February 29, 2008
This courtesy of my brother Brian and Human Events:
A valedictory address to an uncommon man!
William F. Buckley: R.I.P., Enfant Terrible
by Ann Coulter
William F. Buckley was the original enfant terrible.
As with Ronald Reagan, everyone prefers to remember great men when they weren't being great, but later, when they were being admired. Having changed the world, there came a point when Buckley no longer needed to shock it.
But to call Buckley an "enfant terrible" and then to recall only his days as a grandee is like calling a liberal actress "courageous." Back in the day, Buckley truly was courageous. I prefer to remember the Buckley who scandalized to the bien-pensant.
Other tributes will contain the obvious quotes about demanding a recount if he won the New York mayoral election and trusting the first 100 names in the Boston telephone book more than the Harvard faculty. I shall revel in the "terrible" aspects of the enfant terrible.
Buckley's first book, "God and Man at Yale," was met with the usual thoughtful critiques of anyone who challenges the liberal establishment. Frank Ashburn wrote in the Saturday Review: "The book is one which has the glow and appeal of a fiery cross on a hillside at night. There will undoubtedly be robed figures who gather to it, but the hoods will not be academic. They will cover the face."
The president of Yale sent alumni thousands of copies of McGeorge Bundy's review of the book from the Atlantic Monthly calling Buckley a "twisted and ignorant young man." Other reviews bordered on the hyperbolic. One critic simply burst into tears, then transcribed his entire crying jag word for word.
Buckley's next book, "McCarthy and His Enemies," written with L. Brent Bozell, proved that normal people didn't have to wait for the Venona Papers to be declassified to see that the Democratic Party was collaborating with fascists. The book -- and the left's reaction thereto -- demonstrated that liberals could tolerate a communist sympathizer, but never a Joe McCarthy sympathizer.
Relevant to Republicans' predicament today, National Review did not endorse a candidate for president in 1956, correctly concluding that Dwight Eisenhower was not a conservative, however great a military leader he had been. In his defense, Ike never demanded that camps housing enemy detainees be closed down.
Nor would National Review endorse liberal Republican Richard Nixon, waiting until 1964 to enthusiastically support a candidate for president who had no hope of winning. Barry Goldwater, though given the right things to say -- often by Buckley or Bozell, who wrote Goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative" -- was not particularly bright.
But the Goldwater candidacy, Buckley believed, would provide "the well-planted seeds of hope," eventually fulfilled by Ronald Reagan. Goldwater was sort of the army ant on whose body Reagan walked to greatness. Thanks, Barry. When later challenged on Reagan's intellectual stature, Buckley said: "Of course, he will always tend to reach first for an anecdote. But then, so does the New Testament."
With liberal Republicans still bothering everyone even after Reagan, Buckley went all out against liberal Republican Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. When Democrat Joe Lieberman challenged Weicker for the Senate in 1988, National Review ran an article subtly titled: "Does Lowell Weicker Make You Sick?"
Buckley started a political action committee to support Lieberman, explaining, "We want to pass the word that it's OK to vote for the other guy or stay at home." The good thing about Lieberman, Buckley said, was that he "doesn't have the tendency of appalling you every time he opens his mouth."
That same year, when the radical chic composer Leonard Bernstein complained about the smearing of the word "liberal," Buckley replied: "Lenny does not realize that one of the reasons the 'L' word is discredited is that it was handled by such as Leonard Bernstein." The composer was so unnerved by this remark that, just to cheer himself up, he invited several extra Black Panthers to his next cocktail party.
When Arthur Schlesinger Jr. objected to his words being used as a jacket-flap endorsement on one of Buckley's books in 1963, Buckley replied by telegram:
"MY OFFICE HAS COPY OF ORIGINAL TAPE. TELL ARTHUR THAT'LL TEACH HIM TO USE UNCTION IN POLITICAL DEBATE BUT NOT TO TAKE IT SO HARD: NO ONE BELIEVES ANYTHING HE SAYS ANYWAY."
In a famous exchange with Gore Vidal in 1968, Vidal said to Buckley: "As far as I am concerned, the only crypto Nazi I can think of is yourself."
Buckley replied: "Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto Nazi, or I'll sock you in your goddamn face and you'll stay plastered."
Years later, in 1985, Buckley said of the incident: "We both acted irresponsibly. I'm not a Nazi, but he is, I suppose, a fag."
Writing in defense of the rich in 1967, Buckley said: "My guess is, that the last man to corner the soybean market, whoever he was, put at least as much time and creative energy into the cornering of it as, say, Norman Mailer put into his latest novel and produced something far more bearable -- better a rise in the price of soybeans than 'Why Are We in Vietnam?'" (For you kids out there, Norman Mailer was an America-hating drunkard who wrote books.)
Some of Buckley's best lines were uttered in court during a lengthy libel trial in the '80s against National Review brought by the Liberty Lobby, which was then countersued by National Review. (The Liberty Lobby lost and NR won.)
Irritated by attorney Mark Lane's questions, Buckley asked the judge: "Your Honor, when he asks a ludicrous question, how am I supposed to behave?"
In response to another of Lane's questions, Buckley said: "I decline to answer that question; it's too stupid."
When asked if he had "referred to Jesse Jackson as an ignoramus," Buckley said, "If I didn't, I should have."
Buckley may have been a conservative celebrity, but there was a lot more to him than a bow tie and a sailboat.
-----------
Read more articles like this at HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE!
http://www.humanevents.com/
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:41 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 1022 words, total size 6 kb.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:21 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 40 words, total size 1 kb.
This from Jack Kemp (not the politician):
Tim,
I just sent this email to Rush Limbaugh
Rush,
You just mentioned Sen. Obama's reply to John McCain's remarks about Al Queda being in Iraq, in which he (Obama) stated that Al Queda would have never have entered Iraq if the US didn't send their forces there. I would go further than your comment that it is more just a dodge and non-answer. Sen. Obama invoked the "Peabody and Sherman" defense. Let me explain.
By this I mean that Obama's claiming that Pres. Bush caused Al Queda to enter Iraq (not true) implies that history can now be removed - otherwise why even mention it in relation to Iraq? It seems like a whimsical wish to go back in time so the problem could be solved. I assume a person running for president would discuss their plans for today, not just lament the past adminstration. How else could the problems of recent past facts on the ground be removed but by going back in a time machine such in the "Peabody's Improbable History" segments on the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon show? Unless one owns a time machine, one has to deal with the current situation. Mentioning the "Good Old Days" (of USS Cole attacks and African embassy bombings) is worthless without a concurrent building of a time machine. That is why I call Mr. Obama's remarks the "Peabody and Sherman" defense.
Jack Kemp
American Thinker contributor
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:09 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 248 words, total size 2 kb.
This morning we`re going to do something a little different; Craig Willms, an outstanding musician, artist, proprietor of Static Noise, and old friend of this site, has written a fine story about the hypocrisy of the Hollywood Elite and the reaping of what one has sewn. I thought it would be a fun changeup. It is well worth your time!
The Goose and The Gander:
Robert Redford Goes Home to Roost
a short story by Craig Willms © 2008
Robert Redford, the fine Hollywood actor, was well pleased. Watching CNN on his 90" plasma TV in the living room of his expansive Utah ranch house he silently smirked as the redneck being interviewed went completely ballistic. It had finally happened, he mused, that colossal energy waster and air polluter that was NASCAR is banned out of existence.
NASCAR was just latest. Nothing was sacred in the fight against global climate change.
Over the years he had watched with glee as one by one they fell. First GM, Ford and Chrysler were taken down. Saddled with the dual mandates of fuel efficiency standards and workers pension rights Chrysler quietly went under while Ford and GM had essentially become resellers of tiny Asian automobiles. Next it was the energy industry. Big coal, gas and oil endured stringent (some would say excessive) environmental regulation and taxation. People everywhere dutifully packed into buses and trains suffering long, uncomfortable commutes before coming home to the specter of not having power or lights - again. The initial blackouts were met with more legislation requiring the public to turn down their thermostats and curtail the usage of power hungry appliances.
