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Saturday, April 06, 2002
posted by gbarto at 2:35 PM:
Whoever this A Beam is, he still needs to learn more about the blogosphere, or he'd know it's Bjørn Stærk (ø = " & o s l a s h ;" and æ = " & a e l i g ; " ).* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:06 PM:
You've been reading about Israel all day. You need a break. Go spend some time with the Rabbit.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:57 PM:
Last night, thinking on the warnings to Israel not to take out Yasser, I wondered what would happen if God beat them to it. I hadn't thought about Yasser doing the dirty deed, but LGF says it's a possibility. Which is all the more reason why we should be looking for a way to create a peace and democracy oriented Palestine, not a Yasser-oriented one. I still say pacification and forced democratization (with the kill-Israel-first crowd kicked out of the political process) is the only long term solution.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:47 PM:
Natalie Solent has returned from her vacation and is back posting. For those who had stopped going by, you might want to drop in again.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:35 PM:
Emmanuelle (le prénom suffit) constate que selon l'office de la langue française (au Québec) il faut dire "blogueur". Et pourquoi pas? Le mot vient de weblog, avec un G, et il est possible que le double G en anglais s'y trouve pour éviter la prononciation "blojur". Pourtant, je crois que ce n'est pas à cause des règles de l'orthographe mais à cause de la réussite de www.blogger.com, qu'on dit "blogger" de même façon qu'on parle de "xeroxing." Or, les Français ne xeroxe pas; ils font des polycopies. Quand même, il ne s'agit pas d'un mot français, mais d'un mot anglais qu'on adapte dans ce cas. Alors, je crois que si l'Académie désire créer un mot authentiquement français, c'est bien. Ailleurs, il faut faire une adaptation qui se ressemble le plus possible au mot anglais. Pour moi, Emmanuelle reste donc une bloggeuse excéllente.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:15 PM:
The TurkeyBlog argued a couple days back, the Bush speech was designed to let Israel demonstrate good will, before we freed its hand when the Palestinians failed to reciprocate. David Warren refines the point in this piece.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:51 PM:
Despite Bush's Call, Israel Pummels West Bank Cities. NYT headline. How about, "Mindful of Bush's Call, Israel Has Last Hurrah Pummeling West Bank"? There's a reason we didn't send Powell immediately.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:19 PM:
Virginia is spot on in her remarks on right-wing victimhood. Right-wingers may have a point that liberal group-think shuts them out of the debate some of the time, but the Buchanans and Falwells and others don't do anything about it. Instead, they whine about the liberal media with all the shrillness and self-pitying of an Al Sharpton put down by the man.My own personal experience in the matter? In college, our campus pagans played the victimhood card twice a week. But the biggest whiner on campus was still the president of the College Republicans.
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posted by gbarto at 12:06 PM:
Ken Layne's been plugging this, so you may have already seen it. Just in case you didn't, here's some of his buddy Welch's journalism. Who'd a thunk it? Welch sounds like a laid back PJ here.* * *
posted by gbarto at 11:52 AM:
As you can see, Blogger Pro is letting me post again. On the other hand, www.blogger.com seems to have disappeared.* * *
Friday, April 05, 2002
posted by gbarto at 10:46 PM:
Why'd I go to Blogger Pro? Earlier today, I signed up for Blogger Pro because Blogger was taking forever (again). It was great the first four hours. Now it won't post anything; it keeps telling me there's an "Object required." I'd love to know what this means. I thought maybe my server was messed up, so I used Blogger Pro's upload function. No problem; the file uploaded just fine. So I guess the blogger engine's messed up, hence the messed up text here (I'll fix the html later).In the meantime, I'd like to thank Matt Welch for the link. I've been reading Matt a long time, enjoy his work, and am delighted to appear in his link list. I'd also like to note that Emmanuelle Richard is to join my permanent linklist. Francophones, go visit now. The rest of you may want to find the google translator first. Matt's link is at left; Emmanuelle's will be over there as soon as blogger lets me update my template. Bonne nuit et à demain.
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posted by gbarto at 9:40 PM:
Blogger's misbehaving. We'll see if this posts.* * *
posted by gbarto at 7:18 PM:
Someone else has probably had this thought, but I haven't seen it anywhere, so I'll put it here:What if Arafat dies?
We've heard that his indispensability to the peace process means Israel must not take him out. But what if God does? We can't haul Him in front of a U.N. special panel. So maybe, regardless of what Israel does, we'd best be looking for paths to peace that don't go through Arafat. Just a thought.
