American Spectator. It compares the 'heresy' of Wahabi Islam with various heretical movements in Christendom -- the Catharis, early Anabaptists and the like. He also does a service by pointing up the true danger in the Middle East now that Saddam is gone -- Saudi Arabia, and her funding of radical Islam. He makes an interesting distinction between Fundamentalist Islam and the Wahabists, a nuance often lost upon commentators eager to lump both Fundamentalist Christians and Muslims into one box labeled "Dangerous Extremists."

I'm not convinced that the distinction is entirely significant, given the body count and expansion-by-sword of pre-Wahabist Islam. Nevertheless. Give it a read.

Action and Reaction at Abu Ghraib

I've been mulling Lieberman's words. "The enormous moral difference. . ." between us and the terrorists.

Know what the real test is? Not that we've now committed a handful of atrocities of our own. Such things occur in every war. It's in our reaction to them. We're repulsed by these acts. We're ashamed of them. We're investigating and looking to bring the guilty parties to justice.

Meanwhile, the Islamists dance and ululate in the streets every time another "enemy" child or three is killed by a terrorist's bomb.

So you American haters out there can warm yourself by the fire of self-loathing and moral equivalency. The prison scandal will provide fuel for that fire for a long time, without doubt. But you're idiotic. There is no such moral equivalency.

America sins, certainly. But we don't center our culture on perpetuating and glorifying such atrocities, we abhor them. And that makes all the difference in the world.

More Thoughts Revulsion About Abu Ghraib

Liberal Media, the indefatigable Autmom, and I have been talking on a previous thread about the unfolding Iraqi torture scandal.

My current thoughts are these -- 'I'm repulsed by these soldiers' actions, and I hope they're given good, long sentences for these acts. My being a veteran doesn't make me want to defend them, but rather I want to see them punished. They've brought shame to something I love very much -- the United States Army. Worse, they've betrayed the very thing their fellow soldiers are fighting and dying for -- the dignity, freedom and rights of the Iraqi people.'

Check out Sen. Lieberman's thoughts on the issue as well. I'm glad to see him returning to his usual level-headed moderation after his pandering role as axeman for Gore.

"The beheading of Nick Berg just because he was an American made painfully clear how little our enemies value life. Prison abuse must not blur the enormous moral differences between us and those we fight in Iraq, and in the world-wide war on terrorism."

Happy Days Are Here Again. . .

In news disappointing only to John Kerry, new job growth has exploded in the past two months, banishing all talk of a "jobless recovery." 625,000 new jobs have appeared, bringing the total since August to 1.1 million. This brings the unemployment rate down from 6.1 to 5.6%.

If trends continue, all of the losses of the past recession will be erased by November. This would be extraordinary, considering the unnatural inflation of employment caused by the tech bubble.

Air America, Part II

John Rabe made a good point in comments: "Janeane Garofolo....Al Franken...has anyone ever stopped to consider the folly of starting a radio network comprised only of people with really annoying voices?"

It's true. Both Franken and Garofolo have faces made for radio, but does anyone think their voices are equally appropriate for the medium?

Air America: Crashing and Burning?

My cup of zloradstvo runneth over. Air America's first month has so far resembled a badly choreographed Keystone Kops film. Not only has the network received majorly tepid reviews from mainstream critics, but it's managed to lose both its Chicago and LA affiliates. The only Top 20 market it currently serves is New York. These were the people with grandiose claims about "getting rid of Bush." I suppose the new Anchorage affiliate they're excited about will help them a lot.

Adding to their woes is the news that two of their top executives are stepping down, including Mark Walsh, the CEO.

Now, Al Franken, their marquee host and a living testament to the dangers of lead-based crib paint, is saying the odds are better than 50-50 that he'll run for the Senate in 2008. Isn't leaving a strange topic to discuss while your network is still in its infancy? Unless this guy is right, and Air America is the radio equivalent of a 527 -- the short-term campaign tool of wealthy Democratic donors.

PC Priorities and Iraq Torture

It's being reported that the troops involved in the Iraqi prisoner torture scandal weren't aware of the requirements of the Geneva Convention for the treatment of prisoners. I can believe it. We received a couple Laws of War briefings in Infantry School, and then rarely heard about it again. We did, however, get seemingly daily Sexual Harassment lectures during the Clinton era It's all about priorities, I guess. This seems exculpating to me in some of the lesser offenses -- photographing a dead body, for instance.