This is good, thought Redford, Americans had grown fat and lazy. It’s about time they learn the value of hard times and deprivation. He smiled at his housekeeper Conteza as she closed up the dishwasher and turned it on.
"Thanks, sweetie," he said affectionately. "Don’t forget to turn off the lights in there before you leave - we all have to do our part."
"Yes, Mr. Redford. Will there be anything else?"
"Yeah, on your way out poke your head in the pool room and make sure I turned off the hot tub." With his eyes again riveted on the giant TV he shouted over his shoulder, "See you tomorrow. Oh, wait, I’m going to LA tomorrow... See you next week."
"OK, have a nice trip, sir." Conteza disappeared down the long hall on her way to the pool room.
The conversation reminded him that he needed to call his pilot. The jet would need to be fueled up for a very early flight and the tanker bringing jet fuel out to his private airstrip would be arriving at the crack of dawn.
He looked forward to this trip more than most. He had finally found funding for his next movie. It amazed him that it took so long. Who wouldn’t want to be involved with this magnificent project? A chance to produce a biography of a living legend didn’t come along everyday. "An Inconvenient Man" would surely net him a best director nomination. He smiled and let his mind wander until he realized there would be no gala event to celebrate his achievement. Large, energy wasting public gatherings had been abandoned by the entertainment industry. Still, any honor for his treatment of the Albert Gore Jr. story would be reward enough.
The show biz industry had changed so much as he approached his 85th birthday that he hardly recognized it. Spectacular opening night premieres were a thing of the past. They were so wasteful with all those spotlights, limousines, TV crews and paparazzi. Still, the real-time Internet events never had the same appeal. It really didn’t matter now; most of his friends he shared those moments with were either dead or had moved to France where the lights never went dark. He sighed... It was a sign of the times - movies were downloaded now - the age of the cineplex had come and gone. Oh how he missed it.
Snapping out of his nostalgic trance he remembered why he should be grateful instead of melancholy. The strip mall culture that had spawned those grotesque multiplex theatres in the suburbs had ended when gas prices finally turned suburbia into a ghost town. The enormous amount of energy used by all those consumer palaces of wretched excess made him sick. Not to mention the inefficiency of all those gas guzzling cars dragging lazy Americans around one at a time.
His phone rang jarring him back to the here and now. "Hello."
"They did it again!" It was his ranch manager, Pedro Santiago. "Eleven more trees down over by Fonda Creek."
"Damn it!" Redford cursed. "Jesus H. Christ? Why are they doing this, Pedro?"
"I suppose because they need the wood..."
"Oh, shut the hell up." Redford said, more irritated with Pedro than the loss of the irreplaceable trees.
"Firewood, I guess. Fuel prices are so high..."
"Yeah, but what gives them the right to take my trees? This is private land."
"Yes, sir. People who need to keep warm just don’t give a darn about private land."
Redford half suspected Pedro was in on it but lacked any proof. "OK, get yourself a couple of guys. I want around the clock patrols. Catch the bastards in the act. Hold them at gun point if you have to until the sheriff gets out here."
"Hard to find anyone with guns these days, sir - maybe some old hunting rifles that were spared confiscation under the Family Heirloom Protection Act..."
"Oh, for God’s sake Pedro, take a couple of mine if you have to! Just get them."
He threw the phone across the room. He tried to imagine how anyone could cut down eleven giant trees in the middle of the night without anyone seeing anything. He remembered reading a story on the New York Times Online of how it had become a huge problem out east. Entire forests were disappearing in the Catskills and all up and down the Appalachians. There were times the entire east coast was buried under the pall of wood smoke. It was enough to choke a horse. What was this world coming to?
Still angry as he drifted off to sleep he finally let his thoughts return to the coming day when he would be in LA to start putting together his masterpiece.
_____________________________________________________________________
The phone at his bedside erupted with a cacophony of bell tones wrestling him from the depths of REM sleep. Outside the nascent dawn set his impressive floor to ceiling windows aglow with a soft pink light. His eyes only saw red.
"What now!?" Redford shouted into the phone.
"Sir, it’s me John, John Malloy. We’ve got a problem."
"Sorry, John..." Malloy was his personal pilot and long time friend. "What’s going on?"
"The tanker truck that was supposed to deliver the jet fuel was hijacked early this morning."
"Hijacked? For goodness sake, who the hell would steal jet fuel?"
"It’s essentially kerosene. Heating oil."
His thoughts raced back to the conversation he had with Pedro just a few hours ago. First his trees and now this, was it really that bad? "How does someone hide a tanker truck? Shouldn’t be that hard for the authorities to find, you’d think."
John chuckled. "There a hundred barns between here and Provo big enough to hide it in. Five thousand gallons of kerosene will heat a lot of homes - I don’t think anyone is going to talk. The state police told my buddy at Great Lakes Express that this is third one this winter in Utah alone. The rigs eventually show up at truck stops empty but undamaged. I guess the state police are going to start escorting them."
"So, now what? Can we get more fuel out here today?" Redford asked.
Again Malloy chuckled, "Not going to happen, my friend. We’d be lucky to see any by this time next week."
"What the hell, John, I have to be in LA today!"
"Well, I guess we drive down to Provo and catch a commercial flight. Probably have to hop through Salt Lake or Vegas, no direct flights from Provo to anywhere."
"Damn it, I’m screwed... How close are you? We need to get going."
"I’ll be there soon - if the battery in this rolling death trap holds out." John Malloy hated the electric Honda he drove. He pined for the days when he could mash his foot down and hear the roar of a hearty V8. These plastic wind-up toys they called cars these days were so depressing. "Get your things off the plane and meet me at the garage in about ten minutes."
_____________________________________________________________________
Speeding toward Provo on U.S.189 at ninety miles an hour the big BMW seemed to float over the long gray pavement. John Malloy knew that it was a patently stupid question asking Bob Redford if he wanted to take the Toyota E-Car or the 9-Series. He had never seen the man in the Toyota. But ask he did.
"You’re joking, right? I am not driving all the way down to Provo crammed into to that thing. These hills are full of 1200lb bull elks (the Toyota weighed 1300lbs soaking wet.) I want to get there in one piece."
Malloy steered the luxury car through the twisting hills as Redford talked on the cell. The majestic and serene landscape that filled his eyes was continually offset by the bouts of cursing that filled his ears coming from the man in the seat next to him.
"What is going on with this God damn thing?" Redford pushed frantically on the key pad trying to reconnect with some industry hack in LA. "I can’t get a signal, nothing! We never used to have this problem. How the hell am I supposed to get anything done?"
"These cell towers go down all the time, Bob, you know that. These extended blackouts last longer than the battery back-up does. The closer we get to the city the less chance of that happening."
John Malloy silently shook his head. Maybe it was age, maybe it was intentional. Did Bob Redford actually not get the connection between the "battle against global climate change" and all the inconveniences he seemed to be suffering from lately? In the rarefied air men of his stature inhaled it was inconceivable that he, Robert Redford - the Sundance Kid - should be constrained by the same daily hassles as the peasants that worshiped him. Malloy stole a sideways glance at his old friend as he battled with the cell phone. No one could be that clueless, could they?
When they finally arrived at the airport they parked the car in a nearly empty parking garage and made their way to the terminal. John had called ahead only to find out there were no flights out until 6:30PM. A dreadful four hour wait.
Along the way they were besieged by beggars looking for handouts. Many of them dressed very nicely, all seemingly out of place in provincial Utah.
"Tell me this is Provo, John, not Trenton New Jersey." Redford said as he brushed off a beggar in a three piece suit. "Don’t these guys have anything better to do?"
"I guess the recession has hit way out here by now. Utah is not immune."
