The Razor

Looks like the U of D has backed down with their Orwellian experiment in student housing:

Upon the recommendation of Vice President for Student Life Michael Gilbert and Director of Residence Life Kathleen Kerr, I have directed that the program be stopped immediately. No further activities under the current framework will be conducted.

It’s pretty sad when alumni - who often are parents - have to keep an eye on their alma mater to make sure it’s behaving itself.

November 2, 2007 UPDATE:
The local newspaper FINALLY picked the story up today.

University of Delaware President Patrick Harker pulled the plug on the school’s residence life educational program Thursday after the program was blasted publicly by students, parents and a civil liberties group that questioned the purpose of the program and the methods it used.

Nothing like hearing about local issues in the national news first. Nice job, guys.

In 1996 I took and passed the written Foreign Service Exam. The following spring I washed out of the process during the interview phase. One of my high school friends did the same thing, except he reapplied the following year and was chosen. I didn’t because I decided to forgo my dream in order for the Wife to pursue hers.

Now she’s achieved her dream, so maybe it’s time to achieve mine.

Dear Madame Secretary Rice:
After learning that members of the foreign service are refusing to be posted to Iraq, using theatrics that get headlines in the liberal mainstream press like Jack Croddy, a senior foreign service officer who didn’t let the fact that no foreign service officer has been killed in Iraq stop him from referring to the posting there as a “potential death sentence,” I hereby offer my services as a replacement to Mr. Croddy and in return will volunteer for an Iraqi posting. I offer my services on the condition that I receive the same pay, benefits and position as Mr. Croddy and that Mr. Croddy be summarily dismissed to the private sector where I have worked since washing out of the Foreign Service process in 1997.

It’s time Mr. Croddy knows what it is like to take orders, to do things one doesn’t like to do in order to remain employed. Mr. Croddy and the members of the Foreign Service who cheered him have clearly forgotten how easily those of us in the private sector can be dismissed - often for no fault of our own, and certainly for standing up and criticizing a company policy and its head in public - as Mr. Croddy has done. The jobs that these people enjoyed are a privilege granted to only a few, yet they have clearly disrespected their offices by acting in so childish a manner.

I guarantee that should you accept my offer, I will not bring shame to you, your department, or the nation that it serves as Mr. Croddy and his cohorts have done. In addition I would look forward to helping a nation that has suffered under the heel of oppression for generations to rise up and achieve the peace and freedom it deserves, an opportunity that Mr. Croddy and his ilk selfishly refuse.

Sincerely,
Scott Kirwin

I doubt my phone will ring anytime soon; I’m too old, opinionated and conservative to make a good diplomat (”So you’re the new Cheese-Eating-Surrender-Monkey - I mean ‘French’ - attache…”). But if it did… well, it would be life changing that’s for sure.

I recently visited an office building that had a 3×4 foot section of the Berlin Wall. It’s been almost 20 years since that thing fell, and I still remember it clearly - how the Czechs opened their borders, and the East Germans began fleeing across there. How Kissinger and the punditocracy of the time predicted the Wall would last another three years - and it fell in 3 months. 1989 remains a seminal year in world history, and I am pleased to have been around to witness it.

I was surprised at how thin the wall section was - about 3 or 4 inches. One side was spray painted, the other was clean. What I found particularly interesting was that on the clean side - the East German one - the rebar poked through the concrete and was rusted. In fact the rebar itself was a thin wire fence-like mesh that ran very unevenly through the slab - from just behind the West German side to poking through on the East. It was surprisingly poorly centered and no doubt significantly weakened the structure. My guess was that the “business end” of the wall was the minefield and guard posts behind the clean side.

The Wall had lasted just shy of 40 years. During it’s lifetime, 1,245 people died trying to get through it. It’s purpose no longer exists, and now a chunk of it sits in an office building on the other side of the world. While I was there it held up a janitor’s broom and dust bucket that were propped against it.

