Me: Frank Lynch

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For something less spontaneous, I maintain The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page (over 1,800 Johnson quotes), with a weekly essay springing from one of Johnson's quotations.

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I doubt it's a case of crocodile tears if a Bush supporter expresses much sadness over the US casualties in Iraq this November. So far, the number of US soldiers who have died in November has tied the worst month since we invaded. I wouldn't accuse anyone of hypocrisy here, but perhaps they need to integrate their attitudes and understand the consequences of having voted for Bush. They didn't vote for Bush so that he could send more soldiers to an early grave, but his doing so was part of the deal. Bush is incompetent, and everyone who rewarded him with another term needs to understand the implications of their actions.

As for me, I cry when I think about what a hole, what a shock our family would have to absorb if we lost a loved one over there. Every time I think about Condoleezza Rice fueling the war furnace with her outrageous lie on CNN that the aluminum tubes could "really only" be used for refining uranium when she knew full and well that the Department of Energy — the government's experts on the matter — had ruled that out, it makes my blood boil. Our soldiers are over there because of lies like hers. And I can't imagine how any country's diplomats could trust her as a Secretary of State, knowing she'd lied to her own people.
Link 6:27 PM Home

Test your Bush-supporting friends and relatives. I'm really sorry for not posting this before Thanksgiving, it only just occurred to me. Here's the deal: rather than getting into any arguments with them (there are more holidays coming around the corner), just hand them a list of statements which Bush made during the debates and/or the conventions; don't include just promises, but also include his characterizations of the current world. Ask your friend/relative to check-off those which he/she believes, date it, and sign it. Then, just pocket it, and say, "We already know that some of these aren't true, only time will tell about the rest." Pocket it, and leave it at that.

It's now de-personalized, and up to Bush to deliver what they believe. Of course, they may feel as if they're under some special scrutiny for having to state their beliefs, but they really should have gone through that process already when they voted. Any discomfort with the process is their own fault, not yours.
Link 11:03 AM Home

Truth bites its abusers.

• President Bush, in his third debate against Senator Kerry:

  The best way to take the pressure off our troops is to succeed in Iraq, is to train Iraqis so they can do the hard work of democracy, is to give them a chance to defend their country, which is precisely what we're doing. We'll have 125,000 troops trained by the end of this year.

• The word from U.S. military officials, as reported in today's New York Times:

  Iraqi police and national guard forces, whose performance is crucial to securing January elections, are foundering in the face of coordinated efforts to kill and intimidate them and their families, say American officials in the provinces facing the most violent insurgency.

  For months, Iraqi recruits for both forces have been the victims of assassinations and car bombs aimed at lines of applicants as well as police stations. On Monday morning, a suicide bomber rammed a car into a group of police officers waiting to collect their salaries west of Ramadi, killing 12 people, Interior Ministry officials said.

  While Bush administration officials say that the training is progressing and that there have been instances in which the Iraqis have proved tactically useful and fought bravely, local American commanders and security officials say both Iraqi forces are riddled with problems.

  In the most violent provinces, they say, the Iraqis are so intimidated that many are reluctant to show up and do not tell their families where they work; they have yet to receive adequate training or weapons, present a danger to American troops they fight alongside, and are unreliable because of corruption, desertion or infiltration.

  Given the weak performance of Iraqi forces, any major withdrawal of American troops for at least a decade would invite chaos, a senior Interior Ministry official, whose name could not be used, said in an interview last week.

So, like, you didn't really believe Bush in the debates, did you?
Link 10:25 AM Home

The NYC subway photo ban has re-emerged. The MTA threatened to ban all photography from the subways this summer, and there was sufficient outcry at the time (photos are art, what about tourists, and so on) that the MTA shelved its plans. But now it's back, and the official 45-day comment period began last week. I'm not outraged per se, but I'm not happy about this at all.
Link 9:20 AM Home

Those humanitarian do-gooders are at it again. You know their behavior has to be encouraged: there was a backlash against the NBC reporter who filmed a soldier shooting an Iraqi insurgent, and there will probably be one against the Red Cross, now that it's found that our procedures at Guantanamo were sometimes "tantamount to torture". I thought we were trying to be an example for the rest of the world, a shining city on a hill?
Link 8:51 AM Home

An interesting view of freedom of expression. The Reverend James C. Dobson (whom Josh Marshall ultimately decided merited the title "Grand Inquisitor") has responded to the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to review gay marriage in Massachusetts with, well, something shorter than a screed but perhaps no less fiery:

"Today's sidestep by the Supreme Court further illustrates the need for a national definition of marriage. The courts have long proven themselves to be no friend of the traditional family or traditional values -- today's announcement further confirms that truth. As long as the fate of marriage and morality in America rests with the judiciary, the nation's families remain vulnerable.