"God damn conservatives, that what the problem is, you know." Redford fumed. "Constantly calling for lower taxes, won’t let us help these people."
"The Republicans have been out of power for years... Don’t see how you can keep blaming them. Yeah, they’re all slimy, but pretty impotent these days."
Redford mumbled to himself but let it die. He turned his attention toward the task at hand. The small terminal was eerily quiet. Few of the little shops were even open, making their choices rather easy. It was the coffee shop or the bar. Redford steered them toward the bar. Malloy was happy with that - since he wasn’t piloting the plane today a little Southern Comfort was just the ticket. They each wheeled their luggage carts up to the bar and pulled up a chair.
"Geez, it’s cold in here..." Redford said to the bartender. "Chivas please, on the rocks."
The bartender took his gloves off and shook his head "All out of Chivas."
Malloy raised his eye brow "You must have Southern Comfort? A Southern seven?"
"Nope."
Irritated, Redford barked at the bartender. "Well, what do you have?"
"Got some Canadian Windsor and Olympia beer."
"What is matter with this place?" Redford asked not really expecting or even wanting an answer. "This place looks like a ghost town. It’s freezing in here, and all you got back there is some pale whiskey and piss beer."
"Sorry, sir." The bartender said with mock sincerity. "The trucks only run once a month out of Salt Lake. Costs too much. By the time they get through Sandy, Lehi and Lindon there’s not much left for us. We take what we can get, so will you."
Redford turned away. "Get me a Windsor, John. I’m done with this guy."
Flying commercial was something Robert Redford rarely did anymore. He was utterly frightened to climb aboard the 30 year old Boeing 757. Thankfully the plane was almost empty. The tickets for a round trip jaunt to LA with a 4 hour lay-over in Las Vegas were $1500 a piece. There was a $50 fuel surcharge tacked on top of that. While a man used to paying a full time pilot and maintenance on his own Lear Jet would think nothing of a $1500 ticket, the average traveler was priced out of such an extravagance. It didn’t help that only two domestic airlines were still flying, and just barely at that. United American Southwest and Delta Northwest were the finalists in the merger wars of the last decade. There was talk in Washington of nationalizing the airlines since both companies continued to lose money and market share. Business had abandoned the airlines for the most part and relied more and more on Internet conferencing. It had its virtues but it had its limits too. Redford was all for nationalizing the airline industry. Once all the unnecessary duplicate flights were stopped millions of pounds of the greenhouse gas C02 would stop contributing to global climate change - and that’s what really mattered. He smiled inwardly until he thought about another 4 hour wait in Las Vegas. It would be tomorrow when he finally arrived in LA.
Once on the ground in Las Vegas John Malloy was busy trying to reschedule a limousine service to meet them at the airport in LA. Most celebrities didn’t use them anymore - too conspicuous in this era of energy awareness, but Redford couldn’t stand driving in LA.
"Bob, no luck." Malloy said. "Had to rent an E-Car, a Hyundai." Redford frowned but said nothing. Malloy could see his irritation escalate with each passing minute. If they didn’t get to LA soon old Bob was going to lose it. "There just aren’t that many limo services anymore, even in LA.. It’ll be OK, I’ll drive."
"Whatever," Redford mumbled, "this trip is turning into a nightmare. Used to be a flight from Vegas to LA every 10 minutes... Fours hours... Ridiculous." Flying commercial was indignity enough but suffering these infernal lay-overs was more than he could take. "John, let me make one thing clear... I do not want my jet fuel tanks to run dry ever again. Do you understand? I don’t care that the trucks only roll once a week. That will not be MY problem. It will be YOURS." His face was beet red and his eyes had that wicked look of someone on the verge of a full blown psychotic episode. "This," he swirled his index finger, "will not happen again."
_____________________________________________________________________
John Malloy accompanied his friend Bob Redford to the meeting with the assistant executive producer and the production manager. This was something he wouldn’t normally do as Redford’s personal pilot, but this time he insisted because he was genuinely worried about Redford’s current mental state.
In a cramped rented conference room the four men and two female staffers sat around the table ready to pencil in the production schedule for the new film "An Inconvenient Man".
Redford perked up as the meeting got underway, as if the previous day had not occurred. "I can’t tell you how excited I am to get this schedule set up; I think we have a big hit on our hands. Shall we start with the location schedule first - since we are going to have to work around this unusually cold winter..."
His words were met with blank stares all around the table. Samuel Fraber, the production manager was first to speak. "Bob, I’m afraid there’s been some misunderstanding..." Fraber looked at Simon Goldberg the assistant producer for GreenEarth Entertainment’s An Inconvenient Man project. "Didn’t Mr. Redford get the memo?"
"I was sure he did, at least I thought he did." A slightly confused Goldberg said.
"Memo," Redford said warily, "what memo?"
Goldberg nodded to Fraber as he leaned closer to aging director and said. "There aren’t going to be any locations, Bob."
"What? What is that supposed to mean?"
"An Inconvenient Man is going to be a CG movie." Fraber said quietly.
Stunned, Redford was without words. Goldberg stepped in. "Sorry Bob, we thought you knew. Frankly, making a traditional movie is just too energy intensive. How would it look if this tribute to the savior of the planet consumed more raw energy than an average family of 4 will use in 10 lifetimes?"
"F%$& the average family!" Redford cursed. "A God damned CG movie - you’re f%$&ing kidding me!"
"Settle down Bob." Goldberg said. "You know as well as I that if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem. Do you have any idea how much energy is needed to make one conventional movie? It’s phenomenal, mind boggling really."
"But, but, this is an important film, damn it!" Redford stammered. "It has to be done right."
"Of course it is, Bob." Fraber said as if consoling an upset child. "We all know that. And we are going to do it right."
"You expect me to attract actors to work entirely in front of a green screen?" Redford stopped as Goldberg and Fraber once again exchanged glances. "What now?"
"We’re not using actors, Bob. It will be state of the art CG actors with voice-overs." Fraber said with the enthusiasm of a high school cheerleader.
Robert Redford looked sick. He hated CG with a passion. He grudgingly accepted it in place of dangerous, resource wasting stunts and explosions in past films, but he always drew the line at the actors. No damn CG actors in his films. Not ever!
"But, but..." In a moment of clarity he buckled. He knew they had him. Every other production house turned him down cold. People were tired of being reminded that their lives had been made miserable by the righteous act of saving the planet. The average person just wanted to be entertained. GreenEarth Entertainment was a godsend and if he wanted to get this film made he would have to let them dictate. The fight had left him, he was beaten. "Okay, we’ll make it work, whatever it takes. Which CG house are we going to use here in LA?"
Once again Goldberg and Fraber looked at each other and then over to one of the young women, the petite Asian with a wide, white smile. Goldberg said, "Bob, we are going to be working out of Shanghai for this one. Before you get too excited, hear me out. California has problems right now. Power is just too unreliable here. The better CG operations have already moved to China or Europe where the power stays up 99% of the time. We can’t have these massive computer systems going down hard in the middle of a huge compiling job. It’s ugly out there in Silicon Valley. For Christ’s sake it’s been nicknamed Silicon Death Valley. We just can’t risk it." Goldberg paused, seeing no reaction from the legendary actor/director he simply said. "Have you been to China, Bob?"
Redford said nothing. He felt his dream slip away. An Inconvenient Man would be a joke, a cruel joke.
Goldberg turned to Fraber. "I understand you brought some preliminary sketches for the Al Gore character. Do you prefer the fat Al Gore or the skinny Al Gore?"
The End
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:03 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 3441 words, total size 21 kb.
February 28, 2008
By Jack Kemp (not the politician)
Recently, a conservative talk show host Bill Cunningham in Cincinnati was raked over the coals for using Barack Obama's middle name "Hussein" in a rally for John McCain. Even McCain himself publicly apologized for this act.
