A View From The Belmont Club

Wretchard, escounced in his leather chair, gives us an analysis of developments in Lebanon. He moves from there to the world at large. His conclusion:

If this analysis is correct, the world crisis should accelerate rather than diminish in the coming years and months, not in the least because the United States seems to have no plan to fill the power vacuum with anything. The promotion of democracy is at heart an act of faith in the self-organizing ability of nations; it means getting rid of one dictator without necessarily having another waiting in the wings. It is so counterintuitive to disciples of realpolitik as to resemble madness. Or put more cynically, the promotion of democracy is a gamble only a country with a missile defense system, control of space, homeland defense and a global reach can afford to take. If you have your six-gun drawn, you can overturn the poker table. In retrospect, the real mistake the September 11 planners made to underestimate how radical the US could be. This does not necessarily mean America will win the hand; but it does indicate how high it is willing to raise the stakes.

He references several Lebanon-watcher websites, which will be worth investigating. This man has too much time on his hands, for which I am very thankful.

Meaning: R.I.P.

Dawn Eden reports to us on the death of meaning in language in this obituary by Pulitzer prize-winner Paul Greenberg. We still have vocabulary and grammar, so we will still have sound and fury - signifying nothing. What is a "blighted ovum"?

Canary In The Coal Mine Alert 3/30/05

The Bird is a bit wobbly on its perch with this report from Chrenkoff. And while we're at it, how about Paul Krugman's re-writing of "The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion". Just substitute "Religious Right" for "Jews". Next time you read a screed against "The Religious Right", try substituting "Jew" in the text and see if you are still as comfortable with it. Your response may well be "except it's true about the Religious Right". I think that would put you firmly on the side of the Dutch discussed above.

Two Perspectives On French Compassion

?No Pasaran! gives two very different looks at French ( and EU in general) "compassion". The relevant comments are made in passing in the following articles:

• Don't Forget Your Soap On A Rope. This is a report on large scale corruption in the French government. It is significant that the coverage of this scandal is from a German newspaper. Le Monde was too busy complaining that George Bush is a freaking Jesus Freak. The last line puts the scandal into perspective by comparing it to French "Compassion".
• From A Hard Past Comes Compassion. Why Albania does what the French and Germans won't do.
  

Gun Control: The Great White Hope

Those among us who have pinned their hopes for domestic tranquility on the destruction of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, should take note of this news story:

NACO, Ariz. -- Members of a violent Central America-based gang have been sent to Arizona to target Minuteman Project volunteers, who will begin a monthlong border vigil this weekend to find and report foreigner sneaking into the United States, project officials say.

James Gilchrist, a Vietnam veteran who helped organize the vigil to protest the federal government's failure to control illegal immigration, said he has been told that California and Texas leaders of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, have issued orders to teach "a lesson" to the Minuteman volunteers.

......

The MS-13 gang has established major smuggling operations in several areas along the U.S.-Mexico border and have transported hundreds of Central and South Americans -- including gang members -- into the United States in the past two years. The gang also is involved in drug and weapons smuggling. (emphasis added)

Gang members in America have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortion, rapes and aggravated assaults. Authorities said that the gang has earned a reputation from the other street gangs as being particularly ruthless and that it will retaliate violently when challenged.

No doubt these individuals will stop their criminal ways if I am not allowed to own a firearm. This certainly has proved to be the case in Australia and the United Kingdom. (Hat tip to Drink This....)

Myth And Meaning

Wretchard holds forth from The Belmont Club on myth and meaning in the Terri Schiavo case. Find his analysis here, here, and here.

Help Needed For Red Lake Families

Update: This fund is closed.

If you are looking for a means of helping the friends and families of those murdered on the Red Lake Reservation in northwestern Minnesota, please consider making a donation to Bethlehem Baptist Church for the Red Lake Emergency Fund. This fund was established to help with travel expenses from Little Earth housing development in Minneapolis to the funerals on the Red Lake Reservation. Please make your checks payable to Bethlehem Baptist and specify "Red Lake Emergency Fund" on the memo line. Send them to:

Attn: Benjamin Piper

Bethlehem Baptist Church

720 13th Ave South

Minneapolis MN 55415

612.338.7653 ext 451

Email

UPDATE: This fund will be closed on or about 3/31/05 as it is tied to this specific need.

Run Away! Run Away!

Barcepundit gives us another Zapatero "Profile In Courage".

Looking For A Contrary View Of Schiavo Case?

