Category: Old Dish

Here’s a link to the South Africa decision on marriage rights. I’ve also fixed a posting below that called Gary Becker a law professor. He’s an economist. And a note about my Buchanan posting. My point is not that Buchanan is contemplating a conversion to Islam, although that would be fascinating. It’s just that he obviously admires the muscularity of the Jihadists’ religious politics. His lament is that Christians are not as tough. Buchanan likes nothing more than conflict, and a good civilizational conflict between Christian and Muslim theocrats would doubtless thrill him. And from 9/11 onwards, many members of the religious right have indeed opined that Islamist loathing of American “decadence” is partly deserved. The real war, however, is between liberty and theocrats of all kinds, between limited government and religious statism, between the American guarantee of freedom from government-imposed religion and the radical Muslim insistence of a fusion beween church and state. In this war, Buchanan is indeed on the opposing side.

Breaking news from South Africa: the Supreme Court of Appeal there has just ruled in favor of ending discrimination in marriage. The ruling was 4 – 1. Money quote:

“In terms of sections 8(3), 39(2) and 173 of the Constitution, the common law concept of marriage is developed to embrace same-sex partners as follows: ‘Marriage is the union of two persons to the exclusion of all others for life.'”

The decision could, in theory, be appealed to the Constitutional Court, which would have the final say, but they are considered likely to rule in favor of equality as well. The opinion, by the way, was written by the Honorable Edwin Cameron, an openly gay (and openly HIV-positive) judge on the court. I don’t have a link yet, but will post one as soon as I do. Canada, Belgium, Holland, South Africa are now lining up behind equality. Britain has just passed a bill guaranteeing all marital rights to gay couples under the rubric of “civil partnership.” Spain’s ruling in favor of full marriage rights is looming. In Massachusetts, it looks as if marriage equality is here to stay.

It was inevitable, I guess. But Richard Posner, one of the smartest men in the country, will now have a blog with fellow professor, Gary Becker. Most excellent.

Even Pat Sajak notices. Is Spielberg asleep? Is Valenti in a coma? Scorsese? Stone?

The BBC asked a bunch of ordinary Iraqis to describe their day. It’s a fascinating kaleidoscope. What I glean from it is great hope, marred by the obvious insecurity. Here’s a classic passage:

Come lunchtime, a few of us are avidly reading the Stars & Stripes, the US military newspaper. It is reported that US forces are now holding some 8,300 people in detention, with a recent increase of “4,000 as a result of assaults on insurgents in Samarra, Falluja, Mosul and north Babil province”. I think all of us found these numbers quite surprising and, we guess, encouraging.
I read in the news today about speculation that a lot of British forces may be transferred to Iraq from Northern Ireland. Hopefully, this will happen. When I overhear the US soldiers talking amongst themselves, getting more soldiers to forces into Iraq seems is a real necessity.

One reason for my anger over the last year or so has been the fact that this extraordinaryily important chance to turn around a whole region was being ruined by the administration’s refusal to police or plan the occupation adequately. To take on such an endeavor and refuse to give it the resources or care required – even when the need for many more troops was blindingly obvious from the beginning – is incomprehensible. It still is. But if these Iraqis can hope, so can we.

F.A.I.R. ON OIL-FOR-FOOD: A reader finds a classic piece of anti-war flim-flam from before the Iraq war – exonerating the U.N. oil-for-food program from criticism that it was corrupt and ineffective. Yep, it’s from “Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting.” Money quote:

The summer of 2001 saw a revival of long-discredited claims that sanctions are not to blame for Iraq’s suffering, but that Saddam Hussein bears sole responsibility–an argument put forward in a State Department report (8/99) issued shortly after the UNICEF report on the deaths of children. Seizing on the fact that infant mortality had decreased in northern Iraq, which is under U.N. administration, while more than doubling in the rest of the country, where the government of Iraq is in charge, the State Department accused Baghdad of wide-scale misappropriation of funds from Iraqi oil sales earmarked for humanitarian purposes.
Michael Rubin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who spent nine months as a private citizen in northern Iraq, has pushed this argument in at least eight op-eds in papers ranging from the Wall Street Journal (8/9/01) to the Los Angeles Times (8/12/01). These op-eds follow the same basic theme: Since conditions in the north of Iraq are much better than the rest of the country, Saddam must be taking oil-for-food money and using it to buy weapons; Iraqis don’t want sanctions lifted, they want Saddam out; the U.S. should support the overthrow of Saddam.
In fact, oil-for-food money is administered by the U.N., and disbursed directly from a U.S. bank account to foreign suppliers, so direct misappropriation of funds is impossible. Allegations about misappropriation of goods on the other end have repeatedly been denied by U.N. officials administering the program in Iraq (e.g. Denis Halliday, press release, 9/20/99), a fact that has garnered virtually no media coverage.

Should have believed the U.N., then, shouldn’t we?

Not as pro-Bush in Texas as we thought, apparently.

DERBYSHIRE AWARD NOMINEE: “To devout Muslims, what Europe offers is godless materialism and hedonism, a life devoid of meaning and purpose, save pleasure and self-indulgence. They prefer to do Allah’s bidding in this world to ensure they share his paradise in the next.
Undeniably, Islam is rising. And, like all rising faiths, it is intolerant. Disbelieving that all religions are equal – “There is one God, Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet” – Islam does not believe all faiths should be treated equally. Why should they be? If one has God’s revealed truth, why should one tolerate lies that lead to the damnation of the faithful?
In its new constitution, the European Union has declared Christianity a dead relic. What Islam is saying – with its militancy, its soaring birth rate, it steady replacement of dying Europeans with young Muslim immigrants – is: ‘Christianity may be your past, but we are your future.’
My money’s on the true believers.” – Patrick Buchanan’s latest column. I’ve been waiting for the social right in this country to start sympathizing with Islamic theocracy. Charles Colson blazed the trail recently. And you can see the glimmers of it in Buchanan’s piece – his preference for intolerant faiths, his disgust at secular Europe, his contempt for many of the things (feminism, gay rights, cultural pluralism) that the Islamists also hate. In the piece, he also calls Theo van Gogh the “Michael Moore” of Holland. But there is a difference between Moore’s anti-Western lies and van Gogh’s pro-Western truths.

Good news that Massachusetts’ civil marriages are not going to be dealt with by the Supreme Court – at least in the foreseeable future. Interesting that it’s the anti-gay forces that are now forcing the issue in the courts. And encouraging that federal suits – on both sides – may not get very far. We need to let one state digest its own reform before any federal meddling. There’s no legal or constititutional reason that Massachusetts’ marriages will be foisted on any state that doesn’t want them. Beware the hysterics who will tell you otherwise.

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “If one is to believe John Ezard’s account, Jean Moorcroft Wilson, a biographer of Siegfried Sassoon, demonstrates a truly astonishing ignorance of her own subject in touting the “discovery” that Siegfried Sassoon wrote naively jingoistic poetry before penning his famously acerbic anti-war lyrics. The newly unearthed poem might be news, but the evolution of Sassoon’s own attitude is most definitely not. Anybody with the slightest knowledge of Sassoon’s life and character, as chronicled in his own published memoirs and fiction, knows that he traversed the familiar arc of initial enthusiasm, deepening bitterness and cynicism, and eventual protest, writing memorable verse all the while. In fact, you don’t even have to read the prose: it’s right there in the published poetry too. Look at “Absolution,” an early sub-Rupert-Brooke effort in which Sassoon emits the opinion that “War is our scourge; yet war has made us wise,/And fighting for our freedom, we are free.” It didn’t take long for Sassoon to find his own voice: in “The Kiss,” written a few months later, the martial fury is tempered by darker untertones (the poem celebrates the bullet and the bayonet as “brother and sister,” and celebrates the latter’s “kiss” of the enemy soldier’s body). But the notion that Sassoon’s anti-war animus sprang full-grown out of nowhere is silly on its face, and I can attribute the needless attempt to refute this obviously dumb idea, and to advance an ill-considered and meaningless parallel between Sassoon’s personal journey and changes in the British public’s view of the Iraq war, only to an academic’s desperate quest for cheap notoriety.” More feedback on the smartest Letters Page on the web.

