Re: The Stunning French?

Concerning this, a reader writes:

I think I heard the same line ascribed to an Austrian diplomat during the 19th Century. Russia had helped re-establish the Hapsburgs after some dust-up. When Russia found itself in some problem or other the diplomat commented that "We shall stun the world with our ingratitude."

But it sounds like De Gaulle.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 11/24/04 07:31:48 PM
Categorized as International.

SoDakMonk

South Dakota Monk.

Vide.

(Thanks, Jeff.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 11/24/04 07:08:23 PM
Categorized as Blogosphere Stuff.

Catholic Carnival V

At Living Catholicism this week.

(Thanks, Nârwen.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 11/24/04 06:58:54 PM
Categorized as Catholic Carnival & Religious.

Exurbia Punishes Kerry

Or something like that.

Interesting analysis at LAT, Nov. 22:

The center of the Republican presidential coalition is moving toward the distant edges of suburbia.

In this month's election, President Bush carried 97 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties, most of them "exurban" communities that are rapidly transforming farmland into subdivisions and shopping malls on the periphery of major metropolitan areas.

Together, these fast-growing communities provided Bush a punishing 1.72 million vote advantage over Democrat John F. Kerry, according to a Times analysis of election results. That was almost half the president's total margin of victory....

Looks like folks are getting fed up with living near the collapsed civilizations of the Great Society.

See also 3-D Red-Blue.

(Thanks, Peter.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 11/24/04 06:39:46 PM
Categorized as Political.

Thanksgiving This Year

Thanks to Sherry for sending this along today.

Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving; she's in jail. To avoid the pain of having her presence be missed, I've made a few small changes to our usual celebration and decorations:

Our sidewalk will not be lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries. After a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done, rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect.

Once inside, our guests will note that the entry hall is not decorated with the swags of Indian corn and fall foliage I had planned to make. Instead, I've gotten the kids involved in the decorating by having them track in colorful autumn leaves from the front yard. The mud was their idea.

The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy china, or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and everyone will get a fork. Since this is Thanksgiving, we will refrain from using the plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last Christmas.

Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration hand-crafted from the finest construction paper. The artist assures me it is a turkey.

We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you while you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice comment I have made regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims, and the turkey hotline. Please remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 a.m. upon discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds.

As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a recording of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming sounds suspiciously like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. They are lying.

We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional "screaming over the TV" method instead. We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. When the smoke alarm sounds, please gather around the table and sit where you like.

In the spirit of harmony, we will ask the children to sit at a separate table. In a separate room. Next door.

Now, I know you have all seen the Norman Rockwell painting of a handsome, relaxed, no-stress gentleman skillfully carving a turkey in front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. This will not be happening at our dinner. For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private ceremony. I stress "private" meaning: Do not, under any circumstances, enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children to check on my progress. I have an electric knife that approaches the heft of a chainsaw. The turkey is unarmed. It stands to reason that I will eventually win. When I do, I will be hot, sweaty, aggravated and exhausted. Then, we will eat.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind my young diners that "passing the rolls" is not a football play. Nor is it a request to bean your brother in the head with warm tasty bread.

Oh, and one reminder for the adults: For the duration of the meal, and especially while in the presence of young diners, we will refer to the giblet gravy by its lesser-known name: Cheese Sauce. If a young diner questions you regarding the origins or type of Cheese Sauce, plead ignorance.

Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice among 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with Cool Whip and small fingerprints. You will still have a choice: Take it, or leave it.

Gobble, Gobble!

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 11/24/04 06:18:22 PM
Categorized as Other.

Hollywood Strangely Silent

Screenwriter Bridget Johnson writes at OpinionJournal, today:

.... Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh's short film "Submission," about the treatment of women in Islam, written by female Dutch parliamentarian and former Muslim Aayan Hirsi Ali, had aired in August on Dutch TV. Van Gogh was riding his bike near his home when a Muslim terrorist shot him, slashed his throat, and pinned to his body a note threatening Ms. Ali. This appears to be an organized effort, not the act of a lone nut; Dutch authorities are holding 13 suspects in the case.

After the slaying, I watched "Submission" (available online at ifilm.com) and my mind is still boggled that 11 minutes decrying violence against women incites such violence. There've been many films over the years that have taken potshots at Catholics, but I don't remember any of us slaughtering filmmakers over the offense. You didn't see the National Rifle Association order a hit on Michael Moore over "Bowling for Columbine."