As for the rest of this filth though, it's appalling. These fools have done more to undermine the war effort and put our troops at risk than all the idiot protesters combined. I understand that they're Reservists, and that they're under stress. I also understand that I'm not there. Nevertheless.

My hope is that they'll get a fair judgement -- one punishing their actual crimes, rather than one to placate Amnesty Int'l and the Arab world. But regardless, they should face UCMJ justice.

Woodward Deflates the 'Bush-Lied' Crowd

There's an interesting look at Woodard's new book over at OpinionJournal this weekend. It focuses on the "Bush-Lied" cant that the Left has been spouting ever since the Iraq War failed to turn up WMDs.

The Left seems to have a problem with definitions. For example -- marriage, a term whose definition hasn't been vague for anyone else for quite a long while now. One also thinks of Clunton's confusion over the definition of "is." And now they seem to have trouble differentiating between "lie" and "mistake." Here's a clue for you: one is deliberate and conscious, the other isn't.

If we believe Woodward, it's clear that Bush may have been mistaken about WMDs (though even that is yet to be proven), but he did anything but lie. We each make all of our decisions based on the best available information at a given time. For Bush, that information finds its source in the CIA.

"The President continued, "I've been told all this intelligence about having WMD and this is the best we've got?" At which point Mr. Tenet is said to have thrown his hands in the air and remarked, "It's a slam-dunk case!" Mr. Bush pressed again, "George, how confident are you?" Mr. Tenet: "Don't worry, it's a slam dunk!"

It isn't a shock, of course, that the CIA believed Iraq possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. The Clinton Administration bombed Iraq for four days in December 1998 based on that assessment. Every other major intelligence agency in the world believed the same. What is new in the Woodward account is the extent to which Mr. Bush appears to have been a thoughtful and critical consumer of such intelligence. The President reportedly told Mr. Tenet several times, "Make sure no one stretches to make our case."

Democracy -- No Magic Bullet

Conservatism has always had a healthy leeriness about Democracy. Understanding human nature, we knew how easily it could turn into mob rule if not chained down by constitutional protections -- the tyranny of 51% can be just as cruel as that of one man, after all. HOW one went about getting just and equitable governance was a lot less important to us than the having of it.

Conservatives point (rightly), to the poverty, corruption and hopelessness of the Middle East as a key factor in the growth of terrorism. But some now view democracy as a silver bullet for our foreign policy worries. Is it really though?

South Africa is celebrating its tenth year of multi-racial democracy. Far from turning SA into a land of peace and opportunity, "freedom" has turned it into the murder, robbery, rape, and AIDS capitol of the world. Given the ANC's Communist background, their rule has been wiser than their old rhetoric. Sadly though, the failure of post-Apartheid SA is a good reminder of the limits of Western-installed democracy.

Iraq and Iran are both good candidates for more democratic government. They both have large groups of secular, educated people. They've seen the results of both nationalist autocracy and mullahcracy. Both have large oil reserves, and neither has the crippling debt and poverty that hinder democratization in many countries. We should try to foster more open systems in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Iran. It will help reduce the impetus to terror, to a degree. But we need to keep realistic goals in mind.

Democracy is no more a panacea for the Middle East than it was for revolutionary France or Weimar Germany.

Christianity and Conservatism

I grumbled when George Will 'came out' against a Federal Marriage Amendment. I think a lot of us have been annoyed by some conservatives' support for gay marriage as a supposedly stabilizing influence. We talked here about the dividing line between Christianity and conservatism -- that while they might share some founding presuppositions, there is nothing inherently Christian in conservatism.

I wonder if that won't become increasingly true as time goes on. Conservatism isn't a stable ideology with a codified set of beliefs. It's more a set of principles and a disposition of the mind. So the liberal ideas of the past century are defended by conservatives of today. Christians were prominent in the formation of these classically liberal ideas -- everything from racial justice to free markets. But as our culture continues its glide-path into a post-Christian morass, the things conservatism will be conserving will range farther and farther afield from our Christian roots.

