Month: February 2006

That’s the number of blogs now in existence. The blogosphere is doubling in size every five and a half months. And I can remember five and a half years ago … They grow up so fast these days.

… and now Howard Stern. This morning the shock-jock apparently endorsed Mickey’s favorite movie. Here’s one account:

Last night [Howard] thought about masturbating but decided to watch "Brokeback Mountain" instead. Howard said he tried to watch that "Wife Swap" show but it was horrible. Artie said he tried watching "The Bachelor" and he doesn’t know how Howard can stand it because it’s so bad.

Howard said that "Brokeback Mountain" might be one of the best movies he’s ever seen. There’s one ass scene that doesn’t last all that long. The movie is a very moving love story and he wishes that they would force the religious right fanatics to watch it to show what happens when gays are forced to remain closeted. He told Artie that he would like the movie if he saw it. Artie figures that the producers of the movie must love that Howard is giving his blessing on the movie. Howard said the movie was so good that he couldn’t turn it off.

I’m waiting for Bill O’Reilly to have the balls to watch it.

Fouad Ajami is on form today:

"Hitherto, we had granted the Arab world absolution from the laws of historical improvement. We had ceded it a crippling ‘exceptionalism.’ We explained away our complicity in its historical decay as the price paid for access to its oil, and as the indulgence owed some immutable "Islamic" tradition. To be fair, we could not find our way to its politically literate classes, for they were given to a defective political tradition. American power now ventures into uncharted territory; we have shaken up that world, and broken the pact with tyranny. In the shadow of American power, ordinary men and women who had known nothing but the caprice of rulers and the charlatanism of intellectual classes have gone out to proclaim that tyranny is neither fated, nor ‘written.’"

Fouad is right, as he often is. And that’s why the cartoon controversy, pace Hugh Hewitt, is good for the war on terror. One massive supporting pillar of Jihadism has been the West’s refusal to treat the Islamic world as it would any other part of the world. If Chinese radicals were ransacking Western embassies because of a cartoon, and were backed by the Chinese government, we would be outraged, demanding apologies, severing relations, and so on. But when Muslims do it, backed by Islamist governments, we are supposed to take it on the chin, to "respect" their religious traditions, issue mealy-mouthed statements, etc. In many ways, this is the real offense: treating Muslims as if their violation of global norms, and thralldom to medieval conceptions of politics and religion, were somehow acceptable. They are not acceptable. Islam must reform itself if it is to have a proud and noble place again among the great religions of the world. Muslim countries must allow freedom of religion for other faiths – and allow their citizens free votes in free elections. Dabbling in Holocaust denial by a current government should be treated as a form of insanity or fascism, rather than as some kind of thing to be "understood". Those who are addicted to the narcotic of religious fanaticism do not need enabling or excuses. They need an intervention. Especially when they are on the verge of wielding nuclear weapons. 

An update on the war to punish Coca Cola for fat kids.

The latest poll of international attitudes toward America and other states. Only Iran is less popular than the US. But Africans are much more positive – an effect, I’d say, of this administration’s admirable attempt to ameliorate the global AIDS epidemic.

"This administration reacts to anyone who questions this illegal program by saying that those of us who demand the truth and stand up for our rights and freedoms somehow has a pre-9/11 world view. In fact, the President has a pre-1776 world view. Our government has three branches, not one. And no one, not even the President, is above the law." – Senator Russ Feingold, TPM.

Watching the hearings in the early hours, I was certainly impressed with Gonzales’ unflappable calm and pleasant demeanor. I was also convinced that this program is not just about national security. The way it was implemented and the manner in which it is being defended represent a calculated decision within the White House to use this war as a golden opportunity to expand executive power for a generation. There’s nothing unconstitutional about that – and the hearings struck me as an almost text-book case of one branch of government bristling up against another. But that also means that those liberals and, indeed, small government conservatives, who worry about individual liberty in this country need not apologize for fighting back. And they absolutely shouldn’t be intimidated by the thought that they might be endangering national security. This isn’t about the program; it’s about how it’s being conducted and authorized. Karl Rove is intent on erasing that distinction. The rest of us have to keep insisting that he fail.

"Nothing in Al Gonzales’s public statements, legislative proposals or anything else suggests that this is an individual who operates outside of the political gyroscope of President Bush," – Bruce Fein, deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration. When will all these liberals stop criticizing our Great Leader?

They call for the arrest of some Islamist demonstrators who were clearly inciting murder.

It’s amazing to me that this part of the story hasn’t gotten more attention. The most inflammatory of the cartoons were faked – by Islamists. They conned the BBC for a while:

Twelve cartoons were originally published by Jyllands-Posten. None showed the Prophet with the face of a pig. Yet such a portrayal has circulated in the Middle East (The BBC was caught out and for a time showed film of this in Gaza without realizing it was not one of the 12).

This picture, a fuzzy grey photocopy, can now be traced back (suspicion having been confirmed by an admission) to a delegation of Danish Muslim leaders who went to the Middle East in November to publicise the cartoons. The visit was organised by Abu Laban, a leading Muslim figure in Denmark.

According to the Danish paper Ekstra Bladet, the delegation took along a pamphlet showing the 12 drawings. But the delegation also showed a number of other pictures, including the "pig" one. The delegation claimed they were the sort of insults that Muslims in Denmark had to endure. These also got into circulation.

Here’s the source for one of the cartoons: from the French Pig-Squealing Championships in Trie-sur-Baise’s annual festival. Much of this controversy has been deliberately created by Islamists to polarize the world and to intimidate Western governments. Another reason to expose it for what it is.

At National Review. Here and here. They’re directed for the cheapest of political points with respect to Senator John McCain, who suffered incredible torture at the hands of the Viet Cong for the sake of his country.