The Dodgers Bullpen Sucks

I don't know why I'm posting about this. I just watched the L.A. Dodgers bullpen implode for the umpteenth time. I thought they would be awesome this year with Gagne, Brazoban, and Baez, et. al. Unfortunately, Brazoban is out for the season, Gagne is doubtful and Baez just flat blows. So, we're left with double-A talent (if that).

It's one of the frustrating things about baseball. You invest a couple of hours into watching a game and your team goes into the late innings with a lead, only to see a few bozos who can't throw a strike or, when they do, get whacked. It sucks.

I'm praying for Gagne's return. He's one of the best closers I've ever seen. An absolute freak of nature. I can't wait until it's "Game Over" again.

Feeling the Heat

Old Lakers never die. They just win basketball championships.

Congratulations to Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton, Pat Riley and the Miami Heat for beating the Dallas Mavericks to win the NBA championship. Miami was definitely the better team and, without question, deserved to win.

I just hope Shaq has the class not to let his hatred of Kobe and the Lakers organization get the better of him. Otherwise we'll have to hear him gloat until the end of time. Or, at least until Kobe can win a championship (which might never happen again).

Jihadis Play MSM Like a Fiddle

Captain's Quarters makes an interesting point about the tendency of jihadis to use women and children as human shields during firefights with Coalition forces.

This has two purposes for the Taliban. First, it keeps Western forces from firing on them, as they know that Coalition troops will try to protect civilians where possible. Secondly as just as importantly from a strategic point of view, any women and children killed in the battle will almost certainly be blamed on the Western forces by the Western media. It allows the Taliban to continue their propaganda blitz against the West, one in which the media has unwittingly (in most cases) found themselves a pawn to the Islamists.

Men who throw women and children in the line of fire to protect themselves have no honor, no courage, and no claim to religious righteousness under any circumstances. It's high time that the West grows up and understands the cowardly nature of tyrannies and the people who impose them. It will give us much more clarity in the effort that needs to be made to rid ourselves of the craven ghouls who prey on civilian populations for their own delusions of grandeur.

Absolutely right.

Yorke Admits Hypocrisy

Radiohead front man Thom Yorke admits to being "an environmental hypocrite" because of his tours around the world.

Yorke is a vocal ambassador for the charity Friends Of The Earth, but admits he isn't "flawless", since big concerts, tours and festivals rely on fossil fuel and create tons of unrecyclable waste. He says, "I don't drive a big car, but I don't come out of it dirt-free. "The whole apparatus of big festivals is not cool. If we could go to them and say, you can only use paper cups, you can't use generators, you have to use solar panels. "You technically can't make it happen. That stresses me out, because I am a hypocrite.

At least Yorke is honest enough to admit it. You don't see Al Gore agonizing over the environment as he flies back and forth across the country promoting his new movie. Obviously, no one is perfect and I respect people who care about, and are trying to do something to improve, the environment. It's just irritating when some people get on their moral high horse and act as if they are purer than anyone else. Generally speaking, I think most people care for the environment and want to pollute as little as possible. I have no problem with being encouraged to do better. But, spare me the moralizing. It's refreshing to hear Thom Yorke admit he's human.

It's Unwatchable

The Hatemonger's Quarterly on the World Cup:

Here were two insignificant countries, whose young men would be better served working on their nation’s GDPs, kicking a soccer ball back and forth, standing still for long bouts of time, and generally doing nothing entertaining. All the while, the audience—which clearly loves low scores as much as it savors ties—was enraptured, howling chants and singing rousing songs.

What the heck is going on here? If the people of the world find Americans so stupid, why do they take delight in a game only slightly more pleasurable to watch than golf? Soccer hooligans can’t control themselves over this nonsense? Gosh: Soccer makes curling seem like D-Day. The enthusiasm is baffling. It defies logic.

I couldn't agree more. Admittedly, I love to watch my kids play soccer and compete with other kids. But, they actually score and there's usually some resolution to the game (a.k.a. a winner and a loser). Watching a mind-numbing 3+ hour match end in a 0-0 tie is as exciting as watching paint dry.

I have only two more words to say about the game of professional soccer: It sucks!

They Say It's Your Birthday

Today is Paul McCartney's 64th birthday, a significant date for the former Beatle because of his classic song,"When I'm 64," written when he was just 16 years old.

Paul is a living legend and one of my musical idols. He has had a huge influence on my songwriting. His music has enriched my life and the lives of millions of fans.

Born a poor young country boy-Mother Nature's son. All day long I'm sitting singing songs for everyone.

It's humbling and awe-inspiring to hear the gift of music God granted Paul. I'm thankful that he has shared that gift with the world for the past 40+ years.

Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?

We do still need you, Paul. Happy Birthday to you. And many happy returns.

Conservative Rock Songs

John Miller @ The Corner puts together a list of what he considers the 50 greatest conservative rock songs. I was particularly glad to see Rush's The Trees (No. 11) and Red Barchetta (No . 22), since I was a big fan growing up (and I love those songs). Some of his choices are a stretch (Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult?) and I'm not really sure what makes Iron Maiden's Rime of the Ancient Mariner (No. 29) conservative. In any event, it's a fun list and, since most rock songs probably have a liberal bent, it was kind of interesting to read.

This article in the Financial Times takes issue with Miller's choice for No. 1 (which I won't reveal) and later makes the point that rock n' roll is inherently conservative because of its fairly rigid format, as well as the static nature of its instrumentation, chord structures, and time signatures. Unfortunately, a subscription is necessary to read the whole FT article. Anyway, Miller was obviously not discussing the structural elements of rock n' roll, but rather the ideological points of view of specific songs.

I think some of these songs can be viewed through either a conservative or liberal viewpoint, which the FT article sort of alludes to in its discussion of the No. 1 song.

My question: What other rock songs do you think express conservative values and why?

One for consideration: Legal Kill by King's X. A song that protests abortion. "I believe the fight for life is always real / I can't believe it's no big deal / it's a legal kill."

UPDATE: I guess 'tis the season for lists. Check out Wizbang's list of 100 best punk songs.

Vaughn Against the Machine

Libertas has posted a review of the Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Aniston thing, The Break-up. Apparently, Vaughn is supposed to be one of the rarest of all earthly creatures: a Hollywood conservative. Here's a selection from the post:

...personally, I would prefer my romantic comedy to come without partisan politics at all, but I suspect that’s almost impossible nowadays. The left has so much control over the narrative assumptions that underlie most movies that merely to work under a different set of assumptions is to declare your position. In movies, the big corporation is always bad, the environmentalist always good; the gun-lover is always crazy, the religious guy always repressed or insane. The patriot is always a jingoist, wise men are always black, gays are always friends and advisors and, if you watch carefully, a poor man’s crimes are almost always traceable back to a rich man’s perfidy. The suburbs are always either comic or stifling, abortion may be rejected but never for moral reasons and – my personal favorite – the United Nations is always a force for truth and justice instead of the loathsomely corrupt gang of child-molesting, sex-trading kleptocratic tyrants we know and abhor.

In short, at the movies, as on the network news, liberal fantasy is the steady state of affairs, conservative truth a more or less ugly aberration. As a result, even the slightest indication that the hero of a movie might be, say, a Heston fan is bracing, a noticeable statement nearly shocking in its aggression. As for patriotism, faith, energetic capitalism – what some of us call normal on a good day – these become ferocious political pronouncements measured against a radical baseline.

Nothing To See Here, People

Via Little Green Footballs:

Two days ago, more than a million people turned out in Madrid to protest the Spanish socialist government’s plan to negotiate with terror gang ETA.

What? You didn’t hear about it? That’s because a million people protesting against a far left government is not news, silly!

Publius Pundit has a report on this non-event, from Stefania Lapenna.

Bad News For Bush

Zarqawi is dead, leadership posts in Iraqi government ministries have been filled, Rove will not be indicted, and the economy is kicking ass. All in all it's been a pretty bad week for President Bush.

