Voice from the Commonwealth Commentary, World Views and Occasional Rants from a small 'l' libertarian in Massachussetts
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams
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Praise for Voice
"A smart fellow...I do like, recommend and learn from Barbera's blog." -Roger L. Simon
"Your blog is bullshit"- anonymous angry French reader.
Mahathir not afraid to tell it like he sees it. In speaking of his Islamist foes in the upcoming election he says, "They have deviated from Islam and should be condemned to hell,". Now if only some Muslim leaders would stand up and say the same about Bin Laden and all who would murder innocents.
Afghan kids are getting into baseball with the help of some Special Forces guys.
The field was dust, not grass; the players wore knee-length shirts, not uniforms; and there was no seventh-inning stretch. But Friday's baseball game was still Trecognizable as the most American of pastimes, even without the beer and hot dogs.
Cheered on by their U.S. Army Special Forces coaches and with Take Me Out to the Ball Game blaring from a loudspeaker, two teams of Afghan boys, ages 10 to 16, play every week before an ever-growing audience of curious Afghan villagers.
And of course, being the complete antithesis of the Taliban, not what the hate-America screechers want you to hear, they are already working on a girls league.
Just off the first-base line, 7-year-old Hatira tossed a ball with anyone who would play. She is the first girl in Urgun with her own glove, said Smith. The soldiers hope to form a girls league as more equipment becomes available.
The Israeli army is defending it's use of Palestinians to knock on the doors of wanted men.
The "neighbor practice" is mostly used when trying to get a wanted man out of a house. Under such circumstances the army uses what it refers to as "a pressure cooker." First the troops surround the house, using megaphones to call out the wanted man. Then one of the neighbors is sent to call on the suspect to come out. At that point, if they don't respond, the neighbor is pulled back and troops open fire with anti-tank missiles and light weapons at the house. If that doesn't work, a bulldozer is brought in to knock down the house on top of the suspects inside.
They are claiming: "The fact that nobody was killed until the day before yesterday," said one officer, "is proof of how effective it is to send a neighbor to the door rather than just opening fire or risking life." In most cases, said the officer, "the suspect comes out on his own, without turning the arrest into a firefight and without endangering the soldiers, police or neighbors."
I have some trouble with that. In practice it may be true but it is still not within the bounds of the Geneva Convention. Why not just let the person you would send up to the house use the megaphone and try to talk the person out. I don't know, it may be effective, but so are a number of things that are also basically immoral.
The Pope has arrived in his homeland of Poland. While I am disappointed by the Pope's reaction to the child molestation that has devastated the faithful here in America, I still think he has done a great deal of good and was a powerful force in the fall of Communism. I also think it is pretty cool that both he and my Pap-Pap were born in Poland on the same day.
When reading the columns written by a number of liberal columnists I am often struck by the negative, pessimistic and degrading tone that they employ when writing about conservatives. Even with that in mind, I was exceedingly shocked at the visciousness of the attack on Charlton Heston by Juan Andrade in the Sun Times.
He has nothing in common with any of them, save for Reagan, with Alzheimer's.
The hatred that must be in someone's heart to denigrate. not one but. two men (both of whom are affected by a terrible illness) seems to be well outside what would normally be considered the bounds of common decency. And to see this in a mojor news media outlet is even more disconcerting. A difference of opinion and desire to debate is fine but disinformation and vitrol and personal attacks should not be a part of the daily news.
Perhaps Mr Andrade is too young to remember (not an excuse because I am 31 and know about this) scenes like this or this when dismissing Mr Heston's ties to Martin Luther King Jr. Perhaps he forgets that Mr Heston was at Selma to speak out against the racist policies of the government. Not only has Mr Heston corageuosly stood up for the civil rights of blacks in our country, at a time when doing so involved physical danger, he has spent years standing up for the rights of gunowners. Rights guaranteed and protected by our Constitution. And for this Mr Andrade truly hates Mr Heston. For doing this Mr Andrade feels he is at liberty to say some hateful things.
