Category: What He Said

The Mesopotamian

Today was a tremendous moment of our history, a turning point and a real milestone. Say what you like; things are not perfect; there are countless problems; the �insurgency� is not going to disappear; the reconstruction effort is in shambles; there is corruption and thieving everywhere; errors and mistakes in everything. Yet despite all that, the political process is proceeding like a dream and the tree of freedom is taking roots, and that tree will continue to grow and grow and grow. The Iraqis are again confounding all the “pundits” and “experts”. But some just cannot understand the true soul of a people. That this most profound revolution initiated by an act of liberation, by the daring praxis of the Americans, driven by some mysterious hand of the Providence, has touched the innermost womb of a nation, and that the present agonies of this nation are those of giving birth and new life. Oh no, that they cannot understand. Well then, let them witness surprise after nasty surprise that will confound their logic and demolish their arguments. But the word mongers will always find something to say, as wild dogs are always wont to bark all the more hysterically as they are irked.

Alaa

In A Nutshell

Jeff Goldstein;

An obvious problem with the grievance aspect of identity politics is that the grievance needs to be perpetually maintained in order to justify the identity aspect of the politics. And in an era of academic specialization wherein just about every individual identity groups has its own set of researchers and theoretical champions�as well as a widely accepted generic narrative of grievance�the observation that continued relevance (which translates into political power) is contingent upon the nursing and care of the grievance is something that too often goes unexamined by a society that, at base, really does wish to understand and fix the problems and frustrations expressed by individual identity groups.

The Wildebeest

For my readers of the self-described “left of center” sect – this is an important piece for you to read. I offer it with the best of intentions.

During the Cold War, one could always suspect that democratic socialists lusted in their hearts for Leninism, and might have given themselves over had the balance of power shifted eastward. This was at least a plausible explanation for their opposition to virtually any measure of Western defense, and their perpetual horror of anti-Communism. But no force, it would seem, should be capable of transforming even a lifetime of socialist ardor into sympathy for absolutist mullahs, 10th-century tribal warriors, decapitators, and circumcisors of women.
It would make no sense. And yet as the immense plumes of smoke and dust still were rising in strength from the ruins of the World Trade Center, and not a single shot had been fired or a single soldier sacrificed in what was to become the War on Terrorism, the worldwide Left mobilized instantaneously to assert that such a war�the particulars and extent of which it could not know�would be unjust.
It is true that since then many opponents and proponents of the war, despite being not even decimally aware of pertinent facts or relations, have managed to enlarge their unexamined notions into either complex and disconnected conspiracy theories involving oil, or manic crusader-atavistic visions of remaking the Arab and Muslim worlds, and that the dust from these ignorant armies as they debate with the finesse of English football hooligans rises into a plume of its own. But, like a mammoth perfectly preserved in ice and uncomplicated by subsequent infections, the Left’s purely reflexive impulses immediately following September 11 are worthy of attention.
[…]
It was as if the thousands of crushed and incinerated men, women, and children�those who threw themselves into a quarter-mile abyss rather than have the flesh seared off their bones as they stood in the wind at glassless walls, the small children who died in terror after watching hysterical fanatics slit the throats of screaming stewardesses, and so on, for there are almost three thousand stories�simply did not exist. How does one explain such an egregious absence of sympathy (much less assertions that “they” deserved it, or that it was a work of art) among endlessly self-proclaiming empathetics whose stock in trade is to milk compassion even from the Rock of Gibraltar? This is a real rather than a rhetorical question, because it is significant of a great division.

This is not an invitation to debate the premise – it’s an opportunity for you to see yourselves as we do – and to understand why we fight tooth and nail to resist your ideology.