But last December, Maureen Dowd, in her NY Times column talking about Sen. Obama's visit to New York Times headquarters, reminded us that:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/opinion/02dowd.html
'In The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan lays out what he sees as Obama’s ``indispensable`` capacity to move the country past baby-boom feuds and the world past sectarian and racial divides. ``It’s November 2008``, he imagines. ``A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man, Barack Hussein Obama, is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm.``
Let me get this straight. When Andrew Sullivan and Maureen Dowd mention Sen. Obama's middle name, it is "kosher." When a conservative talk show host mention it, it is "racism."
But does that mean conservatives can turn the tables on and now call Maureen Down and Andrew Sullivan racists for mentioning his middle name?
And, as many posters on blog sites have pointed out, when someone is sworn in as President, they often state their middle name. Presidents Reagan and Clinton did it. I doubt Barack Obama would consider it an insult to use his middle name, if he were to win in November.
Speaking of cultural tropes, when was the last time you heard mention of the classic children's story author Hans Christian Andersen on television?
If a presidential candidate had a middle name of "Christian," I bet it would be mentioned on the air repeatedly - and at times derisively - as well as used in NY Times articles. No member of the mainstream press would consider its' mention as prejudicial in an anti-religious way as an "article of (liberal) faith."
Perhaps I'm arguing two vastly different situations here, that of the commentator and the candidate who has much more to concerned about. In that what constitutes a non-insult in intellectual discourse is often seen by regular people without extensive formal educations as an emotional insult to their identity. Witness the results of former Sen. George Allen using the term "macaca" in his last losing campaign. I'm sure Sen. McCain hasn't forgotten the the resulting fallout from that. It was prominent in his mind when he apologized for Bill Cunningham's remarks.
But for the rest of us, not running for president or other public office, mentioning Sen. Obama's middle name - particularly when combined with a factual discussion of his background - is not out-of-bounds. Last December, Maureen Dowd wrote extensively and critically on Mitt Romney's Mormonism ("Mitt's No J.F.K." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/opinion/09dowd.html ). If she can discuss beliefs related to family religious backgrounds in print or in private, so can the rest of us.
Jack Kemp
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
05:42 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 489 words, total size 3 kb.
By Jack Kemp (not the politician):
The question of John McCain's vice presidential choice gained a new level of importance as the International Herald Tribune (owned by the New York Times) pointed out in an article that Sen. McCain was born in The Panama Canal Zone while his father was on duty in the US Navy.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/28/america/28mccain.php
This situation could easily lead to an historical Supreme Court challenge as to whether he is a "natural born citizen" as the Constitution requires. And the assumption that a Republican-appointed majority on the Court would rule in his favor may - or may not - be enough to qualify him to be President. Such a court challenge by Democrats may start in the lower courts either before or after the November election. And that challenge may quickly pass over all lower courts and go directly to the US Supreme Court. If such a court challenge occured during the post election/pre-innauguration period or during the early part of a McCain presidency, it could have an effect similar - and worse - that the post 2000 Election Day controversies. It would be essentially be an impeachment trial by other means.
While The International Herald Tribune has some degree of arms-length independence from the NY Times organization, I would doubt that they will received any reprimand from anyone at Times headquarters for running this story.
Jack
Full story:
McCain's birthplace prompts queries about whether that rules him out
By Carl Hulse
Published: February 28, 2008
WASHINGTON: The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.
McCain's likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a "natural-born citizen" can hold the nation's highest office.
Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.
"There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent," said Sarah Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. "It is not a slam-dunk situation."
McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, a navy officer, were stationed. His campaign advisers say they are comfortable that McCain meets the requirement and note that the question was researched for his first presidential bid in 1999 and reviewed again this time around.
But given mounting interest, the campaign recently asked Theodore Olson, a former solicitor general now advising McCain, to prepare a detailed legal analysis. "I don't have much doubt about it," said Olson, who added, though, that he still needed to finish his research.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of McCain's closest allies, said it would be incomprehensible to him if the son of a military member born in a military station could not run for president.
"He was posted there on orders from the United States government," Graham said of McCain's father. "If that becomes a problem, we need to tell every military family that your kid can't be president if they take an overseas assignment."
The phrase "natural born" was in early drafts of the Constitution. Scholars say notes of the Constitutional Convention give away little of the intent of the framers. Its origin may be traced to a letter from John Jay to George Washington, with Jay suggesting that to prevent foreigners from becoming commander in chief, the Constitution needed to "declare expressly" that only a natural-born citizen could be president.
Duggin and others who have explored the arcane subject in depth say legal argument and basic fairness may indeed be on the side of McCain, a longtime member of Congress from Arizona. But multiple experts and scholarly reviews say the issue has never been definitively resolved by either Congress or the Supreme Court.
Duggin favors a constitutional amendment to settle the matter. Others have called on Congress to guarantee that Americans born outside the national boundaries can legitimately see themselves as potential contenders for the Oval Office.
"They ought to have the same rights," said Don Nickles, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma who in 2004 introduced legislation that would have established that children born abroad to American citizens could harbor presidential ambitions without a legal cloud over their hopes. "There is some ambiguity because there has never been a court case on what 'natural-born citizen' means."
McCain's situation is different from those of the current governors of California and Michigan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jennifer Granholm, who were born in other countries and were first citizens of those nations, rendering them naturalized Americans ineligible under current interpretations. The conflict that could conceivably ensnare McCain goes more to the interpretation of "natural born" when weighed against intent and decades of immigration law.
McCain is not the first person to find himself in these circumstances. The last Arizona Republican to be a presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, faced the issue. He was born in the Arizona territory in 1909, three years before it became a state. But Goldwater did not win, and the view at the time was that since he was born in a continental territory that later became a state, he probably met the standard.
It also surfaced in the 1968 candidacy of George Romney, who was born in Mexico, but again was not tested. The former Connecticut politician Lowell Weicker Jr., born in Paris, sought a legal analysis when considering the presidency, an aide said, and was assured he was eligible. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. was once viewed as a potential successor to his father, but was seen by some as ineligible since he had been born on Campobello Island in Canada. The 21st president, Chester Arthur, whose birthplace is Vermont, was rumored to have actually been born in Canada, prompting some to question his eligibility.
Quickly recognizing confusion over the evolving nature of citizenship, the First Congress in 1790 passed a measure that did define children of citizens "born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States to be natural born." But that law is still seen as potentially unconstitutional and was overtaken by subsequent legislation that omitted the "natural-born" phrase.
McCain's citizenship was established by statutes covering the offspring of Americans abroad and laws specific to the Canal Zone as Congress realized that Americans would be living and working in the area for extended periods. But whether he qualifies as natural-born has been a topic of Internet buzz for months, with some declaring him ineligible while others assert that he meets all the basic constitutional qualifications a natural-born citizen at least 35 years of age with 14 years of residence.
"I don't think he has any problem whatsoever," said Nickles, a McCain supporter. "But I wouldn't be a bit surprised if somebody is going to try to make an issue out of it. If it goes to court, I think he will win."
Lawyers who have examined the topic say there is not just confusion about the provision itself, but uncertainty about who would have the legal standing to challenge a candidate on such grounds, what form a challenge could take and whether it would have to wait until after the election or could be made at any time.
In a paper written 20 years ago for the Yale Law Journal on the natural-born enigma, Jill Pryor, now a lawyer in Atlanta, said that any legal challenge to a presidential candidate born outside national boundaries would be "unpredictable and unsatisfactory."
"If I were on the Supreme Court, I would decide for John McCain," Pryor said in a recent interview. "But it is certainly not a frivolous issue."
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
05:38 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 1396 words, total size 9 kb.
Do we have a government here in this country - or what?
Jack Kemp
not the politician
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4353991&page=1
9/11 Redux: 'Thousands of Aliens' in U.S. Flight Schools Illegally
Former FAA Inspector: TSA's Enforcement of Post-9/11 Laws 'Basically Nonexistent'
By BRIAN ROSS, VIC WALTER and ERIC LONGABARDI
Feb. 27, 2008
Thousands of foreign student pilots have been able to enroll and obtain pilot licenses from U.S. flight schools, despite tough laws passed in the wake of the 9/ll attacks, according to internal government documents obtained by ABC News.
