The Dish

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.

In Harry S. Truman’s name.

I have absolutely nothing against capitalism, but I have to say I feel solidarity with the dissidents here. Watching images of people bursting through department door stores and trampling each other for a cheap DVD player at 5.30 am makes me wonder if I belong to the same species. Yes, I know there are bargains. But please. The sheer frenzy, the entire mania of consumerism, the notion that meaning is to be found in buying things and giving these things to other people or to yourself – it all leaves me cold. That’s one reason I’m such a Christmas-phobe. Each year, we have a communal campaign to persuade ourselves that we never have enough, the new things will assuage our real needs, that buying is the same as living. Yes, of course, some of this is fine, generous or even important. I really did need a new sleeper-sofa. And my boyfriend loves his new, mini-iPod. But the hysteria is a form of cultural disorder. And “Christmas” merely feeds it. If “Buy Nothing Day” helps assuage this a little, it’s an excellent thing.

Take a look at these two photographs of Ukraine opposition leader, Viktor Yushchenko. What on earth happened to him? Poisoning? Chemical agents? Russians point to the secret police. Money quote:

Yushchenko’s doctors in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, said they had determined that “chemicals not of a food origin” had triggered the illness.
Zimpfer and the clinic’s chief physician, Dr. Lothar Wicke — who requested police protection after receiving an anonymous threat while treating Yushchenko — later asked for outside help from “a specialist in military operations and biological weapons,” the Austria Press Agency reported.

Far more mysterious than whatever killed Arafat, no?

DAN ON THE UKRAINE: Dan Drezner knows what he’s talking about. Check his link-rich blog for developments.

FALLUJA, AGAIN: Another truly riveting eye-witness account of every twist in the battle.

“My middle name on my birth certificate is just, A. My Hebrew name is David Aryeh (meaning lion). My parents didn’t want my birth certificate name to be David Lion so they put an A there and said they were going to let me decide. In my teenage years I was infatuated with Blackadder and almost changed my middle name to Atkinson (for Rowan obviously). Now I kinda like that it’s just A, like Harry S Truman.”

Sidney Bumenthal is in fine, paranoid form in an article decrying Bush’s alleged behavior at the Clinton library festivities. My favorite anecdote:

Offstage, beforehand, Rove and Bush had had their library tours. According to two eyewitnesses, Rove had shown keen interest in everything he saw, and asked questions, including about costs, obviously thinking about a future George W Bush library and legacy. “You’re not such a scary guy,” joked his guide. “Yes, I am,” Rove replied. Walking away, he muttered deliberately and loudly: “I change constitutions, I put churches in schools …” Thus he identified himself as more than the ruthless campaign tactician; he was also the invisible hand of power, pervasive and expansive, designing to alter the fundamental American compact.

Oh, please, Sid. He was quite obviously joking. I think.