Egypt's "7000 year march" toward democracy

Talk about pacing yourself! Mark Steyn, incisive and funny as usual:

Four-time Egyptian election winner - and with 90 per cent of the vote! - President Mubarak announced that next polling day he wouldn't mind an opponent. Ordering his stenographer to change the constitution to permit the first multi-choice presidential elections in Egyptian history, His Excellency said the country would benefit from "more freedom and democracy". The state-run TV network hailed the president's speech as a "historical decision in the nation's 7,000-year-old march toward democracy". After 7,000 years on the march, they're barely out of the parking lot, so Mubarak's move is, as they say, a step in the right direction.

Read the whole thing.

Jim Bass Feb. 28 5:35 p.m

bankruptcy: Can't we all get along?

Today NPR ran a segment on pending Senate action to reform bankruptcy laws. Republicans want to make it harder for individuals to run up credit card debt, then skip out via bankruptcy.

The NPR report began with the tale of a single mother who went without a raise for four years, saw her expenses climb and decided to charge the difference. Soon she owed $25,000 with no hope of paying her debt. Single Mom described how relieved she felt after her bankruptcy, but cautioned that she faced seven tough years until her credit was restored. Her comments were entirely about herself: her problems, her relief, her rough years ahead. Never once did she acknowledge that she took $25k and didn't pay it back.

To Republicans, Single Mom is a deadbeat who stiffs the bank and lets others pick up the tab through higher interest rates and fees. So tighter laws are a moral issue about personal responsibility. But there's more to it. The banks that issue credit cards constitute a powerful lobby. When money talks politicians listen.

Democrats argue that banks charge usurious interest rates, and use deceptive marketing practices. This is a fair argument. People sign up for cards advertised as having low "lifetime rates" and never read the fine print, which they'd never understand anyway. If they did, they'd know that banks can raise interest rates on customers pretty much at will, with rates over 25%. PBS's Frontline broadcast a good documentary on the subject, The Secret History of the Credit Card, available to watch online, plus plenty of supporting interviews. Including:

Bill Janklow, former governor of South Dakota, explains how the state lifted its cap on interest rates so it could draw capital and jobs and how soon after, Citibank moved its credit card operation from New York, because by making South Dakota its home state, it could then charge higher interest rates. Many other credit card banks followed suit, moving to other states where the cap on rates was also lifted. Today, however, Janklow has mixed feelings about making his state the first credit card capital of America. "It's unbelievable, the lack of sophistication that we have as a society to deal with what I'll call consumer credit," he says. "It really is unbelievable. Do I think I helped foster some of that? The answer is yes, I do."

Then there is Edward Yingling, spokesman for banks:

Yingling discusses the benefits of credit cards, why ending usury ceilings was a good thing for the consumer, and why bankers must have the flexibility to change terms in the credit card agreement on short notice, citing the bankruptcy filings of the '90s which caught bankers off guard. "We need to make sure people understand this better," he argues. "The product is not a promise to somebody that we will lend you that amount of money forever at that interest rate. It is a very short-term revolving line of credit. If the consumer wants to have an assurance that they will have that amount of money for a longer period of time, they could go to another company and get a one-year loan or a three-year loan. Now the truth is, they'd probably pay a higher interest rate for them."

If banks cite excessive bankruptcy filings to justify their business practices, then changes in the bankruptcy law should trigger changes in banking practices. Some of the partisanship in Washington is unavoidable because of differing world views. But this issue seems like one that could be resolved in a bipartisan manner. Yes, people need to pay their debts. But banks should not be loan sharks either.

Jim Bass Feb. 28 12:55 p.m

Lebanese Government resigns

Read about it here.

Jim Bass Feb. 28 9:55 a.m

A DVD worth Owning

In June 2004, some of the greatest living guitar players and their bands gathered at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, for a three-day festival to benefit the Crossroads Centre in Antigua. It was the ultimate concert for any music lover, featuring one legend after the other: Eric Clapton, BB King, Buddy Guy, Eric Johnson, James Taylor, Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Walsh, John Mayer, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph, Santana, ZZ Top, and many more.

For $22.50, you get three hours of great music, one-of-a-kind performances in a nicely edited double DVD-- none of that twitchy, a new cut every 6 seconds stuff that can ruin a concert video. In short, a great show. Plus all royalties go to charity.

Jim Bass Feb. 28 8:15 a.m

arnold envies Ukraine as it trims Kuchma's golden parachute

Ukraine's new government has stripped former President Leonid Kuchma of some of his retirement privileges. A government spokesman said Mr Kuchma's privileges contradicted the law on benefits for former leaders and would be scaled down. Mr Kuchma's initial package - approved by the previous government days before he left office - included a pension, two cars and four drivers.

Meanwhile, California faces financial disaster because of public-service pension programs. After news that the Los Angeles school district may become insolvent because of $5 billion in unfunded pension obligations, comes news that an inordinate number of high-ranking CHP officers are taking medical retirement.

Jim Bass Feb. 28 7:45 a.m

10,000 Lebanese Protesters Defy Government

and turn out for a demonstration calling on Syria to withdraw from Lebanon. Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl ponders a mideast makeover. Sample:

The Lebanese uprising is far more advanced than that of Egypt. But Mubarak has taken the boldest action, in part because he has almost as much to fear as Assad from the Beirut intifada. A forced Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon might spell the downfall of the Assad dynasty in Damascus. Either way, in the absence of Syrian coercion, the Lebanese parliamentary election in May would become the third free democratic vote in the Arab world this year. That would make it politically impossible for Mubarak to extend his own tenure by patently undemocratic means.

UPDATE (Via Instapundit) from the Belgravia Dispatch, an email from Lebanon. Sample:

... Hariri's death has permitted for a real public display of discontent. Although Lebanese press is noted for being the freeist in the Arab world, each publication is still under the constraints of self-censorship, unable to outwardly discuss the Syrian presence and the impact it has had on decision making in Lebanon. For the first time, since 1989, when the last big anti-Syrian protest took place, people of all ages, socio-economic and religious backgrounds are finding the strength to display their frustration with the impact of the Syrian presence. On Saturday evening, a human chain was organized with maybe 10 to 20 thousand people standing from Place des Martyrs down the site where the blast took place. I overheard people speaking, one lady saying to her friend: "I don't what will come of this, but it is important to be here".

UPDATE #2 Saudi Arabia is pressuring Syria over Lebanon situation. From LebanonWire:

RIYADH, Feb 28 (AFP) - Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara arrived in Riyadh Monday on the latest leg of a regional tour, facing intense international pressure to end Damascus's political and military dominance of Lebanon.

"The minister will convey a message from President Bashar al-Assad to the Saudi leadership concerning developments in the Arab situation," Syria's ambassador to Riyadh Ahmed Nizameddine told AFP, without elaborating.

Shara is expected to meet Crown Prince and de facto ruler Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who said the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri two weeks ago was an "unethical crime".

An official in Riyadh said Sunday that Saudi leaders would be looking for information about Hariri's killing during Shara's visit.

Hariri, who made his fortune in Saudi Arabia and held Saudi citizenship, was killed in a huge blast in Beirut on February 14 that has been blamed on the Lebanese government and its Syrian backers.

The situation in Lebanon and international calls for Syria to withdraw its troops from the neighbouring country dominated Shara's meeting with Egyptian leaders and Arab League officials in Cairo on Sunday.

Arab diplomats in Riyadh told AFP on Thursday that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Algeria were working on securing an "Arab umbrella" for Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon.

They said contacts on the international front were also under way to defuse the crisis sparked by Hariri's assassination.

Jim Bass Feb. 28 7:35 a.m

syria gets syrious, Hands over six of Diamonds

Syria suddenly discovers terrorists inside their borders and turns them over to the Iraqi government as a goodwill gesture. Read here and here.

Jim Bass Feb. 27 1:35 p.m

how will the NYT tip?

Thomas Friedman's column addresses tipping points in the ME. Read it here. Sample:

For Iraq to be tipped in the right direction, it was necessary to have the election we did, but that was not sufficient. The sufficient thing is that a stable, decent Iraqi government emerge that can also quell the Sunni insurgency. That will depend in part on America's willingness to stay the course in Iraq. It will depend in part on the Shiite majority's willingness to share power with the Sunnis - particularly one of the crucial cabinet portfolios of defense, intelligence or interior - and not go on a de-Baathification rampage. And it will depend in part on the Sunni Arab leaders finally supporting the Iraqi majority.

"America's willingess" will depend a lot on how major media, such as Friedman's own New York Times, decides to play the story and mold public opinion. Will it be Iraq the quagmire? The neocon blunder? Which way will the NYT tip?

Jim Bass Feb. 27 12:05 p.m

Shssh, larry, I'm feeling Faint!