"Some of the very same conditions that allowed the 9-11 tragedy to happen in the first place are still very much in existence today," wrote one regional security official to his boss at the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration.
"Thousands of aliens, some of whom may very well pose a threat to this country, are taking flight lessons, being granted FAA certifications and are flying planes," wrote the TSA official, Richard A. Horn, in 2005, complaining that the students did not have the proper visas.
Under the new laws, American flight schools are only supposed to provide pilot training to foreign students who have been given a background check by the TSA and have a specific type of visa.
But in thousands of cases that has not happened, according to the documents and current and former government officials involved in the program.
"TSA's enforcement is basically nonexistent," said former FAA inspector Bill McNease, in an interview for ABC News' "World News With Charles Gibson."
Watch the full report tonight on "World News With Charles Gibson" at 6:30 p.m. ET.
McNease, who retired last year, says in one year alone, 2005, he found some 8,000 foreign students in the FAA database who got their pilot licenses without ever being approved by the TSA.
"And a flight school wants the money to teach 'em. And they are gonna teach 'em how to fly and get their ratings, and then they just slip through the cracks," McNease said.
In another internal e-mail obtained by ABC News, Monty Thompson, an official in the TSA Flight School Inspections section, complained in 2005 to his bosses in Washington, "I fear we are 'danger close' to losing sight of the mission and the intent of the 'Flight School Security' provisions."
The new laws were passed after it was learned that all of the 9/ll hijackers, including ringleader Mohammed Atta, who were involved in flight operations had trained at U.S. flight schools with improper visas.
The FAA and Homeland Security are now starting to crack down on a number of flight schools suspected of training students illegally.
Just last month, agents raided a flight school outside San Diego, Anglo-American Aviation International, as part of an investigation of alleged fraud and misuse of visas.
A lawyer for the school said the raid only involved a technical, paper-work issue and that the school was "cooperating" in the investigation.
But federal officials say the so-called paper-work is extremely important.
"What happened in 9/ll we don't want to happen again or anything like that so something has to be done," said McNease.
No one from the TSA or Homeland Security would agree to be interviewed for this story, but officials said they were preparing an official statement in response.
The Department of Homeland Security would not provide an official from the flight school program to be interviewed for this story.
In a statement, the DHS said, "We have a high degree of confidence that our layered security measures, both seen and unseen, have raised the level of security in our aviation sector."
The statement did not address the issue of the thousands of students who have received pilot training and licenses with improper visas, other than to say they "are only one of the multiple layers of security" that the government relies on to "ensure that foreign nationals approved for flight training do not pose a threat to U.S. aviation security." The DHS said it conducts security threat assessments "on all non-U.S. citizens seeking flight training."
Read a letter from Aviation Safety Inspector Edward H. Blount on foreign students in U.S. flight schools.
Eric Longabardi is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles who is a frequent contributor to the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
05:29 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 716 words, total size 5 kb.
February 27, 2008
Today is a most sad day; one of America`s greatest citizens has passed away. William F. Buckley, legendary founder of National Review and co-father of the Conservative Movement, has died.
Conservatism as we know it would never have existed had it not been for Buckley, who labored many years in the wilderness for love of country and in defense of reason. He will be sorely missed.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
03:59 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 70 words, total size 1 kb.
by Jack Kemp
In the 1990s, Hillary became known for bringing in a New Age guru to the White House to invoke the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt. http://www.cuttingedge.org/n1018.html . After Hillary's weekend remarks critical of Barack Obama, where she stated, "I could just stand up here and say, 'Let's just get everybody together, let's get unified.' The sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect..", Hillary has reverted to her own version of the contacting the open sky and celestial beings.
The New York Post reports http://www.nypost.com/seven/02272008/news/nationalnews/late_govs_children_in_tex__tussle_99489.htm
"The two sons of Ann Richards, the late former Texas governor, are objecting to an Internet video published by Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign that suggests their mother would have supported Clinton. "
END OF QUOTE
Although the late Gov. Richards was an ardent feminist, her two sons pointed out that it would be impossible to know whether she would have supported Sen. Clinton over Sen. Obama.
In an earlier piece I wrote, I opined that Hillary, in attacking Obama's transcendent aspects, was monopolizing approved spiritual and metaphysical practices to those that can afford the services of a famous New Ager. But now that Mrs. Clinton is sharing her "channeling" of Ann Richard's heartfelt opinions from beyond the grave, she is indeed letting the mass of Texas - and the nation's (the country, not just the political magazine) - voters in on her prescient visions of communication with The Beyond.
The History Channel had a program on White House Residents who communicated with spirits either directly or through the help of mediums. It was called "Decoding the Past, Presidential Prophecies" and featured Lincoln, FDR, Nixon, LBJ. I think it's time for a new show, a part two, on First Ladies and Prophecy.
But it seems that leaders get better advice from the spirit world after they are elected to office, not before.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
03:55 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 336 words, total size 2 kb.
This courtesy of Jack Kemp:
The New York Post has a wonderful article today by Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute. He concludes that Obama's idea of a Stop Fraud Act to penalize lenders giving mortgages to those that cannot afford them, ending risky loans, is nothing more than the reinstitution of redlining. As you know, redlining was considered discriminatory to minorities years ago and thus became outlaw. Obama essentially wants to reinstate redlining. Unfortunately the article is not online, but I recently bought voice recognition software to type in full-page texts, etc. So here goes...
Jack
Housing horrors
Dem's disastrous crisis fixes
by Alan Reynolds
Senators Baraka Obama and Hillary Clinton plan to fix the "subprime mortgage prices" in ways that would greatly worsen the situation.
In a Financial Times piece last August, Obama wrote that "predatory lenders were driving low income families into financial ruin... The real victims in this crisis are the millions of borrowers... Whose only crime was taking out mortgages lenders told them they could afford." (JACK's NOTE: Why is there always a victim in a Democratic plan?)
He claimed his Stop Fraud Act would stop "mortgage brokers who are hoodwinking low income borrowers into taking on loans they cannot afford."
More precisely, that bill promises "to stop transactions which operates to promote fraud, risk and under development."
It certainly would "stop transactions." Under it, even people with no authority to decide who gets what sort of mortgage (such as realtors) could face 35 years in prison and fines up to $5,000,000 for anything deemed deceptive. The predictable effect would be to scare lenders into offering mortgages only to rich people with great credit scores.
Obama imagines foreclosures are confined to a low income families with subprime adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs). On the contrary, a Mortgage Bankers Association study shows that prime mortgages (mostly fixed rate) accounted for 45% of all foreclosures in the third quarter of last year, while subprime ARMs accounted for 43%. And even subprime borrowers don't necessarily have a low income or even a low credit rating.
Obama wants untold billions for "a fund to help people refinance their mortgages and provide comprehensive supports to innocent homeowners... The fund will be partially paid for by increased penalties on lenders who acted irresponsibly." Senator Clinton proposed a similar slush fund last December, starting at $5 billion but quickly growing to $30 billion.
This approach is sure to appeal to politicians and bureaucrats -- who would have great fun deciding which homeowners or cities would get financial aid.
Obama admits that "some borrowers were also lying to get mortgages or engaging in irresponsible speculation." Problem is, nobody can easily distinguish liars and speculators from "innocent" homeowners.
Obama also supports a bill to let bankruptcy judges rewrite mortgage agreements at whim. Any deadbeat with any $300,000 mortgage and a 7% interest rate could ask a judge to make it a $200,000 mortgage at 5%. If the bill passes, expect a runaway stampede into bankruptcy courts as to take advantage of this opportunity.
