Giants and Dwarfs

2003-06-08T01:56:00.000-04:00

FOUR GERMAN SOLDIERS have been killed in what is believed to have been a suicide attack in Afghanistan. These deaths represent the first German fatalities in the ongoing Allied war against Taliban/Al Qaeda.

2003-06-08T01:48:00.000-04:00

I VOTED FOR HILLARY CLINTON and all I got was this lousy book.

2003-06-08T01:47:00.000-04:00

THOSE HEARTLESS REPUBLICANS. That crazy cowboy Bush. Tax cuts for the rich. Jobs for the boys. Help for the homeless?

2003-05-04T15:58:00.000-04:00

A FANTASY WORLD. That is the shared home of the intellectual Left, most of the Arab world, and Islamic fundamentalists. The Arab world can sustain their fantasy in the face of reality's continuous onslaught because of the presence of oil in their region. For them, money grows not exactly on trees, but almost. Money without work makes their Fantasy world go round. For Islamic fundamentalists, it is religious zealotry that does it. For the intellectual left, it are the tools of philosophy -or, rather, 'philosophy'- that allow them to deny reality with a smile, even when it hits them on the head with a sledge hammer. For them, truth does not exist, only 'truth' does, and reality is just a social construction. Forget about such niceties as the performative contradiction (i.e. if truth does not exist, what is the status of the statement that truth does not exist?).The distinction between poetry and philosophy is false, I was cheerfully told even yesterday, with a reference to Heidegger. However, the currently most influential provider of hot air to puff up the intellectual left's fantasy world -at least in Anglo-America- is Richard Rorty.

2003-05-04T15:47:00.000-04:00

DO CHECK OUT the latest issue of the New Criterion. Amongst other things, you will find this: "For more than twenty years now, The New Criterion has been dilating on the nullity of literary so-called theory and the destructive commitment to adolescent leftism that it involves. Naturally, we have been routinely abominated for our pains. It is pleasant, therefore, to find, if not a concession, then at least a tacit acknowledgment that the humanities have taken a wrong turn." Intrigued? Go on, take a look...

2003-05-04T15:37:00.000-04:00

JOHN MALKOVICH IS A CONSERVATIVE. First, he feels he is forced to move from France back to his home-state of Illinois because of France's punitive taxes. Second, he despised France's policies during the crisis with Iraq, describing Chirac's stance as "highly cynical and arrogant". Indeed, during 'a debate at the Cambridge Union last year, he named the MP George Galloway and the journalist Robert Fisk as the two men he would most like to beat to death. Later the outspoken actor, who objects to their anti-Israel views, amended his suggestion, saying: "I'd rather just shoot them."' Third, he has 'attacked American liberals' approach to crime, saying he would happily execute criminals personally. "The Left-wing want criminals coddled and no one wants anyone punished. I would have no problem pushing the switch while having dinner."' No misunderstandings there! Who said all hollywood actors are liberals? Still, moving from the lovely Provence to the cold Illinois is perhaps a bit, well... drastic?

2003-05-04T15:23:00.000-04:00

TRUTH IS STRANGER than fiction, as the continuing story about Saddam's former propaganda minister proves. "Mr Sahhaf worked from a transmitter van parked in the studio garden, sustained only by a few cups of tea and an occasional slice of cake."

2003-05-04T15:10:00.000-04:00

MORE EVIDENCE of Tony Blair's deep religiosity and of its influence on his political decisions. I do not wish to say anything negative about it. Indeed, on balance I believe that in practice the Prime Minister's religiosity makes for better policy. Nevertheless, although Americans are used to religious politicians -whether their religion is real or feigned- Britons are not. Unlike America, Britain is a profoundly secular country. Blair's religiosity is even more remarkable given the fact that the Labour Party used to be the proud home of what was considered an enlightened atheism. Apparently adding the 'New' to Labour did not just mean goodbye to Marxism; it also meant a renewed appreciation for traditional religion.

2003-05-04T08:46:00.000-04:00

A SERIOUS DEMOCRAT. Don't miss this long profile of Bob Graham, the Sen. from Flordia, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination. I think that Graham is the most serious Democrat running. A Bush-Graham race would be very good for the Republic: I would love to hear Bush explain exactly why hitting Iraq is a more pressing issue than hitting Hezbollah.

2003-05-02T17:21:00.000-04:00

THERE IS NO NEED to be overly cynical, but I have two words explaining President's Bush actions: John Kerry. Kerry's campaign is based on his military service in Vietnam. It's a good idea to remind the American people that Bush was a fighter pilot.

2003-05-02T01:48:00.000-04:00

GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States, showed himself to be incredibly cool today by making his carrier landing (do check out the pictures and the online video!). The Instapundit disagrees, but he has some good comments up from people who have sentiments similar to your man in Chicago. Dubya demonstrated himself capable of having fun, of displaying solidarity with the forces, and of being a man. Yes, you read that correctly: of being a man. Every boy and every man on the planet wants to do want Dubya did today, no matter how pathetically some may deny it - and we love Dubya because he actually does it (indeed, that's perhaps a reason why some hate him, but I'll leave the pop psychology to you). The professional cynics, carpers, and chatterers who need to waste their ink on something somewhere all the time can analyze this event all they want, but Bush showed again why he understands more about life and politics than most of those scribblers ever will. UPDATE: Tony Blur... erm, Blair -he of the Third Way (remember the Third Way?), formerly the scribblers' patron saint- says that Dubya's lightweight image is not only "complete bull" but "total nonsense." Just roll that sentence over your tongue: not only complete bull, but total nonsense... Blair is clearly serious. Says Tony: "He [President Bush] is highly intelligent, and it's not clotted by so many nuances that the meaning is obscured." Hmm. I wonder who he has in mind with that turn of phrase. "The good thing about (Bush) is that once he does really think that an issue has to be tackled he has big reserves of courage for doing it, and he won't really be diverted." Unlike that other friend of Tony's who used to live in the White House, right?