Willis And Yon

COSBY: Getting stories out of Iraq is not easy. Bruce Willis found
that out firsthand when he went over to visit U.S. troops serving in Armed
Forces.
Tonight, we are rejoined by an independent blogger who is bringing
back some amazing pictures and stories from Iraq, Michael Yon. And also
again with us is actor Bruce Willis, who is back with us on the phone. It’s great to have both of you here. You know, Bruce, I want to start
with you. Last night, we talked a little bit about what’s happening over
in Iraq. You said the media isn’t covering the full story. What are we missing?
BRUCE WILLIS, ACTOR: I am baffled to understand why the things that I
saw happening in Iraq, really good things happening in Iraq, are not being
reported on.
Michael has been over there, was embedded with the members of the
Deuce Four, you know, the battalion that actually won the battle for Mosul,
that — Michael, correct me if I’m wrong — these are the guys who allowed
the election to take place, the election that happened just, you know, a
couple months ago, to take place, which is, you know, just a monumental
thing. And it’s not being reported on.
COSBY: You know, Bruce, you know, let’s face it. A lot of
celebrities have not been over there. A lot of folks in Hollywood have
been very critical of what’s happening in the war. Do you think, if a lot
of your colleagues in Hollywood went over there, saw it for themselves,
they’d have a different opinion?
WILLIS: I absolutely think that. I think we live in a global world. And I think that — I think America is just too isolationist. And a lot of big choices are being made. You know, to say this is not our fight, when this is the same fight that this country fought 60 years ago and the entire world fought 60 years ago, for the same kind of terrorism, the same kind of thing.
This is not a new war. This is not a new kind of fighting. This is the same fight. And it’s back. And it’s time for it to stop.
COSBY: You know, we’ve seen some of these amazing pictures that we’re
showing here. You know, Michael, there’s a photo I want to show of a soldier and a baby girl, in particular. Here it is. Why is this photo so meaningful, Michael?
MICHAEL YON, EMBEDDED BLOGGER: Well, I shot that photo on a day when a suicide or homicide car bomber ran into one of our Stryker vehicles,
injured a couple of our soldiers, and, unfortunately, there were a lot of
children who had crowded around to wave at our people.
And the attackers had every opportunity to just wait a couple of
blocks and attack our guys later, without the children being around, but
instead chose to attack straight through the children.
And Major Bieger, who is in the photo, found the little girl — her
name is Farah — and decided he wanted to get her to the hospital as
quickly as possible. And so he picked her up, wrapped her in a blanket, and loaded her into one of our vehicles and started to take her to the hospital as fast as possible. And unfortunately, little Farah died en route.
We went back to that neighborhood the next day, and the people there
actually welcomed us with open arms. They welcomed us into their homes.
We got into a firefight there again the next day. And the people in
that part of the city began to give us more and more information about the
terrorists until it got to the point where — it’s very dangerous to be a terrorist now in Mosul, because…
COSBY: You know, it’s incredible to hear these stories, Michael. I
mean, it’s amazing what you went through firsthand.
And, you know, Bruce, you know, as you’re hearing these stories from
Michael, I understand why your jaw just dropped when you saw these
pictures. Are you thinking, maybe at some point, you know, playing a role with the Deuce Four? Is that something maybe you’d consider?
WILLIS: We are talking about that right now. But it’s not really
about the film. It’s about these guys. It’s about these guys who do what they are asked to do for very little money to defend and fight for what they consider to be freedom. And it’s not just for this country. It’s for the world. It is time for terrorism to stop. And the United States is the country that can stop it. And that’s what they’re doing over there.
And there is — I have no idea why this country is not getting the
information that Michael Yon has, you know, access to, is, you know,
showing people. It’s just not getting out, and it’s baffling.
COSBY: You know, Bruce, in 2003, you admirably offered $1 million for
the capture of Saddam. I have to ask you, because just last night we had
on our show so many of those pictures, those horrific pictures of what
happened in Jordan.
And right now, we’ve got three thorns in our side. We’ve got
Zawahiri, of course, who is Osama bin Laden`s right-hand guy. You’ve got
Osama bin Laden himself. And then you’ve got al-Zarqawi, the Iraqi who
everyone believes is behind the mastermind of the attack, just those horrible
attacks on three hotels just last night.
Are you prepared even right now to maybe offer $1 million for one of
them?
WILLIS: Well, that was a conversation I was having with members of
the military. I’ve since been told that military men and women cannot
accept any reward for the job that they’re doing. It was more about my passion for trying to stop Saddam Hussein.
COSBY: Would you offer that if somebody else, let’s say a civilian,
is willing to turn one of them in and finally put this to an end?
WILLIS: Yes, I would. Yes, I would.
I want to live in a world, and so do the Iraqi people want to live in
a world, where they can move from their homes to the market and not have to fear being killed. And, I mean, doesn’t everybody want that? Who doesn’t want that?
COSBY: You bet. And, Michael, I’m going to give you just a few seconds. What are you most proud of? I mean, your pictures just really show the heart and soul there.
YON: I’d actually like to say something about Bruce Willis. He’s one
of the men who has had the courageous to stand behind the troops. And the troops absolutely respect and love Bruce Willis. He came out to the Deuce Four redeployment ball in Seattle. And I wonder if he realizes just how much they appreciated that. And it’s just so good to see a man of his stature throwing his entire weight behind our people who are in harm’s way.
COSBY: It’s terrific.
WILLIS: Thank you so much, Michael.
COSBY: And hats off to both of you guys, not just Bruce. And, Bruce,
thank you so much for being with us. And, Michael, keep up the great work you’re doing. Those pictures are amazing. And please come back, both of you, anytime. Thank you.