If you are looking for a view contrary to the one espoused on this website, you could begin your search here.

Schiavo Appeal Lost

Captain's Quarters updates the latest court decision and the interesting testimony of Terri's former nurse, Carla Sauer Iyer.

Guardian Ad Litem Report

Here is the guardian ad litem report (PDF format) given to Governor Jeb Bush as prepared by Dr. Jay Wolfson. It is generally considered to not be supportive of the Schindler family case.

Just In Case You Missed It

Birthday News Here!

Judge Refuses To Reinstate Food And Water

Captain Ed updates federal judge ruling here.

More Respect For PM John Howard

Australian Prime Minister John Howard gave Gerry Adams, of Sinn Fein and IRA fame, the cold shoulder beginning in 1999. He was considered to be "small-minded" by the Australian Illuminati. Such is the price of prescience. Andrew Bolt has the story here.

(hat tip to Tim Blair)

The Death of the IRA

Support for the IRA and Sinn Fein is at an all time low in America. Slugger O'Toole directs us to this editorial, which includes a history of the IRA. Perhaps we will see a return to the rule of law in Northern Ireland.

The Nature of PVS

Dawn Eden quotes Dory of Wittenberg Gate:

I heard Shep Smith on Fox News say several times this afternoon that no one has ever emerged from a persistent vegetative state. There's a good reason for that. When someone shows signs of consciousness, it is not assumed that they have emerged from PVS, it is assumed they were originally misdiagnosed.

A study cited in the above article found a 43% rate of misdiagnosis among PVS cases. There is a good discussion of the semantics of the language surrounding PVS.

There is much reason to suspect the diagnosis and the level of ongoing care in Terri Schiavo's case, as noted here and here. One must ask why Mr. Schiavo is so unwilling to revisit the diagnosis using tests which would be considered routine in cases where principle actors are not working so hard to insure the death of the subject of that diagnosis.

(Terri's Fight (hat tip Captain's Quarters) and BlogsforTerri (hat tip Wittenberg Gate) for more information.)

A Subpoena Is A Powerful Thing

Captain Ed updates the Terri Schiavo case here. The adequacy of Ms. Schiavo's medical care is questioned here.

It's A Question Of Priorities

Four Royal Canadian Mounted Police are gunned down and Maclean's of Canada asks:

Is Pot Really to Blame?

Conservative Life - Canada has commentary here.

(NB: The Blogging Tories Website is functioning again.)

Vigilance Is The Price of Liberty

Barcepundit updates us on the ongoing fight against Islamo-Fascist terrorism in Spain. One might suggest this is further proof that appeasement doesn't work and that Socialist governments end up dealing with the problem in the same way as the much hated Great Satan. This is also a reminder for Americans of the long term nature of the war with these terrorists.

The IRA is Not Alone

Here (and here) are a couple of reminders that the IRA is not the only criminal problem in Northern Ireland. (Hat tip to Brainster (and here) and Slugger O'Toole.)

The End Of The IRA?

Slugger O'Toole scores the round against the IRA based on this article in the LA Times. Too many hits below the belt have drawn the following penalty:

The Irish Republican Army, long the law in Short Strand, is finding itself under attack not only by its longtime nemeses, the Protestant Ulster unionists and the British government, but by working-class Catholic families. They say the organization has become a criminal gang, killing and robbing without regard to common decency.

Sinn Fein is feeling a bit exposed as it stands with its boxing trunks around its knees and finds the audience less than impressed with what it sees. One of the results of this, as Tim Blair directs us to an article by Mark Steyn, is Gerry Adams won't be in the White House on St. Patrick's Day. Mr. Steyn tells us who Mr. Adams is and then recounts the story of Robert McCartney:

Adams is usually billed as the "President of Sinn Fein," which in turn is usually billed as the "political wing" of the IRA. This artful form of words is supposed to suggest some kind of distinction between "President" Adams and the murkier fellows who do all the bombing and killing and knee-capping. In fact, as the Irish government recently revealed, "President" Adams is a member of the Provisional IRA's ruling "army council" -- i.e., the fellows who order all the bombing and killing and knee-capping.

So instead of one more chorus of "The Wearing of the Green," it's the wearing out of the welcome for Adams at the White House. In his place, President Bush will welcome the fiancee and five sisters of Robert McCartney. McCartney was a Belfast Catholic and a Sinn Fein supporter, but he made the mistake of getting into an argument with a Provisional IRA big shot in a pub in January. The other "Provos" present grabbed McCartney, beat him with iron sewer rods, slit him open from his neck to his navel, severed his jugular and jumped on his head, causing what was left of it to lose an eye. There were 70 witnesses in the bar but none of them saw a thing.

