Month: November 2003

How can you look at the recent data and not be somewhat stunned at the resilience of the U.S. economy? I’m not sure I’m as bullish as Larry Kudlow, but the notion that we will not get job growth, a real wealth effect, and economic optimism by next year’s elections is just Krugmanian in perversity. When you combine it with the president’s superb speech today on bringing democracy to the Middle East, you begin to see a better picture of what Bush will look like next year: a JFK-style Democrat. (I’ll be commenting on the speech in detail later, when I get off my other deadlines.)

THE FULL INTERVIEW: The full Commonweal interview with Gregory Maguire is now up on their website.

Fascinating article appearing in the usually anti-American Arab News. It’s from a columnist, Fawaz Turki, who was opposed to the war and still argues that “I have no illusions about the shenanigans and hypocrisies of a big power like the US, including its neocon ideologues, who are more cons than neos,” has nevertheless begun to change his mind:

Is it too early to adopt a revisionist view of the US war in Iraq and for this column to admit its mistake in having vehemently opposed it from the outset?
At issue here is whether the Iraqi people have benefited from the overthrow of the Baathist regime and whether the American occupation will eventually benefit their country even more. I’m convinced – and berate me here from your patriotic bleachers, if you must – that what we have seen in the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates in recent months may turn out to be the most serendipitous event in its modern history… Washington may not succeed in turning Iraq into a “beacon of democracy” but it will succeed, after all is said and done, in turning it into a society of laws and institutions where citizens, along with high-school kids, are protected against arbitrary arrest, incarceration, torture and execution.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if this war – now so reviled by many Americans – was only finally appreciated in the region it helped liberate? I’ll take that over the partisan snipes in Washington any time.

As usual, a must-read. He’s sharpest in pointing out how leaving Saddam in place was rapidly becoming a non-option, despite the Scowcroftian bromides (and weird last-minute attempts at deals, newly reported in the New York Times). Money quote:

This already lousy status quo was volatile and unstable. Saddam Hussein’s speeches and policies were becoming ever more demented and extreme and ever more Islamist in tone. The flag of Iraq was amended to include a verse from the Quran, and gigantic mosques began to be built in Saddam’s own name. Even if, as seems remotely possible, he was largely bluffing about weapons of mass destruction, this conclusion would destroy the view maintained by many liberals that, for all his crimes, Saddam understood the basic logic of deterrence and self-preservation. (That he was “in his box,” as the saying went.) Not only was he able to defy the United Nations, but with French and Russian collusion, he was also increasingly able to circumvent sanctions. The “box” was falling apart, and its supposed captive was becoming more toxic. As he became older and madder, there emerged the real prospect of a succession passing to either Odai or Qusai Hussein, or to both of them. Who could view that prospect with equanimity?

Er, most of the Democratic candidates.

JUDICIAL TYRANNY? New Jersey’s Superior Court (a single judge, not an appellate panel) just ruled against same-sex marriage, but subsequently urged the legislature to pass a domestic partner bill. The other post-Lawrence court decision – in Arizona – also ruled against equal marriage rights. So much for the wave of judge-imposed marriages predicted by the far right to justify their proposed Constitutional Amendment. You can read a PDF version of the full ruling here.

And a wonderfully articulate man of faith. His bio reads as follows:

Novelist Gregory Maguire is a prominent figure in the world of children’s literature. Best known as a fantasy writer, Maguire, forty-nine, has written more than a dozen books for children. He also writes for adults. A musical adaptation of his adult novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West opens this month on Broadway, with lyrics and music by Steven Schwartz (Godspell), and Joel Grey as the Wizard.
A Catholic faith and vision suffuses Maguire’s work, and is explicit in novels and stories such as Missing Sisters and “Chatterbox.” … A practicing Catholic, Maguire is also a gay father of three.

In an interview with the Catholic magazine, Commonweal, Maguire responds to the latest decrees from the Vatican, decrees describing his committed relationship as “evil” and the love he has for his adopted, minority children as the equivalent of “violence”:

I must share with my children my faith, its dramatic promise and possibilities, its murky history and contradictions, the guidance it can lend, and the challenges it must pose. Andy and I will tell them – when they’re old enough – about the courage it took to adopt them in this climate, about the heartache the church from above can sometimes provoke, and the help that the church from below sometimes can provide. We will choose not to whitewash the complications, and will hope the children see us as brave and devout, not craven and hypocritical. That is what I wish for my children: not to be indoctrinated, but to question, and perhaps to be persuaded to value the gospel message as I do.

Then he puts his finger on it:

I sometimes feel the Vatican says of the fringe members of the church: “The Church: Love It or Leave It.” I stay in the church because I must, because it is the mystical body of Christ; it is the most palpable metaphor or nexus in which my frail human spirit and frailer body can know itself to be at home. In the church, when I take Communion, I am joined by my dead father, by my dead mother, by the unremembered relatives who passed their faith along through the centuries. I am joined by the children of my children, by everyone who cherishes the gospel of love, and who strives, however inconsistently, to put others before one’s self.
And I deal with the pain, in part, by continuing to be a Catholic as an act of defiance as well as an act of faith (and are they different things, even?).