2003-04-28T16:41:00.000-04:00

NIALL FERGUSON unintentionally explains why 19th-century Britain is superior to 21st-century America. He hopes that America will take up its imperial calling. I, for one, do not believe that America will do so, or that it can be said to have such a calling. If I may venture a short suggestion as to the reason for this: 19th-century Britain had an aristocratic spirit; 20th and 21st-century America have a very democratic spirit. Britain dissolved its empire when it lost the will to continue it - this happened at the very moment that the country became truly democratic for the first time, namely after world war two. The people chose refrigerators at home rather than regiments abroad. The idea of refrigerators rather than regiments -a worshipping of consumer goods above almost all else- is a characteristic of democratic regimes and has long been central to the notion of America. UPDATE: The British Empire -and perhaps also the American Frontier- offered opportunities for the 'problem children' described by John Derbyshire. Unlike Derbyshire, I do not think that these children are necessarily problematic. They simply do not do well in the "suburban, conformist, lawn-tending, church-going lifestyle" that he calls "one of the best lifestyles — the most satisfying to the largest number of people — that the human race has yet come up with." We may agree that the benefits of the democratic and bourgeois world vastly outweigh its disadvantages. Yet the truth of that statement should not lead us to forget its opportunity costs - costs for noble endeavors such as Ferguson's, and costs to kids (and later adults) such as discussed by Derbyshire.

2003-04-19T21:27:00.000-04:00

CHICAGO'S LEON KASS has a reading list for you (link via Oxblog).

2003-04-17T23:20:00.000-04:00

IF THIS IS TRUE, it shows once again that American foreign policy does not understand much about Europe, particularly about European integration. Alternatively, it shows that American foreign policy does not understand what is in America's interest. And this was supposed to be a unilateralist, America First administration...

2003-04-17T15:57:00.000-04:00

BLOGGING FROM THE NEW EUROPE. If only more Europeans could be like this gentleman from Estonia....

2003-04-16T14:45:00.000-04:00

THE LADY was not for turning - and apparently, she's still got it...

2003-04-15T17:29:00.000-04:00

FUKUYAMA OPPOSED TO NEOCONS. During a lecture by Francis Fukuyama at the Oxford Union tonight, Mr. Fukuyama distanced himself from his fellow Straussians in Washington DC. Although the talk was about bio-tech, in an answer to a question on foreign policy, Fukuyama said that he does not believe in imposing liberal democracy through war. In reference to a Policy Review article by Ken Jowitt, Fukuyama accepted Jowitt's characterization of himself as Marx and the neocons as the Leninists, with the added caveat that the Prophet rejects the interpretation of the enthusiastic followers. Fukuyama believes the neocon position is "probably a mistake" and that Iraq is going to be very difficult to manage. Fukuyama is of the opinion that the cultural constraints in place in a country like Iraq will prevent it from developing into a viable liberal democracy any time soon, although (I add) according to his own theory "the end of History" will eventually manifest itself even in the Islamic world. To be clear: since the talk wasn't on the war per se, Fukuyama didn't clearly spell out whether he was opposed to war on prudential grounds as well, his comments were confined to a fundamental disagreement with the grander neocon strategy.

2003-04-15T08:11:00.000-04:00

INJUSTICE IN THE NETHERLANDS. Volkert van der Graaf, the radical animal rights activist who assassinated Pim Fortuyn on May 6, 2002, has today been convicted to a paltry 18 years inprisonment. The DA had demanded life. Dutch friends assure me that everyone who is well-behaved in Dutch prison is automatically released after 2/3rds of the sentence. That means the murderer is due to be released in 2014. I should perhaps add that one of the three judges, the controversial Nol Vermolen, is a known member of the Labour Party, who has been accused of involvement with supplying illegal immigrants with falsefied papers when he worked for a refugee organization. Mr Van der Graaf said he was brought to his deed to protect the "weaker members of society", including the Muslims. UPDATE: Not sure if this is true, but someone just told me that prisoners can start going home for the weekends after nine years!

What Van der Graaf wrought

2003-04-13T21:09:00.000-04:00

MARK STEYN, as usual, hits the nail on the head. Meanwhile, no apologies from the misguided apologists for Saddam. They are the same people who were wrong on Afghanistan, on socialism, and on the Soviet Union. One wonders whether they ever tire of being so awfully wrong. They certainly never apologize after they have been proven wrong. And, as Steyn points out, their mistakes never humiliate them in keeping mum afterwards.

2003-04-12T14:36:00.000-04:00

A WASHINGTON POST LIBERAL has some nasty words about liberal softness on despots and some nice words about Michael Kelly.

2003-04-12T11:35:00.000-04:00

NEWS FROM THE EMERALD ISLE.

2003-04-11T11:45:00.000-04:00

TARIQ AZIZ APPLYING FOR B-SCHOOL? The utter triumph of Western popular culture became apparent once again today when people looted the abandoned apartment of Tariq Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister of Saddam Hussein and former Foreign Minister. Apart from owning DVDs of the "Godfather" and "Sleepless in Seattle", Mr Aziz was fond of magazines such as Vogue and GQ, and someone in his household was studying for the GMAT....