"Only an amendment to the U.S. Constitution will allow every citizen's voice to be heard. America cannot afford a patchwork definition of marriage, with courts and local officials redefining it at will. This nation must have a clear and unified standard of its foundational institution -- the amendment process is the only foolproof method of protecting marriage for all Americans."

The Court of course showed itself as having limits when it comes to state's rights, and I think I'd like to hear more of Dobson's support for arguing that the Court is not a friend of the family. The court has, after all, made many decisions in support of individual rights, and since individuals are the cornerstone of the family, every decision supporting the individual ultimately supports the family, doesn't it?

Anyhoo, I love his idea that it is only through Constitutional amendments that every citizen's voice can be heard. That of course suggests that votes and elections are not effective in this regard... Or, for that matter, that in a Republic every citizen's voice needs to be heard on every decision (I thought that was what representation was for). Weird.

UPDATE: Atrios asks a relevant point, as to whether the goal is to somehow protect the sanctity of marriage or actually to eventually keep gays completely out of sight. Like, not on your block: how will marriage be more protected if a gay couple is on your block but not married? Is the institution of marriage some sort of ego defense?
Link 3:02 PM Home

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the shopping mall... World Net Daily warns you to watch out: you may encounter Che Guevera t-shirts. ("Breaking news," the web site's home page says.) It's really too bad that we can't go back to the days when you could buy a shirt in a mall and then get thrown out after putting it on.
Link 1:15 PM Home

Is academia a missed opportunity for conservatives? George Will writes today about how conservatives are outnumbered in the halls of academia by liberal colleagues. He dismisses, however, claims that the imbalance is due to conservatives preferring other careers:

George Lakoff, a linguistics professor at Berkeley, denies that academic institutions are biased against conservatives. The disparity in hiring, he explains, occurs because conservatives are not as interested as liberals in academic careers. Why does he think liberals are like that? "Unlike conservatives, they believe in working for the public good and social justice." That clears that up.

A filtering process, from graduate school admissions through tenure decisions, tends to exclude conservatives from what Mark Bauerlein calls academia's "sheltered habitat." In a dazzling essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Bauerlein, professor of English at Emory University and director of research and analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, notes that the "first protocol" of academic society is the "common assumption" -- that, at professional gatherings, all the strangers in the room are liberals.

It is a reasonable assumption, given that in order to enter the profession, your work must be deemed, by the criteria of the prevailing culture, "relevant." Bauerlein says that various academic fields now have regnant premises that embed political orientations in their very definitions of scholarship:

"Schools of education, for instance, take constructivist theories of learning as definitive, excluding realists (in matters of knowledge) on principle, while the quasi-Marxist outlook of cultural studies rules out those who espouse capitalism. If you disapprove of affirmative action, forget pursuing a degree in African-American studies. If you think that the nuclear family proves the best unit of social well-being, stay away from women's studies."

But Will makes a mistake, I think, in failing to seize an important opportunity. If the process is really unfair to conservatives, he needs to rally conservatives to work harder to fill academic slots: forego the high-paying careers in Wall Street or writing for conservative journals, say, and pursue careers in academia really hard. Don't take no for an answer, and persevere. If the goal matters, it's worth working for. Sour grapes is for losers.

UPDATE: Media Matters adds a point I suspected, but didn't write about for lack of information. Media Matters notes that the college departments included in the various studies weren't representative of the universities' greater academia, and so Will was deriving larger conclusions about non-existent findings.
Link 7:13 PM Home

Perhaps there's no better argument for keeping religion out of politics than today's edition of NBC News' Meet the Press. After hearing from 9/11 Commission co-chairs Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, the focus switched to a panel of four religious leaders. And the fur flied over abortion, tolerance, mandates, the definition of marriage, homosexuality and so on. I'm sorry, but in my view only the dullest of blockheads wouldn't see that these religious disagreements means a government which uses religion to settle social policies is ipso facto preferring one religious view over another, and thereby establishing a preferred religion.
Link 5:32 PM Home

I guess this is news, but I'm not sure that it matters. Colombia says that there was a plot to assassinate Bush when he was there on Monday. Part of me says that I'd be surprised if our foreign policy, in any administration, was so beloved that it provoked no anger or assassination plots across the world. Wouldn't it surprise you? I mean, the world is diverse, and when you think about the diversity in all the nations the President might visit, wouldn't you be surprised to hear that no one wanted to assassinate him? But I am glad that security made sure it didn't happen.
Link 10:39 PM Home

Minority domination of the US House of Representatives. How would you feel if I told you that you were no longer represented in the U.S. House? That not only are the arguments of Democratic representatives (the party in the minority) ignored, but also Republican representatives who disagree with the majority of Republican representatives? Did you have any idea that you had surrendered your sovereignty to Speaker Dennis Hastert?

Hastert is using a policy whereby only bills that are supported by "a majority of the majority" will reach the floor.

