Gang will target Minuteman vigil on Mexico border - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - March 28, 2005

Bad Clouds:

The other day, Doc Russia had a post on the Minuteman Project. He noted that both the ACLU and MS-13 had decided to destroy them if possible, and offered this reasoning: "The ACLU, MS-13, weak foreign leaders who cannot care for their own citizens, and government bureaucracies and administrations who do not want to see their power evaporate in the Arizona desert. With enemies like that, you should not be ashamed of what you stand for."

No, indeed. Actually, this will be an excellent initiative if it lives up to its claims. Assuming it remains scrupulously law abiding, and restricts itself to gathering information and passing it to the authorities, this is a perfect example of citizens doing their duty to uphold the law.

But the report about MS-13 augurs badly. This is not a threat to blow off, and I hope the Minutemen are making better plans in private than in public:

"We're not worried because half of our recruits are retired trained combat soldiers," Mr. Gilchrist said. "And those guys are just a bunch of punks...."

Many of the Minuteman volunteers are expected to be armed, although organizers of the border vigil have prohibited them from carrying rifles. Only those people with a license to carry a handgun will be allowed to do so, Mr. Gilchrist said.

The backstory on MS-13 should concern you:

Because of their ties to [El Salvador], they have access to sophisticated military weapons, thus making firearms trafficking one of their main criminal enterprises.

There's a certain amount of unwisdom going on here, on all sides. The Minutemen mean well by restricting their members to concealed, legally-carried handguns. On the other hand, it's perfectly legal to carry a rifle in Texas.

My suspicion is that the Minutemen are trying to address the concerns of the ACLU and others, by demonstrating that they are not attempting to intimidate or harrass, but only to defend themselves in the last extremity. That was fine, before this threat; but in the face of it, rethinking is in order. There is nothing to be gained by making yourself vunerable in this way, when possession of the tools with which you could defend yourself is both lawful and available.

MS-13, being a collective of undereducated thugs, has almost certainly not considered the ramifications of crossing the border in force and gunning down a bunch of middle-class American citizens. I doubt they have considered the response that would occur should they adopt the less confrontational policy of violent intimidation -- attacks on the families and children of Minutemen, for example. The first will be read as an invasion similar to, and needing the same type of response as, Pancho Villa; the second will be read as terrorism, and met with all available weight.

America tolerates a certain level of violence and disorder among its underclasses, mostly because we haven't sorted out a good way to stop it without trampling on the liberty that the Republic was founded to protect. More police? Less freedom for everyone. More laws? Less freedom for everyone. Laws targeting only the underclass? Generally unconstitutional because they trample civil rights and the principle of equal protection of the law. Curfews? More prisons? More government programs to track their movements and keep a registry of their activi... er, that is, "help" them? All of these things threaten American liberty more than the underclass and its violence; and so we have become tolerant.

MS-13 has been able to dwell in those regions, unstopped by America. I imagine they think America honestly cannot stop them. The recent raids on their national network can't have seemed very threatening, since the penalty is simple deportation, to nations even less likely to control them.

The rules are very different, however, when you begin killing Americans outside of the underclass. A criminal enterprise that decides to contend openly with America's civilian population will be destroyed in short order. The tragedy is that we may see them first kill law-abiding volunteers trying to do their duty to help their country. The Minutemen would be wise to reconsider their no-rifle policy, and arm themselves as the law and the Second Amendment allows. It was just this type of movement the Second intended to protect, after all: they may as well avail themselves of its benefits.

The UN: lost cause or a last chance? - Tony Parkinson - www.theage.com.au

The UN, Seen From Oz:

The folks down under are much bigger UN boosters than Americans, with UN critics still usually being supporters. Take Tony Parkinson:

Not even the proudest supporters of the lofty ideals of the UN can deny its organisational culture is in urgent need of an overhaul.

At headquarters in New York, ponderous and repetitive posturing passes for debate, while votes on the floor are too often predetermined by squalid and sometimes corrupt deal-making. The General Assembly is dysfunctional, the Security Council anachronistic and, in debates on peace and security, ideology and self-interest trump idealism every time.

In Geneva, the UN's Human Rights Commission has become a theatre of the absurd, in which serial abusers such as China, Cuba and Sudan stack committees, deny scrutiny of their own conduct, and issue ritualistic critiques of the racism and inequality of the West.

