Thankful for Buckley

From a George Will column, A Journalist for the Ages:

A Journalist for the Ages [/] By George F. Will [/] Thursday, November 24, 2005;

In his 40th anniversary toast to his Yale class of 1950, William F. Buckley said, "Some of us who wondered if we would ever be this old now wonder whether we were ever young." Those who were not young 40 years ago, in 1965, can have no inkling of what fun it was to be among Buckley's disciples as he ran for mayor of New York vowing that, were he to win, his first act would be to demand a recount.

Murray Kempton, the wonderful liberal columnist who later joined Buckley's eclectic legion of friends, wrote after Buckley's first news conference that the candidate "had the kidney to decline the usual humiliation of soliciting the love of the voters, and read his statement of principles in a tone for all the world that of an Edwardian resident commissioner reading aloud the 39 articles of the Anglican establishment to a conscript assemblage of Zulus." For conservatives, happy days were here again.

Back then, espousing conservatism was regarded by polite society, then soggy with that era's barely challenged liberalism, as a species of naughtiness, not nice but also not serious. Buckley, representing New York's Conservative Party, which was just three years old, won 13 percent of the vote. When the winner, John Lindsay, limped discredited from office eight years later, Bill's brother Jim had been elected, on the Conservative line, U.S. senator from New York.

Buckley, for whom the nation should give thanks, turns 80 on Thanksgiving Day, and National Review, the conservative journal he founded in the belly of the beast -- liberal Manhattan -- turned 50 this month. It is difficult to remember, and hence especially important to remember, the slough of despond conservatism was in 1955.

[…] National Review demurred. When it nailed its colors -- pastels were not encouraged -- to its mast and set sail upon the choppy seas of American controversy, one novel on the bestseller list was Sloan Wilson's "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit," voicing the 1950s' worry about "conformity." National Review's premise was that conformity was especially egregious among the intellectuals, that herd of independent minds. The magazine is one reason the phrase "conservative intelligentsia" is no longer an oxymoron.

In 1964 National Review (circulation then: 100,000) did what the mighty Hearst press had never done -- determined a major party's presidential nomination. Barry Goldwater's candidacy was essentially an emanation of National Review's cluttered office on East 35th Street. Which is why an audience of young Goldwaterites took it so hard when, two months before the election, Buckley warned them that bliss would be a bit delayed:

"The point of the present occasion is to win recruits whose attention we might never have attracted but for Barry Goldwater; to win them not only for November the third, but for future Novembers; to infuse the conservative spirit in enough people to entitle us to look about us, on November fourth, not at the ashes of defeat, but at the well-planted seeds of hope, which will flower on a great November day in the future, if there is a future."

There was. It arrived 16 years later. [Ronald Reagan in 1980].

Author of more than 4,000 columns, and still adding two a week; author of 47 books, 18 of them novels; host of the "Firing Line" television program for 34 years; a public speaker, often appearing in as many as 70 lectures and debates a year, for almost 50 years; ocean mariner; concert harpsichordist -- his energy reproaches the rest of us. Married to a woman who matches his mettle, his proposal to her, made when he called her away from a card game, went like this: [/] He: "Patricia, would you consider marriage with me?" [/] She: "Bill, I've been asked this question many times. To others I've said no. To you I say yes. Now may I please get back and finish my hand?"

Buckley, so young at 80, was severely precocious at 7 when he wrote a starchy letter to the king of England demanding payment of Britain's war debts. Seventy-three years on, Buckley's country is significantly different, and better, because of him. Of how many journalists, ever, can that be said? One. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Vatican: No More Gay Priests

From a Yahoo! AP article, Vatican Closes Door on Gay Seminarians :

Vatican Closes Door on Gay Seminarians By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer [/] Tue Nov 22,11:06 PM ET

The Vatican is toughening its stand against gay candidates for the priesthood, specifying in a new document that even men with "transitory" homosexual tendencies must overcome their urges for at least three years before entering the clergy.

A long-awaited "Instruction," due to be released next week, was posted Tuesday on the Internet by the Italian Catholic news agency Adista. A church official who has read the document confirmed its authenticity; he asked that his name not be used because the piece has not been published by the Vatican.

Conservative Roman Catholics who have decried the "gay subculture" in seminaries will likely applaud the policy because it clarifies what the Vatican expects of seminarians and their administrators.

Critics of the policy warned that, if enforced, it will likely result in seminarians lying about their orientation and will decrease the already dwindling number of priests in the United States. Estimates of the percentage of gays in U.S. seminaries and the priesthood range from 25 percent to 50 percent, according to a research review by the Rev. Donald Cozzens, an author of "The Changing Face of the Priesthood."

The document from the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education says the church deeply respects homosexuals. But it also says it "cannot admit to the seminary and the sacred orders those who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support so-called gay culture."

"Those people find themselves, in fact, in a situation that presents a grave obstacle to a correct relationship with men and women. One cannot ignore the negative consequences that can stem from the ordination of people with deeply rooted homosexual tendencies," it said.

"If instead it is a case of homosexual tendencies that are merely the expression of a transitory problem, for example as in the case of an unfinished adolescence, they must however have been clearly overcome for at least three years before ordination as a deacon."

Vatican prohibitions on sexually active gays becoming priests are not new, and a 1961 document says homosexuals should be barred from the priesthood. But the issue came to the fore in 2002, at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal in the United States.

A study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice found most abuse victims since 1950 were adolescent boys. […] In addition, some Catholic researchers said "gay subcultures" in seminaries were alienating heterosexuals, prompting them to drop out.

The new document underlines that long-standing traditions and church teaching consider homosexual acts "grave sins" and also intrinsically immoral and contrary to natural law.

Thomas Plante, a psychologist who for more than 15 years has conducted evaluations of prospective seminarians, […] questioned how seminary directors would apply the new regulations, and suggested that many may resort to a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The candidates too, may try to hide their sexual orientation because homosexuality is now a deal-breaker, said Plante, who is chairman of the psychology department at Santa Clara University in California.

The document, called an "Instruction," is only five pages long, including footnotes. It was signed by the prefect and secretary of the congregation on Nov. 4, and says it was approved by Pope Benedict XVI on Aug. 31.

The text makes no reference to current priests, directed instead to people entering seminaries and preparing for ordination. Its title reads: "Regarding the criteria of vocational discernment regarding people with homosexual tendencies in view of their admission to the seminary and to sacred orders."

The sex abuse scandals have forced an unprecedented introspection into the clergy and how to train future priests. In September, Vatican-directed inspectors started visiting all 229 American seminaries. Part of their mission has been to seek any "evidence of homosexuality."

The Vatican has often visited the issue of homosexuality, reflecting an unbending theological opposition but also an acknowledgment that discrimination based on sexual preference is not justified.

In 2003, homosexuality was described as a "troubling moral and social phenomenon" in a document by the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict this year. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Word on the 'Arab street', 'Zarqawi . Coward . Enemy of Allah'

Telegraph | Opinion | Listen to the word on the 'Arab street' by Mark Steyn:

"On Friday, the allegedly explosive 'Arab street' finally exploded, in the largest demonstration against al-Qa'eda or its affiliates seen in the Middle East. 'Zarqawi,' shouted 200,000 Jordanians, 'from Amman we say to you, you are a coward!' Also 'the enemy of Allah' - which, for a jihadist, isn't what they call on Broadway a money review.

The old head-hacker was sufficiently rattled by the critical pans of his Jordanian hotel bombings that he issued the first IRA-style apology in al-Qa'eda's history. 'People of Jordan, we did not undertake to blow up any wedding parties,' he said. 'For those Muslims who were killed, we ask God to show them mercy, for they were not targets.' Yeah, right. Tell it to the non-Marines. It was perfectly obvious to Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari and his missus what was going on when they strolled into the ballroom of the Radisson Hotel."

The Nature of the Enemy

WorldNetDaily: The real secret to defeating radical Islam by David Kupelian:

"For instance, I personally lost dozens of family members � perhaps over 100 � in the genocide of the Christian Armenians by the Muslim Turks. I'll mention just one of those family members � my great grandfather, Steelianos Leondiades. A Protestant minister, in 1908 he was attending a conference of Armenian and Greek ministers in the major Turkish city of Adana. Here's how his daughter, my maternal grandmother Anna Paulson, recalled the terrible events that unfolded: 'Some of the Turkish officers came to the conference room and told all these ministers � there were 70 of them, ministers and laymen and a few wives: 'If you embrace the Islamic religion you will all be saved. If you don't, you will all be killed.''

Steelianos, my great grandfather, acting as a spokesman for the ministers group asked the Turks for 15 minutes so they could make their decision. During that time the ministers and their companions talked, read the Bible to each other and prayed. In the end, none of them would renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam.

'And then,' Anna recalled, 'they were all killed.