Which is why it isn't surprising when secular conservatives stake out positions that seem strange to us. They share many conclusions with us, but their thoughts are animated by a different principle of life. I imagine I'll be a conservative 'til I die, but I hold the label more loosely than I once did. I'm a Christian first, a conservative only a distant second.

Oil for Influence

Some interesting developments in the whole Oil-for-Influence scandal at the UN. Kofi has finally bowed to pressure and allowed an ostensibly independent investigation to go forward. For those who haven't kept pace, documents in Iraq have revealed that the UN's Oil for Food program with Saddam was a sham, with high placed UN officials on the payroll. Saddam was using this money not for baby formula, but to buy supporters -- everyone from the Russian Orthodox Church to the Minister of Forests of Myanmar (I'm not making that one up. . .)

NR is now reporting some interesting links between Saddam's payments and al-Qaeda related organizations. But this can't be right, since we've been told by Kerry's sort of people that secular dictators never work with terrorists (except the bounty payments to the families of Hamas bombers, of course.)

Check out this ABCNews investigation as well, which includes a lengthy list of Saddam's mercenary supporters.

Lastly, Opinion Journal claims the Russians are impeding a real investigation, not surprising since they're up to their necks in this.

John Kerry wants the UN to run Iraq. If they can't run a food program, how can we trust them with something infinitely more complex (and open to abuse)?

Employment is Up!

The recent job numbers were the most exciting thing to happen to me since they instituted Bollywood Night on Ukrainian TV. But if people had even a passing understanding of job numbers, the issue would never have been such a hot potato(e) to begin with. . .

Prior to the recession, we had 4.2% unemployment. "Full employment" is at about 5%. We're now at 5.7%. In other words, a HUGE percentage of the jobs lost were from an overheated economy. Even if you believe the president has some magical ability to direct an economy, it's difficult to see how this power allows him to maintain historically anomalously high employment levels.

And, as this article points out, "the current unemployment rate remains lower than the average unemployment rate during the 1970s (6.2 percent), the 1980s (7.3 percent) and the 1990s (5.75 percent)."

One thing I'm curious about is the constant harping on the lack of new manufacturing jobs. Our worker productivity has been climbing at something like 4.6%. So what you have is less people producing more goods. Isn't this actually what most people call economic progress?

For a really in-depth look at industry and the business cycle, check out this article. I was surprised how dominated our manufacturing output is by the tech sector. In light of the tech bubble bursting, it put the industrial job losses in perspective.

Iraq is Not Vietnam.

Mac Owens makes some of the same points I've been saying to the Duchess ever since we read about the militia uprisings in Iraq. I'm waiting to more development of the situation before responding fully, but here are a few things on my mind. . .

1. No guerrilla force has ever won a war. Saigon fell to an NVA regular armored division. There is no regular army supporting these terrorists.

2. This is an urban insurrection. Anyone who studies Low Intensity Conflict knows that this is MUCH harder to pull off than a rural movement, particularly one in mountainous jungle like Vietnam.

3. The police and newly reconstituted Iraqi Army are two of the most respected institutions in Iraq, according to recent polls. This is in sharp relief to public opinion on ARVN during Vietnam. I think the importance of this can't be overstated.

Anyway, as we learn more I'll conjecture more.

Regardless of whether you supported the war, let's all continue to pray for the G.I.s in harm's way, and for the safety and freedom of the people of Iraq.

Abortion and the "Culture Wars"

I generally despise rhetoric about culture wars, especially when it's Christians doing the talking. America is a mission field, not a battlefield. While it's good for us to be active citizens, both politically and culturally, those we disagree with are not our enemies. Rather than warring with unbelievers, we should be sharing with them the Gospel of Peace and showing them grace. We as Christians have an Enemy, but he doesn't have an ACLU membership card (though, admittedly, they'd probably approve his application.)

While there isn't a culture war in America, there is certainly a cultural divide. The fault line doesn't perfectly parallel the divide between Christians and secular people, but it doesn't stray far from it. One example can be seen in the way Hollywood or the NYT portray Evangelicals as some sort of alien species. The secular world can't comprehend the way of life or thought of Evangelicals. We might say that the things of God are "foolishness" to them, as I Corinthians 2 puts it.

