Month: January 2004

EXTRA, EXTRA: Stupid Guy Says Something Stupid!

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But this time the stupid guy* is a NY Times columnist, so it’s blogworthy. Kevin Drum and Josh Marshall, titans of the liberal blogosphere that they are, do a very good job summing up what’s wrong with Brooks’ piece. And Marshall neatly summarizes the problem with, not only Brooks’ op-ed, but a huge proportion of … Read more

Dammit, another Clark post.

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This is my last freakin’ one.

As foretold by the Prophecies of Aberjian,* the Democratic field must reduce to two contenders: the DEAN and the NOT DEAN. These two shall then battle, Thunderdome-style, to the death. Tina Turner will officiate. Thus has it been foretold, thus shall it be.

Now, we know who the DEAN is. (Or at least think we do.) But who shall be the NOT DEAN?

Perhaps we shall soon have our answer. The latest New Hampshire tracking poll shows Clark pulling even with Kerry in New Hampshire. Josh Marshall, reading the tea leaves, prepares the ritual oil to annoint Clark as the NOT DEAN. (Kaus, checking his file, agrees.) Kos, on the other hand, previously reviewed the bones and believes that the Thunderdome-method may be the wrong way to go. He hopes to pull off the difficult task of merging Dean and Clark, Voltron-Style.

As for me, well: Kerry had a recent surge in the nationwide polls, but he’s nearly kaput. Clark’s statements that he won’t be Dean’s running mate seem to foreclose Kos’s hope. And if Gephardt doesn’t win convincingly in Iowa . . . .

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Exquisite in Its Simplicity

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Via Pandagon, from the new Club for Growth ads in Iowa: a farmer says he thinks that “Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading …” before the farmer’s wife then finishes the sentence: “… Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont, where it belongs.” (here’s a link to the … Read more

“One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Freedom Fighter”

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(this is the first of what’s likely to be many posts on my “Terrorism in the 21st Century” class, which I’m taking for three hours a day for most of the month of January.)

The quotation in the headline is:
1) A popular cliche, whose original author or speaker is hard to pin down.

2) An example, for many people, of everything that is wrong with The Left.

3) A gross oversimplification. There are many terrorists who are manifestly not freedom fighters (obvious example: Osama bin Laden). There are also many freedom fighters who are manifestly not terrorists. (obvious examples: Vaclav Havel, Martin Luther King, George Washington.) Ignoring that, and implying that it’s all relative, is a great way to make people you think terrorism is okay and obscure a worthwile point.

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Post Of The Week*

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I don’t agree with everything Ezra Klein says here, not nearly. Nevertheless, I liked it so much that I’m going to break two of my blogging commandments** and tell you to read the whole thing. It’s one of the most original, thought-provoking, and snappiest pieces of writing on the overall U.S. political situation, that I’ve … Read more

Equal Time For Slapdowns.

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I’ve been waiting for Katherine to blog this (she’s the one of our triumvirate who found it first, after all), but I guess that she isn’t and I’m already starting to see grumblings that the Right isn’t jumping on this one en masse, so we might as well get going: Godwinization is Godwinization, folks. Ralph … Read more

You Gotta Believe

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Sad news in the world of sports: Tug McGraw, a relief pitcher for the Mets and Phillies, died yesterday of brain cancer. He was only 59. McGraw was before my time–I started watching in ’86, so I only know him from interviews and one of the Mets history videos I own (yes, I am a … Read more

Terror. Fear. Horror.

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Ed Schultz, proud knight of [insert nonjudgemental noun meaning “less conservative than Moe” here]ism, has gone national today in his quest to defeat the awful dragon of Right Wing Talk Radio: Longtime listeners, first-time players: Dems find radio voice (Registration requires an email but is otherwise free: go here for the guy’s website). No doubt … Read more

Ah, So That’s Why Zell’s Considered An Apostate.

