RITTER'S MELTDOWN CONTINUES

        Major Scott Ritter has caught onto the 'chickenhawk' meme. Seth Gitell of the Boston Phoenix bore his angry brunt.

When I asked, "Why not war?" Ritter all but exploded. "First of all, to hell with you and that question, " he said, arguing that concern for "over a million American servicemen" and "tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians" dictates doing everything possible to avoid war. "'Why not war?' My God, what a question." Pressed on the point that to "exhaust all the possibilities" would only result in keeping Hussein in power, Ritter dismissed my "interpretation" and turned the tables again. "Before we talk about going off to war and having people die - other people by the way, you're not going to die, you're not going to die ..."

        Gitell, though disturbed by this example of the "[D]isturbing ad hominem twist to the debate over Iraq right now," gamely tried some reporter's judo.

"How do you know I'm not a member of the Reserves?" I asked Ritter, challenging his assumption (which was correct, by the way, at least in my case) that a journalist of my age would not be in the service.

        Ritter was not fooled by this attempt at creating a real debate. He's to clever for that, so he turns to the puerile insults.

But Ritter mocked this suggestion: "Okay, you and I. We'll go. Go sign up."

        Ritter did not just attack the reporter...

Last month, I wrote a short piece about Ritter, in which I quoted his former superior, Ambassador Richard Butler, on Ritter's impassioned opposition to the position that Hussein might still have dangerous unconventional weapons and possibly even nuclear weapons. This is what Butler told me: "On Ritter, it's simple. Either he misled me when he worked for me, as he utterly insisted that Iraq had WMD [weapons of mass destruction], or he's now misleading the public when he says there were no weapons left in Iraq at that time. The facts make clear that he did not mislead me. I don't know why he's saying what he is saying. I'm not a psychoanalyst."         Right out of the box - with two other reporters present - I asked Ritter his response to Butler's comment. (He was traveling abroad and didn't have time to respond to my inquiries for the original article.) And right out of the box, Ritter almost bit my head clean off: " I don't understand the allegations. Misleading about what? What specifically did he say? " I explained, and Ritter turned his ire on Butler. " It's very clear, never once in any of the documents that I submitted to Richard Butler did I say that Iraq retained ... weapons, " Ritter said. His version is that he merely told Butler that " we have information that basically there might be documents or some other evidence existing in certain sites that could lead us to the ability to account for this material, and therefore I believe we should go off and do this inspection. "         So now, it seems, it's a question of credibility between Ritter and Butler.

        My money is on Butler.

CROW: PART OF THIS NUTRITIOUS BREAKFAST.

        I have made two major pronouncements which I have to recant. The first, and more trivial, relates to my football team. The first player I drafted was Shaun Alexander. Because he had been almost completely unproductive, I benched him this week.

        AAAAAAIIIIIIIIEIEEEEEEERRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

        Glad I got that out of my system.

        I had previously ranted against the senile delinquents- er- wise elders- of 60 Minutes. This week they kicked butt and took names. First was the devastating hatchet job about Yasser's papers with Leslie Stahl playing Lizzie Borden. Being associated with CAMERA, I could not help but to be amused but to think how pissed off I would be if I were an idiotarian propagandist. The main Israeli spokesman (sorry, no gender neutral taurine poopie on this blog) was an attractive, articulate and eloquent woman who was a colonel in the intelligence service. To add injury to devastating insult the PA did not have an official reply. But you might say one of their officials spoke. Stahl went to an Israeli prison and met with a leader of Islamic Jihad, who was wide eyed and asked how did CBS get those secret documents.

        Even more significant was the link between Palestinian Authority terror and the rouge regimes of Iran and Iraq.

        The other segments were also excellent. The second segment was a thoughtful analysis of the mania among TV executives for younger demographics. While I agree with the inherent skepticism of the piece a TV executive did get off a good zinger, asking Ed Bradley if the past weekend he at any fast food, went to a movie, bought a soft drink or had a six pack of beer. The answer was 'no.' Still, the thirtysomethings and twentysomethings the marketers crave watch less TV than their elders. After all, they have more entertainment options than suckling on the rancid milk of the boob tube.

        The last segment was about the children of Saudi fathers and American mothers who are being held forcibly in that loathsome regime. Maybe we need to start a propaganda move to warn young college girls that the debonair and dashing man could easily turn into a snarling abuser when he gets you back to his misogynistic medieval monarchy.

INTO ACTIVISM!

        Sorry for this report's lateness...

        Well, I've recently finished my first political campaign as a volunteer... and we lost! I worked for Jim Rappaport, a GOP nominee for Lieutenant Governor. Sadly the handpicked (and inferior) candidate won. Now a lieutenant governorship on its face may look as if it is worth a bucket of warm spit, sans bucket, but GOP governors in the commonwealth tend to vanish with Blair Witch regularity. They get taken up by the inhabitants of the White House (both parties. Mass GOP is more liberal than Missouri Democrats. Except we would rather not let the dead run for office.)