'They were not even buried. They were all thrown down the ravine.' "

Good News About Terror

WorldNetDaily: The world's 12 worst problems by Jim Rutz:

"There is progress, however. Approached in new and thoughtful ways, Muslims are proving to be quote open to the good news of Jesus Christ. For instance, in Bangladesh alone, an estimated 522,000 Muslims have become Christians just in the past six to seven years. And in the world's largest Muslim country, Indonesia, there have been so many conversions to Christ (about 30 percent of the population) that the government would spark riots if they announced the true figures. My opinion: You and I may live to see every Muslim nation become Christian ... and terrorism cease. "

The left hates inequality, not evil

WorldNetDaily: The left hates inequality, not evil by Dennis Prager:

"[...] As noted above, everyone hates someone, and that includes people on the Left. The problem is that because they don't hate evil, they hate those who oppose evil. That is how liberals went from anti-communist to anti-anti-communist. To paraphrase one of the greatest moral insights of the Talmud, those who show mercy to the cruel will be cruel to the merciful. So, George W. Bush, not the Islamic terror world, is the Left's villain; life-embracing Israel is the Left's villain, not their death-loving enemies; and religious Christians who note moral weaknesses within the Islamic world are the real danger, not the moral weaknesses within the Islamic world. [...]"

Virginia Church Joins Rwenzori Diocese

From an American Anglican Council media release, South Riding Church Disaffiliates from the Episcopal Church, Joins Anglican Province of Uganda :

South Riding Church Disaffiliates from the Episcopal Church, Joins Anglican Province of Uganda [/] Date: 11/14/2005

South Riding Church, established in 2000 as a new church plant in Fairfax, Va., has ended its affiliation with the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) and the Diocese of Virginia. The church is now under the jurisdictional authority of Bishop Kisembo in the Diocese of Rwenzori, Anglican Province of Uganda.

South Riding is a biblically faithful church committed to the authority of Scripture, traditional Christian teaching, and the historic faith and practice of Anglicanism. The decision to disaffiliate with the Episcopal Church was motivated by a commitment to biblical faithfulness and a desire to remain connected with the Anglican Communion. In a congregational meeting held yesterday, members voted overwhelmingly to join the Diocese of Rwenzori.

“The Episcopal Church has abandoned those core values we hold dear at South Riding Church, and, tragically, the Diocese of Virginia has supported actions of General Convention 2003,” said the Rev. Phil Ashey, pastor of South Riding. “Our church upholds the authority of Scripture, and the leadership of South Riding Church can no longer compromise our faith by remaining under the spiritual and jurisdictional authority of the Episcopal Church and this diocese [(Virginia)].”

At [the Episcopal Church USA] General Convention 2003, the House of Bishops failed to approve a resolution affirming basic tenets of Christian faith as well as the historic creeds and 39 Articles of Religion (B001). In addition, both the House of Deputies and House of Bishops approved two measures contrary to the Anglican Church’s [world communion's] authoritative teaching on human sexuality (Resolution 1.10, Lambeth Conference 1998). These actions precipitated an unprecedented crisis within the Anglican Communion.

Twenty-two of 38 Anglican provinces have declared either impaired or broken communion with the Episcopal Church [USA], and the very position of ECUSA in the Communion appears to be threatened. Subsequently the Episcopal Church [USA] has attempted to justify its actions in a document entitled “To Set Our Hope on Christ” rather than repenting and embracing the historic faith and practice of Anglicanism.

At General Convention, Peter Lee, Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, abstained in the vote to affirm traditional Christian teaching and voted to approve the election of V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

“We have been in conversation with the diocese hoping to reach some level of spiritual comfort or hope for the future, but diocesan leadership is not addressing the issues of this crisis,” said Paul Branch, lay leader at South Riding Church. “We cannot continue with our mission and ministry ignoring the fact that the Episcopal Church [USA] is in spiritual disarray, has embraced a false gospel, and has abandoned mainstream, Biblical Anglicanism. We are devoted to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and we have a deep desire to remain part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.”

“This has been a difficult decision with which we have struggled for three years,” said Father Ashey. “We have reached the conclusion that in order to be faithful, we can choose no other path.”

The Diocese of Virginia officially designates church plants such as South Riding Church as an “unorganized church” rather than a “mission” or “parish”. As such, the leadership has never signed a declaration of loyalty to the diocese and national church as required of all other congregations. South Riding Church does not own property or a building and has pledged to turn over assets purchased with diocesan funds during the time that it has been a part of ECUSA.

The congregation will continue to hold services at Little River Elementary School in South Riding. For more information on South Riding Church, visit its website. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Dems Desperate for Defeat?

From a American Spectator article, Desperate for Defeat :

Desperate for Defeat [/] By George Neumayr [/] Published 11/22/2005 12:09:47 AM

The foreign policy of the Democratic Party verges on deliberate defeatism: afraid of American "dominance" in the world, many Democrats would prefer that America tie wars than win them. Because they would like to see America put in its place -- this isn't an overstatement; just listen to the Democrats' constant complaints about America's lone "superpower" status -- their contribution to the war effort is defined by deep ambivalence. They don't necessarily want their country to lose, but they are not so sure if they want it to win either. They often define this ambivalence as "patriotism": we're henpecking and sapping American military morale for the country's own good, they'll say, lest it become too "arrogant."

As they did during the Cold War, the Democrats see their role in the war on terrorism as that of harsh, inflexible monitors of their own country. "Patriotism" thus translates into endless temporizing, moral equivalence, and a campaign to place suicidal limitations on their country's military leadership. All of this is accompanied by a gross lack of proportion and perspective and a dilettantish indifference to the consequences of a lost war.

Democrats will tell the military to fight with one arm tied behind its back from the comfortable spot of standing behind it. From this safe vantage point, they can offer up such fine sentiments as: although a "democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand." (Al Gore, quoting someone else, used that line in a speech.) Democrats love this high-minded and windy talk, especially since someone else is doing the difficult work of preventing terrorists from cutting off their hands.

It is striking how black-and-white, how totally lacking in empathy, Democrats become when their own country's military soldiers, who are operating under very tricky circumstances, are under discussion. The Democrats' weakness for "situation ethics" suddenly disappears and they become know-it-alls on the moral particulars of military life. Certain acts are intrinsically wrong, they thunder, even as they argue in every other context that no such acts exist.

The Democrats warm to this discussion of human rights in direct proportion to the evil of the human being whose rights are under examination: a party that has never seen abortion as a human rights abuse is worried that terrorists are standing for too long and aren't sleeping in properly conditioned rooms.

CIA director Porter Goss recently made a sensible distinction between tough interrogation and torture, a distinction which the Democrats dismiss with easy indignation and false piety (this is a party that considers the death penalty for mass murderers to be "cruel and unusual punishment"; there is no reason to trust its definition of "torture" ), but a distinction which is essential to military victory.

[…] The Democrats' tendency to hype with great melodrama the evil of their country while remaining clueless about the monstrosities of the enemy is connected to their agnostic foreign policy: Were they to see the enemy too clearly, they would have to support a more dominant role for America than they wish. Wanting to put America in its place on the international stage, with "parity" but not advantage over others, they have to portray threats to America very benignly. This explains how the Democrats could stumble into the absurd position of saying that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was terrorist-free and that he just wasn't the sort of person to associate with Muslim terrorists. This whitewash of pre-war Iraq has become essential to the Democrats' assertion that America could have won the war on terrorism while ignoring one of its loci -- an assertion no more persuasive than the Democrats' claim that Marxist expansionism in Central America had nothing to do with the Soviet threat.

Given the nonstop talk about what the Bush administration didn't find in Iraq, it is high time Bush officials remind people of what they did find there: a chaotically administered, out-of-control weapons program that was easily accessible to terrorists. As inspector David Kay reported, Iraqi scientists up until the beginning of the war were "actively working to produce a biological weapon using the poison ricin"; "We know that terrorists were passing through Iraq. And now we know that there was little control over Iraq's weapons capabilities....The country had the technology, the ability to produce, and there were terrorist groups passing through the country -- and no central control." Iraq under Saddam Hussein was arguably more dangerous than even Bush had assumed, Kay said: "I actually think what we learned during the inspection made Iraq a more dangerous place, potentially, than, in fact, we thought it was before the war."

The Democrats, ignoring this, and working themselves into a fever over Iraq's perilous condition even as they simultaneously argue no such dangerous condition existed under Saddam Hussein, are rooting at best for an American tie in this front of the war on terrorism. But a tie against terrorists is a defeat, a defeat which only a twisted Democratic foreign policy that fears too much American success could pass off as a victory.

George Neumayr is executive editor of The American Spectator. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Special Prosecutor Go Home!

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War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take

Amazon.com: War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World: Books: Frank J. Gaffney Jr.

Stampede - Hindraker

Stampede - Yahoo! News: "Since that triumphant moment, the conventional wisdom is that nothing has gone right for the Republicans. But what, exactly, has happened to cause such a reversal in the party's fortunes? Has the economy collapsed? Not at all. It is humming along as strongly as ever, putting ever more distance between America's prosperity and that of Europe and Japan. Have the terrorists attacked the American homeland, exposing a weakness in our domestic security? No. Astonishingly, we have now gone more than four years without a successful attack on American soil, even though newspaper headlines reveal, on an almost daily basis, the bloodthirstiness of our enemies. Have there been setbacks in foreign policy that could explain how a party that was triumphant just 12 months ago should now be in full retreat? No. We continue to make progress in both Iraq and Afghanistan. On a number of fronts, liberty has taken root in the vital Middle East. And no foreign power even imagines that it could rival the United States in influence.