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I have to admit, if I were a Democrat and I woke up this morning to discover that a sitting Democratic Senator had written an article for the Wall Street Journal that had the title Memo To Terry McAwful (registration required, but free), I’d be pretty pissed off, too. Miller’s retiring, sure, but that’s still just plain rude (not exactly dignified, either) – especially when the article’s supposedly trying to give advice to Miller’s nominal party. I suspect that it’s going to become a good deal more nominal, assuming that it hasn’t hit negative numbers yet.

Which is a shame, because there was something very interesting (and not particularly offensive) about one of his comments about Dean.

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Forty-Foot Jesus In Tulsa! Watch

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That’s the category that I’ve decided to file dumb-ass statements by religious types who should know better under. In this case statements like Pat Robertson’s that God is most assuredly letting him know that George W Bush is going to be re-elected by wide margins in November. It’d be worth a close election (as long … Read more

It is getting more interesting.

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This is probably more Katherine‘s purview, but the race for the Democratic nomination is getting tighter. Via Kos (who provides further analysis), a nationwide poll shows Dean to be at 22% (down from 26% in December) and Clark to be at 13% (up from 11%). The big winner, however, is Kerry, who has bounded from … Read more

Passing it on, Part Three.

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UPDATE: See also co-blogger Katherine‘s post, below.

Eugene Volohk has an excellent article on the First Amendment over at NROnline. (Also discussed at the Volohk Conspiracy here and here.) Kevin Drum sums up Volohk’s argument, and then adds his own thoughts:

Eugene’s argument about why judges have to interpret the First Amendment — it’s too vague and absolute to make sense in the real world — seems to me to apply to the entire strict construction school of constitutional law. The entire constitution is deliberately vague and assumes a broad societal consensus about its interpretation that the framers felt it was unnecessary to spell out in the document itself. Relying on black letter text just doesn’t work if the text itself has been deliberately left incomplete.

Well, not entirely. It’s true that the language of the U.S. Constitution is deliberately vague in some areas, but, by and large, the Constitution is not as hopelessly indeterminate as Kevin seems to suggest. It’s not all throwing bones and examining entrails, so long as one examines each passage in its historical context. . . .

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Libertarian Law Prof Makes Good

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Eugene Volokh strikes a blow for sensible argument and historical perspective, which liberals and conservatives alike could use more of these days….I don’t have much to add; it’s not so often that I can recommend something in the National Review without qualification.

Passing it along, Part Two

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Michael Totten tries his hand at political taxidermy, separating the “liberals” from the “leftists.” It’s an interesting piece, and worth reading (Matthew Stintson provides his take on Mr. Totten’s piece — also very much worth reading — here.)

Although I’d quibble with some of the particulars,* I think that Mr. Totten is correct when he argues that there’s a difference in kind, not merely degree, between, say, the DLC (“liberals,” in his view) and the folks at ANSWER (“leftists”). These people do not share the same worldview — indeed, in many ways the gulf is even greater than that between so-called neo- and paleo- conservatives. It’s a mistake to suggest otherwise by falsely placing them on a right-left (or, in this case, left-lefter) continuum.

von

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Passing it along

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The Guardian reports that the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, anticipates having British troops in Basra until “2006/2007.”

The Coalition’s occupation of Basra has thus far been a relative success. The British, who have 10,000 troops in Basra, suffered their last KIA in late August; the region is relatively untouched by the insurgency; and there are hopes among Iraqis that Basra will soon return to being Iraq’s Riviera. There are difficulties, certainly, and criticisms by the Shia majority, but, all in all, Basra is doing about as well as one could expect.

What does this mean? Well, if the British anticipate being in relatively-peaceful Basra for the next 2-3 years, it’s logical to assume that the Americans should* be in Iraq for at least that long — if not longer. Beware of Presidential candidates who won’t expressly concede as much, or who claim otherwise.

