Posted 11/15/2002 04:14:42 PM by Edward Driscoll
LOCK AND (RE)LOAD: My main computer has been intermittently locking up on me, so I'm going to be doing a long overdue reformatting of the hard drive, reinstallation of Windows 2000, and reinstalling my main programs. So don't expect a whole lot of posting for the rest of the day. If it doesn't work (or even it does), send help--preferably this person, who I have no doubt is an extremely highly skilled computer technician. (Link found via Group Captain Mandrake.) UPDATE: Mission accomplished--although, as usual with Windows, it took a lot longer than I anticipated.

Posted 11/15/2002 01:11:48 PM by Edward Driscoll
SENIOR AL QAEDA LEADER CAPTURED: Fox News reports, "sources said the suspect was neither Usama bin Laden nor his number two man, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, but he is one of the 'top handful of Al Qaeda leaders.'". Link found via Charles Johnson.

Posted 11/15/2002 11:32:54 AM by Edward Driscoll
WHAT WOULD REAGAN DO? Newt Gingrich addressed the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday during the presentation of a new book, Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty-Year Struggle and Final Triumph over Communism, by Peter Schweizer.

When Reagan won the White House in 1980, he did not plan to engage the Soviet Union in detente. Instead, the new president set his sights on the higher goal of freeing Russia and Eastern European countries from the Communist yoke, Gingrich said. Similarly, the United States today has to come up with "goals worthy of the leading power on the planet" in its dealings with the Muslim world. Merely aiming to defeat the Taliban or replacing the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq is not enough, he said. "They have to be goals that represent a scale of change in the Islamic world fully parallel to the changes in the Soviet empire," Gingrich said. These changes must provide for "a rise in opportunity for every Muslim to live in safety, health, prosperity and freedom and for every woman in the Muslim world to live in freedom - and those are very, very big changes," he said.

See also this recent article by Schweizer, for more on "What Would Reagan Do".

Posted 11/15/2002 11:18:32 AM by Edward Driscoll
LAST YEAR'S VILLAIN: John Podhoretz says that if it's all quiet on the Eminem front after his movie opened, it's because because conservatives have bigger fish to fry:

The war against smutty and sleazy culture has been a popular one, to be sure. Throughout the 1990s, politicians on all sides of the political spectrum had a field day fighting it. Bill Clinton and the Democrats pushed through legislation creating the so-called V-chip, which gave them bragging rights with independent voters disgusted by MTV and late-night cable. Social conservatives raised hundreds of millions of dollars in direct mail promising to clean up our culture. But then something happened: Sept. 11. Now Republicans and conservatives aren't concerned about rap music or TV sex and violence. They're interested in national security, in terrorism prevention, the war against al Qaeda and the war with Iraq. Are kids learning dirty words from Eminem? Big deal. Eminem won't kill them. Militant Islam will. In other words, conservatives have given up fighting evanescent battles on catchy issues because they are consumed with matters of far greater import. This deadly seriousness on the matter of a true and imminent threat to the United States has elevated the Republican Party in the 14 months since the attacks. That newfound gravity helped ensure the party's success at the polls. Republicans have been talking about what matters most, not what's most annoying. And that made all the difference on Election Day.

Posted 11/14/2002 09:28:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
FINALLY, THE FRENCH ARE STARTING TO WORK WITH US, for a change.

Posted 11/14/2002 07:28:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
MANTRA MADNESS: Porphyrogenitus wrote to tell me "You're wrong, man. It's so big you can't see it". Wow, when you review the evidence all I can say is, I think he's right...

Posted 11/14/2002 03:35:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT TOM DASCHLE, BUT WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN, HE REALLY DELIVERS, even over the objections of fellow Democrat Russ Feingold.

Posted 11/14/2002 01:47:14 PM by Edward Driscoll
NEW MANTRA UPDATE: Gore Vidal picks up on the vast right wing media conspiracy. Michael Medved quotes him as saying:

"The same people own the media that own the White House that own the Congress that own the oil fields. They all work together to give a false view of the world to the American people."

Fortunately, Vidal's spirits aren't as low as this fellow:

One impassioned partisan in Wasilla, Alaska...became so "despondent over Tuesday's election returns" (according to the Anchorage Daily News) that he climbed to the top of a 230,000-volt utility tower and allowed the dangerous current to course through his body – in the process interrupting electrical service to more than 30,000 homes and businesses. Suffering serious burns over most of his upper body, the unhappy idealist has been hospitalized in critical condition.