Instapundit notes:

MORE BAD NEWS FOR BUSH: "Aided by surging tax receipts, President Bush may make good on his pledge to cut the deficit in half in 2006 — three years early."

The New York Times headline: "Bush deficit reduction plan falls off-schedule."

Glove or Guitar?

Little Man went with me to pick up my Fender Jazzmaster from the repairman today. Turns out the repairman had seen me play at the 8 o'Clock Service in the mid-90s. Small world. While we were in his shop, Little Man spied a small, half-scale Mosrite guitar on the wall that must have been recently repaired. He gets this big grin on his face and asks, "Do you think I want that?" That was his shy way of saying he wanted it -- real bad.

We walked next door to Musician's purgatory, otherwise known as Guitar Center, because I wanted to check out the M-box2. Eventually, we found our way to the guitar section and he checked out a few. He was so excited, like a kid in a...well, you know. I found a black Fender Squire Stratocaster on the wall that was a reduced scale, which seemed to fit him pretty well. It was only $99. I also noticed a tiny Vox amp for like $69. I really wanted to get it for him, but didn't pull the trigger.

Earlier this week he asked if I could get him a new baseball glove and a bat. I told him that, as a reward for doing well in Kindergarten, I would consider getting him those things at the end of the school year, which is this Thursday. The glove/bat would be a cool gift--and a lot cheaper. The guitar would be soooo cool, too. But, in addition to being more pricey, I wonder if he'll have the stick-to-it-ive-ness necessary to practice hard and improve to the point where he enjoys it. I know he loves to rock and digs music. But, I'd hate it if he got discouraged at this young age and never gave it another shot.

So, the question I am pondering is..."Glove or Guitar?"

Paradise Blows

Iowahawk has the transcript of Zarqawi's eventful week, including his introduction into Paradise (hat tip: Little Green Footballs).

Okay, Thursday morning. I clock in at the office, pour a mug of tea, fire up the laptop and check out the latest posts on dKos. Sure, I’ve had my differences with them in the past. But with morale the way it is Allah knows we need a good laugh around here, and that sh*t is funnier than Homestar Runner. They had a new parody up, and I swear it had me roaring so hard I was on the verge of a sh*t hemorrhage. It had Khalid laughing to the point of tears, and when he goes to wipe his good eye he almost puts it out with his hook, and then this makes Mahmoud squirt tea through his nose, and then this gets the whole damn office going. We’re all just f*cking roaring, when suddenly there’s this silence, and then a funny high-pitched noise.

Tariq says, “did you just hear th...”

Now, back in the madrassa when we studied the afterlife, I always wondered what would be the last thing to go through my head. I’m pretty sure now it was one of Mahmoud’s anklebones. And if you’re wondering if it was painless? Imagine a full-frontal 800 degree root canal while listening to a Neil Young record. But hey, I figure no big whoop, just the admission price to heaven’s eternal ho sammich. So Zarkman walks toward the light. No sh*t, it’s a lot like 2001: A Space Odyssey, but in 3-D quadrophonic sensurround. And BOOM, plop, I’m in this gigantic white room, completely empty except for this hooded faceless guy and a totally sweet 47" plasma screen. So I walk across the big empy room to the guy, and I’m like, there is but one God, and Mohammed is his messenger, death to the infidels, yada yada yada. So I’m waiting for him to punch my E-ticket for Magic Ho Mountain, when he whips out a DVD and pops it in. It’s the director’s cut of “This Is Your Life, Zarkman.” Sure, there’s a lot of blooper material in there, but also a pretty badass highlight reel — the rapes, the murders, the IEDs, hour after hour of beheadings. Good times, man. Good times.

You'll have to read the rest to see how things turn out for him. Foul language advisory is in full effect.

He Knew We Got Him

A mortally wounded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was still alive and mumbling after American airstrikes on his hideout and tried to get off a stretcher when he became aware of U.S. troops at the scene, a top military official said Friday.

"He was conscious initially, according to the U.S. forces that physically saw him," Caldwell told Fox. "He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was U.S. military." (via Breitbart)

Is it wrong to feel happy that the last thing that murderer saw before he met his doom was American soldiers? I'm glad he was conscious just long enough to realize who killed him. That sounds horrible, but that's how I feel.

F...UN

When trying to broker a ceasefire between warring factions, do not follow The UN's M.O.:

U.N. official to East Timorese policemen: Ok, you guys give us all your guns and we’ll take them to our headquarters. Then, unarmed and under the UN banner, walk past those soldiers over there with guns. Don’t worry, they’re cool. Meanwhile, some of our staffers are going to go out and rape some 14 year olds in exchange for food and medicine. Cool?

Then, when the stupid Americans get angry with us, we’ll blame the U.S. government for not doing a good enough P.R. job for us. After all, it’s George W. Bush’s fault, right?

Redstate describes why the UN is a failed organization.

The fact that Malloch Brown blames the ignorance of the American public for the monumental failings of the UN is nothing short of stunning.

It wasn’t America who allowed the slaughter of Tutsi to go forward in Rwanda. Rather it was a direct act of his master, Kofi Annan, that permitted this certifiable case of genocide to occur. It wasn’t American peacekeeping troops and officials engaged in the sexual trafficking of Bosnia women and in the sexual abuse of African children. It was not American officials, other that Robert Torricelli, that is, who benefited from the scandalous Oil-for-Food Program: a program that allowed Saddam to rearm while simultaneously starving Iraqi children to death. It was not America who betrayed Muslims at Srbrenicia and who has dashed the hopes of the people of East Timor. America has not allowed Iran, Libya, Cuba, and Zimbabwe to monitor human rights on behalf of the UN.

The UN is a failed organization and the tragedy the members it is failing are those states who are either struggling or moribund. Money to buy food and drugs for the most vulnerable is raked off to buy cars and condos for the various relatives of senior UN staff. States such as Zimbabwe have the same vote as Sweden or even France. A Security Council based on World War II alliances has two Third World bullies sitting as arbiters of international order.

There is a place for the UN. As Winston Churchill said, “Jaw-jaw is better than war-war.” But as the world becomes a place where the danger of a world war is being rapidly supplanted by the danger of failed and failing states, a sclerotic, passive organization dominated by kleptocrats and tyrants, two of which wield a veto, and staffed by people who at the senior level seem interested in nothing as much as feathering their own nests does not inspire a great deal of confidence.

The UN must substantially reform itself or it must go away. Mr. Malloch Brown and Mr. Annan are, sadly but incontrovertibly, part of the problem not part of the solution. An intemperate address such as that given by Malloch Brown demonstrates his contempt not only for the American people, the people who contribute about a quarter of his organization’s revenue and 100% of its spine, the American government, but the very idea that reform is necessary.

For that, and for the fact that we know about it because the UN’s New World Information Order never happened, we can be grateful.

The Wrong Target

"Why are we all anti-Americans now?"

Read this editorial for the answer.

Zarqawi Is Dead!

Major news organizations are reporting that the steaming pile of human excrement known as Abu Musab al Zarqawi has been killed by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baquba, Iraq. The terrorist finally got the "martyrdom" he wanted/deserved and is now dog-paddling in the Lake of Fire.

Needless to say, the world is a better place today due to his demise.

UPDATE: Gee, it didn't take long for Democrats to piss on the parade.

Fallout From Canadian Terror Arrests

The recent arrest of 17 terrorist suspects in Canada apparently has sent shockwaves through the Great White North, despite the fact that not one soul was lost to violence (thank God). The psychological impact of a successful terrorist attack killing thousands of Canadian citizens is unimaginable.

But, part of me can’t help but wonder how Canadians would have reacted to being hit. Would they turn inward in any orgy of self-flagellation, blaming their own society for the evil inflicted upon them, like so many on the American left? Or would they fight like lions, as their grandfathers did in WWII, to combat the assault on the ideals and institutions that make Canada great?