A great example is abortion. As you know, I've been having a good discussion with a guy on Evangelical Outpost. He's been posting arguments in order to convince me of the rightness of legal abortion. But, as I explained to him:

"When we compare Roe v. Wade to Dred Scot or the Holocaust, you hear it as an attempt to score rhetorical points or as emotional hyperbole. It's not. We honestly and truly believe that all three situations involve a government declaring a class of human beings to be non-persons, and therefore able to be killed arbitrarily.

Is there any amount of anecdotal evidence, "logical" points, abstract "autonomy" and "privacy" arguments, or debatable statistics that would convince you of the justice or morality of slavery or the Holocaust?

If not, then why are you employing these to get us to "see the light" about your pro-abortion position?"

The concept that life is sacred is incomprehensible to someone with no notion of sacredness.

Abortion and the Conscience of the Liberal

I haven't had a semi-debate on abortion in ages, but now find myself brer rabbitted into one over at Evangelical Outpost. The guy I'm chatting with just couldn't be nicer, truly. But he started off on the wrong tack -- giving me a hard time for using "he" to describe a zygote. Now he's assured me it was partly tongue-in-cheek, but the gallows humor remains. . . In his world it's apparently cricket to kill unborn girls, but only so long as you don't hurt their feelings by using gender-insensitive language while performing the D&E.

This is said with irony, but there's an element of truth to it. Many on the Left have become so vermian that they don't blink at the delivering of a near-term baby and the suctioning out of his brains, but turn beet-purple with outrage at the slightest snub toward a disabled, transgendered Asian snail darter.

Yes, I'm being hyperbolic. It's my blog, so sue me.

Anyway, Vaudeville was hopping the last time I was active against abortion, and I'm amazed at some of the changes in the Pro-Life movement over the past few years. The Duchess and I were in during the era of street protests and rescues, and assisted in more than a few. It seems to be a totally different movement now. While researching pregnancy care centers, I was shocked at how much they've developed. Carenet now maintains 700 centers, and Heartbeat Int'l 500. This is so encouraging. The Duchess and I have both volunteered in centers, and I think they're one of the great success stories of the modern American church.

Here's a short history of the CPC movement. Also check out Options Magazine. Lastly, here's a link to Optionline.org, which maintains a nationwide directory of pregnancy centers, in case you know someone needing help. . .

Rights-Mongering and Leftist Fundamentalists

Our body politic has its share of illnesses -- an addiction to federal largesse, an increasing moral myopia, a bizarre fascination with celebrity activists. . . The one that stands out most to me though, is a near-total inability to differentiate rights from privileges. "I have a right to" has become synonymous with "I really want to."

Here are some examples of the confusion. . . Concealed weapons, military service, and marriage are all privileges, not rights. If one meets certain qualifications, then one is entitled to these privileges, but one has no mandate from Heaven to receive them. Thus it has always been in this country. There is no "right" to serve in the military. The government establishes certain criteria, and if you meet them you may enlist.

Donating blood is another example. If you belong to a high risk group, then you're disqualified from adding your blood to the general mix. You aren't being denied a right, but a privilege. Which is a distinction the dufi (plural of dufus) at Western Oregon U haven't learned. They're considering banning the Red Cross because it doesn't accept blood from gays. Not hard to understand when homosexuals comprise 80% of the HIV cases in America (a man having sex with a drug-free woman has a 1 in 5 million chance of contracting AIDS).

As Shauna Bates, a student senator at WOU says,

"There may be less blood in the blood supply, or we can continue to have a world full of hate and discrimination."

How amazingly callous. But such is the mindset of the Fundamentalist Left. Better not to have life-saving blood than possibly offend someone. Only a true fanatic would imagine that donor screening is the cause of world hate and discrimination. Such totalitarian rights-mongering is pandemic on the Left. The best example I've ever seen was the San Fran city councilman who wept because he'd passed a Transvestite Rights bill into law. His statement was, as I remember it, "It's not every day you get to create a new right!"

The proliferation of rights has the same effect as calling every picayune unpleasantry the next 'Selma' or 'Holocaust' -- it waters down the term. The right to life, to liberty and the other truly meaningful ones become devalued in a jumbled marketplace of rights.