The past three years have brought unparalleled upheaval and scandal. Shaken by Security Council divisions over the US-led invasion of Iraq, the organisation has been further demoralised by reports of widespread sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers and explosive revelations about high-level corruption in the oil-for-food program in Iraq.

Not to mention policy paralysis over ongoing massacres in Darfur.

But other than that, hey, look at those lofty ideals!

Ostara

Ostara:

The half-heathen Angles, Saxons and Danes celebrated many old holidays even as Christianity was growing up among the elite of their nations.

According to the historian Bede the Venerable (673?-735), writing in chapter 13 of his De temporum ratione, the heathen Anglo-Saxons called the third and fourth months "Rhedmonath" and "Esturmonath" after their goddesses Rheda and Eostra respectively. Rheda, except for the brief citation above, has been forgotten. Eostra (Ostara) has fared somewhat better, although there is little direct evidence of her and her followers.

The story of Easter in the Anglosphere is remarkable in several respects. The first is that we should call it by the name of an ancient heathen goddess. This is not the case in most of Christendom. To return to the first cited source:

The English and German words for "Easter" derive from the name "Ostara," the Germanic Goddess of Springtime. All other European words for "Easter" derive from the Hebrew word "pasah," to pass over, thus reflecting the Christian holiday's Biblical connection with the Jewish Passover.

There are several examples, including Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic, all having some variation of "Pask" as their root. This seems to have been the preference of the Church of Rome, and her paladins who took the Cross to their people.

But Germany was Christianized by invasion, at the hand of Charlemagne, and the survival of some of the old forms was perhaps a popular reaction to the imposition. England was another matter.

In England, the great Christian kingdoms that survived the fall of the Roman Empire came under assault by the sea kings. They mastered the land, though their numbers were not great:

To answer the question 'how did the small number of invaders come to master the larger part of Britain?' John Davies gives us part of the answer: the regions seized by the newcomers were mainly those that had been most thoroughly Romanized, regions where traditions of political and military self-help were at their weakest.

Unwilling and unable to defend themselves, man for man, they fell to those who were still warriors. Not always by the sword! Tradition holds that the British king Vortigern invited two such kings to come and protect his land: Hengst and Horsa. They are said to have invitied their kin to follow them, and disposed of Vortigern once their warriors were in place.

It is from this time that the legendary realm of Arthur is supposed to have existed. You are probably familiar with much of the thinking on where, and when, such a kingdom would have been.

But Christianity returned to Britain. It was not, quite, the Christianity of Rome. It came instead from Ireland, where St. Patrick had converted the great Irish kings, but which had been largely cut off from Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Irish monasteries sent teachers and preachers into Britain through what is now Scotland, but was at the time the home of the last Christian Kingdoms: Dal Riada, the Gaelic kingdom that was already in the process of absorbing the Picts, and the Cymirc lands that produced Y Gododdin.

With secure bases in those lands, the Celtic missionaries passed south into the English states. They converted the kings of the Angles and Saxons, Jutes and Danes, among them St. Edwin of Northumbria. Like St. Edwin, the converted kings brought along their people. There was little pressure felt in England to abandon the old languages. The Celtic monks were glad to absorb the old forms, putting them to new uses. What had been a fertility festival, celebrating the coming of Spring and new life in this world became -- not instead, but in addition -- a celebration of life in a world beyond.

Therefore it is that we in the English-speaking world, along with the Germans, are alone in calling Easter by a heathen name. Nothing is thereby lost, and much that was great of old is thereby preserved.

I wish you a Happy Easter, you Christians, you Heathens, and those halfway in between.

The human flaw - signandsight

An Old Song:

Sign And Sight is the online magazine that translates European, and particularly German, intellectual writing into English so that it will be available to all Europeans. The experience is new, but the thinking is not always new or exciting. Consider this article on beauty:

According to ancient Tao wisdom, it is in movement that a person attains beauty, in Tai-Chi for example. The Chinese syllable 'mei' (literally: fat sheep) means beauty. It is used to describe good food, a sense of well-being, a pleasant bodily feeling. And, ironically enough, also the United States (literally: beautiful land). So it is possible to have beauty without burdening it with ideals of physical self-improvement and abstinence. Why not just enjoy life?

