Alyssa Lappen Also Agrees With Me

She decries the "roadmap", in great detail, in an open letter to President Bush at FrontPage Magazine today:

.... Mr. President, you resolved after September 11th that the U.S. would defeat terrorism globally. I’m a New Yorker, and this earned you my unwavering support.

The Road Map, however, defeats this wise policy by:

• Rewarding terrorists whose deceitful regime has murdered more than 1,300 civilians since 1993, maimed more than seven thousand, and sponsored 20,000 attacks on civilians over the past three years. It rewards the inventors of suicide bombing, airline hijacking, kidnapping and mass murder for political gain.
• Overlooking the Palestinian National Charter’s open call for genocide — never revised. Thirty of its clauses seek Israel’s political, military, intellectual and cultural destruction by any and all means.
• Defeating democracy. The PA Constitution proposes an undemocratic, racist, Islamist state — denying basic freedoms to non-Muslim minorities. This reinforces Islam’s worst characteristics, a history of subjugating non-Muslims revealed by Bat Ye’or, Ann Elizabeth Meyer, Raphael Israeli, Frederick P. Isaac , Tudor Parfitt, H.Z. Hirschberg, V.S. Naipaul and Patrick Sookdheo, among others. Israeli’s forthcoming Islamikaze should be required State Department reading.
• Illustrating U.S. failure of conviction, a perceived weakness inviting Islamists to mount larger attacks on Israeli and U.S. civilians — and intensify their advanced ideological, intellectual, political, and religious assaults on foundational Western values.
• Ignoring a central tenet of Islam, which permits no permanent peace between Muslims and “infidel” states (such as Israel). Under Islamic law, the only treaty possible between Muslims and “infidels” is a “truce” modeled on Muhammad’s Al-Hudabiyyah Treaty with the Meccans in 628, according to Islamic scholar Hugh Fitzgerald. This may not exceed 10 years, and may be renewed briefly, but only if Muslims could thereby gather strength to renew their assault or defeat the Infidels in question.

Mr. President, the U.S. government must insist, to allies and enemies alike, that Israel reserves the national and sovereign right to defeat the terrorists, who have used all concessions to coordinate further nefarious work from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade and every other terror group west of the Jordan River....

Besides the Rewarding point, of course, I think the Illustrating point is especially spot-on.

See my Roadmap to Terrorism?

(Thanks, Charles.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/19/03 06:01:56 PM
Categorized as International.

"The APA Gets It Right"

So says The Washington Times in an editorial today:

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) wisely rejected the recommendation of some psychiatrists at an APA symposium held in San Francisco on May 19 that pedophilia be removed from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Several categories of mental illness were debated for possible removal from the upcoming annual edition of the manual. Among other illnesses suggested for removal were exhibitionism, transvestism and sadomasochism....

Mark Shea also gets it right, in a blog today:

APA rejects move to normalize pedophilia... for now.

You think the first attempt to normalize homosexual practice was successful? You think the people pushing for it gave up after one failure?

You wanna buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

See also Phil Lawler's observation at Off the Record today:

Our friend "Shrink," a regular Sound Off contributor, calls attention to the recent decision by the American Psychiatric Association not to remove pedophilia from the standard list of emotional disorders.

You knew that. But take another look at the explanation offered by APA officials. They insist that pedophilia is a disorder, even if not all pedophiles experience emotional distress because of their condition. In other words, even if you're a happy, contented pedophile, you're still emotionally disturbed.

This is significant, because when the APA decided that homosexuality should not be considered a disorder, it was because some homosexuals reported feeling no emotional distress because of their condition. If it didn't cause distress, the APA concluded, it wasn't a disorder.

Something's got to give. Either the APA will eventually conclude that a self-contented pedophile is perfectly OK, or -- let us pray-- they'll realize that emotional distress is not the only reliable indicator of emotional disorder.

Lawler's historical account may be too simplistic. But I will note that two steps forward, one step back, gets one to one's goal, eventually.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/19/03 04:46:56 PM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.

Changes at Off the Record

See Bettnet.com, where it becomes obvious that The Blog from the Core is a powerhouse in backwater media. ;-)

Re: "The Good, The Bad, and the Blogly": And, some friendly advice from me to Off the Record.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/19/03 04:17:22 PM
Categorized as Media.

"The Good, The Bad, and the Blogly"

And, some friendly advice from me to Off the Record.

The Instapundit has an interesting article on weblogs at TCS yesterday:

.... So what makes a blog good? First the inevitable, though sincere, dodge: it depends. Blogs come in many different flavors and styles - though political and tech blogs get the most attention, there are many other varieties (including the huge but largely ignored mass of gay blogs) and what makes one good or bad naturally varies accordingly. What's more, there's a way in which blogging, like jazz, always succeeds: if it's reflecting the feelings of the blogger, it's a success at some level, regardless of whether anyone else likes it. (There's only one hard-and-fast rule: get rid of the typos. No blog that's full of typos looks good.)

But that said, there are some things that - in my opinion - make good blogs good. And the most important of those things are (1) a personal voice; and (2) rapid response times....

Now, Jonah Goldberg, in his notice of Reynold's article, mentions the following:

.... He also raises the point about the anonymity of leftwing blogs I just referenced below. I agree with Glenn's point about how anonymity can drain the energy and personality from such sites.... But I think he misses another point. When these guys take potshots without signing their names to them, it comes across as profoundly weasily....

I think Off the Record would do very well to reconsider certain editorial practices: pseudonymous guy(s) taking potshots — which is, sometimes, putting it mildly — rack up a lot of words there. And the practice does, indeed, come across as "profoundly weasily". Coming across as "profoundly weasily" isn't something a Catholic organization should put up with. My advice? Knock off the potshots, or all of you use your names.

[Follow-up: Changes at Off the Record.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 06/19/03 10:02:14 AM
Categorized as Media.