Perhaps someday when I'm more sanctified a part of me won't hope that if and when there's a blood shortage in Oregon, it's Ms. Bates on the operating table and not some innocent person.

Further Reflections on Popping Yassin

Europe's condemnation of Israel over the Yassin killing only shows its continuing descent into placation and stupidity. It's also another example of how "international law" equates to "whatever Germany and France want THIS week."

For an even clearer example, reference the Serbian conflict. When confronted with a military challenge their own emasculated militaries were unable to resolve, and faced with a sure Russian veto in the UN, "Old Europe" thought it perfectly hunkey-dorey for the US to intervene without UN authorization.

However, when French and German oil contracts were at stake in Iraq, suddenly the UN's imprimatur became the sine qua non of international legality. Attacking Iraq without permission was a violation of. . . international law. Imagine that.

NRO has a wonderful article outlining Euro-hypocrisy on the Yassin issue. As I pointed out in the first post's comments, the Geneva Convention explicitly authorizes killing enemy leaders. Further, guerrillas aren't considered lawful combatants and aren't subject to the Convention's protections in the first place (neither are spies or muftied scouts, incidentally.)

Sharpening Europe's forked tongue still further is the fact that they've been pushing Israel to treat the intifada as a military conflict rather than a police action, thereby bringing in the Laws of War. But then when Israel operates within this framework, the Euros turn about and scream foul in womannish voices. Typical.

The attack was legal, just misdirected. The rocket should have blasted Arafat instead.

Oh! Check out Joe over at Evangelical Outpost for an extended analysis of the Yassin sitch.

Death From Above

There has been the predictable hue and cry (particularly from Europe) over Israel's assassination of Yassin. I don't think it was necessarily the wisest choice for Sharon to take at this point, but I don't see how anyone can condemn it. While a Low Intensity Conflict, Israel is essentially involved in a guerrilla war against people who would destroy them. As this article puts it:

"Hamas, founded by Yassin in 1987, wants to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic state."

Israel deserves the same right to autonomous action that we've claimed for ourselves -- the right to fight back against those who seek to destroy their way of life. Their policy of targetting enemy leaders for helicopter rocket attacks is justified and restrained, and no different from our own. Arafat, Yassin and their ilk are terrorists, and a sudden, painful death by high explosive is the same fate they meted out to countless innocents.

Raining down from the sky as it does, it almost seems like cosmic justice. It's certainly poetic justice.

A Nod to the Left

Just noticed on CNN that the infamous Love Canal is clean. While good news in itself, it's symbolic of the progress we've made in past decades. While the world ecological outlook is still gloomy, nationally we've made a tremendous amount of progress.

While I think the radical Enviros are freakdaddies, I'm solidly for conservation, as any conservative should be. And I'll say this -- the progress that we've made wouldn't have come without the strong pressure from the Left. No group is wholly pernicious. With the possible exception of Steely Dan.

Terrorism Topples a Western Government

Mark Steyn has written an uncompromising and painful-to-read article on 3/11. While I sympathize terribly with the families of those who lost loved ones in the attack in Spain, Steyn has some points I find hard to dispute.

" In the three days between the slaughter and the vote, it was widely reported that the atrocity had been designed to influence the election. In allowing it to do so, the Spanish knowingly made Sunday a victory for appeasement and dishonoured their own dead.

And, if it works in Spain, why not in Australia, Britain, Italy, Poland? In his 1996 "Declaration of War Against the Americans", Bin Laden cited Washington's feebleness in the face of the 1992 Aden hotel bombings and the Black Hawk Down business in Somalia in 1993: "You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew," he wrote. "The extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear." To the jihadis' way of thinking, on Thursday, the Spaniards were disgraced by Allah; on Sunday, they withdrew. The extent of their impotence and weaknesses is very clear."

Only fools and Democrats still believe that appeasement and compromise works with the radical Islamists. They understand force and submission, and no other languages. France has been the only country to consciously side with terrorist-supporting nations, and they're now facing serious threats of terrorism themselves over a simple headscarf ban. Decades of "friendship" annihilated by a single offense.

The terrorists can't be appeased, they can only be hunted down and killed, and made irrelevant by reform in the Middle East. And this can only happen so long as we remain engaged in the region, no matter how odious the prospect.

