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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Thursday, November 17, 2005
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"Catholic Carnival LV: Quotations, Part Deux" This week's Catholic Carnival is at Living Catholicism. There has been a discrepancy concerning the sequential numbering of the entries in the Catholic Carnival, so from now on, I'll be using the title provided by the week's host instead of an ordinal number. The Blog from the Core does not necessarily endorse every entry in the weekly Catholic Carnival. Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 11/17/05 08:11:51 AM |
Readworthies XXIV A handful of interesting, informative, and insightful articles. News, editorials, columns, essays, et al. A Clear View of the Past by Dave Cloud @ The American Enterprise Online (ht): "I wonder how well you have been sleeping these last nights? Mothers and fathers all over our beloved land are spending sleepless nights worrying again over their boys being sent to fight wars on foreign soil wars that are no concern of ours." Talk about discouraging. All year long the negative numbers about the war rolled in like the tide. The President's approval rating in the Gallup poll bottomed out at 23 percent. Another poll showed that 43 percent of Americans thought it was a mistake to have entered the war. The enthusiasm from early victories quickly evaporated.... Apocalypse? by David Warren @ DavidWarrenOnline: .... The recent riots in France remind me how quickly Europe is receding, in historical time; how completely its civilization has been undermined; how much is irretrievably lost. European Imperialism is retrospectively derided, but it was a manifestation of a European mission to civilize and Christianize all human life; to bring the light of Europe to every dark, pagan, and barbarous enclave. It is that light which is now mostly extinguished, just where it once blazed most brightly. The cynicism that emerged in memoirs of the Western Front, gave colour to the literature and art of the 1920s, gave birth in turn, as I've come to think, to that nihilist "spirit of postmodernism". But this cynicism was not without plenty of precedent in the decadence of Europe before the Great War; and in the loss of Christian faith that had already cracked Europe's ruling classes. After a century adrift, we find a Europe which itself has gone pagan again, and is returning to barbarity.... Truth and Doodie by James Pinkerton @ Tech Central Station: Welcome to the next installment of the continuing saga: Mary Mapes vs. the Blogs, in which, for good measure, she takes on reality, too. And at the same time, we can consider the rise, fall and possible comeback of Mapes as part of the ongoing power-struggle between the MSM (Main Stream Media) and the New Media (NM).... Fuss and Feathers: Pandemic panic over the avian flu. by Michael Fumento @ The Weekly Standard: "The indication is that we will see a return of the 1918 flu virus that is the most virulent form of flu," warns America's top health official. "In 1918, half a million people died. The projections are that this virus will kill one million Americans.... " A quotation ripped from today's papers about an impending "bird flu" pandemic? No, the year was 1976 and the prediction of a deadly "swine flu" overshot the mark by 999,999 deaths (although dozens did die from the vaccine campaign). That's something to remember amid the current alarms. Another is that we've been here before with the identical virus over which the feathers are now flying, avian influenza type H5N1, which first hit poultry flocks in 1997. "Race to Prevent World Epidemic of Lethal 'Bird Flu,'" and "Hong Kong 'Bird Flu' Could be the Next Big Outbreak," blared the headlines then. The world death toll from that "wave"? Six. And let's not forget the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) two years ago, which led to 750 stories in the New York Times and Washington Post one per death worldwide, as it turned out. The 71 U.S. cases of SARS, which resulted in zero deaths, did not "Overwhelm U.S. Health System," as CNN had predicted. None of which is to say there won't be another flu pandemic. There were three in the last century, after all. But that gives us absolutely no idea when the next will come, nor whether it will be any relative of H5N1, nor what its impact will be. Two of those 20th-century pandemics weren't particularly severe, while the other was catastrophic. (Pandemic, by the way, does not mean "deadly epidemic" it means "worldwide epidemic.") What we can say with confidence is that there is never such a thing as helpful hysteria. And the line between informing the public and starting a panic is being crossed every day now by politicians, public health officials, and journalists.... We are in danger of forgetting that waiting comes before wanting by Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks @ (ht): The scenes of France in flames have been disturbing night after night of cars on fire, buildings ablaze, angry youth and embattled police. This is not the first time we have seen how quickly societies can descend into chaos. It happened in the Netherlands after the murder of Theo van Gogh, in New Orleans after the hurricane and in the Lozells area of Birmingham during the recent riots. We are seeing the emergence of a new politics of anger. The causes are simple: ethnic ghettos, immigrant enclaves, concentrations of poverty, unemployment and young people with strong feelings of exclusion and resentment. We know also what will happen. There will be stronger policing; violence will become more sporadic; tempers will cool; measures will be taken. Lessons will be learnt. The attention of the media will turn elsewhere. Until the next time.... Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 11/17/05 07:43:42 AM |
Open Source Media (Thanks, Charles.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 11/17/05 07:35:11 AM |
Don Surber (Thanks, neo-neocon.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 11/17/05 07:25:00 AM |
Michael Fumento Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 11/17/05 07:18:45 AM |
The Dilbert Blog (Thanks, Jonathan.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 11/17/05 07:12:34 AM |