In 1986 PJ O’Rourke noted about Communists and concrete…

Commies love concrete, but they don’t know how to make it. Concrete is a mixture of cement, gravel and straw? No? Gravel, water and wood pulp? Water, potatoes and lard? The concrete runway at Warsaw’s Miedzynarodowy airport is coming to pieces. From bumpy landing until bumpy take-off, you spend your time in Poland looking at bad concrete.

The Wall was made of pretty bad concrete. The Romans used it 2000 years ago and theirs is still around. If the wall hadn’t come down in 1989, my guess is that it would have crumbled by now.

The blogosphere, for all its virtues, too often mirrors Sunstein’s image of large groups of people engaging in mutual intellectual back-scratching, rather than challenging their own convictions.” - Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science in New Scientist

I find it ironic to read such attacks on the blogosphere in publications like the New Scientist that rarely if ever present opinions that differ from the editorial agenda of the magazine. Invariably the attacks charge the blogosphere with being an “echo chamber” of ideas instead of a place that challenges participants convictions.The New Scientist is primarily a science magazine, which is why I read it. However it regularly expresses political opinions that invariably attack Conservatives and glorify Liberals - as in this review of Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason. Think I’m exaggerating? Here’s how the book review ended:

The Assault on Reason isn’t the kind of volume that ought to be judged by standard norms of literary criticism; it’s far too historic for that. Reading it, your mind is very much elsewhere: on the catastrophic failed presidency of George W. Bush, and - if only Gore had taken office instead - what might have been.

That’s from a book review - in a science magazine.

You want an echo chamber, pick up the New York Times and try to find a positive story about the Bush Administration. Watch CNN and try to find a positive story about Iraq. How about your local newspaper or favorite news magazine. All these sources invariably offer the same opinions, the same tired cliches, quote the same sources, and offer the same opinions. Even the New Scientist ignores arguments and evidence that challenges the belief that global warming is NOT caused by humans.

I mention this today because one of the posters on this thread thought I had banned him because I disagreed with his take on the JFK assassination. I hadn’t. Hell, I welcomed his opinion because it showed that someone reads my writing (always a good thing for a writer’s ego) and it challenged my beliefs.

A healthy immune system is one that requires regular challenges by pathogens. In fact there is some evidence that the rise of autoimmune diseases like Lupus, asthma and others may be caused by modern living in a relatively clean environment. I believe that the body of one’s opinions needs regular challenges in order to become stronger. However, the analogy ends there because there are times when the idea that you accept the idea challenging you, and your opinion changes. That has happened to me on ideas such as Israel, gun control, capital punishment and recently, global warming.

In the case of the poster on the JFK thread, it turns out the Spam Killer that protects this site decided his comments were spam and pulled them. I’ve re-added his comments and will continue to watch the program to see if the program begins pulling others. However, the only time I will pull a comment is one that takes an ad hominem attack on me or one of the other posters. I do this for fun, and will not tolerate abuse of any sort.

Does this make my site an echo chamber? How about Dean’s World - where I post along with such people as Aziz Poonwalla, Michael Demmons, Ali Eteraz, and Kevin D - all of whom I regularly disagree with on nearly every topic imaginable?

The blogosphere is much more vibrant than the printed media. It isn’t perfect but it isn’t the echo chamber that writers in true echo chambers like New Scientist thinks.

The Hard Truth About Leaving Iraq

Ed Koch
Wed May 30, 1:30 PM ET

To those who believe that when America leaves Iraq, Islamic terrorists will be satisfied and stop fighting, I say this: wake up. The hard truth is that if we leave Iraq, the terrorists will continue their attacks on Americans everywhere, including our homeland. And they will use Iraq as the new base of their terrorist regime.

In a May 28th New York Times article, reporters Michael Moss and Souad Mekhennet provided a chilling report on what the future holds. The article begins, “When Muhammad al-Darsi got out of prison in Libya last year after serving time for militant activities, he had one goal: killing Americans in Iraq. A recruiter…told him he was not needed in Iraq. Instead, he was drafted into the war that is seeping out of Iraq. A team of militants from Iraq had traveled to Jordan, where they were preparing attacks on Americans and Jews…”

In other words, the terrorist jihad will continue and many of the terrorists will be those who are now fighting in Iraq. It cannot be stated often enough that the goal of the Islamic terrorists is the destruction of Western civilization and the restoration of the caliphate. The caliphate would unite all Muslims in one theocratic state, running from and including Spain to Indonesia, encompassing nearly 1.4 billion Muslims.