The key flaw? Anything that increases the risk of loan losses inevitably increases interest rates. That's why junk bonds pay a higher rate than Treasury bonds if we let mortgages be rewritten by judicial caprice, where converting mortgages into junk -- and so greatly increasing mortgage rates.
Hillary Clinton has a more heavy -- handed approach. She wants a 90 day moratorium on subprime foreclosures. After giving its select beneficiaries an extra three months of rent for a living, this move would drop a huge backlog of foreclosed homes on the market at once -- with a nasty crashing sound.
She also wants to dictate an "automatic freeze" for interest rates on subprime ARMs -- keeping rates at the below-market Dr. Reid rates for "at least five years, or until subprime mortgages have been converted into affordable loans."
That has to be unconstitutional -- the government can't blithely rewrite the terms of to private parties' contract. But it's also a terrible solution to the wrong problem.
Again nearly half of foreclosures have been on prime mortgages -- triggered by falling home prices -- not by rising interest rates. Even for subprime ARMs, the interest rate resets after a couple of years based on the one year LIBOR (and interest rates on loans between banks). That rate has dropped to 2.8% -- which means the increased monthly payment on subprime ARMs will be less than 10%, not the 30% she claims.
In other words it won't be as big a deal as Clinton thinks subprime loan rates adjust. The real danger is if house prices dropped below the size of loan -- because many people will then walk away from the mortgage, regardless of the interest rate.
If Congress acts to arbitrarily frees mortgage with interest rates, as Clinton wants, lenders will start guarding themselves against the chance that lawmakers might do the same thing again someday. That is, they'll see mortgages is highly risky investments -- so future would-be borrowers will find mortgages scarce and expensive.
Obama gets it. He warns, "a blanket freeze like she's proposed will drive rates through the roof on people who are trying to get new mortgages to buy or refinance a home."
Quite right -- yet his proposal to let judges reduce rates and the size of loans drive rates through the roof for exactly the same reason.
Obama's main concern is that it's been much too easy for low income families to get home mortgages. He plans to put a stop to that by 1) threatening lenders with fines and prison and 2) letting judges tear up the contracts and write new ones.
Ironically one reason we got into the current mess is that Washington spent the last few decades criticizing and finding mortgage lenders for not lending to low income households with imperfect credit records -- a practice called redlining. Now Obama plans to punish lenders in criminal and bankruptcy courts until they bring redlining back.
With friends like Clinton and Obama, perspective low income homeowners won't need any enemies.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
03:50 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 1020 words, total size 7 kb.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:56 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 68 words, total size 1 kb.
February 26, 2008
This from regular contributor Jack Kemp:
Tim,
You won't see this on the nightly news. Bush and the EU ignore this at their peril.
Jack
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=%5CSpecialReports%5Carchive%5C200508%5CSPE20050815a.html
Persecution of Kosovo Christians Said to Reveal Larger Threat
By Sherrie Gossett
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
August 15, 2005
(CNSNews.com) - International intervention to halt the persecution of Christians in Kosovo is a "complete failure," according to a former diplomat and other political analysts who briefed Capitol Hill staff late last week, pointing to the destruction of 150 churches and the simultaneous construction of 200 mosques.
Cybercast News Service obtained video of the burning and desecrating of the churches by ethnic Albanians, most of them Muslim. See Video
The new mosques are funded by "Wahhabist nations," the diplomats said, raising the specter of radical Islam incubating on the doorstep of Europe in a province rife with illegal arms and narcotics trafficking.
The religious persecution is also part of a political strategy of violence, which if rewarded in the granting of independence to Kosovo, could trigger similar violent secessionist movements throughout neighboring states and countries, they warned.
Unfolding events in Kosovo have already sent shock waves to as far away as China, which has now expressed concern to the U.S. over possible copycat attempts at secession in its predominantly Muslim Xinjiang Province.
Kosovo, an international protectorate administered by the United Nations, is part of Serbia and Montenegro, but the legal authority of the region is the U.N. Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
The province is considered one of the jewels of Christian heritage, having served as the "Vatican" of Serbian Christian Orthodoxy from the 12th century onward.
Serbs, who are predominantly Orthodox Christians, constitute a minority, as do Turks, Roma (gypsies) and Muslim Slavs. Eighty-eight percent of Kosovo's population is made up of Muslim Albanians.
The attacks and ongoing persecution are seen by some as the purposeful targeting of the very symbols of Christian European civilization.
Between 1999 and 2004 approximately150 churches, monasteries, seminaries, and bishop residences were attacked by ethnic Albanian mobs. Many of the churches contained priceless Byzantine frescoes and other religious artifacts dating as far back as the 13th century. Many of the sites were reduced to rubble.
In a Capitol Hill press conference Aug. 11, former U.S. Ambassador Thomas Patrick Melady called for a heightened international presence in Kosovo and the continuation of that presence for another 12 years. Melady, former ambassador to the Vatican, Uganda and Burundi, is senior diplomat in residence at the Institute of World Politics. The Capitol Hill briefing was sponsored by the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.
Melady cautioned politicians against rushing into decisions regarding Kosovo's status. Final status talks are expected this fall with Albania pushing for an independent Kosovo.
"Undersecretary of State [R. Nicholas] Burns was recently in Kosovo and he is drafting a policy paper for [President Bush]," said Melady. "Sometime between now and November, we'll hear the decision" on how the Bush administration will handle the independence movement in Kosovo.
Those attending the Aug. 11 press conference, and a follow-up congressional briefing on Aug. 12, expressed disappointment over the lack of media coverage of the church destruction. "I've been quite disappointed," Melady told Cybercast News Service, "It wasn't a major headline story."
He compared the destruction to Kristallnacht, or "the Night of Broken Glass" -- the Nazi-sponsored violent persecution against German Jews launched on Nov. 9, 1938. Gangs of Nazi youth fanned out into Jewish neighborhoods vandalizing and burning Jewish property and businesses, including 101 synagogues.
The official Nazi government response at the time was that such outbreaks were spontaneous, not organized. In the Kosovo situation, analysts are also expressing doubt over a similar line touted by the government.
Referring to the destruction of 34 churches in March of last year Melady said, "Thanks to a few amateur films that were made when the protests broke out, we can see how things unfolded. At all the scenes someone would climb to the top and tear down the cross, then stomp on it. Then they would set fire to the church."
During the Aug. 12 congressional staff briefing, Melady's research assistant, Ivan Djurovski, showed footage of the destruction of St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Podujevo.
The 17-minute video obtained by Cybercast News Service shows crowds of men ranging in age from about 15 to 50, calmly and methodically fanning out around the church after marching through town. After setting the church on fire, one of the vandals enters the bell tower to ring the church bell, which draws cheers from the crowd. Men scale the roof of the church to tear down three crosses, resulting in more cheers. Cybercast News Service edited the 17 minute video down to approximately two-and-a-half minutes.
The video also shows the presence of a Kosovo Force tank and soldiers. The Kosovo Force (KFOR) is a NATO-led international contingent responsible for establishing and maintaining security in the province. French and German forces later said their mandate was to protect lives, not property. However, according to Djurovski, "Italian and American KFOR soldiers risked their lives to not only save people at monasteries, but to also protect the sites.
"In these villages the church is the physical and spiritual center of the town," said Djurovski. "This is the center of hope for the people. This is where they go to learn about their faith. Where can they go now?"
Melady, who recently visited the area, said that sisters and monks at the historic monastery in Pec could not go outdoors to fetch water without military escort, for fear of being shot by snipers.
Some 200,000 Serbs have fled from Kosovo and those remaining are encircled in military-ringed enclaves. "It's not a normal life. There's no freedom of movement due to fear," said Melady. Djurovski added that many are not able to obtain needed medicine and there are no high schools or universities in the enclaves, resulting in a "brain drain." Those who have assets have sold them and fled, while most of the poor remain.
More than 18,000 legal complaints have accused Albanians with confiscating church and private property and building on the property, according to Djurovski. Whether church property remains as such or is handed over to the government remains a serious concern, he added.