At the press briefing held by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after the arrests, the suspects who appeared in court--all sporting traditional Muslim male beards and requesting Korans--were described as coming from a "broad strata" of Canadian society (Michelle Malkin observes: "Such a diverse lot! A veritable Benetton ad. Can't think of a similarity among them!). Not encouraging.

However, I am heartened to learn that many Canadians are beginning to question the futility of "playing nice" with people that aren't interested in living peacefully under the dominion of anything other than radical Islam. Real Clear Politics quotes some Canadian columnists grappling with the implications precipitated by the recent arrests.

"For everyone who thought Canada could cower in a corner of the planet, unnoticed and unthreatened by evil men -- even when the most menacing of a very bad lot [Osama bin Laden] has twice referenced this country as a target for attack -- take a good, hard look at what's been presented and what's being alleged," advised Rose DiManno, a columnist for the Toronto Star. Many

Canadians will take refuge in a river in Egypt, predicts journalist Rachel Marsden:

"So why, people here ask, would anyone want to do damage to Toronto? Maybe they don't. No one has been convicted of anything here yet. Maybe the three tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that the suspects allegedly ordered were going to be used to grow a massive garden that would spell out 'I love Canada' in tulips."

"Canada has been the doofus who keeps getting shoved into lockers, but still figures that if he gives up more lunches and bus money, the haranguing will end. "The new Conservative government...has already denounced Iran and Hamas, deported illegal immigrants and told anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan to shove it."

"There's a new sheriff in town. Will the townspeople back him up?"

I'm hopeful that Canadians are up to the task.

Upcoming LTA Show

Hey, everybody. Lower Than Angels is playing a show at Awakenings Cafe in Lomita, California on Saturday night, June 17th at 8 p.m. All ages are welcome. $3 cover charge. Check out their website here. We hope to see you there!

A Wedding of Firsts

We recently returned from Hawaii where, among other things, we attended the wedding of my brother-in-law Mike and his new wife, Dara. It was a beautiful wedding and, since Mike is a fan of lists, I thought I would post a few things that were "firsts" for me at his wedding. Here goes.

Mike and Dara's wedding was the first time:

1. I saw anyone get married in Hawaii
2. I witnessed a combination Christian/Jewish service (the Hebrew parts were really cool)
3. I met some of Mike and Dara's friends from back east (hmmm...)
4. There were more people in the wedding party than in the crowd
5. That I played "Here, There, and Everywhere" while the bride walked down the aisle
6. Little Man was ring boy and M was flower girl (cutest ones ever!)
7. I saw a bald bridesmaid with a beard (sorry, no picture. Trust me on this one.)
8. I was attracted to the best man, pictured below (well, there was that one experimental time in college...)
   

17 Terrorist Apprehended in Canada

Via Breitbart,

Canadian police foiled a homegrown terrorist attack by arresting 17 suspects. According to a report Saturday in The Toronto Star citing unidentified police sources, the suspects attended a terrorist training camp north of Toronto and had plotted to attack the Canadian spy agency's downtown Toronto office, among other targets in Ontario province. Authorities refused to confirm those reports.

"These individuals were allegedly intent on committing acts of terrorism against their own country and their own people," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement. "As we have said on many occasions, Canada is not immune to the threat of terrorism."

It must have been there support for the U.S. in the Iraq War. Oh, I forgot. They didn't support us in the war. So, what would drive these residents of Canada, a compassionate and peaceful nation known for its generous social welfare benefits, to plan an attack that likely would have resulted in the mass murder of hundreds of its citizens? The article explains,

"The charges came under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act. It was passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults - and after Osama bin-Laden named Canada as one of five "Christian" nations that should be targeted for terror attacks (italics mine]. The other countries, the United States, Britain, Spain and Australia, have all been targeted."

As long as so-called Christian nations continue to hide their head in the sand and not confront the virulent ideology that is militant Islam, it is just a matter of time before another atrocity occurs at the hands of Islamists. We need to defeat these people militarily, financially, and most importantly, philosophically by demonstrating that theirbankrupt ideology leads only to death, destruction, and misery. It's good to see that Canada's new prime minister understands the threat.

UPDATE:

John Hinderaker over at Powerline asks:

Do you suppose that breaking up these terrorist gangs may have involved intercepting some international phone calls and emails? No need to speculate:

Linking the international probes are online communications, phone calls and in particular videotapes that authorities allege show some of the targets the young extremists considered blowing up.

News reports also indicate that the Canadian authorities first became aware of the Toronto group through surveillance of password-protected web sites that promoted Islamic extremism. So the dark night of fascism is falling on Canada, too.

The Motor City Madman

Ted Nugent is a force of nature. He wrote some classic rock songs in the mid-70s and was the top touring act in the world between 1977 and 1979. He has also written for more than 20 publications, and is the author of The New York Times best-seller "God, Guns and Rock 'n' Roll" (July 2000), and "Kill It and Grill It" (2002), a cookbook co-authored with his wife. In 2003-2004, he hosted a reaity TV series on VH1 entitled Surviving Nugent, in which city dwellers moved to his Michigan ranch where they learned to build an outhouse and skin a boar, among other things.

Currently, Uncle Ted is co-starring with several other rock stars (Scott Ian of Anthrax on guitar, Evan Seinfeld of Biohazard on bass, Sebastian Bach of Skid Row on vocals, and Jason Bonham of Bonham UFO, and Foreigner on drums) in the new VH1 reality show Supergroup. AdmitTEDly (sorry, couldn't pass it up), I'm a sucker for these kinds of shows and I was hooked after the first episode. Any show about aging rock stars with huge egos coming together to create a new band that has to write enough songs to play a gig in 12 days is bound to be good television. The highlight of the show is Nugent--hands down.

He is quick-witted, politically incorrect, and hilarious. He's definately made some big-time gaffes in his lifetime, but that serves to make him more colorful. I just find the guy fascinating. This interview in the online edition of The Independant is a classic. Here's a sample (strong language warning is in effect):

INTERVIEWER:

"What do these deer think when they see you coming?" I ask him. "Here comes the nice guy who puts out our dinner? Or, there's the man that shot my brother?"

NUGENT:

"I don't think they're capable of either of those thoughts, you Limey asshole. They're only interested in three things: the best place to eat, having sex and how quickly they can run away. Much like the French."

Ahhh. Refreshing. The whole thing is great.

Time To Go Home

We leave Hawaii tomorrow morning to go home to Orange County. It's been a fantastic trip. My family and I have had a wonderful time and met some really nice people. Hopefully I'll have time to blog and post more photos later.

Jesus Is Not Their Homeboy

From Tim Graham at The Corner:

Have you ever wondered how the media hype surrounding The DaVinci Code stacks up against the does-Mel-hate-Jews frenzy over The Passion of the Christ? Come see my new report on “The Trashing of the Christ,” which compares ABC, CBS, and NBC news coverage (or with the Code, the thinly disguised free advertising) of the two movies. Not only were the networks endlessly “intrigued” by the anti-Christian “legends,” it spurred them to long prime-time specials peddling wacky theories that even the theorists admitted they couldn’t prove. And they call it “news.”

So, making a movie that attempts to convey a historically accurate event about the passion of Jesus Christ is controversial because of how it makes Jews feel, but a movie involving fantastic claims about Jesus' life with no basis in fact is celebrated, despite the fact that it offends Christians. I don't have a problem with the making of this movie, or the book for that matter, but what I want to know is, when is someone going to make an historically accurate movie about the life of Muhammed?

I'm not holding my breath.

The Outworking of Political Ideology

A thought-provoking post over at The Belmont Club that discusses how the attacks of 9/11 put a defining question to different modes of American political consciousness. Wretchard writes:

Until then it was possible to treat many ideologies respectable since the 1960s as harmless forms of iconoclasm, posing "provocative" but fundamentally hypothetical views. But when attacks on the US homeland made it categorically necessary to answer the question: 'are you willing to fight our assailants', many sincere ideologues paused, shook their heads and said: 'No. In fact I am morally obligated to help our assailants'. When Noam Chomsky went out of his way to support Hezbollah it wasn't inexplicable, it was logical. His long articulated hypotheticals have simply become actuals.