Michael Yon’s blog is here
Via the Corner.

Love, ‘Ludes and Levesque

Skippy, at Enjoy Every Sandwich, on how he came to admire Rene Levesque;

As much as most Canadians will piss, moan and call me a traitor, they cannot argue that history isn’t on my side. Since I’ve graduated from high school, a number of artificial countries, notably Yugoslavia, Czechleslovakia, and – sooner rather than later, Iraq – have fractured beyond repair. These nations did not dissolve because of external pressures, but rather because of internal ones. I defy any Canadian to name one national idea that binds Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario and Alberta together that isn’t merely “we’re not Americans.” And I’m not sure that you can sustain a nation on the premise that it is not the home of the Oak Ridge Boys.

(I should caution readers that Skippy hasn’t had sex for 214 days, and appears somewhat “edgy” as a result.)

I shouldn’ t speak ill of the recently dead, particularly when they’ve been dead for less than a week, but since I’m going to hell anyways, I may as well. Corinne Cote-Levesque must have been a colossal pain in the ass! Maybe she wasn’t on the Nicole Simpson scale of annoyance, but it must have been pretty bad for Rene.
Again, I refer back to Courtney Love. Sure, she’s a handful. But when her depressive, substance-abusing husband Kurt Cobain, had his fill of her, he did the sensible thing and blew his head off in the greenhouse above the garage. You can’t seriously be suggesting to me that the Premier of Quebec didn’t have a greenhouse above his garage, can you?

Heh. (language warning)

Ticket To Paradise

Davids Medienkritik has seen the German language film Paradise Now;

Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of the numerous Germans who collaborated in its production (the film is distributed by Constantin Film/Munich). He would have praised in glowing terms the fact that the German taxpayer ponied up an essential contribution to the production costs. The materials for discussion of the film in German schools authored by a federal authority from the Central Office for Political Education (BPB) would have met with his grinning approval.
Our first posting dealt with the plot. In summary, young Palestinian men gratefully accept a command from a Palestinian terror group (my interpretation, not the film�s) to assassinate Israelis in Tel Aviv. After a few false starts one of the men carries out the assassination � a suicide attack in a bus.
The film�s action, especially the dialogs and discussions between the main characters, portrays the conflict between two positions. First position:

  • The Israelis are criminal occupiers who oppress the Palestinians. They must be combated with assassination and force.
    Second position:

  • The Israelis are criminal occupiers who oppress the Palestinians. They must be combated with peace activists� non-violent demonstrations.
    The film leaves open which of the two positions is the right one. The only thing certain in the film is the guilt and malice of the Israelis, the �occupiers�. It�s not worth going into detail about the film�s striking polemics against the Israelis. No attempt is undertaken anywhere in the film to explain the Israelis� position. Almost all of the Israelis appear in the film as soldiers – intimidating, menacing, anonymous, occasionally with sadistic impulses.

  • How did the “human rights” watchdog, Amnesty International, respond to the film? With an award and a 25,000 Euros in prize money for the director.
    I’m sure the CBC can hardly wait to get their hands on it.