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Jessica’s Well Gives A Topic for Discussion:

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Resolved: This House (OK, this Blog) believes that the collective knowledge of the blogosphere is greater than the collective knowledge of professional journalists regardless of the subject. For my own part, I noted that I was pretty much in agreement with what poster Al said in comments, but I should note here that I don’t … Read more

They decided to change those names…

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… in that Muslim football tournament. For the record, I never particularly cared one way or the other if young people want to call their sports teams “Soldiers of Allah” or “Moujahideen” (in much the same way that I don’t particularly care if they wanted to call a team, say, the “Crusaders”); “Intifada” bothered me … Read more

Finally Saw Return of the King.

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What did I think of it? And in that very moment, away in some courtyard of the City, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn. And as if in … Read more

It’s all about the Russ

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General Clark had a strong interview on NBC’s Meet the Press this morning. Key exchange on Iraq’s reconstruction: MR. RUSSERT: In terms of Iraq, you said this the other day. “When I am president, I will go over to Iraq and it won’t be to deliver turkeys in the middle of the night.” What does … Read more

This should go well.

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The Washington Post reports that “the United States this week will formally launch the handover of power to Iraq with the final game plan still not fully in place.” No problemo. I mean, “[b]esides figuring out who will rule in Saddam Hussein’s wake,” all the Iraqis will have to do during the next few months … Read more

Proselytizing

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While we’re on the subject of food, I thought I would mention that this is the world’s best cookbook. Cambodian food has a lot of similarities to Thai and Vietnamese but I think it’s better than either. The recipes are surprisingly easy, and surprisingly similar to the ones at the Boston restaurant that publishes the cookbook. I’ve bought three copies so far–one for myself, two as gifts–and 1/3 to 1/4 of the meals my husband and I cook regularly are now Cambodian. (Our friends make fun of us for this, but they like eating the results. And the Irish and Jewish traditions aren’t exactly known for their food.)

The main problem is finding some of the more obscure ingredients–you can substitute ginger for galangal, and regular soy sauce for mushroom soy sauce, easily enough, but it’s hard to get started if you can’t find lemongrass and impossible if you can’t find fish sauce. I’ve located almost everything in Boston and found the rest in New York, but if you live in a more suburban or rural place it might be harder. (And in some cases we just got lucky–the local ice cream parlor, of all places, stocks kaffir lime leaves. Bizarre.)

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Weird Digital Pictures

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Either a very quirky digital camera, or a very pointless set of fakes. You make the call. (Via the Instadude) Moe PS: I sorta want to know why the camera did that, but not if the explanation requires too many polysyllabic words.

Amusing semi-evil thought.

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…sparked by something that Matt Stinson said in comments: if Bush seems like he’s going to win in a landslide, Republicans may sit on their hands come election day and cost the GOP several vital Senate and House seats You have to admit, that’d be an interesting strategy by the Democrats: nominate somebody who that … Read more

Potential confusion.

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The raid on the Baghdad mosque that netted “AK-47s, hand grenades and an anti-aircraft missile” (noted by Tim Blair) was the Ibn Taymiyah mosque. I note this because I’m pretty sure that Sasha Castel’s site is using pictures from the raid on the Umm al Tabul mosque instead (which was the one that netted “three packages of TNT, one case of blasting caps, three bags of gunpowder, eight improvised grenades, a roll of detonation cord, improvised explosive device materials such as 9-volt batteries and unidentified propellants, 11 AK-47 assault rifles and 20 AK-47 magazines”. Then again, the Reuters article that Major Sean Bannion links to in his post calls it the al-Tabool mosque and says that the items recovered were “several sticks of high explosives, hand grenades, AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition”.