2003-04-09T09:28:00.000-04:00

FUTURE OF OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE IN DOUBT. As long as the Labour government is in power --and it is nigh possible for the Conservatives to win back sufficient seats in the next election, which in any case will not be fought any time soon-- the future of the great universities of Britain remains in serious doubt. Labour simply doesn't understand the competive pressures Oxbridge is under. It is obsessed with social engineering and meddling with detail. Today it was reported for instance that "Leading universities will be fined and forbidden to charge higher fees unless they recruit more working-class students."

2003-04-08T16:56:00.000-04:00

THE PHILOSOPHER PRINCES. What's on the reading lists of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney? Not quite yet Natural Right and History, but we're getting close.....

(photo Associated Press)

2003-04-08T16:53:00.000-04:00

TANNER LECTURES on-line. The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, a prestigious series given by some of the most prominent philosophers have been placed on-line. A great resource, bringing together lectures from thinkers from Francis Fukuyama and Edmund O. Wilson to Saul Bellow and Myles Burnyeat.
(link via the Volokh Conspiracy).

2003-04-06T14:09:00.000-04:00

MARK STEYN expresses thoughts similar to my previous post. As ever, however, his tone is more certain than I dare to sound. That is to say, he is more certain than I am that the regime is leaderless. Now, whereas I think it almost undeniable that the regime has not shown any organized opposition, I am most curious as to why. Perhaps, indeed, Saddam was incapacitated or dead from the beginning of the war. Or perhaps -as I suspect- something weirder has been going on. Again, time will tell - and undoubtedly many fascinating books will be written about this.

2003-04-05T01:45:00.000-05:00

WHAT DOES SADDAM'S REGIME think it is doing, if anything? And where are the Iraqi soldiers, dead or alive? In the fog of war it is deeply uncertain to anyone what is going on, but I'll venture to make a fool out of myself and give you one suggestion. Unless there is a giant October surprise awaiting Allied forces in Baghdad -and this should not be ruled out- my best guess is that Saddam has been wounded to such an extent that he is impotent or unwilling to organize resistance, yet still powerful enough to prevent others from removing him. A few days ago USA Today (no link) reported that an alleged former aid of Saddam's -who lives in Germany now and who allegedly keeps in contact with the regime- says that his sources indicate Saddam is actively preparing a luxurious exile. Time will tell...

2003-04-03T12:42:00.000-05:00

LEO STRAUSS and the conservatives.

2003-04-03T12:39:00.000-05:00

OLD EUROPE is still going strong, despite the loss of face it has suffered in many circles during its cosying up to Saddam. This disturbing report on the consequences of the EU's proposed new Constitution should give pause to anyone who loves liberty. It should give pause, therefore, to anyone who hopes that in future America will be able to rely on Britain as opposed to on the axis of weasels. It should particularly give pause to those who would wish to deepen and strengthen the idea of the Anglosphere. Despite Mr Tony Blair's current popularity amongst North American conservatives, it is his attitude to Britain's future in Europe, and not the immediate issue of his attitude to the current Iraqi crisis, that should be the measure of his worth.

2003-04-03T12:31:00.000-05:00

WE MOURN THE LOSS of a great man, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who died too young earlier this week.

2003-04-03T12:26:00.000-05:00

MEET DONALD H. RUMSFELD, pilot, congressman, ambassador, businessman, poet. Poet? Well, maybe...

2003-04-03T12:25:00.000-05:00

TARGET SADDAM - that could very well be the title of a new Bond movie, 'based on real events...'

2003-04-02T16:30:00.000-05:00

FOR THOSE OF YOU who like to mix their esoteric academic interests with a healthy portion of human interest, any gossip on the Straussians will be well appreciated. These excerpts from a book of conversations with one of the most brilliant of Leo Strauss's many talented students, the late classicist Seth Benardete, should not be missed, including memories of Allan Bloom and Stanley Rosen.

2003-04-02T16:26:00.000-05:00

SOMETIMES it's best to let the facts speak for themselves: arms imports to Iraq 1973-1990.

2003-03-28T05:23:00.000-05:00

YOUR DAILY DOSE of Mark Steyn.

2003-03-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

ADDICTED TO SOCIALIST MEDIOCRACY. I was also going to blog about the remarkable opposition from Oxford's academics to the notion of "top-up fees" (see previous post): tuition in all but name. Under sensible proposals from the Blair government Oxford (and other good universities) will be able to set tuition at a maximum of £3,000 per year -- or a miserly $4,500. Last time I checked annual tuition at Oxford's supposed competitors, it was $24,630 at Harvard, at Yale $27,130, at Chicago $ 28,510. But these are "private universities" you might say, and the good people of Britain are taxed -- and some of that money goes to higher education, so that comparison is not fair. Well, even a good state school like SUNY Stony Brook charges $8,300 for out-of-state residents and international students and a heavily subsidized $3,400 for New York residents. The University of Virginia Oxford should take a hard long look around the world. On the continent of Europe, despite its ancient scholarly traditions, there are no good universities as such. Sure, there are smart people in Europe, and of course there will be the odd good professor, and in cases of exceptional leadership the odd excellent department or lab. But hindered by systematic brakes in the system, it is impossible for a university as a whole to be world-class in Europe. The same fate awaits Oxford if it does not move to full privitization as soon as possible. That there is such a fierce debate over the most modest of proposals --introducing $4,500 annual tuition for its three-year undergraduate course-- which will only be introduced years from now, demonstrates that Oxford has major psychological problems. It does not need to introduce a £3,000 annual top-up fee. It needs to call a spade a spade, privatize itself tomorrow and start charging £15,000 per year for both undergraduate and graduate degrees. PS: The true cost of attending a university such as Oxford is probably at least $50,000 per student per year.

