|
======================================
Subject: daily nigger...
Rape suspects stay behind bars
Investigations are continuing into the rape of an 18-month old girl over the weekend near Wolmaransstad in North West.
Three men, aged 17, 19 and 29, were apparently in the house at the time and have all been remanded into custody and have been charged with rape.
Baby X's 19-year old mother says she left the house at about 1am yesterday. Upon returning at 2am, on the 11th day of government's campaign of no violence against women and children, she found her baby naked and covered in blood.
Bonita Moolman of the Rape Crisis centre says the baby will have to live with the after-effects of this brutal rape for the rest of her life. The baby was discharged from hospital and returned to her mother's care.
Moolman says an investigation will have to be conducted into the child's living conditions.
Here.
Maryland Executes Woman's Killer
Study Had Found Racial Disparities
By Eric Rich and Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 6, 2005; Page B01
BALTIMORE, Dec. 5 -- Death row inmate Wesley E. Baker died by lethal injection Monday night, becoming the first black man executed in Maryland since a state-sponsored study found disparities, by race and geography, in how the death penalty law is used.
Baker, 47, was condemned to death for fatally shooting Jane Tyson, in front of her two grandchildren, in a robbery in a Catonsville mall parking lot more than a decade ago.
The execution began at 9:08 p.m. at the old Maryland State Penitentiary in Baltimore. The curtain behind the window into the execution chamber opened, and Baker could be seen lying on a gurney, covered to his chest with a white sheet. His outstretched arms were bound by leather straps, and intravenous lines came from a hole in the wall into both of his arms.
Prison chaplain Charles Canterna touched his face and right hand, then stepped away. About 9:10, Baker's mouth moved, as he appeared to speak or swallow. The chaplain approached him, said a few words and touched his face.
Baker took six or seven deep breaths. Each was a rasping sound audible to the witnesses, who included media representatives, three of Baker's attorneys, and Baltimore County Police Chief Terrence B. Sheridan.
Four members of Tyson's family, who were not identified, watched from an area separate from the other witnesses.
The curtain into the chamber was closed at 9:16 p.m. One of seven men sentenced to die in Maryland, Baker was pronounced dead at 9:18 p.m.
Baker's last meal was breaded fish, pasta with marinara sauce, green beans, an orange, bread, fruit punch and milk.
[where's the loving depiction of the nigger's murder of the human woman?]
Here.
Man pleads guilty, mentally ill in killing
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. -- A man charged with killing a co-worker seven years after he allegedly heard the victim tell a racist joke pleaded guilty but mentally ill on Monday.
Before entering his plea, Stanford A. Douglas Jr., 30, of Philadelphia, disrupted his Bucks County Court hearing by overturning chairs, cursing and demanding to be sent home.
When Douglas returned to the courtroom hours later, he calmly told Judge David Heckler, "I would like the death penalty instead of serving in prison."
The judge explained that the case doesn't warrant the death penalty because it has none of the aggravating circumstances required by law.
William Berkeyheiser, 62, was shot to death March 27 after he opened the front door of his home.
Douglas, who is black, told investigators he had thought about killing Berkeyheiser ever since he overheard Berkeyheiser, who was white, tell someone a joke with racial overtones in 1998, authorities said.
After the outburst in court, defense attorney Michael Applebaum said he believed Douglas wanted police to shoot him. "He's been asking for the death penalty," the lawyer said. "He wants to die."
A doctor from a hospital where Douglas has been undergoing treatment talked to him Monday for about 10 minutes as deputies restrained him on the courtroom floor. The doctor and a detective who had arrested Douglas were able to calm him, Applebaum said.
Here.
======================================
Subject: China sells organs
China to 'tidy up' trade in executed prisoners' organs
From Jane Macartney in Beijing
CHINA broke its silence yesterday to admit for the first time that the organs of executed prisoners were sold to foreigners for transplant.