Nancy-girl "feminist" at Harvard get the vapors. Harvey Mansfield writes:

It takes one's breath away to watch feminist women at work. At the same time that they denounce traditional stereotypes they conform to them. If at the back of your sexist mind you think that women are emotional, you listen agape as professor Nancy Hopkins of MIT comes out with the threat that she will be sick if she has to hear too much of what she doesn't agree with.

If you think women are suggestible, you hear it said that the mere suggestion of an innate inequality in women will keep them from stirring themselves to excel. While denouncing the feminine mystique, feminists behave as if they were devoted to it. They are women who assert their independence but still depend on men to keep women secure and comfortable while admiring their independence. Even in the gender-neutral society, men are expected by feminists to open doors for women. If men do not, they are intimidating women.

Read the whole thing.

Jim Bass Feb. 27 10:45 a.m

the empire strikes back (duck!)

Microsoft will stop activating certain software products over the 'net as of the end of this month. Read from CNET.

mark Steyn: Watching old Europe Implode

Already, more people each week attend Friday prayers at British mosques than Sunday service at Christian churches -- and in a country where Anglican bishops have permanent seats in the national legislature.

Some of us think an Islamic Europe will be easier for America to deal with than the present Europe of cynical, wily, duplicitous pseudo-allies. But getting there is certain to be messy, and violent.

Until the shape of the new Europe begins to emerge, there's no point picking fights with the terminally ill. The old Europe is dying, and Mr. Bush did the diplomatic equivalent of the Oscar night lifetime-achievement tribute at which the current stars salute a once glamorous old-timer whose fading aura is no threat to them. The 21st century is being built elsewhere.

Read the whole thing.

Jim Bass Feb. 27 8:45 a.m

supremely stupid

This week the Supreme Court voted 5-3 to micromanage the California prisons. Chris Weinkopf of the LA Daily News explains:

For no more than two months after inmates arrive at a California prison, they stay in racially segregated two-man cells. The idea is to determine if they belong to violent, racist gangs before putting them in close quarters with other prisoners they may try to maim or kill.

Separate but equal to save lives? Not allowed.

[Justice Sandra Day] O'Connor even lectures the CDC for "perpetuating the notion that race matters most." That's ironic, seeing that it was O'Connor who, two years ago, wrote in the court's Grutter v. Bollinger decision that racial discrimination is permissible in college admissions. Her reasoning then was precisely that race does matter most, so much so that a public university's commitment to "diversity" can trump its obligation to treat people equally, regardless of skin color.

Read the whole thing.

Jim Bass Feb. 27 8:45 a.m

The other Aviator

Online Journal corrects the movie's take on the founder of Pan American airways.

Jim Bass Feb. 26 2:45 p.m.

"Bugged" Bees Tell Tales

A tiny microchip enables scientists to track the habits of bees.

German scientists in Würzburg have advanced our understanding of these amazing insects.

In an experiment that's the first of its kind worldwide, they are creating precise movement profiles for their winged subjects. To this end, tiny transponders have been attached to the backs of thousands of bees. Each radio chip costs one euro and is attached to the bee with a dab of shellac. The chip weighs only 2.4 milligrams, about one-thirtieth of the maximum load a bee can carry, and therefore doesn't present much of a impediment to the insect.

And:

Many honey bees progress through a highly varied career path during their lives. They begin working as heaters, helping to ensure that the nest remains at a steady temperature, never varying more than half a degree. Then they become cleaners, nursemaids, hive builders, guards and finally collectors, the final stage in the lifetime career of a bee.

Read the whole thing in Der Spiegel.

Jim Bass Feb. 26 2:15 p.m.

stifling of dissent in America

One academic lies about his ethnicity, does shoddy scholarship, plagiarizes art and slurs innocent victims of 9/11 in an anti-American rant. Another dares to suggest, as an academic exercise, that men and women might have innate differences. Guess whose head was on the chopping block? Bruce Thornton, at Victor Davis Hanson's site nails the reasons. A sample:

The reaction to Summers' comments, however, on the part of some faculty and media pundits was characterized not by the rational thought and intellectual curiosity we expect from our public thinkers, but by hysteria and anger that someone in Summers' position dared to say something that ran counter to politically correct prejudice. The fact is, one of the biggest orthodoxies on the academic block is the superstition that all observable differences between the sexes are due to socialization, particularly discrimination.

On this article of faith are founded most of the professional activity of so-called feminist academics, not to mention the demands for institutional power and privilege (grants, research funds, faculty positions, etc.) needed to undo the baleful effects of this demonic socialization on the part of parents and schools. But once you start entertaining the notion that there are fewer women in some sciences because the pool of women with the necessary abilities is smaller than the pool of men, then the rationale for much of that power and privilege begins to look shaky.

And...

Recently it was reported that a new strain of drug-resistant AIDS had appeared in a New York man who admitted to hundreds of unprotected sexual encounters fueled by crystal methamphetamine, a pattern of behavior typical of many gay men. The subsequent commentary focused on everything from the need for more outreach programs to teach the value of safe sex, to demands for gay marriage to lessen the esteem-lowering discrimination that supposedly causes such risky behavior. But no one in the mainstream media dared to speculate that gay predatory promiscuity and drug use—the same constellation of behaviors that 25 years ago fueled the AIDS crisis in the first place—perhaps bespeak a type of neurosis inherent in male homosexuality.

No one in the information elite wants even to mention the unpleasant possibility that a significant number of gay men engage in lethal compulsive sex not because of discrimination or lack of safe-sex billboards, but because homosexuality per se is a form of dysfunction, even though this is what most of the human race has thought for ages. Those presumably same-sex-loving Greeks certainly thought so, repeatedly characterizing passive homosexual activity as a type of compulsive behavior, even Plato calling it an "itch." Maybe this hypothesis is wrong, but shouldn't the idea be considered and the evidence for it be explored, given the importance of this issue? Just you try, and see how quickly the liberal love of challenging orthodoxy and engaging in freewheeling debate suddenly disappears.

Jim Bass Feb. 26 12:15 p.m.

JC Phillips: Race and social security

On the one hand, you have a party consistently portrayed as anti-black, which is saying to black people we want to give you a better "new deal." You should own the money you spend a lifetime earning. The funds "guaranteed" under the current system are a fraction of what you would receive if your money were conservatively invested. Investment and ownership will create wealth in your communities, giving you greater autonomy and a greater stake in the American dream.

The other side, the side that year after year paints itself as the party of uplift for minority communities, preaches government dependency. (We just don't know how good we've got it!) They say ownership is a risky scheme. You die earlier; you work for lower wages so let us take care of you. Sure, the returns may be lousy, the benefits may not be there when you are ready to take them, and you may not ever build generational wealth, but hey, we're feeding you.

Read it all here.  

Jim Bass Feb. 26 9:15 a.m.

david brooks: why not here?

...For the final thing that we've learned from the papers this week is how thoroughly the Bush agenda is dominating the globe. When Bush meets with Putin, democratization is the center of discussion. When politicians gather in Ramallah, democratization is a central theme. When there's an atrocity in Beirut, the possibility of freedom leaps to people's minds.

Read it all here.

Jim Bass Feb. 26 8:15 a.m.

elder abuse: If you don't get back to Burt, He'll back at You

Burt bemoans the lack of good manners today with a personal story. Sample:

Bad news, as my wife will tell you, I can live with; it’s no news that turns me into a raving poodle! What I like about fictional mysteries is that no matter how puzzling and complex they are, ultimately they’re unraveled. I once wrote an episode of MASH in which the final page of a mystery novel is missing. It drives everyone at the 4077 th bonkers. It was a nightmare I could, and obviously did, quite easily imagine.

Read the whole thing.

conservative doesn't mean grumpy

Christo's "Surrounded Islands" brought magic to Miami for two weeks.

Yesterday radio host Larry Elder was dissing the work of Bulgarian artist Christo, whose latest work was The Gates in Manhattan's Central Park. I like and respect Larry Elder but he needs to lighten up. Ditto the other conservative commentators who've reacted to Christo's frivolity with dark mutterings.

So what if Christo's work isn't the equal of Michelangelo? Not everything must have deep meanings. What's the meaning of a melody that brightens the moment?

I was living in Miami when Christo did his Surrounded Islands project. Miami, if you don't know, is an edgy almost hostile environment. When my wife and I first moved there from Denver's Rocky Mountain high, we were shocked at the everyday tension. Grocery clerks wouldn't make eye contact. People were abrupt. We'd wonder why everyone was so pissed off so much of the time.

Then Christo surrounded some islands in Biscayne Bay with pink fabric. Generalized grumbling gave way to something astonishing. For two weeks, people left their air-conditioned caves to admire the islands. Christo offered free boat rides, but you could also see it from the parks and bridges. Small crowds congregated. People talked to each other. Strangers! Smiling! Christo's art waved a magic wand that elevated the mood for 14 days.