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posted by gbarto at 1:40 PM:
The Administration opposes arming pilots, a potentially defensible decision. However, the reasoning doesn't hold up.Ridge and Co. point to such as the EgyptAir suicide pilot and wonder what would happen were a pilot to go crazy. The suggestion is that he might kill the other pilot and then do something crazy... Like crashing the plane? Been done. No gun used. Crash the plane into a building? Been done. No gun used.
A pilot who wants to wreak havoc doesn't need a gun; he's got a much more lethal projectile. So quit the fussing about arming pilots. If 9/11 starts to repeat, it might help them repel attackers. And if you don't trust a pilot with a gun, for God's sake, don't entrust him or her with the lives of all the people that can fit on an airplane.
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posted by gbarto at 1:02 PM:
Hmm. The Israelis are now firing on reporters. Well, they said they'd be going after all their enemies.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:54 PM:
One of Arafat's spokesmen, Sam Husseini, was just on Fox News. Shepard Smith asked him about fifteen times: Yes or no, is Yasser Arafat a terrorist? Husseini would not answer. Pretty damning when your own people can't rule out the possibility, want to talk nuance. Whether you think him a liar or not, I've no doubt that if asked the same about Ariel Sharon, Bibi Netanyahu would answer no, and march through any follow-up question with aplomb. That is, at least the Israelis believe in what they're doing. FNC has shown that the Palestinians aren't quite so secure in making their case to the world. Could this have anything to do with the two posts below?* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:49 PM:
Sorry about the post below. Shepard Smith says it wasn't the police chief's home. It was his office.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:41 PM:
Says FNC, a bomb factory was found today in Nablus - at the home of the local police chief. Arafat may not be able to control all the violence, but if his leadership isn't sufficient to keep his own police chiefs in line, we might as well stop talking to him now.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:36 PM:
The Postal Service says that due to declining revenue, it is considering shortening hours and only delivering five days a week. Great idea, but why stop there? If they only delivered mail one day a week, think how much more they could save.Here's a thought: The USPS could try competing with FedEx or at least UPS for speed and reliability of delivery.
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posted by gbarto at 12:32 PM:
Update on the word Taliban. Still no idea where the form Taliban comes from; even the Wehr-Cowan dictionary makes no specific reference to the form. Asparagirl (link at left) says we need humor in Arabic; unfortunately my skills are nowhere near up to such a task. But I have done a little with the language and wanted to add a few comments on Arabic, Hebrew, their similarities and the way the languages work. To keep the page brief, I've put them here.* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:38 AM:
Matt Welch has an excellent essay on the problem with excusing the suicide bombers: It ratifies the vision that they're just animals who can't do any better.For a couple months now, the TurkeyBlog has been one of many describing a certain species of Arab as animalistic, barbarian, lesser and other. Much to my dismay, no one has written to protest (I don't know whether no one's incensed or whether no one's reading).
The TurkeyBlog believes, as Welch does, that the Palestinian people are not animals. They have the same faculties of reason and morality as any other human being. But the "supporters" of their cause seem less pro-Palestinian than reflexively anti-Israel and (let's whisper it) anti-Semitic. Perhaps this is why they mutter sympathetically (but not empathetically) about the plight of the Palestinians; they're just another beast of burden carrying out anti-Israel attacks.
Let us state for the record: Those who justify, those who apologize, those who legitimize - those who treat the Palestinian suicide bombings as anything other than an abomination have chosen hate over not just human life, but human souls. For those families who have lost loved ones, we offer our sympathy. But the blood is not on the hands of Israelis, who have tried to negotiate peace and lost too many innocents to an excess of patience; the blood is on the hands of the Arafats of the world who convinced them that they were more valued as dead Jew-killers than living Palestinians - and who by their governance of the Palestinian territories made that belief feel all too possible.
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posted by gbarto at 9:22 AM:
Correction: The trial for the murderers of Danny Pearl didn't start today; the defense requested more documents and the trial was postponed.* * *
posted by gbarto at 8:59 AM:
News flash: My sources tell me that Tom Daschle doesn't think Al Gore should run for president in 2004. In other news, Bill Bradley doesn't think much of the former VP. (see post below)* * *
posted by gbarto at 8:56 AM:
Uh oh. Gary Bauer thinks Bush should take a firmer stand for Israel and against immigration. I agree with the first, disagree with the second, but notice there haven't been any recent front pagers about moderate Democrats disappointed by Daschle and Gephardt's cynical effort to politicize the war. Media bias? More likely the dissent on the left is just lodged in another ideological blindspot for the media, but it's disappointing to think that self-proclaimed authorities in matters of news judgement think Gary Bauer and friends fill the bill. Bennet may be serious, but Kristol's in bed with McCain, and most of the others mentioned in this NBC news piece barely register on the radar screen for mainstream conservatives. Don't believe me? Let's ask Tom Curry, who told us this was news:SPLITS NOT NEW
The splits in Republican ranks are neither new nor surprising. They’ve simply been obscured by Bush’s victory in the 2000 election and by his popularity since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Some of those now putting heat on Bush from the right have a history of opposing him — Bauer ran against him in the GOP primaries in 2000 and Kristol was a supporter of a Bush rival, Sen. John McCain. Last summer, Kristol counseled McCain about bolting the GOP and launching a third-party challenge to Bush.