For many years it has denied that such a trade existed. But Huang Jiefu, the Deputy Health Minister, acknowledged that the practice is widespread and promised to tighten the rules.
"We want to push for regulations on organ transplants to standardise the management of the supply of organs from executed prisoners and tidy up the medical market," Mr Huang told Caijing magazine.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1901558,00.html
======================================
Subject: more great news from Iraq
Baghdad Blast Kills 43; American Possibly Kidnapped
Saddam Trial Adjourned After Heated Exchanges and Defense Team Walkout
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Two homicide bombers struck Baghdad's police academy Tuesday, killing at least 43 people and wounding 73 more, U.S. officials said, while Al-Jazeera broadcast an insurgent video claiming to have kidnapped a U.S. security consultant.
The attackers were wearing explosives-laden vests and a U.S. contractor was among those wounded, a U.S. military statement said. U.S. forces rushed to the scene to provide assistance, the statement said. The military initially said the bombers were women but later retracted the statement.
"We were sitting in the yard when we heard an explosion," said police Maj. Wisam al-Heyali. "Seconds later we were hit by another explosion as we were running. I saw some of my colleagues falling down and I felt my hand hit, but I kept on running."
Police Capt. Jalil Abdul-qadir said the death toll was 43, including seven policewomen. At least 73 people were wounded, including six policewomen. He said all of them were officers or students at the academy.
U.S. forces initially placed the death toll at 27.
"One of the suicide bombers detonated near a group of students outside a classroom," Task Force Baghdad said. "Thinking the explosion was an indirect-fire attack, [Iraqi police] and students fled to a bunker for shelter where the second bomber detonated his vest."
Insurgents have concentrated their attacks against Iraqi security forces. Tuesday's attack was the deadliest against Iraqi forces since Feb. 28, when a homicide car bomber attacked mostly Shiite police and National Guard recruits in Hillah, killing 125.
Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said a soldier assigned to Task Force Baghdad was killed when a patrol hit a roadside bomb Sunday. At least 2,129 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war, according to an Associated Press count.
The attack at the police academy came on a second day of testimony in the Saddam Hussein trial.
The video broadcast on Al-Jazeera showed a blond, Western-looking man sitting with his hands tied behind his back. The video also bore the logo of the Islamic Army in Iraq and showed a U.S. passport and an identification card.
The authenticity of the video could not be immediately confirmed.
If true, the man would become the second American taken hostage in the last two weeks. A U.S. citizen was among four peace activists taken hostage on Nov. 27 by a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness. Two Canadians and a Briton were also part of that group.
A French engineer was taken hostage in Baghdad on Monday and a German aid worker was abducted near Mosul on Nov. 26.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,177783,00.html
======================================
Subject: love, South Afreakin style
Johannesburg - Former South African deputy President Jacob Zuma has been charged with rape, prosecuting authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
Zuma, who was fired earlier this year amid allegations of corruption, appeared briefly in a Johannesburg court Tuesday, according to news reports.
It had been reported since last month that a woman from a prominent political family close to Zuma, made a case of rape against him with police days after he was indicted on corruption charges.
Details of the case were leaked to the press and sparked fierce public speculation and debate on the future of the former liberation fighter and current deputy president of the ruling African National Congress.
Zuma has denied claims that he raped the woman at his house at the beginning of November this year.
The National Prosecuting Authority in a statement Tuesday said after due consideration of the facts in the rape case, it had 'decided that Jacob Zuma be arraigned in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on a charge of rape'.
He was asked to appear in court on February 13.
Zuma has vehemently denied the corruption charges, which include allegations that he solicited a bribe from a French arms supplier with interests in South Africa's multi-million dollar arms acquisition deal.
His trial has been scheduled for July next year.
Supporters of the popular politician, seen until recently as the most likely successor to President Thabo Mbeki in 2008, believe he is the victim of a vicious campaign to put an end to his presidential ambitions.
Here.