In a Times article on May 27th by Michael Gordon and Alissa Rubin, they report, “‘Many militias and terrorist groups are just waiting for the Americans to leave,’ said Salim Abdullah, the spokesman for the Iraqi Accordance Front, the largest Sunni Arab group in the parliament.” The article continues, “A bare majority of Iraq’s 275-member parliament recently signed a petition promoted by Mr. Sadr that called for a timetable for American troops to depart. Even so, the petition said the Americans should not leave until Iraqi security forces were ready to take over the job…[A Shiite tribal sheik said] ‘But leaving, withdrawing completely from Iraq, that means erasing Iraq from the map.’”

The article reported on a poll taken by ABC News in Baghdad which showed, “About 64 percent of Baghdad residents [polled in February and March] said American forces should remain until security was restored…or until Iraqi forces could operate independently.”

Everyone, including the president and his advisers, and of course, his Democratic opponents, recognize that the heretofore efforts and tactics of the U.S. have not prevailed and must change. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record) said recently, “I think that the handwriting is on the wall that we are going in a different direction in the fall, and I expect the president to lead it.” The “surge,” an increase of 30,000 American soldiers on the ground, will be over by then. If it works, we can all admit our doubts that it would.

What will the “different direction” that McConnell referred to be? The radical Democratic left inside the Congress led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) and their supporters believe that the U.S. should get out now and certainly no later than early next year. From the administration come vague comments that there may be a reduction of 100,000 troops in the wind sometime in 2008. The Times reports in a May 26th article by David E. Sanger and David S. Cloud, “The Bush administration is developing what are described as concepts for reducing American combat forces in Iraq by as much as half next year, according to senior administration officials in the midst of the internal debate.”

In my judgment, were it possible to remain in Iraq and accomplish the obvious goals of bringing a true peace among the warring parties — Sunni, Shiite and Kurd — with a stable central government accepted by all, that would, of course, be ideal. But the Shiite majority does not want to forgive the Sunnis who oppressed them for so many years, and will not share government power or oil revenues with them. The Sunnis, who are 20 percent of the population, appear to be militarily more capable than the Shia and are primarily responsible for the car bombs and the improvised explosive devices that have killed American soldiers and Iraqis, both military personnel and civilians. It is devastating for American soldiers to learn that those serving in the Iraqi army, being trained by and fighting alongside American soldiers, cannot be trusted.

A May 28th Times article by Michael Kamber reported on an incident in February “When [American] soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb. When they searched the bomber’s body, they found identification showing him to be a Sergeant in the Iraqi army.” Kamber quotes an American soldier, “I thought ‘what are we doing here? Why are we still here?…We’re helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us.”

My own view is that the administration should demand the Iraqi government pass the power and oil sharing changes immediately, and if it doesn’t, we should get out immediately. Further, and I have stated it many times, we should give our regional Arab and NATO allies an ultimatum that if they don’t come in now with troops, we will leave immediately.

Waiting for the Iraqi army to be battle ready is like waiting for Godot. They seem to know how to kill U.S. soldiers and terrorize each other and innocent civilians, but are unable to keep the peace.

Many Americans refuse to believe the Islamic terrorists are a threat to the free world and those who talk of the danger are thought of as war mongers. They simply refuse to take them at their word as many refused to take Hitler’s warnings in Mein Kampf seriously. In the Times article of May 29th, written by Michael Powell, he quotes a woman in Atlanta asking candidate Giuliani, “Why does so much of the world hate us? Haven’t we failed to understand Arab grievances? We misinterpret their word ‘jihad’ which is not necessarily a hostile word.” Truly an Alice In Wonderland view.