While there has been no real calamity in the last 12 months, the administration has suffered setbacks. But how severe have they been? Two hurricanes struck and many believed that FEMA responded slowly to one of them. Tom DeLay was indicted by a partisan Texas Democrat, District Attorney Ronnie Earle; DeLay's lawyer now has Earle on the run. President Bush made an unfortunate Supreme Court nomination, after which he took a mulligan and made an excellent nomination. An aide to the vice president has been accused of lying to a grand jury about telling the truth to the press about Joe Wilson's lies about the administration. And the president's poll ratings have dropped into a range occupied, at one time "

Gates of Vienna: Acute Senatitis

From the Gates of Vienna comes the most comprehensive description to date of an horrific, yet peculiarly American ailment, which endangers the world.

Gates of Vienna: Acute Senatitis

Monday, November 21, 2005 [/] Acute Senatitis

James Lileks refers to the affliction of those who inhabit the U.S. Senate as “Senatitis.”

[…] But Senatitis is different. This apt term for the disorder welling up from the Well of the Senate Chamber is a special case. It’s not contagious, nor is it — under normal circumstances — heritable. However, if you carry the senatus mutation on your electoral gene, it becomes activated once the oath of office is administered. From then on, you will exhibit some version of this condition. Depending on your characterological traits previous to taking your oath of office, you may or may not succumb to the worst effects.

The first thing the practiced diagnostician notices about Senatitis is an inflamed ego. Another symptom is the tendency to speak boiler plate, even in the men’s room. The flight from reality differs in velocity depending on how long an individual member of this ‘club’ has been in office, but at its extremes you find Senators naming office buildings after themselves or proposing pork riders to bills already so laden with fat that they’re about to die from obesity.

In the first case are Senators Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter, who have proposed legislation which would rename Buildings 19 and 21 at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in their honor. No memorials for these august deliberators — they grab the goodies while they’re still among us. Thus, Headquarters for CDC will be called “The Arlen Specter Headquarters” while Harkins has to settle for the Thomas R. Harkin Global Center” since he is merely the ranking member of the Senate subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education while ol’ Arlen is the Chairman. Rank hath its privileges, don’t you know. Of course, there is supposed to be a rule against this kind of narcissistic self-appointment while one is still in office, but another sign of Senatitis is the tendency to honor rules more in the breach than in their observance.

The most infamous pork rider of this Congressional season arose in the House, via Alaska’s Representative Young. This is the uproarious, and now-defeated Bridge to Nowhere, the pork butt of political pundits for some weeks. And sure it was defeated, but guess what? Alaska gets to keep the money. This is because the Senator from Alaska, Ted “Big Spender” Stevens, threw a tantrum on the Senate floor, threatening to resign and “be taken out on a stretcher.” Too bad for the commonweal: his colleagues acceded to his tantrum and Alaska gets to keep the money for other pork transportation projects.

Thus, you witness clear regressive traits in those who suffer from Senatitis: when frustrated, they resort to the emotional repertoire of the average four-year old: breath-holding and threats to run away from home.

There are myriad symptoms to Senatitis: everything from a personality disorder to clinical insanity. Their latest tantrum edict to the White House and Pentagon that members of the Executive Branch appear before their august selves and explain when the cut-and-run, or so-called “exit strategy” will begin in Iraq is an example of the latter. Or perhaps, as Mark Steyn suggests, alternatively, it is merely “gross irresponsibility.” Given the level of maturity in the Senate, perhaps this order is simply one more example of irresponsible stupidity, but he’s being charitable. Given the consequences of senatitis being inflicted on the struggle in Iraq, clinical insanity , reduced intelligence, and repeated attacks of grandiosity may well result in a hemorrhage in the Middle East.

Senatitis has resulted in the appearance in the “world’s greatest deliberative body” the world’s largest number of Sun Kings gathered in one place in history. The truly honorable men of integrity are few and far between.

Senatitis sufferers are all addicted to pompous circumstance. Surrounded by the obsequious, the self-servers, and the eternal lobbyists, they have long since succumbed to a belief in their own publicity. John Stossel reported this exchange with an infamous and major sufferer of terminal Senatitis:

When the Democrats held power, I confronted Sen. Robert Byrd about wasting our money on "Robert Byrd Highway"-type projects in West Virginia.
His answer was as arrogant as he was: "I would think that the national media could rise above the temptation of being clever, decrepitarian critics who twaddlize, just as what you're doing right here."

"Twaddlizing?" I asked. [/] "Trivializing serious matters," he explained. [/] I persisted, "Is there no limit? Are you not at all embarrassed about how much you got?"

Byrd glared at me in silence, and finally demanded, angrily, "Are you embarrassed when you think you're working for the good of the country? Does that embarrass you?"
Grandiosity? Narcissism? Terminal Senatitis? Pompous old windbag? Right you are.

Stossel reports another conversation, this time with Walter Williams, in which the economist explains the difference between a thief and a politician: when a thief takes your money, he doesn’t demand that you thank him.

But Lileks said it best when he explained why so few senators ever inhabit the White House (though Lord knows, it’s not for lack of trying):

Perhaps there's a reason not many senators make the leap to the presidency. As we're constantly reminded, that august body is collegial, respectful, suffused with history and utterly besotted with self-importance. That leads to Senatitis, a disease in which otherwise rational men believe that the rest of the country doesn't see through equivocating bloviation in a second. There is no cure.

Maybe, as an act of mercy, we could send them all to some kind of colony, and find a new Saint Damien to take care of them until the CDC comes up with a vaccine. These folks have beome a much closer and more present danger to our well-being than any old avian flu ever will be.

posted by Dymphna | 4:40:00 PM [My ellipses and emphasis]

Unitarian Universalism Humor

What is a UU?:

"Unitarian Universalism Defined . . .

Why are UU congregations so disjoint at hymn singing?

Because they are always reading a few lines ahead to see if they agree with the words.

Universalists believed that God was too good to damn people

Unitarians believed that they were too good to be damned.

What do you get when you cross a Klansman with a Unitarian?

Someone who goes out at night to burn huge wooden question marks.

How does the KKK harrass UUs? By burning a question mark on the lawn

I'm not even sure if I am a UU. I suppose that removes all doubt. "

Better Red Than Dem

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today:

"But China's leaders seem likely to let Bush's comments pass. 'We'll pretend not to hear,' says Shen. 'We're mature enough not to oppose everything he says.'

If only America's opposition party were as mature as the Chinese communists."

Democratic War Stories

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today:

Democratic War Stories

In the Times of London, anti-Bush hysteric Andrew Sullivan lauds Rep. John Murtha:

All you have to do is look at John Murtha to see what he represents. He's a white-haired, red-faced pro-war Democrat with a record of 37 years of service in the US Marines.

Democratic chairman Howard Dean cited the '37 years' figure in an e-mail to supporters last week too. It's true, in a sense, but misleading. It makes it sound as though Murtha was a career military man. In fact, according to his congressional biography, Murtha was on active duty for six years at most (1952-55 and 1966-67); the rest of the time, including some 16 of his nearly 32 years in the House, he was a reservist.

We don't mean to disparage Murtha's service, but why do the Democrats always seem to exaggerate these things? John Kerry* was a "war hero" for serving 120 days in Vietnam and earning an improbable number of medals. In 2002 pro-Saddam Rep. Jim McDermott claimed that he and then-Rep. David Bonior served in Vietnam. In fact, McDermott served as a naval psychiatrist and Bonior as an Air Force cook--both in California.

Let's honor the service of all veterans--including, by the way, those who wore the uniform of the Texas Air National Guard, and those who criticize John Kerry. But all this phony jingoism in the service of weakness on national security has us nostalgic for the days when the Democrats nominated an honest-to-goodness draft avoider for president.

* The haughty, French-looking blankety-blank who on Friday e-mailed his supporters: "Yesterday, an extraordinary congressman, former Marine Drill Sergeant and decorated Vietnam veteran, spoke out on the war in Iraq. He didn't come to that moment lightly. He spoke his mind and spoke his heart out of love for his country and support for our troops.

Evil is Evil, Whatever the Color

From an Haaretz.com article, What sort of Frenchmen are they?:

Alain Finkielkraut. "When an Arab torches a school, it's rebellion. When a white guy does it, it's fascism. I'm 'color blind.' Evil is evil, no matter what color it is. And this evil, for the Jew that I am, is completely intolerable."

What sort of Frenchmen are they? [/] By Dror Mishani and Aurelia Smotriez

PARIS - The first thing the French-Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut said to us […] "I heard that even Haaretz published an article identifying with the riots."