Mr Andrade goes on to insinuate that Mr Heston and anyone who owns guns is a criminal and is complicit in violent crimes. This claim is made with no evidence or rationale, Mr Andrade just assumes that it must be so and that we should accept this statement at face value. It is possible that Mr Andrade has not read the Constitution of the United States (you can click on the Bartleby link to the left to find it) or the Federalist papers or the writings of the Founding Fathers and therefore is under the impression that guns are illegal in America. Or it may be possible that he has not looked at the crime statistics (which can be found at the Justice Department website) that show that legal gun owners are not likely to be involved in violent crime. That in fact most gun violence is carried out by people with previous criminal records (which even in the view of our Founders is grounds for not being allowed the ownership of a gun). All of these things may be possible. But, if they are true, musn't we ask by what authority Mr Andrade writes about the subject?
Mr Andrade misunderstands and distorts the words of Mr Heston's moving statement announcing his condition. He says that Mr Heston equated himself with JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. when in fact he stated "I'm neither giving up nor giving in. I'm still the fighter that Dr. King and JFK and Ronald Reagan knew, but it's a fight I must someday call a draw." Here is what he really said, in full.
Everyone who reads this should write an email and express their thoughts. We must end this now, we must stop allowing anyone who holds conservative or Constitutional views to be smeared as hateful and heartless. It is a total abdication of morality and standing in a debate to resort to this. STOP allowing it STOP taking it quietly. Whenever someone tries this speak up don't take it. Open debate is fine and should be encouraged but anyone who opens, carries on and closes their debate with nothing but personal vitrol should be told that such things are not polite nor are they acceptable.
Personally I will be honoring Mr Heston and exercising my fully legal and constitutional rights at the shooting range tomorrow afternoon. I grew up in Western Pennsylvania and learned guns and gun safety at an early age from my Pap-Pap (a true patriot who volunteerd and served as an engineer and was in the second wave of troops to hit Omaha Beach). And in his honor I will be teaching my daughter and wife to handle a pistol and rifle tomorrow (thanks Andrew, see you at noon). They are not yet citizens but when they are eligible I will see to it that they fully understand and exercise the full panoply of rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution.
Ahmed Yassin said there could only be a 'ceasefire' if all of Hamas' demands are met.
...including a halt to all Israeli attacks, a return to Israel's 1967 borders and the demolition of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. "The occupation must end, the occupiers must leave our land, back to the borders of 1967 in the Gaza Strip as well as in the West Bank," Yassin told the Der Tagesspiegel daily on Wednesday. "Only then can there be a ceasefire. And the settlements must be cleared, refugees allowed to return ...
But he gives us the game away with this.
"When they stop attacks against our civilians, against our people, then we will not touch their civilians," he went on, while adding that "there are no civilians in Israel, they are all military, all occupiers."
I've said it before. He and everyone else like him consider every inch of land upon which a Jew stands to be occupied. The ceasefire would be one step before the demands for an end to occupation of all of 'Palestine'.
Things are returning to a semblance of normality in Bagram.
Col. Christopher Scott Pritchett, the Bagram base commander, said U.S. dollars are pushing the economic rebirth of the town.
''In April, all that was for sale in Bagram village were items stolen from the U.S. base,'' he said. ``Now you drive out there, you see Afghan products, Pakistani products. The money is getting to the people.''
The military has contracted with Afghans in the area for much of the base reconstruction work. Contracts -- for gravel, sandbags and construction tents -- could put almost $1.5 million into the regional economy, Pritchett said.
I said it yesterday. It may be a small victory but every one of these put together will lead to something better. The people in Bagram, the children now allowed to go to school, those who have gotten life-saving vaccinations, those with new jobs, women allowed to move about freely again and every other person given this new taste of freedom will be less likely to give it up. When they have a measure of freedom to lose, and they know from experience what a return to Taliban rule would bring, will fight to keep things moving in the proper direction. Yes it will require an ongoing military presence to end the dispute among warlords still battling to keep things feudal. But, it took 25 years to reach this state we can't expect an overnight turnaround.
The Japanese are working in Afghanistan to train female educators.
The institutions plan to invite 20 female teachers from Afghanistan to Japan for six weeks beginning in January to participate in their teacher-training program, according to an Ochanomizu University official. The program hopes to train about 100 Afghan teachers in three years.
Obvious but never asked. The Leftists (American and European) and Human Rights groups that speak out decrying the Israeli settlements (something I also think is wrong) saying that they are illegal. Making them.....illegal immigrants. Now what stand do these people take on illegal immigrants in America and Europe. Oh that's right...they're not illegal immigrants. They are 'undocumented workers'.