Which reminds me of another similar moment. My wife and two young sons were camping near Mammoth, California in mid June. It began to drizzle, then rain hard enough to put out our campfire. As dusk fell, we huddled in our tent shivering and miserable. Around 7:30 I decided to check the weather and was astonished to see snow falling. Huge, wet snow flakes. Two inches had already accumulated. Soon people came out of their tents and RVs and were smiling and making conversation. For an hour or so, we were all children again, tickled by something as simple as snow.

Was it art? Was it meaningful? Let's just say, I still savor the moment.

Jim Bass Feb. 25 9:15 a.m.

a busy body never rests

The food police want the Feds to regulate table salt as a food additive. They blame 150,000 early deaths on too much salt. (Here's an idea to rescue Social Security: free pretzels for Baby Boomers.) Given the thousands of factors that affect longevity, the 150,000 figure smells like a guess designed to score political points. We say take this report with a grain of salt.

Jim Bass Feb. 25 8:45 a.m.

canada ducks missile shield

It's official. Canada will not join the United States in supporting the ballistic missile shield system.

Most Canadians are opposed to the missile defense shield, which is in the midst of testing interceptors capable of taking out incoming missiles. Some believe the umbrella, when fully implemented, could lead to the weaponization of space and an international arms race.

North Korea already claims to have several nukes. A workable missile shield should dissuade even the nuttiest tyrant from shooting one at the US because a) it wouldn't get through and b) ours would. Yet Canadian naifs fret that building defenses might lead to an arms race.

This brings to mind the U.S. debate in 1949 over development of the H-bomb. This fascinating bit of history is recounted well in Thomas Reed's excellent first person history of the Cold War, At the Abyss.

As the Soviet menace grew, plans were developed for the H-bomb, a weapon an order-of-magnitude more destructive than the atomic bomb. But there was vocal opposition from Nobel laureates Enrico Fermi and I.I. Rabi, among others. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the A-bomb," wrote:

In determining not to develop the super bomb we see a unique opportunity of providing by example some limitations on the totality of war.

That is, the US should demonstrate ideals for the good of mankind. What these scientists didn't know was the Soviets had already started an H-bomb program of their own a year earlier. Furthermore, the gesture would have backfired anyway. As Andrei Sakharov, father of the Soviet H-bomb, wrote in his memoirs:

Any US move toward abandoning or suspending work on thermonuclear weapons would have been perceived either as a cunning, deceitful maneuver or evidence of stupidity or weakness. In either case, the Soviet reaction would have been the same: to avoid a possible trap and exploit the adversary's folly at the earliest opportunity.

By autumn of 1949, the Atomic Energy Commission voted 3-2 against proceeding with the H-bomb. President Harry Truman listened to all the arguments and said, "What the hell are we waiting for? Let's get on with it." Had Truman backed off, psycho-killer Josef Stalin would have had the military edge necessary to defeat the United States.

Liberals have great hearts. But their tendency to mistake evil and to see the world as they wish it to be rather than how it is, can have deadly consequences.

Jim Bass Feb. 24 11:45 a.m.

More on Terri Schiavo

from blogger Austin Higgins.

Jim Bass Feb. 24 10:45 a.m.

what's going on in syria?

Lee Smith in the Weekly Standard writes.

I watched George W. Bush's inaugural address here last month at the house of my friend Abu Darwish, a programmer who lives in a modest middle-class neighborhood with his wife and three young children, all studying English at their father's insistence. "He loves the USA," his wife told me. The children laughed when she rolled her eyes behind their father's back as he was blowing kisses at Bush's image on TV. She doesn't love America right now and thinks that Bush hates Muslims and Arabs. "No," Abu Darwish argued gently with his wife, "he's talking about freedom for Muslims and Arabs. God bless you, Bush."

Abu Darwish believes that there aren't many Syrians like him, and while it's true his is hardly the mainstream opinion in the last stronghold of Arab nationalism, during my recent trip to Syria I found that there are more like him than he knows.

Read the whole thing.

Jim Bass Feb. 24 10:15 a.m.

Germans Look in the Mirror: "Bush Might be right"

Germany's Der Spiegel magazine (which means The Mirror) published a refreshingly forthright analysis of German/American relations. Sample:

In Mainz today, the stagnant Europeans came face to face with the dynamic Americans. We Europeans always want to have the world from yesterday, whereas the Americans strive for the world of tomorrow.

During the Cold War, these differences were covered up by clearly shared security and political interests; now, the gaps are becoming visible. The two continents will continue to drift apart despite all of the smiles exchanged today in Mainz, yesterday in Brussels and tomorrow in Bratislava.

It was difficult not to cringe during Reagan's speech in 1987. He didn't leave a single Berlin cliché out of his script. At the end of it, most experts agreed that his demand for the removal of the Wall was inopportune, utopian and crazy.

Yet three years later, East Germany had disappeared from the map. Gorbachev had a lot to do with it, but it was the East Germans who played the larger role. When analysts are confronted by real people, amazing things can happen. And maybe history can repeat itself. Maybe the people of Syria, Iran or Jordan will get the idea in their heads to free themselves from their oppressive regimes just as the East Germans did. When the voter turnout in Iraq recently exceeded that of many Western nations, the chorus of critique from Iraq alarmists was, at least for a couple of days, quieted. Just as quiet as the chorus of Germany experts on the night of Nov. 9, 1989 when the Wall fell.

Just a thought for Old Europe to chew on: Bush might be right, just like Reagan was then.

Jim Bass Feb. 23 5:15 p.m.

The Berlin Wall Falls again

From the Washington Post on the Lebanese uprising:

"It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq," explains Jumblatt. "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. "The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."

And this:

"It is the beginning of a new Arab revolution," argues Samir Franjieh, one of the organizers of the opposition. "It's the first time a whole Arab society is seeking change -- Christians and Muslims, men and women, rich and poor."

Read the whole thing.

Jim Bass Feb. 23 9:35 a.m.

Fear and Loathing in France

An American ex-pat explains how French provincials can be nasty.

Rural bullying – the treatment meted out to anyone who's perceived as "different'' by a tight-knit pastoral community – has to be one of France's best-kept secrets. The French themselves find the subject of harcèlement moral rather shameful – and saying you've been a victim is the equivalent of admitting you've got a drink problem.

Our own problems began when, with my French husband, we moved to rural France to set up a Chambres d'hotes. Jaded townies ourselves we had visions of fellow citadins stretching their all on sun-loungers soothing bruised metropolitan psyche's while we stood by to ply them with gallons of good Bordeaux.

Jim Bass Feb. 23 7:35 a.m.

"We smile with our Eyes"

is what came to mind seeing this video of Terri Schiavo. Like most people, I've followed the story superficially through TV reports: Husband wants brain-dead wife "to die with dignity." Parents do everything to keep her alive. It becomes a political and judicial football. For details, read here.

What I recall from TV was a woman in a vegetative state. That's not what I see in the video. I see a young woman lighting up at the sight of her mother. Smiling, if you will. Her life may not be much, but it is her life. She is neither comatose nor brain dead.

So far, the husband has won the court battles, and the plan is to remove her feeding tube and let her starve to death. One wonders, will the hundreds who hold candelight vigils for condemned murderers collect outside the hospital for the days it will take for Terry Schiavo to die?

I doubt it.

There is a bill pending in Florida that could addresses this. (Hat tip to Anklebitingpundits.com)

Jim Bass Feb. 22 6:35 p.m.

burt spills the truth about barbie (and more)

Sample:

Several years ago, I was employed at an ad agency that included among its clients Mattel, Inc., a company that manufactured toys, games and dolls. Barbie and Ken had done for Mattel what Mickey and Minnie had done for Disney.

As a copywriter, I realized it was time to move on when I found I had committed to memory all the random utterances of Chatty Cathy, and knew the family and friends of Barbie far better than did my seven year old niece.

During the year I worked on the account, the most brain-numbing assignments involved describing the various Barbie outfits for the seasonal catalogues. How many different adjectives can you come up with to describe taffeta? I tell you, the woman had more cocktail dresses than Ivana Trump and more shoes than Imelda Marcos. And now that enough time has passed and I am no longer curtailed by my confidentiality agreement, I can let you in on a little secret -- Barbie wasn't born with that eye-popping figure. Yes, my dear, just like Demi Moore, it's all plastic!

Read the whole thing.

Feb. 22 11:35 a.m.

lebanese following the Ukranian example?

Freedom hungry Lebanese continue to throng the public squares demanding that Syria withdraw.

Feb. 22 9:35 a.m.

Hunter Thompson RIP

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was so funny at times I had to put the book aside and recover from laughing. But when I remember the book, it is this poignant passage that comes to mind:

It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—that kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run ...

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights—or very early mornings—when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder’s jacket ... booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end ... but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was ... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning ...

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave ...