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posted by gbarto at 8:46 AM:
Reports NBC's Dana Lewis:RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 4 — The Israeli army has taken harsh action in recent days against news media covering its campaign in the West Bank, employing intimidation and other drastic measures to keep journalists away from its largest offensive in a generation. Reporters have been strip searched, deported from the battle zone and threatened with permanent expulsion from Israel.
In other news, the trial for the killers of Danny Pearl began today.
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posted by gbarto at 8:43 AM:
I haven't found it online, but MSNBC is reporting that the Israelis found a large cache of weapons near the Nativity Church in Bethlehem. If these reports are true, the Palestinians were looking for more than sanctuary at Bethlehem. And instead of arguing about what happened to the doors of the church, we might be looking at another bloody battle.Zinni met with Arafat, but unless Arafat can do something about those 200 Palestinians in the Nativity Church, never mind the suicide bombers, the meeting was a moot point. The best role the U.S. could take right now is reminding the Palestinians - firmly - that peace with Israel is their only course, and that the U.S. will by force if necessary foreclose all others. Arafat might shape up if he is made to realize that he is never going to be allowed to bring victory for the PA, his only choices are peace or death.
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posted by gbarto at 12:08 AM:
Here, here!* * *
Thursday, April 04, 2002
posted by gbarto at 11:46 PM:
Virginia is disturbed by the number of reporters messing up the word taliban - namely trying to make it plural. I'm sure some newspaper inset box somewhere has already covered this, but just in case anyone missed it, "talib" (pronounced taalib) is Arabic for student. "Taliban" is the plural, I guess. A hundred years ago, when I took an interest in this stuff, I learned the plural talaba, but Arabic plurals are a mess, so who knows. Anyway, the movement is so named because it was started as a movement by religious students to institute the faith by means of government. The word seems to come from talaba - to ask or demand, including asking for something that you have a rightful claim to.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:03 PM:
Virginia Postrel has a nice write-up on Brink Lindsey and what I call nihilistic libertarians. These anti-government, anti-society libertarians have a philosophical grandfather, but he's not an appealing one. I refer to the Marquis de Sade, who wrote cheap pornography made worse by the political rants rolled up in it. In the opening of Justine, de Sade decries the governments that have locked him up for preying on the weak and downtrodden, asserting that freedom ought give him, a strong and powerful man, the right to exercise that power of others. This is what the absolutely anti-state libertarians unleash every time. At around the same time de Sade was writing, the grandfather of a better libertarianism made a better case: that governments are instituted among men to secure to them the Natural Rights which God had given but nature wasn't so good at protecting. (I hope you realize that it's Jefferson I'm paraphrasing).Our Constitution, notably the Bill of Rights and the Preamble, contain the seeds of libertarianism, that noble idea that through government we can "secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." The Constitution, while contorted by the rough and tumble of politics, is still to some degree the loosely constructed rule set which allows others within to develop their own rules in a manner formulated by Postrel in TFAIE. It is our government that, however reluctantly, makes sure we can say what we want, own guns, be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and a whole host of other things that people in anarchic societies must endure. So the next time you hear government being derided for its own sake, remember: Government is neither good nor evil. It's an instrument for the distribution of political power. Don't demand no government. Demand good government, namely the kind that takes as its highest cause the protection of liberty for all. A very libertarian ideal indeed.
