Category: The Dish

They face the most severe oppression Islamism can dole out. But they are trying to organize and speak out. And you can show simple moral support by signing a petition of solidarity. I just did.

"The motives of the people who were going to produce this play Off-Broadway in New York are not adequately known and I think that they should be aired … But it highlights a larger phenomenon which is an international gangsterism towards the arts at this time. I consider the New York Times not publishing the cartoons about Mohammed to be an act of editorial cowardice and inappropriate – obviously it was major news – and this idea of it being ‘sensitive’ to religion, respectful to religion, not to air differences, not to air slurs, not to air slights, is just giving into intimidation of different kinds. Now the theatre in New York may not have been afraid that they were going to be killed, they may have been afraid they were going to lose funding from somebody, that I don’t know. But I do know there is intimidation across this country in the arts, where plays like "Grease" are being vetoed by local organizations as being too racy and cartoons are being called unworthy of publication because the sensitivities of people of a certain religion trumps the need of people of every persuasion to know. And I think it has to be looked at. There’s a certain degree of cowardice involved and I think people are going to have to get used to the idea that doing these things – like what happened to [documentary film maker Theo] Van Gogh in the Netherlands – may lead to them being killed," – John Patrick Shanley, author of the Tony-winning play, "Doubt."

A new study is out – and it finds, at the very least, that gay men and lesbians can be and often are at a minimum competent parents. The methodology only suggests rather than proves anything else (although it suggests that gays can be great parents). The bottom line is: Competent, loving parenting is better than no parenting. And that is the choice most kids adopted by gay couples now face. Give them a chance for a stable home. Give us all a chance.   

"Sides are being chosen, and the future of man hangs in the balance! The enemies of virtue may be on the march, but they have not won, and if we put our trust in Christ, they never will … It is for us then to do as our heroes have always done and put our faith in the perfect redeeming love of Jesus Christ," – Tom DeLay, in Washington yesterday. I have no idea where people could get the idea that the Republican party has been turned into a religious sect, do you?

The Belmont Club bloggers have spent much of the occupation excoriating those of us who have pointed out failures, setbacks or bad news. So it must be sobering that even Wretchard is now deeply concerned about the spiraling violence in Iraq. An Iraqi blogger explains the crisis:

The confusion and conflict between the Americans, the army and the Ministry of interior is producing a situation where the citizens don’t know anymore whether the security personnel in the street are friends, enemies, terrorists or simply criminals and thieves. Everybody is wearing the same uniforms. Whole sections of the city have virtually fallen to gangs and terrorists, and this is specially true for the "Sunni" dominated neighborhoods. People and businesses are being robbed and the employees kidnapped en mass in broad daylight and with complete ease as though security forces are non-existent, although we see them everwhere.

Security everywhere and nowhere. The Hobbesian world Rumsfeld unleashed and refused to contain has yet to be reined in.

(Photo: AP.)

More distressing news: they’ve just jailed two journalists merely for criticizing political leaders.

It’s a pro-life sculpture! Not sure about the bear, though.

It’s a word that sometimes accurately sums up the attitude of this president in wartime. And it sure does apply to former spokesman for the Iraq CPA, Dan Senor. Greg Djerejian explains. Colbert interview with Senor here.

You can read Charles Murray’s new book, "In Our Hands," in about an hour; you’ll be thinking about it for much longer. I’m not an expert in government accounting, so I defer to others in a professional assessment of the data, but, as usual, it’s an elegant and daring argument. The reason is that Charles essentially bifurcates the conservative insight into two arguments. The first is that government’s obligations be as limited as possible. The second is that where government is inescapably embedded in our lives, it place as many decisions and choices in the hands of citizen/consumers as possible – and out of the hands of bureaucrats and planners. Since many conservatives seem to have given up the dream of smaller government, Charles focuses on the second. No tinkering. Just convert all social programs into one lump sum of $10,000 a year, and give each person who needs it the money to spend on services and investments they choose, rather than on those the government chooses for them. (Yes, it’s more complex than that, but this is a blog item, not a review). By locating decision-making at the level closest to those with the most direct knowledge of their own needs, Murray’s proposal suggests we can maintain the investment in a welfare state while avoiding the pitfalls of centralization, planning and paternalism. It’s worth reading merely as a thought experiment. I’ve come reluctantly to believe that we will have a hard time getting to smaller government incrementally. The million small losses need to be counter-balanced by a radical, large, collective gain. Abolishing the bureaucracy of the welfare state would qualify – and appeal.

One of the great joys of the Internet is discovering a genuinely fresh voice out there, someone whose presence might never have been known or felt without this new technology. Such is one Hao Wu, a Chinese blogger and film-maker who lived in the US for twelve years, now lives in China, writes elegant English, and has converted to Christianity, while also being gay. His blog is an open window into one courtyard of contemporary Chinese life. His political struggles and attempt to criticize his own government while loving his own country make the contradictions we Westerners labor under seem petty. Check out this account of the immense pain still endured by the Chinese after fifty years of dictatorship or authoritarian rule. Hao Wu was detained by the Chinese authorities last month and charged with no crime. Here’s a website devoted in part to bringing attention to his case. Spread the word.