Paul Flint Strikes a Blow for. . . Something!

Our old pal, Paul Flint had this to say today on an old post about the Russian birthrate (and Russia's impending population crisis)"

"Less people means more earth. Wanted children are children who will be raised well. Why should the earth bear more than we are willing to raise? Don't give me no Bible **** either, give me a good earthly reason why we should encourage people with no MEANS TO PROPERLY RAISE THEIR CHILDREN to have them ANYWAY??

You "Christians" seem to be all for bearing children, and yet all for gutting social welfare programs and all for the very capitalist system that has made a larger percentage of our world's children grow up in abject poverty."

Bible ****? Paul would have a fainting spell if he heard someone saying "Koranic ****", and would chew them out for being inthenthitive. But as with most good liberals, Paul believes that Christians live in an exclusion zone where the normal PC rules don't apply. This zone also allows Christians to believe what they want, but not actually apply it to questions of politics, ethics or life outside of Sunday morning. Then it becomes hateful fanaticism.

"You "Christians" seem to be all for bearing children, and yet all for gutting social welfare programs"

The post of mine that caused this diatribe was about the Russian birth dearth. One of the side-effects of this problem is that THERE AREN'T ENOUGH YOUNG PEOPLE WORKING to pay for the very social programs he's supporting. Pensions for the elderly, for instance.

Further, there was an explosion of single-parented families post-1968, thanks in large part to these vaunted social programs. Single-parented children are 6-times more likely to live in poverty. While The Nation prolly won't teach you that, real social science journals will.

". . .all for the very capitalist system that has made a larger percentage of our world's children grow up in abject poverty."

That explains why the per capita incomes of capitalist countries so massively outstrip those of any other system, how exactly? Maybe we could give socialism a try. It's worked out great in North Korea, Ethiopia and sub-Saharan Africa. Real vacation spots, those. ;-)

" give me a good earthly reason why we should encourage people with no MEANS TO PROPERLY RAISE THEIR CHILDREN to have them ANYWAY??"

Paul, you should read before reacting. I spoke about this directly in my post. Here's what I said:

"Putin would do better working toward an economic climate that allows young couples to marry and not live with their parents and a medical system that gets the incredibly high rates of STDs and heart attacks down to normal levels than worrying about Russia's "greatness."

Your pal,
John

Political Pathology

There's a disorder that strikes a small percentage of Republican conservatives during the course of their career. It's a subtle, quiet killer that seems to have an incubation period of at least ten years incumbency, and it's been the death of more than one good man's principles. While I don't have a name for it, the primary symptom is a desire to be loved by the New York Times editorial board. It's a Progressive, wasting disorder that in its final stages causes opportunism, a reflexive backstabbing motion, and a strange infatuation with Ted Kennedy.

Orrin Hatch's flirtations with Kennedy are one example, though his case so far seems survivable and limited to this one symptom. A more advanced case would be Sen. McCain's nearly cadaverous conservatism. Not only has he betrayed his former principles on a host of issues, now he's said he'd entertain the idea of being Kerry's running-mate, while campaigning for Bush. This pretty much defines attention-seeking opportunism.

The Rough Woodsman has some good thoughts on McCain today.

Around the World in 4 Paragraphs

Starting with Europe, it's a good time to be a conservative. Not only are the Tories showing signs of life, but the Socialists have lost power in Greece for the first time in ten years. In Germany, the Christian Democrats handed the Social Dems their heads in the Hamburg regional elections. This follows a series of routs for Schroeder's Social Dems in three other states last year. The SDP is 20 points behind the CDU in current polling. Schroeder owed his political survival to his cynical fanning of anti-Americanism during the lead-up to the Iraq War. So it's schadenfreudelicious to watch him crumble now.

Looking South, Venezuela's President Chavez is aspiring to be the next Fidel Castro. He's militarized the government, imported Cuban advisors, reduced the parliament to a docile unicamerality and hijacked the referendum process. Now there are reports of peaceful protesters being shot down. Perhaps some aspiring Pinochet will make him the next Salvador Allende instead.