Alas, the full interview isn’t available online, but it was a real blessing for me to read. As it happened, I was walking past a church last Saturday in Manhattan, and couldn’t stop myself from attending mass. The support and solidarity of men like Maguire and so many others brought me back inside a church after a long absence. When I read words like these, I simply know that our struggle is one that we have no choice but to bear witness to. Yes, defiance can also be a part of faith.

A new angle if you’re interested in figuring out what the heck is going on there.

TRUE BELIEVER: “I’m afraid I can’t quite agree with your assessment of Letterman. I fear your image of him is largely dated from who he was in the 80s and perhaps even early 90s. The self-effacing wit and cutting irony are still there. However, his cynicism is much less broadly targeted now than in the past. It might seem at first glance that it is merely a matter of him mellowing with age, but I would argue it is more a development of maturity. You’ll still find it targeted at especially vapid celebrity; watching the show for a while will give you the impression that Letterman would rather skip 90% of the celebrities that fuel the late night talk show furnace and just stick with normal folks off the street.
The flip side to the acerbic critic of such a nature as Letterman is when he is serious, and when he believes in something, it is powerful. Even before 9/11, he would bring units of the military on the show to demonstrate, although not as a spectacle. I wish I had a video capture of his first show back after 9/11. I strongly suspect you have not seen it. If you had, and still written your Leno/Letterman piece I would be surprised.” – more feedback on the Letters Page.

Worth a headline. Mark Steyn teases out some implications with his usual candor:

There’s something pathetic about a culture so ignorant even its pathologies have to be imported. But what do you expect? The telling detail of the vanishing penis hysteria is that it was spread by text messaging. You can own a cell phone, yet still believe that foreigners are able with a mere handshake to cause your penis to melt away.

Sometimes we forget that there are two things to say about resurgent Islamic anti-Semitism. Yes, it’s disgusting. But it’s also pathetic.

ZELL MILLER ON THE MEMO: On the accidentally leaked memo from Senate Democrats, strategizing how to use intelligence hearings to damage the Bush administration:

I have often said that the process in Washington is so politicized and polarized that it can’t even be put aside when we’re at war. Never has that been proved more true than the highly partisan and perhaps treasonous memo prepared for the Democrats on the Intelligence Committee. Of all the committees, this is the one single committee that should unquestionably be above partisan politics. The information it deals with should never, never be distorted, compromised or politicized in any shape, form or fashion. For it involves the lives of our soldiers and our citizens. Its actions should always be above reproach; its words never politicized. If what has happened here is not treason, it is its first cousin. The ones responsible – be they staff or elected or both should be dealt with quickly and severely sending a lesson to all that this kind of action will not be tolerated, ignored or excused.

Ouch.

A reader reminds me that, although the DU posts are indeed the product of a far left fringe – and equally repugnant posts can be founf on far right sites – the mentality is not completely alien to contemporary left-wing politics. Here’s Salon’s executive editor, Gary Kamiya, in April of this year:

I have a confession: I have at times, as the war has unfolded, secretly wished for things to go wrong. Wished for the Iraqis to be more nationalistic, to resist longer. Wished for the Arab world to rise up in rage. Wished for all the things we feared would happen. I’m not alone: A number of serious, intelligent, morally sensitive people who oppose the war have told me they have had identical feelings.

Serious, intelligent – but not morally serious, I’m afraid.

AL-JAZEERAAAHHI recently gave the impression that a particularly deranged piece of anti-Semitism published on a website called “Al-Jazeerah” was related to Al-Jazeera, the Baathist/Islamist/Loony broadcasting service. I was wrong, as a reader reminds me:

Regarding your post titled “Anti-Semitism Watch I,” the site where this appeared, “Al Jazeerah.info,” is, in fact, not associated with the Al Jazeerah network, but is run by a man named Hassan El Najjar, who is an associate professor of sociology at Dalton State College in Georgia. I’ve run into Mr. El Najjar’s site before, but from the looks of things, he is getting a bit more sophisticated in his deception. However, he at least now notes at the bottom of his page that he is not associated with “Saudi or Qatari websites with similar names;” this wasn’t the case some months ago (Jeez, even the guy’s disclaimer’s are somewhat disingenuous). In addition, please note that he has evidently also acquired the web address “Amazonepress.com.”

Thanks for the correction.

It happened in 1605. Or, rather, it didn’t happen. A bunch of religious fanatics tried to blow up Parliament and would have succeeded in destroying a vast area of central London, if they hadn’t been busted in time. The plot was made much of by the authorities and made anti-Catholicism an integral part of British culture almost to this day. I wonder how long the memory of 9/11/2001 will endure.

Will a Bush boom change politics? My take.

It’s Vietnam day at the New York Times. Even for the boomers who obsess about it, this was a big edition. Belgravia Despatch has all the citations. They even interviewed George McGovern for good measure.