Blogworthies LXXV

Because The Blog from the Core simply can't cover everything.

Noteworthy entries @ The Corner, Radio Blogger, protein wisdom, Hoystory.com, Pontifications, Public Eye, Big Lizards, The Mudville Gazette, Off the Record, Michelle Malkin, Southern Appeal, Sacramentum Vitae, Pontifications (again), Hit & Run, Gateway Pundit, Veritas, SecretAgentMan's Dossier, Discriminations, Dr. Sanity, Sacramentum Vitae (again), Anchor Rising, and Midwest Conservative Journal.

Setting the Record Straight @ The Corner:

A very illuminating, indeed must-read, email from Mark J. Conversino:

Jonah-

I was a squadron commander at the time of Desert Fox in 1998 (we called it "Deny Christmas '98") and while there was a sense that Clinton's order to attack Iraq at that point had a tinge of "wag the dog" to it, we also knew that this was a long time in coming. (In addition to the Feb 98 comments you cite, Clinton also warned that Saddam could pass his WMD to "shadowy" terrorists who traveled unseen among us — sound familiar?). As things deteriorated throughout the spring, summer and fall of 98, Clinton was under pressure, from both Dems and Republicans, to carry out a substantial attack against Iraq. He had been criticized for waging "pin-prick" strikes that accomplished little of substance. You might recall Bill Cohen hitting the Sunday chat shows that fall with his 5lb bag of sugar and claims that a similar amount of Saddamite anthrax would devastate DC and its environs....

Mark Steyn on the Euroarabian war currently happening in the suburbs of France. @ Radio Blogger (ellipsis in original):

.... [Hugh Hewitt]: And so, you're not going to Paris anytime soon?

[Mark Steyn]: I'm actually thinking of going to Paris. I went to one of these suburbs that's currently ablaze three years ago. And what was interesting to me is I had to bribe a taxi driver a considerable amount of money just to take me out there. They're miserable places. But what was interesting to me is that after that, I then flew on to the Middle East, and I was in Yemen, and a couple of other places. And what was interesting to me was that I found more menace in the suburbs of Paris than I did in some pretty scary places in the Middle East. I mean, there is a real... this, I think, is the start of a long Eurabian civil war we're witnessing here....

Male-ing it in: Alito, notification, and the desires of the "patriarchy" @ protein wisdom:

In a peripheral swipe at Samuel Alito, the Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum points to two posts that challenge the idea of "husband" notification with regard to abortion restrictions, before concluding:

As I've mentioned before, abortion is just one of a constellation of hot button conservative social issues that have at their core a desire to enforce traditional sex and gender roles, and notification laws are yet another example of that. They aren't about notification, they're about control. In the case of parental notification, there's at least a reasonable argument that this kind of one-sided control is appropriate, but in the case of husbands and wives, there isn't. Not in the 21st century, anyway.

Of course, just because Kevin has argued this before doesn't make it so — or even particularly persuasive, for that matter. What it does do, however, is attempt to reduce a complex set of moral, ethical, social, and political beliefs — one that affects people of all political stripes (72% of Americans support some sort of spousal notification, including 66% of Democrats) — into an easy "progressive" populism for which Kevin hopes he's rewarded by the bright lights on the left who actually do believe (at their "core"?) that conservatives are interested in nothing so much as rolling back women's rights and establishing a firm and legally binding patriarchy. Drum is simply reaffirming a convenient caricature....

Racism in America @ Hoystory.com:

This editorial is proof positive that the editorial writers at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are condescending liberal racists. In decrying the nomination of yet another white male to the Supreme Court, the Journal Sentinel enlightens their readers on the current makeup of the Court.

In losing a woman, the court with Alito would feature seven white men, one white woman and a black man, who deserves an asterisk because he arguably does not represent the views of mainstream black America.

A black man with an asterisk....

So what's so catholic about Anglicanism? @ Pontifications:

Why does it really matter to Anglicans whether they are catholic? I know why it's important to Anglo-Catholics, but they are a dying breed and are doomed to either extinction or transmogrification into Affirming Catholics. But why do other Anglicans care?...

The Elephant In My Room @ Public Eye:

For some, whether or not Public Eye speaks out on Memogate has become a litmus test of our seriousness, guts and honesty. I think that's sort of silly. Our mission at Public Eye is to facilitate discussion, answer questions and open up the process at CBS News, not to offer my opinions in a straight "ombudsman" fashion.