There isn't any evidence that Gerry Adams ordered the killing of Robert McCartney and no one is claiming that, but Steyn summarizes the problem as follows:

There's a lesson there in the reformability of terrorists. The IRA's first instinct is to kill. If you complain about the killing, they offer to kill the killers. If you complain about the manner of the killing, they offer to kill more tastefully -- "compassionate terrorism,'' as it were. But it's like Monty Python's spam sketch: There's no menu item that doesn't involve killing. You can get it in any color as long as it's blood-red.

Even Ted Kennedy, in a sober moment, finds Gerry Adams undesirable as a dinner guest. Perhaps, as Tim Blair suggests, negotiation is not the way to deal with terrorists.

(As an aside: In the Slugger O'Toole post on Ted Kennedy, one finds the following comment by Pat Mc Lamon:

Shouldn't be too hard on the old soak Henry. After all if he hears the story of how Mc Cartney and the robber were left to die in Market St and how no one phoned an ambulance or tried to get help it may bring back memories of one of the character defining moments of his own life.

Some people seem to have not forgotten Senator Kennedy's past.)

JFK Exposes MSM As Tool Of VRWC

P.J. O'Rourke reports to us the nuanced musings of former Democratic drum major, John F. Kerry. JFK lists some of KKKarl Rove's evil minion's who misinformed the public to insure a Bushitler win,

"And when you look at the statistics and understand that about 80 percent of America gets 100 percent of its news from television, and a great deal of that news comes from either MTV, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Jay Leno, David Letterman, you begin to see the size of the challenge."

With CBS clearly and strongly publishing slanted news supporting "W", it is clear that corporate media was working against the Democrats. This is unlike past elections when the MSM was fully informing the public and the Democrats won. JFK's penetrating analysis brings to the surface a new observation of moment("ous" or "ary" - reader's choice) importance:

But there's a subculture and a sub-media that talks and keeps things going for entertainment purposes rather than for the flow of information.

I was forced to watch CNN several times over the weekend and I know exactly what he means. (My apologies to Senator Robert Byrd for using the KKK reference with Karl Rove's name, but that is now all history.)

(Hat tip to Tim Blair.)

The Spanish Enlightenment

Barcepundit note the dawning of new thinking in Spain. The devil (Great Satan) didn't make them do it. The Madrid bombings must not be forgotten.

Other Blogs Covering The McCartney Murder

Here are more sources of information concerning the Robert McCartney Case.

• Brainster's Blog here and elsewhere
• Richard Delevan here (multiple links, including a Technorati search) and elsewhere
• Slugger O'Toole (various posts)
• Captain's Quarters here ( excellent comments) and elsewhere
  

(If you have never tried a Technorati search, check out the one listed above. I have only listed sources from links and visits to my post.)

The Courage of The McCartney Sisters

What happens when the IRA murders Robert McCartney in a Belfast pub? His Irish Catholic sisters holds them to a level of accountability that the legal system is both incapable of and unwilling to do. Tim Blair has been following the story here and here. This editorial (hat tip RealClearPolitics) in the Times of London wraps this story into the broader story concerning Sinn Fein and the IRA. May God bless my Irish relatives.

Welcome Davids Medienkritik

Davids Medienkritik is a source for analysis and commentary on the German media. Today's post is a commentary on the German response to the nomination of undersecretary of state John R. Bolton to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. (Hint: they aren't happy.)

The Wisdom Of Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, shed light on her motivation:

"Colored people are like human weeds and are to be exterminated."

I'm sure she meant that in a "loving" sort of way and really meant to free them from the horrors of unwanted pregnancy when she called for their extermination. Has the "philosophy" of Planned Parenthood changed? No, according to BlackGenocide.Org. Same racism, better marketing.

(Hat tip to Dawn Eden.)

Re: Murdered Coptic Family

Tim Blair published a link to information which clearly contradicts the conclusion of my post Yes, It Can Happen Here regarding the murder of a Coptic Christian family in New Jersey. The murders were committed for one of the oldest of reasons: the love of money. Mea Culpa.

