Month: September 2006

The fifth former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has publicly come out in opposition to the president’s bill to amend the Geneva Convention to allow torture. But Dick Cheney knows better, doesn’t he?

A reader writes:

Your quote:

"All these years later, the end-result is a Texan president who hasn’t seen a civil liberty…"

If your use of the word Texan here is relevant in this context then it must be perjorative. I enjoy your column but can’t help but be offended by your occasional generalizations when it comes to my state.

Please realize that all Texans do not hate civil liberties and some are even willing to fight to make sure that Texans and non-Texans alike may enjoy them.  Just ask Mr. John Lawrence.

Furthermore, remember that New Haven-born Dubya was raised by a Connecticut family that spent summers vacationing in Maine.  He was "educated" at the Phillips Academy (Andover, MA), followed by Yale University (New Haven, CT), followed by Harvard (Cambridge, MA). The man may have lived in Midland but the mold of the man is pure New England. Do not be fooled like the rest by the boots, bird hunts, Crawford ranch, and embellished southern accent. That’s all about the politics. If you want to know about Texas and Texans then spend some time learning a bit about Ann Richards. Andrew, she was a Texan.

The pope was right to do so, even though he could have been more politic and accurate. In that vein, good for the former Archbishop of Canterbury:

Lord Carey said that Muslims must address "with great urgency" their religion’s association with violence. He made it clear that he believed the "clash of civilisations" endangering the world was not between Islamist extremists and the West, but with Islam as a whole.

"We are living in dangerous and potentially cataclysmic times," he said. "There will be no significant material and economic progress [in Muslim communities] until the Muslim mind is allowed to challenge the status quo of Muslim conventions and even their most cherished shibboleths."

Arguing that [Sam] Huntington’s thesis has some ‘validity’, Lord Carey quoted him as saying: "Islam’s borders are bloody and so are its innards. The fundamental problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilisation whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power." Lord Carey went on to argue that a "deep-seated Westophobia" has developed in recent years in the Muslim world.

Ressentiment under Allah: a toxic brew indeed.

A reader writes:

First off, good on Nyhan for sticking to his guns. Second, I recommend that Sam Rosenfeld take a good, long look in the mirror. His acquiescence to the true believers besieging his e-mail server is more odious than those true believers themselves, and they’re stinkier than a horde of Visigoths. Nyhan sums it up perfectly:

…while TAP can choose to (almost) exclusively criticize conservatives, isn’t open and honest debate a value that liberals prize? Is it appropriate to largely ignore one side while jumping on virtually any misstatement from the other?

Self-criticism and honest inquiry are hallmarks of the liberal mindset. Bloggers like Atrios apply filters to their facts and judge dissent and criticism as the height of disloyalty, a crime punishable by ridicule and financial ruin.  Schopenhauer’s point about taking care not to become the beast you fight is eerily apt. In their fanatical drive for unity and victory, they risk becoming what they hate.

Eric Hoffer once wrote, "The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without." This could not be more true of anyone, Right or Left – we all have the propensity. Once we stop accepting criticism as an opportunity to reflect and evaluate, we become less. The only way we can avoid doubt within and retain our humanity and honesty is to weather the slings and arrows that come our way, using reason as our shield. Going on the offensive, by calling someone ‘wanker of the day’ for example, isn’t the act of someone confident in their opinions. It‚Äôs the act of a coward afraid of his own shadow of doubt.

I’ll be on Anderson Cooper’s CNN show tonight, after his exclusive interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

That 30-second clip from "The 4400" depicting "waterboarding" has been removed from YouTube. Not sure why. Probably because it’s a clip from a TV show and the network decided it wasn’t "fair use." Sorry. Hiding the truth about what the government is doing is integral to this administration’s successful use of illegal torture. If anyone finds any other video dramatizations of the Bush-authorized techniques – "cold cells" and "waterboarding" particularly – please email them. As we saw at Abu Ghraib, hideous violence can be made to sound inane through euphemism. Photos bring the truth home. That’s why the images are kept from you. And in a free society, the media exists to propagate them. And, before Malkinians blog-swarm me, I have also shown and linked to the evil of Islamist violence and torture as well.

First, it seemed the House Judiciary Committee voted down the Bush torture bill. Now I hear that Jim Sensenbrenner cracked the whip and eked out a tiny majority. Here’s Reuters:

In an abrupt reversal, a U.S. House of Representatives committee narrowly voted on Wednesday to endorse President George W. Bush’s plan for tough interrogations and trials of foreign terrorism suspects after Republicans rounded up enough members.

About an hour earlier, the House Judiciary Committee rejected Bush’s plan, with three Republicans joining committee Democrats. Embarrassed Republicans then summoned absent members, called for another vote, and approved it 20-19.

It’s called winning ugly. This internecine struggle cannot be quite what Rove had in mind. Stay tuned.

South Pole Station, sunrise. Yes, I have a reader on the South Pole. The "day" there lasts a very long time this time of year.

As I write, the entire print-run of my forthcoming book, The Conservative Soul, is being pulped or trashed. A horrible printing error spliced half of the fifth chapter into the middle of the sixth, rendering the entire second half of the book incomprehensible. Many of the books were ok, but so many – thousands of them – weren’t that we had no option but to start over, or risk the integrity of the text. All copies that were shipped are being recalled from booksellers. This is every writer’s nightmare – especially as I discovered the error myself while re-reading the book late one night last week and couldn’t believe my eyes. But it has a relatively happy ending. With the speed of today’s print technology, the publishing date has been moved back only a week – to October 10. The review galleys were fine, mercifully. If you pre-ordered by Amazon, fear not. Nothing has shipped yet and the entire batch will be replaced. But if you got an advance, published, finished book, you’ll soon be getting a replacement and an apology. My apologies on behalf of my publisher and printer. But we caught it in time; and the final product will have the pages in the right order.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution opposes the president’s policy.