A terrorist recently convicted in Great Britain was deported to Jamaica after trial. The Times reports in an article of May 26th by Alan Cowell, “Mr. Faisal had been convicted in February 2003 of soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred…urging his followers to kill Hindus, Christians, Jews and American citizens…During Mr. Faisal’s trial, prosecutors played a videotape showing him telling 150 young followers after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States that the Koran justified attacks on non-Muslims. He was also heard to promise teenage Muslim boys that their reward in paradise would be 72 virgins if they died as religious martyrs.”

You can’t make this stuff up. Will we and the rest of the Western world wake up in time so that we can survive the 30-year war that will take place after we leave Iraq? They want to kill us, and apparently, many Americans don’t believe it.

One more thought. If we stay, we should tell the Iraqi people in each province that if a significant number of them support the insurgents and terrorists against our soldiers, or if a significant number of them do not step forward and assist us by providing information to protect us from the insurgents and terrorists, we will leave that province and not protect them from those who want to kill them in a religious civil war. Perhaps the recognition that U.S. soldiers will no longer be considered expendable may raise thoughts of cooperation, if only for their own self-protection.

Copyright © 2007 RealClearPolitics

Congressman Tom Tancredo is running for president. The Congressman from Colorado is a darkhorse candidate, but he’s one that I wouldn’t mind voting for. He’s been steadfast in his opposition to labor dumping and illegal immigration. He earned the ITPAA sole “Eagle Award” for his efforts. He has also butted heads regularly with the Republican leadership in Washington, proving that he’s no insider.

If he survives the gauntlet to the nomination, I would welcome the opportunity to vote for him in Nov 2008. In the meantime, I wish him the best of luck.

And send him some cash too since wishes don’t win elections.

Evidently the non-al Qaeda insurgents are getting tired of dying:

The wider Sunni insurgency — the groups beyond Al Qaeda — is being slowly, and surely, defeated. The average insurgent today feels demoralized, disillusioned, and hunted. Those who have not been captured yet are opting for a quieter life outside of Iraq. Al Qaeda continues to grow for the time being as it cannibalizes the other insurgent groups and absorbs their most radical and hardcore fringes into its fold. The Baathists, who had been critical in spurring the initial insurgency, are becoming less and less relevant, and are drifting without a clear purpose following the hanging of their idol, Saddam Hussein. Rounding out this changing landscape is that Al Qaeda itself is getting a serious beating as the Americans improve in intelligence gathering and partner with more reliable Iraqi forces.

Last Fall I foresaw the danger of talking ourselves into defeat in Iraq, a danger that no one against the war truly recognizes. Now the sentiment is captured in this editorial by the WSJ:

Our slide to a national nervous breakdown because of Iraq is not going unnoticed. Australia’s foreign minister, Alexander Downer, has been visiting across the U.S. this week. “I’ve been pretty worried about what I’ve heard,” Mr. Downer said in an interview. Walking on Santa Monica beach Sunday before last, Mr. Downer said he encountered a display of crosses in the sand, representing the American dead in Iraq.

“What concerns me about this,” he said, “is that it’s sort of an isolationist sentiment, subconsciously, not consciously, and that would be an enormous problem for the world. I hope the American people understand the importance of not retreating and thinking the world’s problems aren’t theirs.”

Hat tip: Dean Esmay.

The scandal just won’t go away - just like Jimmy himself.
From the National Review (hattip: Ron Coleman, writing at Dean “Dhimmi of the Year Nominee” Esmay)

In recent weeks, a number of articles have noted that Carter’s anti-Israeli views coincide with those of some of the center’s prime financial backers, including the government of Saudi Arabia and the foundation of Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, whose offer of $10 million to New York City just after Sept. 11 was rejected by then-mayor Rudy Giuliani because it came wrapped in the suggestion that America rethink its support of Israel. Other big donors listed in the Carter Center’s annual reports include the Sultanate of Oman and the sultan himself; the government of the United Arab Emirates; and a brother of Osama bin Laden, Bakr BinLadin, “for the Saudi BinLadin Group.” Of lesser heft, but still large, are contributions from assorted development funds of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as of OPEC, whose membership includes oil-rich Arab states, Nigeria (whose government is also a big donor to the Carter Center), and Venezuela (whose anti-American strongman Hugo Chávez benefited in a 2004 election from the highly controversial monitoring efforts of the Carter Center).