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

When I was 14, I thought Holden Caulfied was cool and wise. At 21, I reread Catcher in the Rye and found Holden Caulfield to be a pathetic, mixed-up kid.

When I was 16, I thought Hugh Hefner was the coolest of the cool. He spent all day in silk pajamas, kept company with beautiful naked women and ran his business empire from a round bed. When I was 30, and saw Hugh Hefner still living the same life, I thought the man was juvenile. (At 77, Hefner on Viagra is both pathetic and creepy.)

In college, I thought Hunter Thompson was insightful. I, too, believed in that energy, in that beautiful wave, in that high water mark. But as I matured, I realized that no, in the long run it didn't "mean something." It had been kid's stuff: no more, no less.

The ideals of youth are bound up in narcissism. Boomers got an extra dose through sheer numbers. We were the youth generation, an outsized market segment worth billions in sales, spending the fruits of our parents' sacrifice through Depression and war. What we thought, what we said, how we dressed, how we partied -- found easy acclaim from those eager to sell us music, books, TV shows, clothes, liberal politics, movies and drugs.

Time magazine told us that Woodstock was not just a music festival with bad weather, but a turning point in civilization. We were stardust, we were golden, and we were getting back to the garden. Sorry, we weren't stardust, we were not golden, we were just fooled into believing ourselves special.

Coming upon Hunter Thompson's later writing, I was disappointed to see he'd never moved on. His phrases, attitude and politics were stale and recycled. His act had become tiresome.

Some of my friends will dispute that, just as we disagree about Bush, Iraq and capitalism. Their politics have not changed in 40 years. This they define as holding true to principles. But principles can often become convenient pieties that excuse you from having to think, from carrying your weight.

Looking back, Thompson's "fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right" was no more than garden variety self-righteousness. Right on, indeed.

Feb. 21 6:35 p.m.

look what bush-Blair have started

Lebanese protestors take to the streets in Beirut to demand the end of Syrian control.

Omar at Iraq the Model says:

It seems that the demand for freedom and democracy in the ME is increasing even faster than we expected. Obviously the effects of the Tsunami of Jan 30 in Iraq and the September 11 of Lebanon have already started to play their role in shaping the region.

The essential Arthur Chrenkoff has a good roundup of news about Lebanon.

Feb. 21 12:35 p.m.

why brit poli-blogging Ain't what it is Here

A nice perspective on differences between British and American media, and what that means for bloggers, from blogger Martin Stabe.

First, blogging has filled a niche that the particular structure American journalism has left open: partisan reporting. The ideology of journalism that has emerged in the United States since the 19th century is professional “objectivity“. A widely-held norm of objectivity lends itself to criticism based on charges of partisan bias.

American journalism’s notion of objectivity has an economic basis. American print journalism is based on a system of regional monopolies that attempt to be slavishly centrist in order to attract the widest possible audience. Broadcasting is still dominated by the networks which operate in a similar way, although the recent advent of cable and satellite channels is challenging that.

British mainstream journalism, by contrast, is relatively more diverse. The big media are national in scope and compete in a highly competitive market for eyeballs that they must segment along partisan lines to survive. Brits understand this instinctively. They know that their journalism is biased. People who read the Daily Mail or the Guardian understand that they are getting a particular point of view. Brits are accustomed to a partisan media, and know how to decode the news accordingly. A blog screaming about the manifold biases of the Sun isn’t telling us anything we don’t already know.

The Los Angeles Times has failed at being "slavishly centrist" for a long time, and has seen its circulation drop by 6 percent in the past year alone.

Feb. 21 9:35 a.m.

mending fences blah blah blah

Like an approving playground monitor ("George, apologize to Jacques. Good. Now Jacques, you apologize to George"), the mainstream media has depicted President Bush's trip to Europe as an overdue "fence mending" mission.

To the media elite, Bush has much to apologize for: scoffing at Kyoto, being too unilateral, being too blunt, etc. Of course, it was Bush's resolve in the face of blistering personal attacks from some European leaders that led to 50 million people liberated from tyranny. Furthermore, the rift with "Europe" is a fiction if you believe that Italy, Poland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Portugal and the UK are part of Europe, because they were strong backers of the Iraq war, albeit some more in word than in deed.

For a good perspective on this, read Paul Johnson in Forbes.com. And for more perspective and just pure fun, there's Mark Steyn.

Feb. 21 8:35 a.m.

Rich Lowry on media martyrs Miller and cooper

A nice summary of the media fallout over the Plame affair from Rich Lowry. Sample:

An axiom for defense lawyers goes something like: "If you can argue the law, argue the law; if you can't argue the law, argue the facts; if you can do neither, try to change the law." It is this last, usually desperate tack that has been taken by the journalists' defense, which is urging the creation of a new absolute federal privilege against journalists being forced to reveal their sources. An appeals court has already unanimously nixed this idea. A much simpler, more obvious argument is available to the defense — that the Intelligence Identities Protection Act that was supposedly violated in this case wasn't. The act establishes an extremely high standard for a criminal violation — the agent in question has to be undercover (Plame wasn't), and the leaker has to know she was undercover and be intentionally trying to undermine U.S. intelligence (very, very unlikely).

But the Miller/Cooper defense hasn't made this argument, probably because it would be so embarrassing. You mean to say, after months of chest beating, the Bush administration's crime of the century wasn't even a crime? It was just a Washington flap played for all it was worth by the same news organizations now about to watch their employees go to prison over it? That's the truth that the media will go to any length to avoid. If Miller and Cooper go to jail — I hope they don't — they will have plenty of time to think about the hypocrisy and ridiculousness of their caterwauling colleagues.

Read it all here.

Feb. 21 7:05 a.m.

beasts are such men!

Koko, the sign-language speaking gorilla, insisted her two female aides (human variety) show "me what you got." When a female reporter asked Koko for comment, she signed "You can leave your hat on."

Feb. 20 7:25 p.m.

Beyond good and evil: onward christian Leftists

Would you believe the Presbyterian Church has links to Hezbollah? Check it and come back.

What follows is an excerpt from Is Peace Possible? by Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator of the 216th General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (USA) December 2004. The whole thing is here.

I have been increasingly troubled by our continued reliance on the “just war” theory as a path toward credible peacemaking. In the last three years, my chagrin has grown to an almost visceral discomfort with the rhetoric and the reality of the “war on terrorism.” Our belief that there is such a thing as redemptive violence is deeply problematic on both a theological and a pragmatic level.

When terrorists blow up churches and mosques, worshippers reach both theological and pragmatic (dead) ends. What's more pragmatic than thwarting murder?

I find I can no longer nuance the use of violence. It’s increasingly difficult to distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys. The defining characteristic of all kinds of warfare in our time is that civilians are the overwhelming majority of those who are killed. That’s true whether they are the victims of terrorist attacks or well-executed military campaigns.

First, nuance is not a verb.

Indeed civilians do die at the hands of terrorists; that's how terrorists spread terror. That's why we send in our military to kill terrorists. Ufford-Chase essentially admits he cannot distinguish good from evil, a serious shortcoming for a religious man.

What if the Church stood against all forms of violence: the war in Iraq, the Israeli Occupation, and the violence and tactics of asymmetric warfare, or what we call terrorism? Equating God with the cause of the domination of one people over another is morally abhorrent, whether it’s we who do it in the United States or Osama Bin Laden who does it in the name of Allah.

Which war in Iraq? The 35-year war that Saddam waged against his own people? Good news: we ended Saddam's war. Bad news: there's still work to do mopping up the remnants of Saddam's regime and motley jihadists.

What if we had spent $200 billion dollars on housing and clean water in the Middle East instead of on waging war there? What if everyone had a good place to live and the possibility of an education and a future for his children?

Think, man. By destroying tyranny and abetting democracy, we are giving Iraqis and Afghanis the chance to build their own nations with good housing and clean water and educated kids. Longterm, their success will breed peace and security.

What if my own privilege didn’t appear to come at the expense of another person’s ability to provide for the most basic needs of her family?

"Appear to" is right. The zero-sum worldview that holds that one person's gain necessitates another person's loss is ignorant and juvenile. We hear so much as the Christian Right. Isn't it about time to sound the alarm about the Christian Left?

Feb. 19 7:55 p.m.

Why I'm Pro-Choice (on Social Security)

My latest letter from the Social Security Administration, advised me I can choose from three levels of benefits depending on whether I retire at age 62, 66 or 70. Even the highest figure is one-third the benefits my wife will receive as a retired school teacher (they're exempted from SS.)

She's worked about half as many years (she raised three kids). Adding further insult, I've been self-employed most of my working life and have paid all the SS taxes, far more per year than her pension contribution. Now here's the kicker, straight from the SS letter:

*Your estimated benefits are based on current law. Congress has made changes in the law in the past and can do so at any time. The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2042, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 73 percent of scheduled benefits.

