“This is the first war in which polls have shown American women to be as supportive of the hostilities as men.” That’s according to liberal pollster Celinda Lake in this razor-sharp piece in today’s Washington Post. Most people have seen this war as a testosterone affair, as it surely is, in part. But the liberation of women living under Islamo-fascism, as well as the president’s poignant embrace of women missionaries taken hostage by the Taliban, have made inroads in the gender gap. Bush’s clear defense of innocent American Muslims, his humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan, his wife’s public support for Afghan women – all these have helped erase the president’s biggest political liability. This is big news. And the economy may be perking up as well. If I were a Democrat, I’d be worried right now.
THE CASE FOR MILITARY TRIBUNALS: You only have to look at the preliminary hearing yesterday for Zacarias Moussaoui to see why military tribunals are a good idea. How many times do we have to point out that these undeclared war-makers are not criminals. They are prisoners of war. Giving them a public platform to mouth off their religious fanaticism after they have plotted and executed acts of war is an outrage. I agree with Joe Lieberman in Wednesday’s Washington Post, when he argued that Moussaoui should never have been brought before a civilian court. Lieberman is right to argue that by doing so, the Bush administration has stupidly muddled the criteria for using such tribunals, implying they might be used arbitrarily, depending on the evidence, rather than categorically, depending on the type of offense. I fear the administration caved under pressure from the civil liberties’ activists, who are sadly misguided in their efforts to treat warriors as mere criminals. There’s no chance now to retroactively deal with Moussaoui as he should have been treated. But the Moussaoui case surely should stiffen Bush’s spine to make no more compromises with these fanatics who defile even the name of war.
THE COMING ICE AGE: Yes, global freezing is back. Check out Elizabeth Kolbert’s fascinating piece in the current New Yorker. She reports from research in Greenland, where analysis of ice particles hundreds of thousands of years old beneath glaciers is revealing far greater climate volatility than we ever imagined. One expert describes the process like this:
“Dozens of rapid changes litter the record of the last hundred thousand years. If you can possibly imagine the spectacle of some really stupid person (or, better, a mannequin) bungee jumping off the side of a moving roller-coaster car, you can begin to picture the climate.”
What does that mean for us? It turns out we could well be due for a major freezing, a climate change so dramatic it makes global warming seem like a pipe-dream. Does that mean that global warming could actually be a good thing, an ameliorating trend against the Big Chill? No one seems to know. It might be, or it could trigger the Ice Age. The only conclusion I can draw from this piece is that we really don’t know how the climate works, but we do know it changes rapidly. To believe we can control or harness it is simply hubris.
THE LEFT-WING WAR AGAINST HIV RESEARCH: They’re succeeding. Some leftist AIDS activists and Naderites have been waging a war against the evil drug companies, especially for retaining patents and actually making profits on life-saving HIV medications. By chipping away at patents, by forcing much lower prices for HIV meds, these activists hope to make some medications more affordable. They haven’t succeeded for the most part. But what they have managed to do is to reduce incentives for drug companies to research into HIV. Who among drug execs needs the grief of these protestors when there are many other lucrative diseases to focus on? According to a research study cited by a useful little piece on TechCentralStation.com, “the number of anti-retrovirals in development rose steadily from 1990 to 1998. Since then, however, development has fallen back to 1990 levels.” Thanks, guys. Meanwhile Africa is dying not because of drug companies but because of a long post-colonial legacy of terrible governance.
The Dish 