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posted by gbarto at 11:52 AM:
Here's Bush's speech.* * *
posted by gbarto at 11:15 AM:
Asparagirl worries that Bush is wobbling. I'm hoping she's wrong. I noted a few posts down that what Bush asks of Israel is concrete while what he asks of Araby necessitates dramatic cultural change starting at the top. If Israel pulls back and is threatened, Mr. Bush had better be prepared to intervene, raining down the fury of the US on those who mess with his vision of peace. I think he is.* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:17 AM:
Sending a check to the Red Cross? Don't go to the mail just yet. The International Red Cross has knowingly allowed their ambulances to be used for smuggling weapons, including explosives. They have allowed Palestinian fighters - uninjured - to take refuge in ambulances when firefights with Israelis were going badly. And they've been finding money to get Palestinians jogging suits and other niceties while barely coming up with basic cooking supplies for other nations. Support Mid-East peace. Don't send the International Red Cross/Red Crescent that check until we get some answers.I touched on this last night, in response to a WaPo story. Instapundit has the full story.
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posted by gbarto at 9:08 AM:
Incidentally, Hezbollah have been firing missiles into Israel (says Fox News). The President has made it clear that Israel and Lebanon are responsible for stopping this.* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:05 AM:
As to the question, is this being done to preempt Europe? Who cares? The EU cannot even reach agreement from within as to its own future. Several states within the EU have seen rising tides of anti-Semitism, and belated criticism from those states' leaders has done little to curb anti-Israeli sentiment. Israel would wisely reject the EU as a mediator, in any case.On the other hand, if European criticism is what was needed to bring forth the President's firm statement of this morning, it is good that they for once made a positive impact on an international situation.
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posted by gbarto at 8:56 AM:
Caspar Weinberger, now on Fox News, may or may not be plugged in to the current administration. Arafat had better hope he's not. Weinberger says that we need to negotiate with a legitimate representative of the Palestinian cause, and Arafat isn't it.* * *
posted by gbarto at 8:55 AM:
The President speaks. President Bush gave a pretty sharp statement this morning, calling for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories once they're done cleaning out terrorists. He also called on Arafat and the Arab nations to acknowledge Israel's right to exist, to renounce the hate spread by Arab media, to seriously act against terrorists and terror networks, and to acknowledge that the Palestinian state is deserved by the Palestinian people but can only come if peace is made with Israel.Bush explicitly labeled suicide bombing as an act of terror morally equivalent to murder, and he asserted that Arafat's implicit encouragement of suicide bombing, his failure to crack down on terror networks and his failure to encourage a public discourse moving toward peace amounted to bad leadership. He said Arafat's situation was "largely of his own making," and expressed sympathy for Israel's actions against him in the last few days.
In Bush's talk, Israel was given the most explicit instructions for moving toward peace. However, for once, I don't think Israel is getting the short end of the stick. Specific, measurable objectives can be met. The vaguer instructions given to the Palestinians and Arab nations demand more than hewing a line - they demand the showing of good faith. If Israel complies with Bush's call and the terror continues, I suspect Bush will be back asking the Europeans what Israel is supposed to do, and giving it a free hand to do what it feels it must.
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Wednesday, April 03, 2002
posted by gbarto at 10:58 PM:
Here's the WaPo on ambulance movements being restricted by Israeli troops. Here's the article summary on their main page:Israel Bars Ambulances:This is bad headlining at its most disingenuous: The first three-quarters of the piece are devoted to Palestinian troops holing up in churches. Barely the last quarter covers the ambulance question. And it takes until about the fifth to last paragraph - of a long story - to note that ambulance movements are in part restricted because Palestinian weapons and even potential suicide bombers were being smuggled in ambulances.
The military prevents rescue teams from recovering dead, wounded Palestinians in Bethlehem.
But not to worry; those skimming the headlines will know that the Israelis won't even let ambulances through, can you imagine?, and even those who start the story will have to go way beyond the fold to get the full scoop. Shame on the WaPo; this seems more like something you'd find in the NYT.