Make me feel real secure. See Betsy's Page for insight into how dishonest reporters use these plastic benefits numbers provided by the government.

The choice I don't yet have, and which I hope my children can have, is to choose to direct some of their money into personal accounts. Above all, President Bush is only proposing choice. No one has to give up anything they already have.

Feb. 19 11:55 a.m.

Solid thinking from the Left

Martin Peretz wrote an excellent piece in The New Republic about the failings of contemporary liberalism. He makes the case for the Left-as-reactionary noted by some conservatives.

Here is an excerpt about race:

One of the legacies of the '60s is liberal idealism about race. But that discussion has grown particularly outmoded in the Democratic Party... This patronizing attitude is proof positive that, as deep as the social and economic gains have been among African Americans, many liberals prefer to maintain their own time-honored patronizing position vis-à-vis "the other," the needy. This is, frankly, in sharp contrast to President Bush, who seems not to be impeded by race difference (and gender difference) in his appointments and among his friends. Maybe it is just a generational thing, and, if it is that, it is also a good thing. But he may be the first president who apparently does not see individual people in racial categories or sex categories. White or black, woman or man, just as long as you're a conservative. That is also an expression of liberation from bias.

Aout China:

U.S. politics has not yet confronted a phenomenon that has been on the front page of the international financial press for years. This is the dizzying specter of economic competition from China, whose hold on U.S. Treasury bonds leaves the dollar vulnerable to a tremendous decline should China decide to sell them. (There is a new model of society emerging before our eyes: a most rapacious capitalist economy under a most pitiless communist political tyranny.) The industrialized states of Europe and, predictably, Japan are battening down their hatches rather than admitting to the challenge from China. But China will not go away.

About America's place in the world:

It is typologically the same people who wanted the United States to let communism triumph--in postwar Italy and Greece, in mid-cold war France and late-cold war Portugal--who object to U.S. efforts right now in the Middle East. You hear the schadenfreude in their voices--you read it in their words--at our troubles in Iraq. For months, liberals have been peddling one disaster scenario after another, one contradictory fact somehow reinforcing another, hoping now against hope that their gloomy visions will come true.

I happen to believe that they won't. This will not curb the liberal complaint. That complaint is not a matter of circumstance. It is a permanent affliction of the liberal mind. It is not a symptom; it is a condition. And it is a condition related to the desperate hopes liberals have vested in the United Nations. That is their lodestone. But the lodestone does not perform. It is not a magnet for the good. It performs the magic of the wicked. It is corrupt, it is pompous, it is shackled to tyrants and cynics. It does not recognize a genocide when the genocide is seen and understood by all. Liberalism now needs to be liberated from many of its own illusions and delusions. Let's hope we still have the strength.

Read it all here. (Registration required)

Feb. 19 9:55 a.m.

loretta not so swift

Rep. Loretta Sanchez tried to nail Donald Rumsfeld yesterday (via Best of the Web via Stanford Review.)

Sanchez: Unfortunately, as I said, this committee has had a hard time assessing where we really stand with the Iraqi army as an effective fighting force. Over the past year, we've received incredibly widely fluctuating estimates of that. And I think you have a real credibility problem on this issue.

Rumsfeld: Fluctuations of what?

Sanchez: The fluctuations of--the numbers that you bandy around about how many troops we really have out there that are Iraqi police, et cetera, et cetera. . . .

Rusmfeld: Now, you say we bandy around numbers. They're not my numbers. I don't invent them. They come from Gen. Petraeus. . . .

Sanchez: I have Petraeus's numbers. They're different than your numbers, by the way.

Rumsfeld: Well, what's the date? They aren't different because these came from Petraeus. He may have two sets of numbers, but they are not different if the date's the same. The date on my paper here is Feb. 14. What's yours?

Sanchez: Dec. 20.

Rumsfeld: Not surprising there's a difference.

What many readers may not remember is that Ms. Sanchez won her seat in Congress, from nine-term-incumbent Bob Dornan, in an election marred by voting by illegal immigrants. When Dornan objected to having his seat stolen, Democrats in Congress pooh-poohed his complaints and dubbed him a crybaby.

Senator Barbara Boxer, aka the Grim Weeper, could not be reached for comment.

Feb. 18 3:55 p.m.

Burt delivers straight talk about "Sideways"

Sample:

With the Academy Awards looming on the horizon, I feel the need to point out that low budget does not necessarily translate into high quality, that past history offers no guarantees, and that “Sideways” is the most over-hyped commodity since Enron.

Read it all here.

Feb. 18 2:55 p.m.

ready to Serve: Burt for Baseball Czar!

Condoleeza Rice said she wants to be NFL Commissioner once her public service career ends. Burt is ready, right now, to take over baseball.

I have never made a secret of the fact that the one job in the world I’d get up early and put on a suit and tie for is Commissioner of Baseball. It’s not just the salary or the fact that you get the best seat in the house for every game up to and including the seventh game of the World Series, but that you get to dole out fines and suspensions.

Read it all here.

the Muddy liberal mind

The following letter, signed by Pete Alberini, appeared in the Los Angeles Times:

Re "Hillarycare, Anyone?" editorial, Feb. 15: Somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of the American psyche there was a conscious decision to trust the federal government to make the United States the strongest military power on the face of the Earth.

Individuals cannot field their own armies, therefore we defer to the Feds. It's a matter of necessity, not trust. (And deep, dark recesses of the psyche = a conscious decision? Clear your head, Pete!)

Americans did that because our security affected all the people. Why then wouldn't Americans come to the same conclusion regarding healthcare?

Because they've already tasted government monopoly. If you're a parent with a child stuck in a failing public school, you'd never ask that question. As an Angeleno, Pete should recall the $175 million high school built by LA School District on a toxic site -- money down the drain.

Doesn't the health of the American people affect us all? Wouldn't it make sense to put the responsibility of America's healthcare into the hands of those who are answerable to all of us?

If my HMO stinks, I can always pick another one. If government provided healthcare stinks, I can write a letter to my congressman. Which will be more responsive?

Wouldn't we save money if we had a single agency running the healthcare of America?

Dream on. When has government ever been more efficient than the free market? Competition breeds efficiency. Monopoly breeds insularity and bureaucracy.

Wal-Mart is able to cut costs of goods to consumers because of its size, which enhances its buying power and operational efficiency. Doesn't the cost of America's healthcare dwarf the economic power of Wal-Mart?

Wal-Mart got big because it is an innovative, efficient merchandiser. It squeezes every last dime until Woodrow Wilson cries. "Cost of healthcare vs. economic power of Wal-Mart" is a non-sequitur.

Wouldn't the federal government be able to buy medical services and products in bulk at cheaper prices than states, counties, cities, HMOs or individuals?

If that is so, why not have the Federal government buy our groceries? Form agencies to figure out what people want to eat, then devise a national menu and deliver food to everyone. But why stop there. Let the United Nations do it for everyone. Just imagine the negotiating power of six billion people!

As it happens, the same edition of the Times carried a story about a UCLA doctor who found his department could save $800,000 out of $13 million spent on chemotherapy drugs by negotiating deals on his own. This pitted him agains the University of California bureaucrats paid to negotiate good prices, who were ticked off that he stepped on their turf.

This is the kind of "efficiency" we can look forward to in Pete Alberini's world.

Jim Bass Feb. 17 5:55 p.m.

all the news that didn't fit

From Baghdad dweller, news from Iraq you might have missed. A sample:

• Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?
• Did you know that the Iraqi government employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?
• Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been built in Iraq?
• Did you know that Iraq’s higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers?

(Hat tip to Jeff at Beautiful Atrocities)

Jim Bass Feb. 17 12:55 p.m.

Science Headlines

World advised to stockpile bird flu vaccine.

Engineers have passed a major milestone in their search for an elusive prize - a practical laser made of the silicon that is the heart of semiconductor chips. Success would allow the integration of powerful electronic processors with lasers, so chips could distribute their clock signals optically - avoiding electronic bottlenecks as operating speeds increase.

Wrong again: NOAM CHOMSKY'S theory that the evolution of language provided the portal to all higher thought has taken another knock. A study of people with language difficulties suggests that mathematical skill evolved independently.

Jim Bass Feb. 17 7:55 a.m.

rabbit proof submarine?

The Navy will commission its newest nuclear-powered attack submarine named Jimmy Carter Feb. 19. We can only hope this fine new vessel has sufficient protections against aquatic killer rabbits.

Click image for closeup of rabbit.

For those too young (or old) to remember, the 39th President fought off a water bunny in 1979 while fishing. It was a just war because the rabbit threatened first.

President Jimmy Carter was attacked by a rabbit during a fishing trip in Plains, Georgia. The rabbit, which may have been fleeing a predator, swam toward his boat, "hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and nostrils flared." President Carter was forced to swat at the vicious beast with a canoe paddle, which apparently scared it off.