2003-03-24T21:17:00.000-05:00

OXFORD DECIDES whether it will commit suicide or not.

2003-03-24T11:32:00.000-05:00

SADDAM was betrayed by someone close to him, leading to decapitation attempt.

2003-03-24T10:48:00.000-05:00

USEFUL ANTIDOTE to the breathless media reporting (who declared Victory on Thursday and Defeat on Sunday) is given by Ralph Peters, a military strategist who served in uniform.

2003-03-24T06:06:00.000-05:00

THE WAR PLAN. Wondering what the US is planning to do once troops get to Baghdad? Answer: find and kill Saddam and the leadership in so far as they are not dead already: "Defense sources say that U.S. forces will rush to Baghdad as quickly as possible to try to corner Saddam and flush him out into the open; if a coup or assassination fails to dislodge him, U.S. air and ground forces plan to launch more strikes against critical targets inside the capital in an effort to kill him. A senior U.S official told Time that covert U.S. intelligence personnel have infiltrated Baghdad, hunting in the shadows for the Iraqi leaders. 'We've had some folks on the ground over there now for weeks,' the official says. "

2003-03-24T05:11:00.000-05:00

EVIDENCE SUGGESTING that the most recent "Saddam speech" was pre-taped is presented in National Review's The Corner: here, here, here and here. The Pentagon is officially "skeptical" that the tape was live. UPDATE: MSNBC has more.

2003-03-23T18:08:00.000-05:00

TO BE ADDED to must-read war blogs: The Command Post.

2003-03-23T17:47:00.000-05:00

WHAT BLIX MISSED.
(Link via Judd brothers).

2003-03-23T17:30:00.000-05:00

MORE STEYN. You know the drill. (There's even some anglosphereicism in there!).

2003-03-23T16:51:00.000-05:00

THEIR IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES TOO. Meet Sayyid Qutb, the deceased anti-modern Egyptian ideologue who inspires Islamists around the world. A must-read. Cultural conservatives will recognize must of the positions of such philosophers as Eric Voegelin, Thomas Molnar and Leo Strauss in some of the criticism Qutb levies against the modern world. Of course, his solution, and much of his historical analysis, differs dramatically from theirs. But we shall have to come to terms with the conservative critique of modernity one way or another. This intellectual debate is yet to begin, although Roger Scruton's little book The West and the Rest makes an important beginning (despite its silly title).
(Link via Tom G. Palmer)._

2003-03-23T16:34:00.000-05:00

THE TRAITOR who attacked the 101st Airborn by throwing grenades into the tent his buddies were sleeping in, is named Asan Akbar. It is disturbing that political correctness prevents the majors from stating openly that this traitor was a Muslim. The truth must be spoken -- especially in America. It is incidentally, interesting, that Asan Akbar was not his given name -- was he a fanatic convert to Islam? If so, what was he doing serving in Iraq?

2003-03-23T15:41:00.000-05:00

AN EXCELLENT SOURCE of information on the war: Nick Denton. His map of operations sure beats the one from CNN...

(link via the Agonist).

2003-03-23T13:51:00.000-05:00

SOME THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT with respect to the war.

2003-03-23T08:07:00.000-05:00

DO WE NEED AN ANGLOSPHERE ARMY? It's too early to analyze these things, and I am no military expert, but so far all accidents in the war have involved British helicopters, troops and now the RAF aircraft hit by an American patriot. Some collisions are undoubtedly unavoidable in such a complex war, but it cannot but arouse suspicion that the Brits have so far been involved in every accident, although there are only about 40,000 British troops versus more than 250,000 Americans -- obviously the better integrated forces are, the smaller the chance of accident. It is time for formal integration of at least parts of the US, UK and Australian forces? Do we need a few Anglosphere divisions, which can be used in future operations where the Anglosphere Alliance will fight for liberty with the continental Europeans sitting safely on the fence? Are good men and women dying needlessly because we do not yet have such an integrated army? Questions we will have to address in the aftermath of this war.

2003-03-23T07:52:00.000-05:00

EXCELLENT ANALYSIS from Dr. Andrew Sullivan on whose war this really is.

2003-03-23T06:05:00.000-05:00

BLOGGING on what appears to have been an American traitor.

2003-03-22T22:30:00.000-05:00

US-EUROPEAN RELATIONS: Matt Welch describes an experience virtually identical to many I have had myself. "It was December, 2000, and I was in Lyon for the annual Christmas visit with the in-laws. The U.S. election was still contested, but it looked like Bush had won. Students at a nearby university were on the streets, protesting. Why? Bush's support for the death penalty. It didn't matter, to them, Bush's predecessor actually expanded the federal death penalty more than any president in history, or that the Clinton Administration, too, opposed Kyoto and the International Criminal Court. No, Bush was a dangerous cowboy, and Americans were crazy for electing him."

2003-03-22T15:57:00.000-05:00

NEVER miss a Steyn.