        I stuffed envelopes and delivered signs. On election day, I spent the better part of the afternoon near my polling place with a sign. I waved to the passers-by while listening to Howie Carr on my walkman. Across the street were a couple of sullen campaigners for a Democrat candidate for State Treasurer. They had the typical snottiness of young people convinced of their moral superiority. One of them asked me how long I was staying around. I said "Until I get bored." Then I asked them the same question. "Until you get bored," was the snarky reply. They sat on a concrete wall that surrounded the elevated garden of the polling place (an apartment complex) far back from the street. The two chatted among themselves, ignoring the passers-by.

        In contrast, I stood on the opposite side of the fairly busy road, waving at passers-by in their cars, smiling and holding my sign prominently. I may not have influenced many votes, but the response was overwhelmingly positive, including the cyclist who swung by to give me five! A great many motorists waved or shouted encouragement. Of course there were a bout a half-dozen thumbs down and one or two derisive snorts and dirty looks, but that was a small percentage of the passers-by.

        Around 6 PM, I left. One of the slacker activists shouted 'Hey, Rappaport, Democrats don't quit!"

        I replied, "Yeah. They just steal the elections."

        Jerks. At least their candidate went down to defeat.

        Sadly, though, too many Democrats will win offices Massachusetts because there is no opposition. We have no Republican representative in the house (expelling the last two in 1994- talk about crappy timing) and the Republicans could not even get a senatorial candidate to run against Kerry. The state GOP may hold the corner office (There's no governor's mansion in MA) but they only have six of the forty state senate seats and 22 of the 160 representative districts. With no fear of retaliation, the power goes to the legislative bosses, Speaker of the House Thomas M. Finneran and Senate President Thomas Birmingham (who will, thankfully, be departing after a failed gubernatorial run). Ensconced in their rotten boroughs, the two terrible Toms are able to cow their party underlings into line, destroying any and all initiative. They trample on the rules to kill bills, or even debate on things they oppose, like campaign reform, the death penalty, opposition to gay marriage or domestic partner benefits and, most of all, term limits.

        As long as a disproportionate amount of power in the Commonwealth is held by a legislative leadership who need not worry about his constituents, let alone any other voters in the state, responsive representative democracy will be but a dream. Nevertheless, we will continue to fight for freedom and democracy.

PRESTIGE PRESS BASHING

        I was damn lucky I didn't have a car accident driving home from the Cape the night before Labor Day. Not that I was driving any more like a manic than I usually do. (Hey, for a Bostonian, I'm pretty good. I am almost never the last person to run a red light.) I was furious about what I was hearing on the radio.

        WBZ, a Boston area news station, broadcasts the 60 Minutes audio feed. And what were the issues of the day according to the elders of Black Rock? Well the two segments I caught were about the [alleged] spousal/girlfriend abuse epidemic in the armed services (reported by Ed Bradley) and a warm and fuzzy piece on the Al Noor School, an Islamic school in Brooklyn as parroted by Morley Safer.

        This was what the doddering wrinklies chose to air this ten days before the anniversary of the 9/11 atrocities, demonstrating why they remain among the leading lights among reactionary liberalism in America. Certainly the Department of Defense understood, pointedly refusing to co-operate. So the usual parade of 'activists' and other axe grinders did not have anyone to riff off of for the solicitous talking heads- all designed to make the armed forces . (Don't get me wrong- spousal abuse is always serious and perhaps the DoD isn't doing enough. However, there were questions that Ed Bradley could have asked that would have actually challenged the critics. And that would have required some empathy with the servicemen, or at least the ability to think outside the proverbial box- something unthinkable from the pressiods.)

        Ann Coulter the Madame Defarge of the conservative movement, vivisected the second piece including how CBS let the school soft-pedal the student's (especially the female students) adoration for homicide bombers.

The students instantly and enthusiastically agreed with the proposition that a "Muslim who becomes a suicide bomber goes to Paradise for that action." "Definitely," one student said, calling a female suicide bomber "very brave."         "Do you believe they are martyrs? Holy martyrs?" Again, without hesitation, the students affirmed: "Yes" and "of course."         As to whether suicide bombers would go to Paradise, the students said they earnestly hoped so. "I mean, they're doing it for a good cause," one boy explained. "I pray that they go to Paradise," another said. Not only that, but one student said, "I think we'd all probably do the same."         Weeks later, at the urging of the principal, the students modified their answers slightly. But according to CBS, "None of them changed their view that suicide bombers in Israel would go to Paradise." The Islamic studies teacher at Al Noor claimed the students misunderstood true Islam: "If you go to chapter 4, verse 29, it says so clear, 'Do not kill yourself.'"

Emphasis mine.

        What's really pathetic is that the Morely could have burst the jihadettes' fantasy pointing out the homicide bombers tend to target civilians. But emphasizing their glorious warrior went into a service full of elderly people would have soiled their precious young minds.

        Maybe Morely should have done some research... But I guess he didn't want to be confrontational.