Now that's bringing new meaning to the phrase, "body politic". UPDATE: Here's more mantra mania! Media Research Center rounds up more quotes claiming a conservative media bias. All these quotes have to be launched via a talking points memo issued by the DNC--it really is the left's new mantra:

In their quest for an even more aggressively anti-conservative media, liberals are trying the shame game, accusing their brethren of being right-wing tools: “Some of the major broadcast media are simply biased in favor of the Republicans, while the rest tend to blur differences between the parties,” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman complained in a November 8 op-ed. “Talk radio and Fox News let the hard right get its message out to its supporters, while those who oppose the juggernaut stay home because they don’t get the sense that the Democrats offer a real alternative.” His advice: “Democrats should complain as loudly about the real conservative bias of the media as the Republicans complain about its entirely mythical liberal bias.” Has he read his own newspaper?

Time's Josh Tyrangiel sort of gives away the game:

“Even if Democrats pull together on some big issues, they’ll still have to overcome G.O.P. bully pulpits in the White House and Congress — and a new reality: conservative bias in the media,” insisted Time’s Josh Tyrangiel in his magazine’s November 18 edition. His only evidence? A “senior elected Democrat” said so.

Between "conservative media bias" and the Barbra Streisand supported, "Republicans killed Paul Wellstone" theory, Democrats really risk becoming the new black helicopter set. But hey...the truth is out there! (Somewhere left of the grassy knoll, probably.)

Posted 11/14/2002 12:14:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
CATS AND DOGS DEPARTMENT: National Review's Rod Dreher has some good words about Nancy Pelosi winning the position of House Minority Leader.

Posted 11/14/2002 11:17:58 AM by Edward Driscoll
BRINGS NEW MEANING TO "INTERNET TROJAN": Bill Gates was welcomed to India with a huge condom.

Posted 11/14/2002 10:36:10 AM by Edward Driscoll
GRAY DAYS AHEAD: Good essay on California politics at the The Claremont Institute. Here's an excerpt:

What is lost is the principle that the only free government is limited government, and that a sound constitution is the only way to keep government limited. Early in his campaign for governor, Bill Simon tried to engage Californians in a principled discussion about their government. Simon understood the crises facing California — a massive budget deficit, rolling power blackouts, embarrassing public schools, skyrocketing housing prices — as symptoms of a deep alienation from the principles of constitutional government and free society. But the media and the public paid little attention. He got noticed only once he began campaigning as a liberal "reformer," slinging mud at Gray Davis for his heavy-handed fundraising tactics. In the end, however, it served only to distract from something much more important, the principles of free government.

If you're interested in California's politics (and believe me, I can understand if you're not--the temptation to ignore California is great, and will only grow over the next four years) be sure to read the whole thing.

Posted 11/14/2002 09:47:09 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE NEW MANTRA? It's certainly been making the rounds lately: The Democrats lost last week because of a "conservative bias in the media”.

Posted 11/14/2002 09:45:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
FROM THE HOME OFFICE IN WAHOO, NEBRASKA: David Letterman's Top Ten Signs Saddam Hussein Is Getting Nervous:

10. Recently he seems less "bloodthirsty" and more "murderous" 9. Every time the doorbell rings, he yells, "Incoming!" 8. At dinner, can only finish half a gazelle 7. Ebert-sized sweat marks on his fatigues 6. Has had his mustache bulletproofed 5. Panicked after realizing he might not be around to see who wins on "The Bachelor" 4. Too fidgety to sit still for his monthly gigantic portrait 3. Canceled his "Victory Over The Great Satan" party 2. Has started making bad decisions, like betting on the Knicks 1. He's taking Zoloft along with his Cipro

Them gazelles are good eatin', by the way.

Posted 11/13/2002 09:10:02 PM by Edward Driscoll

INTERACTIVE TV FOR THE 21st CENTURY: That's the cover story on the Winter/Spring issue of Smart TV & Sound. I think it's pretty good...but then I wrote it. My article is available online--but don't let that stop you from buying enough copies of the magazine to fill the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark!

Posted 11/13/2002 07:08:55 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE DOG DAYS OF THE STOCK MARKET: Frank the Pug from the Men in Black movies will be ringing the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow. No, you didn't misread that. Here's what the Internet Movie Database has to say:

Perhaps unintentionally calling undue attention to the dog days of the stock market, Frank the Pug from Men in Black II will help ring the closing bell of the NYSE on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. as part of a publicity campaign celebrating the release of MiBII on DVD and video cassette, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment announced Tuesday. The canine star is expected to be accompanied by the film's director, Barry Sonnenfeld, and NYSE President Benjamin Feingold.

No word on if he'll be protected by agents K, J and Z.

Posted 11/13/2002 12:18:13 PM by Edward Driscoll
JUST SAY YES: Saddam has agreed to the UN resolution, which exposes himself to all sorts of conditions, each of which, if violated, will bring lots of F-15s, F-117s and B-52s on top of him. Right Wing News has the details.