2003-03-22T02:08:00.000-05:00

FAIR AND BALANCED. That, at least, is what we try to be here at Giants and Dwarfs. Whether the same can be said for these Giant Sand Dwarfs -what else are we to call the scribblers at the world socialist web site- I leave up to you (link via Die Zeit - and yes, that is a Weasel, erm, German newspaper).

2003-03-21T12:53:00.000-05:00

BIG PROBLEMS IN NORTHERN IRAQ. If this is reliable news, we have a very big problem on our hands. Clearly, the Kurds will resist any invasion of Kurdish controlled Northern Iraq with all military means available. Since those means are limited, the Turks will win. Then Northern Iraq moves from being a free place into Turkish occupation. Which is of course absolutely unacceptable to the US. I also understand the US specifically warned the Turks from crossing over the border. Will we have to fight them?

2003-03-21T12:45:00.000-05:00

THIS EVENING, Iraqi State TV showed footage of a meeting with Saddam, his son Qusay, and Sultan Hashem Ahmad, the Defense minister, according to StratFor. If the footage is actually live, that means Uday Hussein is missing. Perhaps he is the one who's been hit by the Americans....

2003-03-21T05:09:00.000-05:00

THE STRANGE WAR. Andrew Sullivan asks the same questions Giants and Dwarfs posed earlier. Is this war already over? Why has there been hardly any resistance? Is Saddam really already dead? We'll find out soon...

2003-03-21T04:58:00.000-05:00

WARBLOG SPOTTING: MSNBC's Best of the Blogs does a round-up and Reuters, the "news agency", is also impressed.

2003-03-20T13:01:00.000-05:00

THIS SOLDIER thinks that the speech Saddam was the real McCoy.

2003-03-20T12:54:00.000-05:00

A GUIDE to the Iraq pundits. Can't distinguish your Kristol from your Kagan? -- Slate helps out.

2003-03-20T11:50:00.000-05:00

THIS IS ALSO a great war-blogger.

2003-03-20T11:35:00.000-05:00

ISRAEL thinks Saddam spoke live.

2003-03-20T10:50:00.000-05:00

IS SADDAM DEAD? Strange things are happening. In an abrupt change of plan, the US decides to strike a limited target in Baghdad, because they suspect Saddam and/or his henchmen are there. This really completely throw the entire war planning in disarray, so obviously their information was credible. Equally obviously they hit that house in the south of Baghdad with all the force and fury available. Logically speaking, that certainly gives them a pretty good chance of actually having hit Saddam. And yet he appears in what is thought to have been a live speech on TV, which specifically refers to the raid at dawn on today's date. I think we may have seen one of those famous "doubles" who are surgically enhanced to look like Saddam. I find it odd that we don't seem to have moved at all since these opening shots. I find it odd that Saddam was wearing big glasses and read from paper, looking confused. I find it odd that almost nothing has happened in military terms all day. So, is Saddam dead already? Is this war already over and is the US government simply waiting for confirmation? The two Saddams:

2003-03-20T07:03:00.000-05:00

"BRITAIN'S ROYAL IRISH RANGERS moving toward Iraq in the Kuwaiti desert today" (photo credit AP)

(link via Eugene Volokh).

2003-03-20T06:24:00.000-05:00

WAR BLOGGING. Although Giants & Dwarfs aims to stay away from the tyranny of the newscycle to focus more on culture, education and other long-term factors, in the weeks ahead everyone will of course be pre-occupied by the war. We'll try to identify some of the best blogs. Andrew Sullivan has promised around-the-clock-coverage (and stayed up till 3:09 am yesterday night to prove it). There is also an apparently for-real blogger from Baghdad. We like to read Little Green Footballs for excellent coverage of the Middle East, the irreverent Stephen Green, and Steven den Beste for informed speculation on military strategy. Like in every war, new voices will probably spring up. We'll be looking for them. UPDATE: This guy looks like an interesting war-blogger.

2003-03-20T06:13:00.000-05:00

OVER ON NR's THE CORNER interesting observations on the paleo-(neo)con controversy. Buried among posts regarding the war are valuable contributions from Ramesh Ponnuru, Rod Dreher, John J. Miller, Mark Krikorian, John Derbyshire, and Jonah Goldberg.

2003-03-20T05:49:00.000-05:00

KEVIN HOLSTBERRY, a conservative without a prefix, weighs in on the paleo/neocon-debate.

2003-03-19T15:16:00.000-05:00

STEVEN DEN BESTE sends a very funny email:

"I just found your site because of a refer due to your link to me [...] .Of course, what I saw was "giantsanddwarfs". And I ended up parsing that as "Giant Sand Dwarfs", which is certainly a curious image, and which led me to believe that you had a site talking about how Saddam talks big but is mostly hot air."

2003-03-19T13:20:00.000-05:00

NEVER miss a Steyn.

2003-03-19T12:12:00.000-05:00

CASTING OUT THE PALEOCONS. In a devasting, lengthy hit piece in the flagship publication of the conservative movement, National Review, former Presidential speechwriter David Frum, author of such books as Dead Right, excommunicates the "paleoconservatives" -- a small group of hacks around Pat Buchanan, Sam Francis, Joe Sobran, Thomas Fleming, and Lew Rockwell -- from the mainstream conservative movement. Bound to become a classic in the genre, Frum rips into the paleocons who, he argues, are motivated by spite, polluted by anti-Semitism, and increasingly allying themselves with the anti-American Left. Jonah Goldberg explains some of the background to the piece. Grandee reporter Robert Novak, aligned with the paleocons, must have gotten advanced warning of the attack, since he has a pre-emptive personal attack on Frum in the current issue of Buchanan's magazine The American Conservative. Stay tuned.