He concludes:

Until September 11 it was possible for the more "enlightened" segments of society to regard patriotism, religion and similar sentiments with the kind of amused tolerance that one might reserve for simpletons. Nothing that a little institutionalization and spare change couldn't straighten out. The problem for the Democratic Party is that the Great Polite Silence is over. People like Chomsky and President Bush have stopped being hypothetical and become all too real. Bring it on.

I don't have enough time to comment on it because we're going to the beach shortly. But, it's well worth reading and, if I have time later, I'll post some thoughts on it.

Nice To Hear Some Good News

MICHAEL BARONE serves up some good news about the state of affairs in the world today.

Things are better than you think. Yes, I know, most Americans are in a sour mood these days, convinced that the struggle in Iraq is an endless cycle of bloodshed, certain that our economy is in dismal shape, lamenting that the nation and the world are off on the wrong track. That's what polls tell us. But if we look at some other numbers, we'll find that we are living not in the worst of times but in something much closer to the best.

It would be nice to hear about this in our media once in awhile.

Instapundit chimes in:

[I]f we elect a Democrat to the White House we'll hear a lot more about those good numbers...

Time For His 15 Minutes

An ongoing court battle in Britain pits Apple Corp. Ltd. (started many years ago by The Beatles) and Apple Computer Inc., in a fight over whether the computer company has infringed on the music company's business interests. BBC TV invited a British journalist and blogger named Guy Kewney, an expert in music downloads, to discuss the issue. When the call came to go on-air, the assistant in charge of bringing Kewney to the set accidently brought his taxi driver. They proceeded to sit him down, pin a mic on his lapel, and interview him. The video can be seen here.

Evidently, he's now a media star in Britain. Good for him. (hat tip: The Corner)

Deligitimizing Debate

Wretchard at Belmont Club links to an article over at the Volokh Conspiracy about the way in which an opposing viewpoint is not refuted, but delegitimized. Volokh takes his example from an article in Slate quoting President Bush.

Here's today's Slate's Bushism of the Day:

"That's George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three -- three or four books about him last year. Isn't that interesting?" -- Showing German newspaper reporter Kai Diekmann the Oval Office, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006

Here is the context for that quote:

That's George Washington, the first President, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three -- three or four books about him last year. Isn't that interesting? People say, so what? Well, here's the "so what." You never know what your history is going to be like until long after you're gone. If they're still analyzing the presidency of George Washington -- (laughter.) So Presidents shouldn't worry about the history. You just can't. You do what you think is right, and if you're thinking big enough, that history will eventually prove you right or wrong. But you won't know in the short-term.

Volokh comments:

Without this context, Bush's quote seems mysteriously inarticulate, and understandable only as an unintentional self-parody of his own unintellectualism. Why would he say that it's interesting that he read three or four books about Washington this year? Mystifying.

Wretchard adds:

It may be that President Bush is a dunce, chimp and idiot. But if so then a cherry-picked quote would not even be necessary to prove the point. It is characteristic of chimpanzees that even if you print their remarks in full they still sound like chimpanzees. The actual point of the the George Washington remark appears to be that history often delivers a judgment different from that of contemporary journalism. This assertion could be legitimately disputed by Slate, which often has wonderful articles. But in this unfortunate instance they've chosen to simply dismiss it as the babbling of a retarded Harvard Business School Graduate and ex-fighter pilot who happens to be President of the United States. There are precious few journalists who can claim as much; and while neither being a Harvard alum, fighter pilot or US President is proof of any particular genius, people having those accomplishments should not normally be presumed illiterate or mentally retarded unless there is compelling proof to the contrary. And the proof, as the full Volokh citation shows is not only absent but suppressed, possibly because it is not proof at all, unless it is proof of the writer's bias.

Exactly right. Dishonest journalism is despicable and often harmful. I'm tired of journalists and publications that selectively edit quotes, lead good news stories with dour headlines or under-report good news altogether, quote "experts" with a political ax to grind without revealing their bias, assume bad faith or intentions on behalf of those they perceive to be their ideological opponents, editorialziing in their "reportage," etc.

Obviously, journalism is reflective of society. Unfortunately, much of the mainstream press is entrenched with leftists, although it is admittedly becoming more balanced over time (or should I say "fair and balanced?"). Nevertheless, the alarming growth of Anti-Americanism abroad over the past few years has been abetted by leftists in the American press who hate conservatives, Christians, and traditionalists--in other words, those whom are personified by Presdient Bush.

Saying that President Bush is an idiot or that he sounds stupid is simply intellectual laziness by those who want to deligitimize his policies as a way to mollify their feelings of hatred toward him and what/whom he stands for. I don't agree with everything the man says, nor do I think he is a good communicator. But, honest debate about the extremely important issues of today requires a fair look at both sides of the issues, using objective truth to make informed decisions, and allowing the best ideas to prevail. Unfortunately, much of what passes for political dialogue today is nothing more than each side trying to deligitimize the other.

Hilton Hawaii

Yesterday we went to the Hilton Waikaloa, which is an amazing hotel near our condo. Here's a couple of reasons why.


Mike and Dara are getting married here. Actually, we have yet to see the wedding chapel area, which is supposed to be spectacular. I'll post some photos of that soon.

Darkness Forms Over Persia

Bad news from Iran:

Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.

As if we needed any more proof that the rehtoric coming from Tehran isn't just of the chest-pounding variety. If the collective memory of the Europeans exceeds 60 years, this may help to stiffen their backbone so that we can acheive a consensus for meaningful sanctions and/or other measures to prevent the crazy ayatollahs from obtaining the A-bomb.

Powerline has a good round-up of the most recent, impotant essays regarding the Iranian regime.

A Strong American Ally

John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia had this to say to Members of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons...

Australia, as you know, is an unapologetic friend and ally of the United States,” Mr. Howard told a Commons chamber that's heard all-too-frequent criticism of Washington in recent years.

Fresh from a visit to the White House, Mr. Howard told a chamber packed with Tory MPs, staffers, lobbyists and party functionaries — but noticeably light on Liberal Opposition MPs — that the U.S. “has been a remarkable power for good in the world.

“And the decency and hope that the power and purpose that the United States represent in the world is something we should deeply appreciate,” Mr. Howard said to sustained applause. ...

Mr. Howard, picking up on the theme, told the Commons that “terrorism will not be defeated by nuancing our foreign policy. Terrorism will not be defeated by rolling ourselves into a small ball and going into a corner and imagining that somehow or other we will escape notice.”

He also cautioned U.S.-bashers. “For those around the world who would want to see a reduced American role in the affairs of our globe, I have some quiet advice. That is, be careful of what you wish for. Because a retreating America will leave a more vulnerable world.

It's nice to know that America has at least one unapologetic friend in this world. Thank you, Mr. Howard.

We're Here!

Fortunately, we have wi-fi. So, I should be able to post a few things from Hawaii.

This new computer is cool. It has this cool photo booth feature that allows you to take some crazy pictures. Here's one I took of Little Man on the plane.

Here's a disturbing one of my youngest at the condominium.

It's really strange because ever since she's arrived she's had an odd fascination with astrophysics and complex mathematical equations.

More photos will follow. We've got to go get some breakfast.

Aloha

My family and I are leaving for Hawaii early tomorrow morning. While there, I'll see my brother-in-law get married (I'm playing/singing "Here, There, and Everywhere at some point during the ceremony), hang out with the in-laws, hopefully write some music, read a book, enjoy the family, and get some much needed rest.

I'm excited to do some more blogging, too. In fact, I should note that this is my first post on my new Apple Book Pro laptop. This computer is awesome. I plan to use it for recording demos, blogging, managing photos and videos, etc. It should be fun. My next blog will probably be from the big island of Hawaii (hopefully I can find some wi-fi!).

Aloha!