======================================
Subject: Rope 'n' two dopes
Muhammad Ali v. George W. Bush
by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
George W. Bush honored the boxer, Muhammad Ali, and 13 others with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, called "the nation's highest civilian award," on November 9 at the White House. The president praised Ali for his sports accomplishments and called him "The Greatest of All Time."
Fine, but he then proceeded to laud Ali's character: "The real mystery, I guess, is how he stayed so pretty. It probably had to do with his beautiful soul. He was a fierce fighter and he's a man of peace. … Across the world, billions of people know Muhammad Ali as a brave, compassionate, and charming man, and the American people are proud to call Muhammad Ali one of our own."
In this giddy, fawning statement, Mr. Bush did not, the Washington Post astringently noted, "mention Ali's very public opposition to the Vietnam War, which led the prizefighter to lose his boxing license for three years when he refused to serve in the Army." Worse, his refusal to fight was not because he was "a man of peace" but rather because his allegiance was to the stridently anti-American, anti-white organization known as the Nation of Islam, headed by the malign Elijah Muhammad.
Forty years ago, Ali explained his draft evasion: "War is against the teachings of the Holy Koran. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger [i.e., Elijah Muhammad]. We don't take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers." A draft evader, incidentally, is particularly ill-suited to receive the Medal of Freedom, which was created in 1945 to recognize "notable service" in World War II.
The president also did not touch on Ali's religious side, but Mark Kram did in his 2001 book, Ghosts of Manila: The Fateful Blood Feud between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier: "Ali broke every tenet of real Muslim law, from whoring to being truant at Temple service; he was a religious fake who abdicated his personal worth to the Black Muslims for their expediency and draft evasion, [and was] therefore, counterfeit down to his socks."
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3153
Clogged Pipes
Posted by James Wolcott
Combing the sulphuric ash out of his Mephistophelean beard, gentleman scholar and hero of the "anti-idiotarian" right Daniel Pipes infects the pages of the New York Sun with a protracted sneer against Muhammed Ali. Pipes is appalled that Ali was presented at the White House with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush. Had Bush only paid tribute to Ali's boxing exploits, Pipes wouldn't have minded, but the president swoonily lauded Ali's character and spirit. A sentiment shared by billions across the planet, but one that makes Pipes purse his lips in disdain.
"In this giddy, fawning statement, Mr. Bush did not, the Washington Post astringently noted, 'mention Ali's very public opposition to the Vietnam War, which led the prizefighter to lose his boxing license for three years when he refused to serve in the Army.'"
Well, why should the president mention it in a ceremony intended to honor and celebrate? No one stops the Kennedy Center Honors to take note of some honoree's stay in rehab, or messy divorce. It's not as if Ali's battle with the draft board and his temporary banishment from boxing are occult secrets.
And where, pray tell, was Pipes during the Vietnam war? According to a profile in The Nation, he was darkening Cambridge Square. "It was the height of the Vietnam War, and young people everywhere were rebelling--but not Pipes. In April of 1969, his sophomore year, antiwar activists took over the main administrative building at Harvard. The university called in the police. Pipes recalls students gathering in the football stadium to debate the crisis, which dominated campus life for weeks. Pipes's group was among the smallest: He backed Harvard's administration and like his father [Sovietologist Richard Pipes] firmly supported the Vietnam War."
Pipes firmly supported the Vietnam War, but not enough to enlist or submit to the draft.
I believe the technical term is "chickenhawk."
Of course, Ali's besetting sin in Pipes' beady eyes is not that he was a draft dodger, but that he was a Muslim and not a Pipes-approved Muslim.
"[His] refusal to fight was not because he was 'a man of peace' but rather because his allegiance was to the stridently anti-American, anti-white organization known as the Nation of Islam, headed by the malign Elijah Muhammad."
After a brief historical recap, Pipes really lets the mucus fly.
