The Daily Brief

The past week’s outpouring of the grievers for the late Pope John Paul II might favor him to be honored posthumously as Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. But, the very makeup of that congregation prods me to put forth a dark-horse candidate for that pantheon.

Every commentator from Rome this week has remarked upon the multi-national, multi-denominational, multi-ethnic turn-out, including many heads-of-state from nations which allow no religious freedom – punctuating a doctrine he lived like no Pope before: that All are welcome to dine at His table.

But I draw your attention to another cleric whom John Paul II has no-doubt influenced – Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Indeed, his realization, that the marriage of church-to -tate weakens both, may be the grandest revelation of our time. The “iron triangle” of Reagan/Thacher/John Paul II may be matched in the annals of history by Bush/Blair/Ali Sistani.

Time will tell.

I am currently watching a conference from last Thursday conducted by an organization called StopActivistJudges.org, led by Rick Scarborough, a preacher who would like to install a theocracy, based upon his interpretation of The Bible, in Washington D.C..

I watched an interview with this guy Thursday morning. And I must say, he is as big a nutcase as my nuisance emailer. The hypocrisy, and lack of intellectual integrity of his organization was evident in his position on the Terri Schiavo case, where he placed his “activist judge” label upon Judge Greer.

Now, I have my reservations about the Schiavo case; I would have liked to see some further, more contemporary, diagnostic techniques employed. But I am satisfied that the laws of The State of Florida were followed appropriately. What Scarborough would have liked to see is religious conservative federal activist judges – those that share HIS point of view – take extra-constitutional action to overturn the decision of the Florida courts.

This seems to be a distinctly European thing:

On March 8, tens of thousands of high school students marched through central Paris to protest education reforms announced by the government. Repeatedly, peaceful demonstrators were attacked by bands of black and Arab youths–about 1,000 in all, according to police estimates. The eyewitness accounts of victims, teachers, and most interestingly the attackers themselves gathered by the left-wing daily Le Monde confirm the motivation: racism.

Some of the attackers openly expressed their hatred of “little French people.” One 18-year-old named Heikel, a dual citizen of France and Tunisia, was proud of his actions. He explained that he had joined in just to “beat people up,” especially “little Frenchmen who look like victims.” He added with a satisfied smile that he had “a pleasant memory” of repeatedly kicking a student, already defenseless on the ground.

Another attacker explained the violence by saying that “little whites” don’t know how to fight and “are afraid because they are cowards.” Rachid, an Arab attacker, added that even an Arab can be considered a “little white” if he “has a French mindset.” The general sentiment was a desire to “take revenge on whites.”

Of course, here in America, we simply don’t tolerate this sort of thing.

Hat Tip: InstaPundit

I’m currently watching a episode of Mcleod’s Daughters I’ve already seen twice before. But I just tuned away from an episode of King of the Hill I’d seen six times before.

Besides showing that my life is really fucked, this shows that, when the news networks are “all X all the time,” even satellite is a vast wasteland.

I am currently watching a History Channel: Hardcover History interview with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. His stature is immediately called into question by the inclusion in his accreditation statement the fact that he was swept into power on the heels of the shredded on contact with reality 1994 Contract With America – widely regarded today as political sham.

Well on into the interview, but highlighted by the History Channel’s editors, was a statement by Prof. Gingrich that “no person should be allowed citizenship unless they know who George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were.” Later, he said they should know that Lincoln “launched this nation into civil war to end slavery.”

WTF ! If not his citizenship, at least his standing as a professor of history, should be revoked for a statement like that. ANY serious student of history (like, beyond the high school level), knows that emancipation was well down on Lincoln’s list of priorities when he made his infamous 7/4/61 plea to Congress to send troops to the South.

Update: As my first commenter has taken issue with my stand on the 1994 Republican Contract With America, I am posting it here:

REPUBLICAN CONTRACT WITH AMERICA

As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as
citizens seeking to join that body we propose not just to
change its policies, but even more important, to restore the
bonds of trust between the people and their elected
representatives.

That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing,
we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a
written commitment with no fine print.

This year’s election offers the chance, after four decades
of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority
that will transform the way Congress works. That historic
change would be the end of government that is too big, too
intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money. It can be
the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and
shares the faith of the American family.

Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to
act “with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the
right.” To restore accountability to Congress. To end its
cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of
the way free people govern themselves.

On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican
majority will immediately pass the following major reforms,
aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American
people in their government:

• FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the
  country also apply equally to the Congress;

• SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to
  conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste,
  fraud or abuse;

• THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut
  committee staff by one-third;

• FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
• FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
• SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the
  public;

• SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a
  tax increase;

• EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal
  Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

Thereafter, within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress,
we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each
to be given full and open debate, each to be given a clear
and fair vote and each to be immediately available this day
for public inspection and scrutiny.