Psycho Babble

James Lileks helpfully transcribes the diminutive Iranian President Ahmagonnakillu's letter to President Bush. An excerpt:

...Our people glow with pride over our nuclear efforts, sometimes literally. I repeat that the enrichment is for peaceful purposes only, and we seek only peace, and peace is our goal, and there is nothing more we love than peace. Except death. Sorry; forgot. Death is definitely number one. In third place of things we love, well, there were those nice ice-cream desserts they had at this little place in Tehran. When I was Mayor I had them brought in on Fridays. Good times, good times. But once I found a hair.

Go Back to the Peanut Farm, Jimmy

Redstate:

Jimmy Carter is — by far — the worst American president that anyone alive today can remember. Pick your poison: Unemployment? Inflation? Foreign affairs debacles? Waiting lines at the gas stations? Deadly killer bunny rabbits? Rude and boorish White House aides? Jimmy Carter had it all.

I couldn't agree more. Even as a young boy I remember the disaster that was the Carter Administration. It was a gloomy time in America, politically speaking. Unfortunately, Carter doesn't know when to quit inflicting his brand of foreign policy on America and the world.

Here are some of the lowlights of his post-presidency diplomatic efforts:

1. During the buildup to the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991, while the first President Bush was trying to orchestrate an international coalition to remove Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, Carter wrote a letter to the U.N. Security Council asking its members to stymie Bush's efforts.
2. In 1994, President Clinton dispatched Carter to defuse an impending war with North Korea over that country's nuclear program. After meeting with Kim Il Sung, Carter said of Kim Il Sung, a brutal Stalinist dictator, "I found him to be vigorous, intelligent, surprisingly well-informed about the technical issues and in charge of the decisions about this country." He then went live on CNN International without telling the administration to undermine Clinton's efforts to impose U.N. sanctions on North Korea. Carter believed sanctions threatened the agreement he had worked out. By speaking directly to the world about the prospects for peace, he knowingly encouraged countries like Russia and China, which were resisting a sanctions regime. According to Brinkley, a Clinton Cabinet member referred to Carter as a "treasonous prick" for his behavior.
3. Carter tried to legitimize the Venezuelan referendum in 2004 on the Hugo Chavez regime where exit polls conducted by the reliable American firm of Penn, Schoen, and Berland showed Chavez losing by a large margin (59 – 41), while the official results put Chavez free and clear by a vote of 58 to 41 percent--a 40 point swing. “I think it was massive fraud,” Doug Schoen told Michael Barone at U.S. News and World Report. “Our internal sourcing tells us that there was fraud in the [Venezuelan] central commission.” There are widespread reports of irregularities and evidence of fraud, many of them ably recorded by Mary Anastasia O’Grady in the Wall Street Journal last week. Carter is untroubled by any of this, and declares that Chavez won “fair and square.”
4. In the 1990 election in Nicaragua, Carter, along with most of the liberal Democratic establishment in Washington, openly hungered for a Sandinista victory as a way of discrediting the Reagan-Bush support for the Contras. Sandinista strongman Daniel Ortega had visited Carter in the U.S. and called him “a good friend,” and Carter consistently downplayed or excused reports of Sandinista pre-election thuggery and voter intimidation.
5. Now he is chastising the Bush Administration for not financing the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, for whom he has become an outspoken defender. According to the Jerusalem Post, Hamas calls for the nuclear destruction of Israel in a nuclear holocaust.
6. Carter reportedly volunteered to be Arafat's speechwriter and go-fer, crafting palatable messages for Arafat's Western audiences and convincing the Saudis to continue funding Arafat after the Palestinians sided with Iraq against the United States.
7. He recently accused U.S. soldiers of torture and oppression at Guantanamo.

I wish Jimmy Carter had stuck to teaching Sunday school and his excellent work building houses for the poor for Habitat For Humanity. If he had, there's little doubt that he could have rehabilitated his image and wiped his disasterous presidency from the American consciousness. Even Nixon had China, which he is widely recognized for making important contributions after his failed presidency. Unfortunately, Carter seems to have boundless energy and an uncanny knack for being on the wrong side of history.

While it's too late to impeach him, this organization wants him censured. It'll never happen; but, it's not as if there aren't plenty of reasons to.

The verdict: Nice man, crappy politician.

The U.N. Kills

That's Mark Steyn's conclusion in this article in The Austrailian. Here he points out the absurdity that is the U.N.:

If you think the case for intervention in Darfur depends on whether or not the Chinese guy raises his hand, sorry, you're not being serious. The good people of
Darfur have been entrusted to the legitimacy of the UN for more than two years and it's killing them. In 2004, after months of expressing deep concern, grave concern, deep concern over the graves and deep grave concern over whether the graves were deep enough, Kofi Annan took decisive action and appointed a UN committee to look into what's going on. Eventually, they reported back that it's not genocide.

Thank goodness for that. Because, as yet another Kofi-appointed UN committee boldly declared, "genocide anywhere is a threat to the security of all and should never be tolerated". So fortunately what's going on in the Sudan isn't genocide. Instead, it's just hundreds of thousands of corpses who happen to be from the same ethnic group, which means the UN can go on tolerating it until everyone's dead, at which point the so-called "decent left" can support a "multinational" force under the auspices of the Arab League going in to ensure the corpses don't pollute the water supply.

Victor Davis Hanson illustrates why the daily slaughter of defenseless human beings continues as the U.N. looks on:

[People] simply die because the United Nations acts as if it's going to do things, so it thwarts unilateralism on the part of responsible parties, and it does nothing, and people perish and are forgotten. So I think the United States is saying look, we're willing to step forward, but we're not going to do this anymore where we get hung out to dry in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Balkans, and Panama. Every time we try to do something to stop a dictator or a thug, we have these triangulators who want it to be done, but not us to do it. So I think we're sort of seeing an American zen now, where the United States is trying to say you wanted this type of world, you have it. And then yet not being completely nihilistic, in the sense that we will act, finally, if no one else will, but we want this other dialogue to play out.

Another reason the U.N. is so ineffectual is its leadership. Kofi Annan is too busy raking in large sums of money from people he subsequently appoints to UN commissions to notice the genocide taking place under his watch.

Communism's Been Bedy Bedy Good To Castro

[Fidel] Castro, who says his net worth is nil, is likely the beneficiary of up to $900 million, based on his control of state-owned companies, the U.S. financial magazine [Forbes] said in its annual tally of "Kings, Queens & Dictators" fortunes on Thursday.

I wonder if the people who are actually forced to live under his totalitarian rule feel as warm and fuzzy about communism as Castro? Somehow I doubt it.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is Losing Ground

It's frustrating that the American media do not report more about our military and political success against Al Qaeda in Iraq. Fortunately, the internet can fill in the gaps left by the media.

Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters analyzes a captured al-Qaeda correspondence in Iraq that discusses the state of the insurgency. Here's a sample:

From the correspondence:

Northern al-Karkh groups are estimated at 40 mujahid, so is the Southern Karkh. They could double that number if necessary. Al-Rassafah groups in general is estimated at 30 mujahidin as I was informed by the commander of al-Rassafah. These are very small numbers compared to the tens of thousands of the enemy troops. How can we increase these numbers?

Morrissey writes:

This plaintive assessment shows how weakened Zarqawi has become at the hands of the Americans. Between the three commands in the Baghdad area, AQ has a grand total of 110 mujahid, admittedly no match for the thousands of American troops in Baghdad and the thousands of Iraqi troops we are training and putting into play. No wonder Zarqawi has given up on suicide missions -- he has almost nothing left.

That's encouraging.

United 93

I saw United 93 by myself last night (Mike and Cherie wisely abstained). It was a good movie, but, obviously, disturbing. I think the writers/directors purposefully (and smartly) played it straight, sticking to the facts without trying to make some stupid political point. I also thought the filmmakers did an admirable job of not overtly demonizing the terrorists (their actions were sufficient to make that point) or overly-hype the heroic deeds of the passengers (ditto).