Posted 11/13/2002 11:34:37 AM by Edward Driscoll
DAS KOUCH: The Onion discovers a college Marxists' apartment that's a microcosm of why Marxism doesn't work.

Posted 11/13/2002 02:29:23 AM by Edward Driscoll
FOUND IN MY REFERRER LOG: New Hampshire Governor-elect Craig Benson's Transition Site. I'm not sure what brought you here--but thanks for stopping by Governor-Elect! And hi to everybody who dropped in from Right Wing News. Make yourselves comfortable, folks--there's plenty of food in the fridge, plenty of posts in the blog and lots of articles, and essays to check out. Stick around y'all!

Posted 11/13/2002 01:18:05 AM by Edward Driscoll
IT'S THE PERFECT CHANNEL FOR HIM: MSNBC is courting Jesse Ventura.

Posted 11/13/2002 12:59:20 AM by Edward Driscoll
BUT WHAT ABOUT BICYCLE REPAIR MAN? Group Captain Lionel Mandrake says that John Cleese is poised to write a Superman comic book. Great Python's ghost! Mandrake's got the link to prove it and everything! (But will Superman fly on the left-hand side of the Van Allen Belt? Will Lex Luther drop lumps of Kryptonite into his afternoon tea? Will Clark Kent buy his suits at Marks and Spenser? The possibilities are endless...and extremely silly.)

Posted 11/13/2002 12:08:23 AM by Edward Driscoll
WE'VE GOT TO PROTECT OUR PHONEY-BALONEY JOBS! Michelle Malkin, who's done yeoman work on the "Snipergate" story, writes:

Border Patrol agent Keith Olson, the arresting officer in Bellingham, Wash., who was responsible for obtaining the fingerprints of illegal alien sniper suspect Lee Malvo last December, has been the subject of two internal investigations during the past three weeks. Instead of pinning a medal on his chest and giving Olson a raise for taking the prints of Malvo that eventually led to his arrest in the Washington, D.C., area killing spree, federal officials are conducting a probe of his conduct. Meanwhile, Border Patrol agent Daryl Schermerhorn has been castigated by an INS higher-up for publicly criticizing the decision by federal immigration authorities to release Malvo and his illegal alien mother earlier this year pending deportation proceedings.

Malkins quotes an swarmy and belligerent email sent on October 30th by the assistant regional director in the INS Western Regional Office in Laguna Niguel, CA to Schermerhorn, which was copied to nearly 50 other INS employees:

"Nobody, not even a person of your monumental intelligence, could have predicted what path the young Mr. Malvo would take.Your agenda, whatever it may be, is counterproductive to the thousands of [detention and removal] personnel who are doing their best in spite of the limitations placed upon them by Congress, uncooperative foreign consulates, [non-governmental organizations], pro bono attorneys, special interest groups, ect. [sic] Have you ever detained a non-criminal mother and her 16 year old child for a lengthy period of time? Have you had to face the wrath of the above mentioned groups?"

How very 1990s of INS. They just don't get it. We're used to Federal agencies being slack, expensive and wasteful during peace. But we expect results during war. As Malkin writes, "will a $37 billion Homeland Security Department prevent another Malvogate? As long as federal immigration authorities remain more committed to stifling whistleblowers instead of protecting them: Fat chance."

Posted 11/12/2002 11:12:36 PM by Edward Driscoll
RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: Insight magazine has an eye-popping interview with a top Egyptian cleric who justifies suicide terrorism:

When Palestinians first began blowing themselves up to murder innocent Israeli civilians in April 1994, consternation gripped many official spokesmen of Islam. Moderate Islamic scholars emphasized that Islam long has considered suicide to be a sin. Several clerics in Saudi Arabia even joined the chorus, condemning the attacks. But then something happened. It became political, and Arab leaders realized they had a new way of controlling the masses and directing their anger away from their own leadership. The rest, as they say, is history — a history of innocent victims and state-sponsored murder — all in the name of political opposition to Israel. As in most other Arab countries, it is the Egyptian state that appoints the Grand Mufti, the highest religious authority in the land and a man who has the power to issue fatwas and interpretations of shari'a law. Mubarak named Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayyeb to the post earlier this year after his predecessor issued a ruling in favor of suicide bombings by Palestinians. Insight has learned that if Mubarak was embarrassed by the public embrace of murder by the previous state-appointed Mufti, he may have to reconsider his new choice. Al-Tayyeb received Insight on Oct. 28 in his office near Al-Azhar University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the Arab world. Throughout the 90-minute interview, conducted mostly in Arabic through a government-provided translator, he repeated in excruciating detail his reasoning for encouraging Palestinians to murder innocent civilians through suicide attacks. He also displayed a remarkable flexibility when it came to defining terrorism. To him, American Christian leader Jerry Falwell is a terrorist because his views about Islam have offended Muslims. Palestinians, on the other hand, are justified in massacring Israeli civilians in cold blood "because they are defending their land and have no other weapons at their disposal." The Grand Mufti pointedly condemned as a traitor any Palestinian who refuses to take such a step. "Why do the Americans always speak about Islamic terrorism? Why don't they speak about the extreme right-wing Christian terrorists?" he asked.