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posted by gbarto at 10:39 PM:
La bloggeuse la plus excéllente wants it known that the latest rap on France is a bum one: Meyssan's book is catching flak from the respectable in French society the same way it is from the blogging community.* * *
posted by gbarto at 5:41 PM:
The other day I mentioned an interview with John Ringo on FNC here. LGF has his column.* * *
posted by gbarto at 5:34 PM:
Arafat's weapons stash: Here's the photos. Pass 'em around. Presumably he needs it for his peace negotiations. (via LGF)* * *
posted by gbarto at 5:27 PM:
A short, somewhat snarky and simplistic history of France. To answer Asparagirl's question about the French (it's at the end of the post), it's Rousseau's fault. The Enlightenment gave us Voltaire - who lived in England and got his ideas from Locke, hence their coherence - and Diderot and Beaumarchais (who helped finance our revolution when he wasn't doing deals or writing plays, notably The Marriage of Figaro). And then there's the bastard stepchild of the Enlightenment, Jean-Jaques Rousseau. He wasn't actually French; he was born in Geneva and there he lived until he got locked out of the city gates one night and decided to write thousands of lines of bad prose about his circumstances, rather than confess his error and take the consequences. Among other things, he wrote the 18th century's bestselling book about childcare, no mean feat for a man who abandoned his five children. But his ridiculously self-pitying Confessions are the height of Rousseau, and it is these especially that gave rise to the foul scourge of Romanticism which sapped the energy of the Restoration and watered down the July Monarchy before taking control of and completely botching the Second Republic so badly that it gave rise to Napoleon III, a man who could not have managed a grocery store, never mind an empire. But worst of all, if Rousseau didn't actually create Sartre, he created the kind of culture that could accept Sartre, and Sartre was what France is today: an angry child who, scorned by the cool kids, turned to a self-satisfied resentment which scorned all in turn. This is France today: not so much vile, or vulgar, or evil, or awful; it's just scornful, convinced that if history passed it by, that's history's loss. And it all started with the scorned Rousseau.* * *
posted by gbarto at 4:14 PM:
Off-blog:Sullivan's church has gone too far.
Hooray for Rummy! He's been on the TV pointing out that Saddam is taking food out of the mouths' of children to pay homicide bombers. What a prick!
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posted by gbarto at 1:30 PM:
The Wall Street Journal has a nice little editorial called "Arabs and Democracy." The Journal rightly notes that the problem in Palestine is that the alleged leadership lacks democratic legitimacy. This is so obvious anyone outside the State Department could see it: Picking the primus inter pares of Palestinian thuggery to lead a free society was like picking the shiniest apple to calm your hunger for a plum. Sure, he was easier to find, but he wasn't what we were looking for.Strangely, though, the Journal concludes that the lack of Palestinian democracy proves the need for Iraqi democracy, which is kind of like saying that since you're hungry for an apple, you should have a lemonade to quench your thirst - the two propositions are true but they're only tangentially related. The removal of Saddam removes an important threat to Israel, but only the cleansing of the Palestinian homicide bomber mindset will bring true freedom, and that requires shutting down the lovers-of-death crowd and making possible a vision of meaningful life for ordinary Palestinians.
The lack of Iraqi democracy leads to the need of Iraqi democracy. The lack of Palestinian democracy leads to the need for Palestinian democracy. If we wish to change the regime in Iraq, that's fine. But we should do it for ourselves and for the Iraqi people. If we wish to help the Israelis with the Palestinian problem, we can best do so by giving them a free hand to defend themselves and providing tactical support, should it be asked for. The TurkeyBlog thinks the ultimate solution is for the Palestinians to have a democratic state, imposed by Israel in the same way Bismarck imposed a republic on France 132 years ago. That state should be as much under Israel's thumb as France was under Bismarck's until it proves itself a genuine instrument of civil society devoted to a better life for Palestinians, not death for Jews. For our own self-interest, we should likewise impose a democracy on Iraq and assure that it is devoted to a good life for the average Iraqi, not Saddam's bizarre vision of an Arab nation whose only purpose is the destruction of Israel. But to link Iraqi democracy and the Palestinian problem is only to acknowledge that the struggle now underway is between nations espousing freedom and democracy and strongmen espousing oppression and murder. Let us realize that shaking up the Arab world in general is only part of the solution; to stanch the flow of Palestinian martyrs requires offering something better than martyrdom, and the only way to get there is straight through Arafat.
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posted by gbarto at 10:02 AM:
Well, it's Wednesday, and that means there's a good chance the TurkeyBlog will touch on Holman Jenkins' column. Shall we?Jenkins today is writing about greed, envy and accounting, and the main point is that while we're all hearing a lot about Enron, the two latest perpetrators of accounting fraud are none other than Senators Carl Levin and John McCain. Levin and McCain want to change the way stock options are registered on the corporate balance sheet. Jenkins quotes Greenspan on the matter:
Expensing is only a bookkeeping transaction. Nothing real is changed in the actual operations or cash flow of the corporation.The only effect stock-option grants have on earnings is a dilution per share if an executive exercises those options. Let's explain: If you and four friends offer, say, little Timmy, a nickel to go get an apple and you split it five ways, you each get one fifth. If, on the other hand, you offer little Timmy a penny and a share of the apple, you each get one-sixth, as does little Timmy (who also gets a penny since he's the one who had to go get it). That, in a nutshell, is what happens when a corporation pays the CEO with both cash and stock options. This incentivizes the CEO to make money for shareholders - since he is one - just as in our example little Timmy is incentivized to get a good apple, not just the first one he sees, as the quality of the apple determines in part the worth of his compensation.