        However, as loathsome as the saurian newsmagazine reporters are, they positively outshine the boobs at the Beeb. Anti-Idiotarians have long reviled the Limey louses... OK Limey lice and Brit nits... for their anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-common sense reporting. But it's not only in the foreign policy field we see their perennial perfidy.

        Theodore Dalrymple noticed firsthand after writing about a trip to Blackpool; formerly the Cape Cod of the British working class that has fallen victim to a Spring break atmosphere.

On the day after the publication of my article, I appeared briefly on the BBC's main breakfast-time radio program, which has an audience of several million. The interviewer was an intelligent and cultivated woman, and having briefly and accurately summarized for the readers my account of what I saw in Blackpool, she then asked me, "Aren't you being a toff?"-that is to say, a social and cultural snob.         The question was, of course, a loaded one, with many layers of deeply derogatory implication. I in turn asked her whether she would herself bare her buttocks to passing strangers, and if she wouldn't, why not? She declined to answer this question, as if it were not serious-just as a future government minister with whom I once appeared on the radio, after asserting that one of the tragedies of some recent urban riots was that they had taken place in the rioters' poor inner-city neighborhood, refused to answer when I asked her if she would rather the riots had taken place in her own rich neighborhood.         Not long after the interview about my experiences in Blackpool, the BBC broadcast letters from a few listeners, who charged that I had failed to understand the nature of working-class culture...         The liberal assumption, in this as in most things, is that to understand is to approve (or at least to pardon), and therefore my disapproval indicated a lack of understanding. But strangely enough, the letters that the BBC and the newspaper that published the original article forwarded to me-those they hadn't broadcast or published-wholly endorsed my comments.

        Not so strangely, for Dr. Dalrymple points out...

The deliberate exclusion of these voices from public expression provided a fine example of how the British intelligentsia goes about its self-appointed task of cultural destruction.

Emphasis mine.

        By excluding dissent or differing opinions, the intelligentsia can deny they exist, or if press, are anything but the fringe. So, how does the denial work? Back to the good Doctor...

A BBC television producer recently outlined the phases of liberal denial for me. His colleagues, he told me, regarded him as a maverick, a tilter at windmills, almost a madman. And what was his madness? He wanted the BBC to make unvarnished documentaries about life in the lower third of society: about the mass (and increasing) illiteracy, the mass (and increasing) illegitimacy and single parenthood, the mass (and increasing) hooliganism, violence, lawlessness, drug taking, welfare dependency, and hopelessness, so that the rest of the population might begin to take stock of what was happening on their very doorstep. And he wanted, in particular, to concentrate on the devastating effects of the fragmentation-no, the atomization-of the family that liberal legislation, social engineering, and cultural attitudes since the late 1950s have so powerfully promoted.         His BBC superiors greeted his proposals with condescension. First, they denied the facts. When he produced irrefutable evidence of their existence, they accused him of moral panic. When he proved that the phenomena to which the facts pointed were both serious and spreading rapidly up the social scale, they said that there was nothing that could be done about them, because they were an inevitable part of modern existence. When he said that they were the result of deliberate policy, they asked him whether he wanted to return to the bad old days when spouses who hated each other were forced to live together. And when he said that what had been done could be undone, at least in part, they produced their ace of trumps: the subject was not interesting, so there was no point in making programs about it. The British public would be left to sleepwalk its way undisturbed through the social disaster from which a fragile economic prosperity will certainly not protect it.

        The BBC do not limit their one-sidedness to foreign policy or social engineering. The gun issue is so important that the censorship is extended to sports and entertainment. (Thanks to Libertarian Samizdata).

You can watch firearms being misused in soap operas and on television news, but you will rarely see an image of a happy, healthy sportsman bagging a pheasant, powdering a clay or punching a hole in a paper target.         Shooting men and women, denied any positive role, have long since been tele-morphed into ‘gun owners’: beer-bellied pervs in camouflage or heartless toffs blasting fluffy bunnies and Bambi’s mum...

        Not that the journalists let the propaganda to others. They upheld their perfidious traditions.

Pilloried in the press and on television, shooters had no proper chance to explain why they were guiltless. Acting as a spokesman for the sport, I can remember being given a 16-second prerecorded slot on the Nine O’Clock News to ‘balance’ more than two minutes’ live hysteria from the opposition.

        And if you can't spin reality to fit your views, hide it!

The BBC policy was to barely mention the sport (the third biggest at the Games) in their national coverage. They have tried to excuse this appalling record by saying that Bisley was on 'the periphery' of the Games and that there were 'logistical problems'. Such tosh bears no scrutiny. There were 70 BBC accredited people at Bisley. Some of them were so frustrated that their material was not being used that they openly criticised the policy-makers in Manchester. Logistics had nothing to do with it, of course: viewers in Australia and India managed to see their shooting athletes winning gold. We did not, because some priest of political correctness had decided it was bad for us.

        "The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common; they don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views" (2 point ref).