2003-03-19T09:43:00.000-05:00

NOBODY UNDERSTANDS ANYBODY. John Derbyshire explains what American don't understand about the world, and the other way around. Go read it all.

2003-03-19T09:34:00.000-05:00

PRECEDENTS? Many, particularly those inflected with the lawyer's way of thinking, have argued that a pre-emptive strike against Iraq (technically they actually mean a preventative strike, and since this war is the logical continuation of the last one, the impending invasion is really neither) will set a dangerous precedent. Would not India be justified in striking Pakistan, or could Iran and China use this "precedent" to wage aggressive wars under pretext? Eugene Volkokh explains why this way of thinking is wrong.

2003-03-19T09:24:00.000-05:00

BOYCOTTING IS NONSENSE. Although the French have behave with treachery, it's down-right stupid to favor economic boycotts against "French" companies in a globalized economy, as pointed out by the Mises Institute. Of course, booking that holiday to the Italian Riviera instead remains an option...

2003-03-19T09:21:00.000-05:00

CAUGHT IN CONTRADICTION. The public musings of William Jefferson Clinton on the War. This probably explains why he never did anything about the matter.

2003-03-19T09:19:00.000-05:00

MICKEY KAUS (no permalink, but scroll down to "No Chemisty?") thinks that Saddam is unlikely to use chemical weapons because then he would lose all political support from his French and Russians allies at the UN. According to well-informed observers such as Amir Taheri, Saddam's war plans appear to call for a concerted attempt to halt the invasion troops for as long as possible, and hole up in Baghdad. With human casualties mounting, and the siege of Baghdad entering its sixth week, the political pressure on Bush might become enormous to cut some kind of deal, particularly if Saddam were to throw in another concession, such as a resignation on condition that be permitted to stay in Iraq and not be prosecuted for war crimes and such. But of course, it Saddam were to use chemical weapons, all such bets are off. Although I understand the reasoning of Mr Kaus, it strikes me this is overly optimistic with respect to Saddam's rationality. If he had really mainly be interested in staying in power, why didn't he simply give up his WMDs? UPDATE: Some more thoughts over here.

2003-03-19T09:13:00.000-05:00

SOME GOOD BLOGS FROM GOOD CAMPUSES. There are more good bloggers from the universities of Chicago and Harvard than those who post here. (links via that other good blog from the University of Oxford). Any site with the motto "Commentary on the crazy antics of the feminist left and, sometimes, other things" must be visited early and often.

2003-03-18T01:08:00.000-05:00

STEVEN DEN BESTE thinks that Chirac messed up big-time. Well, those are not the actual words he uses (and Heaven knows he uses a lot of words), but it is certainly worth the read.

2003-03-17T14:11:00.000-05:00

CHANCELLOR PATTEN. the Hon. Chris Patten, former Governor of Hong Kong and Chairman of the Conservative Party under John Major, currently European commissioner, has been duly elected as the next Chancellor of Oxford University. I am suspicious of his politics, and I doubt whether he understands the very dangerous situation Oxford finds itself in these days. I had the impression Lord Bingham had a keener understanding of the problems. But at least we might now have an opportunity to see some more of his daughters...

2003-03-17T14:02:00.000-05:00

VOUCHER WARS. The Cato Institute emailed us that today marks the release of Clint Bolick's book on the twelve year war for vouchers. Mr Bolick, of the Institute for Justice, was the attorney who took the Cleveland voucher case to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002. Go check it out.

2003-03-16T13:07:00.000-05:00

MEET SENATOR KERRY, ERM, KOHN... You thought he was Irish, although you knew he had a better claim to New England blue blood. Now it turns out that Senator Kerry is as Irish as the Austrian Jew who converted to Catholicism and changed his name from Kohn to Kerry. That Austrian Jew, incidentally, was John Kerry's paternal grandfather. Which leaves the good Senator spending St. Patrick's day in California, rather than in his home town of Boston. Hmm.

2003-03-16T12:44:00.000-05:00

ANNE APPLEBAUM has insightful reflections on the consequences of confronting Saddam militarily. The stakes are very high, she believes: "If the war is a great victory, if it lasts just a few days, and if it results in a democratic Iraq, Mr Bush will get a chance of being re-elected, Mr Blair will be vindicated, France will be cowed. A new Nato will probably rise from the ashes, centred on the "new" Europe: America, Britain, Spain, eastern Europe. The UN Security Council could lose its role as a body which blesses American interventions. The ability of European states such as Britain and Spain to make their own foreign policy, outside the European Union, will be strengthened. But the war does not have to be lost to produce quite a different result. If it lasts much longer than it is supposed to do, if it degenerates into civil war, if the fighting in Baghdad is bloody and chaotic and expensive, then the aftermath may look quite different. President Bush may be finished, along with Mr Blair and Nato. France and Germany will once again be the most important countries in the EU. The next US president will think twice before doing anything without UN approval, and the next British prime minister will think twice before involving himself in foreign adventures without the explicit permission of his European colleagues. There is an analogy with Suez here, although it is not precise. If the lesson of Suez was that Britain can't do anything without America, the lesson of a botched war in Iraq will be that a British prime minister can no longer make foreign policy outside the confines of the EU or act in defiance of Germany and France. The stakes are high here, much higher than the mere political futures of Mr Bush and Mr Blair. It is disturbing to think how much damage Saddam's Iraq, even in defeat, might still be able to wreak."

