Some nuance I wish our leaders could grasp

Gerry Daly of Daly Thoughts writes to Michelle Malkin regarding a poll conducted by the Democratic Party:

The part that cracked me up was they asked about feelings towards 'new immigrants'-- and Americans gave them a higher rating than they gave Democrats (but not quite as high as they gave Republicans). They also asked about feelings towards 'undocumented immigrants', and they scored the lowest of any group tested by a considerable amount. Even avoiding the term "illegal aliens" did not soften the results.

Good. It's not just me. I bet if they had said "legal immigrants" instead of "new immigrants" the gap would have been even bigger.

The poll is here under June 2005 National Survey.

To Dream the Impossible Dream

I'm so glad I found this great post at Villainous Company. It's based on Michael Ignatieff's NY Times piece where, regarding Thomas Jefferson's contention that the American experiment in democracy would spread to the whole world, he writes:

Until George W. Bush, no American president -- not even Franklin Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson -- actually risked his presidency on the premise that Jefferson might be right. But this gambler from Texas has bet his place in history on the proposition, as he stated in a speech in March, that decades of American presidents' ''excusing and accommodating tyranny, in the pursuit of stability'' in the Middle East inflamed the hatred of the fanatics who piloted the planes into the twin towers on Sept. 11.

If democracy plants itself in Iraq and spreads throughout the Middle East, Bush will be remembered as a plain-speaking visionary. If Iraq fails, it will be his Vietnam, and nothing else will matter much about his time in office.

Yes. Bush is engaging in a huge gamble that is based on those ideals we all talk about, but rarely follow through on. He's taking that pesky Declaration of Independence and acting on it. And there's no guarantee that it will work. But if it does... Wow. It's the vision thing.

That's exactly what I keep trying to say. But when I do, I usually get that look conservatives have traditionally reserved for recently radicalized college freshmen. "Yes honey. It's lovely that you want to turn the US into a communist utopia, but this is the real world". It's odd that an supporting an idea that's as old as our republic makes one a pie-in-the-sky dreamer. When did democracy become such a radical proposition?

More from Ignatieff:

While Americans characteristically oversell and exaggerate the world's desire to live as they do, it is actually reasonable to suppose, as Americans believe, that most human beings, if given the chance, would like to rule themselves. It is not imperialistic to believe this. It might even be condescending to believe anything else.

(Via Cheat Seeking Missile)

EUoreos

Here's a funny story by a food critic who wrote an article about Kraft food engineers slaving away for years to remove the trans-fats from Oreos, only to have Europeans wonder what the big deal was. Turns out European Oreos are trans-fats free and they got that way with no muss or fuss. Well, apparently, Europeans like cookies that taste like food and Americans like cookies that taste like candle wax. Kraft invested all that time and energy attempting to replicate the waxy texture of Oreo filling.

Too bad. In an attempt to eat healthier, I've begun to buy my junk food at the health food store. They have a couple of brands of trans-fat-free Oreo-type cookies that are sooo yummy, I can't imagine eating Oreos again.

Flag Burning

There aren't too many positions I held in college that I still hold now. But I was, and still am, against the flag burning amendment. People who burn flags obviously intend it to be political speech. Even if it's not technically speech, I think it's best to err on the side of more freedom, not less. However, I have added some conservative reasons for my opposition:

• Why martyr these fire-bugs who are so obviously seeking our attention?
• By all means, let the fifth column reveal itself.
• Buying all those flags to burn is good for the economy.

But as usual, Mark Steyn nails it:

A flag has to be worth torching. When a flag gets burned, that's not a sign of its weakness but of its strength. If you can't stand the heat of your burning flag, get out of the superpower business. It's the left that believes the state can regulate everyone into thought-compliance. The right should understand that the battle of ideas is won out in the open.

Amen

Muslims Will Never Forgive America For 9/11

According to Debbie Schlussel, the producers of Morgan Spurlock's new "documentary" told her that "Morgan wants the show to demonstrate to America that we are Islamophobic and that 9/11's biggest victims are Muslims."