Some scholars say Hastert's decision should not come as a surprise. In a little-noticed speech in the Capitol a year ago, Hastert said one of his principles as speaker is "to please the majority of the majority."

"On occasion, a particular issue might excite a majority made up mostly of the minority," he continued. "Campaign finance is a particularly good example of this phenomenon. The job of speaker is not to expedite legislation that runs counter to the wishes of the majority of his majority."

Hastert put his principle into practice one week ago today. In a closed meeting in the Capitol basement, he urged his GOP colleagues to back the intelligence bill that had emerged from long House-Senate negotiations and had President Bush's support. When a surprising number refused, Hastert elected to keep it from reaching a vote, even though his aides said it could have passed with a minority of GOP members and strong support from the chamber's 206 Democrats.

So even if an absolute majority of the representatives supports a bill, unless a majority of Republicans do so, it won't reach the floor for a vote.

This amounts to a bloodless coup, of course.
Link 12:13 PM Home

In case you're wondering whether a grilled cheese sandwich supposedly looking like the Virgin Mary will be certified by the Roman Catholic Church as a genuine manifestation of Jesus's mother, uh, don't count on it. Daniel Chang and Erika Bolstad of the Miami Herald write about all the hurdles, including the fact that with it having been sold on eBay, money has changed hands over it. So you'd be better off coming to New York and trying to win at Three Card Monte. (I actually haven't seen it being played in quite some time, by the way.)
Link 11:42 AM Home

Meaning no disrespect to the deceased or his family, but if you want a true test of your resilience, leave your trip to the Empire State Building to your second-to- last day (good clear skies), and then have it aborted by a man jumping to his death. It certainly ends all progress to the observation deck, and when the staff only say "due to a situation there is a delay" you'd like more information on how to play the cards you've been dealt. Our visiting friends started pressing for on-the-spot refund fairly early (instead of checks in the mail, since they live abroad and processing a check in US dollars is an unnecessary hassle). But after hearing whispers from staff about what the "situation" really was, they pressed even harder and got their cash. They never got the view, however: the Empire State Building is pretty much the only game in town.
Link 11:22 AM Home

Thanksgiving turkey follies... Last year we had a free-range turkey shipped down from Vermont, and combined with brining it before roasting, it was the best turkey I'd ever had in my life. Even though shipping was expensive (and I rued that portion of the cost), there was no question but that we would do the same this year. Our incentive to do so was even greater since some friends of ours from the Netherlands would be visiting for the week; the "she" of the couple was our daughter's second au pair, and we've always kept in touch, and went to their wedding in 2003. So it was a no-brainer.

But the shipping went awry this year, and while the turkey was shipped Monday and should have arrived some time Tuesday, UPS made a mistake in transit, and it was clear by 10 PM Tuesday that our turkey would come "some time" Wednesday in who knew what shape, perhaps unsalvageable after all the time in transit; and so late Tuesday night I hedged my bets and went out to look at turkeys. To my very pleasant surprise the Vermont farm has improved its distribution and their turkeys are actually available around the corner. So when the turkey I'd ordered showed up dangerously warm, I was able to trash it, forego the bill, and get a replacement of equal quality. An edgy pair of days, but it all worked out, and tonight's turkey turned out just fine. And our Dutch visitors were quite pleased with Thanksgiving, too.
Link 10:32 PM Home

Part of the President's "mandate"? You know, I've looked over the transcripts of the three Bush- Kerry debates (the three occasions when Bush spoke to more Americans, unfiltered by the Washington press corps), and I can't find a single point where he told the electorate that he would work to dismantle the CIA. Do you remember him saying that? But that seems to be what's in progress right before our very eyes.

There's no question but that the CIA screwed up over the Iraq-WMD intelligence, that much is clear. But Bush and his puppet, new CIA head Porter Goss seem to want to rid the agency of those who were correct about what a morass Iraq would turn into. Let's be clear here: the CIA warned Bush that a post-war Iraq would be a problem before he invaded; and this summer it warned him that there were no positive scenarios for the future. In each case, Bush acted as if he didn't care and went right ahead (in the case of the latter, he acted as if it were their "best guess" rather than a carefully considered examination of the likely scenarios), even proclaiming to supporters that outlooks were rosy.

And rather than take ownership for his own, uh, pioneering? individualistic? decisions, he's working to get rid of all those who might disagree with him.

To some extent I resent all those who are abandoning ship, however. I wonder if they really think they'll do more for their country on the outside than trying to persuade from the inside. I can only imagine, and can't really blame.
Link 10:07 PM Home

Even if your big dinner is over, tomorrow remember that you still have plenty to be thankful for. Every morning, I try real hard to remember to be thankful for each day; each is another opportunity to do my best with whatever comes my way.
Link 9:53 PM Home

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