    Behind The Scenes: Harriet Miers

    Via private email from a reader who asked to remain anonymous;

    Well, how about a viewpoint from Dallas on Harriet Miers. I did not know who she was and I would not have recognized her name until Monday. However I spoke to several lawyers and a legal secretary yesterday who have known her for years. These are all smart people and their take on the nomination was interesting.
    The first lawyer I spoke to has practiced here in Dallas since 1966 and he is a litigator with a lot of experience at the state and federal level. He worked with Miers with the Dallas bar association and his response was surprise since he said he would never have considered her. After about a 20 min. discussion about her strengths and weaknesses and lack of litigation and judicial experience he said that she is a brilliant choice for Bush to make.
    He is not a staunch conservative but rather a middle of the road person and I have no idea who he voted for in the last election so I thought his remarks were interesting. He watched her take on the ABA in the early 90’s about their endorsement of abortion and he watched her run a major law firm here in Dallas while he was one of the senior partners in another firm. He has always been impressed with her intellect and ability to work well in what was a male dominated profession.
    Another person I spoke to was a legal secretary who worked with Harriet Miers [….]] This friend was also puzzled by the choice and after discussing at length her knowledge of various stages of Miers professional life, she also said that while the nomination was a surprise Harriet Miers will be a great legal pro constitution member of the Supreme Court. Other people I spoke with seemed to view things in the same vein and everyone mentioned that Roberts was obvious and Miers is a surprise.
    I also know people who go to the church where she has been active and Ithink it will be interesting to see her attacked for here strong Christian views that would have been taken for granted 30 or 40 years ago. One thing I hear is that Miers is careful with her words, she never talks bad about other people and she is a total tiger when she enters a legal situation, now can she portray that before the Senate committee?
    My wife and I were talking about the fact that Bush as governor of Texas picked his battles carefully and usually had all of the trump cards lined up before he laid his hand on the table. This avoided a lot of public battles and enabled the two parties to come to agreement without public fights that were common before and after his tenure. When all of the dust settles on
    this nomination he might have accomplished the same thing again and maybe he’s not just a stupid, oil loving, cowboy.

    But it’s still theft…

    Found on Warren Kinsella’s site this afternoon:

    If any of you pay to subscribe to the new online Frank magazine, I can advise that a few public-minded citizens will shortly publicize email addresses where folks can send the entire contents of every new Frank issue. Someone will then, um, ensure they get posted somewhere safe – in The Grand Caymans, perhaps – and you can read it all for free!! Forget this $120 a year stuff!

    Hell, it’s what we all did in magazine stores, anyway, back when it was printed on paper. Why pay?

    Yipes. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like Mr. Kinsella is encouraging people to break the law (copyright law in this case). I have to say that I find this somewhat objectionable, speaking as someone who regularly relies on the protection of copyright law to profit from my photography.

    I wonder how Mr. Kinsella would feel if the people at Frank Magazine retaliated by uploading copies of the songs from his SFH CDs, which he sells for $$$, to P2P networks where people could obtain them without paying for them? I’m guessing he wouldn’t like it.

    Not all registries are bad…

    We all know that Canada’s gun registry is a Tool of the Devil™. However, I’d be thrilled to see Canada adopting a national Do Not Call registry simliar to the one they have down south. There used to be a time when I enjoyed tormenting telemarketers on the phone, but my options (and vocabulary) have been greatly reduced now that I have a wife and child within earshot.

    I’d also love to have a national Do Not Proseletyze registry that would keep those bloody Pentecosts and JWs off my doorstep (my wife chased off the first two JWs from our new home today). I could go for a No Chocolate Covered Almonds registry as well since I’m trying to lose weight and school fundraisers really louse that up. Finally, a Do Not Campaign registry would be a godsend come election time.

    Of course, none of these will come to pass. Even if they did, they wouldn’t be implemented properly (like our gun registry that can’t tell the difference between a Ruger handgun and a Ruger shotgun). It would just be another opportunity for the Liberals to grease up their buddies in Quebec, and elsewhere, without actually managing to accomplish anything.

    Still, I can dream, can’t I?

    Raskolnikov

    In an anonymous corner of the Canadian blogosphere, there’s someone out there who should be drawing the big bucks in syndication. Not only is he a better writer than half of the bloated pontificators in residence at MacLeans, the Star, and Globe, he actually has something important to say.
    Go read Gramma’s House.
    Wells, Levant, Zerb – see what you can do. Get this guy a gig.