1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT:
A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative
line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out-
of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same
budget constraints as families and businesses.
(Bill Text) (Description)

2. THE TAKING BACK OUR STREETS ACT:
An anti-crime package including stronger truth-in-
sentencing, “good faith” exclusionary rule exemptions,
effective death penalty provisions, and cuts in social
spending from this summer’s “crime” bill to fund prison
construction and additional law enforcement to keep people
secure in their neighborhoods and kids safe in their
schools.
(Bill Text) (Description)

3. THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT:
Discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by prohibiting
welfare to minor mothers and denying increased AFDC for
additional children while on welfare, cut spending for
welfare programs, and enact a tough two-years-and-out
provision with work requirements to promote individual
responsibility.
(Bill Text) (Description)

4. THE FAMILY REINFORCEMENT ACT:
Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption,
strengthening rights of parents in their children’s
education, stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly
dependent care tax credit to reinforce the central role of
families in American society.
(Bill Text) (Description)

5. THE AMERICAN DREAM RESTORATION ACT:
A S500 per child tax credit, begin repeal of the marriage
tax penalty, and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts
to provide middle class tax relief.
(Bill Text) (Description)

6. THE NATIONAL SECURITY RESTORATION ACT:
No U.S. troops under U.N. command and restoration of the
essential parts of our national security funding to
strengthen our national defense and maintain our credibility
around the world.
(Bill Text) (Description)

2. THE TAKING BACK OUR STREETS ACT:
An anti-crime package including stronger truth-in-
sentencing, “good faith” exclusionary rule exemptions,
effective death penalty provisions, and cuts in social
spending from this summer’s “crime” bill to fund prison
construction and additional law enforcement to keep people
secure in their neighborhoods and kids safe in their
schools.
(Bill Text) (Description)

3. THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT:
Discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by prohibiting
welfare to minor mothers and denying increased AFDC for
additional children while on welfare, cut spending for
welfare programs, and enact a tough two-years-and-out
provision with work requirements to promote individual
responsibility.
(Bill Text) (Description)

4. THE FAMILY REINFORCEMENT ACT:
Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption,
strengthening rights of parents in their children’s
education, stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly
dependent care tax credit to reinforce the central role of
families in American society.
(Bill Text) (Description)

5. THE AMERICAN DREAM RESTORATION ACT:
A S500 per child tax credit, begin repeal of the marriage
tax penalty, and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts
to provide middle class tax relief.
(Bill Text) (Description)

6. THE NATIONAL SECURITY RESTORATION ACT:
No U.S. troops under U.N. command and restoration of the
essential parts of our national security funding to
strengthen our national defense and maintain our credibility
around the world.
(Bill Text) (Description)

7. THE SENIOR CITIZENS FAIRNESS ACT:
Raise the Social Security earnings limit which currently
forces seniors out of the work force, repeal the 1993 tax
hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives
for private long-term care insurance to let Older Americans
keep more of what they have earned over the years.
(Bill Text) (Description)

8. THE JOB CREATION AND WAGE ENHANCEMENT ACT:
Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation,
neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit
analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and
unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker
wages.
(Bill Text) (Description)

9. THE COMMON SENSE LEGAL REFORM ACT:
“Loser pays” laws, reasonable limits on punitive damages and
reform of product liability laws to stem the endless tide of
litigation.
(Bill Text) (Description)

10. THE CITIZEN LEGISLATURE ACT:
A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career
politicians with citizen legislators.
(Description)

Further, we will instruct the House Budget Committee to
report to the floor and we will work to enact additional
budget savings, beyond the budget cuts specifically included
in the legislation described above, to ensure that the
Federal budget deficit will be less than it would have been
without the enactment of these bills.

Respecting the judgment of our fellow citizens as we seek
their mandate for reform, we hereby pledge our names to this
Contract with America.

Heather Mac Donald at NRO takes apart the call for diversity among bloggers by Newsweek‘s Steven Levy:

Bad move, guys. The “diversity” mongers have just brought up the one thing that they should have stayed far far away from: the web. Newsweek‘s technology columnist Steven Levy has declared that the lack of “diversity” among the web’s most popular blogs requires corrective action. The goal? A blogosphere whose elite tier “reflects the actual population” — i.e., where female- and minority-written blogs are found among the top 100 blogs in the same proportion as females and minorities are found in the general population.

Levy’s complaint comes on the heels of Susan Estrich’s campaign against the Los Angeles Times for allegedly refusing to publish female op-ed writers, a campaign that has caused widespread wringing of editorial hands about male-dominated op-ed pages. For Levy to have mentioned the web at this moment is about as smart as inviting Stephen Hawking to an astrologers’ convention: The web demolishes the assumptions behind any possible quota crusade.

A Harvard conference on bloggers and the media triggered Levy’s concerns. Keith Jenkins, a Washington Post photo editor, had warned during the conference, via e-mail, that the growth of blogging threatened minority gains in journalism. Whereas the mainstream media have gotten to “the point of inclusion,” Jenkins wrote, the “overwhelmingly white and male American blogosphere [might] return us to a day where the dialogue about issues was a predominantly white-only one.”

