liberty
Tony Blankley is freaking me out
His latest book, The West's Last Chance, is coming true before our very lives. Don Feder:
A committee appointed by the British government, composed of Muslims, wants the nation to scrap its Holocaust Memorial Day, in the name of inclusiveness and sensitivity. No word yet on whether they also want to eliminate Passover – said to be insensitive to Egyptians.
The committee recommends replacing the observance (started in 2001 and held annually on January 27) with a Genocide (a.k.a., Victimhood) Day, which would recognize the alleged mass murder of Muslims in "Palestine," Chechnya, Bosnia, and wherever else followers of the Religion of Peace have come into conflict with the accursed infidel.
In making its case for inclusiveness, the committee somehow neglected to mention the many victims of Muslim mayhem – Armenians, Sudanese Christians, Kosovar Serbs (ethnically cleansed in the wake of NATO’s war on Yugoslavia), and Hindus – to name but a few. If an Arab stubbed his toe on the boot of a Christian knight sometime in the 11th century, it’s a crime against humanity that must be memorialized throughout the ages, according to the imams. On the other hand, the slaughter of infidels is seen as the will of Allah, and worthy of a Heavenly reward.
The committee maintains that Britain’s Holocaust Memorial Day fuels feelings of isolation and alienation among Muslim youth. And, well, to have a special commemoration of the systematic slaughter of one in every three Jews on earth (in an effort to annihilate an entire people), is grossly unfair, the committee suggests. This is one of numerous matters that goes to the heart of the "clash of civilizations," the premise of Blankley's book. Muslims are not interested in assimilating, as has every other ethnicity or religion in the West. They are not interested in tolerating others who are, in the case of the Jews, non-Arab, or, in the case of everyone else, non-Muslim. The people of the West need to wake up to these facts, and quickly. Surely, you say, not all Muslims feel this way. Surely this is simply those radical extremists the likes of bin Laden, right? Then why is there nothing but silence from the majority of supposedly peace-loving, tolerant, assimilated Muslims in the West?
Unhealthy hatred
Their unhealthy hatred for Mr. Bush dates back to the 2000 election, which they -- irrationally again -- believe he stole from Mr. Gore. The fact is, Mr. Gore was trying to steal the election himself and almost succeeded, through one of the most egregious perversions of the rule of law in our nation’s history, by the Florida Supreme Court.
But the real source of their animus is even more basic. They resent him because he represents their expulsion from power over the executive branch, which the Clinton eight-year heyday should have ensured them in perpetuity.
You’ll recall that their "entitlement" to the legislative branch was stolen from them in 1994, which is one of the reasons they consider Newt Gingrich another personification of evil. Adding insult to cumulative injury, they’ve also lost their monopoly on the media over the last 15 years.
Stossel: Damnable pork
John Stossel, on pork in the wake of Katrina:
The government's responsibility, though, dwarfs anything done by criminals. To start, the federal government invited disaster by offering cheap insurance. That encourages people to build on the coasts. I'm embarrassed to admit I once built a house on a beach in Westhampton, N.Y., because government insurance guaranteed I couldn't lose. When a storm washed my house away, government paid me for my loss. It would have covered me again and again had I rebuilt. (I sold the land.) Government insurance is truly an insane policy.
Then came the bureaucratic obstacles. While New Orleans hospitals had no electricity, the U.S.S. Bataan sat just off the coast, equipped with six unused operating rooms and hundreds of hospital beds. Its commander said she could do nothing because she hadn't received a signed authorization. It's reasonable to worry about getting the armed forces involved in law enforcement, but where's the threat to the Constitution if, in the middle of a disaster, a Navy doctor saves your life?
[...]
The deadliest government mistake was made by Congress. The Army Corps of Engineers had said it wanted $27 million to strengthen the levees protecting New Orleans. Congress said no, though our can't-spend-your-money-fast-enough representatives did appropriate more than that for an indoor rain forest in Iowa.
Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, blamed the president. "The president could have funded it," she said.
Someday, she should read the Constitution. Only Congress can appropriate federal money.
[...]
It's a reason Americans shouldn't filter so much money through Washington. Louisianans don't need Iowa rain forests, and Iowans don't need levees in Louisiana. Maybe the people who want to live in New Orleans should have to pay (through private enterprise or local taxes) the special costs of its exposed location — or live elsewhere. If all local projects, essential and whimsical, were paid for with local taxes, competition among states and cities would force them to become more efficient.