Don't you see? It's not Comrade Bob's fault that millions will startve to death and a racial cleansing is in full swing. It is the fault of the economic war waged against black. If you read Ann Coulter's column from the 14th it makes this story even more laughable. Whenever you see the caveat "of course, we all agree ..." or derivation thereof, you should get suspicious. The last paragraph of the piece encapsulates this perfectly.
Let us condemn Mugabe's racist attacks upon Zimbabwe's whites by all means, but only if we are also prepared to condemn the far bloodier war that the rich world wages against the blacks.
Brent Scowcroft is on target when he states that "if we are truly serious about the war on terrorism, it must remain our top priority." Rightly understood, however, that means beginning with the elimination of Saddam’s regime, with its many ties to global terrorism, war crimes, and the attacks of last fall.
One of the founders of the Taliban has said that Bin Laden personally ordered the assassination of Masood.
Mullah Mohammed Khaksar, one of the founders of the Taliban and the Islamic militia's one-time intelligence chief, told The Associated Press that bin Laden had ordered two suicide bombers diverted from a trip to Indonesia to carry out the mission.
Khaksar said that on the day of the attack on Massood, he had gone to the home of Taliban Interior Minister Abdul Razzak to pay respects on the death of Razzak's father. Two Saudis who Khaksar believed were al-Qaida members were at the wake.
Khaksar, who at the time was deputy interior minister, said the two unidentified Saudis told him of bin Laden's role and assured him that Massood was dead, even though the northern alliance was insisting that Massood had only been gravely injured.
Fifty one women engineers in Afghanistan are going back for a refresher civil engineering and water and sanitation engineering, including public health projects. Every one of these is a little victory on the road to Afganistan being rebuilt. And one more buffer to disintigration.
Alright. I am going to post another CNN piece, just because it has a line too good to pass up.
On Tuesday, officials also learned that Iraq has relocated dozens of surface-to-air missiles and launchers around central Iraq, possibly to evade what Baghdad believes may be an imminent U.S. air attack, sources said.
The convoy, observed by spy satellites, entered a plant compound near Baghdad in the town of Taji, said officials. The site was bombed by U.S. planes during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, but was rebuilt and subsequently visited by United Nations weapons inspectors.
The Iraqis have said it is a meat processing plant.
This letter to Rod Dreher over at the Corner gives us a pretty good indication, I think, of what the firefighters themselves will have to say about this.
The International voted unanimously on Wednesday to boycott a national tribute to firefighters who died on Sept. 11, in an angry response to U.S. President George Bush's rejection of a bill that included $340 million to fund fire departments.
But, then again, the International Association of Fire Fighters isn't necessarily non-partisan.
And why the heck does Washington have to give money for Fire Departments? Isn't that a local thing?
Cynthia McKinney is now accusing Denise Majette of racial profiling in the running of her campaign. Does she even understand what the phrase means or is she just using it because it is a buzzword she keeps hearing the liberal media tell us is bad.
But McKinney campaign manager Bill Banks said sending African-American campaign workers into black neighborhoods is wrong. "I can't believe Majette's campaign looks at the color of your skin the minute you walk in her door," Banks responsded. "That's disgraceful, and that's not what Georgia is about."
And what is the uproar about? An email.
The memo, which the McKinney campaign sent to reporters, says that the Majette campaign must "Identify specific areas in: neighborhoods, precincts, grass roots, [be\] street driven." It says the campaign must "work the streets in a posse, in t-shirts, probably no white folks if it is a black neighborhood."
But in the racially neutral tradition of Cynthia:
Some McKinney supporters have called Majette "Tomette," a play on the pejorative term "Uncle Tom." A McKinney campaign ad states Majette "sold us out." Another McKinney ad compared Majette to a white police officer who punched a handcuffed black teen.
So McKinney will try to lambaste Majette as a tool of whites but screams 'racial profiling' when Majette's campaign is timid about sending whites into mostly black neighborhoods.
Take out Saddam and this is what you get if you don't go in and do some nation-building.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday, brutally tortured and killed one of his advisors for arriving late for a meeting with him, the online site of the weekly Focus magazine said here Wednesday. The 38-year-old Uday ordered reportedly a servant to force the advisor to drink two liters of Whiskey and then calmly watched how the man died of alcohol poisoning. The German media has reported extensively on Uday's cruelties in the past.