    Post Katrina Postcard

    From reader Joe McElyea in Texas;

    My wife Mary and I own a store here in Dallas and we have part time help on sale days like today. This morning I was talking to one of our friends who helps us out, Janis works full time as an assistant to the main pastor of a large church here and we were comparing notes about how our churches were helping the thousands of relief people here in Dallas.
    Her comment was astounding, unless you had connections there were so many churches and people turning out to help that church efforts were turned away and they were instructed to please give cash and specific items to meet specific needs. It seems as if every church including our Methodist church is sponsoring a family in a home, we have an extra parsonage. In Janis’ church there is a man who is coordinating with apartment complexes and they are putting people in apartments for up to 18 months rent free. And yesterday one of my sales reps. was telling me about her church furnishing two houses completely for families, this is going on all over North Texas and our clergy is telling us that this will be a long term commitment, not just a quick fix.
    It appears that our own poor people might also benefit from this outpouring since food banks have never been so full and clothing drives have filled up available spaces for storage, we know that the needs will never go away but a lot of effort and love have come forth to help at this time.
    However I just spoke to a customer who is an attorney, one of his friends has just been appointed as a federal judge in New Orleans and he along with other attorneys are telling us that a major concern is the power structure in Louisiana, mostly it is old time democrats and their friends and buddies are lining up to see how much they can reap off of the rebuilding. I also have a friend who is a social security judge who spent several years in Louisiana and she told me almost verbatim the same thing. Kind of ironic isn’t it?
    So, here we are watching the poor people who have been displaced get a hand up, most of them are totally appreciative and it will be interesting to see how they assimilate into our North Texas culture where we have a dynamic black, middle and upper socioeconomic class of people. I am so tired of the media picking out evacuees who are misspending their money, it is their money since they were given the money, and then media guys search to find the unhappy cranky people to put their voices on the air.
    The majority of these fine people are thankful, prayerful and moving on the best they can while we stand in line and work our connections to help them.

    Katrina’s Impact On The Drug Trade?

    Over at the Shotgun a comment by “Greg From Dallas” merits attention, I think.

    Something that has not been addressed is how much of the shooting in New Orleans was simply your usual garden variety psychopath and how much of it was drug shipment warehouses being protected.
    As one of the largest seaports in the world, only a small percentage of cargo shipments are thoroughly checked out. Lots of illegal narcotics flow in through the ports. Organized crime exerts a lot of infuence in the Port of Louisiana as well as at other ports around the world. (There are those who say that organized crime has no influence in Canadian ports, but I’m not buying it.)
    So when Katrina hit, the natural order of things was disrupted. Drug distribution couldn’t take place and flow through normal channels. As a consequence, I imagine some people in charge gave explicit orders to protect shipments in their covert warehouses. (You have to wonder why street thugs would be trying to shoot down a helicopter.)
    One of the things we can tell from this is that a) a lot of junkies are not getting their fix, so we should have a rise in burglaries and street crime; b) various kinds of dope are going to become expensive because when the supply is diminished, users are going to have to pay a premium to get their narcotics.
    The upshot is that professional criminals took a bath. The street price of narcotics is going to be inflated for a while. A lot of junkies are not going to be able to get their dope. And probably there’ll be an escalation in various kinds of street crime for habituated drug users to get the price of their drugs.

    A Crazy Texas Guy

    This was passed along by a reader, from a friend who we shall call “Woody”, and who told me to edit it where I saw fit. It didn’t need any.

