Month: November 2004

Ramesh Ponnuru speculates about the world after Roe v. Wade: What if the first move of pro-lifers after Roe were to try to ban third-trimester abortions? The courts would no longer be in the business of rescuing pro-choice Democrats’ most extreme positions. Wouldn’t the shoe be on the other foot then? The Democrats would then…

I haven’t been keeping up with my reading, so I missed a new word made up by David “NewWord” Neiwert in August — “Foxcist.” First noted as a new word by this blogger, it hasn’t quite gained the wide adherence it deserves. Which is why I decided to give it a plug. We New Worders…

Violence at sporting events is much on the mind of the public, and so, it seems, is violence everywhere. I thought it was worth spending a little time “searching for answers” in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer, and I discovered that no matter what the nature of the violence or the individuals engaged in it, the answer…

Am I the only one who thinks textbook definitions of marriage and adolescence are wholly unnecessary? Next we’ll be debating whether health textbooks should define ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ in terms of sex or gender. “Some children are masculine while others are feminine, regardless of superficial physical distinctions. Terms like ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ lead to fascism.”

But we were not always in the air, and our idle hours were spent taming the Moors. They would come out of their forbidden regions (those regions we crossed in our flights and where they would shoot at us the whole length of our crossing), would venture to the stockade in the hope of buying…

It’s a mystery to me why I took this picture today. It’s even more of a mystery why I’m posting it.

Via Roger L. Simon, I found this very depressing article on the refusal (apparently by moderate Muslims) to condemn the murder of Theo Van Gogh. Smugness oozes from European politicians who demand that Muslims repudiate violence as a precondition for residence in the West. To repudiate the death sentence for blasphemy would be the same…

Who invented religious tolerance? Alexander the Great? Despite the man’s genuine accomplishments, people these days are preoccupied with something other than his advocacy of religious tolerance. Let’s back up a little. Before Alexander the Great, there was another architect of religious tolerance called Cyrus the Great, author of what may be the first charter on…

The following comes from a ‘progressive’ newspaper oddly enough called the Capital Times. For the first time in Weekly Idiot Award history we’ve got a tie. Although more than 75 idiots were eligible, University of Wisconsin student Ashok Kumar and university employee John Peck take away the (dis)honors: Four UW students were arrested Thursday after…

Bismarck famously observed that ordinary people should never be allowed to see sausages or legislation made. The foul contents of legislation are viler than anything stuffed into sausages, and nothing is worse than what gets stuffed into omnibus spending bills. Two items I find especially distasteful, but only one has reached the wide attention both…

Well, it’s OVER. I just ended the “Who is your favorite candidate for evil emperor?” poll, and the official count has been completed. 1447 votes were cast, and Caligula is the clear winner by a plurality. While he didn’t quite win the majority of votes cast, he did reach about the same percentage of total…

Much as I abhor having the agenda of this blog dictated by squirrelly political operatives, there are some things I cannot ignore, and Oliver Stone’s latest bullshit is a classical example. Via Glenn Reynolds, I see that Ann Althouse has already nailed Stone’s obviously political motivations — and the film has greatly upset modern Greeks,…

Via Justin, I just learned that Bill Whittle is all geared up to sell his book, Silent America: Essays from a Democracy at War. I just ordered it, and I can’t wait! UPDATE: The book is for sale now at Bill Whittle’s site (via Paypal and credit cards) and will be available at stores and…

Well, it’s now official: Blog owners usually don’t allow their readers to add their own comments, preferring their monologues to others’ dialogues. So claims Greg Hill, a librarian at the Fairbanks (Alaska) North Star Borough Public Library, who thinks ignorance has been made faster because of the blogosphere. (Via Glenn Reynolds.) Perhaps Mr. Hill doesn’t…

Here’s a news item which didn’t seem to make it to prime time: two of the suspects arrested in Holland’s recent anti-terrorist sweep were Dutch Americans: THE NETHERLANDS: REPORT SAYS 2 TERROR SUSPECTS ARE DUTCH-AMERICANS Two brothers arrested in antiterrorism raids on Wednesday are Dutch-American converts to Islam, NOS television reported. Five other people were…

While I know that people disagree with Condoleeza Rice, what’s with the relentless racial bigotry coming from the left? By any standard, it is racial bigotry to insult or stereotype people because of their race, and calling Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice an “Uncle Tom” and an “Aunt Jemima” respectively is nothing…

This is utterly charming. (Via InstaPundit.) And no, she’s not sorry, either. Not that I can recall any election in U.S. history in which those who voted for a losing candidate felt the need to apologize to the world. It’s just weird. What’s with the shame, anyway? I voted for losing candidates in 1972 (McGovern),…

The Arafat story touches on something which has always annoyed and intrigued me: the tension between truth and human emotional needs. For the sake of this discussion, I’ll define as truth as the facts. Whatever it is that happened or did not happen. If facts prove elusive or unmanageable, what people want to be the…

What did Yasser Arafat die of? You’d think that in the days of modern interactive media and the blogosphere, that would be a rather straightforward story, but now I hesitate even to use the word rather. Or how about CANARD? No, really: The Canard story said doctors realized soon after Arafat arrived that he had…

McGreevey in a position of giving other people guidance seems to me not to be getting the order quite right…. — Sean Kinsell I love such understatement…. Crooked Jim McGreevey as “Gay Leader”? They’ve got to be kidding! Sean’s post comes straight from the heart, and should be circulated widely. He touches on gay tribalism,…