"Mr. Bush's praise for Ali's compassion, charm, and beautiful soul are horribly misplaced (as were large donations from General Electric and Ford to the hagiographic 'Ali Center' that opened days later in Louisville, Ky.). Ali's unvarnished legacy is an exploitative personality, sordid career, vicious politics, and extremist religion.'"
What miffs Pipes even more than Ali being a Muslim, an American icon, and, yes, The Greatest of All Time, is that Ali gently mocked Bush during the ceremony--making the crazy sign--and Bush didn't show enough manhood to put this Parkinson's victim in his place. No one the terrorists are running amuck in Iraq.
"Awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Muhammad Ali gratuitously celebrated a man profoundly opposed to Mr. Bush's own, his party's, and the country's principles," Pipes seethes.
Actually, Bush's honoring of Ali is one of the most commendable deeds he's done in his calamitous presidency. And until Mr. Pipes gets his own country, it isn't for him to decree whether or not Muhammed Ali is an affront to America's principles. Who made this pissant dictator?
======================================
Subject: Iraq, lost war
NATION-STATE STRATEGY: CLEAR AND HOLD?
The current US strategy in Iraq is to clear areas of insurgent activity and hold them to prevent their return. This is a redux of a 20th Century counter-insurgency method called oil spots (a variant is strategic hamlets). The idea is to tightly control select areas and return them to a vestige of normal life (under the assumption that this is what the people the vast majority of people in those areas want). As a strategy for Iraq, it is markedly flawed. Some flaws in this approach can be seen in the recent history of Ramadi and Fallujah, both of which are currently being 'held' by US forces:
* Attacks against Americans continue. 34 US troops have died in Ramadi since September. There are ongoing battles for control of the central roads (which are essential US supply routes). 11 Marines recently died from an IED blast on the outskirts of Fallujah.
* An open source insurgency exists in both cities with multiple Iraqi groups operating in concert. In Ramadi, al Qaeda has moved to a support, training, and financing role.
* The city has a robust and competitive market for violence. Both cities have 50% + unemployment. The current market price for violence are only $200 for the death of an American and $50 to emplace an IED.
The flaws with 'clear and hold'
As we see in Ramadi and Fallujah, even areas 'held' by US troops are still being contested. This points to problems with this 'clear and hold' strategy. This strategy was originally designed to fight rural insurgencies of the 20th Century, which means it will be difficult to apply to the current environment of ethnic/religious fragmentation, urban environments, and global guerrilla methods. Additionally, the current plan is complex. It's an extremely difficult judo move where US forces clear towns for relatively unprepared Iraqi units to hold, while at the same time consolidating bases to reduce its presence in preparation for a pull-out. Here's a critique:
* Open connections. Iraq's insurgency is relatively urban. Urbanites cannot be "locked down" like subsistence level farmers. They need access to connections: transportation, utilities, communications, and trade to function economically. These "holes" provide opportunities for exploitation. Additionally, the economic revival of an urban environment (in contrast to farming) requires more than a freedom from violence. It requires extensive reconstruction which in turn creates more avenues for coercion and disruption. For example, due to this potential for disruption, progress in Fallujah since its reduction has been meager. See "State Failure 101" for more.
* Insufficient manpower. The US doesn't have a sufficient number of troops in theater for this manpower intensive strategy -- to clear areas, train Iraqi troops, and support them once in place. This will not be reversed due to insurmountable structural factors. This situation will only get worse as the US starts to bring troops home.
* Expanding insurgency. The use of use of "trusted" uniformed Iraqi militias to hold cleared towns, would only heighten violence due to sectarian tensions. We can expect extremely harsh tactics by Iraqi units in Sunni towns as they take control (similar with the torture chamber that was recently found in the Iraqi Interior Ministry). This will only serve to activate a larger percentage of the population to take up arms. Note, if we use Sunni units we will find them quickly co-opted by insurgents.