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dKos throws down on TNR

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In case you’ve been ignoring dKos lately, he’s called for a jihad/crusade* against The New Republic. Apparently, it’s not liberal enough for him: I imagine that Chait’s Dean-o-phobe blog is giving Kos fits, itches and the galloping staggers, too (although I’m surprised that he’d be down on &c, too, as it’s more likely to tell … Read more

Howard Dean, the Pilgrims, and other far out lefties

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There have been a bunch of articles about Howard Dean’s religion over the last two weeks, most of them negative. The main knock on Dean is that he switched denominations (from Episcopal to Congregationalist) in the early 1980s in part because of a dispute over a bike path. This doesn’t seem like much of a story to me–he switched churches/denominations, not religions, because he had a strong dislike for some of the leaders of the church. Is this really so uncommon among Protestant denominations? I’m not the best judge, since my parents treated religious affiliation like George Steinbrenner treated managers in the late 1970s and 1980s–I was raised (more or less chronologically) Catholic, Episcopal, Quaker, Catholic again, Methodist, Unitarian, Episcopal again, and will probably be a reform Jew in a few years. But I know many more people who switched denominations at one point or another. My husband’s family goes to a Conservative synagogue on the high holy days because their local Reform rabbi is underwhelming. President Bush was raised Episcopalian and is now, if I remember correctly, Methodist. Other friends switched from Congregational to Unitarian because of a minister they really admired. For that matter, the Episcopal church began for pretty worldly reasons (though the Anglican church says it’s more complicated than that).

Some of the articles also make it sound as if the Congregational Church is some newfangled, leftist, hippy denomination. Frankin Foer’s New Republic article says:

As he shopped around for churches, it was natural that he turned to Congregationalism, a denomination famous for its informality and liberal stances. Last November, Dean told a reporter from the Forward that he liked that “there is no central authority” in the tradition. By the time Dean joined the church, Congregationalists had already authorized the ordination of gay ministers. Yoga is taught in the church. Sermons sometimes make the case for lefty causes, especially the plight of the Palestinians.

And here’s the always-charming Cal Thomas:

Dean is from a Congregationalist background, a liberal denomination that does not believe in ministerial authority or church hierarchy. Each Congregationalist believes he is in direct contact with God and is entitled to sort out truth for himself.

I would just like to point out that this zany hippie religion is more than a century older than our country is. The first American Congregationalists were the pilgrims–as in the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, the first Thanksgiving, the whole bit. The Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony were also Congregationalists; so were more heretical sorts like Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. So was Mr. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” himself, Jonathan Edwards. (It’s rather more complicated than I’m making out, since there was no centralized authority, and I think the Presbyterian church has some deep roots in Puritanism too. You can read more here.)

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Because Ricky had a point…

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Blogrolls get large, obviously; just as obviously, it can get easy to not read all of them on a regular basis. Which is a shame, because then you miss posts like this from debitage. It’s on religion – specifically, the difference between conservative/liberal perceptions of same – but in a way that doesn’t want me … Read more

Because the Blogroll wasn’t long enough…

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I’m adding two more (which, to be honest, is mostly so I’ll remember to check them more often). Outside the Beltway is a somewhat recent appreciation (this NYT Magazine article that James linked to about the Democrats and the war was most interesting, and should get further exposure) and I always meant to add Steve … Read more

Hey, I have a blog: the blog doesn’t have me

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Via Normblog we find this little quiz: Are you a Blogoholic? I scored a mere 52%. I can give this up any time that I want. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go work out ways to get twenty more people to add this site to their blogrolls, start a meme and work … Read more

Grist for the mill.

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Joe Katzman over at Winds of Change linked to this report on the Iraqi situation. He calls it not ‘completely comfortable reading for anybody’: I’d agree*. He also calls it ‘very much worth reading’: I’d agree on that, too. Obviously. And, on that note, I am officially now going back to bed: this cold I … Read more

Free legal advice.

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It’s been a slow day for paying customers — it’s all waiting for the Court on this, waiting for the consultants on that — which is a good thing, since I’ve been running myself into the ground of late. But I’m genetically predisposed to never, ever, ever stop working (ask my wife), so I’ll offer some free legal advice to Josh Marshall.

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Off with their heads.

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Tony Blair wants to reform the House of Lords, but is getting blocked by an unlikely alliance of Tories and Liberal Democrats. My only venture into British politics occurred as a grammer school student in the mid-1980s (conflicted underdog-rooter that I was, I supported the SDP/Liberal Alliance),* so take the following with a grain of salt.

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