Read the whole thing--Al-Tayyeb's mindset is staggering. But not uncommon, of course. In Nigeria, a Amina Lawal, a 31 year old mother of a ten month old baby is scheduled to be buried up to her neck and stoned until she dies. "Unless her second appeal succeeds, she will be executed as soon as Wasila is weaned or by 2004, whichever is sooner.":

One day, after accepting a lift on a motorcycle, she was raped by a man she thought was a friend. When it became obvious that she was pregnant the fundamentalist vigilantes, known as Hisbah, turned her over to the Sharia court. When Ms Lawal heard her sentence, she bore it stoically. “I will get through this, with God,” she whispered, holding Wasila against her cheek. She tries not to think about what will happen to this baby, or her other children, if the sentence is carried out. Ms Lawal is not the only victim of Sharia, which was introduced in the Zamfara state as a political platform by the campaigning governor in 1999, then quickly taken up by 11 other northern states. There are four other cases of women sentenced to be stoned for adultery. There are also 11 children in Sokoto state awaiting amputation for stealing. Ms Lawal’s lawyer, Hauwa Ibrahim, said: “We have heard they are waiting for the amputation machine to arrive.”

The amputation machine. So when do they move up to sealed carbon monoxide vans and then gas chambers?

Posted 11/12/2002 10:17:42 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE OBLIGATORY LILEKS LINK: Having hooked up three DirecTV receivers to four different TV sets in the house (one feeds two TVs), I can feel for Lileks' lament:

When I went outside to get the mail I tripped over a large box on the stoop: the new receiver from DirecTV. Ah! Now the Battle Bridge would have a signal again. It was a reconditioned $25 RCA unit, nearly identical to the dead slab of crap I had before. Hooked it up, called DirecTV, went through the procedure to activate it - and here we enter mumbojumbo land. I chanted the magic numbers into the phone; the shaman on the other end moved his fingers, and the birds in the sky and the snakes on the land woke as one, and yea: the picture appeared on the wall, and seemed to move; the words appeared as if writ by an invisible hand, and I fell on my knees and said I will order the NFL Total Access Game Package, O my liege. I will! I am not worthy of this package but I shall accept it nonetheless. Blessed be unto you. Will there be anything else? said the angel from the gray spirit-talker I held to my ear. I said that there was not. And the angel thanked me and bade me a good night. How could it not be good? Everything works again. The downstairs TV has a signal. I'd fixed the family room system that afternoon, so I now have stereo, and the new wireless headphones work perfectly. If ever again I have time to watch TV, well, I am SET.

Actually not quite, as you'll see if you read the rest of the piece.

Posted 11/12/2002 09:20:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
IT'S HAMMERTIME? No! Marvin Olasky writes that it's "Karl Rove time".

Posted 11/12/2002 04:00:59 PM by Edward Driscoll
PREACHING TO THE CHOIR: Stephen F. Hayes writes that "It wouldn't be a Republican victory without a dyspeptic attack from Bill Moyers. Paid for, in part, by you."

Posted 11/12/2002 03:51:44 PM by Edward Driscoll
PROBABLY NOT TOO FAR FROM THE TRUTH: ScrappleFace uncovers a leaked Democrat pre-election 'victory' news release.

Posted 11/12/2002 02:42:28 PM by Edward Driscoll
MASSIVE HACKING SPREE HALTED, British citizen indicted on eight counts of computer fraud related to hacking incidents that allegedly damaged 105 U.S. government, military and corporate networks. Computerworld has the details.

Posted 11/12/2002 02:00:45 PM by Edward Driscoll
APROPOS OF NOTHING DEPARTMENT: I just read in The Age of Reagan that Henry Kissinger was a fan of Oswald Spengler's pioneering doom-and-gloomer, The Decline of the West, and tried his damndest to get Nixon to read it. Why is that that book's most influential fans often go out of their way to make it a reality?

Posted 11/12/2002 01:18:07 PM by Edward Driscoll
IN THE LAND OF THE ROCOCO MARXIST: Daniel Pipes looks at professors who hate America.