How absolutely delicious is this? The latest Zogby poll of likely Democrat primary voters has Gore at 38%, Lieberman at 6%, Bradley Gephart and Kerry tied at 5%, Dashle at 3% Biden and Edwards at 2%. But wait! What's that I had to rub my eyes and look again. Also garnering 5% is Al Sharpton! If he stays in this same 5% of Democrat voters remains his, meaning that there is probably no way a Democrat can take the White House in 2004. You think they caterwauled about Nader?
Also of note; Bush vs. Hillary. 58%-28% Bush wins.
Tensions are rising between the Palestinian militants, Lebanese Militants and Lebanese army. Arafat aiming for another war with Lebanon?
Tension had been running high at the Ain el-Hilweh camp since last month, when Islamist Lebanese groups clashed with Fatah and other Palestinian factions over their role in turning wanted Islamist militants over to the Lebanese army.
Even in a camp notorious for its lawlessness, yesterday’s violence was rated the worst in ten years, observers said. Security sources said the Lebanese attackers, belonging to the Dunniyeh Muslim militant group, sprayed automatic fire and threw grenades at positions held by the Fatah movement, killing one Fatah fighter.
"We are 9 children without parents. Who will take care of us now?" From what I see on CNN the NY Times and the BBC I thought only Palestinian children suffered. If these children had been Palestinians in Jenin there would have been UN resolutions in their name. They are Jews? Oh well, no need to go out and report about this. Heck, I didn't even see this until three weeks later.
The Dicksteins were on their way to spend the Sabbath in the settlement of Maon in the southern Hebron hills, when terrorists opened fire at close range, killing Yosef, 45; Hannah, 42; and Shuv-el. Shlomo, 12, was moderately wounded when a bullet hit his shoulder.
"We were driving and all of sudden there was gunfire," one of the children said. "Our mother was dead, and also Shuv-el. Father began to cry and told us all to bend down and hide... Then the terrorist came and killed Father from close range."
Such lovely people, the 'activists'. After the murder of Pim Fortuyn and with stuff like this, maybe Rueters and the NY Times are right. Maybe Hamas and Hizbollah and the others are actvists. As long as we understand thet the defenition of activism now includes the use of terrorism in order to enforce ones beliefs on others.
The woman who runs a fur business that was the target of the demonstration complained to police that her children had been harassed by the leader of the anti-fur protest. According to the woman, her children had been told during the protest in front of her home that their mother is a "murderer" and that they should be ashamed on her behalf. Also, the leader of the group had allegedly pointed at a dog sitting in the front yard of the house, saying "your mother will kill that dog".
Where will it end? A group in the UK has demanded that a Yoplait commercial be removed because it may cause distress to people witing for an organ transplant. Apparently 10 people have been unable to figure out that the commerical in question does not actually depict real life. And that if indeed it does reflect real life, shouldn't they be more worried about the deteriorating condition of the Welfare State rather than a damn commercial?
The newspapers are worried about their credibility gap with the readers. In response they are going to have 'roundtable' discussion with them. I wonder if the problem could be the blatant bias and equivocating that has gone on? Sounds like a Post Modernist feel good response to me. "Why don't you find us credible?"
The Commercial Appeal is planning a roundtable discussion for Oct. 15, from 7 to 9 p.m. Out topic is "Good News vs. Bad News: What is the Newspaper's Obligation?"
We picked that topic because one of the most common complaints we hear is this: "You always focus on the bad news, never the good news.''
Too much crime, too much destruction, too much news about graft and greed and corruption and problems. Not enough about happy outcomes, about people finding solutions to problems, not creating them.
But don't the readers understand? If we report such things then it will be tougher for us to support all the liberal causes that have no solution except more taxes.
Want to know how Hugo Chaves views Venezuela under his rule?
"We have considered Iran as our model in attaining economic stability and safe guarding our independence away from worries hammered by supper powers," he said. "The Venezuelan government is now following up developments in Iran and regards the massive public support as among most important characteristics of the Iranian government."
Also note the warm feelings between Zimbabwe and Iran on another article on the page.