This remark, uttered with some vehemence, pretty much sums up the feelings of Finkielkraut - one of the most prominent philosophers in France in the past 30 years - ever since the violent riots began on October 27 in the impoverished neighborhoods that surround Paris and spread with surprising speed to similar suburbs throughout the country. He has been following the events through the media, keeping up with all the news reports and commentary, and has been appalled at every article that shows understanding for or identification with "the rebels" (and in the French press, there are plenty). He has a lot to say, but it appears that France isn't ready to listen - that his France has already surrendered to a blinding, "false discourse" that conceals the stark truth of its situation. The things he is saying to us in the course of our conversation, he repeatedly emphasizes, are not things he can say in France anymore. It's impossible, perhaps even dangerous, to say these things in France now.

Indeed, in the lively intellectual debate that has been taking place on the pages of the French newspapers ever since the rioting started, a debate in which France's most illustrious minds are taking part, Finkielkraut's is a deviant, even very deviant, voice. Primarily because it is not emanating from the throat of a member of Jean Marie Le Pen's National Front, but from that of a philosopher formerly considered to be one of the most eminent spokesmen of the French left - one of the generation of philosophers who emerged at the time of the May 1968 student revolt.

[…] Finkielkraut: "In France, they would like very much to reduce these riots to their social dimension, to see them as a revolt of youths from the suburbs against their situation, against the discrimination they suffer from, against the unemployment. The problem is that most of these youths are blacks or Arabs, with a Muslim identity. Look, in France there are also other immigrants whose situation is difficult - Chinese, Vietnamese, Portuguese - and they're not taking part in the riots. Therefore, it is clear that this is a revolt with an ethno-religious character.

"What is its origin? Is this the response of the Arabs and blacks to the racism of which they are victims? I don't believe so, because this violence had very troubling precursors, which cannot be reduced to an unalloyed reaction to French racism.

[…] "Anyway, this team is perceived as a symbol of an open, multiethnic society and so on. The crowd in the stadium, young people of Algerian descent, booed this team throughout the whole game! They also booed during the playing of the national anthem, the `Marseillaise,' and the match was halted when the youths broke onto the field with Algerian flags.

"And then there are the lyrics of the rap songs. Very troubling lyrics. A real call to revolt. There's one called Dr. R., I think, who sings: `I ##### on France, I ##### on De Gaulle' and so on. These are very violent declarations of hatred for France. All of this hatred and violence is now coming out in the riots. To see them as a response to French racism is to be blind to a broader hatred: the hatred for the West, which is deemed guilty of all crimes. France is being exposed to this now."

In other words, as you see it, the riots aren't directed at France, but at the entire West? [/] "No, they are directed against France as a former colonial power, against France as a European country. Against France, with its Christian or Judeo-Christian tradition."

[…] Over time, he also became a symbol of the "involved intellectual," as exemplified by the postwar Jean-Paul Sartre - a philosopher who doesn't abstain from participation in political life, but instead writes in the newspapers, gives interviews and devotes himself to humanitarian causes such as halting the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia or the slaughter in Rwanda. The danger he wishes to stand up to today, in light of the riots, is the growing hatred for the West and its penetration into the French education system.

[…] "We need to be clear on this. This is a very difficult question and we must strive to maintain the language of truth. We tend to fear the language of truth, for `noble' reasons. We prefer to say the `youths' instead of `blacks' or `Arabs.' But the truth cannot be sacrificed, no matter how noble the reasons. And, of course, we also must avoid generalizations: This isn't about blacks and Arabs as a whole, but about some blacks and Arabs. And, of course, religion - not as religion, but as an anchor of identity, if you will - plays a part. Religion as it appears on the Internet, on the Arab television stations, serves as an anchor of identity for some of these youths.

"Unlike others, I have not spoken about an `intifada' of the suburbs, and I don't think this lexicon ought to be used. But I have found that they are also sending the youngest people to the front lines of the struggle. You've seen this in Israel - they send the youngest ones to the front because it's impossible to put them in jail when they're arrested. But still, here there are no bombings and we're in a different stage: I think it's the stage of the anti-republican pogrom. There are people in France who hate France as a republic."

But why? For what reason? […] "Why have parts of the Muslim-Arab world declared war on the West? The republic is the French version of Europe. They, and those who justify them, say that it derives from the colonial breakdown. Okay, but one mustn't forget that the integration of the Arab workers in France during the time of colonial rule was much easier. In other words, this is belated hatred. Retrospective hatred.

"We are witness to an Islamic radicalization that must be explained in its entirety before we get to the French case, to a culture that, instead of dealing with its problems, searches for an external guilty party. It's easier to find an external guilty party. It's tempting to tell yourself that in France you're neglected, and to say, `Gimme, gimme.' It hasn't worked like that for anyone. It can't work."

But what appears to disturb Finkielkraut even more than this "hatred for the West," is what he sees as its internalization in the French education system, and the identification with it by French intellectuals. In his view, this identification and internalization - which are expressed in shows of understanding for the sources of the violence and in the post-colonial mindset that is permeating the education system - are threatening not only France as a whole, but the country's Jews, too, because they are creating an infrastructure for the new anti-Semitism.

"But in France, instead of fighting his kind of talk, they're actually doing what he asks: changing the teaching of colonial history and the history of slavery in the schools. Now they teach colonial history as an exclusively negative history. We don't teach anymore that the colonial project also sought to educate, to bring civilization to the savages. They only talk about it as an attempt at exploitation, domination and plunder.

"[…] The same is true of slavery. It began long before the West. In fact, what sets the West apart when it comes to slavery is that it was the one to eliminate it. The elimination of slavery is a European and American thing. But this truth about slavery cannot be taught in schools.

"That's why these events sadden me so greatly; not so much because they happened. After all, you'd have to be deaf and blind not to see that they would happen. But because of the interpretations that have accompanied them. These dealt a decisive blow to the France I loved. And I've always said that life will become impossible for Jews in France when Francophobia triumphs. And that's what will happen. The Jews understand what I've said just now. Suddenly, they look around, and they see all the `bobo' (French slang for bourgeois-bohemians) singing songs of praise to the new `wretched of the earth' [Finkielkraut is alluding here to the book by the Martinique-born, anti-colonialist philosopher Franz Fanon - D.M.] and asking themselves: What is this country? What's happened to it?"

[…] Finkielkraut continues: "[…] And I have been just horrified by these acts, which kept repeating themselves, and horrified even more by the understanding with which they were received in France. These people were treated like rebels, like revolutionaries. This is the worst thing that could happen to my country. And I'm very miserable because of it. Why? Because the only way to overcome it is to make them feel ashamed. Shame is the starting point of ethics. But instead of making them feel ashamed, we gave them legitimacy. They're `interesting.' They're `the wretched of the earth.'

"Imagine for a moment that they were whites, like in Rostock in Germany. Right away, everyone would have said: `Fascism won't be tolerated.' When an Arab torches a school, it's rebellion. When a white guy does it, it's fascism. I'm `color blind.' Evil is evil, no matter what color it is. And this evil, for the Jew that I am, is completely intolerable.

[…] "This problem is the problem of all the countries of Europe. In Holland, they've been confronting it since the murder of Theo van Gogh. The question isn't what is the best model of integration, but just what sort of integration can be achieved with people who hate you."

And what will happen in France? [/] "I don't know. I'm despairing. Because of the riots and because of their accompaniment by the media. The riots will subside, but what does this mean? There won't be a return to quiet. It will be a return to regular violence. So they'll stop because there is a curfew now, and the foreigners are afraid and the drug dealers also want the usual order restored. But they'll gain support and encouragement for their anti-republican violence from the repulsive discourse of self-criticism over their slavery and colonization. So that's it: There won't be a return to quiet, but a return to routine violence."

So your worldview doesn't stand a chance anymore? [/] "No, I've lost. As far as anything relating to the struggle over school is concerned, I've lost. It's interesting, because when I speak the way I'm speaking now, a lot of people agree with me. Very many. But there's something in France - a kind of denial whose origin lies in the bobo, in the sociologists and social workers - and no one dares say anything else. This struggle is lost. I've been left behind." [My ellipses and emphasis]

Military fears critics will hurt morale

Military fears critics will hurt morale�-�Nation/Politics�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper:

"Military fears critics will hurt morale / By Rowan Scarborough / THE WASHINGTON TIMES / November 21, 2005

Pentagon officials say they are increasingly worried that Washington's political fight over the Iraq war will dampen what has been high morale among troops fighting a tenacious and deadly enemy.

Commanders are telling Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that ground troops do not understand the generally negative press that their missions receive, despite what they consider significant achievements in rebuilding Iraq and instilling democracy.

The commanders also worry about the public's declining support for the mission and what may be a growing movement inside the Democratic Party to advocate troop withdrawal from Iraq.

'They say morale is very high,' said a senior Pentagon official of reports filed by commanders with Washington. 'But they relate comments from troops asking, 'What the heck is going on back here' and why America isn't seeing the progress they are making or appreciating the mission the way those on the ground there do. My take is that they are wondering if America is still behind them.' "

Spinning a 403-3 Vote

From a Canada Free Press article, The Press works to Spin 403 - 3 House Vote :

Democrats, lies, Troop pullout [/] When Rhetoric Clashes with Reality:

The Press works to Spin 403 - 3 House Vote [/] by J.B. Williams [/] Monday, November 21, 2005

Visibly tired of the outright lies and seeming to finally be fed up with Democrats’ relentless politicization of the war against international terrorism, House Republicans forced House Democrats to put up or shut up! But that’s not how the so-called American press saw it…

The Chicago Tribune reports WASHINGTON — "House Republicans struck back forcefully Friday against a senior Democrat and decorated veteran who reversed his former support for the Iraq war." As if the call for a vote to pull out of Iraq was some personal vendetta against one of few House Democrats Republicans still respect.