Posted 11/12/2002 01:09:33 PM by Edward Driscoll
JUMPIN' JIM JEFFORDS: Jay Nordlinger checks in with everyone's favorite milkman:

Our friend Mr. Jeffords is acting awfully funny about now. Asked whether he expected “retribution,” he said, “The Senate’s a pretty collegial group. You learn it’s best to get along.” Oh? Is that a lesson one needs to learn from James Jeffords — who ditched his party of many decades when the Senate was split 50-50 and handed control of that body to the opposite party? That was “collegial”? But he had to serve his conscience, you might say. Okay, fine: but remember that he partook of two acts. He left the Republican party to become an independent. That was one. But he — he by himself — threw control of the Senate to the Democratic party, by choosing to caucus with Mr. Daschle. That was the second act. And if he’d wanted to do that, he should’ve done the semi-honest thing and joined the Democratic party outright.

Posted 11/12/2002 12:30:48 PM by Edward Driscoll
SIRHAN SIRHAN JR. JR.: Charles Johnson links to an article which says that the Palestinian terrorist who murdered five people in an Israeli kibbutz last weekend is named Sirhan Sirhan.

Posted 11/12/2002 12:02:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
OVER 1 BILLION SERVED: Matt Drudge has reason to gloat on his Drudge Report site--it's about to go over one billion Web views:

The WALL STREET JOURNAL declared "Matt Drudge a born loser" [10/24/00, Shafer], the NEW YORK TIMES last week in a Page One story claimed people have been "reduced to logging onto the Web site of the gossip columnist Matt Drudge" [11/06/02, Stanley], but in every state and nearly every civilized nation in the developed world, readers know where to go for action and reaction of news -- at least one day ahead. Sometime this afternoon, the DRUDGEREPORT will pass one billion views of the site's main page: in the past year! Free from any corporate concerns, there are simply too many to thank since the site's inception in 1994. This new attempt at the old American experiment of full freedom in reporting is ever exciting. Those in power have everything to lose by individuals who march to their own rules.

As I wrote in my SpinTech article about Weblogs, Drudge, in my mind, is where personal news reporting began on the Internet (although there are probably others who would say they're the Altair of reporting--Drudge is merely the TRS-80 or Apple). For some background at how Drudge got started, here's another SpinTech article, from 1999--which is about a decade ago in Internet years. I don't think Matt's success is really repeatable, in that a lot of random elements had to come together in a unique fashion for it to had occurred--being an early Internet adopter, having a wide range of links to reporters on both sides of the aisle, breaking the Lewinsky story, being sued by Sid Blumenthal, riding the crest of the Internet boom, etc. But it is fascinating to watch and learn from.

Posted 11/12/2002 10:58:20 AM by Edward Driscoll
VLADIMIR PUTIN, HOSS: Well, at least when he talks like this.

Posted 11/12/2002 10:56:44 AM by Edward Driscoll
GUESS WHICH STATE SENATOR IS DROPPING INTO BAHRAIN for a friendly little chat. Which of course, should be quite well attended.

Posted 11/12/2002 02:33:07 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE WOUNDED BEAR: Thomas Sowell writes that "The Democrats are down, but not out. They are more like a wounded bear -- the most dangerous kind of bear."

Democrats know that one of the reasons for their disappointing showing in this year's elections is that they failed to get out the black vote in the numbers needed, especially in the South. Since Democrats have nothing to offer blacks, now that they do not control any branch of the federal government, their only way to get out the black vote in 2004 is by arousing fears and resentments. The race card was played recklessly and shamelessly during the 2000 elections -- and successfully, with 92 percent of the black vote going to Al Gore. One television ad even tried to somehow connect George W. Bush with the dragging death of a black man in Texas. The Democrats couldn't pull that kind of smear this year, with the president's approval ratings so high. But they have two more years in which to come up with something else, and they have long demonstrated fertile imaginations, unhampered by the truth. That is what makes the Democrats as dangerous as a wounded bear. They know that their best hope for a political comeback is to turn some Americans against other Americans, stirring up resentments and fears among blacks and envy of "the rich" among others. In short, enhancing their future prospects involves polarizing Americans, at the expense of the country's future. They can count on those in the media as allies. This is not just because of the well-established fact that nine-tenths of media journalists vote Democratic, but because the whole approach of the media favors polarization.

Of course. Just ask Bill Moyers, or Garrison Keillor, or Eric Alterman, or Helen Thomas, or lots of other members of the media.

Posted 11/12/2002 02:02:53 AM by Edward Driscoll
AT&T SUED BY EXCITE@HOME SHAREHOLDERS OVER ASSETS: I'm not at all surprised--the switchover from @Home to AT&T, which happened in early December of last year, was incredibly chaotic and frenzied. @Home called AT&T's bluff, leaving thousands of subscribers in the lurch for periods of up to two or three weeks. I counted up the hours I spent that week, either on hold or talking to AT&T's tech support to get hooked up again, and it was at least 30 hours. We finally get reconnected, but no thanks to AT&T--I found a solution via DSLReports.com, which was a godsend during that insane week.