Although not on a par with Washington crossing the Delaware, it endures as a part of presidential iconography.

UPDATE: This just in from Scrappleface: the Jimmy Carter will be armed with Nerf weapons.

Jim Bass Feb. 16 9:55 a.m.

rays of hope

From the Jerusalem Post, a report about Marseilles. Sample:

Fully a quarter of Marseille's population is of North African origin, and demographers predict that Marseille will be the first city on the European continent with an Islamic majority. Moreover, its Jewish community is the third-largest in Europe.

The most ethnically diverse city in France, then, has paradoxically been the most successful in containing its outbreak of ethnic violence.

A key reason for the city's calm is an entity called Marseille Esp rance, a group of religious leaders convened by the mayor in a regular discussion group. Created in 1990 to stave off ethno-religious conflict between Jews and Muslims, it includes delegates from each of the city's religious communities who meet regularly to discuss civic problems, "combat intolerance, ignorance and incomprehension," and "promote respect for one another."

Read the whole thing here.

Jim Bass Feb. 16 9:35 a.m.

Michael Ledeen: Watersheds

Sample:

The two great elections of recent months were held in Iraq and Ukraine. In both cases, the conventional wisdom was wrong. The conventional wisdom embraced the elitist notion that neither the Ukrainians nor the Iraqis were "ready" for democracy, because they lacked one or another component of the so-called requirements for a free society. Their alleged limitations ranged from historical tradition and internal conflicts to a lack of education and culture and insufficient internal "stability." How I hate the word stability! Is it not the antithesis of everything we stand for? We are the embodiment of revolutionary change, at home and abroad. Most of the time, those who deplore a lack of stability are in reality apologizing for dictators, and selling out great masses of people who wish to be free.

Read it all.

Jim Bass Feb. 16 8:45 a.m.

J.C. Phillips on Liberal Brilliance

Sample:

Americans of course are clearly capable of creating businesses and paying the taxes. We are sufficiently skilled to run our own households and raise our children. But no matter. This is the new liberalism! Under the guise of creating more opportunity for Americans to lead ever greater and more enriched lives, new liberalism favors an ever-expanding involvement of government. It is not enough that government secure individual rights, it must also oversee individual lifestyles from birth to grave.

Self-reliance, individual responsibility and autonomy are distractions that cloud this vision of a citizenry with no worry or need that government cannot address. In the end, it can only be because if left to our own devices we average folks do not have it in us to create lives of value and worth without the aid of a few elites in Washington.

Read the whole thing.

Jim Bass Feb. 16 7:45 a.m.

death valley days

Heavy winter rains have set the southwest abloom. We just returned from Death Valley. Many photos to come. Here's a sample picture (click on it to see larger image):

Jim Bass Feb. 15 10:15 a.m.

warlords don't have Military academies

But Afghanistan does. Nice story, with photos, from Winds of Change.

Feb. 15 7:15 a.m.

Burt takes on Diversity

Sample:

In all the self-righteous crusading on behalf of student diversity, what I don't hear anyone clamoring for is diversity among the instructors. After all, in the Groves of Academe, especially in the so-called Humanities at the major universities, it would be safe to wager that at least 90% of the faculty members are Democrats. Moreover, I would suggest that liberal bias in the classroom, with all those youngsters soaking up leftwing propaganda and regurgitating it in the form of Blue Book exams, is a far greater menace to a democratic society than a school's failure to meet an arbitrary quota based on ethnicity.

Read the whole thing here.

Feb. 14 7:15 p.m.

sniff sniff, whine whine

"Senate Democrats demanded Thursday that President Bush order a halt to personal attacks on the party's leader, Sen. Harry Reid, and expressed regret that they had failed to mount a stronger defense for his defeated predecessor."

Personal attack? The GOP website posted a research brief mostly recounting Reid's voting record. There's also a bit about Reid's posh condo in Washington. And this:

In 2002, Harry Reid Attacked The President Stating “President Bush Is A Liar.” (Erin Neff, “Political Rift Could Hurt State’s Yucca Fight,” Las Vegas Sun, 3/5/02)

As Recently As December 2004, Reid Stood By Comments Attacking President Bush As A “Liar.” NBC’s TIM RUSSERT: “You said, ‘President Bush is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country.’ Is that rhetoric appropriate?” SEN. HARRY REID: “. . . [P]eople may not like what I said, but I said it, and I don’t back off one bit.” (NBC’s “Meet The Press,” 12/5/04)

So reminding voters that Senator Reid called Bush a liar is a personal attack, but the act of calling Bush a liar is not?

Jayson at Polipundit says it best:

Back when I was growing up, they told us that the GOP was the “daddy” party and the Democrats were the “mommy” party. The Democrats are the “baby” party. The two year-old baby in the midst of a tantrum, that is.

Feb. 11 8:15 a.m.

burt Takes on the Dumbing Down of Acadame

Sample:

Admittedly, it's been many years since I was a collegian. Still, as I recall, the real value of the four years, aside from learning how to drink and how to talk to women without stuttering, was the enforced proximity to the minds and works of Socrates, Newton, Freud, Shakespeare, Plato, Milton, Michelangelo, Einstein, Da Vinci and Jefferson, and was neither enhanced nor diminished by the color or creed of the other students.

The truth of the matter was that my interest in my fellow scholars, and I don't think my attitude was at all atypical, was limited to wanting to date the more attractive coeds and wanting to murder those brainiacs most likely to raise the class curve.

Read it all here.

Feb. 11 7:15 a.m.

Anti-Bias Bias. Can't Let that Get by Us.

A long-winded column by Dick Myer of CBS News includes this:

Bob Schieffer and I shared an office in the U.S. Capitol the size of a walnut for several years. He taught me a thing or two about news, politics and getting through the day, but here’s one of my favorites: never argue with the loud drunk at the bar. They don't listen, you can't change their minds and all that can come of it is ill will, frustration and maybe a fat lip.

Which is why many stopped arguing and switched off CBS News years ago: CBS is the loud drunk.

For a better analysis of media bias, and CBS in particular, read Bernard Goldberg's Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distorts the News. (Hat tip: Polipundit.)

Jim Bass Feb 10 11:15 a.m

Are Doctors Overeducated?

Daniel Weintraub's column in the Sacramento Bee (free registration required) suggests health care costs could be lowered if doctors were trained only for what they really do.

Jim Bass Feb 10 7:50 a.m

blows against the empire

My father, a career Air Force officer, spent five years as a budget officer at the Pentagon. He's told me many tales of inefficiency and bureaucratic politics at the DoD. Donald Rumsfeld began his second stint as Sec. of Defense intent on reforming the beast, a goal significantly complicated by 9/11 and two wars. But Rumsfeld soldiers on and is tackling personnel rules that protect incompetents. (Hat tip: Betsy's Page)

Jim Bass Feb 10 7:40 a.m

We've got Condi. Germany's Got Joschka

Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer was in Australia mending fences when he did an interview with Australian TV interviewer Tony Jones.

TONY JONES: ... In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush said his ultimate goal was to end tyranny in the world. Now, do you accept that as a legitimate guiding principle of foreign policy?

JOSCHKA FISCHER: Looking to the history of my continent of Europe, we had two totalitarian challenges. The first one was the challenge of the Nazis in my country, which led to almost a complete destruction of my country, not only in a physical sense but morally; and the second one was Bolshevism and the Stalinist threat. At the end, Europe overcame all these challenges, and today Europe is a continent moving forward to the integration.

Europe overcame? America and Britain knocked out the Nazis, then graciously helped Germany rebuild via the Marshall Plan. American forces kept Stalin from taking most of the continent (he'd already grabbed half of Germany) and fought the Cold War for 40 years.

Eventually Fischer acknowledges the US contribution. Reading the transcript is like listening to John Kerry: a slog through word fog. (Hat tip to Medienkritik.)

Jim Bass Feb 9 9:40 p.m

Hey, tom shales: You can't handle the truth

From a TV review in the Washington Post, Tom Shales writes:

In his State of the Union address, George W. Bush said Americans should congratulate themselves on turning "the abolition of slavery" from a dream into reality.

Bush's actual words:

As Franklin Roosevelt once reminded Americans, "each age is a dream that is dying, or one that is coming to birth." And we live in the country where the biggest dreams are born.

The abolition of slavery was only a dream — until it was fulfilled. The liberation of Europe from fascism was only a dream — until it was achieved...

The dream of honest reporting? Unfulfilled.

Jim Bass Feb 9 2:40 p.m.

does a darwin award come standard?

Inspired by a cigarette butt?

The curiously-named Smart car is on its way to America. At 5x8 feet, it's a foot wider than a sheet of plywood, four feet shorter than a MiniCooper, and half the size of Michael Moore.

Living near LA, with intent to keep living, I can't imagine taking this roller skate very far from home. In a smackdown against an 18-foot Ford Excursion, the smart odds are not on the Smart car, no matter how state-of-the-art its "Tridion" safety cell structure may be.