The Arabs take their arguments and denunciations before the UN and EU and demand that they make Israel do their bidding. Israel on the other hand has open pleaded for Arab leaders to come to Israel or even to meet in neutral territory. The Israeli President went on al-Jazeerra to do it again. And has even offered to come to Riyadh.
"I invite Arab leaders to come to Jerusalem -- and if they are not willing to ... Israeli leaders are ready to travel to any Arab capital or town -- so that we can discuss how to arrive at a fair and lasting peace with the Arab world,"
Rather than make some vague and indistince 'peace proposals' Israelis are trying to open up a real dialogue. And why do you think it is that the Arabs refuse to do this? It is because of the 'Occupation'. Not what the NY Times considers it to be (or maybe they do). The Arab League considers the 'Occupation' to consist of every peice of land in the Middle East where a Jew is standing. In Israel and everywhere else. Neverforget that. When you hear and Arab or terrorist apologist say 'Occupation' they include every square inch of Israel. If that were not true the maps and Charters of every Muslim organization would recognize the existance of Israel.
By the way. How much more like Hitler can Saddam get? The mustache, the anti-Semitism, spending his final days in a bunker, getting fawned over by limp-wristed appeasers and training a Hitler...I mean...Saddam Youth, to defend the Fatherland.
I try not to link to major media news sources, I figure most of you are going to see that in other places. But I thought this was well worth it. The Secretary-General of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan has offered armed fighters and forward basing for a strike against Saddam. "We have more than 100,000 (Kurdish resistance fighters), and Syria also has tens of thousands. These forces can liberate Iraq with the support of the United States, with cooperation and coordination with American forces. This is all second, of course, with allowing the United States and facilitating any work that the United States wants to use our area until we stay there."
The Times got some good well reasoned letters in response to Mr. Glass' article calling for a regime change in America. THe first one is an anti-American screed (truly anti-American, the writer, from Texas, finds the opinions of anyone but Americans to bemore important than Americans and their President) but the other three make a good case for why people shouldbe behind Bush and the majority of Americans.
Don't think I caught this one one the networks or NY Times. A group of about a thousand Christians and Jews marched in the Old Quarter of Jerusalem and chanted that "Terrorism must be defeated".
In a how of 'diversity' people from arund the world joined to add their support for Israel.
Alongside a Bucharan band blaring music, 20 Sri Lankan pilgrims marched quietly, wearing wooden crosses and green shirts. Sri Lankan tour guide Rodney Koelmeyer said this was the 12th pilgrimage to the Holy Land he had coordinated this year. "We have been and continue to be supportive of Israel," Koelmeyer said. "With all of the bad publicity, we still have confidence."
Some Israelis marched along. Nine-year-old Israeli Mazan Mula, whose family immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia, joined her parents at the event. "I think that these people are right," she said, clutching her baseball cap in one hand and her friend's hand in the other.
V.S. Naipaul, in very unafraid fashion, has bashed Saudi Arabia. He's told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that the September 11 attacks in the United States were a sign of Saudi Arabia's desire to convert the world to Islam.
Rod Liddle over at the Guardian doesn't much like America nor does he support a war against Iraq. And even he thinks George Galloway is a blithering idiot.
The 'veterans' who backed Mugabe and 'liberated' white-owned farms are learning the hard way that stealing the land where farms are does not mean that food magically appears from the ground for their consumption. I feel for the hundreds of thousands who once lived and worked happily on these farms and a pity the millions of innocents who are about to pay for Mugabe's hateful and racist policies. These murderers and thieves who stole the land and brought this on can starve for all I care.
And since I have been on the Stalinist angle of stories today check out what 'government' officials have to say:
"We would be better off with only 6m people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle," said Didymus Mutasa, a Mugabe confidant and Zanu PF organisation secretary. "We don’t want all these extra people (farm workers)." Behind this thought is not just the idea that many farm workers in Zimbabwe have one Malawian or Zambian parent but also that those who do not support the Mugabe regime have put themselves "outside the nation". Such ideas have a chilling relevance now that famine threatens and the government is ensuring that food aid goes only to the party faithful. Vincent Hungwe, one of the regime’s rising young stars - formerly permanent secretary of agriculture and now of local government - said: "We may have to take this whole system back to zero before we can start it up again and make it work in a new way." Many black and white Zimbabweans who have been chased from their homes and their old lives already have a taste of what he means by zero.