Posted 11/11/2002 05:04:52 PM by Edward Driscoll
LONG OVERDUE: "Nigeria To Pass Law Clamping Down On Notorious Scams"

Posted 11/11/2002 03:20:24 PM by Edward Driscoll
A NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN FOR THE 21st CENTURY: The original Chamberlain at least wasn't trying to outdo Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan in a PR battle. Note that there's an umbrella in the shot as well for perfect symmetry.

Posted 11/11/2002 03:15:13 PM by Edward Driscoll
MORE ON EUROPE: Charles Johnson writes that "European Foreign Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten is flatly refusing to investigate the Palestinian Authority’s blatant misuse of EU aid money." and wonders why.

Posted 11/11/2002 02:56:59 PM by Edward Driscoll
FREEDOM OF SPEECH: As Steven Den Beste writes, "We believe in it. Europe doesn't. The Council of Europe just outlawed it." I'd love to jump through Star Trek's Guardian of Forever time machine (snagging Joan Collins circa-1966 along the way!) and see where this all plays out in 25 years. I was watching HBO's Conspiracy last night, about the Wannsee conference of 1942. And while another final solution seems absurd, is there another set of Nuremburg Laws in Europe's future? I know, I'm sounding like an alarmist--and I hope to God I am. But then so did anybody who thought that the Versailles Treaty would set in motion a chain of events leading to a homicidal madman controlling all of Europe 25 years later.

Posted 11/11/2002 02:36:24 PM by Edward Driscoll
SPAM OF THE DAY: The subject body reads, "Supplying Translation Servic". No thanks--I read typo just fine!

Posted 11/11/2002 01:34:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
ARMISTICE DAY: That's what today used to be called in America, from 1938, when it was first declared a national holiday, until 1954, when its name was officially changed to Veteran's Day. James S. Robbins looks back at the impact of World War I:

November 11, 1918 was an end, but only the end of the beginning. The Great War initiated the 30-year suicide of Europe, a tragedy whose causes are still difficult to understand. The European powers were the common inheritors of a culture millennia in the making. They were the leaders in science, culture, and economics. They had assembled the greatest military forces in the history of mankind. They were at the cutting edge of history, and they threw it away. And why? From the other end of the century looking backwards it is hard to understand what drove their animosity. The distinctions between Georgian England and Wilhelmine Germany may have seen great at the time, but are hardly comparable to Anglo-German differences 20 years later. The tsarist autocracy set the standard for brutality in its day, but the tsar was a minor leaguer compared the Lenin and Stalin. World War I introduced new magnitudes of death, both on and off the battlefield. Before 1914, the "Terror" during the French Revolution, in which between 15,000 and 40,000 people were killed, was generally regarded as the bloodiest, most savage act of state policy in European history. The killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during the Great War dramatically changed the scale of what was conceivable — and the 20th-century totalitarian states would engage in even more massive systematic slaughter of innocents. With Europe's self-destruction came also the emergence of the United States on the world stage. In 1917, American power was projected abroad in a manner unseen in its history. Our country emerged with the potential to become the leading global military and economic force. But the horrors of the wartime experience, the postwar machinations of the European colonialists, and a resurgent American nativism, led our country to turn its back on the world, and on its new, unsought, and unwanted responsibilities. The United States nursed isolation in the years that followed, as the threat grew overseas. Pearl Harbor brought the consequences of inaction into clear focus.

Read the whole thing.

Posted 11/11/2002 12:13:32 PM by Edward Driscoll
THANKS GUYS! We've been linked to by Samizdata, the great English libertarian blog--twice! We've been added to the text links on their homepage, and they used our swanky EdDriscoll.com Blog button on their links and pictures page. Speaking of pictures on Samizdata, while we don't advocate graffiti and vandalism in any form, we did get a knowing chuckle over this creative artist's work. By the way, if you'd like to use our deluxe EdDriscoll.com blog button to liven up the decor at your Blog, just click here to get your own copy. (Free photo of a Ginsu Knife included if you download in the next 30 minutes!)