Over to Iran, and the WashTimes look at problems facing the new hard-line parliament. Having Reformists running the largely powerless body had given the hard-liners some cover as Iran's economy tanks and the natives grow restless (and secular.) With the Reformist boycott of the last election, even this polite fiction is gone. Especially interesting is the mullahcracy's hope to import the Chinese model of free markets and authoritarian government. Good luck with that one.

Coming full circle, we return to Europe, and Denis Boyles' insightful piece on the French system of governance. Our Dem Presidential candidates have been full of Shrummish people vs. the powerful rhetoric. The idea is that Big Government somehow empowers people. Boyles shows that it does -- these people are called bureaucrats. So take a peek at the inbred world of the Énarques, and remember -- Kerry not only looks French, he thinks that way too.

Crib-Death for an Infant Democracy?

World Mag has that rarest of posts today -- news about current events in Ukraine. The Kuchma-clan has shut down Radio Liberty, and the head of another station that was considering airing it just woke up dead. To put it in context, this is a country where the President is on tape saying a particular journalist should disappear. He did, and reappeared later, sans head.

This is a country where three journalists were killed in one month, during a year when only 31 journalists died world-wide. A place where independent editors have been attacked by acid, only to have the attacks chalked up to football hooligans. Now President Kuchma's been green-lighted for a third term by a pliable Constitutional Court. (No wonder our pal, Liberal Media, moved to Warsaw!)

Pray for Ukraine.

O'Sullivan's Law and the Girl Scouts

John O'Sullivan's First Law of Politics is that any organization that isn't actively conservative will eventually become liberal. This can be seen in everything from the YMCA to the various conservation groups to the Methodist Church (all of which, incidentally, tended to have Arminian roots, but I digress. . .)

Faithful to this law, the Girl Scouts have drifted farther and farther into the wastes of feminism over the years. Because of its boosterism of homosexuality, pop feminism and sundry other sins, some Christians have organized a boycott of Girl Scout cookies. I'd never considered it before, just plunked down the change outside the Kash n' Karry. Now that I've thought on it, I won't be funding them in the future.

Another demonstration of O'Sullivan's law is the National (mis)Education Association. So it's cheering to know that they're finally being investigated for their naked campaign malfeasance. The NEA once spent 13 million dollars in California alone, just to defeat a school-choice initiative. Yet they claimed that nationwide they spent $0 in 2000 on politics. Hello? This is only the latest in a litany of union corruption scandals. Union leaders make Enron execs look like pikers.

A 187 of the 527?

For the hardcore political junky, David Tell's write-up about the FEC's recent ruling on campaign finance is a must-read. For the rest, let me start by saying that it's BIG news. Republican activists can sleep a lot more soundly now. I'll boil down the salient points:

1. George Soros isn't going to be anyone's sugar-daddy this year. He'll be facing a 37.5K TOTAL donation cap. That's about 17.963 million dollars less than planned.

2. The Democratic 527 PACs won't have anything approaching 300 million dollars with which to batter Bush.

3. The 527's will be regulated largely as other PACs, and will be competing for the same hard-money donors that the DNC and Kerry campaign are scrambling for.

4. The Kerry campaign is 5 million dollars in the red. Bush has about 100 million dollars to spend in the next 5 months.

5. The FEC acted honorably -- the Dems and Reps both largely voted against their own party's self-interest and stood on principle.

All of this said, it should never have been an issue. Campaign finance "reform" is a sham and an unconstitutional infringement of free speech. Still, it's fun to watch the Dems own campaign-finance Frankenstein batter them to electoral death.

Tehran -- the next Summer of Love?

I read yet another article today which views the recent sham elections in Iran as something of a watershed. After mass disqualification of sitting parliamentarians and blatant silencing of Reformist media outlets, no one can pretend any more that the system allows for internal reforms. According to Reza Bayegan, the movement is, well, moving toward a strategy of civil disobedience and passive resistance. There's increasing talk of a referendum on the future of the Islamic Republic, something that would inevitably go in the reformist's direction.

Many people have, in some cases rightfully, bashed National Review in recent years. But NR has been steadfast and oftentimes alone in beating the drum for freedom in Iran. They continue to give freedom activists a voice in the West, and should be commended for it.