A big upside for Realtors: once this squirt hits town, two-car garages can be advertised as four-car garages.

Jim Bass Feb 9 10:40 a.m.

keifer suthlerland sets us straight

During a commercial break on Monday's episode of "24" Kiefer Sutherland explained that, although this season of "24" features Islamic villains, not all Muslims are terrorists. What a relief, eh? We understand PC disclaimers and why Kiefer was sent out to state the obvious.

But what about the oil industry that was villainized in season one? Do they not deserve a kind word? Gas station stickups might drop off if viewers only knew the good oil companies do. And shouldn't James Gandolfini declare that Italians are not all mafiosi?

Before Dan Rather departs CBS News, should he not disclaim that political conservatives are not knuckle-dragging creationists eager to despoil Mother Earth, jackboot the poor, harsh everyone's high, invade all nations, and keep women barefoot and pregnant? Well, at least not all conservatives.

Jim Bass Feb 9 9:30 a.m.

A german comedy? Indeed.

I've seen quite a few German films over the years, mostly the works of Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders and Rainer Fassbinder. If you haven't noticed, Germans tend toward the ponderous. Should Germany ever reinstitute capital punishment, they can appoint a committee to think condemned criminals to death.

So when Goodbye, Lenin arrived from Netflix it languished on the shelf for a couple of weeks as we worked up a mood for some Teutonic rumination. Instead, we saw a light, funny and subtle story about a family living in East Berlin around the time the wall came down. Amusing and touching.

What's remarkable is that the demise of Communist rule is a serious subject, and the obvious approach to telling the story is not comedic. Yet Goodbye, Lenin conveyed the shabby existence of the East Germans better than any drama might have. I hope that more of Walter Becker's work finds it way onto DVD.

Jim Bass Feb 8 12:30 p.m

burt Declares war can be good

Sample:

I realize that some folks are going to bring up innocent bloodshed as an argument against war. But, the truth is that, one way or another, everybody dies. Why is it only a big deal when they die during warfare?

Read the whole thing.

chilling effect on free speech

Apparently, reminders of Ted Kennedy's cowardice at Chappaquiddick are verboten at the Chicago Tribune, even in a cartoon. Explaining that the cartoon below "does not meet the Chicago Tribune's standards of fairness" the major metropolitan daily ran a substitute.

This is the same newspaper that went to court last year to unseal the divorce records of Jack Ryan and Jeri Ryan, against both of their wishes, exposing their young child to ridicule and ending Ryan's run for the senate.

Click image for larger view.

Hat tip to the Volokh Conspiracy via Betsy's Page.

Jim Bass Feb 8 8:30 a.m.

what goes around keeps going around and Around...

I got an inspiring email today recounting a story about the father of Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, saved a young Winston Churchill from drowning. In gratitude, Churchill's father paid for Fleming's education. Inspiring, but bunk.

Always check with Snopes.com before forwarding.

Jim Bass Feb 8 7:30 a.m.

Gov. Schwarzenegger Names Trio to Parole Board

Inspired by the United Nations decision to name Cuba, Zimbabwe and Saudia Arabia to its Human Rights Commission panel, California's governor nominated three new members to the California Parole Board. They are:

• Charles Manson: ardent Beatles fan and family man
• Roman Polanski: fugitive pedophile
• Richard Ramirez: edgy & infamous night person

Jim Bass Feb 7 7:30 p.m.

the eU locates its spine

To no one's surprise, it's not located in "old Europe."

Jim Bass Feb 7 1:30 p.m.

Bill Moyers: Is that a Hindrocket on my Tail?

Powerline's John Hinderacker deftly dissects Bill Moyers's latest screed, finding evidence of sloppiness bordering on libel. Which reminds me of my beef with Moyers a few years back over a broadcast he did on Chapter 11 of NAFTA.

It was an alarmist piece (what else?) about the special court established by NAFTA to adjudicate trade disputes. In particular, a Canadian chemical manufacturer of gasoline additive MTBE sued California over its MTBE ban. Moyers interviewed California pols who fretted that a supra-national court could trump California's sovereign right to protect its environment.

Moyers's angle was that a chemical company (boo, hiss) could use trade laws to compel use of a known toxin. I bought the outrage.

As it happened, days later I read that the European Union had studied MTBE and found it safe. Hmm...them Europeans are mighty green. Perhaps the Canadian firm had a legitmate argument.

American ethanol producers stood to gain from the MTBE ban, so the ban could be a form of protectionism. Trade courts are established precisely to sort out these arguments. Bottom line: chapter 11 of NAFTA was working as intended.

I wrote to Moyers asking why he didn't include the balancing information about the EU study. He replied there was not enough time in the broadcast.

That was the last I watched Bill Moyers.

Jim Bass Feb 7 7:30 a.m.

the ever-brilliant mark steyn

So, after months of expressing deep concern, grave concern, deep concern over the graves and deep grave concern over whether the graves were deep enough, Kofi Annan managed to persuade the UN to set up a committee to look into what's going on in Darfur. They've just reported back that it's not genocide.

Read it all here.

Time to Drain "Le Swamp"?

Joblessness leads to hopelessness which leads some Muslim youths to radical Islam, and for a few, terrorism. This was the thrust of a recent Frontline episode. France, in particular, has had difficulty integrating immigrants from Morocco, Algeria and other Muslim countries into its economy. In fact, even third-generation French Muslims often feel excluded from French society and turn to radical Islam for a sense of self.

This came to mind reading about the ruckus over government plans to liberalize labor laws that mandate a 35-hour work week in France. Instituted in 1998, when France's unemployment rate neared 13 percent, the idea was to create more jobs by shaving a few hours off each worker's week. (This seems like harebrained zero-sum economics, but perhaps we just lack the European sophistication to grasp it.)

Six years later, unemployment remains near 10% (versus 5.2% in the US) and the Chirac government sees a need for flexibility.

"We are not challenging the 35 hours," [the French labor minister] said. "This text simply proposes new freedoms, so that those who want to work more can earn more. It will create a new dynamic among companies, to create wealth and jobs. But everything will be done by the path of collective agreement."

Creating wealth and new jobs are no apparent concern for the 50,000 protesters demanding no change in the labor laws. (How does one say "I, me, mine" in French?) Their evident concern is preserving their own piece of the quiche, not making the quiche bigger so more can benefit. But if the economy does not grow, the resentment of Muslim immigrants living amongst them surely will. So if only for selfish interests, French workers need to wise up.

Not every swamp breeding Islamofascists lies in the Middle East.

Jim Bass Feb 5 10:30 a.m.

Does Bush have Guts, or What?

Now he's treading on the toes of agribusiness.

From veteran Iraqi Correspondent John Burns

How many times did voters say to me -- and I believe to many other reporters who began their interviews with them by asking them, as we so often do, are you Shiite, are you Sunni or are you Kurd -- they would say to us, what is that to you? Why are you people so obsessed with that?

I must have heard that several dozen times yesterday -- people who said, can't you get it straight in your mind that we are Iraqis first, and then Sunnis or Shiites second? And this is really very interesting. There is a sense amongst Iraqis that Americans arrived here with an obsession about the ethnic breakdown of this country. Now, it is a reality, and it's reflected in the insurgency.

Another bite:

The United States was physically removed from the process by reason of the troops being pulled back from the polling stations, one of the wisest things I think that American commanders here decided to do. And it was simply that America was no longer in the forefront of the consciousness of these people, and that has to be a very good thing. What they were celebrating was Iraqis deciding the future of Iraq.

Read the whole transcript here.

Jim Bass Feb 5 9:30 a.m.

who said this?

“In the important field of security for our old people, it seems necessary to adopt three principles: First, noncontributory old-age pensions for those who are now too old to build up their own insurance. It is, of course, clear that for perhaps 30 years to come funds will have to be provided by the States and the Federal Government to meet these pensions.

Second, compulsory contributory annuities that in time will establish a self-supporting system for those now young and for future generations.

Third, voluntary contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age. It is proposed that the Federal Government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt in a message to Congress on Social Security on Jan. 17, 1935. Not only did FDR come out for private investment accounts, he actually called old people old people.

Hat tip to Polipundit.

Jim Bass Feb 4 4:30 p.m

not speaking softly, but carrying a big stick

Marine General James Mattis raised a fuss with some impolitic statements about the fun of shooting certain enemies. Which reminded me of Generation Kill, an excellent account by Evan Wright of one Marine Corps unit in Iraq in 2003 ordered into battle by Mattis.

My youngest son bought the book (which is fitting because many of the warriors featured in the book are his age) and passed it along to me. I read it. I loaned it an Israeli friend who had served as a tank gunner. He found the book impossible to put down, although it brought back disturbing memories. Then my wife read it. And now my oldest son is reading it.