Posted 11/11/2002 12:20:30 AM by Edward Driscoll
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Right Wing News features an excellent interview with Victor Davis Hanson, who has Europe pegged:

Radically, as we revert to the pre-1945 world of bilateralism with all its dangers. The cold war was an aberration. Note how quickly the Europeans turned on America once 400 hostile divisions were no longer on their borders. They make up a big continent with a big population that deserves pride and power commensurate with their economy and population; so it is time for both of us to recognize that, bring the troops home or redeploy them in more friendly eastern European countries, and as friends let them develop their own military identity. Keeping 200,000 troops abroad to protect a rich continent is unhealthy for all parties involved. We are a different people, and to preserve our common heritage and friendship, we must recognize those divergences and thus it would be safer in the long run to let them defend themselves and not seek such shrillness in lieu of power and independence. We are in a very Orwellian world now where al Qaeda could hit the Louvre or Vatican and do so with impunity -- if not for the overseas reach of the US military -- and yet the Europeans seem to resent their protectors by reason of their very dependency. Add our frontier experience, our original charter that was antithetical to Europe, our strength in mixed races and religions, our greater allegiances to liberty than enforced equality and it is no surprise that after the Soviets are gone we are rediscovering our differences. This is not fatal and yet cannot be laughed off either by careerists and the self-interested. If France had the ability to act resolutely to stop its ships being attacked off Yemen, then it would be less insecure and less vocal. Instead, we have NATO countries bristling over the invasion by Morocco of a barren rock.

Read the rest of the interview. (Link via VodkaPundit.)

Posted 11/10/2002 11:12:35 PM by Edward Driscoll
STOCKHOLM SYNDROME: Bruce Bartlett, who worked as an assistant to Senator Roger Jepsen of Iowa in 1979 and 1980, and prior to that, to Congressman Jack Kemp, talks about what it's like to go from the minority to the majority when you don't think your victory will last:

As Republicans and Democrats absorb the significance of last week's election results, a few things are starting to become clear. For one thing, Republicans are finally starting to settle into the idea that they are the majority party in this country. They have not thought so since 1932. I worked in the Senate in 1980, when Republicans won control there for the first time in almost 30 years, and I remember clearly the sense that this was all just temporary. In contrast to the Democrats, who treated Republicans like dirt, the latter were very deferential. They didn't treat Democrats with the same disdain, because in their hearts they knew it wouldn't last. The memory of 1946-48 and 1952-54, the last times that Republicans held either house of Congress, were very much in their minds. Although no one ever said so, I think most Republicans in the Senate thought they would probably lose the majority in 1982. Consequently, they were fearful of alienating the Democrats, whom, they thought, would soon be back in power, lest they be punished as a consequence. This sort of meek attitude toward one's oppressors is, sad to say, not uncommon. People who are kidnapped, such as Patty Hearst, have been known to fall in with their kidnappers. Republicans in Congress had somewhat the same attitude. They were so used to being beaten and abused that they thought this was the normal state of affairs. When they got the majority, some reacted like a caged bird suddenly set free: They simply didn't know what to do.

Bartlett has some excellent advice for the incoming class of 2003, to avoid those same mistakes.

Posted 11/10/2002 10:36:35 PM by Edward Driscoll
SEA CHANGE: Jen Taliaferro proclaims "Advantage: Blogosphere", after last week's elections:

Almost all of us Conservo-bloggers perceived and even predicted the Dimocrat loss on Tuesday and we knew precisely why it was coming. As it turns out, we were expressing the thoughts, ideas and perceptions of many of our fellow non-blogging Americans. Then the people spoke on Tuesday and there was a sea change in the national consciousness. Like the political and cultural incrementalism so dear to the Dims, we Rightist bloggers may have won "hearts and minds" with thousands, even millions of posts that have gone up day after day for months, and in some cases years, with our comments, analyses, and informed thoughts about bills pending in Congress, terrorist attacks, legal decisions and the facts about the landscape of the vast theatre of geopolitics in which current events take place. I, like most warbloggers, turned to writing a blog after 9/11 because television and print media presented "news and views" in such a way, with their Liberal agenda and their application of of Moral Equivalence to Islamist terrorism, that it amounted to sheer propaganda and worse, mendacities. We decided that there had to be a way for the Truth to get out and while we know that you certainly can't believe everything you read on the Internet, much of what was being said on blogs began to have the ring of Truth and singularly bloggers have been able to put things together in such a way that this post 9-11 world of daily mayhem and insanity started to make real, undeniable SENSE. Most of us use tracking mechanisms and it seems from even an aggregate of our "hits" that we are only reaching a small part of the American populace, even though some of the "Big Boys" are getting hundreds of thousands and even millions of hits. Yet ideas, especially true, sane and sensical ideas have a unique and wonderful way of getting a life of their own and spreading like wildfire (The old "They told 2 friends and they told 2 friends and so on and so on..."). The Zeitgeist is tapped, chronicled, and spread abroad. TV and print media went into an almost complete DISCONNECT after 9/11 [which, of course, they were guilty of doing years before 9/11, but it became egregious after 9/11's clarity.] However, the world--America's world, certainly--really did change on 9/11. No longer could we afford to hold the decadent political views of an isolated nation and culture in a world where many of us assumed that there was no more war and enough money to redistribute our vast wealth to any and all, thinking it would solve the world's problems. 9/11 was a rude awakening to the reality that America as the world's only hyperpower and democratic, capitalistic republic must lead the world, could lead it and now is leading it, especially the more backward, tyrannical states where our institutions and values are so desperately needed, which not coincidentally were those same countries in the Middle East that were the homes of the 9/11 hijackers. 9/11 and its aftermath reawakened us to the fact that America had gotten away from its roots and from everything about our country that had made it worth fighting for in the past and that made it worth fighting and dying for now. This was no small awakening. At least not for myself.