If market participants indeed have been misled, that, in itself, should be surprising, for there is little mystery about the effect of stock-option grants on earnings reported to shareholders.
Incidentally, the Enron execs picked a lousy apple anyway and tried to sell their slices, and sure enough, they got caught, which means the system isn't perfect but it does at least partially amend its errors.
Now that we understand a little bit about options and dilution, there comes the question, are options an expense? Or something else? It doesn't matter, as Greenspan said. Prospective shareholders can look up the number of shares outstanding and the number of options outstanding and decide whether their share of the apple risks being whittled away to nothing. Responsible corporations make sure it won't. And responsible investors avoid irresponsible corporations by learning what 10-Ks, 10-Qs and related documents say. Go to the Motley Fool, sign up and read about this stuff if you're planning to become an investor. And if you're not even willing to read about such things for a couple hours on a website, stay away from the market.
However, even if you decide to stay away from the market, pick up a Journal or Investor's Business Daily once in a while and look around, because if you're totally out of touch with this stuff, a couple guys named Levin and McCain will be by to tell you all the great things they're doing for you. And you, sucker that you are, might make the mistake of believing them.
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Tuesday, April 02, 2002
posted by gbarto at 11:44 PM:
Narrow-minded puritans in Pennsylvania have apparently decided that men shouldn't be dancing in front of convenience stores in women's underwear late at night. A Dog's Life has the story.* * *
posted by gbarto at 11:23 PM:
Den Beste has, as always, thoughtful commentary on the subject of the day. Today's subject was the blog and the Beam fracas. But as usual, Steve has gone beyond the main outlines of the discussion to point out something important: Some of the things that make the blog special are exactly those for which newspapers deride them. Steve highlights James Lileks' little Gnat. Amen. Say what you will, but reading about the Gnat always makes for a bright start to my day online. Even the thrill of a Screed just can't compare to the occasional "Awww, coooooot" moments that Lileks can't help sharing. I have been reading Lileks' columns for years (they'd show up in the Grand Rapids Press Perspective section from time to time) and started reading them online. But frankly, for the best, sweetest, most human and most touching writing on the web, you can't beat the Bleat. If blogging and all that are what it took to get Lileks to write about the not-so-important stuff of daily life - that really is most important of all - then for that alone we should celebrate this little experiment we're all involved in.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:57 PM:
Off-blog (posts from when Blogger was down earlier today):Nice note from Den Beste on Arafat, the Palestinian hero always ready to sacrifice - anything or anyone except himself.
Jim Henley reprints a note from Steve Postrel (Virginia's husband) here. Steve also thinks occupation is necessary. I still think the next move is most important: Using Israeli force to lay the groundwork for the second nation in the Middle East where Arabs are allowed to vote freely for their leaders
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posted by gbarto at 12:57 PM:
Stephen Green is one of many mocking Alex Beam's piece on blogging (you can get the link with him). One of his readers had the best comment on the affair, however, noting that in irritating the blogosphere, Beam probably got more readers than ever before. And yes, of course, I read about it first on Instantman.* * *
posted by gbarto at 8:19 AM:
Vous parlez anglais? Le Monde has announced that it will be running articles from the New York Times unabridged and untranslated in the weekend edition (so sayeth Joe Kernen on CNBC).* * *
posted by gbarto at 8:15 AM:
The Scene is back where it belongs. The link at left has been re-corrected.* * *
posted by gbarto at 8:09 AM:
In the Middle East, Arafat remains trapped. Shots are being fired in Bethlehem. A priest that MSNBC had reported killed wasn't. And Netanyahu says the PA is Israel's Taliban and should be dealt with accordingly.Interesting insight into Israel-Palestine conflict: The Israeli army is trained to fight armed people. The Palestinians are trained to kill civilians. Therefore, when a confrontation arises, Israel wins. Israel's seemingly missing strategy is now clear: gather all Palestinian weapons and pick up anyone who looks like trouble. There seems to be some Palestinian support for this from those not in the PA.
This from John Ringo of the NY Post.
Ringo's insights remind us of one particularly ugly fact: We're responsible for this. We raised Arafat from being an important player to being the de-facto spokesman for the Palestinian cause. We did not consult the Palestinian people, we did not seek to allow them to make their voices heard, we did not seek to create an environment where they could pursue peace as a people. We instead chose the convenience of grabbing the seemingly most reasonable (or at least political) strongman and elevating him so that we would have a negotiation partner.