The House of Representatives is the federal government body closest to the people. They are the people’s voice in Washington, more so than the Senate or the Executive branch. With the Democrats voice of dissent against finishing the job in Iraq growing more shrill by the hour, it was nothing short of perfectly appropriate to ask for a House vote on the matter, allowing the peoples Representatives to go on record concerning the hottest issue of our day.

The Tribune column says "The House overwhelmingly rejected the GOP resolution late Friday in a 403-3 vote," a poorly veiled effort to imply a Republican failure of some sort. But what really happened?

Although Democrats have worked the nation into a frenzy of division over the mission in Iraq, repeatedly calling for retreat and withdrawal of our troops for benefit of their friends in the press, when push came to shove, given the opportunity to act in favor of what they had been demanding for months, their formal position was shall we say, somewhat different than all their heated rhetoric.

Democrats tried desperately to avoid going on the record (taking a stand) by voting against even having the vote. (They voted to silence themselves on the matter) But that effort fell short 211 to 204. Once forced to put their vote where their mouths had been for more than two years now, the House voted 403 to 3 NOT to pull our troops out of Iraq immediately.

Right away, the mainstream spin-machine launched into action, searching for just the right words to frame the incident for their adoring public. Rhetorically, they drew an immediate distinction between Representative Murtha’s call to withdraw troops in six months and Republicans call to withdraw them right away. But get real — if pulling our troops out of Iraq in six months is good, then pulling them out right away is even better. I mean, an arbitrary withdrawal date is just that, arbitrary. As such, the sooner the better, no?

Democrats screamed foul as they were dragged kicking and screaming to their moment of truth. When Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), recounted a conversation with a Marine colonel on the House floor telling her colleagues, "He asked me to send Congress a message--stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message--that cowards cut and run, Marines never do," the House erupted into a shouting match with Democrats taking obvious offense to the message.

But Democrats had been reading anti-war messages from home on the floor of congress, parading anti-war poster-mom Cindy Sheehan from sea to shining sea for months and not a single Republican squealed foul. The hypocrisy of today’s Democrats is unbelievable. They make the psychedelic Democrats of the 60’s look sane…

For months — years, they had been accusing Republicans of not listening to their voice of dissent. Yet the minute Republicans give the voice of dissent real power by offering a vote on the matter, they cry foul and run from all of their Meet the Press talking points, voting 403 — 3 against their own demands to pull out of Iraq. They really got the Republicans on the run here…

[…] Regardless, every time congressional Democrats have been given an opportunity to formally "change direction" in Iraq, even now, they have voted overwhelmingly to support the administration’s position. One would think that would silence the rhetoric…

[…] These are the facts. But don’t expect the press or Democrats to ever see it this way. The hot button issue of Iraq has been their most profitable campaign tool. So don’t look for the rhetoric to stop just because they once again voted to support the policy on the record.

They can say anything they want to the press, it isn’t official. But the vote is the lone record of their official position. No matter how Democrats and their mainstream spin-machine try to frame the House vote, the simple fact is in 2002, 296 members of the House voted to authorize use of force to effect the Clinton policy of regime change in Iraq and now in 2005, after all their politically motivated divisive rhetoric on the topic, all the talk about how we need to pull out of Iraq immediately, 403 members of the House voted NOT to pull out of Iraq. Only 3 House Representatives voted to pull out now…3!

[…] What happened to all those voices of dissent when it really counted, on the record? The liberal mainstream spin-machine is pulling double duty to frame it any other way. But can the events be legitimately framed any other way?

[…] Was it a political stunt? Only to the degree that it called the bluff of numerous political stunts across the aisle. Was it an attempt to embarrass Rep. Murtha? No… It was an event that should embarrass every member of the House who has had the audacity to undermine the troops in Iraq, but not the guts to vote their fleeting conscience.

Russert and Mathews, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, PBS, MSNBC and NPR all have their daily talking-points fax from the DNC in hand. But does it really matter now? [My ellipses and emphasis]

Political Gain Has a Price

From a New York Post article, How To Lose a War:

HOW TO LOSE A WAR [/] By RALPH PETERS

QUIT. It's that simple. There are plenty of more complex ways to lose a war, but none as reliable as just giving up.

Increasingly, quitting looks like the new American Way of War. No matter how great your team, you can't win the game if you walk off the field at half-time. That's precisely what the Democratic Party wants America to do in Iraq. Forget the fact that we've made remarkable progress under daunting conditions: The Dems are looking to throw the game just to embarrass the Bush administration.

Forget about the consequences. Disregard the immediate encouragement to the terrorists and insurgents to keep killing every American soldier they can. Ignore what would happen in Iraq — and the region — if we bail out. And don't mention how a U.S. surrender would turn al Qaeda into an Islamic superpower, the champ who knocked out Uncle Sam in the third round.

Forget about our dead soldiers, whose sacrifice is nothing but a political club for Democrats to wave in front of the media. After all, one way to create the kind of disaffection in the ranks that the Dems' leaders yearn to see is to tell our troops on the battlefield that they're risking their lives for nothing, we're throwing the game.

Forget that our combat veterans are re-enlisting at remarkable rates — knowing they'll have to leave their families and go back to war again. Ignore the progress on the ground, the squeezing of the insurgency's last strongholds into the badlands on the Syrian border. Blow off the successive Iraqi elections and the astonishing cooperation we've seen between age-old enemies as they struggle to form a decent government.

Just set a time-table for our troops to come home and show the world that America is an unreliable ally with no stomach for a fight, no matter the stakes involved. Tell the world that deserting the South Vietnamese and fleeing from Somalia weren't anomalies — that's what Americans do.

While we're at it, let's just print up recruiting posters for the terrorists, informing the youth of the Middle East that Americans are cowards who can be attacked with impunity.

[…] You've got to understand, my fellow citizens: None of this matters. And you don't matter, either. All that matters is scoring political points. Let the world burn. Let the massacres run on. Let the terrorists acquire WMD. Just give the Bush administration a big black eye and we'll call that a win.

[…] There's plenty I don't like about the Bush administration. Its domestic policies disgust me, and the Bushies got plenty wrong in Iraq. But at least they'll fight. The Dems are ready to betray our troops, our allies and our country's future security for a few House seats.

Surrender is never a winning strategy.

Yes, we've been told lies about Iraq — by Dems and their media groupies. About conditions on the ground. About our troops. About what's at stake. About the consequences of running away from the great struggle of our time. About the continuing threat from terrorism. And about the consequences for you and your family.

What do the Democrats fear? An American success in Iraq. They need us to fail, and they're going to make us fail, no matter the cost. They need to declare defeat before the 2006 mid-term elections and ensure a real debacle before 2008 — a bloody mess they'll blame on Bush, even though they made it themselves.

We won't even talk about the effect quitting while we're winning in Iraq might have on the go-to-war calculations of other powers that might want to challenge us in the future. Let's just be good Democrats and prove that Osama bin Laden was right all along: Americans have no stomach for a fight.

[…] If we run away from our enemies overseas, our enemies will make their way to us. Quit Iraq, and far more than 2,000 Americans are going to die. [/] And they won't all be conservatives.

Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer. [My ellipses and emphasis]

George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation

Adult Christian Forum #87788.1:

George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor -- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be -- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks -- for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation -- for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war -- for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed -- for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted -- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions -- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually -- to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed -- to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord -- To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us -- and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

Centuries of Meditations 1.71

Centuries of Meditations (i_1):

"By Love alone is God enjoyed, by Love alone delighted in, by Love alone approached or admired. His Nature requires Love, thy nature requires Love. The law of Nature commands thee to Love Him: the Law of His nature, and the Law of thine."

Don't Serve / Don't Tell

Don't Serve / Don't Tell: "At places like Harvard, the military is a rarity on campus. One January morning last year, I was sitting outside a classroom with some classmates waiting for our Civil Procedure exam to begin. A male student stopped to greet us. He was wearing a puffy vest over

what looked like an old version of the Army physical training sweatshirt--the oatmeal gray cotton zip-up. I asked him if it was an Army sweatshirt (the vest covered his chest where the 'ARMY' logo would be). 'No way,' he scoffed. 'I would never wear that. I hate the Army.'
'Oh,' I replied, 'I am in the Army.' He looked at me as if I had announced I had three legs and was born on Neptune. 'You? In the Army?' He started to laugh, as if I were making a joke. But when I offered to show him my military ID card as proof he finally seemed to believe me.
At the time, I got a bit of a charge out of defeating a stereotype about the military. But during the current law school recruiting period, things took a turn for the worse. I had the sickening feeling that as an individual soldier I was being kicked about in the name of tolerance. Everyday conversations about the military on campus inevitably turned into lectures: 'Don't Ask/Don't Tell is wrong because . . . ' I found that many people who claimed to value diversity and respect difference could not reconcile my presence at Harvard. Often people asked me why Army officers did not speak out against the policy, and why 'liberal' soldiers simply 'accept' discrimination. Some went so far as to imply that they did not feel 'safe' on campus with military officers who did not condemn the Solomon Amendment in their midst."

