Month: December 2003

A French cartoonist hits another low point in Yankenfreude.

FIRING LINGUISTS: Some thirty-seven linguists – many of them fluent in Arabic – have been thrown out of the military during the war on terror because they’re gay. Way to go, guys!

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Am I saying that critics of the war aren’t patriotic? Not at all – I’m a critic of some aspects of the war. What I’m saying is that those who try to paint the bleakest, most anti-American, and most anti-Bush picture of the war, whose purpose is not criticism but deception in order to gain temporary political advantage, those people are indeed not patriotic. They have placed their own or their party’s political gain ahead of the national struggle to destroy the power base of the terrorists who attacked Americans abroad and on American soil.” – sci-fi writer, Orson Scott Card.

“Suddenly everyone stood – began to applaud – to cheer – and to smile. The children waved. In a box to the right – smiling and applauding the audience – as well as the artists on the stage – stood the great Stalin. I remember the tears began to quietly flow. and I too smiled and waved. Here was clearly a man who seemed to embrace all. So kindly – I can never forget that warm feeling of kindliness and also a feeling of sureness. Here was one who was wise and good – the world and especially the socialist world was fortunate indeed to have his daily guidance. I lifted high my son Pauli to wave to this world leader, and his leader. For Paul, Jr. had entered school in Moscow, in the land of the Soviets… In all spheres of modern life the influence of Stalin reaches wide and deep. From his last simply written but vastly discerning and comprehensive document, back through the years, his contributions to the science of our world society remain invaluable. One reverently speaks of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin – the shapers of humanity’s richest present and future.
Yes, through his deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage. Most importantly – he has charted the direction of our present and future struggles. He has pointed the way to peace – to friendly co-existence – to the exchange of mutual scientific and cultural contributions – to the end of war and destruction. How consistently, how patiently, he labored for peace and ever increasing abundance, with what deep kindliness and wisdom. He leaves tens of millions all over the earth bowed in heart-aching grief.
But, as he well knew, the struggle continues. So, inspired by his noble example, let us lift our heads slowly but proudly high and march forward in the fight for peace – for a rich and rewarding life for all.” – Paul Robeson, eulogizing one of the worst mass murderers in human history. Would anyone who had written such things about Hitler in 1945 now be celebrated on a postage stamp?

SONTAG AWARD NOMINEE: “At the beginning of the book, he (Yeats) has married “George” Hyde Lees and is receiving supernatural messages through her trance-like writing. These stem from a group known as the Instructors, who inform the poet that the child with whom his wife is pregnant will be the Avatar whom the world needs for its salvation. (The son in question is still alive, but so far has shown no signs of any plan to assassinate Bush).” – Terry Eagleton, The Nation, December 8.

Should we be that surprised that the Alliance for Marriage, the anti-gay group organizing to pass the FMA, has joined forces with a terror-supporting Islamic group? I wish I could be surprised.

Did the former president really say that his goal in the Middle East was to reach “a final solution”? No wonder Arafat liked him.

Here’s a quote of his from Hardball:

Also, we have less-fewer levers much the key, I believe, to Iran is pressure through the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is supplying much of the equipment that Iran, I believe, most likely is using to set itself along the path of developing nuclear weapons. We need to use that leverage with the Soviet Union and it may require us to buying the equipment the Soviet Union was ultimately going to sell to Iran to prevent Iran from them developing nuclear weapons.

The Soviet Union?? Not just once but three times? If Dubya had said this, all hell would have broken loose. It’s an astonishing lapse – and the incoherent grammar only adds to the impression of rank amateurism. Yes, I know Dean means Russia. But anyone who cannot distinguish between Russia and the Soviet Union has no business running for president of the United States.

The alliance is a natural one. Christopher Caldwell, in a must-read despatch from France, notes how the anti-globalization dreamers of the Euro-left are now riding a tiger that may eventually devour them. Their newest vihicle is an organization called the Social Forum. It’s a merging of various Ayatollahs with various Michael Moores:

This linkage takes many forms. Muslims were hugely overrepresented among the Social Forum’s delegates; they even comprised a large chunk–perhaps a majority–of the American speakers. Perhaps this is unsurprising given the role played in this radical ideology by the American occupation of Iraq (universally opposed) and Palestinian terror against Israel (almost universally supported). The Arab world’s case tends to get made in red-meat terms, as it was at a rally I attended in a mud-ringed, marijuana-smelling tent in St. Denis. The antiwar Scots member of parliament George Galloway had the audience roaring its approval when he expressed his hopes that George W. Bush would be buggered by one of Prince Charles’s servants during his forthcoming state visit to Britain, and the American delegate Rahul Mahjane direly warned that the occupation of Iraq would resemble–horror of horrors–“what the United States did to Germany after World War II.” The yearnings of radical Muslims are now at the core of the Social Forum’s universe. They have jostled aside the left-wing economics and focus on global markets that once dominated.