Umm, Okay. Will Jimmy Carter soon be issuing an apology for 9/11 to the Muslim world? Maybe something along the lines of "We're so sorry we forced you to incinerate thousands of our citizens. How can we make it up to you?"

I think I'll be skipping this little bit of educational TV. (via Malkin)

More on Spurlock's project from Jeff Harrell.

Please disregard the previous post

I guess it doesn't matter if some judge forces the legislature to raise your property taxes, if your local bureaucrats come along and take your property. Which raises the question, do we still have to pay property taxes, if theoretically, we're all just renting from the city council?

My favorite quote thus far:

I'm sure the residents of New London, Connecticut will be happy to know that while their houses are being demolished, their library records will be safely locked away.

(via Malkin, who has a round-up)

Kansas Education Debate (No, not that one)

There's more going on in Kansas than the debate over whether to teach "intelligent design" in science class. I'm surprised no one's talking about it. Okay, it's not going to make a good joke on Leno, but it's does have runaway judges and it's "for the children". Just the sort of thing conservatives love to hate.

It seems some school districts sued the state over the school funding formula. The funding formula was found unconstitutional. The governor wanted to raise taxes, the legislature... not so much. Legal hijinx ensues. The legislature finally adjusted the formula and passed a $142 million increase in spending. The Kansas Supreme Court was not satisfied and ordered the legislature to more than double the increase to $285 million. Consequences for not doing so: the court will order the schools to be shut down.

Hmmmm. Who's writing the laws here? Whatever happened to the separation of powers? If the people of Kansas want to increase the amount they spend on education, shouldn't they elect legislators who will do that? .

Here's a link to the KC Star's coverage, but I think it requires registration.

A Nice Story About Animals

So I'm at the library checking out books for Mia when I happen upon one about Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark is quite popular at our house, so I page through it, starting in the middle, like I always do, just to see if the text looks like it's on Mia's level. It looks goods, but I check the first page to see how they handle the theology. Not for doctrinal purity reasons, but because Mia can't handle much abstract thinking yet.

Well, they nicely side-step the whole sticky God thing by having Noah look up in the sky and decide that it looks like rain. I kid you not. The man builds and ark and gathers two of every animal because it looks like rain.

Why even bother to crib from the Bible? Why not just write a nice story about animals?

Europeans fascinated by the Klan

Interesting story on The World (KKK Verdict Interview). Apparently, Europeans can't get enough of this Killen story. Lisa Mullins interviews Norwegian reporter Gerhard Helskog for the European perspective. Given all he'd heard about the evil, racist American South (even from Americans), he was surprised to see black and white people eating together, black cops, etc. According to Helskog, Europeans think America is stuck in a 50's time warp and they only want stories that confirm that stereotype. A very interesting 6 minutes.

Update: Speaking of Europeans not wanting to be confused by the facts, David's Medienkritik links to this account of one journalist's bizarre encounter with a German diplomat who strongly rejects Amnesty International's comparison of Gitmo to the Gulag. Naturally, Gitmo is much worse.

Don't Talk to Strangers

An example of the law of unintended consequences:

The 11-year-old boy lost for four days in a mountain wilderness did just what he had been taught, his parents said Wednesday: He stayed on his trail and avoided strangers, even though they were searching for him.

Which reminds me, there are two books you should check out if you haven't: The Gift of Fear (for adults) and Protecting the Gift (for teens and adults with children). The author is emphatic that you do not teach your children not to talk to strangers. You teach them how and when to talk to strangers. Both books contain lots of common sense safety stuff and info on how predators think.

Republican Meanies

Good post at Villainous Company on the Democrats calling foul whenever anyone reacts to their verbal bomb-throwing. Apt description:

Here, ladies and gentlemen, we hear the plaintive mating call of the Wild-eyed Liberal Pundit in his natural environment: "Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Woo-who will rid me of this troublesome First Amendment?"