Naturally, there was a lot of drama, both in the aircraft and, kind of surprisingly, in the control towers and a military base where officials were trying to sort through the confusion of what was happening (e.g. once they realized an actual hijacking was taking place and deciphered Mohammed Attah's statement, "We have some planes," they realized there were 4,200 planes in the air).

My only complaint was that the movie didn't develop some of the passengers that played a central role in attempting to retake control of the airplane. Not that it was possible to make the characters any more sympathetic, but it would have helped a little cinematically to feel more connected to who these people were--that they weren't just passengers or victims. Perhaps the filmmakers didn't want to be exploitative. Or, maybe the whole point was to illustrate their commonality--that they were all just ordinary people.

But, I just think it's fascinating that, for example, two of the main leaders of the revolt were an evangelical Christian and a gay rugby player. I love that two guys from completely different worlds united to lead a rebellion against the terrorists. Another interesting, albeit minor, point that the movie could have highlighted was the fact that, once the passengers realized what was happening, one of the first things they did was vote to decide on their plan of attack. It would have been great to show the contrast between people who live in a civilized society and those who want to take everyone back to the 7th century (under their rule, of course).

The film did acheive one significant contrast. Toward the end of the film there was a scene juxtaposing the prayers of the terrorists and passengers--with the former praying for success in bringing maximum death and destruction, and the latter praying for life and salvation. A stark contrast and, I think, illustrative of the warring ideologies/theologies battling for supremacy today.

All in all, the film did a good job of portraying an awful event. Some say it was the first battle won by our side in the war on terror. Here's to hoping that the American left and most of the remainder of Western Civilization can overcome its tendency toward self-loathing and actually stand up for itself (side note: it was apropos that the one passenger in the film who kept trying to convince the others to appease the terrorists was a European. Go figure).

Real Evil In This World

Moral idiots who think George W. Bush/America, etc. are evil would be well advised to read this post at Powerline and, more importantly, the link below to the Mudville Gazette post, for a lesson about real evil in this world.

Someone filmed the appallingly brutal murder of one of Iraq's leading journalists, a young woman named Atwar Bahjat, some weeks ago. At the time, she was reported to have been shot by terrorists. The truth, as detailed by Mudville Gazette, is infinitely worse.

The enemy is evil, and those who try to excuse that evil, or who lavish ridiculous mounts of news coverage on stories like Abu Ghraib while leaving their readers in the dark about the real atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic terrorists, are complicit.

More from Jihadwatch:

Anyone who thinks that God's greatness is established by such acts of barbaric cruelty must be resisted at all costs. Yet those who hold to the same ideology, and who think that God Himself will grant Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Him (Qur'an 9:111), are streaming into Western countries, by the design and forethought of Western leaders, with no attempt whatsoever made to determine whether or not they approve of such slaughters and the ideology that motivates them.

This is insane.

Also see the article in the London Sunday Times--"Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing."

UPDATE: The video that Mudville Gazette references reportedly is a fraud. Everything else still applies.

Why We Fight--With Restraint

I am often bemused and frustrated when I hear people on the left gloat that "America is losing the war" in Iraq. In the first place I don't think it's true. But, it does beg the question, "why are we 3+ years into this war with no definitive end in sight?"

No one in their right minds believes the U.S. can be defeated militarily in Iraq. "What about Vietnam?" some say. Students of history know that we were winning that war on the battlefield, but lost it when the media spun the defeat of the Vietcong during Tet into a loss for our troops. Grisly images of American casualties on the nightly news broadcasts eventually turned public opinion against that war and, subsequently, America lost the political will to continue the fight. This loss of political will to fight was the first of many over the next 35 years (excluding the first Gulf War) that emboldened Al 'Qaida into believing that the U.S. was a paper tiger, precipitating numerous terrorist attacks against our citizens/interests around the world and culminating in the 9/11 atrocities.

Even without the use of the devastating unconventional weaponry at our disposal, we could end the fight with brutality and ruthlessness. But, that would involve genocidal warfare on an unimaginable scale, which would not be tolerated by the American public. So, we allow our enemies enough room to fight back at the cost of the lives of some of our finest men and women.

Any leverage our enemies have over us on the battlefield is a direct result of our self-imposed restraint. The question is, "why do we allow them to fight back?".

In this article, Shelby Steele traces what he calls "this new minimalism in war" to white guilt. Sounds strange at first, but some of his arguments are compelling.

Anti-Americanism, whether in Europe or on the American left, works by the mechanism of white guilt. It stigmatizes America with all the imperialistic and racist ugliness of the white Western past so that America becomes a kind of straw man, a construct of Western sin. (The Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons were the focus of such stigmatization campaigns.) Once the stigma is in place, one need only be anti-American in order to be "good," in order to have an automatic moral legitimacy and power in relation to America. (People as seemingly disparate as President Jacques Chirac and the Rev. Al Sharpton are devoted pursuers of the moral high ground to be had in anti-Americanism.) This formula is the most dependable source of power for today's international left. Virtue and power by mere anti-Americanism. And it is all the more appealing since, unlike real virtues, it requires no sacrifice or effort--only outrage at every slight echo of the imperialist past.

Steele argues that white guilt requires the U.S. to fight a two-front war: one militarily and one of "dissociation" from our history of racism and imperialism. He writes,

...though Islamic extremism is one of the most pernicious forms of evil opportunism that has ever existed, we have felt compelled to fight it with an almost managerial minimalism that shows us to be beyond the passions of war--and thus well dissociated from the avariciousness of the white supremacist past.

This hyper-sensitivity to the stigmatization of their objectives causes our leaders to impose severe limitations on their execution of the war. Steele continues,

To maintain their legitimacy, they practice the minimalism that makes problems linger. What but minimalism is left when you are running from stigmatization as a "unilateralist cowboy"? And where is the will to truly regulate the southern border when those who ask for this are slimed as bigots? This is how white guilt defines what is possible in America. You go at a problem until you meet stigmatization, then you retreat into minimalism.

As they say, read the whole article. Steele's case for why America is so restrained in the execution of this war is, in my opinion, compelling.

Little Man

When there is mischief on his mind...

...and when he is being an Angel...

...when he's making fashion statements...

...being crazy...

...skateboarding...

...or just chillin'...

...Little Man is a rock star...

...in my eyes...

...and one of the greatest joys in life.

Ocho

Although the much-anticipated immigration demonstrations took place today, the big topic in much of the Los Angeles media was Kobe Bryant's heroics in the Lakers' dramatic win over the Phoenix Suns yesterday. I've been a Laker fan since I was 11 years old and have seen so many amazing players, game-winning shots, and championship banners (I admit I've been spoiled), but the two shots Kobe made yesterday were definately up there with the best of them.

It's been really remarkable to watch Kobe grow from a selfish egomaniac to a leader who is beginning to transcend the game. He embodies the competitive spirit and, like Michael Jordan in the previous generation, can impose his will on the game, often tipping the balance in the Lakers favor. I think the humiliation of the sexual assault allegations/trial coupled with last season's Lakers debacle had a humbling affect on Kobe. It's nice to see him regain stature as a winner, but more importantly as a leader. I read today that he took time to point out the contributions of each of his teammates in a post-game locker room meeting, praising them for their efforts and perseverance. That's what good leaders do. So many have been surprised by this series because of Kobe's unselfishness.

Someone said: Kobe stopped looking for greatness, and greatness found him. I think that's about right.

By the way, congratulations are in order for Kobe and his wife, Vanessa, who gave birth to their second daughter today. Shaquille O'Neal's wife also gave birth to a daughter today. Coincidence? I think not...well, maybe.

My Little One

Anticipation

Movie Star Someday

Tech-head

Snow Bunny

It's a Wonderful (Busy) Life

Can life get any busier? I hope not. Everyday it's something else.

This weekend Mike's fiancee Dara stayed with us while she was interviewing for jobs and looking for an apartment. She and Mike found a nice apartment in Irvine. Hopefully, she will land a job down in that area. I think they're relieved that they have a place to live after the wedding in May.