The spending bill passed last week – the one with the horrifying pork in it – was also notable for one other thing. The Bush administration finally got serious about domestic discretionary spending. The proposed increase in spending outside defense and homeland security was a relatively small one percent. Since I’ve banged on about this administration’s fiscal recklessness before, it behooves me to congratulate them on this needed, small step back toward sanity. More, please.

SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR: After the ugly fracas in Detroit, why not vote for Pat Tillman in Sports Illustrated’s online contest. Currently ranked third among voters’ choices, you can help push him to number one. He rises above the throng.

WORSE IN IRAN: Anyone who thinks the Tehran regime can be appeased or reformed by external or internal pressure should read this helpful reality check in the Washington Post today. I cannot see how Iran will be prevented from becoming a nuclear power short of military action.

Here’s the best and fairest take I’ve yet read on the ABC News’ 20/20 piece last Friday night.

ANOTHER HATE CRIME: This time self-inflicted – kinda – by Yalies.

EMAIL OF THE DAY I: “Homer Simpson has the middle initial J — as do Marge, Maggie, Bart and Lisa — because Matt Groening wanted to pay tribute to animation impresario Jay Ward, who combined extremely basic animation with some extremely sophisticated punning in ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle.'”

EMAIL OF THE DAY II: “I sent Harry Truman a birthday card when I was twelve; the year was 1970. I was lucky enough to get an autogrpahed thank you note from the 33rd President. It hangs in my office to this day. And on President Truman’s stationary there was no period after the “S”. Yes, I read what the Truman Library website had to say regarding the period — but I choose to side with the stationary. So to me, Andrew, you missed no period.” More feedback on the Letters Page.

PRO-WAR SASSOON: The Guardian reports on new evidence detailing Siegfried Sassoon’s shift from being a pro-war poet to one of history’s most passionate anti-war writers. The Iraq analogy is strained beyond measure. But we all contain multitudes. And it’s interesting to see one man’s literary evolution.

“The strongarm tactics used by the western stooge, Yushchenko, are typical of the anti-democratic processes set in motion by a rampant and militant Washington, crushed in the grip on a monetarist, neo-conservative crypto-fascist clique of elitists, whose corporate greed speaks louder than the mores of international diplomacy and whose thirst to dominate the world’s resources in the lifetimes of Rumsfeld and Cheney throws any moral concept into the trash bin.” – Pravda on the Ukraine election struggle.

QUOTE OF THE DAY II: “Well the fact that he’s a gay Republican means he should join the Democratic party.” – Jerry Falwell, echoing the religious right line on gay people in the GOP.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS: Believe it or not, there are Western diplomats who don’t like the idea of democracy taking root in Ukraine or of Ukraine joining the European Union. Here’s one former British diplomat in the Independent, replaying the old debate about the Soviet Union, now tinged with even more anti-Americanism:

Imagine an election in Mexico that produces a president favourable to the United States, as elections there have done for 70 years now. But this time international observers, God forbid, detect electoral abuse. Vladimir Putin demands a recount, a rerun. Consider the outcry in the US. Unthinkable? Not really. Has there ever been a really fraud-free election in Mexico? … It is time for Britain and for western Europe to get real. For too long now we have gone along with the idea that spreading democracy on our terms is all good. Where there is a real demand for it, we should do what we can to help; but democracy that grows out of the barrels of Western guns will not endure.

There is realism and there is cynicism. Clive Davis understands the difference.