(via Malkin)

Syria and Lebanon

You know, I didn't post anything on Syria's withdrawal from Lebenon because I couldn't really believe it. I kept saying "They're gone? They just up and left? That's it? It's over? Really?" Well, no. Not really:

A bomb blast killed a politician who was a harsh critic of Syria’s power in Lebanon as he rode in his car Tuesday, police said, the second slaying of an anti-Syrian figure this month.

From the Horse's Mouth

Steve Kraske has Stephen Hemphill on his show today. Hemphill's title: Senior Consultant - Justice Iraq Reconstruction Management Office for the U.S. State Department. He just returned to Missouri after 17 months at the US Embassy in Iraq as a legal consultant helping to overhaul the mess that was the Iraqi justice system.

He's talking about how patient the Iraqis and our troops are, how hard everyone is working, and how annoying it is to come home as see how impatient the American people are. It's easy to forget (or just not understand) what's going on over there. What we are trying to do is insanely ambitious. Hemphill was involved in building the Iraqi justice system from the ground up, using the few workable building blocks that were left lying around after Saddam. It's like that for every sector of the economy and the entire government.

As usual, most of the callers are moonbats (albeit polite ones, this is Kansas City, after all). All Downing Street Memos, all the time. If I were clever, I'd think of an interesting question and call in.

The Coalition of the Willing

Not that you'd know it from the TV news, but there are 26 countries besides the US and Iraq that have people on the ground in Iraq. Arthur Chrenkoff has a photographic tribute. (via Blackfive)

What Guantanamo Is Really Like.

David Kopel notes that there is a historical analogy that might be useful for discussing Guantanamo.

Iconoclasm 101

Julia and Lev Gorin dash my illusions about the Kosovo War. First there's this:

Pursuant to Izetbegovic’s end game, writes Michigan-based Balkans writer and historian Carl Savich, “the Bosnian Muslim faction engaged in propaganda, staged massacres, killed Bosnian Muslim civilians to garner sympathy [e.g. the Markale Marketplace bombings in 1994 and 95, and firing mortars from hospitals to elicit return attacks] and used civilian hostages or shields to further its propaganda of victimization.”

The widely cited 2002 official Dutch report on Srebrenica seems to confirm the use of such tactics. As BBC.com reported that year, the Dutch Government “pins part of the blame on the Bosnian Muslims themselves, saying the Bosnian army had provoked attacks.”

Srebrenica Muslims “ravaged and ransacked neighbouring ethnic Serb villages,” continues Kliphuis, “killing and maiming the residents, who were often too old to offer any resistance….The Serb villages were then set on fire.” After his role in killing up to 2,000 Serbs, Oric himself fled Srebrenica just before it was stormed by the Bosnian Serb army.

Okay, I know things have gone to hell in a handbasket there since the war, so I'm not terribly surprised to find the Muslims weren't angels. But then there's this:

Eastern European and Balkan affairs writer Neil Clark summed up the trial in a UK Guardian article of Feb. 2004 (the month the prosecution wrapped up its two-year case): “Not only has the prosecution signally failed to prove Milosevic’s personal responsibility for atrocities committed on the ground, the nature and extent of the atrocities themselves has also been called into question.”

What the....? Hello? Weren't Serb atrocities the whole point of the war? Is this doubt the product of an incompetent prosecution or.... We took sides in a nasty civil war because... I think I need some time to process this.

(via Malkin)

And The Hit(ler)s Keep On Coming

Jon Stewart has a hilarious send up of the recent flurry of Hitler references. (Ok, I can't make the link work, but you can get it from Mudville Gazette)

Yes, the vast majority of such analogies are ridiculous, even offensive. But I sympathize on one level. With the way history is taught in schools, how many analogies will, without a doubt, be grasped by one's audience? I'd bet Durbin's mention of Pol Pot caused a few heads to be scratched. (via Bookworm Room)

Update: Jonah writes:

It is true, as Durbin claimed, that if he were to read the allegations about depriving prisoners of food or forcing them to defecate on themselves, many Americans would be reminded of the Nazis. But that’s because vast swaths of the public and their opinion leaders prefer to live in historical and moral ignorance. (As for thinking of Pol Pot’s killing fields or the Gulag, it’s unlikely, as neither gets a fraction of the attention it deserves.)