Let the Good Times Roll!

After 2 canceled seasons, soccer teams bouncing back - Yahoo! News:

Soccer is this country's most popular sport, and the Iraq Premier Football League is the pride of the country. During the 1970s and 1980s, Iraq's national team was a competitive force throughout the Middle East and Asia, competing in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

The league continued playing even during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War and the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the league shut down for two seasons because of violence and lack of money. Last season, the league began playing again.

Iraqi soccer received a big boost at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where its national team amazed the world by finishing fourth. It didn't win a medal but brought home something valuable: hope.

'Despite all the hard circumstances, we are playing football and challenging the terror,' says Al Shurta coach Hameed Salman, 39. 'I bet if any other country were in the same situation, football would have been forgotten.'

U.N. Reform Notions

Scope of oil-for-food fraud 'overwhelming' - Yahoo! News: "A U.N. summit in September 'was a disappointment,' says Lee Feinstein, a former Clinton State Department official who served on the Gingrich-Mitchell panel. 'The issue is whether out of the glare of a summit you can get the major donors to push through real reforms like appointing a chief operating officer for the U.N., creating an independent auditing authority and giving hiring and firing power to the secretary-general.'"

Desire the Salvation of All; Enjoy His Goodness.

Centuries of Meditations 1.53:

" [...] He willed the redemption of mankind, and therefore is His Son Jesus Christ an infinite treasure. Unless you will it too, He will be no treasure to you. Verily you ought to will these things so ardently that God Himself should be therefore your joy because He willed them. Your will ought to be united to His in all places of His dominion. Were you not born to have communion with Him? And that cannot be without this heavenly union. Which when it is what it ought is Divine and Infinite. You are God�s joy for willing what He willeth. He loves to see you good and blessed. And will not you love to see Him good? Verily, if ever you would enjoy God, you must enjoy His goodness: All His goodness to all His hosts in Heaven and Earth. And when you do so, you are the universal heir of God and all things. God is yours and the whole world. You are His, and you are all; or in all, and with all."

Media Fighting Their War, Not Ours

Bloomberg.com: Bloomberg Columnists:

"What Bush's latest effort reflects is the exhaustion and fear of a White House staff that would let the president go public with so feeble and transparent a case. With one top aide indicted and the leak investigation continuing, staffers are no longer willing to work behind the scenes to smear, deride, and muzzle critics, even family friend Brent Scowcroft. So Bush has to do his own dirty work, personally, in broad daylight. "

Mainstream Media Exposed

From an American Thinker article, Heraclitus said it first:

Heraclitus said it first / November 17th, 2005

The Greek historian Heraclitus observed, “A man’s character is his fate.” I’ve always found that to be true. I’d go further though. I think it is as applicable to institutions as it is to individuals.

If I’m right, the end result of the Wilson/Plame hoax – described by Christopher Hitchens as “the non-commission of non-crimes and the non-outing of a non-covert CIA bureaucrat” – will be how it has exposed this fact: Our major media have been so hopelessly corrupted by partisanship that, either willingly or through credulousness, they have become little more than an agent of the Democratic Party, utterly unworthy of our trust and damaging to our real national security needs.

And if you think that’s strong, the Wen Ho Lee case will resolve any possible lingering doubts that that is the case.

[…] And it is certain that in the trial of this case we will learn whether Governor Richardson and other Clinton appointed officials tried to play pin the tail on the Chinese nuclear scientist to divert attention from their own inattention to national security at a vital American facility. Or,even worse, as some have suggested, to muddy the search for how the Chinese obtained this vital information. Richardson and others have been identified in court papers as the likely sources of the leaks against Dr. Lee. In sworn testimony Richardson has denied he was a media source for the reports about Dr. Lee.

In the process of that case we will learn if the reporters were as apparently careless or gullible as they were when they broadcast Wilson’s patent lies and as mendacious as they were when they refused to correct the record when it was clear he had been lied to them or they had, as Wilson said “misreported” his statements.

By now, we know the principal reporters in the Wilson/Plame gambit were engaged, if not at the outset, then from the issuance of the bipartisan Senate Select Intelligence Committee (SSCI) report, in a partisan stunt. For there is simply no explanation for not clarifying the record from that point. And surely Pincus (if not Nicolas Kristof of the New York Times, for example), knew full well the process by which the National Intelligence Estimate is prepared and that the White House is bound to adhere to this, the collective wisdom of the nation’s security agencies.

Joe Blow may think the President could pull the wool over the eyes of Congress by making up claims not in there. If you’re reading this, you’re smart enough to know that’s bunkum. Fine for the fever swamp denizens. Preposterous to the grown ups.If there were errors in the NIE, they came from further down, and as the Silberman/Robb Commission observed those errors were not the result of any manipulation of the NIE, an assessment which was shared it seems by every intelligence service with which the U.S.maintains good links.

Why do I think the Wen Ho Lee case will only add to the exposure of the press’ duplicity? I’ve been watching their shennanigans and anticipating how Libby’s lawyers will reveal the incestuous interrelations between the reporters and the Democrats. I believe we will see the same kind of discreditable behavior in the Lee case as we have (and I believe we will continue to see) in the Wilson one.

[…] Thanks to the disastrous New York Times legal strategy, the D.C. Circuit of Appeals dealt a major blow to a reporter’s ability to protect his sources. Prosecutors everywhere will now be more inclined to call reporters to testify, under threat of prison time. And if Mr. Libby’s case goes to trial, at least three reporters will be called as witnesses for the prosecution. Just wait until defense counsel starts examining their memories and reporting habits, not to mention the dominant political leanings in the newsrooms of NBC, Time magazine and the New York Times....

Clarice Feldman is a lawyer in Washington, DC. [My ellipses and emphasis]

GRAPHIC Korean Reds Targeting Christians

From a New York Sun article, Korean Reds Targeting Christians:

Korean Reds Targeting Christians / BY MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun / November 16, 2005 / URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/23082

WASHINGTON - A woman in her 20s executed by a firing squad after being caught with a Bible. Five Christian church leaders punished by being run over by a steamroller before a crowd of spectators who "cried, screamed out, or fainted when the skulls made a popping sound as they were crushed."

These and other "horrifying" violations of human rights and religious freedom in North Korea are reported in a new study by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, titled "'Thank You, Father Kim Il Sung': Eyewitness Accounts of Severe Violations of Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion in North Korea."

The report, released yesterday, comes as President Bush is touring Asia, calling for increased political freedom. In remarks prepared for delivery early this morning in Japan, the president called on Red China to extend more freedom to its population of 1.3 billion. In an advance text of the speech, President Bush also extolled Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province, as "a free and democratic Chinese society." And the president noted North Korean human rights abuses while reassuring the Hermit Kingdom's people. [/] "Satellite maps of North Korea show prison camps the size of whole cities," Mr. Bush said. "We will not forget the people of North Korea."

Yesterday on Capitol Hill the chairman of the Commission on International Religious Freedom, Michael Cromartie, and two members of Congress who helped establish the commission, Reps. Frank Wolf of Virginia and Chris Smith of New Jersey, called on Mr. Bush to include the specific findings of the North Korean report in his diplomatic discussions with Chinese and South Korean officials this week, and to urge leaders of both Asian nations to take a firmer stand against their communist neighbor.

Mr. Cromartie told The New York Sun after the event that senior administration officials at the National Security Council had been provided with an advance copy of the report so that Mr. Bush could raise particular human rights abuses with his Chinese and South Korean interlocutors.

Mr. Cromartie said yesterday during the study's unveiling on Capitol Hill that the report was unique in its depth and breadth, and in the quantity of first-hand accounts, since it is notoriously difficult to obtain reliable information from inside North Korea, owing to the country's complete isolation under the Kim dictatorship.

[…] The study recounts, for example, how in November 1996 in North Korea's South Pyongan province, a unit of the North Korean army was tasked with widening a highway connecting Pyongyang to a nearby port city. While demolishing a vacant house, soldiers found in the basement, hidden between two bricks, a Bible and a list of 25 names. Among the list were individuals identified as a Christian pastor, two assistant pastors, two elders, and 20 parishioners who were identified by their occupations.

Hunted down at their workplaces by military police, the 25 Christians were rounded up and detained without any formal judicial procedure. Later that month, the parishioners and their clergy were brought to the road construction site, where spectators had been arranged in neat rows to observe the public execution of the pastor, assistant pastors, and elders. According to a report based on an eyewitness account, the five church leaders "were bound hand and foot and made to lie down in front of a steamroller," accused of subversion and of being Kiddokyo, or Protestant Christian, spies.