        Of course the lumpen of the scepter'd isle are not entirely fooled and more than a few age getting tired of it. See here and here (via grand daddy Glen, please, oh please link to me Reynolds) for the real opinion peeking up among the cracks in the asphalt of noxious official thought.


        A brief digression: the way I see the UK's current situation is that they are at where America was during the 70s. The elites are driving the car of state off the road and into the sidewalk, smashing everything in its path. (You think that's a tortured analogy, wait until I compare certain commentators to great NFL offensive linemen...) The leftist intelligentsia has complete control of the major avenues of debate and policy and the intellectual counter movement has yet to begin. Yes, there was a political conservative renaissance in the 80s (Thatcher and Reagan), but what is called for is for one in the infotainment sphere, such as the one that preceded Gingrich's rise. Because they do not encounter any opposition, the intelligentsia assume they are completely successful and never question the results. Even when the opposition can no longer be ignored, they are never debated on the merits. And that is why the current state of the intellectual left has given rise to the term 'idiotarian.'

        Speaking of which, here's some antipodean groupthink among the nattering nitwits of negativism, thanks to Tim Blair.




        Speaking of over-rated lefties, Norman Mailer, arising like a somnolent sauropod raising its wrinkly neck out of the Jurassic slime, blearily blinked and made these fatuous pronouncements. (Check out Scott Ott's take).

"Clinton made a point of surrounding himself with people who might be 90% as intelligent as himself, but never his equal. Bush is smart enough to know that he couldn't possibly do the same, or the country would be run by morons."

        How shallow is Mailer? His x-ray vision could not penetrate Saran Wrap! He swallowed the JFK marketing campaign and regurgitated it as 'Superman in the Supermarket' and now he rehashes the media cliches and shorthand of the smug schmucks of the Upper West Side Salons that have clearly been out of date for the past year. Of course I would love to see Mailer try to pass the entrance exam for the Harvard Business School. I don't think calculus is his forte. Civics sure the hack ain't. Mailer further in confirmed his utter cluelessness by adding this vapidity.

"The notion that we have an active democracy that controls our fate is not true. Was I ever able to vote on how high buildings could or should be? No. Was I ever able to say I don't want food frozen? No. Was I ever able to say I want aeroplanes to have half as many seats? Nobody's ever been able to vote on anything that really counts in terms of how our lives are led."

        Did I get to vote whether or not to put this broken down nag out to pasture or to the literary glue factory? Did I ever get a chance to vote to replace overblown 'Naked and the Dead' with James Salter's 'The Hunters?'

        Not only does the emperor go around stank naked, waving his shriveled genitals to the nausea of all, but he expects us to pay homage to his literary empire, gone the way of Ozymandias' mighty works. Ron Martinetti targets Mailer in an essay appropriately titled 'Advertisements For Himself'

When it became known that Mailer's book on capital punishment (The Executioner's Song) had been based upon another's research, Truman Capote commented that Norman "...was just a rewrite man like you have over at the Daily News."

        I should check out his ex-wife's book.

Norman Mailer was insecure, sadistic, twisted, a spoiled mama's boy who was troubled by his background and wanted to have been born a rich WASP...         Adele writes with total frankness of her storybook romance and marriage to Mailer, then at the height of his early fame, and the descent through hell their marriage became--with bouts of drunkenness, orgies, and emotional and physical abuse that ended in Mailer's attacking her with a knife that was front page news in 1960. The tragic and bizarre stabbing incident took place after Adele had allegedly called Norman "you little faggot" at a party celebrating his abortive campaign for mayor of New York City.

        Speaking of violence and Norman Mailer, has he ever apologized to this man's family?



        Well, I could go on. I mean if I wanted to include the New York Times I'd have a Robert Jordan sized book. All these institutions and men were formerly prestigeous and now they are squandering thier reputations to advance their ill thought out partisan agenda. They have occupied the limelight too long. Other vices will be heard. Their day is ending soon.

        The blogsphere is kniting the names...

WINE, WOMEN AND SONG

        Latest news from science, courtesy of Tim Blair.



        Some folks may find this to be blindingly obvious. Personally I find it heartening, because if I can ply my latest lust object with enough adult beverages...

        Here she is... Tiffany Limos

        I'm a MSTie, so I was overjoyed when I heard that Showtime was remaking a number of Roger Corman schlock classics. Among them was Teenage Caveman as re-interpreted by Lenny Clark (her boyfriend and elder by 37 years. The phrase 'dirty old man' does spring to mind. 'Lucky SOB' follows soon after...). Now I'm not a fan of his films, but I gave it a look. And am I glad I did.


        Miss Limos is, to coin a phrase, seriously yummy. She gave this interview to the New York Observer where she, regrettably, demonstrated, she's a gutter-mouthed little twerp. But as long as she appears scantily clad (or unclad) repeating lines written by professional writers, it's fine by me.



        (I had a big backlog of materiel to go through, but this entry came first because I've already started getting Google searches for her. I guess my readers, such as they are, are more interested in this starlet than my scintillating commentary. Here's her official website, BTW.)