2003-03-15T18:39:00.000-05:00

JONAH GOLDBERG has an excellent piece on Jews, the War, and neoconservatives in the Administration.

2003-03-13T11:52:00.000-05:00

SHE IS THE MOST REMARKABLE WOMAN I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. She is now the subject of a new ITV documentary. For all the good she has done, the minions still resent her. Who, you ask? I am speaking of Lady Thatcher, of course.

2003-03-13T11:49:00.000-05:00

SOME TRUTHS ABOUT EUROPE. She is not exaggerating. The American part of the blogosphere still thinks that statism is the worst problem of Western Europe. Wrong. It is merely a big problem. The worst problem is Islam. UPDATE: in many ways these two problems are related.

2003-03-13T11:13:00.000-05:00

"ANTI-WAR" MOB IN OXFORD. I have just witnessed a mild form of the LA riots or the French Revolution. Around two o'clock this afternoon, a huge mass of school kids (I estimate about 500), most of whom seemed to be about 14, 15 years old, turned up in the main shopping street of Oxford (Corn Market Street) carrying anti-war posters and chanting "No to War!" Some were wearing T-shirts that said: "Let's bomb Texas. They have oil too." They hung around the city center for a good hour and a half. Eventually they stormed Oxford Castle. Then the mob turned violent. They began to hurl rocks at busses and innocent by-standers (such as your humble correspondent). Later they occupied Carfax, the very heart of the city, and blocked buses. Security guards and the odd police officer tried to protect a nearby mall, when the kids threatened to go there next. I spoke to a couple of them, and they told me that they had broken out of their classes, with the tacit support of their anti-war teachers. "The teachers can't let us go, because it's illegal and they'd get sacked, but they wanted us to go", a girl told me. Almost all were pupils from Cheney School (If only the Vice President knew what they are doing in his name), where I imagine some unpleasant conversations will have to take place with staff tomorrow morning.

2003-03-13T01:16:00.000-05:00

IT IS MY EXPERIENCE that English-speaking people do not really understand how different continental Europe is from Britain and the other English-speaking countries - until they are somehow forced to confront it. This phenomenon has almost turned into a farce where it concerns the experience of British Prime Ministers with Europe. With the exception of Heath, virtually all PMs since MacMillan started their premiership with the announcement -real or feigned- that they wanted to be closer to Europe, only to be disappointed whilst in the job. I think the best example is still John Major, who announced that he wanted Britain to be at the heart of Europe, but who ended up hissing to people in his own country (I paraphrase): "You don't understand... The Europeans are deal-makers... They want a deal first, everything else second." The British plight is tragic. They fundamentally do not understand how different they are from Europe, because they do not speak European languages. They do understand how different they are from America, because Americans speak English. Alas, the cultural gap between Britain and America is smaller than the geographical gap between Britain and the Continent. If only the Brits knew how contemptuous most Europeans are of them, and how appreciated they are in the US, perhaps the British decision to join NAFTA would be made today, rather than in fifty years, as it will be.

2003-03-10T12:51:00.000-05:00

ANGLOSPHERE OR WEASEL-STATISMSPHERE? That, essentially, is the choice for Tony Blair, says Irwin Stelzer, although he does not use such stark words (link via Instapundit). The Prime Minister has shown the courage of his convictions in doing the right thing by supporting Britain's American cousins. The question now is not only whether in the journey ahead his courage will run out -as Mr Stelzer fears it might- but also whether his successors at No. 10 will show a similar understanding of Britain's interests.

2003-03-06T09:07:00.000-05:00

THE INCREDIBLY SHRINKING ATTENTION SPAN: Bob Dole and Bill Clinton are going to regularly debate each other on CBS's Sixty Minutes, reviving the show's old Point-Counterpoint segment. According to the New York Times "Mr. Clinton and Mr. Dole said yesterday that they were looking forward to the opportunity to provide the kind of thoughtful commentary that has been missing from the superheated and often shrill discourse that dominates much of television news." Said Clinton: "I see this as an opportunity to try to have a really civil debate that enlightens people on the issues." The plan for debate is to allot either Dole or Clinton 45 seconds to make an opening statement, followed by 45 seconds for his opponent, and 15 second rebuttal for both. Back in 1979, when Sixty Minutes last ran Point/Counterpoint, the segments were a full minute longer. According to the producers, however, "attention spans [have] shortened since." I'm sure it won't be a problem for Messrs. Clinton and Dole to provide the "thoughtful, enlightening commentary" that's been missing on TV in the full two minutes provided.

2003-03-04T12:52:00.000-05:00

HOW DEADLY IS DIVERSITY? According to Michelle Malkin (daughter of Filipino immigrants to the United States), "money-grubbing, diversity-seeking college officials" are directly responsible for the death of thousands of innocent Americans, by educating such terrorists as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- no questions asked as long as the tuition is paid for.

2003-03-04T10:13:00.000-05:00

EVERYONE SHALL HAVE PRIZES. Something deeply worrying is apparently happening in the world of high school girls basketball, reports the New York Times: there has been "an increasing number of lopsided games across the country this season." Of course, since "no one should be embarrassed in high school", sports administrators are cooking up a "solution." As one coach, by the name of Johnnie Walker (really), exclaims: "This is all about the have and have-nots". Indeed! Now, of course I can understand it's not much fun to lose a game of basketball by, say, 115-2, but such is the stuff of life. Anyone who works in a high school who thinks kids shouldn't be "embarassed" in high school clearly needs to find another job -- as causing embarassement is the very essence of high school. As for those lop-sided victories, of course teams should be balanced out against opponents of similar skill. Good teams should compete against each other, as far as possible, given travel times and such. But in the end, some will be better than others. It has always been so, and so it shall always be. Let the administrators of self-esteem grow up a little. A sound trashing now and then is probably good for the soul.

