Month: December 2003

It “scarcely exists.” And no mention of anti-Semitism anywhere else in the world, of course. Of course, Chomsky has to deny it. Or else he would have to answer for consorting with those who practice it.

“Since Operation Iron Hammer, we have seen a drop-off in attacks against us, and we continue to see a decrease in crime (especially as we put more Iraqi Police and ICDC [Iraqi Civil Defense Corps] on the streets). We are seeing [an] upswing in the perception of U.S. forces’ action in the Arab media . . . and a significant increase in tips from the locals of Baghdad, and an extremely significant increase in the turn-in of unlawful weapons…
All these things may be due to the enemy lying low to see what we’re doing; it might be due to us having significantly hurt the enemy during the operations; it could be that the thugs and criminals being paid to conduct the attacks are not up for fighting anymore. And, it might also mean that the average citizen of Baghdad is getting sick of fighting, and that same average citizen is better supporting the coalition (which we believe, from our data). Or, it might mean the enemy is gearing up for another offensive.” – Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, assistant commander, 1st Armored Division. Encouraging, no?

PROHIBITION RETURNS? Seventy years after prohibition was repealed, there are some in Britain who’d like to bring it back. Against tobacco, that is.

BUCKETHEAD EMAILS OF THE DAY: “I saw your Poseur Alert post regarding Viggo Mortensen musical work with a guitarist named Buckethead. I’ve met Buckethead before and the guy is most certainly not Japanese, though he does have many CD releases available in Japan. I believe Buckethead picked up his guitar chops from instruction provided by Joe Satriani. I think the author is the Poseur for not getting this simple information straight regarding Buckethead’s origins.”

“I have seen Buckethead perform and he is a SCREAM. I saw him down at the 9:30 Club back in 1999. He opened for Primus.
He is about 6′ 4″, wears a yellow raincoat that is too small for him, a porcelain mask, a weird-al yankovic wig and a KFC chicken bucket on his head … yeah he looks like a freak but the man can play some serious guitar. He ranges from weird techno instruments to soft acoustic pieces.
During his performance, he would play to a backing track (no band), stop in mid song and “robot dance”, then pull out Nun-Chucks and put on a martial arts display … then return to playing a song … The funniest thing I had ever seen onstage … During Primus’ set, he came out and did some more robot dancing and martial arts … the guy is a riot!” Do the readers of this site know everything?

HINDSIGHT CHECK: Amid all the gloom-mongering about Iraq, here’s a reminder of what an anti-war group of scentists, public health officials and peace activists predicted in November 2002:

Credible estimates of the total possible deaths on all sides during the conflict and the following three months range from 48,000 to over 260,000. Civil war within Iraq could add another 20,000 deaths. Additional later deaths from post-war adverse health effects could reach 200,000. If nuclear weapons were used the death toll could reach 3,900,000. In all scenarios the majority of casualties will be civilians.
The aftermath of a ‘conventional’ war could include civil war, famine and epidemics, millions of refugees and displaced people, catastrophic effects on children’s health and development, economic collapse including failure of agriculture and manufacturing, and a requirement for long-term peacekeeping.

Notice how the peace activists assumed the possibility that Iraq had active nuclear weapons. But what they were right about, to some extent, was the financial cost. The good news is that that money is being spent to advance Iraqi society, not just to rebuild it.

“No one should find the need to take his marbles and go home just because of one issue (gay marriage). As one who has fought the dragons of leftist public policies for several years, I can attest to the old adage that ‘there is strength in numbers.’ The political left in our nation succeeds because they remain united around a core conviction – big government, while conservatives and libertarians splinter in the pursuit of ideological purity on every issue. This is insanity. Anyone who would question the dedication to conservative principles of David Horowitz and George Will, for example, because they offer a different perspective on the issue of gays, is out of his friggin’ mind. And, I can’t put it more eloquently than that. Please, please, please at this moment of national crisis on so many issues, let’s not fracture our conservative/libertarian family over one issue.” – Ward Connerly, president, American Civil Rights Institute, tireless campaigner against affirmative action.

A blog asks some tough questions of the anti-war activist.