If only W would channel Grover
No, mouth-foamers, I am not referring to the muppet. President Grover Cleveland:
"I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and the duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit...
The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood."
Professional protesters
No, they don't have anything better to do. The Federalist Patriot, 05-38 Digest:
To those in the know, this Saturday is "S24" (i.e., 24 September), when over one thousand leftwing groups will descend on Washington for a "war protest." (Is it just us, or are these self-indulgent Angry Left minions being somewhat overshadowed by events in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast?)
A cameraman filming the first arriving buses caught something he'd missed before: He'd seen many of the protestors at hundreds of previous protests. "They're professional protesters!" he surmised.
Indeed these events are well-scripted productions rather than the spontaneous uprisings, CBS reports. "S24" is being produced by United for Peace and Justice (UPJ) and International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER). ANSWER has close ties to the Marxist Workers World Party, Free Palestine Alliance, U.S.-Mexico Solidarity Foundation, Muslim Student Association of the U.S. and Canada, Code Pink, and, of course, MoveOn.
Other "notables" at the protest include Punks for Peace, Queer to the Left, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and Historians Against the War.
Scholar John J. Tierney declares the nucleus of the protesters is "ideologically very hard-core left;... anti-West, anti-capitalism and anti-American political culture. [They] cover a whole host of revolutionary causes, literally everywhere." Enterprising bus drivers should have turned south, and delivered these senseless mouth-foamers to the Gulf coast. Then again, not knowing how to do anything other than blather utter falsehoods and mindless propaganda, the protesters likely aren't any good for helping with relief efforts.
Someone call the exterminator
"I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious." --Thomas Jefferson
The Standard
"[T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes - rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provides for amendments." -- Alexander Hamilton (letter to James Bayard, April 1802)
Have you forgotten?
Jon asked the question. (It makes me feel old to realize he's talking about high school classes in his remarks.) I was getting ready for work. Kel and I had just changed places in the shower; she was watching the Today show when they went live after the first plane it. While I was shaving, I watched the second plane fly in to the second tower. "A second plane just hit!" I yelled in to the bathroom. "What?!?!?" was the reply from my wife. "The first plane was no accident," I told her. The early speculation after the first plane struck was that it was an accident of some sort. I, and millions of others, knew right then it was no accident. We both finished getting ourselves ready, watching the news the entire time. I was on the road to the office when the first tower fell. Tears were in my eyes, and the thought that kept running through my head was Those poor people... I was at work for around an hour before they sent us home. At the time, my wife was working in the tallest building in downtown Dallas. Building management shut it down; my wife never even made it up to her office to be sent home. We spent the rest of the day in the living room, glued to the news. Yesterday, Jeff said:
On another subject, tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of 9/11. What’s there to say about that? It seems like a lot of Americans would like to forget the events of that day. I don’t really blame them. Denial is a legitimate reaction to trauma. But I think we’d be better served by remembering than forgetting. I think we’d be better off taking the day tomorrow to think about what happened on that Tuesday morning four years ago, to remember the shock and the horror and the grief. Because I think that remembering it will honor the dead and fill us with a terrible resolve that nothing like it shall ever happen again. Likewise, the Toad implores us to never forget. Our pastor touched briefly on this in worship this morning. Our church is involved in several different areas of providing relief services to persons displaced by Katrina. We've adopted 22 families that have been relocated to the Dallas area, among other initiatives. One thing Tim told us was to keep a marathon mindset with regard to this help we were providing. Just as too many people in this nation lost sight of what 9/11 meant for our country, too many people will forget about the hundreds of thousands affected by Katrina in the coming months. We can forget neither. Keep the long view in mind. Pace yourself; the war against the Islamofascists who attacked us on 9/11 will be a marathon, not a sprint. Do not forget.