[…]

No one has succeeded in closing the skills gap yet, but over the years we’ve developed numerous bureaucratic devices to paper it over. These devices will undoubtedly prove highly useful in addressing what Levy calls the web’s “diversity problem.” Levy proposes, as an initial matter, that the power-bloggers voluntarily link to some as yet unspecified number of non-male, non-white writers. The history of ‘voluntary’ affirmative action efforts need not be rehearsed here; suffice it to say, once ‘voluntary’ race- and gender-conscious policies are proposed, mandates are not far behind.

But even Levy’s “voluntary” regime calls out for regulation. How will the diversity-minded linker know the “identity” of a potential linkee? To be workable, a diversity-linkage program needs some sort of gatekeeper — precisely what the web has heretofore lacked. One can imagine something like a federal Digital Diversity Agency that would assign a diversity tattoo to each blog: a lavender pig, for example, signifying a white male blogger with an alternative sexual orientation. A mismatch between the diversity tattoo on a site and its content could trigger a federal audit to track down identity fraud. Let’s say an allegedly black female site (tattooed with a black halo) canvassed technologies for sending humans to Mars. Regulators might find such content highly suspicious, since everyone knows that black females are supposed to write about black females.

As absurd as such a regulatory regime would have to be, it still would not be enough to make a properly “diverse” blogosphere, for the web’s real diversity flaw is the role of readers. It is readers who determine which blogs zoom up to Alpha orbit, and until now they have been frustratingly outside any sort of regulatory reach. Only when Internet users are required to open up a representative sample of sites can we be confident that the web’s “diversity problem” will be solved.

Hat Tip: Eugene Volokh

This from USA Today:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military’s Abrams tank, designed during the Cold War to withstand the fiercest blows from the best Soviet tanks, is getting knocked out at surprising rates by the low-tech bombs and rocket-propelled grenades of Iraqi insurgents.

In the all-out battles of the 1991 Gulf War, only 18 Abrams tanks were lost and no soldiers in them killed. But since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, with tanks in daily combat against the unexpectedly fierce insurgency, the Army says 80 of the 69-ton behemoths have been damaged so badly they had to be shipped back to the United States. (Related graphic: Upgrading the Abrams tank)

[…]

Commanders say the damage is not surprising because the Abrams is used so heavily, and insurgents are determined to destroy it.

“It’s a thinking enemy, and they know weak points on the tank, where to hit us,” says Col. Russ Gold, who commanded an armored brigade in Iraq and now is chief of staff at the Armor Center.

Because it was designed to fight other tanks, the Abrams’ heavy armor is up front. In Iraq’s cities, however, insurgents sneak up from behind, fire from rooftops above and set off mines below.

A favorite tactic: detonating a roadside bomb in hopes of blowing the tread off the tank. The insurgents follow with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and gunfire aimed at the less-armored areas, especially the vulnerable rear engine compartment.

Perhaps we should buy some Merkavas. 🙂

As predicted, the tightening of enforcement of drinking drivers has resulted in more deaths on the highway, not less:

Alcohol industry advocates and civil libertarians made two predictions after .08 and roadblocks went national:

(1) Arrests would go up, triggering new outrages and calls for even more stringent laws aimed at curbing drinking and (as opposed to drunk) driving.

(2) Highways would get less safe, as cops, courts, and jail cells that could be used to pursue actual drunken drivers would instead be used to apprehend social drinkers.

We’ve certainly seen plenty of point one — state legislatures are falling all over themselves to pass extra-constitutional policies aimed at “cracking down” on impaired driving.

Unfortunately, point two is proving correct, too.

After two decades of decline, alcohol-related deaths are inching upward again. It’s important to point out that data from NHTSA on drunk driving fatalities and traffic deaths is significantly flawed. The “alcohol-related” figure includes all accidents where alcohol is in any way involved, including for example, an accident in which a sober driver strikes a drunk pedestrian. The Los Angeles Times concluded a few years ago that the number of cases in which a sober person was killed by a drunk driver is about one-fourth of the figure put out each year by NHTSA.

Nevertheless, since .08 and ubiquitous roadblocks, alcohol-related deaths are climbing again. Opponents of alcohol-control policies see this as vindication of their objections to roadblocks and .08. Oddly enough, a press release issued last week by the National Transportation Safety Board offers further proof that they may be right.

It’s title? “Hard Core Drinking Driving Fatalities on the Rise.”

“Americans are more aware than ever before of the dangers of drinking and driving,” the release begins. “Few realize, however, that drunk driving fatalities continue to rise — and that thousands of them are caused by extreme or repeat offenders known as “hard core drinking drivers.”

The study goes on to point out that these “hard core” offenders account for 40% of traffic accidents but account for just 33% of drunk driving arrests.

Read the whole thing.