The New Soviet Man

Our brief period of friendship with Russia, if it were ever genuine, is over. As is any near-term hope for genuine democracy there. To borrow a line from Chesterton, it wasn't tried and found wanting, it was found difficult, and left untried.

People in the States don't realize how deep the humiliation of Russia's current weakness runs, and how much many of them want a return to greatness at any price. This extends even into Ukraine, which suffered horridly at the hands of the Soviets.

Most Americans are also unaware of just how dictatorial Putin has become, or how consciously he's appropriating the legacy of the Soviets. He's busily dismantled the tiny free press in Russia. He's pressuring border countries like Ukraine and Georgia (actually seizing a piece of Ukraine in Tuzla.) He's evicted the entire US Peace Corps for "spying." He's revived the use of Soviet-era military insignia and national anthem (though with modified lyrics.) He's a former KGB officer who's approved a new calendar for the FSB, the modernized KGB, which features the glories of the KGB's past, including the infamous "Iron Felix." He was on Saddam's payroll and actively opposed us on Iraq. He's organized a massive nuclear war exercise that was last done during the height of the Cold War. It will simulate an attack on the United States.

Now he may be implicated in killing off political opposition figures. At the very least, he's presiding over a free-fire zone against liberal politicians.

Saddam Followed Kerry's Advice

Whenever asked what he'd do differently than Bush in Iraq, Kerry's mantra-like response is that he'd "call in the UN." The idea is that we'd phase out our troop involvement and replace these soldiers with the usual contingents of Bangladeshis and Congolese.

This, of course, ignores the fact that Bangladeshi troops might be fine for stabilizing a brushfire situation in Central Africa, but are less suited to a technical operation such as rooting out terrorists in a country of 40 million people. It also misses the complete lack of desire the UN has for such an endeavor. Another point missed is the UN's lackluster commitment to free institutions and markets, presumably our goal in Iraq. We're talking about an organization, after all, that appointed Libya to the head of the Human Rights Commission.

It's also the organization, it seems, that Saddam "called in." According to a fascinating piece in today's OpinionJournal, the list of names on Saddam's "Oil-for-Food" payroll includes a Mr. Sevan. This also happens to be the name of the man in charge of oversight of the Oil-for-Food program for the UN.

The article gives an overview of the pattern of influence-buying and abuse of the system by Saddam, all with the collaboration of Mr. Benon Sevan. It closes with this:

"In a 2000 statement on Oil-for-Food, Mr. Sevan said, 'As he [Mr. Annan] put it recently, we as international civil servants, take our marching orders from the Security Council.' It might have been more accurate to acknowledge that the UN took its marching orders from Saddam."

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Did Rove Duckhunt With the Mass Supremes?

Good Government types are up in arms about Cheney and Scalia going duckhunting together, because it could somehow influence Scalia's decision on an upcoming case. I think they should be more concerned that Karl Rove might have done the same with the MA Supreme Court justices. How else to explain the love-gift they just gave President Bush with their recent gay marriage ruling?

At a time when Kerry is making an attempt to leave Mass behind and run as a moderate, the Supremes there have written a reminder in large, pink letters for all of America to read: "We are a bizarre, Soviet-style state that punishes gun owners and businesses and marries homosexuals. Electing our more liberal senator will do for America what he's done for us."

That should sell like hotcakes in Peoria. The Dems used to be the party of Rum, Romanism and Rebellion. How does anyone get excited about the modern Democratic motto of Taxes, Sodomy and Appeasement? It's not even alliterative.

The GOP and the South

George Will does a service to Republicans (and the South) by debunking one of the longest-running myths in modern politics -- that the GOP won the South because of racism. It's one of those things that enlightened people just "know". A bit like the verse "God helps those who help themselves." People never take the time to verify if the verse is actually in the Bible, nor do they look at the data to see if ugly racial politics really pulled in the GOP.

Leave it to Will to do so. He shows that it was the border states, not the Deep South, that swung first in the GOP's direction. Also, this transition came BEFORE the decisive moments of the Civil Rights Movement. Further, GOP identification is actually lower among native-born Southrons than it is among Northern transplants. And because of this, the Dems problem is deeper than they think -- it's the South's optimism, conservatism and free-market orientation that explains the GOP trend. And the Dems have little hope competing on those grounds.