    Woody was on the road traveling last Thursday when he saw the plight of people in New Orleans, he is a real red neck Texas guy who played football for a small college about 30 years ago. He is prone to get into arguments over next to nothing, he will argue enough so that stores have to call security guards and his wife knows how to talk him out of trouble with cops when he mouths off.
    Woody is rather passionate about life, his daughter is engaged to a nice black man and was best friends with her fianc�s sister who had a baby last month. The mom started running a high fever a few weeks ago, went to the hospital and she was sent home with two aspirins and then she developed more complications which ended up with her being in the hospital last week on life support. Woody was rather upset about this, his daughter was taking care of the beautiful new baby and last Friday he decided he could not sit still any more.
    He borrowed his wife’s SUV, he took off on the road with a lot very large coolers, he does big cookouts at times, and two large tables on the top of the SUV. He purchased hundreds of pounds of lunch meat, large containers of sandwich spread and loaves of bread. Then he filled the coolers with hundreds of bottles of water. Friday night Woody checked into a hotel part way to Louisiana and set up an assembly line to make sandwiches, he spent nine hours building sandwiches and developed a good case of sandwich elbow. He had every thing cooled down and Saturday afternoon he was on the highway in Louisiana mixing in with large relief convoys of Tahoe’s, Expeditions and Suburbans flying down the road over eighty miles per hour. They passed a number of military convoys loaded with all sorts of heavy equipment, he said that the road of full of workers and soldiers heading towards New Orleans.
    Woody made it through the first road block tucked into a group of government vehicles as he was just waved right on by. The second road block of Highway patrolmen stopped him and saw he was loaded with coolers and he told them he was with the group and he was passed through. At the third road block just out of New Orleans he was stopped and asked for an identification badge, he tried to bluff by searching around his SUV, the Patrolman than ask him again who he really was and his reply was “I am just a crazy guy from Texas with a truck load of sandwiches and water and offered him a sandwich. The patrolman looked at him like he was crazy and then he told him to pull out and drive on down the street. There he was stopped again at a gathering of large number of highway patrol cars and patrolmen.
    When Woody told them what he was doing, they asked around and one of the men in charge told him that there was a bus breakdown at a church a few blocks away and that they could use some food. He drove up to the church which had been made out of a converted Wal-Mart and there were three buses in the parking lot. A large man came out and ask him what he was doing and Woody told him that he had over a thousand sandwiches and bottles of water and the reply from this man was “Thank you.”
    The two of them unloaded the food and water which made the coolers so heavy they could hardy lift them. They then began to pass the food out and he was told that these were the last three buses out of the superdome. They were filled with tired and hungry old people, women and children who was eager to have food and a cool drink of water. Woody apologized for having to use heel of bread on some of the sandwiches but he ended up with more meat than bread and he wanted to use it all up. The people did not seem to care.
    At the bottom of some of the coolers a few sandwiches had gotten wet and one of the women was about the throw them away since every one had been feed, Woody asked her if there were any animals around and she remembered that there was an old gentleman living in a car in the parking lot with a dog. They then feed the hungry skinny dog and the owner was grateful.
    As Woody was packing up the man who helped him thanked him and was shaking his hand. Woody then told him that he needed something and those around waited to hear what he wanted. He said that prayer was needed for the woman in the hospital back in Dallas who had the little baby. He said they both hugged and cried in the parking lot and then he was told that Sunday morning there would be over 400 prayers for the young mother.
    Woody was the only white person among all of the folks taking care of the bus loads and in the bus loads of people, one friend had warned him before he went down that they might see him on TV being the victim of violence, and what he found was warmth and friendship and very tired worn out hungry people. This crazy red neck Texan said that there never was any thing but kindness and appreciation that night.
    Woody hit the road and headed back to Texas and he found out the mother did not make it. She died and her family expressed gratitude for new baby in their lives and for the time they had with the mother before she went to heaven. Some how this crazy trip seemed to help Woody get some balance for all of the things that can happen and a bit of peace.

    Rise To The Occasion

    A couple of days ago, I wrote that “In former times entire nations found the strength to rise to the occasion, ordinary people understood that survival depended on their shared common decency and respect for their fellow citizen.”
    When I wrote that, I could not help but think of the starving people of Holland, welcoming their liberators after five years of German occupation.

    This year the Dutch flooded the streets yet again, with their grandchildren and great-granchildren beside them, to applaud a few old soldiers for what is likely to be the final time, 60 years after the fact.
    I wonder if, in the year 2065, the people of New Orleans will turn out in the thousands to celebrate the return of those who came for them or their grandparents, to bring fresh water and food, to drive back the criminals, to help them to safety?
    I wonder if there will be a monument erected in a reborn City of New Orleans to the good people of Texas who took them in on moment’s notice, and by the thousands…
    For those of you who checked in this morning expecting to read the first of several items, as is the usual custom here – you’re not getting that today. Instead, I have a single link for you. It’s long, but unlike most long essays, there is not a word wasted.
    In it there are scenes of sheep, wolves and sheepdogs, wet shoes, shades of pink and grey, and the mayor of New York City running towards a burning building.
    Tribes.
    I’ll be back tomorrow.

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