We only have one copy, so get your own. And read it.

Jim Bass Feb 5 2:30 p.m

Senator John Corzine Does FDR Photo-Op

Yesterday prominent Democrats staged a photo-op at the FDR memorial (although a visit to a Charles Ponzi memorial would be more fitting) to oppose President Bush's efforts to reform Social Security. Sen. John Corzine (NJ) was among them. As the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, it's puzzling to see him beef with the idea of allowing younger workers to invest in private accounts. From his web site:

Some privatizers argue disingenuously that privatization won't actually cut guaranteed benefits.

Nothing is guaranteed about Social Security except that you'll get something. Congress has already raised the retirement age once, in effect changing the deal.

They do this by assuming that, without privatization, Congress will break its promise to retirees by allowing benefits to be cut rather than shoring up the Social Security Trust Fund. In effect, the privatizers argue that Congress, having used Social Security funds for other purposes, now should be able to break its promise to retirees because there is not enough money in the Trust Fund.

Who said the government should be able to break its promise? The issue is how will the government be able to keep its promise. When there are only two workers for each retiree, where will the money come from to pay grandpa's Social Security check?

You can't get blood from a turnip, and you can't tax workers beyond a certain point without ruining their lives and wrecking the economy. Then what?

...Yet now that the President and Congress are failing to save enough and face a shortfall in the Social Security Trust Fund...

The Social Security Trust Fund is a weird fiction in which the goverment "invests" in Treasury Bills--in effect, writing an IOU to itself. How will these IOUs be redeemed? By taxing those two workers.

How can anyone call lending money to yourself a Trust Fund? If you believe that one party can be both lender and borrower in the same transaction, then you'll believe that I can raise myself off the ground by taking my feet in hand and lifting.

There is another problem with privatized accounts that is rarely talked about - they are very costly to administer. One reason is that many accounts are quite small, so a significant share of any gains is eaten up by management fees and administrative charges.

Maybe at Goldman Sachs. Corzine retired in 1999 with $320 million, spending some $60 million to run for his Senate seat. On his watch Goldman Sachs was notorious for "laddering."

Maybe Sen. Corzine should have a look at Vanguard funds. The costs are low, the indexes are broad and the returns reflect the health of the economy. If index funds tank, then the US economy will have tanked--and those two workers will not have jobs and won't be paying any income taxes. Then what?

Jim Bass Feb 4 10:30 a.m

who do you trust? Uncle Sam or Yourself?

Social Security talk from Bush's State of the Union speech:

Here is why personal accounts are a better deal.

Your money will grow, over time, at a greater rate than anything the current system can deliver - and your account will provide money for retirement over and above the check you will receive from Social Security.

In addition, you'll be able to pass along the money that accumulates in your personal account, if you wish, to your children or grandchildren. And best of all, the money in the account is yours, and the government can never take it away.

By speaking of the government "taking away" Bush undermines the notion of government as benefactor, an article of faith to Democrats. To them, the free market is the great taker (Enron etc.) while the government is the great protector.

To Bush, the free market is an expression of economic democracy, an engine of wealth, which is broader and more responsive to individuals than the government can ever be (or should be).

How will young people see this? Many understand 401k programs and index funds. They know about IRAs. They know about compound interest. They know that corporate pensions are invested in the markets. In short, they know that investing is not gambling.

So who will they trust? The government or themselves?

Jim Bass Feb 3 9:30 a.m

EuTopia

Polipundit has the figures on unemployment in Europe here. Vaclev Havel reams the EU for moral cowardice vis-a-vis Cuba here.

Jim Bass Feb 3 8:30 a.m

evil is as evil does

From Omar, more on the Down syndrome "suicide" bomber.

The suicide attack that was performed on an election center in one of Baghdad's districts (Baghdad Al-Jadeedah) last Sunday was performed using a kidnapped "Down Syndrome" patient. Eye witnesses said (and I'm quoting one of my colleagues; a dentist who lives there) "the poor victim was so scared when ordered to walk to the searching point and began to walk back to the terrorists. In response the criminals pressed the button and blew up the poor victim almost half way between their position and the voting center's entrance".

I couldn't believe the news until I met another guy from that neighborhood who knows the family of the victim. The guy was reported missing 5 days prior to elections' day and the family were distributing posters that specified his descriptions and asking anyone who finds him to contact them.

When a relative of mine (who has a mental handicap due to an Rh conflict at birth) told me a month ago that a group of men in a car tried to kidnap him as he was standing in front of the institution he periodically visits to get medicine and support waiting for his brother; I thought that he was imagining the whole story. He said that they tried to force him into the car telling him not to be afraid and that they're from the "mujahideen and not going to hurt him". My relative, despite his handicap was moved by his survival instinct and managed to run away. After I heard the other story, I began to connect between the two stories and to consider my cousin's story as a true one that uncovered a new miserable war technique that can come only from the sickest minds.

Jim Bass Feb 3 8:15 a.m

Senators John & Ted: Call Christopher

Read here.

Jim Bass Feb 2 9:37 a.m

white trash wednesday: recipes for crow

With so many folks trashin' Bush's foreign policy for so long, Sunday's Iraqi election has created a culinary crisis for millions: how to eat crow.

Well, the Crow Busters website has delicious answers for those famished defeatist elitists. Crow Creole, Crow in a Blanket, Pan Fried Crow--take your pick. There's even the "So good you'll want to slap your mother-in-law" recipe. Be nice and send this link to your friends at MoveOn.org.

Crock Pot Crow

Ingredients
12 - 16 pieces of crow breast meat (no bones) (6 - 8 crows)
2 cups barbecue sauce
1 cup water
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of chopped onions
1/3 cup of chopped green peppers
salt and black pepper to taste

Preparation
Shred crow breasts into as small pieces as possible. Add to crock pot with all other ingredients. Cook in crock pot for 6 hours on low. Serve over rolls or bread. Makes 4 servings.

For those curious about the derivation of "eating crow" click here.

Jim Bass Feb 2 7:37 a.m

exclusive: al-Zarqawi killed in Baghdad

A stringer for the AP, who absolutely vouched for its authenticity, has given Attack Machine this exclusive photograph of terrorist Al-Zarqawi being shot and killed by coalition troops in a busy Baghdad street.

UPDATE: As far as we know, there is no truth to reports that Dan Rather plans to air exclusive footage of Team America's daring rescue on the CBS News tonight.

UPDATE 2: Tim Blair notes, "We were warned that Bush would turn Iraq into a puppet regime, but none of us suspected that he’d use actual puppets."

UPDATE 3: Many have derided the terrorists for being pathetically reduced to using puppets. That assumes terrorists posted the website, not pranksters. Isn't that assumption as gullible as the AP?

Jim Bass Feb 1 2:37 p.m

mind wide Open? Not quite.

Chicago Sun Times columnist Mark Brown finds his mind opening a crack:

...after watching Sunday's election in Iraq and seeing the first clear sign that freedom really may mean something to the Iraqi people, you have to be asking yourself: What if it turns out Bush was right, and we were wrong? It's hard to swallow, isn't it?

And this from snark Jon Stewart on The Daily Show:

"I’ve watched this thing unfold from the start and here’s the great fear that I have: What if Bush, the president, ours, has been right about this all along? I feel like my world view will not sustain itself and I may, and again I don’t know if I can physically do this, implode."

Better late than never.

Jim Bass Feb 1 10:37 a.m

burt notes a Metamorphosis Brewing among Democrats

Sample:

"Let’s face it, if your obvious front runner in 2008 is Hillary Rodham Clinton, the woman whose voice can cut glass, whose smile is a grimace, and whose glower can topple trees, you have cause to worry. You can smell the panic in the air every time you hear one of the Democratic strategists formulate a game plan for the next four years."

Read it all here.  

Photo credit to StrangeCosmos.com

from Alaa at the Mesopotamian:

This was a message by the Iraqi people to the American people and their great president. It was the heart of Iraq answering the heart of America that voted to give the President the mandate to finish the task; it was the answer that the common people of Iraq gave by braving danger and exposing their life and that of their children and families to death, this was their way to make their voice heard.

Well, thank you Mr. President, we heard you; and I am sure you also heard us.

Read it all here.

Jim Bass Feb 1 9:37 a.m

No, It's Not Saint Patrick's Day

As Glenn Reynolds points out, these three backed the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998, which called for the removal of Saddam Hussein and the installation of a democratic government. President Bush walked the talk, while they balked and squawked. Envy is never pretty.

Jim Bass Jan 31 11:57 a.m

"I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's tyrants."

From "The People have Won" at Iraq the Model. Sample:

How can I describe it!? Take my eyes and look through them my friends, you have supported the day of Iraq's freedom and today, Iraqis have proven that they're not going to disappoint their country or their friends.

Is there a bigger victory than this? I believe not.

Jim Bass Jan 30 8:57 a.m.