Still, the question comes up over and over and lurks just beneath the surface of almost everything we do. The reality is that this week's change of leadership at CBS News brings the issue to the forefront once again. A new account of the episode, written by former producer Mary Mapes, is also due to hit bookstores shortly. So I'll try to address it here, offer some of my personal thoughts and, hopefully, help to answer some of the questions....

Is Paris Burning? @ Big Lizards (ellipsis in original):

Is This the "Third Intifada" — Or Not?

It fascinates me how little attention the riots in France have received, even from the blogosphere. The paucity of posts points out, as if we needed reminding, how dependent bloggers are upon the very MSM that we decry... media that all too often, as in this case, leave us in the dark about critical aspects of the stories they supposedly "report." Unknown unknowns, as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld might say.

For example, everyone (including me) seems to think he has the answer to this question: are those riots in Paris an organized uprising by Moslems, a "third intifada," as some have called it? I think most folks would say "Yes," but much of that is just due to bloggish logrolling, a "blogstorm," as Hugh Hewitt calls it. Being a natural skeptic — I'm even skeptical about skepticism — I want something more than just handwaving, even when it fits my belief system (or perhaps especially when). Alas, this is precisely the information that the mainstream news seems determined to conceal from us....

Lying Times @ The Mudville Gazette (italics in original):

.... I've been to Iraq. And I characterized the [New York] Times disgraceful use of the words of an American hero as intellectually vacant moral cowardice. I was being generous.

Because I've seen numerous examples of such behavior on the part of the New York Times over the past several months. All involve selective quoting, misquoting, or simply claiming a GI said something without actually quoting them at all. Most range in repugnance from mildly annoying to grossly reprehensible — but in what I believe is the worst case they appear to attempt to frame a soldier for murder.

Let's look back on a few examples of New York Times attacks on American GIs, shall we?...

a very simple woman @ Off the Record:

NCR contributor Peg Helminski gets a phone call from an African Catholic woman, agitated by a report that the Catholic Church was about to ordain women, and asking Helminski for reassurance that it wasn't so. Helminski sees a clash of cultures. In reality, there's a clash of faith: ....

Unhinged: The Mugshot Collection @ Michelle Malkin (ellipsis in original):

.... You know how the NYTimes assigns a reporter (David Kirkpatrick) to cover conservatives like aliens from another planet? Well, this book turns the tables. I'm your conservative Margaret Mead covering the unhinged creatures of the Left like Australian aborigines. Kinda the same way Maureen Dowd writes about men... without all the bitterness.

As I noted, there were many photos providing vivid documentary evidence of my thesis that didn't make it into the book. So as an exclusive supplement, I present to you without further ado....

What a difference 141 years makes... @ Southern Appeal:

On December 6, 1864, Abraham Lincoln wrote the following letter "To the Senate of the United States:" ....

The creepiest horror @ Sacramentum Vitae:

.... I can only describe it by saying that an increasing number of Americans, perhaps even a majority by now, are convinced that it's all going to come crashing down on us before most of us are ready and while some of us are still, unfortunately, alive. "It" in this case is the American lifestyle and the "American dream" that putatively motivates it. Let's face it: the lifestyle of even the average American is unsustainable in the long run; and when the long run becomes the short run, the consequences will be horrific.

For one thing, we consistently spend and consume far more than we save and produce. We now depend on foreigners, largely Asian, to finance our budget and trade deficits. For another, only briefly could we be content with being, and acting as, the world's sole superpower. Now, as our military is already stretched to the limit, we confront not only violent Islamism but also a rising Chinese superpower and a European Union whose economy is already bigger than ours. Worse, our lifestyle depends not only on expanding debt and military superiority, neither of which are indefinitely sustainable, but on utilization of finite natural resources, chiefly oil and soil. Nobody knows when the world's oil will actually run out or become terribly expensive in virtue of demand and the difficulty of extraction; but it will someday, and sooner than most people will be prepared for. Nobody knows when the types of farming we do will exhaust the land; but someday they will, unless our methods and expectations change radically. In the meantime we are fatter than ever even as health care consumes an ever-growing portion of our Gross Domestic Product (last I read, it was 15% and climbing). We are engorged with materialism and the desire for a pain-free existence, like an overfed doe standing in the middle of the highway at night, oblivious to the speed and confused by the lights of the approaching danger....

Transignification and Eucharist: Losing the Body @ Pontifications:

I learned about transignification back in seminary, mediated through the writings of theologians like Edward Schillebeeckx and John Macquarrie. And since transignification represented the opinion of both my systematics and liturgics professors, I accepted it. (As an Episcopalian, I did not have to worry about the criticisms offered by Pope Paul VI in Mysterium Fidei.) But my attachment to transignification did not last very long, thanks principally to the writings of the Lutheran theologian Robert Jenson. Here was a brilliant non-Catholic, well versed in contemporary theology, pushing the objective real presence more strongly than any Pope....