One would think that in the name of artistic freedom, the creative community would take a stand against filmmakers being sent into hiding à la Salman Rushdie, or left bleeding in the street. Yet we've heard nary a peep from Hollywood about the van Gogh slaying. Indeed Hollywood has long walked on eggshells regarding the topic of Islamic fundamentalism. The film version of Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears" changed Palestinian terrorists to neo-Nazis out of a desire to avoid offending Arabs or Muslims. The war on terror is a Tinsel Town taboo, even though a Hollywood Reporter poll showed that roughly two-thirds of filmgoers surveyed would pay to see a film on the topic.

In a recent conversation with a struggling liberal screenwriter, I brought up the Clancy film as an example of Hollywood shying away from what really affects filmgoers — namely, the al Qaeda threat vs. the neo-Nazi threat. He vehemently defended the script switch. "It's an easy target," he said of Arab terrorism, repeating this like a parrot, then adding, "It's a cheap shot." How many American moviegoers would think that scripting Arab terrorists as the enemy in a fiction film is a "cheap shot"? In fact, it's realism; it's what touches lives world-wide. It's this disconnect with filmgoers that has left the Hollywood box office bleeding by the side of the road....

See Nostalgie Pour la Boue.

(Thanks, Charles.)

[Follow-up: Hollywood Still Strangely Silent.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 11/24/04 05:56:01 PM
Categorized as Media.

What Really Happened in Fallujah

Vide.

(Thanks, Charles.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 11/24/04 05:42:12 PM
Categorized as International & Photos & War.

Frum on CAIR

David Frum says that CAIR Canada says he has libeled them:

Two weeks ago, the National Post and I were served with a notice of libel by the Canadian branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The Post and I are not alone. Over the past year, CAIR's Canadian and U.S. branches have served similar libel notices on half a dozen other individuals and organizations in the United States and Canada. Each case has its own particular facts, yet they are linked by a common theme: That we defendants have accused CAIR (in the words of the notice served on me) of being "an unscrupulous, Islamist, extremist sympathetic group in Canada supporting terrorism."

Lawyers for individuals and newspapers served with libel notices will normally urge their clients to avoid any comment on the matter — to avoid even any acknowledgement that they have been served. This is usually good advice. A notice of libel is not a lawsuit, but a warning of a lawsuit to come. If the potential defendant keeps quiet, the potential plaintiff will often drop the suit altogether.

But wise legal advice often comes at a cost, a cost in public information. So I was heartened that the National Post's lawyers have encouraged the paper and me to continue with this important story....

I used to see CAIR folks on TV a lot. But not lately. One thing I remember they all had in common: they didn't want anybody else to get a chance to talk.

(Thanks, Kate.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 11/24/04 05:35:37 PM
Categorized as International.

Herb Thanks

Vide.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 11/24/04 08:05:25 AM
Categorized as Other.

Soldiers Need Help With Calling Cards

Over at Dom's place:

Our wounded GIs at the Walter Reed Army Hospital need your help, according to reader Pete Wilson. In order to make long-distance calls home, the soldiers need to use calling cards. The hospital has let it be known that donations of calling cards in any denomination would be very welcome.

If you want to donate a card, send it to:

WRAMC
Att. Family Assistance Center
6900 Georgia Avenue
Bldg. 2/Room 3E01
Washington DC 20307

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 11/24/04 08:01:12 AM
Categorized as Other.

"Why Bush Has No Fear"

Thanks to Margaret for calling our attention to Dr. Charles Krauthammer's essay at Time, dated Nov. 29:

.... With Cheney's renouncing presidential ambitions, it is known in advance that the Bush Administration will die in January 2009 without an heir. What does that mean? Late in Bush's term, it will mean terminal lame duckness, even more powerlessness than most late presidencies experience. Who, after all, will be around later to reward and punish? No one.

But early in Bush's second term, the fact that Bush-Cheneyism will never have to seek popular ratification again gives Bush unique freedom of action. Which, in the hands of a President with unusually ambitious goals, will yield perhaps the most energetic — to some, the most dangerous — presidency of our lifetime....

You don't need the CIA — where Bush's new appointee is cleaning house in another hotbed of insurgency — to connect the dots: the President is taking control of his government. In a country where the bureaucracy is so entrenched that the government is often at war with itself, that is revolutionary. As is the man in charge. Bush is marshaling his forces for the single-minded pursuit of a foreign policy rooted in a radical idea: the spread of democracy, particularly in the Middle East. That means unrelenting pursuit of the war on terrorism and no flinching on Iraq. Those who thought a re-elected Bush might reverse course and seek an exit strategy have been sobered by everything that has happened since Election Day.

This is no accidental presidency. Bush intends his to be a consequential presidency. And he knows that in January 2009 it all ends. This is a man on a mission, indeed several missions. And very little time. If that scares the Democrats who tried everything to defeat him — and those around the world who were desperately hoping for his replacement and repudiation — it should.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 11/24/04 07:52:55 AM
Categorized as George W. Bush & Political.