I hear a Dick Gephart from today in which he states there is a disconnect between the Administration and the will of the people. I wonder how a man that in touch with America can be so disconnected with the will of Americans when it comes to vouchers, war in Iraq, profiling and common sense Homeland Security, racial preferences, taxes, government spending and any number of other things that the majority of Americans are for and Dick's Party is manifestly against.
``If you scratch any radical Islamic group in Indonesia, you will find some security forces involvement,'' Sidney Jones, the International Crisis Group country director, said Monday. ``These links need further investigation.''
A look at one of Saddam's more Stalinist policies.
When Saddam Hussein's men came for them, Omar Osman Siddiq and his family went quietly. With his wife and eight children, Siddiq silently loaded the family's possessions onto a truck waiting to carry them away from the home in Kirkuk, a city rich in oil, where his forebears had lived for generations.
Then, at a police station, Siddiq surrendered all the personal documents Iraqis need for daily existence, including identity cards, a booklet for weekly food rations, even the registration for the family car.
Flanked by armed guards, he faced one last indignity, signing a paper attesting that everything had been in accordance with law, and voluntary.
By nightfall, the truck reached its final destination: a plot of ground in the arid desert 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Kirkuk, just outside the 90 percent of Iraq that is governed by Saddam and inside a self-governing Kurdish enclave that leads a precarious existence under Western air protection. To finance their new life as refugees at Barda Qaraman, the Siddiqs had savings of $30.
As has historically been the case. < email | 8/13/2002 02:46:00 PM |
link
Nice story about life retunring to Kabul. It is about the most popular TV show in the country. All of the anti-war people here should go to Afhghanistan and explain to these people why it was wrong for America to overthrow the Taliban and see what sort of response they get.
Anyone who thinks that Cuba is a wonderful place and poor misunderstood Fidel is the target of disinformation at the hands of America should read this. A story about the testimony given by Alcibiades Hidalgo. Some highlights:
Alcibiades Hidalgo, who arrived in South Florida on July 29, said many aspects of daily life in Cuba could produce a "social explosion" at any time."There is lot of concern among the elite that this could occur," said Hidalgo, who also served as chief of staff to Defense Minister Raul Castro, brother of the Cuban leader.
But I thought Cuba was a classless Socialist paradise. How could there be an elite?
Hidalgo said virtually all Cubans have access to the country's cost-free health care system but many basic medicines have not been available for years.
All Leftists would like to pin this on America. But, always remember, we are the only country that maintains an emargo against Cuba. The economic programs of Cuba are not our fault.
When Hidalgo fled the island, he was the No. 2 official at the newspaper Trabajadores, a publication designed to appeal to Cuban workers. He said he decided to leave because there was no opportunity to espouse views that differ from those of Fidel Castro.
Exactly the type of Socialist paradaise that the Marxists here would like to see. Instead of having to rant and offer insufficient proof and lies to counter the truth they can just supress it.
Hidalgo shares the Bush administration's view that congressional attempts to end curbs on Americans' travel to Cuba, if approved, would be an economic windfall for Cuba and a "gift for Fidel." The U.S. economic embargo against Cuba aggravates the island's problems, he said, but he believes Castro's socialist policies are principally to blame, something he did not say when he was ambassador to the United Nations in 1992-93. Then he followed the party line by identifying the embargo as the culprit.
"The truth," he said Monday, "is otherwise."
Nothing I can add to that.
Hidalgo disagreed with Cuba's policy of using its U.N. mission as an espionage hub. He estimated that 90 percent of the 50 to 60 personnel working there were spies, but he was not told details of their activities.
What other anti-American activities can the UN sponsor/support/enable?
Of corse the Times can't seem to solicit any letters from the 66%+ that support preemtive action against Saddam. One of the letters today talks about Saddam's genocide againsyt the Kurds but doesn't explicitly call for the military removal of him.
This is the sort of silliness that ensues when people do not care about history.
Mr Galloway [visiting Scottish MP sympathises Saddam] noted Saddam was "frenetically moving entire ministries underground" while preparing suicide bombers and a two million-strong army of civilians to join the regular forces if there is an invasion.
