“If I were young enough for military service and was compelled to fight either for Iraq or America, I would fight for Iraq, on the simple grounds that the Iraqis and their surrounding countries should be allowed to work out their own destinies without Western bullying. If I feel that, how much more strongly would it affect a young British Muslim?” – A.N. Wilson, the London Evening Standard. Perhaps Wilson is unaware that, at present, the only chance Iraqis have of “working out their own destinies” is after a Western liberation.
GILMORE WAS HERE: Readers may remember Glenda Gilmore as the Yale professor who argued in the Yale Daily News that the real enemy in the current war was the United States. I linked to her as a nominee for the coveted Sontag Award. The Yale Daily News comment board subsequently lit up with some controversial posts and some abhorrent ones. The pure jibes were removed, as they should have been. But Gilmore is not content. She wants the Daily News to remove discussion boards or is apparently threatening to sue the student paper for libel. According to this piece in today’s Yale Daily News, other faculty members are supporting her. It is, of course, part and parcel of some parts of today’s left: they have been in the forefront of intimidation of free speech for years now. But that policing free discussion of important issues in a student newspaper is now an acceptable course of action shows how deep the rot has gone. Good for those Yale students fighting back for free speech.
THE DIGNITY OF GAY RELATIONSHIPS: Great news from two quarters today. The new Archbishop of Canterbury has affirmed the dignity of faithful gay relationships within the Christian tradition and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the monstrous 1986 Bowers vs Hardwick ruling that upheld a law that made consensual non-procreative sex in private ok for heterosexuals but a criminal act for gay people. Slowly, the double standards in sexual morality are being unraveled by reason and faith. There will be backlash – especially if Massachusetts ends its discrimination against gay citizens in marriage rights next year. Conservatives who support federalism in every other circumstance will try and coerce states to adhere to federal marriage diktats if individual states move toward equality under the law. Revealing about their true priorities, isn’t it? Federalism for everyone who agrees with them. You want to know why some people find some Republicans two-faced on states’ rights? Here’s why.
The Dish 