Month: June 2007

A lesson in how not to Youtube. Cracked me up, though:

"While I have specific criticisms for all of them, my common critique of Bushian compassionate conservatism, Brooksian National Greatness, Buchananism and Crunchy Conservatism is the common sense of crusade to all of them. There are times for crusades, to be sure. But I don’t think conservatism should ever be redefined as one lest it become just another populist fever. And I’ll go a step further. The reason Bush pushed me toward libertarianism is because I think any agenda built on the logic of the crusade is either doomed to failure or destined to be very un-conservative. It’s in the nature of things that you will always leave some children behind," – Jonah Goldberg, NRO.

It’s a refreshing change to find myself in total agreement with Jonah, but I suspect that recent political skirmishing has tended to disguise a great deal of what we have in common philosophically. Ross responds here. Larison gets frustrated. And Rod "Crunchy Con" Dreher deepens the paleo-crunchy over-lap. James Poulos summarizes the ongoing debate here. Tip for Ross: the phrase "crunchy condom" might not be the best neologism.

The latest from Giuliani:

"No, I don’t think a cancer patient should use marijuana. There are other options."

And we should care what Giuliani thinks … why? Meanwhile, Mark Steyn walks back his New Hampshire comment.

A reader writes:

You have never been willing to publicly address the fact that Arabs have not and cannot govern themselves in democratic fashion. And, you continue to hammer away at America with these cheap shots. American soldiers have not "precipitated genocide" in Iraq. American soldiers are not in Iraq blowing innocent people up. (And, if it happens that American soldiers are guilty of harming civilians, it was either an accident, or the aberrant behavior of a psychotic. I could go on for another paragraph qualifying this qualifying parenthetical comment, but I hope that’s not necessary. The point is, the overwhelming majority of American soldiers sincerely want to do the right thing.)

What cause is ever so ‘just’ that it requires the deliberate, calculated destruction of innocent human life? Suicide bombers were not precipitated by American soldiers. They were precipitated by a willing population of angry, desensitized Muslim fanatics, consumed with hatred for outsiders, for infidels, and eerily possessed by a longing for glory — and group sex — in the hereafter.

The Arab muslim logic has always been as follows: if you (meaning infidels) were not in our country, nothing bad would happen. Any American worker who has ever been in an accident in Saudi Arabia, and perhaps any other Arab country knows, that if they are involved in an automobile accident that they are guilty, even if it is patently obvious that the offending party was the native Arab.

We like to think of Iraqis as educated. Secular. That was no doubt part of the reason we decided to invade. Maybe these Arabs can be our friends, we thought.  But that’s not  going to happen. These Arabs will not, we have found, rat out their own. There are no laws outside of the extended Muslim family. And the sheikh rules that family. Individuals trapped in this feudal closet can never take it upon themselves to make a "citizen’s arrest" in the name of justice and humanity.  That would be suicide. 

And it would be as foolish a concept as trying to establish a democracy in an all-Islamic nation. 

Free political discourse. 
A vibrant economy.
Islam.

Pick two.

Barack should be leery of Maureen Dowd’s advice, says Tom Bevan. I’d split the difference myself. I don’t think Obama should go for Hillary’s jugular. It’s not his style. But when she seems more anecdotal and conversational than he does (and she has recently), he needs to play down the seminar and pump up the sermon. But he shouldn’t over-think it or try too hard. The great gift Obama has is that, compared to everyone else, he seems like a real human being. Over-calculated rhetoric could derail one of his best assets. In the end, he has to hope others will see through the fathomless phoniness of HRC.

What an embarrassment for London. Not only is the Olympics logo epilepsy-inducing, it’s beyond ugly. The best summary:

"It looks as if the 80s has thrown up into 2012."

A reader writes:

You wrote:

"I don’t see how Darfur liberals can be so blithely indifferent to a looming genocide in Iraq that we have precipitated, while urging intervening to mitigate one elsewhere."

I think it goes something like this:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.

Iraq is beyond our ability to help. The likely genocide that is to follow was set in motion very early on in this war and our lingering there will do nothing to change that. Our presence there may be making things worse at this point because what resistance the Sunni could muster against that potential atrocity is spending it’s energy fighting us. On the other hand, there’s much that we could do in Darfur with even a modest effort.

Just no ground troops, please.

Cheney’s circle speaks.

The multinational company acquiesces in and enforces the oppression and segregation of women. Man, it’s a depressing story. So here’s something back at the Saudis, the Taliban, al Qaeda, and every vicious, woman-hating Islamist out there: a celebration of the beauty of unveiled women through the aeons of Western art. Check it out, it’s gorgeous.

Rudy decides to skip the Iowa straw poll in August.