I'm sure Mr. Galloway is breathlessly telling everyone who will listen about these careful preparations and suicide bombers and civilian army of 2 million. If he bothered to understand any type of military history at all he would realize this tactic immediately. It is something Nathan Bedford Forrest perfected during the Civil War. He would confidently call for the surrender of a fort or position claiming that he easily outnumbered his the Union defenders. All the while rotating his vastly outnumbered men within view of the Union cammanders. He then said that if they forced him to attack he could offer no quarter. This often reslted in victories for Forrest without being forced into a battle. Other generals have, and apparently continue, to use this tactic effectively against blind fools.
Update. Here is Galloway's full argument. I would expect more coherence, fact and inclusive (he tells about all Saddam has said but does not mention the contradicting statements given one day later in every one of those cases) from my 11 year old daughter.
When France, the United Nations and Canada are involved, this sounds perfectly rational.
Regis de Goutte, a French magistrate who serves on the committee, said Canada's recent laws limiting expression on the Internet showed it is ready to limit free speech. "That shows they have accepted there are exceptions to freedom of speech and so should allow individual complaints to be heard by the committee," he said.
This was part of a story about how Canada was dragged before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. "This is the old story of [the balance between] freedom of expression and the suppression of hate propaganda," said Kurt Herndl, a retired Austrian diplomat who serves on the 18-member committee as co-ordinator for reports on Canada. The racial injustice being perpetrated by the Canadian 'regime'? ...racial injustices persist against black, Chinese and aboriginal Canadians, and that immigrants do not earn as much as people born in the country.
Being good self-abasing self-hating people who appreciate the 'justice' meted out by the Committee the Canadian delegation said:
Canada has some of the toughest anti-racism laws in the world, but submits to such grillings because it "believes that the world community will be gradually moved along if we and other countries support the processes," Mr. Moyer said.
He echoed Sheila Copps, Minister of Canadian Heritage, by adding that Canada also learns from the criticism of others."It allows us to look at our work objectively and to improve our initiatives," Ms. Copps said in a press release.
We are still awaiting word of investigations into Cuba, Cina, North Korea, Egypt, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, France, Iraq and others.
This old WWII vet (During World War II, Hendricks parachuted into the fray at Normandy on D-Day with the 82nd Airborne Division.) who fought off some guys who broke into his place by shooting at them with his .22 derringer. To further prove that this type of man, true to himself and brave, is the bane of liberals (besides owning a gun), he goes on to give us some words to live by.
"I'd rather be a dead hero than a live coward."
"I never ran in my life, and I don't intend to now,"
"I really wanted to get ahold of my .44, but I couldn't reach it. The guy was hanging onto me," Hendricks said.
"Don't pick on old men . . . or some old men,"
The robbers were captured when they tried to run and a neigbor came with his gun and stopped them.
Another self-hating Uncle Tom. "we do not need reparation. our forebears were either participants, accomplices on silent watchers in the slave trade business. So we do not need to ask for reparation." Who is the house-slave wannabe that would dare to speak such heresy? President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, speaking of the clamor among African nations seeking reparations for slavery. Does that mean Sudan has to pay reparations to itself? What about the slavery within Africa and the Middle East long after the slavery was abolished in the West? Are they going to get Reparations from Saudi Arabia?
He leaves the question of reparations for those transported to America up to the Americans. "for those Africans whose forebears were shipped across the atlantic like you (Barbadoans), yes, you may be justified in asking for reparation. But not those of us still on the other side of the Atlantic." But cautions the it could have consequences. "If they (the west) pay reparation, who will claim it. How will it be shared? Can the payment be a flat rate to all (victims)?", pointing out that, "those are some basic questions that we have to answer." He explained further that the demand for reparation may trigger off a chain of world disquiet as several racial groups have suffered one form of injustice on the other from people of other races. "if we press Europe to pay reparation, Europe will press the Jews to pay and the jews may also press the Romans to pay them, observing that the resultant confusion wil be endless and complex. He told the commission, "we should take what is practicable and relevant and pursue it relentlessly."
At least, unlike black 'leaders' in America, he seems capable of seeing the basis of reparations as something to debate and consider. I wonder if Dyson would have the guts to launch personal attacks on Obasanjo for having the temerity to pose such questions.
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