Bismarck dealt with a similar situation much better. Though the parallels are not exact, I believe they may provide a model for Israel:
In the late 1860s, Napoleon III had been showing signs of wishing to emulate his uncle's military prowess. Now France, of course, was a mess. While Napoleon III had power, there were still Republicans, Monarchists, Socialists and even Communists agitating at the margins of society. In sum, there were a variety of factions with different visions of where France should go, some visions being more radical than others.
Bismarck laid a trap and France fell in, accidentally launching the Franco-Prussian war. France was quickly overwhelmed and - here's the important part - with Napoleon III captured, Bismarck ordered France to hold free and fair elections to choose the government that would surrender to him. France's 3rd Republic got its start under the administration of the Prussians, who sought a government that would have the respect of the people but abide by the terms of surrender.
The Israelis could take a lesson from this. Already accused of being occupiers, they should accept the role and play it in all earnestness. Once Arafat is captured, they should methodically round up those who would not abide by a peaceful surrender (they already seem to be doing this). They should then give Palestine free and fair elections by running them themselves - assuring a secret ballot and being prepared to hold their nose for those who are noxious but not violent. The only requirements for candidates should be that a) they don't have a history of working with Hamas, Hezbollah or other militant groups and b) they agree to peace with Israel as a condition of Palestinian statehood and allow Israel to deal with those violent elements that the new Palestinian state can't. This would give a voice to Palestinians who want peace and those who could accept it, would give legitimacy to the resulting Palestinian state, and would legitimize Israel as the truest voice of democracy in the Middle East.
It may seem impossible, but something like it has been done before, way back in 1870.
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posted by gbarto at 8:06 AM:
As the violence escalated, there were soon fires burning everywhere as frightened crowds ran for cover. U of Maryland won.* * *
Monday, April 01, 2002
posted by gbarto at 9:43 PM:
Cussing canoeist off hook.* * *
posted by gbarto at 9:26 PM:
A dog's life also lets us know that not all Palestinians are haters. But even the best of families see their children go in a very wrong direction. This is another reason why Den Beste is right to reject the idea of hunting down and killing suicide bombers families to take away the allure of Saddam's martyr fund - though hitting one of the "ceremonies" where the martyr-fund checks are passed out would presumably be less objectionable. If the guy here mentioned is true to his word (and I've no doubt he is), he and his family would not be at such a ceremony and would therefore not be at risk. And à la Damian Penny, I have to wonder: Am I seriously writing about this? What the hell's going on when we have to reduce the allure for parents of having their kids wantonly and willfully detonate themselves for the singular aim of destroying other human beings? I sure hope my parents value me more than 25K from Saddam. Sick. Sick. Sick. It's all you can say about these people from Hamas and Hezbollah.And remember this story the next time you hear about Palestinian celebrations. The other casualty in this mess is civilized Palestinians - they do exist. But I betcha won't hear much on the teevee about Palestinian families destroyed by Hamas. Goes against the "If only Israel..." storyline.
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posted by gbarto at 9:06 PM:
Millions of Americans every day are affected by DHMO, yet few realize it. Visit this site now and learn the truth about DHMO. (Via A dog's life.)* * *
posted by gbarto at 8:38 PM:
Layne also notes that a U.S. citizen linked to Hezbollah has agreed to a plea bargain in exchange for testimony. One of his conditions: that family members be allowed to come to the U.S. Layne just notes the oddness of the deal. But while we're on the West is best theme here at the TurkeyBlog, it's worth pointing out that even anti-Western supporters of terror know that the decadent West is the best place to live. By the way, be sure to follow Layne's link to Damian Penny, and be sure to check out the rest of the site while you're there. Damian is also disturbed about becoming "All Israel, All the Time," but let's face it, at the moment this is an issue which has a way of concentrating and clarifiying the moral imagination, shedding light on all other issues.* * *
posted by gbarto at 8:15 PM:
The anti-McDonald's connection. Layne notes that José Bové of anti-McD's fame is among those protecting Arafat by his Western presence. Just to keep driving home the point, note the presumption: Israel thinks twice about killing and seeks to not harm the innocent, however misguided. Would anyone take this sort of gamble with Arafat's people?* * *
posted by gbarto at 7:10 PM:
Question for the day: Why is the International Atomic Energy Agency in my referrer logs?* * *
posted by gbarto at 6:39 PM:
Alas, he's not (see last line of the post).* * *
posted by gbarto at 4:52 PM:
Welcome back to TurkeyBlog, All Israel All the Time. Well, not really. But there is a lot of news lately. Anyway, Den Beste talks about the pervasiveness of the net, an insight gleaned from sitting in a café and noting that all the movie posters had urls. Just to stay on the Israel track, aren't we lucky that we can just idly sit in cafés musing on such details?By the way, read his piece; it has some nice insights.