The 20 parishioners were detained near their clergy, and watched, along with the assembled audience, as the five Christian leaders were told they could escape death if they denied their faith and pledged to serve only Kim Jong Il and his father, the first dictator of communist Korea, Kim Il Sung. According to the eyewitness, the clergy remained silent.

For their steadfast belief, the Christians were executed. According to the report, "Some of the fellow parishioners assembled to watch the execution cried, screamed out, or fainted when the skulls made a popping sound as they were crushed beneath the steamroller."

Another account contained in the report says that on a summer day in North Korea in 1997, a young woman was washing clothes in a tributary of the Tumen River when she dropped a small Bible she had hidden amid the laundry. Spotted by a fellow washerwoman, the girl was reported to North Korean authorities on the suspicion that she was engaging in an exercise of thought or religion condemned by the state. The girl, believed to be in her 20s, and her father, estimated to be around 60, were arrested by local national security police and imprisoned for three months.

One morning, they were taken to a public market area, where, after a brief show trial, the father and daughter were condemned as traitors to the North Korean nation and its communist dictator, Kim Jong Il. The father and daughter were then tied to stakes a few meters from where they had been "tried," and, before an assembly of schoolchildren, were riddled with bullets by seven policemen who fired three shots each into the pair. According to a report drawn from eyewitness accounts, "The force of the rifle shots, fired from fifteen meters away, caused blood and brain matter to be blown out of their heads."

The study was compiled by the author of "Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea's Prison Camps," David Hawk, who was assisted by two South Korean researchers, Jae Chunwon and Philo Kim. Together they interviewed 40 re cent North Korean defectors to gain insight into the religious lives of average North Koreans.

[…] According to the study, in order to preserve the complete control Kim Jong Il exercises over his subjects' minds, repatriated North Koreans are harshly interrogated to determine whether they will infect their countrymen with ideas and information obtained abroad, and Christian believers are often slapped with long prison sentences and hard labor, punishments sometimes passed on to their families and descendants.

The documented fear of Christianity is accompanied by an extensive account of the pervasiveness of the Kims' cult of personality, and the title of the study, "Thank you, Father Kim Il-Sung," refers to the phrase North Korean parents are required to first teach their children. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Senators Missing at Frontiers of Freedom

Lucianne.com's Quote of the Day at News Forum Home Page:

"I'm sorry that we couldn't be joined by Senators Harry Reid, John Kerry, or Jay Rockefeller. They were unable to attend due to a prior lack of commitment." - Dick Cheney's Speech to Frontiers of Freedom

Withdraw the Libby indictment

From a Washington Times editorial, Withdraw the Libby indictment :

Withdraw the Libby indictment [/] Published November 17, 2005

Bob Woodward's just-released statement, suggesting that on June 27, 2003, he may have been the reporter who told Scooter Libby about Joseph Wilson's wife, blew a gigantic hole in Patrick Fitzgerald's recently unveiled indictment of the vice president's former chief of staff.

[…] However, given Mr. Woodward's account, which came to light after the Libby indictment was announced, that he met with Mr. Libby in his office -- armed with the list of questions, which explicitly referenced "yellowcake" and "Joe Wilson's wife" and may have shared this information during the interview -- it is entirely possible that Mr. Libby may have indeed heard about Mrs. Plame's employment from a reporter. Given the fact that the conversations in issue -- the one with Tim Russert and the one with Bob Woodward -- were separated by less than two weeks, and that officials like Mr. Libby juggle literally hundreds of matters on a daily basis, it is entirely plausible that he confused the two reporters. There certainly was no possible reason for him to mislead Mr. Fitzgerald on this issue, since the point he was trying to make, originally to the FBI investigators in October 2003, and later on to the grand jury, that Valerie Plame's identity was known to a reporter who imparted it to him was equally compelling, no matter what the identity of that reporter.

In light of these facts, it is at least doubtful whether a reasonable jury would find Mr. Libby guilty. Moreover, as argued by Washington lawyers David Rivkin and Lee Casey in an article appearing on today's op-ed page, under the U.S. Attorney's Manual provisions, no prosecution should be commenced unless the attorney representing the government believes that he has evidence that will probably be sufficient to obtain a conviction. Accordingly, Mr. Fitzgerald should do the right thing and promptly dismiss the indictment of Scooter Libby. [My ellipses and emphasis]

World Rule by "Cornpone Couple"?

Is Lucianne right? (Lucianne.com Must Reads - Nov. 17th)

Is "'Bill Clinton's Bad Behavior' [part of t]he Cornpone Couple's plan to rule the world"?

Look for Bill and Hillary to put together a political tag-team act in the months and years ahead, with Bill playing bad cop in sticking it to the current president while the New York senator adopts a more "statesmanlike" — that is, presidential — approach.

Above quote from a Lucianne Must Read: a New York Post editorial, Bill Clinton's Bad Behavior. More below:

Bill Clinton demonstrated yet again yesterday that, as far as he's concerned, the rules don't apply to him.

In a speech to students at the American University of Dubai, the former president fired a rhetorical broadside against President Bush, saying the invasion of Iraq was "a big mistake."

[…] It has long been accepted that former presidents do not publicly criticize their successors, particularly when it comes to foreign policy; certainly the first President Bush held his tongue when it came to judging Clinton's dubious foreign-policy performance.

To be sure, Jimmy Carter violated that pact long ago — but then, he'd been hungrily campaigning for a Nobel Peace Prize, the first requirement of which is a solid record of America-bashing. […] (A failed president himself, he was uniquely qualified for that task. Now that he's been given the award, he has a new book to flog.)

As for Clinton — well, his wife is pretty clearly running for president, an unprecedented situation. She's been talking particularly tough on terrorism — but what does it mean?

Look for Bill and Hillary to put together a political tag-team act in the months and years ahead, with Bill playing bad cop in sticking it to the current president while the New York senator adopts a more "statesmanlike" — that is, presidential — approach.

For the record, it should be noted that the man who's now railing about America's "big mistake" in its Iraq policy is the same president who told the nation in 1998 that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to world security because of his WMD programs.

"The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi government — a government ready to live in peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people," said Clinton then. [/] And, he warned, establishing such a government would take a great deal of time and effort.

[…] Anyway, what Bill Clinton said was bad enough — what makes it worse is where he chose to say it.

Not in this country, but in the Middle East — where the current administration has been working so hard and successfully to bring democracy and dampen the flames of Islamic radicalism. [/] Little surprise, though, that Clinton's listeners responded to his remarks with "cheers and a standing ovation." [My ellipses and emphasis]

Episcopal Breakup Continues

What a wonderful irony that Third World members of the Anglican Communion are more vital in this renewal than the Mother Church of England itself, much less the incredible, shrinking weirdo Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States.

The above is from an American Spectator article, The Peculiar Peculations of PECUSA . More below:

The Nation's Pulse [/] The Peculiar Peculations of PECUSA
By Thomas Lipscomb [/] Published 11/14/2005 12:06:13 AM

In a meeting last week in Pittsburgh, an international panel of prominent Anglicans has called for an open break between members of the Anglican Communion and what they view as the wayward Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States. The meeting was hosted by the Bishop Duncan of Pittsburgh and presided over by seven archbishops from the West Indies, South East Asia, and Africa.

[…]The sad huddle of affluent bedwetters, thumbsuckers, treehuggers, social climbers, homophiles, quavery ladies, and chronic petition signers that makes up the current Episcopal Church is no exception. Historic hubs like lovely Grace Cathedral in San Francisco or St. Paul's in Richmond, Virginia, have been turned into bizarre nests of homosexual and "peace" activism, complete with rainbow and peace flags hanging in the nave and lesbian and homosexual priests ramming their agenda down the throats of the congregations along with the communion wafer.

Many think those activists continually demanding a more "inclusive" church might have paid a little attention to the majority of its communicants. The majority had proven itself perfectly willing to include minorities with equal rights. But the radical minority didn't want inclusiveness... it wanted to dominate. And if success is dominating empty churches by driving out their congregations, they have succeeded.

The reality of the "inclusiveness" of the radicals was brought home a year ago by an idiotic abuse of power by the Bishop of Washington, D.C. against a tiny tidewater Maryland parish and its brave priest. Now the radicals are the majority many places. And they control the lovely churches, seminaries, and the all-important church pension plan.

Those who have left the Episcopal Church, or are being included out, are, in a sense, "Neo-Puritans," just as they are accused of being by those trying to keep PECUSA together.

So were those part of the Reformation movement spread by Martin Luther and his successors and the original Puritans themselves. But they were protesting innovations and abuses by the hierarchies in the reigning churches of their day, including the Catholic practices of simony, benefices, the selling of indulgences, and, in the Puritans' case, the conversion of the Anglican church from a institution of God to an institutional extension of the Stuart Monarchy's recently asserted "divine right."

Their problem was a "trahison des clercs." Congregations weren't trying to reform the basic tenets of the church. If anything they were trying to return to them. Few of the Episcopal laity had any problem with the 39 Articles of Religion at the back of the Book of Common Prayer, but dozens of their bishops and priests did.