What this means
The likely outcome will be that the US will have little real value (a decrease in violence) to show for its efforts over the next year. If we do it flawlessly (which is going to be very difficult given a thinking enemy), the controlled chaos may hold long enough for the US to get most of its troops out. Here's what it means:
* Moral collapse. There will be intense pressure from US voters to exit Iraq prior to the US elections next year. This is the last plan that the US public will allow without serious repercussions for the American political leadership. It's a one way ticket.
* Melt down. As the plan bogs down and the body bags of Iraqi troops flow home in increasing numbers (due to insufficient armor, training and increased fighting), there will be a backlash against the US. Expect increased pressure by Shiite militias on our rear 'safe' areas after full independence. Since this pressure will threaten our lines of supply as well as our exit path, it will put the US military in a difficult position. The key is to get as much as we can out of Iraq before it occurs.
* Unexpected events. A rapidly evolving plan like this creates the potential that unexpected events may cause serious disruption. For example: the expansion of the conflict to a new area (the US?) and/or a major overrun (we almost saw this in the attacks on the Baghdad hotels in October/November) where a large group of Americans are killed and taken hostage. Either event could cause a radical policy collapse.
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/
======================================
Subject: jew Creveld says war is lost
Costly Withdrawal Is the Price To Be Paid for a Foolish War
By Martin van Creveld
November 25, 2005
The number of American casualties in Iraq is now well more than 2,000, and there is no end in sight. Some two-thirds of Americans, according to the polls, believe the war to have been a mistake. And congressional elections are just around the corner.
What had to come, has come. The question is no longer if American forces will be withdrawn, but how soon -- and at what cost. In this respect, as in so many others, the obvious parallel to Iraq is Vietnam.
Confronted by a demoralized army on the battlefield and by growing opposition at home, in 1969 the Nixon administration started withdrawing most of its troops in order to facilitate what it called the "Vietnamization" of the country. The rest of America's forces were pulled out after Secretary of State Henry Kissinger negotiated a "peace settlement" with Hanoi. As the troops withdrew, they left most of their equipment to the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam -- which just two years later, after the fall of Saigon, lost all of it to the communists.
Clearly this is not a pleasant model to follow, but no other alternative appears in sight.
Whereas North Vietnam at least had a government with which it was possible to arrange a cease-fire, in Iraq the opponent consists of shadowy groups of terrorists with no central organization or command authority. And whereas in the early 1970s equipment was still relatively plentiful, today's armed forces are the products of a technology-driven revolution in military affairs. Whether that revolution has contributed to anything besides America's national debt is open to debate. What is beyond question, though, is that the new weapons are so few and so expensive that even the world's largest and richest power can afford only to field a relative handful of them.
Therefore, simply abandoning equipment or handing it over to the Iraqis, as was done in Vietnam, is simply not an option. And even if it were, the new Iraqi army is by all accounts much weaker, less skilled, less cohesive and less loyal to its government than even the South Vietnamese army was. For all intents and purposes, Washington might just as well hand over its weapons directly to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Clearly, then, the thing to do is to forget about face-saving and conduct a classic withdrawal.
Handing over their bases or demolishing them if necessary, American forces will have to fall back on Baghdad. From Baghdad they will have to make their way to the southern port city of Basra, and from there back to Kuwait, where the whole misguided adventure began. When Prime Minister Ehud Barak pulled Israel out of Lebanon in 2000, the military was able to carry out the operation in a single night without incurring any casualties. That, however, is not how things will happen in Iraq.
Not only are American forces perhaps 30 times larger, but so is the country they have to traverse. A withdrawal probably will require several months and incur a sizable number of casualties. As the pullout proceeds, Iraq almost certainly will sink into an all-out civil war from which it will take the country a long time to emerge -- if, indeed, it can do so at all. All this is inevitable and will take place whether George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice like it or not.
Having been thoroughly devastated by two wars with the United States and a decade of economic sanctions, decades will pass before Iraq can endanger its neighbors again. Yet a complete American withdrawal is not an option; the region, with its vast oil reserves, is simply too important for that. A continued military presence, made up of air, sea and a moderate number of ground forces, will be needed.