2003-03-04T06:30:00.000-05:00

RALPH NADER SCAM: If you attend a public university, or your kids do, there is a good chance you're donating a couple of dollars each term to the local chapter of US PIRG- the US Public Interest Research Group. Most of the money ultimately ends up in the hands of Ralph Nader. There are estimates that this scam produces somewhere in the region of $10-20 million every year for Nader's "causes."

2003-02-28T14:51:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: pro-war University of Chicago faculty protest at not having been consulted about the pamphlet below. As I expected, they include Dan Drezner and Jacob Levy, but I did not want to single them out before they had made their own comments. Levy notes that Jean Bethke Elshtain has also publicly supported the war, and both he and Drezner suggest that these three pro-war faculty voices are not alone.

2003-02-27T03:32:00.000-05:00

'NO WAR IN IRAQ,' a group of activists at the University of Chicago, has collected faculty essays on the pros and cons of Allied war against Saddam Hussein. It is an interesting document. Because the group believes that "In modern political debate there seems to be a dangerous tendency to "oversimplify, to turn complex statements into five-word clichés for mass production," it wants "readers to get both sides, to see the complexity and come to an educated decision..." Yet apparently only Richard Posner could be bothered to make the case for Allied war against Saddam. We learn that "While it was fairly easy to find faculty who opposed the war, finding faculty who supported it was a much more difficult task." No kidding. Opposing professor Posner we find no less than seven pro-Saddam, pardon, anti-Allied war views. This, of course, is not at all in danger of oversimplifying the issue. Sigh. I do not wish to ridicule the friends of Mr Hussein on campus, but one thing did raise my eyebrows. They write that they "oppose the war for a multitude of reasons--some of us are pacifists, some think it is motivated by oil interests, some think it is a sign of US imperialism, some believe that it is a threat to US security, some think it is fiscally irresponsible..." Hang on. You oppose war because it would be fiscally irresponsible? Where is the logic in that? We have a lunatic threatening our lives, but hey, we should consider preferring to die in the knowledge that our check books are balanced?

2003-02-24T16:42:00.000-05:00

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2003-02-24T16:32:00.000-05:00

NANNY STATE WATCH: Violent crime goes unchecked, but the Labour government is proclaiming a crackdown on parents who take their children out of school. "Parents will face instant fines of up to £100 if they take their children on holiday during term time in a fresh crackdown on truancy." The New Labour hack in charge: "We regard taking children out of school for holidays without authorisation as truancy, pure and simple. Parents who are doing it are irresponsible." After all, it's not parents who are responsible, it is the State, and the State simply will not allow "empty desks" -- I mean how can we teach children about oral sex if they don't even bother to show up?

2003-02-21T08:05:00.000-05:00

DEATH OF COMMON SENSE V: The British government is using taxpayers' money to urge children under the age of 16 to have oral sex. More than 100,000 schoolchildren are now taking a course called "A Pause", which purports to teach children "levels of intimacy" that allow them to express their lustful feelings for each other without having full intercourse. It forms part of government efforts to tackle Britain’s teenage pregnancy rate, which is the highest in Western Europe. Incidentally, the age of consent in Britain is 16, so most of the behavior discussed in these programs would be illegal for the pupils to engage in.

2003-02-21T07:10:00.000-05:00

HARVEY C- MANSFIELD, Professor of Government at Harvard University and outspoken critic of grade inflation, criticizes the "New Harvard" from the point of view of the "Old Harvard." Prof. Mansfield attacks not only the rampant grade inflation at universities like Harvard, but also the ridiculously positive reference letters that have become the norm (each student is "the best in a lifetime of teaching"), as well as too much choice in the curriculum -- combined these trends mean that students at America's best universities come in from high schools were they worked very hard, but are coddled at college. In one word: today's elite universities no longer educate their students very well.

2003-02-21T06:31:00.000-05:00

Ah, the joys of being pro-war in Old Europe....!

(link via Andrew Sullivan).

2003-02-21T00:07:00.000-05:00

THE IDEA OF CHARACTER was always an elusive notion. So what are the political consequences of this? Some people are genetically incapable of doing well in our society. Were the liberals right after all? Is massive forced redistribution of goods by the state the only just way of living together with the genetically disadvantaged? A macho-tax benefitting the wimps? A beauty-tax benefitting the ugly? Redistribution of beautiful mates to ugly loners? They have feelings too - and, again, they can't help it.

2003-02-20T23:54:00.000-05:00

ROBERT CONQUEST is well in his eighties, yet sharp as ever. "'Margaret Thatcher is the only person in politics, along with Condi Rice, with whom I am on cheek-kissing terms,' Conquest says... He also likes Ronald Reagan, describing him and Alec Douglas-Hume as 'the only two politicians who wanted to get something out of you in conversation rather than tell you their views'... Like Churchill he is half-American... [and] the boldest theorist of the pro-American lobby in British politics. He would like Britain to withdraw from the EU and form part of a much looser association of English-speaking nations, known as the 'Anglosphere'. This is very close to Mrs Thatcher's visceral loathing of Europe, but informed by a much greater experience of European life and languages." It is a vision this blog shares.