Say it ain't so, Joe

So Dick Durbin makes his ridiculous/disgusting remarks on the evening of the 14th and by the 16th Joe Lieberman still has no comment? Is he unsure whether our troops at Gitmo are just like Nazis? I can see why Joe is confused. Christine Aguilara or slave labor? Too much A/C or gas chambers? Who's to say which is worse? I know, ultimately, they're all just politicians, but I expected a little more from Lieberman.

Update: Gulags, Gitmo, or Cook County, Il? Turns our Durbin doesn't even need to leave his district to find prison abuse. I'm sure he's working up a hysterical speech on the matter right now. (via Malkin)

Ode to Howard Dean

I should check out IMAO more often. I almost missed Harvey's Ode to Howard Dean:

Howard Dean, a man insane
Earthworms crawling through his brain
Stood himself upon a stage
And sputtered loony words of rage.

Check it out. There are seven more stanzas.

I know I said I wasn't going to blog about...

Terri Schiavo again, but just one thing on a side issue. It's surreal to see medical doctors on TV emphasizing that Terri did not die of starvation but of dehydration, as if that makes everything OK. The doc on ABC actually used the word "peaceful".

I admit to laughing out loud

when I read the bit about the puppet show in Time's "expose" on the appalling torture being carried out at Gitmo, especially given that the incident was found under the heading "More Muscular Strategies". Wow, if puppet shows are among the more muscular strategies we are using to defeat terrorism, we're worse off than I thought.

If you really want a chuckle, don't miss Lileks' fisk of the article. But be prepared for the disturbing mental image of a "gang-miming". Shudder. (Via LGF)

Update: Ann Coulter weighs in:

No cold meals, sleep deprivation or uncomfortable positions? Obviously, what we need to do is get the U.S. Army to serve drinks on commercial airlines and get the airlines to start supervising the detainees in Guantanamo.

Garden Trains

Our local garden railway club sponsored a tour of their members' layouts today. My daughter is obsessed with trains, so we took the opportunity to check it out. Some of the layouts were very elaborate, with waterfalls, tunnels, trestle bridges, etc. One guy even had engines that run on steam (instead of electricity like most do). It was a lot of fun and now we want one in our back yard too.

"Oh Allah, Flush Out America From History...

As It Flushed Your Holy Book". I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
(via Instapundit)

The best interests of the child

As seen on ABC News:

Child welfare officials seized a 12-year-old cancer patient from her parents, saying they were blocking radiation treatment that doctors say she needs.

According to the article, the girl has already received chemo and her cancer is in remission. A judge will be ruling tomorrow on whether the state can require the treatment, so obviously she's not on death's doorstep. A life-or-death decision does not need to be made RIGHT NOW. But still, the state of Texas took custody of the girl, arrested the mother (on charges of interfering with child custody), and put her three brothers in foster care.

That last act is the tip-off that this has very little to do with the girl and everything to do with with someone's power jones. There is no charge of abuse or neglect. Unless the boys also have cancer, the state is using them to beat their parents into submission. Disgusting.

How much do they hate us?

Enough to tie someone else inside a suicide car bomb:

In one case, Iraqi police found pieces of a car after it exploded which included an accelerator pedal that had the suicide bomber's foot still taped to it...

(Via Tim Blair)

Is there such a thing as treason anymore?

Via Malkin (who has more), the LA Times reports:

According to the affidavit, he told agents that after attending Al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan in 2003 and 2004, he was given his pick of where to carry out his terrorist mission.

"Hamid advised that he specifically requested to come to the United States to carry out his jihadi mission," the affidavit says. "Potential targets for attack would include hospitals and large food stores."