"Strategic overview: Annotating and updating Den Beste" By TigerHawk at TigerHawk: More than two years ago, blogging great Steven Den Beste (now (perhaps) returned from retirement!) published a widely-linked "strategic overview" of the war on Islamic fascism, including (in Den Beste's conception) the invasion of Iraq. Den Beste's strategic overview was an extremely useful outline of the strategic issues identified by supporters of the Bush administration's policies, and it has in many respects stood the test of time. It runs more than twenty pages, but even at that length you are unlikely to read a more concise summary of America's strategic challenge circa 2003. However, a lot has happened since the spring of 2003. Whatever might be said about the success of the war in Iraq compared to the standard of history, it has been at best a qualified success and many opponents of the war call it an unqualified failure, or worse compared to the standard set by its most optimistic advocates in early 2003. So where do we stand? Now that Den Beste has returned to blogging, perhaps he will be updating his own overview. However, since I thought my own thinking would benefit from the exercise, it is with great humility that I undertake to annotate and update Den Beste myself. The object of this post, then, is to organize my thinking about the war in light of what we knew then and what we now know. You guys are along for the ride. Do not expect spit and polish, but do not hesitate to dispatch your (constructive) arguments, additions and subtractions into the comments. In all likelihood, I will update this outline in the future, or use it as the basis for other work. I have reproduced Den Beste's original post with the original links in italics below, with my additions, deletions and corrections in regular text or reflected as such in Den Beste's. Please excuse my formatting, which tends to be as aesthetically displeasing as everything else about this blog.... Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 11/17/05 07:07:17 AM |
FIRE's Guides
FIRE's Guide to Free Speech on Campus focuses on the threat to freedom of expression posed by the imposition of speech codes, under various misleading names, on campuses across the nation. This Guide identifies the most effective arguments against such codes on private, public, and sectarian campuses, and demonstrates how the mere application of rules of legal equality go a long way to reforming current abuses.... Time and again, students on our nation's college and university campuses are subjected to campus courts without due process and fair procedure. FIRE's Guide to Due Process and Fair Procedure on Campus provides information about the appropriate and inappropriate methods by which university administrators and student judicial panels address issues of academic misdeeds and behavioral misconduct. This Guide also provides a history of how due process issues have been handled by the courts and gives several examples of institutions where procedures are handled with concern for fairness. Because it is crucial to choose the most effective grounds on which to base a claim of unfairness, the Guide will introduce readers to both legal and moral arguments, explaining how these may be used on private and public campuses.... .... FIRE's Guide to Student Fees, Funding, and Legal Equality on Campus provides a thorough explanation of the significance of student activity fees and their relationship with free expression and campus equality. This Guide provides students with the information they need to stand up for the fair distribution of student funds and educates administrators about the intricacies of this largely unexplored area of First Amendment law.... College and university campuses remain one of the only forums in which the rights of students of faith are regularly curtailed. The ease with which students are denied the right to associate freely among themselves, even in matters of conscience and religion, is profoundly disturbing, as is most students' inability to expose such denials as fundamentally unjust. FIRE's Guide to Religious Liberty on Campus provides a history of the struggle for religious liberty and explains how the legal and moral arguments for religious liberty apply differentially on public and private campuses.... At a growing number of colleges and universities, students are directed or even required to attend orientation sessions whose outward purpose is to introduce incoming students to life in college. All too often, these orientation sessions are forums for intrusive sensitivity training and politically correct thought reform. FIRE's Guide to First-Year Orientation and Thought Reform on Campus contrasts the legitimate purposes and intentions of campus orientation sessions with current practices and effects, revealing how these sessions have evolved in Orwellian fashion in the hands of college administrators. This Guide explains the immoral implications of these orientation sessions for liberty and dignity on college and university campuses and provides students with a basis for effective and respected conscientious objection.... (Thanks, Samantha.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 11/17/05 06:55:08 AM |
"The J. Patrick Buchanan Memorial Library for Failed Prophets of Doom" By Frank at Varifrank: Imagine if you will, a library that is stocked with books that relate to one thing, the Cassandra like predictions from the past that have failed to come true. A Library entirely dedicated to the published works of blowhards, pundits, college professors, and economists everywhere who like the sound of their voice and are certain that they have seen the end times just around the corner. But for some reason never seem to be able to predict the disaster we all know is waiting for us out in the murky future. The Library should serve as a warning to all who wish to see the future darker than it really is. It would be a hell of a thing wouldn't it? Row after row of books that predict the end of the world and "why you need to do something now to survive it and for 19.99 you can buy my book to tell you how to make the most of the coming ice age/global warming/polluted cities". Just think of all the people who have made big predictions about how "really screwed you are", book after book, year after year, they keep coming and the public doesnt seem to be able to get enough.... (Thanks, neo-neocon.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 11/17/05 06:48:14 AM |
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