Melody R. Divine - judiciary counsel and foreign policy advisor to Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz), who attended the briefing - said, "Albanians have also overtaken entire areas where Roma lived.
"Congressional interest and involvement will be key in ensuring that the international community places a high premium on the protection and integration of the minority communities within Kosovo and the preservation of the remaining cultural sites, "Divine said.
Defense analyst Frederick Peterson said the media around the globe are ignoring the issue of Saudi Arabian and other sources flooding the economically depressed region with money to pay for new mosques as the churches are being destroyed.
"With money comes influence," Peterson told Cybercast News Service. "They are building a substantial ideological and brick and mortar infrastructure there." Peterson is a defense and counter-terrorism analyst with the Institute for Security Studies at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He also serves as military policy advisor to Joseph K. Grieboski, president of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.
Peterson and Djurovski both said many of the new mosques funded by Saudi and Iranian funds are currently empty, but reflect plans to indoctrinate residents with the radical Wahhabist form of Islam. The new mosques carry plaques acknowledging funding from Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, said Grieboski.
"This is a very grave threat," said Peterson. "With final status changing from Serbian Orthodox hegemony into at very best a gray line, the dividing line between the Christian and Islamic world moves closer to the European Union, and we're at great risk of tolerating what should not be tolerated in order to buy some peace in our time."
In the war against an expanding radical Islam, Peterson said, "We have three choices: convert, submit or die. But there's a fourth choice and that's to fight.
"What is going on in Kosovo today is the future of Europe tomorrow," he added.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:43 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 1366 words, total size 9 kb.
Mike W. forwards this piece from Asia Times Online for our consideration.
This piece tears into the women in Barack Obama`s life:
"Cherchez la femme," advised Alexander Dumas in: "When you want to uncover an unspecified secret, look for the woman." In the case of Barack Obama, we have two: his late mother, the went-native anthropologist Ann Dunham, and his rancorous wife Michelle. Obama's women reveal his secret: he hates America.
We know less about Senator Obama than about any prospective president in American history. His uplifting rhetoric is empty, as Hillary Clinton helplessly protests. His career bears no trace of his own character, not an article for the Harvard Law Review he edited, or a single piece of legislation. He appears to be an empty vessel filled with the wishful thinking of those around him. But there is a real Barack Obama. No man - least of all one abandoned in infancy by his father - can conceal the imprint of an impassioned mother, or the influence of a brilliant wife.
America is not the embodiment of hope, but the abandonment of one kind of hope in return for another. America is the spirit of creative destruction, selecting immigrants willing to turn their back on the tragedy of their own failing culture in return for a new start. Its creative success is so enormous that its global influence hastens the decline of other cultures. For those on the destruction side of the trade, America is a monster. Between half and nine-tenths of the world's 6,700 spoken languages will become extinct in the next century, and the anguish of dying peoples rises up in a global cry of despair. Some of those who listen to this cry become anthropologists, the curators of soon-to-be extinct cultures; anthropologists who really identify with their subjects marry them. Obama's mother, the University of Hawaii anthropologist Ann Dunham, did so twice.
Obama profiles Americans the way anthropologists interact with primitive peoples. He holds his own view in reserve and emphatically draws out the feelings of others; that is how friends and colleagues describe his modus operandi since his days at the Harvard Law Review, through his years as a community activist in Chicago, and in national politics. Anthropologists, though, proceed from resentment against the devouring culture of America and sympathy with the endangered cultures of the primitive world. Obama inverts the anthropological model: he applies the tools of cultural manipulation out of resentment against America. The probable next president of the United States is a mother's revenge against the America she despised.
end excerpt
This is a fascinating piece, albeit a pretty harsh one.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:38 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 449 words, total size 3 kb.
The cornerstone of all Mideast peace plans is the idea of a Palestinian state. Well, this piece at Contentions makes it plain that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas knew that Hamas was planning to seize Gaza, and did nothing about it.
If the Palestinian state is willing to ignore blatant acts of war from those ostensibly under its authority, how can anyone seriously think that a lasting peace can be built?
Israelis would be fools to accept anything from them in good faith; more the fools we, who are basing our entire policy on them.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:17 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 98 words, total size 1 kb.
'"I could just stand up here and say, 'Let's just get everybody together, let's get unified.' The sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect," she told a rally in Providence, RI.'
END OF QUOTE
Perhaps Hillary thinks we all have forgotten her attempts to speak to Eleanor Roosevelt with New Age guru Jean Houston. Let's review what happened in 1996:
http://www.cuttingedge.org/n1018.html
'The Providence Journal Bulletin, Tuesday, 6/25/96, p. A3. "Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday her imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt were merely an 'intellectual exercise' ... Trying to douse what she called 'sensational' speculation, the first lady rejected inferences that psychic researcher Jean Houston, who led her in several White House sessions, was her 'spiritual adviser'."
"In a written statement, Mrs. Clinton was firm in her denial that there were any psychic or religious overtones to the sessions. 'The bottom line is: I have no spiritual advisers or any other alternatives to my deeply held Methodist faith and traditions upon which I have relied since childhood.' "
"Mrs. Clinton met with Houston several times from late 1994 until March of this year, according to a new book [by Bob Woodward, 'The Choice'] that says Houston led the first lady through imaginary conversations with her hero, Mrs. Roosevelt and Indian leader ... Ghandi ... Mrs. Clinton said she engaged in hours of 'freewheeling discussions' with Houston."
SECTION OMITTED
All these 'explanations' from Hillary Clinton and Jean Houston are simply and only "Spin Control". There is much about this entire story that is very disturbing, and very enlightening, once you know what it is that you should be looking for in this story.
Let us begin with the assertion that Hillary was not engaging in any spiritual activity, certainly not spiritual 'guidance'. To do this, we need to closely examine Jean Houston. Houston is one of the more popular New Age leaders today. She has written eleven (11) books, and has coauthored four (4) more. She is co-director of the "Foundation For Mind Research". New Agers have always been entranced with the workings of the human mind, and have always sought to understand it and control it. They subscribe great "potential" to the human mind, even believing that the human mind can create solid matter simply by proper focusing. In other words, they can create matter through thought. Now, that puts mankind on the level of the Biblical God, Who simply spoke and this universe was created (Genesis 1).
As strange as that sounds, New Age adherents believe this with all their hearts. Remember this fact shortly as we discuss what Jean Houston and Hillary Clinton really were doing in the White House during their several sessions.'
END OF QUOTE
It must have worked in 1996. It kept Bill Clinton out of the scandal tabloids until...1998. I wonder what else Hillary discussed with Jean Houston? How to materialize large donation checks from Chinese dishwashers when they had small or nonexistent bank accounts? Ah, the wonders of metaphysics.
It appears to me that Hillary is now saying that while she is entitled to a New Age guru to deal with life, the voters of the Democratic Party are not. This will not sit well with those who value universal sharing. Come on, Hillary. The rank and file can't afford to fly Jean Houston into their home for a private visualization/materialization session. It is as if Hillary is saying the Democratic faithful can't clap for Tinkerbell, but she can invoke her favorite kindred spirit. Jimminy Cricket, this must really make the Democratic rank and file Grumpy - and it's showing in the primary results. Hillary is essentially saying she is the only one who may Wish Upon a (Red) Star.
That's just plain Goofy.
Jack Kemp
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:08 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 662 words, total size 5 kb.
February 25, 2008
"When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything."
-- GK Chesterton
I was reading Pravda, and this quote came to mind when I came across this story about a ``UFO sanctuary`` in Russia. Couple that with this piece about ``scientists`` contacting ghosts or some such, and you can see the wisdom of Chesterton; Pravda is the Bolshevik newspaper, and Bolsheviks believe in everything EXCEPT God.
On the upside, at least they`re going to finally plant Lenin`s corpse instead of worshipping it as they have done for decades.