Last night we were supposed to have dinner with Kathryn and Alan Scott and their two young daughters, Emily and Sophie. The Scotts are wonderful people here on sabbatical from Ireland. Kathryn is an amazing songwriter who, along with her husband, pastors a church of 700 in northern Ireland. Unfortunately, Sophie came down with a fever and they couldn't come over. They're leaving Thursday, so we probably won't get to see them before they go.

Instead, Cherie and I ended up signing loan docs for a re-fi on our house (real exciting). In the meantime squeals of excitement were heard from outside. Our 6-year-old boy was laughing and cheering his soon-to-be 4-year-old sister, who succeeded at learning to ride her bike without training wheels. She was so proud of herself she even said "I'm proud of myself," while smiling from ear to ear.

Tonight is my other brother-in-law Eddie's 35th birthday. So, my family and I had dinner with him and his family. It was a nice time.

It is so busy, but most of it is really good stuff. We're definately blessed and thankful, but I know Cherie and I sure are tired. This weekend will be pretty full, too. I'm hosting a poker game Friday night; Ryan and Rissa's wedding is Saturday; Donna is having a C-Section Sunday for her new daughter, Isabella; and I lead worship at church on Sunday night. I'm looking forward to our family vacation to Hawaii, 3-1/2 weeks from now.

Why Iran Is Pursuing The Bomb

This is why I'm not optimistic about a peaceful resolution of the crisis with Iran.

Last Monday, just before he announced that Iran had gatecrashed "the nuclear club", President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disappeared for several hours. He was having a khalvat (tête-à-tête) with the Hidden Imam, the 12th and last of the imams of Shiism who went into "grand occultation" in 941.

According to Shia lore, the Imam is a messianic figure who, although in hiding, remains the true Sovereign of the World. In every generation, the Imam chooses 36 men, (and, for obvious reasons, no women) naming them the owtad or "nails", whose presence, hammered into mankind's existence, prevents the universe from "falling off". Although the "nails" are not known to common mortals, it is, at times, possible to identify one thanks to his deeds. It is on that basis that some of Ahmad-inejad's more passionate admirers insist that he is a "nail", a claim he has not discouraged. For example, he has claimed that last September, as he addressed the United Nations' General Assembly in New York, the "Hidden Imam drenched the place in a sweet light".

Last year, it was after another khalvat that Ahmadinejad announced his intention to stand for president. Now, he boasts that the Imam gave him the presidency for a single task: provoking a "clash of civilisations" in which the Muslim world, led by Iran, takes on the "infidel" West, led by the United States, and defeats it in a slow but prolonged contest that, in military jargon, sounds like a low intensity, asymmetrical war.

In Ahmadinejad's analysis, the rising Islamic "superpower" has decisive advantages over the infidel. Islam has four times as many young men of fighting age as the West, with its ageing populations. Hundreds of millions of Muslim "ghazis" (holy raiders) are keen to become martyrs while the infidel youths, loving life and fearing death, hate to fight. Islam also has four-fifths of the world's oil reserves, and so controls the lifeblood of the infidel. More importantly, the US, the only infidel power still capable of fighting, is hated by most other nations.

Is Iran Next?

Powerline has some interesting commentary about the new issue of the Weekly Standard that is focused on Iran's nuclear program and it's most recent belligerent statements toward the U.S. The commentary focuses on a long article by Reuel Marc Gerecht's entitled: "To bomb, or not to bomb." Here' Gerecht:

Deterrence theory may well work against the clerical regime, but it ought to be admitted that we have never before confronted a regime where anti-Americanism, violence, terrorism, and God's writ have been so intermarried. The Soviets in their hatreds were positively ecumenical. What we are dealing with in the Islamic Republic's ruling revolutionary elite is a politer, more refined, more cautious, vastly more mendacious version of bin Ladenism. It is best that such men not have nukes, and that we do everything in our power, including preventive military strikes, to stop this from happening.

So we will all have to wait for President Bush to decide whether nuclear weapons in the hands of Khamenei, Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad, and the Revolutionary Guards Corps are something we can live with. Given the Islamic Republic's dark history, the burden of proof ought to be on those who favor accommodating a nuclear Iran. Those who are unwilling to accommodate it, however, need to be honest and admit that diplomacy and sanctions and covert operations probably won't succeed, and that we may have to fight a war--perhaps sooner rather than later--to stop such evil men from obtaining the worst weapons we know.

John Hinderaker comments: Maybe I'm completely wrong about this, but it strikes me as almost inconceivable that we could take any military action against Iran. The left's attack on the Iraq war has been intended, in part, to destroy the Bush administration. But there is a second, equally important objective: by portraying the Iraq war as a disaster and turning American public opinion against it, the left hopes to reprise its Vietnam success by making it impossible, for a generation, for the U.S. to fight a meaningful war. Hasn't that project been successful? I think it has, although whether its impact will last for a generation remains to be seen.

Environmental Confusion

Mike and I occasionally have interesting discussions about the political and economic implications of environmental policy. I subscribe to the point of view that we should do our best to protect the environment with sensible policies that don't simultaneously destroy the economy. Mike has expressed similar sentiments.

I am certainly no expert, so I typically defer to Mike on environmental issues because he is much more knowledgeable. As I understand it, he generally subscribes to the belief that human activity is largely responsible for global warming. But, lately I've read a number of articles by academics and scientists disputing the commonly held notion that global warming is occurring and that we're all doomed.

Today I found this article in the Brussels Journal, entitled "Kyoto: An Open Letter to the European Governments and the European Commission." It actually focuses on a letter written by "60 accredited experts in climate and related scientific disciplines" to the Canadian Prime Minister. The experts made some pretty shocking statements, including:

“If, back in the mid-1990s, we knew what we know today about climate, Kyoto would almost certainly not exist, because we would have concluded it was not necessary.”

“Climate change is real” is a meaningless phrase used repeatedly by activists to convince the public that a climate catastrophe is looming and humanity is the cause. Neither of these fears is justified. Global climate changes all the time due to natural causes and the human impact still remains impossible to distinguish from this natural “noise.” The new Canadian government's commitment to reducing air, land and water pollution is commendable, but allocating funds to “stopping climate change” would be irrational. We need to continue intensive research into the real causes of climate change and help our most vulnerable citizens adapt to whatever nature throws at us next.

We believe the Canadian public and government decision-makers need and deserve to hear the whole story concerning this very complex issue. It was only 30 years ago that many of today's global-warming alarmists were telling us that the world was in the midst of a global-cooling catastrophe. But the science continued to evolve, and still does, even though so many choose to ignore it when it does not fit with predetermined political agendas.

As someone who cares about the environment, but admittedly is no expert, I find these new studies confusing. Environmentalists, many of whom have a political agenda, have told us repeatedly over the past decade that human causation of global warming is indisputable. Anyone who thinks otherwise is condemned either as a polluter, a nut job, or in the pocket of big industry.

I don't think dogmatic environmentalists have helped the debate about global warming by trying to stamp out competing viewpoints. I'd like to know the truth. Then we can formulate sensible policies to make the earth healthier, while protecting the economy.

Plush Recap

The Lower Than Angels show at Plush Cafe in downtown Fullerton went well last Wednesday night. We had a good crowd out to see us, Ryan Webster's band, and a couple of rock bands from Biola University.

It was a bit tough because it was the first time all five band members had been in the same room at the same time. About an hour before the gig I sat down with Bob Hartry and went over his parts so he could remember them (it had been a couple months since he had last played with us). Unfortunately, we have some pretty complex arrangements and it's not that easy just to jump in. So, that was a bit stressful.

Also, it was my brother-in-law Mike Harrison's first gig with us. Mike did a great job and sang his parts well, too. So, that was fun. I know he was pretty stressed out about it, not wanting to screw up. Mike asked how I thought the gig went and I characterized it as "uptight." Because it was Mike's first gig and Bobby's first in a couple of months, I think there was a lot of anxiety about not screwing up parts. So, there were very few times when it felt like the band relaxed.