I can certainly understand that. As I wrote for SpinTech in January:

When the Web log concept first debuted, it was largely used for on-line personal diaries. Lots of “day in the life” stuff; lots of updates of family information; lots of photographs of nature and birthday parties; lots of nice pretty, stopping and smelling the flowers commentary by assorted emotional exhibitionists. And this is still a common use for Web logs. Then September 11th happened. One interesting byproduct of that awful day was that the servers on most major news sites (CNN, The New York Times, etc.) were blown out from over capacity. Since a big chunk of America either didn’t go into work, or left early that day, they went home, turned the TV on, fired up the computer, and wanted to know just…what…the…hell…was…going…on. But with the Web sites of news biggies jammed to capacity, some people started going to alternative sites. Little funky one man or one woman sites. And some of those men and women, such as Virginia Postrel on her page, The Scene, and Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com, spent the day keeping the nation, hell, the world, just as informed as the traditional news sites people couldn’t get into. Then, as the dust settled, that hoary old standby, media bias, started rearing its ugly head again, especially in newspapers, where the reporters seemed to pull out style guides left over from the Tet Offensive. Quagmire! Failure! Evil imperialism! The brutal Afghan winter! Remember the Soviets! Seeking opinions and news that didn’t seem to be outtakes from the Johnson years, many, many people stuck with the bloggers. And sometimes it seems that just as many people saw how much fun the bloggers were having and decided to get into the act themselves.

Like me--I launched this Weblog in between writing that article and when it went online in early March. I think Taliaferro's basic assumption is probably reasonable. Having hung around a variety of computer forums (forae?) for the past seven or eight years, it's obvious that the amount of lurkers far surpasses the amount of active members in any forum--and the same has to got hold true for Blogs as well. Not everybody who reads this blog has a blog of his own. (I hope!) At a minimum--the online newsreporting/commenting that Matt Drudge pioneered in the mid-1990s is still in its infancy--and the influence of blogs, and/or other types of "me-zines" will only increase going forward.

Posted 11/10/2002 08:23:20 PM by Edward Driscoll
NUDGE NUDGE, WINK WINK: There's a great scene in All the President's Men where Redford and Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein interview Donald Segretti, played by Robert Walden (who would later portray a reporter himself in TV's Lou Grant). Segretti tells "Woodstein" that he'll probably go to jail for all the dirty tricks he pulled on the Democrat's presidential candidates during the '72 presidential campaign, as part of Nixon's "dirty tricks" team, to help get him re-elected. He tells the reporters something like "I'll probably go to jail...and for what??!!" The subtext is obvious: the Democrats are good guys who would never do anything like that. Flash-forward thirty years to the 2002 midterms, where Jason L. Riley of the Wall Street Journal travels along with Rep. Julia Carson, a Democrat running for reelection in Indiana. Carson's election team winked and nodded right in front of Riley, as they pulled all sorts of shady tricks to get Carson elected. Carson won the battle, but Bush won the midterms. The weight of Bill Clinton's shenanigans, the 2000 Florida election scandal, the Jeffords defection, and finally the Wellstone funeral/pep rally are finally beginning to stick to the Democrats. Jimmy Carter, in retrospect, wasn't exactly squeaky clean. But the Democrats would be wise to find someone with that image, who can win honestly, then to keep relying on their own Donald Segrettis to win elections.

Posted 11/10/2002 12:04:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
END GAME: Condi Rice spells out the timetable for Iraq. Orrin Judd adds:

It's fairly amusing to listen to the foreign ministries from other countries describe all the concessions they won from the U.S. and then to hear Ms Rice tell them what they really just agreed to.

Yupper!

Posted 11/10/2002 11:17:10 AM by Edward Driscoll
QB QUANDARY: Does Jerry Jones think that Chad Hutchinson is the QB of the future for Dallas? Compare and contrast these two headlines:

Jones enamored with Hutchinson's ability Steelers: Will Kordell be traded to Dallas?

Going to Dallas would be a fresh start for Kordell Stewart--and he'll certainly fill seats at Texas Stadium. I don't know if it will happen, but it'll be a fun rumor to watch.