A unique opportunity in the Big Easy
Brendan Miniter has a piece on OpinionJournal today on the opportunity New Orleans has with rebuilding its educational system, one of the worst in the nation. I can personally testify to how bad things are in some of the schools there; I spent a few days at a single elementary school, troubleshooting some classroom Macintosh-printer set-ups. The school's HVAC system was offline, and had been for weeks. The teachers were mulling along as best they can, keeping the windows cracked so the rooms wouldn't get stuffy, and running fans. You can imagine, however, trying to teach a bunch of third-graders with three or four box fans going at once. Lack of funds was the reason for a less-timely repair of the system. I was there as an independent contactor, called out by the principal, because there was no one on the district's IT staff with any Macintosh knowledge. One aspect of rebuilding the New Orleans public school system that Miniter brings up is something I have long been in favor of: break the back of the teachers' union. The myriad "education" unions in this country have only served to hinder the success of our children in public schools, and that is evident in New Orleans, and most of Louisiana. No, the teachers' union is not the only problem with the school system, but if it is not providing a solution, it's proving a hindrance. As Miniter says, there is a unique opportunity in New Orleans now, and that is to build an educational system from the ground up. The Crescent City has a chance to be a beacon for the rest of the nation. We pray they seize it.
William H. Rehnquist, 1924-2005
A beacon of conservatism and common sense has been dimmed, with the death of Chief Justice Rehnquist tonight. Further words fail me at this time.
Hi, we're from the government and we have nothing better to do
The Tennessee attorney general wants the country singer who made the song "Redneck Woman" a hit to stop "glamorizing" the use of smokeless tobacco at her concerts. Retrophisch Nutshell Version™: + singer is Gretchen Wilson, song in question is "Skoal Ring," the title of which refers to the imprint made in the back pocket of blue jeans from a can of Skoal + Tennessee AG is worried about a tobacco settlement signed by the state and tobacco manufacturers, including the maker of Skoal + Ms. Wilson is not paid by The U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, maker of Skoal + people pay to get in to her concerts, and Ms. Wilson is not on the Skoal payroll, so exactly how is her video moment being construed as an "advertisement"? Conclusion: more Big Brothering and posturing by a politician who should just keep his mouth shut. (For the record, I have a few cousins who engage in the chewing of smokeless tobacco, but like cigarette smoking, I have always found it a disgusting habit and in no way endorse it.)
Don't tread on me
At the time of its writing, many of the Founding Fathers opposed the Bill Of Rights being included in the Constitution because the enumeration of certain rights--which are restrictions on the federal government--might tempt the government to trample on those not spelled out.
The compromise drafted to satisfy the opposition became the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. The Tenth states The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
This meant that whatever was not in the Constitution or amended into it, was in the power of the states to decide. And while this amending was done as required some seventeen times after the Bill Of Rights was ratified, today, changes have simply been declared by the courts, often resulting in the trampling the founders so feared.
Liberal courts aided by their legislative and media counterparts are perverting the Bill of Rights one by one. With the exception of quartering federal troops in private homes, almost all of the first ten amendments have been twisted and deformed, sometimes with the help of "moderate" Republicans.
Time to retool, Je$$e
Like the March of Dimes' victory against polio in the U.S., civil rights organizations can claim victory as well. At one time, black Americans did not enjoy the same constitutional guarantees as other Americans. Now we do. Because the civil rights struggle is over and won doesn't mean that all problems have vanished within the black community. A 70 percent illegitimacy rate, 65 percent of black children raised in female-headed households, high crime rates and fraudulent education are devastating problems, but they're not civil rights problems. Furthermore, their solutions do not lie in civil rights strategies.
Civil rights organizations' expenditure of resources and continued focus on racial discrimination is just as intelligent as it would be for the March of Dimes to continue to expend resources fighting polio in the U.S. Like the March of Dimes, civil rights organizations should revise their agenda and take on the big, non-civil rights problems that make socioeconomic progress impossible for a large segment of the black community. For the record, Dr. Williams is a black American, lest anyone accuse him of racial bias. (Which, no doubt, he'll be accused of anyway.)
We should stay in Iraq — for decades...
So sayeth the editors in this past Friday's Federalist Patriot (link is a PDF): The usual Demo-gogue suspects -- Kennedy, Kerry and company -- are increasing the tenor of their demands that the Bush administration commit to a timetable for withdrawing American troops from Iraq. A few misguided Republicans have even signed on to this legislative folly. Insisting that we cap our military support for the new Iraqi government is a dangerous political ploy intended to help Demos rally their peacenik constituency in the run-up to next year's midterm elections. Dangerous, because challenging the administration to agree to a timetable only emboldens Jihadis, who would very much like to move the frontlines of the Long War from their turf to ours. The Demos know President George Bush will not agree to such a timetable. As the president has said repeatedly, "Our exit strategy is to exit when our mission is complete." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld protests that any such deadline for withdrawal would "throw a lifeline to terrorists." Indeed, but it is always easier to sell anti-war rhetoric like "give peace a chance" than it is to advocate peace through superior firepower, and to use force in defense of critical U.S. national interests.