The real common thread? Hatred of the Jews. Caldwell’s piece reads like a letter from Weimar Germany. Can France really be sliding into another collapse?

CLEFT ABORTION: A new twist in the case of a six-month old unborn child aborted because the baby had a cleft palate. An Anglican curate has just won the right to challenge the cops’ refusal to prosecute the doctors who aborted the baby. Such frivolous abortions are illegal in Britain after 24 weeks.

Blair gets his policy changes. Here’s one expert last week with an insightful take on the Bush-Blair relationship:

Blair had been put into the position of having to appear before the president as petitioner. He asked for relief on U.S. tariffs (Bush had raised them on steel in an election play to steel-producing states, a move earlier rejected by Clinton); for rendering British prisoners at Guantánamo to Britain; and for substantive U.S. pressure on the Israel-Palestine peace process. But Blair was rebuffed.

Or maybe Sid Blumenthal just had the wrong sources.

BLOGS AND SPORTS: The web broke the news of Curt Schillings’ arrival at the Red Sox. Old media, watch out.

I’d say that the case for honoring the legendary actor, singer and athlete, Paul Robeson, is pretty strong on purely personal and artistic grounds. As a campaigner against racism, Robeson’s legacy is an important one. But it remains the case that Robeson was an avid support of Stalin long after the mass murderer’s crimes against humanity were known and acknowleged. Robeson was a full-fledged apologist for the Stalinist terror and even refused to condemn Stalin’s pact with Hitler. If he’d been a staunch supporter of Hitler and backed the Fuhrer in the pact, do you think we’d be honoring him today? Or is a Father Coughlin stamp coming out soon? Here’s how the Washington Post describes the late communist:

Also being released early in 2004 will be the 27th stamp in the Black Heritage series, which will honor actor, singer, civil rights activist and athlete Paul Robeson.
David Failor, executive director of stamp services for the Postal Service, said there was strong support from the public for a stamp honoring Robeson, who was labeled a subversive for his mid-century activism against racism and anti-Semitism.

No wonder Duranty kept his Pulitzer.

PRO-LIFE, PRO-GAY MARRIAGE: Another conservative sees the connection. The connection I’d draw more readily is affirmative action. I’m against affirmative action for exactly the same reason I’m for gay marriage: I think people should be treated equally by the government, regardless of characteristics they do not choose. The state has no right carving out special rights for racial minorities or sexual majorities, treating one group differently than another. There should be the same standards for all: academic excellence and emotional responsibility. We shouldn’t be saying tacitly that minority students can’t be expected to meet the standards; and for the same reason, we shouldn’t be telling gay couples that their relationships are somehow inherently and civilly inferior to straight ones. You could call this argument conservative, I suppose. But it is basically liberal: limited government with equal treatment, so far as possible, for all its citizens. (Heads up: I’ll be debating the issue of marriage rights at Fordham University in the Bronx on Wednesday night at the Keating First auditorium at 6.30 pm. I’ll also be talking about friendship to a joint meeting between Colgate University’s gay group and its College Republicans tomorrow night at the campus chapel at 7 pm. The joint invitation is a first, and I’m delighted to accept it. Everyone welcome.)

“Here’s why marriage will likely survive last week’s crushing decision out of Massachusetts: Because despite all the horrors of Section 4, above, human beings want and deserve a soul mate; someone to grow old with, someone who thinks our dopey entry in the New Yorker cartoon competition is hilarious, and someone to help carry the shopping bags. Gay couples have asked the state to explain why such privileges should be denied them and have yet to receive an answer that is credible.” – from Dahlia Lithwick’s superb evisceration of the “defense of marriage” rhetoric.

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “My daughter was born with a cleft palate. We where shocked and saddened when she was born. We had no idea. Had we known it would never have occurred to us to abort our child. She had five surgeries before her 5th birthday. She is now a 19 year old college sophomore, studying engineering after graduating from high school with honors. She is a beautiful young lady and doesn’t suffer from lack of attention from the opposite sex. She has brought us great pain and great joy, as every child does to every parent. She will soon be a productive, well adjusted, tax paying adult and I couldn’t be prouder.
We are traveling a slippery slope, Andrew. How soon before someone argues that children, after birth, are not really viable until ‘X’ age? The right to choose begins in the bedroom (or back seat) not after the fact.” – more feedback on the Letters Page.

Aelred of Rievaulx is generally believed to have lived from 1109 to 1167. That makes him twelfth century, not tenth century. I should have double-checked.