In fact they so objected to the Book itself that they destroyed it with a "revision" in the 1970s. The basic language of the BCP somehow had served almost 500 years of Episcopalians from Tudor times to Jimmy Carter's presidency, and suddenly it failed the clergy's "inclusive" test.

Besides, prominent bishops like Spong and Robinson disagreed with some of the most basic elements of the Nicene Creed, the heart of Anglican belief. Some they considered minor matters of definition, like the divinity of Christ. It made one wonder why, if the radicals clerics shared such contempt toward these unfashionable tenets of faith, they hadn't left their unenlightened laity to more orthodox priests and moved on?

The American Episcopal Church itself is a byproduct of the Reformation. It proudly called itself the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States to make that point after the American Revolution. It intentionally dispersed its authority originally through a series of local parishes that owned their own property and selected their own priests under bishops of dioceses of limited power. That way the parishes could reflect whatever the local people wanted, from "Low Church" "plain altar" evangelicals of the Puritan tradition to lush "High Church" parishes with their "smells and bells."

Over the past 50 years radical priests and allied bishops have systematically gutted parishional authority and taken over their property as one diocese after another has swung into line with the new authoritarian radical clergy. In short, the protest meeting led by the courageous Bishop of Pittsburgh was a reaction to a half century of peculation -- embezzlement led by the church establishment. But on whose behalf?

Fortunately a healthy religion is able to renew itself from time to time as required. When it isn't, a black hole like the Islam of today results that becomes the enemy of reform and enlightenment itself.

What a wonderful irony that Third World members of the Anglican Communion are more vital in this renewal than the Mother Church of England itself, much less the incredible, shrinking weirdo Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States.

Thomas Lipscomb is an Anglo-Catholic parishioner of the Mission of Mary Magdalene in New York. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "Bothered by the weather?
By JOHN LALOR


The Earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically... drastic decline in food production... most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters... fundamental changes in the world's weather... economic and social adjustments on a worldwide scale... The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope...
Oh, sorry... I was just reading an article from Newsweek - from 1975. Entitled 'The Cooling World,' it warned of the dire consequences of 'Global Cooling' - unless political action was brought about immediately. "

Pennsylvanians Have More Fun!

Pa. May Let Hunters Use Prehistoric Weapon - Yahoo! News

Pa. May Let Hunters Use Prehistoric Weapon By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press Writer
59 minutes ago

HARRISBURG, Pa. - An ancient weapon that struck fear in the hearts of Spanish conquistadors, and that some think was used to slay wooly mammoths in Florida, may soon be added to the arsenal of Pennsylvania's hunters.

The state Game Commission is currently drafting proposed regulations to allow hunters to use the atlatl, a small wooden device used to propel a six-foot dart as fast as 80 mph. The commission could vote to legalize its use as early as January.

It's unclear which animals atlatlists may be allowed to hunt, but the proposal is being pushed by people who want to kill deer with a handmade weapon of Stone Age design. The name, usually pronounced AT-lad-ul, is derived from an Aztec word for "throwing board."

"For me, it would be a thrill to have a deer get up close enough and to throw my dart and hit the deer, bag it like my ancestors did," said Jack Rowe, 45, a veteran hunter and atlatl enthusiast from Sayre.

Another Schoolgirl Killed in Indonesia

The attack Tuesday came shortly after the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls Oct. 29, marking a further escalation of the tensions, according to CSW.

Ida Sambue and Theresa, both 16, and Alfita, 18, were on their way to a Christian school they attended with 150 other children when they were attacked. A fourth girl, Noviana, 16, was left seriously injured.

According to CSW, the heads of the girls were found separately inside plastic bags with a warning written on them that another 100 Christian teenagers would be killed. Local leaders fear the latest shooting is linked to fulfillment of the threat.

Above from a World Net Daily article, Schoolgirl dies after shooting near church . More follows:

Schoolgirl dies after shooting near church. [/] Muslim was friend of Christian who remains in critical condition [/] Posted: November 11, 2005 [/] 3:00 p.m. Eastern

One of two 17-year-old schoolgirls shot at close range near a Pentecostal church in Indonesia has died. [/] Siti Nuraini, a Muslim, died Wednesday in Poso's Kota general hospital on the island of Sulawesi. Her Christian friend, identified only as Ivon, remains in critical condition after the attack Tuesday, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports.

An earlier report from Indonesia said both girls were Christians, but International Christian Concern confirms Nuraini was Muslim.

The attack Tuesday came shortly after the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls Oct. 29, marking a further escalation of the tensions, according to CSW.

Ida Sambue and Theresa, both 16, and Alfita, 18, were on their way to a Christian school they attended with 150 other children when they were attacked. A fourth girl, Noviana, 16, was left seriously injured.

According to CSW, the heads of the girls were found separately inside plastic bags with a warning written on them that another 100 Christian teenagers would be killed. Local leaders fear the latest shooting is linked to fulfillment of the threat. […] [My ellipses and emphasis and repetition.]

It is not too late to pray for Indonesia.

"The Origins of Christmas Are a Glorious Kaleidescope of Diversity, Actually"

WorldNetDaily: Wal-Mart boycott ends with apology:

The controversy was sparked when a woman recently complained to Wal-Mart that the store was replacing its 'Merry Christmas' greeting with 'Happy Holidays.'

The League says the woman received an e-mail response from a customer-service representative named Kirby, reading exactly as follows:

Walmart is a world wide organization and must remain conscious of this. The majority of the world still has different practices other than 'christmas' which is an ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism. The colors associated with 'christmas' red and white are actually a representation of of the aminita mascera mushroom. Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world.

Sadly, there are many who would respond in the same way, except that they would not wish to hurt the enquirer's feelings. This poor man is out of touch with ordinary life as well as philosophic and spiritual truth. It is not too late to pray for him.

Media Slander Effective - Terrorists Happy

Poll: Most Americans Say Bush Not Honest - Yahoo! News: "Poll: Most Americans Say Bush Not Honest By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer
44 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Two crucial pillars of President Bush's public support � perceptions of his honesty and faith in his ability to fight terrorism � have slipped to their lowest point in the AP-Ipsos poll.

While the CIA leak investigation, the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina and high energy costs have all taken their toll, the polling found the Iraq war at the core of Americans' displeasure with the president.

All of those concerns are cutting into traditional Bush strengths.
Almost six in 10 now say Bush is not honest, and a similar number say his administration does not have high ethical standards."

Sick Cinema Celebrates Suiciders

Suicide Bombers Are People, Too - Arts Extra - Newsweek - MSNBC.com:

Suicide Bombers Are People, Too [/] So says a Palestinian filmmaker who's garnering prizes and praise for his new film, "Paradise Now."

By Lorraine Ali / Newsweek / Updated: 3:30 p.m. ET Nov. 11, 2005

Nov. 11, 2005 - Hany Abu-Assad is nervous. In just two hours, his new film, “Paradise Now,” will premier in Tel Aviv. But there’s more to it than just opening night jitters for Abu-Assad. The director is Palestinian, the audience is Israeli, and his film is about the lives and moral struggles of two suicide bombers. “I’m trying to take deep breaths,” he laughs. “But it doesn’t seem to be helping.”

It wouldn’t be the first time a film about terrorists, or freedom fighters (depending which side of the wall you’re on), has shown in Israel. But “Paradise Now,” a film distributed in the United States by Warner Independent Pictures, is one of the first feature films that tries to show the potential killers/martyrs as people. Childhood friends Said (Kais Nashif) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) drink tea at work, play and quarrel with siblings at home, develop crushes on women out of their league and discuss such mundane things as water filters with their mothers just hours before they’re chosen by a militant group to carry out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. The young men, who reside amongst the rubble, rocket fire and curfews of a Nablus refugee camp, face the most intense 48 hours of their already tough and heavy lives. Things get more complicated when Suha (Lubna Azabal) enters the picture. Her father died carrying out one of these attacks, and she’s determined to end the occupation through peaceful means. Together, the three spin the moral compass in all directions. [Ain't moral relativism grand!]

Just before the Tel Aviv opening on Thursday, Abu-Assad says he’s pleased with the reaction he’s received on the film. It’s won an Amnesty International Award, a Blue Angel for best European film and is now Palestine’s official entry for the Academy Awards (this is only the second year Palestine has been allowed contribute to the Oscar’s foreign film competition). It opened in New York and Los Angeles two weeks ago to glowing reviews in The New York Times, and Abu-Assad was featured in interviews on NPR and in the Los Angeles Times. [all the usual suspects] But he knows his toughest audience is right there in his homeland. “There were some Palestinians who wanted to see these characters as superheroes, as almost inhuman in their great powers,” says Abu-Assad, 43, who was born in Nazareth but now lives in Holland. “There were also those—Europeans, Americans, Israelis, whomever—who wanted to see these characters as evil monsters. Again, as inhuman. But that’s not what this film is about. They are human, [Could have fooled me.] they have hearts, brains, lungs. They are strong and weak—and it’s in those weak moments that they are the most human.”[...] [My ellipses and emphasis.]

The Nazis, Fascists, Communists, and Tojo's militarists were human too.

But it made it easier to stop them, when we did not dwell of that obvious fact.