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posted by gbarto at 12:32 PM:
Amen to Asparagirl. via the AOL guy.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:30 PM:
Congrats to Bjørn for his excellent postings. As for Reynolds, we should know by now that big media would never show such wisdom. (and to think I had such a dreary offering for the TurkeyBlog)* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:22 PM:
Happy birthday a day late, Joanne. And thanks for the mention the other day.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:18 PM:
What's up with dynamist.com? I just checked my link for Virginia Postrel's site and it didn't work. As she's changing hosts, I'm not sure if it's permanent, but if anyone's looking she's at http://www.dynamist.com/htmldocs/scene.html right now.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:13 PM:
First Jewish Suicide bomber! In a stunning turn of events, a former Israeli soldier from Bethlehem walked into Tulkarem and detonated himself just blocks from the remains of Yassir Arafat's PA compound. The attack claimed the life of the suicide bomber and a ten Palestinian children on the street as schools were closed by another day of violence. Said the mother of the bomber, "Today is a glorious day for the Jewish people. I only regret that my son only eliminated ten of the monsters. Peace will come only when all of them are extinguished."Now look at the date. Pretty sick joke, huh. But you didn't need to see the date to know this was made up; you only needed to know the difference between Israel and Palestine.
Unfortunately, when this story is told the other way, we take for granted both its veracity and its inevitability. For this the blame goes to Arafat, to the Saudis, to the Syrians, and to anyone and everyone in the international community who believes that any cause would merit the savaging of innocent life in the manner of the suicide bomber. Ariel Sharon may be tough, may be pigheaded, may be unreasonable. But if you seek monsters, you must look to the other side of this conflict.
* * *
posted by gbarto at 10:11 AM:
Interesting idea, tying welfare to marriage. And it's good to see the rejection of old programs that made single motherhood a better prospect financially than an impoverished two-parent family. But incentivizing marriage does pose the risk of a) creating marriages of convenience (a variation on the old wedding=green card theme) and worse, b) creating or prolonging bad, even dangerous, marriages. Of course there are efforts to iron out the kinks; let's hope they're sufficient. Marriage already has social/legal aspects in addition to the sacramental; it would be pretty awful for the guy whose favorite philosopher is Jesus to acclerate the slide toward the social/legal side away from the sacramental side.* * *
posted by gbarto at 10:06 AM:
Scroll to the bottom of this WaPo story and remember again the difference between Israel and the PA: In Palestine, the opponents of Arafat and intifadah are shot; in Israel they're in the cabinet and the press.* * *
posted by gbarto at 10:03 AM:
French anti-Semitism, via Layne, who is doing his level best to keep Welch on the defensive about France, it would seem.During my time in France, admittedly somewhat brief, I was surprised at the lack of p.c.; sad to say, it wasn't refreshing. I think political correctness has its place, if only in that in violating it one is reminded that the idea being expressed isn't exactly orthodox. I heard jokes about blacks and Jews over there that simply drew a chuckle; no shock. It's when the shock value goes that we forget that not all sensitivities are unwarranted. The squabbling between the LePens and the anti-racism groups still carries a little bit too much meaning for comfort. It would be so much better if the attitudes that lead to these sort of things were at least treated as a little outré.
* * *
Sunday, March 31, 2002
posted by gbarto at 3:00 PM:
Friedman, accessory to murder, or so sayeth Little Green Footballs. Let's not forget Powell, the French Ambassador to England, and all those other fine folks who have stood by Arafat as supposedly both the legitimate leader of the Palestinians and a helpless little man who can't help the fact that Israelis are being slaughtered left and right. But Friedman has a special culpability, no question.* * *
posted by gbarto at 8:50 AM:
Incidentally, check out the story linked below. The violence continued yesterday. My thoughts from yesterday still stand. Back tomorrow.* * *
posted by gbarto at 8:50 AM:
The difference between Israel and the PA:Some newspaper commentators said the military campaign was mainly driven by Sharon's overwhelming need to settle a personal score with Arafat, who in 1982 was besieged by Sharon's forces in Beirut, but was able to leave Lebanon with thousands of fighters.
This explains Sharon's tremendous urge to humiliate Arafat, a humiliation that makes little sense, other than to satisfy an old desire for revenge, Nahum Barnea wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily.
Said journalists were published and are still alive. (from the WaPo)
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