RADIO SILENCE

        I have a few frivolous posts on tap. Bashing the prestige press, week one in the NFL, salacious comments on actress Tiffany Limos, a tortured analogy comparing various writers to great offensive linemen and I do need to do a Captain Euro story. But following the examples of Vegard Valberg and Letter from Gotham I will maintain a respectful radio silence on 9-11. Those who should be heard do not need my frivolity distracting from their message. Those who should be ignored won't stop, but they will never learn.


        Before I depart, I will leave you with a few thoughts. Bloodthirsty barbarians committed a terrorist atrocity, killing thousands of my fellow countrymen. I will never forgive, nor forget. I will not moderate either my anger, nor desire to see their vile ideology wiped out and their supporters and cheerleaders reap their folly with interest. And I have no patience for those who follow either the spirit of Neville Chamberlain or the Vichy. Accommodation, appeasement and equviocation with evil is objectively siding with it. Ultimately, you can not be neutral between the arsonist and the fireman.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

        Society A was built on the idea that a homeland would emancipate a dispossessed people. Regrettably, they did not consider the current inhabitants.


        Society B put their homes at risk in order to exterminate the uppity dhimni. They lost the gamble and blame everyone but themselves.


Medicine in society A:

Downstairs, before we left, the head of the hospital, an Israeli named Audrey, was showing me the children's waiting room. I couldn't help but notice, all around, an Arab woman with her son, an Arab family over there checking in, Arab children playing with the toys while waiting. The doctor saw the look on my face and laughed. "Oh, yes, we treat everyone." I guess I was astonished. She just shrugged. "We're Jews. This is how we live. It's also for the future. They're not going anywhere, and we're not going anywhere. There will eventually be peace. There has to be." When? A month? A year? A hundred years? More? She didn't know. I had to say it. You're incredible. You take everyone, you treat everyone, no one goes first, no one goes last, you just go in order of who needs help. That's, like, Mother Teresa stuff. "We're not saints, we're just doing our jobs. It's not easy, I admit. And it gets hard when they cheer when the bodies are brought in."

Medicine in society B:
        (Thanks to Charles Johnson)

A Hamas cell in Jenin was planning a double suicide bombing in Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer with the help of a doctor from Jenin, and a massive truck bomb that would blow up a Tel Aviv skyscraper, according to several indictments filed recently in the Samaria military court.

        Emphasis Mine.





        Society A is regularly condemned. Society B is the darling of the tout le monde.


        Those in Society B had better hope that Society A never follows their example.

THE NEW PHRENOLOGY

        From Little Green Footballs. The ever dangerous Robert Crawford comments on a bit of Paliswine onanistic fantasy.

The booklet, which sells for only NIS 2, is entitled The Koran Anticipates the Destruction of the US and the Sinking of the American Army. I'm planning a pamphlet entitled: "My Ass Predicts the Death of Thousands of Islamic Fascists". In ten years we'll come back and compare results. I bet my ass predicts the future better than the Koran.

        I've heard of talking out of your butt...

        It does put an interesting light on the saying 'never write a check with your mouth your ass can't cash.

KNOW WHAT I MEME?

        Folks, here's an early alert for the next idiotarian conspiracy bullshit meme down the pike. I spotted this posting on Free Republic of this Ha'aretz article.

The Bank of Israel has obtained information that several accounts held in Israeli banks may have been used to fund terrorist activities. However, because of banking secrecy laws, the central bank has not handed details over to the Justice Ministry.

        OK, looks pretty straight forward. There are a few ways to look at it. Israel is, contrary to the idiotarians' propaganda, not quite the police state they portray it if the bank secrecy laws protect the terrorist. Also terrorism needs cash. During the post 9-11 investigation, ATM surveillance footage of Atta was uncovered. On at least one occasion he was glaring into the camera as an expected transference of funds failed.


        Also Arab Israelis have been caught aiding the Palestinian terrorists. So it is likely this is one of the accounts used. Even more interesting, when you think about it, is that the terrorists do not trust Arab financial institutions, preferring to use Western conduits.


        Why bring this up? Well, here are the money paragraphs.

In October 2001, in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, the Supervisor of Banks, Yitzhak Tal, ordered all banks in Israel to screen their customers' bank accounts and reports to him any account or financial activity of persons suspected of terrorist activity or connections with terrorists. The accounts were screened for persons and organizations appearing on a list published by U.S. authorities in accordance with a presidential decree issued shortly after the attacks.         After completing screening of the accounts at the end of 2001, the banks handed over their findings to Tal. Several suspicious accounts and financial transactions were found. The Bank of Israel has confirmed the existence of accounts believed to have been connected to the financing of terrorist operations but refused to state how many suspect accounts had been uncovered and to which terrorist organizations they were connected.

        Now, look again at the FR posting. The person who posted the article is a well known Israel basher on FR who delights in finding anything either negative or misrepresentable about the Jewish state. And who has comment number 3? Yep. Justin Raimondo of 'antiwar.com.' In other words an underboss in the neo-isolationist wing of the 'hate America and death to Israel' mafia.


