Month: March 2006

A reader came across this charming food product in a Massachusetts supermarket and, for some reason, wanted me to see it. I should have told him to send it to Mickey. It’s a soup, apparently.

Time magazine editor, Jim Kelly, threw a party for this blog yesterday evening. Gawker was there. I had a blast, as did my "altitudinous" boyfriend. Yep, he’s 6′ 5". Thanks, Jim. Thanks, Time. It was quite a scene.

Michael Totten continues his blog tour of Kurdish Iraq, visiting the town, Baria (above), that Zarqawi had made his home base before the invasion. One of the least remarked on moments in the pre-war was when the U.S. had a clear chance to kill Zarqawi and destroy his operation and the president punted. A military strike would have complicated pre-war diplomacy (or so I was told after the fact by a ‘senior government official’). So one U.S. president was handed bin Laden on a plate and turned it down. And his successor was offered a clear shot at Zarqawi and he walked away. Just saying. Zarqawi was an Islamist monster, of course. Money quote:

"’Did you live here when the village was occupied by Zarqawi?’

‘I did,’ he said. ‘Life wasn’t good. We had no freedom. TV was banned. Women couldn’t walk outside without an abaya. There was violence. Anyone not affiliated with them was treated badly. During prayer time everyone was required to go to the mosque. If we didn‚Äôt go we were insulted and fined 50 dollars.’"

Zarqawi turned the local mosque into his headquarters, trashing it, and trying to install plumbing for a restroom. Michael asks a Kurd at the mosque a difficult question:

"I braced myself. ‘How do you feel about the U.S. bombing this mosque?‚Äù I said.

‘I don‚Äôt know,’ he said, as if he had never even pondered the question. ‘It’s okay, I suppose. I am grateful. If they had not done it this place would still be a toilet.’"

There’s blasphemy and then there’s Zarqawi.

(Photo: Michael Totten.)

A classic from the old codger:

"Q. Andrew Sullivan seems to not like you, handing out Derbyshire Award Nominations in mockery of you. Any idea how that started? Like, did you run over his dog?

John Derbyshire: My private theory is that he is trying to make himself sexually attractive to me in some way I don’t really understand. I have had trouble with homosexuals all my life, I don’t know why. They can be very persistent.

Q. When he’s finished handing out Derbyshire Award Nominations, will you be at the award ceremony to present the Derbyshire Award?

A. I don’t think so. I’d get flustered, having his eyes on me all the time.

Q. I heard that you got Andrew Sullivan fired from the NY Times by spreading rumors that he is gay. Is there any truth to what I just made up?

A. You seem to have some kind of obsession with Andrew Sullivan. Why is that?

Q. It’s now well known that you were an uncredited thug in a Bruce Lee movie. What exactly does a thug have to do to get credit?

A. See?—Sullivan, Sullivan, Sullivan. I really think you have issues here."

I should say I have given up trying to get mad at Derbyshire. The interview is hilarious.

The discussion we’ve been having about sexuality and Islam is fascinating. Keep the emails coming. Here’s one that’s worth airing:

"I have been to Turkey several times. The first time I visited, I was shocked by the reaction I elicited simply from my appearance. I’m a six foot tall middle-aged man with blue eyes and blond hair. Anyone who has been to Turkey, knows the importance of "the blue eye", or "nazar boncuk". An amulet to ward off evil. You see them everywhere. I was told that I had nothing to fear in Turkey, because of my eyes. I wasn’t so sure.

The Grand Bazaar is an enormous semi-outdoor market, with hundreds of little booths, selling everything from rugs to spices. There are virtually no women. The entrance is a long sloping ramp, from which one is visable to nearly the entire market. As I walked down that ramp, a near total silence fell over the crowd. Then there a buzzing murmer of male voices, which  I tried to tell myself wasn’t directed at me.

During that afternoon, I was flirted with, offered dinner invitations, a place to stay the night, a free rug, and  (if I’m not mistaken), even one rug vendors nephew. No-one was rude exactly (except in their assumptions), and I’d be lying if I said  that I wasn’t flattered in a way. However, knowing the repressive rules of Islam, I couldn’t help but be amazed at the complete openess of their behavior. I don’t appear in any way gay, unless blue/blond is considered fair game in the Arab world.

My friends refused to believe me, until they saw it first hand. I went back with a couple from Spain. Brown eyes, black hair. We went to the Bazaar, and it happened again exactly as I had described it to them. Their jaws dropped."

No luck for a bald guy with brown eyes?

For a while now, Stanley Kurtz has been making a career out of arguing that greater and greater legal recognition of same-sex couples in Europe has caused a decline in marriage as an institution as a whole. Jonathan Rauch has been patiently tackling these arguments, and we’ve come, I’d say, to a pivotal moment. I think Kurtz’s arguments have essentially collapsed. But make your own mind up.

Omar has a helpful update on the exasperatingly fruitless – so far – negotiations to form a new Iraqi government. I have to say how unimpressive the performance of Iraq’s elites has been so far. On the brink of civil war, they still cannot concede the slightest thing to the other side. Maybe this is a consequence of living for so long in a society where most important things were decided by brutal violence and sectarian division. I just hope their learning curve improves. The news – especially about the infiltration of the police forces by Shiite militias – continues to be dreadful.

(Photo: Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty)

In the latest New Yorker, Michael Specter has a positively chilling story on how theoconservatives and Christianists have waged a quiet war against some critical vaccines, especially against Human papillomavirus or HPV. A vaccine exists against this virus that would drastically reduce the numbers of cervix cancer cases. The religious right opposes it as a mandatory childhood vaccination, because it removes a disincentive to having sex:

"Religious conservatives are unapologetic; not only do they believe that mass use of an HPV vaccine or the availability of emergency contraception will encourage adolescents to engage in unacceptable sexual behavior; some have even stated that they would feel similarly about an H.I.V. vaccine, if one became available.  ‘We would have to look at that closely,’ Reginald Finger, an evangelical Christian and a former medical adviser to the conservative political organization Focus on the Family, said.  ‘With any vaccine for H.I.V., disinhibition’ – a medical term for the absence of fear – ‘would certainly be a factor, and it is something we will have to pay attention to with a great deal of care.’ Finger sits on the Centers for Disease Control’s Immunization Committee, which makes those recommendations."

Specter has a Q and A about the article here. These people would rather people die of AIDS and cancer than do anything to "encourage" sexuality. And they have the cojones to call the Democrats the "party of death."

Glenn Reynolds’ libertarian side has begun to temper his Jacksonian impulses lately. More, please!

Most of the Western media didn’t publish any of the Danish cartoons for fear of upsetting readers, provoking violence, or whatever reason they came up with. Even when the cartoons prompted international violence, even when art critics attacked them in mainstream papers, almost all editors decided that their readers did not actually need to know what the entire story was about; and it wasn’t the editors’ job to provide readers with information. But not every editor in the world thought that way. Some in the Arab-Muslim world acted as journalists, and are now in jail or at risk of imprisonment, or even execution. Here’s the story of one. He was simply doing his job – and is paying a terrible price. So many in the West refused to do theirs. So here’s to the eight journalists in five countries. Thanks for your courage and example.