Still getting it wrong on Social Security
Social Security is not a handout. Workers and employers contribute jointly through payroll taxes. Social Security had become part of the American economic fabric. And the Bush administration should stop treating Social Security as if it were just another government program. What exactly is Social Security, Ms. Thomas, if not a handout? That's exactly what it is. There are no "accounts". There is no "lockbox". The monies for Social Security go in to and come out of the general fund. The government robs Peter to pay Paul. It's a handout. Employers contribute nothing to Social Security. Just ask the millions of self-employed businesspeople in this country, who have to pay the full load. The "half" of Social Security employers "pay" is simply monies never seen by the employee. That's one reason why more people aren't up in arms over Social Security reform. They don't understand how much of their money is going to this increasingly wasteful handout, because they never see that money in the first place. And even if that money was going to the employee, it would be going to some person, either the business owner or shareholders. Businesses never pay taxes. People do. Finally, Social Security is "just another government program." Like many such programs, it had its time, when it was needed, but that time is past. There are so many options out there for investors to save money through, that will offer greater returns than Social Security ever will. (Not to mention that with the increasing reduction in benefits people have seen over the decades, it's not very secure, is it?) Some pols need to have the guts to grandfather Social Security and kill it. It's the only reasonable and sane thing to do so our great-grandchildren aren't having to deal with it.
Still wanting it both ways
Meanwhile, Democrat leaders want to have it both ways. Some say we should withdraw from Iraq. Others demand that we add many more troops, while simultaneously complaining about the enormity of the federal deficit (despite the recent good news on this front, by the way).
Democrats condemn the president for "nation building" and intermeddling, yet insist we micromanage the Iraqi constitutional drafting process to ensure American-type civil rights for women (which, of course, is laudable). Along with the press they shamelessly prop up and exploit a grieving mother to serve as a sympathetic vehicle to carry their inane conspiratorial charges against the president with total disregard for how that demoralizes our troops and undermines our cause.
Responsibilities of the states vs the federal government
"[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore...never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market." --Thomas Jefferson The term you're looking for here is "rolling over in his grave."
Debunking the "chickenhawk" argument
Ben Shapiro takes aim at the anti-war mouth-foamers on the left.
Multiculturalism is still a bad idea
Tolerating intolerance, goodhearted people are beginning to see, does not necessarily produce tolerance in turn.
[...]
Multiculturalism is based on the lie that all cultures are morally equal. In practice, that soon degenerates to: All cultures are morally equal, except ours, which is worse. But all cultures are not equal in respecting representative government, guaranteed liberties and the rule of law. And those things arose not simultaneously and in all cultures, but in certain specific times and places -- mostly in Britain and America, but also in various parts of Europe.
In America, as in Britain, multiculturalism has become the fashion in large swathes of our society. So the Founding Fathers are presented only as slaveholders, World War II is limited to the internment of Japanese-Americans and the bombing of Hiroshima. Slavery is identified with America, though it has existed in every society and the antislavery movement arose first among English-speaking evangelical Christians.
But most Americans know there is something special about our cultural heritage. While Harvard and Brown are replacing scholars of the founding period with those studying other things, book-buyers are snapping up first-rate histories of the Founders by David McCullough, Joseph Ellis and Ron Chernow.
Mutilculturalist intellectuals do not think our kind of society is worth defending. But millions here and increasing numbers in Britain and other countries know better.
Fixing the tax code
I will admit to a slight bias in favor of the flat tax, as proposed by Steve Forbes, though I haven't yet read his new book. In the above-linked column, Forbes makes compelling arguments on why a flat tax would be be a better overhaul versus the national sales tax proposed by Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder. I recently bought the latters' book, and will start it soon. I'll have to get a copy of Flat Tax Revolution for a thorough comparison, because at any rate, something has to be done to fix our tax code mess.