Wow, a Nominee With a Paper Trail to Debate! @ Hit & Run:

I haven't got a verdict one way or another on Alito yet, but ThinkProgress' roundup of "facts" about the nominee's views is less than impressive. (Addendum: I see the Center for American Progress is pushing the same list.) Let's consider some of their claims....

What CNN Won't Tell You About the CIA Leak Case @ Gateway Pundit:

.... CNN put out a whole section devoted to the CIA LEAK Investigation last week but was careful to pick and choose how much background and information it would share with its audience. Here is a more complete look at the events surrounding the CIA Leak investigation....

Reformation Day and the posting [sic] of the 95 Theses @ Veritas:

.... If you asked anyone who knows anything about Church History in the West to pinpoint a specific moment or event which can be considered the beginning of the Reformation, the answer would probably be Martin Luther's posting of his 95 theses on indulgences on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. By this act, Luther is seen as rejecting the whole medieval system of indulgences and their associated doctrines and practices; in so doing, he makes his break from Rome, or at least begins to do so in a definitive way. In fact, many Protestant churches celebrate October 31st as "Reformation Day", indicating the importance of that date and Luther's actions on it in 1517 vis. the Reformation churches and communities. This date, then, has been widely regarded as the beginning of the Reformation. However...

Letter to Loretto Girl @ SecretAgentMan's Dossier:

Over at Catholic and Enjoying It I came across the story of a faithful Catholic girl and her faithful mother who've precipitated the firing of a Catholic-school teacher for encouraging mothers going inside abortion clinics. As Mark notes, there's some heat being directed at the ladies, a lot of it vile and silly. Here are some examples: ....

The Great Racial Bargain, The Great Alibi, And The Treasury Of Virtue @ Discriminations:

Shelby Steele is one of those rare writers who leaves readers — at least he leaves me — different after reading one of his powerful essays. His perception can be so penetrating, even profound, and his prose so inconspicuously effective that more than once reading an essay of his has changed the way I look at the world of race....

Command Hallucinations @ Dr. Sanity (emphasis in original):

The American public is hearing voices. And like auditory hallucinations experienced by psychiatric patients, these voices whisper continual doom and gloom. They tell the American consumer that prices are too high. That the economy is tanking; that poverty is on the rise; and that everything is bad bad bad.

These voices are persistant and continual. They are unrelenting. They are often frightening. And like the command hallucinations that torment many of my patients, they are completely and totally untrue. You are bad. Life isn't worth living. They are trying to hurt you. Don't try, it's not worth it.

It is very rare for such voices to say anything at all positive. They have a specific goal — and that goal is the distortion of reality....

Is happiness good for you? @ Sacramentum Vitae:

I admit the question is a bit Berraesque — but only for normal people, not intellectuals or Scotsmen. The former suspect happiness because to them it implies a dangerous lack of sophistication, a naïvetè arising from bovine contentment with mere grass. How could anybody be happy in a world where _______ (fill in the blank with your horror du jour)? For the most part, even the joy of sex is permissible only as a fleeting release from angst or some more specific form of negativity; and if contemporary art is any indication, even the god of creativity is fed by angst. As for Scotsmen — well, you have to remember that their culture, the most depressed on earth, was penetrated by Calvinism centuries ago. Enough said....

Fashioning a New Elite, a Truer Sky @ Anchor Rising:

Blogs are a marker of a new elite. More accurately, they represent one area in which the ways society works around elite structures must be reconceived....

Works and Plays Well With Others @ Midwest Conservative Journal (ellipsis in original):

In early 1967, the Webster Groves, Missouri School District announced that beginning in the fall, two of its elementary schools, Douglass and Washington Park (my school) would be turned into what they called demonstration centers to which any student in the District whose parents wanted them to go could transfer. And any Douglass or Washington Park parents who thought that it was stupid to fix what wasn't broken could transfer their kids out. Few new kids came to Washington Park for what was to be my sixth-grade year; I think we might have gotten two or three.

There was a reason for it. If the phrase "demonstration center" filled you with cold fear just now, this is why. My elementary school was to be a place where the latest progressive education theories would be put into practice. For example, there were our so-called "open classrooms." The walls of all the rooms were torn down, making one big room. The purpose of this was, of course, to... well I don't know what the purpose of this was aside from making it harder to concentrate on one's work....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 11/05/05 06:03:21 PM
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