“I enjoyed the item on Viggo Mortensen, who is a terrific actor. But I wonder if it ever occurs to many of these Hollywood types that there is a certain irony (if not hypocrisy) in the sheer number of them who take on roles that stress the need to fight for things like honor, loyalty, freedom and country, and their public stance that all war is evil, and the Iraq war in particular – a war that is being fought to help an oppressed citizenry take back their country from an evil and brutal dictator – is wrong and unnecessary.
In just the past few months, we’ve had Mortensen once again playing the fearless warrior Aragorn in “Lord of the Rings,” Tom Cruise as a Civil War soldier who finds himself drawn to the warrior ways of the samurai in “The Last Samurai,” Russell Crowe as a brave and charismatic ship’s captain in “Master and Commander” and even Tommy Lee Jones as an avenging grandfather who battles renegade Indians in order to save his kidnapped granddaughter. You have to wonder if actors, as they’re playing these characters, ever stop to think about the implications of the stories they’re helping to tell. Do they ever question their “war is always bad, violence is never the answer” ideology? Do they perhaps stop to think that, as these movies vividly demonstrate, evil does exist in the world and sometimes the only way to combat it is for good and honorable men (and women) to use violence to overcome it?” – more feedback on the Letters Page.

“Bush, Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden, they are all terrorists,” – historian Howard Zinn, at Harvard.

My former – and much loved – professor stirs it up again at Harvard as only he can.

The Bush administration’s fiscal profligacy is beginning to prompt real divisions in Republican ranks. It should.

KRUGMAN CRITICIZES DEMOCRATS: Yes, it’s a “to-be-sure”-ism. But it’s the first time in memory that the unhinged columnist has made even the smallest gesture of equal treatment. What got into him?

MORE ON ROBESON: I’ve been reading more about Paul Robeson. I hope my criticism of his support for Stalin is seen in the context of my deep admiration for his standing up against the monstrous crimes of Jim Crow and segregation. I think he deserves honor for this alone. He was almost wilfully blind to the evils of Soviet Communism, but perhaps the brutalizing experience of many African-Americans in his lifetime provides some exculpatory context. (It makes Bayard Rustin’s liberal integrity even more striking.) I also note this:

In March, 1956, after Khrushchev outlines Stalin’s crimes against humanity, Robeson suffers an emotional collapse. Over a two-month period, he swings from a manic state to a severe depression.

He had a powerful conscience and enormous courage. But he was desperately wrong about Stalin. Pity it took Kruschev to tell him what had been obvious for decades.

Here’s a viewpoint with which I wholeheartedly agree. It’s a defense of Donald Rumsfeld’s use of the English language. He was given an award for mangling the language by the Plain English Campaign. But there are very, very few politicians who speak as plainly and simply and strongly as Rumsfeld. His directness about the awful nature of war was a high-point in recent government speech. You may not like what he has to say, but it’s rare that you don’t understand what he’s saying.

DERBYSHIRE WATCH: Defenders of John Derbyshire at National Review argue that he simply holds arguments against homosexual relationships or sex and is not “anti-gay” or prejudiced. This despite the fact that he has in the past simply avowed that he doesn’t “like” homosexuality. Look, it’s a free country. Derbyshire should be free to like or dislike whatever he wants. But these are not arguments. They’re, well, prejudices. Then he writes something like this: “The goatee is an abomination, and engenders a cloud of suspicion about the wearer’s sexual orientation.” I’m not defending the goatee. And I understand he’s trying to make a jocular comment. But, even in the context of jest, this is a simple, bald declaration that someone’s orientation alone – their involuntary identity, not anything they might or might not do – is “suspicious.” Again, imagine if someone had written that he despised beards because they “engender a cloud of suspicion about the wearer’s possible Jewishness.” Would anyone pass this off as simply humor? Would any serious person publish it? Is National Review endorsing this? And they wonder why “social conservatives have been losing the political debate over gay marriage.”

CLEARING THINGS UP: I was disturbed by the idea that Dan Bartlett had seemingly invented out of thin, atmospheric air the notion that Air Force One had had some contact with a BA airplane en route to Afghanistan. It seemed to confirm for a while the notion that this White House is as stupidly and trivially as duplicitous as the last one. So it’s a relief to hear that’s not the case. When Dana Milbank concedes the issue, I think it’s basically over.