        If you re-read carefully the two paragraphs above, you will notice the dog that did not bark which in Justin's ears sounds like the hound of the Baskervilles. (2 point ref, but only for the first part of the analogy). There is no mention of which groups were involved or who they were targeting. It is as likely, if not more so, that these accounts, if they were for terrorism, were against Israelis, not Americans. As my contracts professor loved to say, 'There's less here than meets the eye."


        Of course, such inconvenient reality means little to Justin, who, when last heard from, was making an ass out of... well, not you and me, because we know he's a clymer who is full of chomsky, but himself and his fellow lemmings over the 'Israeli art student spy ring.' (Oh, by the way, the real story is not spying. It's about young Israelis, who have a free year after serving in the Tzahal, travel abroad. And they need money while travelling, so they sell artwork. Years before I heard of antiwar.com, I read an article about Israeli tourists in Japan who sold paintings to the locals. Sorry I can't quite recall where I saw the article, but it was either in the Jerusalem Post Magazine, or Jerusalem Report. But I digress.)


        You know he's going to spin a sinister involvement of Sharon sending money for nefarious, cabalistic schemes in the US. Why, in Justin's fevered mind, he's already writing this up as the smoking gun! They'll want to create some excitement since their beloved 'martyrs' have been conspicuously unsuccessful in murdering Israelis lately. So get ready for the next round of taurine scatology from these freakaziods.

OH GODS, BOOK 1!

        Congratulations to Neil Gaiman for winning the Hugo for best novel for American Gods.  If Bujold's Curse of Chalion had to lose, at least it lost to the best.  Anyhow, as Tyler Stewart, proprieter of Pandemonium, pointed out, Lois has enough Hugos as is!

        I was at the Millenium Philcon, when the Hugo went to the Harry Potter book. People left the presentation snarling with anger. I’m glad to see a winner everybody can get behind.

        Analogy time. American Gods is to Neverwhere as Casino is to Goodfellas.

        And speaking of movies, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings won Hugo the Best Dramatic Presentation.

        Gee. What an upset.

FIGHT FEEBLEY HARVARD!

        Schadenfruede unbound!  Harvard Law has just discovered the joys of discovering Uncle Sam's purse strings tend to turn the recipient into a marionette.  The school has been forced to allow military on campus.  Previously, the services were barred from Harvard, ostensibly to protest the 'don't ask don't tell' policy.  This replaces the earlier bans, ostensibly because of the Vietnam War, the Cold War, etc.

        So, what changed their minds?  Two words: 'Filthy lucre.'  See, there's a 6 year old federal statute, known as the Solomon Amendment (Look for Pub. L. 104-208), which cuts off all of f all of Uncle Sam's do-re-mi if a college or university discriminates against military recruiters or ROTC. As the amendment says...

"None of the funds made available in this or any other Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for any fiscal year may be provided by contract or by grant (including a grant of funds to be available for student aid) to a covered educational entity if the Secretary of Defense determines that the covered educational entity has a policy or practice (regardless of when implemented) that either prohibits, or in effect, prevents . . . access by military recruiters for purposes of Federal military recruiting. . . ."

        From the article...

        In an emotional letter to students and faculty, Clark wrote that under the threat of enormous financial loss, the greater good of the university would have to override the law school's stance against discrimination and the military's ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy. The decision is expected to influence policy at other law schools.


        "I have personally struggled with this issue," Clark wrote. "At the same time, most of us reluctantly accept the reality that this University cannot afford the loss of federal funds.... To say that this decision is just about money trivializes the significance these funds have on students' educations, faculty careers, and scientific research that can lead to cures to life-threatening illnesses and debilitating diseases."

        To coin a phrase... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

        Sorry, Dean, but the PC movement has done a tremendous job in trivializing education. And frankly I don't respect your trivializing the services merely because you and your narrow minded ilk disapprove of their policies.



        Of course the trivials are not taking this lying down. The Harvard hooligans want to keep discriminating to protest discrimination. According to the Crimson...

"Lambda board member Lindsay Harrison said last night that the group will protest the Defense Department policy by, for example, filling all interview slots with its members when military recruiters come to the campus."

        Heaven forbid students should be exposed to actual diversity.

        But it's not only in Cambridge that the Soloman Amendment is desipsed. South of the Charles in Boston College - the Jesuit institution historically best known for point shaving, a misandronist professor and drunken louts staggering out of off limit bars, has an orbaization dedicatied to the repeal of the amendment.


        And then there is this article by Sean Roaney a Washington School of Law 2L.

Further clouding the amendment's future is the fact that certain states, including virtually every state in the northeastern United States, have enacted state civil rights legislation banning discrimination against gays and lesbians. Compliance with the amendment, therefore, requires that law schools in these states directly contravene their own state law.

        Sean clearly needs to re-check his Con Law notes. There's no conflict. When a state statute and a federal law are at loggerheads, Uncle Sam wins.