Equal Protection Under The Law

If my blog's advocation of the defeat of Mark Dayton (or any of the other Democratic dwarves that will replace him) and the (likely) endorsement of the eventual Republican candidate, is a "contribution"; what is the endorsement, by the Star Tribune newspaper, of the Democratic candidate (probability approaching absolute certainty) and its advocacy of the defeat of the Republican candidate? Free Speech? Don't I, as a private citizen, deserve (at a minimum) the same speech protections under law as a corporation? TBFKADV points us to a blatant attack on freedom of political speech by Federal Elections Commission. One more absurdity from the McCain-Feingold "campaign finance reforms". But perhaps I shouldn't be so dismissive of the valiant efforts of the Honorable Senators McCain and Feingold, at least it took the money out of political campaigns.

Liberal Larry Ponders:

• The Seamless Garment of Alternatives to Life in:
1. Bush Court Overturns Roe v. Wade ,
2. Michael Schiavo: "If I had a Hammer...."
   
3. and Jeb Bush Forces Woman To Live.
• Bushitler's racial duplicity in John Negroponte Is No Negro.
• and the fundamentalist version of UFO sightings and Sasquatch in Crazy Freak Fetus Resembles Human Baby.
  

Remember: you can always BLAME BUSH!

Two The Best On Big Changes

Mark Steyn begins his article on Middle East democracy with an "I told you so":

Three years ago - April 6 2002, if you want to rummage through the old Spectators in the attic - I wrote: "The stability junkies in the EU, UN and elsewhere have, as usual, missed the point. The Middle East is too stable. So, if you had to pick only one regime to topple, why not Iraq? Once you've got rid of the ruling gang, it's the West's best shot at incubating a reasonably non-insane polity. That's why the unravelling of the Middle East has to start not in the West Bank but in Baghdad."

He ends with:

But some of us - notably US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz - thought things would go a lot better than that. Wolfowitz was right, and so was Bush, and the Left, who were wrong about the Berlin Wall, were wrong again, the only difference being that this time they were joined in the dunce's corner of history by far too many British Tories. No surprise there. The EU's political establishment doesn't trust its own people, so why would they trust anybody else's? Bush trusts the American people, and he's happy to extend the same courtesy to the Iraqi people, the Syrian people, the Iranian people, etc.

Prof Glenn Reynolds, America's Instapundit, observes that "democratisation is a process, not an event". Far too often, it's treated like an event: ship in the monitors, hold the election, get it approved by Jimmy Carter and the UN, and that's it. Doesn't work like that. What's happening in the Middle East is the start of a long-delayed process. Eight million Iraqis did more for the Arab world on January 30 than 7,000 years of Mubarak-pace marching.

There is much in between.

Christopher Hitchens, the one bright light of the Left, asks the question, "When was the last time you heard some glib pundit employing the phrase "The Arab Street"?" In much the same manner that Mark Steyn scolds his Tory brothers, Mr. Hitchens shines a bright light on some of the dimmer members of his fraternity.

In retrospect, it's difficult to decide precisely when this annoying expression began to expire, if only from diminishing returns. There was, first, the complete failure of the said "street" to detonate with rage when coalition forces first crossed the border of Iraq, as had been predicted (and one suspects privately hoped) by so many "experts." But one still continued to hear from commentators who conferred street-level potency on passing "insurgents." (I remember being aggressively assured by an interviewer on Al Franken's quasi-comedic Air America that Muqtada Sadr's "Mahdi Army" in Najaf was just the beginning of a new "Tet Offensive.") Mr. Sadr duly got a couple of seats in the recent Iraqi elections. And it was most obviously those elections that discredited the idea of ventriloquizing the Arab or Muslim populace or of conferring axiomatic authenticity on the loudest or hoarsest voice.

After developing his argument, he hopes for the swift death of an equally malicious term:

The same will hold true, one hopes, for the cheap propagandists who have lately been flourishing the term "Islamophobia." This word, or slogan, has been gaining ground among soft defenders of Islamism in Europe. It is used to put a stop to discussion about the political aims of Islamists in non-Islamic societies, and it has most recently generated great nervousness in Britain - sufficient nervousness to decide the Blair government to introduce legislation to make criticism of Islam into a prohibited hate crime.

One wonders if by "cheap propagandists", he might mean CAIR. I suspect not, but perhaps he should. (For more information, see Anti-CAIR.)

If Not Now, When?

(Hat tip to Hugh Hewitt.)

Hewitt's Lebanon Links

Find information on developments in Lebanon here. (Scroll down to 4:45 post.)