Hamid is a United States citizen.

As Captain Ed points out, if this isn't treason, it's hard to imagine what would be. But can anyone be charged with treason anymore? It seems so politically incorrect as to be politically impossible. However, as counterintuitive as it may seem, we must maintain the concept of treason if we want to keep the open and free society we enjoy.

As much as certain leftists like to claim otherwise, the United States isn't a police state. Police states assume the disloyalty of their citizens. Heinrich Himmler, for example, thought the German people were naive, easily seduced by the decadence of the West and easily deceived by the treachery of the Jews. In short, they could not be trusted. And so he constructed the massive police state needed to, among other things, keep these simple folk in line.

Historically, the American government has taken a much different view of its citizens. Maybe not so much anymore, but that is a topic for another post. Even given the heroic efforts of the left (and sometimes the right) to infantilize the citizenry, the US government trusts its citizens more than most (any?) other governments.

Citizens are assumed to be loyal. And why not? We make no effort to keep people here against their will. There are no exit visas, no restrictions on taking assets abroad, no threat to family left behind. There is nothing to keep a person here, but their desire to be here.

Furthermore, we may toss out our leaders every 2, 4, or 6 years if we don't care for them. Besides freedom of religion, speech and the press, the First Amendment also guarantees the "right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances". We assume that citizens will change the system through peaceful means or they will go find a system that suits them better. That' s why we don't need a police state to keep order. Ours is an honor system.

In keeping with that honor system, if a citizen feels so strongly that America is such a force for evil in the world that they must act against it, it is incumbent upon him to renounce his citizenship and depart. If he uses his privileged position as an American citizen to act against America, we must treat him as a traitor. Not in order to eliminate traitors. We never will. But to sustain our system. Our system cannot survive if it includes a category of citizens that may or may not be trusted. If it does, why should our government view us any differently than Himmler viewed Germans? And why should the result be any different? If we aren't responsible and we can't be trusted, why shouldn't we be watched, checked up upon, threatened, intimidated and punished.

Citizenship is about rights and responsibilities. The rights are very important. They are what make American citizenship worth having. But the responsibilities are what hold it all together.

Ill-fitting jeans are a small price to pay for simplicity,

says Barry Schwartz, who is obviously not a woman. According to Schwartz, the dizzying array of consumer choices available today have turned formerly simple tasks like buying jeans into “a complex decision in which I was forced to invest time, energy, and no small amount of self-doubt, anxiety, and dread.”

This reminds me of a BBC new story I heard a year or so ago. The reporter repeatedly questioned some shopkeeper, determined to get him to say he had too many brands of bottled water and admit that consumers stood stunned in the aisles, unable to choose. He would not be cowed and pointed out that all the waters sold well and if he removed some, he would be removing someone's favorite. I thought it was just some weird European socialist thing, but apparently, it's a whole school of thought.

Virginia Postrel explains and defends consumer choice. As someone who drinks caffeine-free pop, wears petite jeans and buys gluten-free bread (when she can find it), I say bring on the choices. (Via Instapundit)

The Idiot Block

On the return trip from Chicago, I was reminded of a term I'd never heard until I moved to Kansas City: Idiot Block. For those of you from Chicago, or some other city where they like to expedite the driving process, an idiot block occurs when a driver insists, for no particular reason, on traveling in the left lane, not just slowly, but next to and at the same speed as a vehicle in the right lane. Traffic backs up until something breaks the log jam.

Maybe there's none of this in Chicago because there are more 3 and 4 lane highways there, or maybe it's because you'd be a wet spot on the road if you tried it. Either way, patience is not a virtue of Chicago drivers and, even though I've been in KC for 15 years, old habits die hard.

Blog Break

I've been wildly busy preparing for Mia's Thomas the Tank Engine birthday party (a shashing success, if I do say so myself) and now I'm taking her to Chicago to see relatives. So I most likely will not be blogging until summer school starts next week. See ya later.