I suppose that shows some improvement.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:58 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 105 words, total size 1 kb.
Jack Kemp`s piece Hillary`s Choice appeared yesterday at Intellectual Conservative. Don`t miss this outstanding piece!
Jack made a few important points:
Tim, they posted my new Hillary button at Intellectual Conservative, right on the home page.
The strategic situation is hopeless. The insurgents can't be defeated. But enough about Hillary...
Hillary can't jump the shark. She is the shark.
11 losses in a row. This must be the Surge that Hillary is against.
Jack
You may remember seeing it first here at Birdblog; once again, readers of this site are on the cutting edge!
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:13 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 99 words, total size 1 kb.
February 24, 2008
Japan has successfully launched a high-speed internet satellite-ostensibly to keep internet communications going in the event of a land-based infrastructure disaster.
Now why would they be worried about that? Japan launched a lunar probe back in September, illustrating that, yes, they have the technology to compete with, say, North Korea in terms of missiles (or China). Now they are taking steps to keep communications open. Hmmm.
To enhance its energy security, the government advocates uranium and plutonium recovery through reprocessing of spent fuel. The Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (PNC) operates a reprocessing plant with an annual capacity of 90 tons but a larger reprocessing plant, Rokkasho-Mura, with a capacity of 800 tons per year, planned for 2003, is under construction. Reprocessing is expensive and costs can quickly rise with new safety requirements and the development of new technologies. Estimated in 1993 to cost about $8 billion, a more recent estimate for Rokkasho-Mura places the total at $15 billion. Japan also is interested in recycling recovered plutonium. In 1999, Japan began, in two prefectures, a controversial mixed-oxide utilization plan, which involves burning a highly toxic mix of plutonium and uranium on a commercial scale.
The reprocessing plant at Tokai in Ibaragi has been reprocessing spent fuel since 1981, though its operation was temporarily halted by a fire and explosion in March 1997. A commercial-size reprocessing plant has been under construction since 1993 at Rokkasho in Aomori prefecture. The Recycle Equipment Test Facility [RETF] is designed to reprocess plutonium produced in Monju and Joyo, Japan's two fast breeder reactors. Approval for construction was given by the Science and Technology Agency and announced on 13 December 1994. Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL) has announced that initial operation of the reprocessing plant currently being constructed in Rokkasho-mura, Aomori Prefecture has been delayed to July 2005. The previous plan called for operations to begin in January 2003. With a large store of plutonium, Japan mainly relies on Britain and France to recover plutonium from nuclear waste.
Weapon-grade plutonium is nearly pure plutonium 239, whereas the plutonium in commercial fuel is much lower in plutonium 239 and higher in the isotopes that are undesirable for weapons use. This, however, is not a crucial difference, since all plutonium can be used in weapons. The US nuclear weapons arsenal does not utilize commercial (reactor grade) plutonium from spent fuel. Tests were completed, however, to confirm that reactor grade plutonium could be used in a nuclear explosive and is therefore a nonproliferation concern...
deleted material*********
...Having renounced war, the possession of war potential, the right of belligerency, and the possession of nuclear weaponry, it held the view that it should possess only the minimum defense necessary to face external threats. The Japanese government values its close relations with the United States, and it remains dependent on the United States nuclear umbrella.
During the Sato cabinet in the 1960's, it is reported that Japan secretly studied the development of nuclear weapons. On 17 June 1974, Japanese Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata told reporters that "it's certainly the case that Japan has the capability to possess nuclear weapons but has not made them." This remark aroused widespread concern in the international media at that time.
Japan's nuclear power program based on reprocessed plutonium has aroused widespread suspicion that Japan is secretly planning to develop nuclear weapons. Japan's nuclear technology and ambiguous nuclear inclinations have provided a considerable nuclear potential, becoming a "paranuclear state." Japan would not have material or technological difficulties in making nuclear weapons. Japan has the raw materials, technology, and capital for developing nuclear weapons. Japan could possibly produce functional nuclear weapons in as little as a year's time. On the strength of its nuclear industry, and its stockpile of weapons-useable plutonium, Japan in some respects considers itself, and is treated by others as, as a virtual nuclear weapons state.
End Exceprt
So, Japan has access to plutonium, easily has the technological expertise to build nuclear weapons, has launch vehicles capable of going to the Moon, and has now put a command-and-control type satellite in orbit in case of communication failure. It sounds to me like somebody is very concerned about a growing threat-and about our ability to defend them. It seems to me that Japan is putting the pieces in place for their own ICBM force. I can`t blame them given the bellicosity of China and N. Korea`s actions. Remember, N. Korea launched a missile test right over Japan a few years back.
Japan isn`t the only one; Argentina and Brazil have agreed to build a joint uranium enrichment plant, ostensibly for peaceful purposes. Brazil has plenty of uranium, and Argentina has nuclear technology. It would not be a large step to develop atomic weapons from the position the two South American countries will soon be in. Are they, perhaps, concerned about what is going on in Venezuela? Remember, Iran is cozying up to Hugo Chavez, and he may acquire nuclear weapons from them in due time.
To understand what is happening in the world, one must look not at what is being said but what is being done. There is a mad scramble for nuclear weapons and launch vehicles around the world. Why? Because the Axis of Evil is progressing steadily in that direction, and our allies see a lack of resolve in us. They are acting on their own to secure their national defense, because they don`t think we can protect them any longer.
The old bipolar days are gone; we are facing a world of multiple doomsday weapons. If we had the courage to act we could stop Iran from acquiring them, and could prevent N. Korea from using them, but the flesh is weak and we simply won`t do what needs to be done to prevent a world in peril. Future generations will revile our cowardice.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
05:14 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 983 words, total size 7 kb.
I was reading Always on Watch (something that everyone should make a habit of as well) and decided to share this post with you, my wise and loyal readers. Essentially, AOW links to a piece at Eleanor Duckwall`s Spotlight in the Brussels Journal in which it is suggested that the reasons given for Kosvar independence are reasons that can be used to dismantle the United States.
Given the continued ascendency of political correctness, I fear such a partition is an inevitability. This election cycle will guarantee an open-borders Presidency, and our 12-20 million aliens could swell to numbers great enough to demand the creation of Aztlan. Does anybody seriously think the U.N. will deny this request?
It may take a few decades, but if trends continue we could see the partitioning of the United States.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:56 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 144 words, total size 1 kb.
I`ve advocated in the past using Shrillary`s shriek as a weapon of war; much like the ``killer joke`` from Monty Python`s Flying Circus, this weapon is so terrible it could destroy the enemy-and probably should be banned by International Law.
Jack Kemp made the following observation:
Tim,
I just heard Hillary's shrewish "Shame on you, Barack Obama" speech, where she criticizes his health care plan comments. This from the woman who stole White House furniture.
If I were Barack Obama, I'd immediately say that my health care plan will provide treatment for anyone with nervous palpitations, loss of hearing and nightmares as a result of having to listen to Hillary speak on television.
If I were John McCain, I'd immediately say that Guantanamo inmates will now be subjected to videos of Hillary's speeches in place of waterboarding.
Jack
Were he to suggest it, McCain would be a cruel man; even the thought of subjecting those powerless prisoners to such horrendous torture is beyond decency. Couple Hillary with implant technology, and you will break the subjects inside of 45 minutes! I`m sure McCain would rather face bamboo shoots under the fingernails (something I`ve come to appreciate of late) or other VC torture to an evening with that voice. (I`ll bet Bill`s face would deflate if he could get away from her.)
Actually, as a weapon of war, Hillary would be particularly bad-on the order of a meta plague or major thermonuclear exchange. Civilization could crumble, survivors could secrete themselves deep underground or puncture their eardrums in madness-not that it would do them any good.
We must not translate so powerful an emanation into an engine or war-it is just too dangerous.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
09:20 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 284 words, total size 2 kb.
Powered by Minx 1.1.2-pink.