First and foremost, such a presence will be needed to counter Iran, which for two decades now has seen the United States as "the Great Satan." Tehran is certain to emerge as the biggest winner from the war -- a winner that in the not too distant future is likely to add nuclear warheads to the missiles it already has. In the past, Tehran has often threatened the Gulf States. Now that Iraq is gone, it is hard to see how anybody except the United States can keep the Gulf States, and their oil, out of the mullahs' clutches.
A continued American military presence will be needed also, because a divided, chaotic, government-less Iraq is very likely to become a hornets' nest. From it, a hundred mini-Zarqawis will spread all over the Middle East, conducting acts of sabotage and seeking to overthrow governments in Allah's name.
The Gulf States apart, the most vulnerable country is Jordan, as evidenced by the recent attacks in Amman. However, Turkey, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, Israel are also likely to feel the impact. Some of these countries, Jordan in particular, are going to require American assistance.
Maintaining an American security presence in the region, not to mention withdrawing forces from Iraq, will involve many complicated problems, military as well as political. Such an endeavor, one would hope, will be handled by a team different from -- and more competent than -- the one presently in charge of the White House and Pentagon.
For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins.
Martin van Creveld, a professor of military history at the Hebrew University, is author of "Transformation of War" (Free Press, 1991). He is the only non-American author on the U.S. Army's required reading list for officers.
http://www.forward.com/articles/6936
======================================
Subject: bad media
Pajama Bottoms (III)
Posted by James Wolcott
With all the kindness in my heart that I could scrape together on short notice, I tried to warn The Nation's David Corn that by lending his name to the blog roster of Pajamas Media, he risked being associated with the worst sort of wharf rats and riffraff. None would condemn him for seeking other inklings of steady income, but not if it meant working the piano bar in a house of ill-repute. Corn spurned my well-intentioned counsel, deflecting my Polonious advice by casting aspersions upon Vanity Fair. If he had only listened, he might have spared himself needless shame. That's what happens when you let pride overrule the nagging voice of reason. Today Corn no doubt wishes he had heeded mine and similar admonitions, given the industrial-strength stinker Pajamas Media has become, the internet's first Edsel. I mean, it renames itself Pajamas Media--after the inept interlude of branding itself Open Source Media--and unveils its new cartoon logo: a bathrobe. To quote a line from David Mamet, these guys could fuck up a baked potato.
Corn isn't the only lefty modeling a vivid shade of chagrin this winter. Marc Cooper also signed on as a cavalry member of F Troop. He insists that he did so with his eyes open. In which case he ought to have his eyes checked, rinsed, and rotated.
Cooper had what I thought was a very indecorous response to readers who heckled him in his comments section for associating with some of blogworld's most prominent banshees and mouth-foamers such as--oh, well, just go look at their blogroll. It's like a parade march of outpatients and amateur militarists.
Indeed, Cooper got a tad testy with his nitpickers. Testy to the point of dropping his apostrophes and going e.e. cummings on us.
"Well. Im quite pleased Ive given some of you something to do. I think what Ive said up till now is all that I will say for the time being about OSM as you critics are beating a dead horse. You havent said a single thing that I didnt know long before going into the project.
"Perhaps you would like me to catalogue the mirror wingnuttiness that I bump into day-to-day at my more respectable job with The Nation: writers who believe that there’s a burgeoning national Russ Feingold for President movement; that Castro’s Cuba is really more democratic than Schwarzenennger’s California; that it’s a pity the Soviet Union collapsed; that a new book critical of Mao must be written by the CIA; that it’s just fine and dandy to have an anti-war movement managed by acolytes of Kim-Il Sung; that we mst provide material support to the armed resistance in Iraq so on and so on ad infinitum. I find that stuff to be equally crazy."