I also realized that it is difficult to fit LTA's big sound into such a small venue as Plush Cafe. Three guitarists doing intricate parts, loops, and atmospherics, as well as two- and three-part harmonies create a pretty crowded sound palette. We'll probably continue to do those gigs because they are fun and local. But, I hope to branch out to some other venues soon.

Oh, and I asked one of the band members of another band (who will remain anonymous) to take some photographs, but 99% of them turned out horribly. So, unfortunately, we don't have any good photos of the night (I may post one of them later).

Busy Week

I can't believe it's been a week since my last post. This is by far the longest lapse since I began blogging last year. The reason posting has been so light is that I've been out every night this week at some musical function (e.g. a songwriter meeting, a band rehearsal, and two concerts). It's been really fun, but exhausting. Hopefully I'll have more time to blog this weekend. I've been reading and thinking about a lot of stuff lately.

Western Response to Terrorhan

Victor Davis Hanson believes that Tehran's strategy to obtain nuclear weapons miscalculates the response of the West, particularly the U.S. and Israel. He writes:

Ever since September 11, the subtext of this war could be summed up as something like, “Suburban Jason, with his iPod, godlessness, and earring, loves to live too much to die, while Ali, raised as the 11th son of an impoverished but devout street-sweeper in Damascus, loves death too much to live.” The Iranians, like bin Laden, promulgate this mythical antithesis, which, like all caricatures, has elements of truth in it. But what the Iranians, like the al Qaedists, do not fully fathom, is that Jason, upon concluding that he would lose not only his iPod and earring, but his entire family and suburb as well, is capable of conjuring up things far more frightening than anything in the 8th-century brain of Mr. Ahmadinejad. Unfortunately, the barbarity of the nightmares at Antietam, Verdun, Dresden, and Hiroshima prove that well enough.

So far the Iranian president has posed as someone 90-percent crazy and 10-percent sane, hoping we would fear his overt madness and delicately appeal to his small reservoirs of reason. But he should understand that if his Western enemies appear 90-percent children of the Enlightenment, they are still effused with vestigial traces of the emotional and unpredictable. And military history shows that the irrational 10 percent of the Western mind is a lot scarier than anything Islamic fanaticism has to offer.

So, please, Mr. Ahmadinejad, cool the rhetoric fast — before you needlessly push once reasonable people against the wall, and thus talk your way into a sky full of very angry and righteous jets.

Will Truth Reign in the Kingdom of Fear?

An interesting article over at Powerline covering a talk by Sayyed Ayad Raouf Jamal al-Din at the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Jamal al-Din ran for parliament on the slate headed by former prime minister Alawi. This was a national unity slate, and it fared poorly in the election. But Jamal al-Din remains as insistent about the need for a unified Iraq as he is about the related concept of separation of religion and state. He talked little about Sunni vs. Shiite vs. Kurd and much about truth vs. fear and democracy vs. tyranny. And when he spoke of terrorism, he spoke of Islamic terrorism, not terrorism by any particular faction.

During the question period, I asked Jamal al-Din to say who is winning in Iraq now, truth or fear; democracy or tyranny. He answered by saying that right now Iraq is “a kingdom of fear.” Diana West and I later agreed that this answer is more meaningful and perhpas more disheartening than Dr. Alawi’s claim (which has become a mantra of the left in this country) that Iraq is in the middle of a civil war. In a civil war, there's an enemy army; in a kingdom of fear there are ghosts. An army can be easier to fight than ghosts.

But Jamal al-Din does not seem inordinately disheartened. He believes that the creation of a military and a police force with a national identity would enable the truth-fear, democracy-tyranny struggle to be played out in a clash between sectarian militias and the national army and police force. Though he did not say so, I felt that Jamal al-Din believes this struggle could go either way, and he clearly believes that much depends on the willingness of the U.S. to remain engaged.

Basic InStink (2)

Via Scrappleface:

At the box office this weekend, Ice Age 2 clobbered Basic Instinct 2 hauling in $70 million dollars, compared with less than $3 million for the Sharon Stone movie. One film is about a prehistoric creature’s struggle to survive and find love, the other is the animated sequel to the movie Ice Age.

Why Leftists Hate Conservatives

Some excellent observations by Dennis Prager about why leftists are, on average, meaner and more hateful than conservatives.

Here are a just a few examples of what Dennis is talking about.

Democrats are the 'Party of Compassion' as Islam is the 'Religion of Peace.'

Return Of The Champions

Tonight at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim Mike and I saw Queen with Paul Rodgers of Free and Bad Company fame. The show rocked. Queen did a bunch of my favorites, including Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions, Under Pressure, and Tie Your Mother Down. I was impressed with how relatively seamless the transitions were between Queen songs and some of Paul Rodgers' past hits, including Bad Company, Feel Like Makin' Love, and All Right Now. Rodgers has just about a perfect voice for an arena rock band.

Master lead guitarist Brian May played his signature guitar through a wall of Vox amps, creating a massive sound. In addition to being a brilliant guitarist May is a very impressive singer . The band's vocals, in general, were huge and spot on, which I loved. The only disappointment was some of the songs they selected to play. I'm not a big fan of Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Another One Bites the Dust, or Radio Ga Ga; but, I realize there's no getting around playing them. I would much rather have heard Killer Queen, Somebody to Love, and You're My Best Friend. Oh, well. Overall, the show was fantastic.

God Save [the] Queen!

McKinney Is A Racist

Something...and Half of Something is a cool blog that I recently found. This post does a good round-up on the disgrace that is Cynthia McKinney, Democrat Congresswoman from Georgia. Here's a summation (with which I wholeheartedly agree):

Never mind that you're supposed to wear your lapel pin as your credentials, Cynthia, oh no, the rules don't apply to you, do they and therefore, its okay to assault a police officer?

You are a disgrace to your state, your office, and this country.

UPDATE: This was her 5th run in with the law on the same issue. Last time she said: "I am absolutely sick and tired of having to have my appearance at the White House validated by white people."

What a racist.

Rhetoric for a 'Long War'

Mark Steyn on the recent protests in the U.S.:

But, while Charlie Sheen is undoubtedly a valiant leader, you couldn't help noticing it was followers the anti-war crowd seemed to be short of on the third anniversary. The next weekend half a million illegal immigrants -- whoops, sorry, half a million fine upstanding members of the Undocumented-American community-- took to the streets, and you suddenly realized what a big-time demonstration is supposed to look like. These guys aren't even meant to be in the country and they can organize a better public protest movement than an anti-war crowd that's promoted 24/7 by the media and Hollywood.

Well, OK, half the anti-war crowd aren't meant to be in the country either, if they'd kept their promise to move to Canada after the last election. But my point is there's no mass anti-war movement. Some commentators claimed to be puzzled by the low turnout at a time when the polls show Iraq increasingly unpopular. But there are two kinds of persons objecting to the war: There's a shriveled Sheehan-Sheen left that's in effect urging on American failure in Iraq, and there's a potentially far larger group to their right that's increasingly wary of the official conception of the war. The latter don't want America to lose, they want to win -- decisively. And on the day's headlines -- on everything from the Danish cartoon jihad to the Afghan facing death for apostasy -- the fainthearted response of "public diplomacy" is in danger of sounding only marginally less nutty than Charlie Sheen.

French Riots

A funny article in the Toronto Star discusses the obsurdity of the recent French riots (what isn't obsurd about France nowadays?).

Here is how I understand last week's wave of marches, riots and blockades in the land of loitering existentially in smoky cafés while making meaningful hand gestures:

Lots of over-educated youths with too much black in their wardrobes are desperate to dress up in balaclavas and bandannas and torch things because (now let me word this correctly) they are disillusioned that their government wants to help them get jobs, because when you get a job there is a big danger you might one day lose it, especially if you are crap at it.