The sooner he sends the flags flying at half-mast, the better.

Holy crap!

A Cabinet paper reads: “Monsieur Mollet raised with the Prime Minister the possibility of a union between the UK and France.” A document of September 28 records a talk between Sir Anthony and Cabinet Secretary Sir Norman Brook.

It says: “The PM told him (Brook) we should give immediate consideration to France joining the Commonwealth.

“Monsieur Mollet had not thought there need be difficulty over France accepting the headship of Her Majesty. The French would welcome common citizenship.”

A year later, France signed up to the new Common Market. Britain, blocked by General de Gaulle, was left out in the cold.

I’ve decided that I’m not a blogger. I’m a “new media insurgent.”

Hmmm….

I suppose “dork” will suffice for now…

Penn & Teller show you how.

And they also tell you why:

There are some people who like telling other people what to do.

Michael Totten visits south Lebanon:

“We have been screaming about this conflict for 30 years now,” Henry said as he dealt himself a hand of Solitaire from a deck of cards in his pocket. “But no one ever listened to us. Not until September 11. Now you know how we feel all the time. You have to keep up the pressure. You can never let go, not for one day, one hour, not for one second. The minute you let go, Michael, they will fight back and get stronger. This is the problem with your foreign policy.”

“Since 1975 we have been fighting for the free world,” Said said. “We are on the front lines. Why doesn’t the West understand this? America can withdraw from Iraq, you can go back to Oregon, but we are stuck here. We have to stay and live with what happens.”

How long will Zimbabwe - one of the few blessed countries in Africa in terms of resources - continue circling the drain?
This news isn’t good…

Because other sources have reported that impoverished Zimbabweans had turned to “panning for gold” as a means of supporting themselves. This crackdown also followed the crack down against people accused of “hoarding” cash when Zimbabwe revalued its currency

People are trying to survive, and the gov’t seems intent on calling them “traitors” and jailing them.

Somebody needs to hand Comrade Bob his retirement plan - of the 9mm variety.

Here are some predictions for the coming year.

1. Fidel Castro - 2007 will be his “lucky year” or rather Cuba’s. Expect a big state funeral attended by St. Jimmy Carter and Al Gore. St. Jimmy will shed real honest to goodness tears and remain living proof that only the good die young.

2. Ariel Sharon - Life support will be withdrawn and Arik will finally be allowed to move on. I will regret all the bad things I said about him in 2000.

3. The head of Al Qaeda in Iraq will lose his, most likely to a Hellfire missile fired by an American drone piloted by a Nintendo graduate in California. One of his lieutenants will disappear and reappear in Michigan as the wealthy owner of a chain of gas stations.

4. Bin Laden will continue to elude capture in the same way that Elvis continues to avoid being photographed. However, I expect either Mullah Omar or “the Z Man” al-Zawahiri’s remains to be identified using DNA after a similar airstrike by a Nintendo graduate.

5. The US Air Force will award the Nintendo Corporation of America a special “Lifetime Achievement” award. Well, maybe they won’t but after a few more kills they should.

6. Saddam Hussein will not see the end of next year - if he’s not dead now or by the end of this weekend.

7. Most of the following celebrities will not make it completely through 2007 alive: Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Liz Taylor, Dick Clark, Ed McMahon, Tony Curtis, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas.

8. Youthful Surprise: One of the following young stars will die “tragically” - if you consider choking on your own vomit after mixing alcohol and drugs a tragic death: Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Ritchie, Brittney Spears, Hillary Duff. I fully expect Paris Hilton to live forever and be cracking sex jokes at the age of 90.

9. Nelson Mandela - He should have died 10 years ago to preserve his legacy, but perhaps History will ignore his increasingly erratic behavior.

10. St. Jimmy Carter will publish another book blaming Jews and the American foreign policy they control for boll weevil infestations in the Southern states - or something. Liberals will sigh in ecstasy and true liberals like me will keep checking the flag posts at our local post offices in expectation.