======================================
Subject: jew truth
Intelligent Design: Opiate of the Dummies
Posted by James Wolcott
Wielding a sword of truth and a surgical scalpel of reason (he's quite ambidextrous), NRO's John Derbyshire pierces the fatty deposits of bad faith in the postures of religious piety by certain conservative eggheads.
His takeoff point is a recent essay-review by Gertrude Himmelfarb of Darwin in The New Republic, about which he has incisive things to say, particularly regarding her scientific illiteracy. But the chief item of interest is the attitude toward religion by Himmelfarb's husband and the co-godfather of neoconservatism (coequal with Norman Podhoretz), Irving Kristol.
Citing and quoting from an excellent article by Ronald Bailey on the neocon campaign to discredit Darwinish (I remember being puzzled when such pieces began popping up in Commentary amid the usual battle cries and attacks of gout), Derbyshire writes:
"BOOB BAIT FOR THE BUBBAS [John Derbyshire]
A colleague referred me to this piece in Reason magazine as background to Gertrude Himmelfarb's position. It is... enlightening.
"We seem to be in Straussian 'noble lie' territory here. Sample:
"'Kristol [Himmelfarb's hubby] agrees with this view. "There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people," he says in an interview. "There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults, and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn't work."'
"Translation: 'We cognitive elites know religion is a crock, but it helps keep the bubbas in line, so we must pretend to be in sympathy with it.'
"This line of thinking seems to me to be unspeakably horrible and inhuman, though, yes, I am aware that it has a long pedigree. If that's conservatism, I want out.
Posted at 07:41 PM"
After resident idiot Cliff May sticks in his two cents, Derbyshire retorts:
"BOOB BAIT [John Derbyshire]
Cliff: No, don't buy that.
"Look through that Bailey piece again:
"'A year ago, I asked Kristol after a lecture whether he believed in God or not. He got a twinkle in his eye and responded, "I don't believe in God, I have faith in God." Well, faith, as it says in Hebrews 11:1, "is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." But at the recent AEI lecture, journalist Ben Wattenberg asked him the same thing. Kristol responded that "that is a stupid question," and crisply restated his belief that religion is essential for maintaining social discipline. A much younger (and perhaps less circumspect) Kristol asserted in a 1949 essay that in order to prevent the social disarray that would occur if ordinary people lost their religious faith, "it would indeed become the duty of the wise publicly to defend and support religion."'
"Here we have a guy who plainly doesn't believe in God, but who thinks that well-padded intellectual elitists like himself ought to evade the issue in public for fear of demoralizing the proles and perhaps jeopardizing some padding thereby. I can't think of anything nice to say about that; and in fact, the only things I CAN think of to say would not be suitable for a family website...
"These are the people who are pushing 'intelligent design' in the conservative movement. Not only am I glad and proud to have spoken out against this preposterous hoax, I wish I had done so more forthrightly. These are people filled up to their meritocratic nose-holes with contempt for ordinary people. That's conservatism? Ptui, I spit."
On a more vulgar level, I think the same dynamic is at play in the entire "War on Christmas" sham perpetrated by Fox News and rightwing talkshow hosts. They rant on and on about how Christianity is the kick-toy of the Hollywood left and snobby liberals and the ACLU, how Nativity displays are being vandalized by Nation readers disguised as wild raccoons, pound the anchor desk to demand prayer be restored to public schools. And yet how religiously observant are most of these blowhards? How often does Rush Limbaugh attend services? Or does he spend every Sunday on the golf course? Would John Gibson or O'Reilly mouth off to any of their Jewish friends (assuming they've accumulated some over the years), "Look, pal, I have no problem with Hanukah, just remember this is a Christian country, we're the majority, the majority makes the rules, what we say goes, so don't get bent out of shape when someone wishes you a Merry Christmas--and tell George Soros that goes double for him"? It's easy to swagger in front of a microphone, and I suspect most conservative demagogues practice a strange form of hypocrisy: talking shit in public that they would be wary to do in private. (Most hypocrites do the opposite, talking trash one on one that they would never say over the sanctity of the airwaves.)