As Representative Solomon opines, however, these laws are of little importance. These states, he reasons, can merely amend their legislation to allow for military recruitment. Amendment opponents do not find this a palatable option, however, and continue to hope that the Supreme Court will eventually overturn the military policy.

        Highly unlikely. The 'don't ask, don't tell' policy is itself a compromise and the current court makeup will not interfere so deeply with military policy during wartime.


        Anyhow, as a wise man said, every doctor needs to be a patient at some point, every law professors need to know what it feels like to be smacked with the club of laws used for social engineering ends. If it's good enough for the high school students of Southie and Roxbury, it's good enough for the law students in the Ivies.

        Still, with apologies to Tom Lehrer...

        Fight feebly Harvard! Faint, faint faint!

        Impress them with our cowardice... do!

        Faint in Harvard's disgrace and shame!

        We're just unworthy of your name!

        (Oh poopie!)

        Okay. Weird Al, I ain't.

UPDATE

        Maggie Gallagher chimes in, unfavorably comparing craven Crimson to the Augusta National Golf Club’s defiance in turning down advertising revenue rather than acceding to the National Council of Women's Organizations’ demands that they grant immediate membership, to women in their club. William ‘Hootie’ Johnson declared, "We are sorry, but not surprised, to see [the sponsors] drawn into this matter but continue to insist that our private club should not be 'managed' by an outside group. "

DRAFT BEERS AND DRAFT PLAYERS DO NOT MIX!

        One note on my fantasy draft. While I firmly believe my team is solid, I darn near made a fatal error thanks to the quintet of Yuengling beers I consumed that afternoon. I drafted two quarterbacks (Donovan McNabb and Jim Miller) with the same bye week. Fortunately I traded Miller for a pick I used on Mark Brunell.

I'M SO SORRY!

        You kinda noticed the lack of updates... Sorry. I have an excuse, or rather a whole slew of them. Most of them are not very good.

        First was the bar. I stopped blogging while cramming my skull full of relevant information. Then came the period of recovery.

        As soon as my brain recovered, my body took a blow as a persistent flu bug knocked me out for a week. Then weekends at the Cape with my family, job hunting and drafting my fantasy football team came into play. Oh and three dates in as many weeks with three different women.

• I rendezvoused with Margaret in NYC while traveling down to State College PA for the draft.
  
• Ashi, a graduate student in Rhode Island; we spent an afternoon in Providence.
  
• Linda whom I took out to 'Blue Man.' (Of course, the next day she sent me a 'You're nice, but not that interesting' email. I guess flying toilet paper and Captain Crunch do not a romantic evening make.)
  
  

        Sadly, a good many of my comments have fallen by the wayside. Some were overtaken by events. Others have been dealt with far better by others, like Howard Bashman's excellent attack on the egregious use of polling data by the majority in ATKINS v. VIRGINIA. The Court is supposed to be isolated from the passions of the populace! That's the way the founders designed it!

        I also was thinking of writing about how many Congressional liberals are exceptionally wealthy and relating it to an article in USA Today regarding a disturbing trend of the children of the wealthy eschewing traditional summer jobs for glamorous internships. These kids will become the next ruling class without having actually known what drudgery for an for a dollar is like. Call it cliched, but they do build character.

        Speaking of character, there was this little bit of horror that appeared in the Boston Globe. (It's at the very bottom and I read the article when it originally appeared, wiseguys!) Folks, I've read too much about my representative and the function of male member, thank you very much.

        One incident I do need to relate. Here in Boston we are extremely fortunate to be a regular port of call for the Navy. When the ships are in port the Navy lets visitors board and see what Uncle Sam uses their tax dollars for. I have toured a frigate, a cruiser and destroyers. (The line for the aircraft carrier John. F. Kennedy was too darn long.)

        This time I went to see the USS Kearsarge, a Wasp class amphibious assault ship. Now I always carry my Swiss Army knife, but I am prepared to ditch it as needed. So I come to the ship and see they have a metal detector and a warning that anything they find that violates security will be confiscated. I asked if I could check my knife. The guard was angrily adamant. Even if I voluntarily gave them the knife with no prompting, they would confiscate it. Now I remember being able to carry the knife around the Capitol dome, with the full knowledge and blessing of the security people therein. But that was long before 9/11 empowered the 'tweezer people.' Now I couldn't leave the knife in my vehicle because I did not take any vehicle down. My bike was in the shop and I didn't want to drive downtown. So I took my knife and hid it in some weeds. The guard did not want to know and I was passed through without comment.

        I could forgive the guard for being curt. Unlike the mental midgets of the airways, they were doing their jobs in a reasonable manner. I had a problem with a specific rule. So I was not going to give him any unpleasantness, even if he were not well armed and backed up by grim faced sailors toting M-16s.

        The tour was well worth the trouble. I climbed aboard an LCAC, looked at guns and other equipment and talked to sailors and marines. I especially want to thank Private Goldman (USMC) for answering my idiotic questions, especially about the grenade launchers. And I did find the discussion about whether a sniper rifle could take out windows of the planes at Logan to be fascinating.