Mind you, I have no proof, but I imagine that the Fox Newsers, like Kristol and co., profess and promote religious faith must more than they practice it. They caricature liberal elites for "looking down" on religion while they themselves only pretend to look up to it, like Noel Coward imagining himself a nun. They approve of religion in part because, you know, it gives the little people something to do and makes them more manageable.
[on dim Himmelfarb]
Here.
======================================
Subject: altering old books
By KAREN KARBO
Published: December 4, 2005
"Goodnight Moon," the children's classic by Margaret Wise Brown, has gone smoke free. In a newly revised edition of the book, which has lulled children to sleep for nearly 60 years, the publisher, HarperCollins, has digitally altered the photograph of Clement Hurd, the illustrator, to remove a cigarette from his hand. HarperCollins said it made the change to avoid the appearance of encouraging smoking.
- The New York Times, Nov. 17
Portland, Ore.
EXCELLENT start, HarperCollins, but why stop there? The text of "Goodnight Moon" itself is laden with messages that are potentially harmful to our youngest readers. At a minimum, these changes should be made:
A. Huge gilt picture frames have no place in the nursery, especially those that are not properly secured. Should these three little bears sitting on chairs crash down during the night, Bunny risks suffering massive head trauma. Suggested change: digitally replace with piece of lightweight non-toxic fiber art.
B. The blue stripes are adorable, but the reader has no way of knowing whether Bunny's pj's meet current flammability standards. Suggested change: digitally alter to include visible "flame resistant" label, in accordance with recommendations made by the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Digitally removing pj's is not an option.
C. Tell me this rug is not made of the skin of a Siberian tiger. Suggested change: Digitally remove to avoid appearance of condoning hunting of planet's endangered species.
D. How long has this bowl full of mush been sitting here? A single drop of sour milk contains more than 50 million potentially fatal bacteria. At the very least Bunny is in danger of contracting irritable bowel syndrome. Not to mention mush is low in fiber. Suggested change: Digitally remove.
E. Balloons cause more choking deaths among 3- to 6-year-olds than any other toy. Suggested change: Digitally remove.
F. Given proximity and brightness of stars and moon, it's apparent that Bunny's room is in a high rise. Both windows lack either locks or any type of window guard or restraining device. Suggested change: To avoid the appearance of encouraging children to peer out of unsafe windows, and thus tumble to their deaths, digitally remove windows. Bunny can easily bid goodnight to a moon painted on the wall with nontoxic, lead-free paint.
G. Mice carry hantavirus, hemorrhagic fever, salmonella and Lyme disease. Suggested change: Digitally remove.
H. A fire blazing in the fireplace while Bunny sleeps? Suggested change: Get rid of it. At the very least, digitally add a fire extinguisher to the wall. And hello? Where are the smoke detectors?
I. The United States Fire Administration advises against using "alternative heating devices" like fires to dry clothing. Suggested change: Digitally move mittens and socks to other end of the room.
J. Clearly the bookshelf is unanchored to the wall. If an earthquake hit, Bunny could get squashed flat. Suggested change: Digitally remove. We can't see the titles on the spines of the books anyway, which might convey to children it's all right to pick up any old book and read it.
K. Who exactly is this rabbit? Bunny says, "A quiet old lady whispering hush?" But what do we know of her really? Suggested change: Digitally alter quiet old lady's apron with a message emblazoned across the front that says she was hired from a reputable agency, is a citizen and has passed a criminal background check.
L. Penetrating injuries to the chest by knitting needles are not uncommon. Also, someone could lose an eye. Suggested change: Digitally remove. The quiet old lady is not getting paid to knit, anyway.
Karen Karbo is the author, most recently, of "Minerva Clark Gets a Clue."
Go to :
Reader Mail Index
|