        Oh yeah. It was a guy thing.

        Two more notes before I vanish. Despite my absence, my page has been getting regular hits. But most of them have been about 'Frontier House' or Ben Grimm's recent revelation. Go figure. But I do need to update Jewish Marvels soon.

        Also here's my fantasy team lineup- current as of this writing.

COOL FACTOR NOTED; LET'S PROCEED. (3 point ref)

        Japanese engineers testing a new supersonic jet design encounter a minor setback.

NASTY COMMENTS

• Not with a bang, but a whimper.
  
• Senator McCain is never afraid to be the only Republican standing among Democrats. Witness the Keating five.
  
• Daltrey and Townshend are releasing a new album. Its title is Who’s Left?
  
• When anyone says we can not define terror or that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, I will suggest they're against the law. Literally. 22 U.S.C. 38 §2656F(d)(2)
  
  

TORO! TORO! TORO!

        “For there is surely nothing more beautiful in this world than the sight
of a lone man facing single-handedly a half a ton of angry pot roast!”

Tom Leher.

        The photographer was never in danger, apparently. But nobody seems to care about the poor schmuck whose shirt the bull has on its horns!

QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY.

       One reason my blogging is minimal (aside from time constraints) is that I want to try to be at least minimally original, instead of citing the same articles the rest of the warblogers do. And I care that I say things well. So that means I do bupkus.

        Here was one overdue issue posting. Prior to the speech where Bush called for Yassir to take the golden handshake, my main worry was not necessarily what he would say, but how the world would interpret his words. Specifically, I was afraid the Palestinians would see it as a vindication of their terror tactics.

        Judging from the snarls, yowls and whines from the Arabs and their chattering class enablers, I need not have worried. The Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post and Saudis all hate the president's declaration. Obviously it's a winner.

        As the cliché goes, "When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember the first objective was to drain the swamp." Well, the Palligators (unique among crocodilians for their venomous nature) are distracting Bush's corps of engineers from draining the Axis of Evil Swamp. Were I a more conspiratorially minded man, I would say the House of Sod financed this upswing to distract from their 79% responsibility for 9/11. They point to their beloved homicide bombers and say to the US 'Solve this first.' (And it helps to distract their souk suckers from the debacle in Afghanistan as well.)

        So, Bush offered a solution. That the solution is unacceptable to anyone in position to negotiate is immaterial. No longer will they sell the same camel for new concessions. No more will their constant bad faith negotiations continue. Even if they do reject Bush's conditions for statehood, it is clear he is washing his hands of the Pals and moving on.

        The Palestinians should take a cue from the ideals of Zionism. Hetzel wanted to make the Jews 'A nation like any other. That dream must become their reality. No more disproportionate attention to the Pals and no more special leeway given to aid their genocidal quests. Let them deal with the consequences of their folly or reap the rewards of their courageous change. Either way it's long past time to move on

THE BEST THING ABOUT THE WORLD CUP....

HECKLER'S VETO OVERRIDE

        Cant Watch needs to learn to enjoy schadenfreude. Noting, and approving of, the suspension of the organization of the kaffeya wearing brownshirts at San Francisco State University, Erin O`Connor decries the removal of their hate filled web site from the server.

My point? We have to defend the expression of groups like GUPS if we want to be sure our own expression is protected. These are tough truths to swallow when one is on the wrong end of bigoted and nasty expression, but they are the truths we have to swallow if we are to preserve the liberty that makes our lives so preciously free.

        Well, the way I see it is…

1. Speech codes are wrong.
   
2. The campus left supports speech codes.
   
3. The speech codes are not applied to the campus left, or anyone who is not white and straight
   
4. We (meaning the non-PC crowd) need to apply the speech codes to the PC gang with the vigor of Vern Schillinger initiating his newest prag. (2 point ref)
   

        This way, you assail their hypocrisy, while forcing them to chose between their causes and censorship. These Hamans built the gallows. Let their sorry hides swing from it.


        The free speech of the General Union of Palestine Students is a modest sacrifice for a world with no speech codes.

INSIDE BASEBALL AND NOT THE BOSOX

        Here in Massachusetts, the Dems control the state, even with a GOPer in the corner office (meaning Governor. There is no governor’s mansion here in Massachusetts). Though we’ve had a run of Republican governors, they’ve been either had one eye on a better job, or a head firmly up their butts. Most of the GOP establishment in the Commonwealth consists of what I call ‘Vichy Republicans’ who try to out Dem the Dems.

        Now with Mitt Romney seeming to revive the Mass GOP, plus dissatisfaction with the two Toms (Birmingham and Finneran) who essentially run this state, the Dems are getting desperate and nasty, trying to beat him in the court house and not the ballot booth (usual Democrat tactics). All I can say is the people who scream about Mitt’s working in Utah have driven many people to New Hampshire.

        At least is has been hurting them in the polls.

UPDATE: The panel has ruled the Romney meets the residency requirements! Now if we can only get democracy into the State House of Representatives and Senate.