The argument is not different from ten thousand pieces of multiculturalist inquiry. The West suffers from some pathology, usually caused by capitalism (in this case, the piece attacks both the modelling industry and the competition encouraged by the larger museums). By comparison with the purer cultures, less corrupted by evil capitalism, one can return to the enlightened state of consciousness destroyed by modern society. By comparison, however, "globalization" is rapidly destroying those purer, better states of consciousness by corrupting these innocent societies with the evils of the West:

What Schiller really meant - and what the Chinese believe today - has largely been forgotten: superior intellect, wise politics, expert craftmanship, human prowess. For the Chinese, only what is true and good is also beautiful, says Jullien. Essayist Dave Hickey goes a step further. In his book "The Invisible Dragon", he describes how this "classical" stance is about to be driven out of the Chinese. They too are subject to the influence of academies, museums and universities. As in Europe, these institutions search for beauty in constructs and systems. But the Chinese no more believe in concepts than they do in making sacrifices to achieve an end. Their traditional view of beauty is a celebration of change, eternal circulation and transformation. And according to Hickey, this is precisely the opposite of everything rigid and statutory embodied by institutions.

But this culture of the transformative is in retreat, and it is disappearing faster than people are aware of. As Chinese choreographer Jin Xing puts it: "Chinese bodies look weak in comparison with beautiful African bodies. And the Chinese don't have the overriding sense of envy and justice that makes bodies hard and people rich in the West."

Let us summarize before we rebut. "Classical" Chinese attitudes toward beauty are under attack by the corrupting influence of Western "institutionalism," i.e., universities, academies, museums, etc. Those attitudes, far healthier than our own, hold that only "superior intellect, wise politics, expert craftsmanship, human prowess" are beautiful, things that are "true and good." But this is being lost, lost, as Western influence and globalization destroy the ancient Chinese wisdoms.

Now to rebut.

1) Institutionalism is not new to China. Far from it. Modern Western culture, however, driven by "institutionalism," does not approach the Chinese love for the corporate and social construct. There is no institution in the West like the Chinese Communist Party, and the CCP embraces all aspects of life.

2) It is not true that the Chinese embrace only "what is true and good." In fact, the Chinese relationship to truth is this: social harmony is more important than truth. The truth is always to be avoided when it would create social discord. This, in personal relationships as in State affairs, is considered polite and proper, and is why I could never find out just when my next paycheck was coming when I lived there.

3) As for the beauty of "human prowess" and "excellent craftsmanship," academics are referred to the practice of foot-binding. "Fat sheep," indeed: both plump and helpless.

As always, I'll make my home and take my stand in the West.

New York City: Man Tries to Steal Gun to 'Rescue Schiavo'

On Thinking Things Through

The headline reads, "Man Tries to Steal Gun to 'Rescue Schiavo.'"

A man was arrested after trying to steal a weapon from a gun shop so he could "take some action and rescue Terri Schiavo," authorities said.

I thought the National Guard thing was the limit of the madness that was going to erupt around this. Just what did this guy think he was going to do, having stolen a gun and captured the hospital room? Re-insert the tube himself? Even if he could, where was the water and food going to come from? And what threat was going to keep the police at bay? You can't hold as hostage someone the government has already decided should die.

Not that good planning seems to be the fellow's strong suit. There's an old saying about bringing a knife to a gunfight, but this guy didn't even bring a knife:

Michael W. Mitchell, of Rockford, Ill., entered Randall's Firearms Inc. in Seminole just before 6 p.m. Thursday with a box cutter and tried to steal a gun, said Marianne Pasha, a spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.... [The store owner] said he then pointed his own gun at Mitchell and ordered him to lie on the ground. But Mitchell fled out the store's back door before police arrived, he said.

One wonders if he'd have thought to steal any ammunition.

Davids Medienkritik: Stern's Gallery of Stereotypes: USA: The Divided Land

America, As Seen From Germany:

Kim du Toit has a link to this story, which sorts German sterotypes of Americans by how evil they think we are. "Gun-Toting Southerners" don't fare well in the German press, apparently. "Conservative Cowboy" is also not well liked by the German press. But the "Anarchist Vagabonds..."

Duty, shirking thereof.

I saw at this and immediately thought: "Ok, send him back so he can be shot." AND, I suppose that's glib. But I have no patience with this sort of behavior whatsoever.

He volunteered. He took an oath. He volunteered again to be airborne.

At least the Canadian immigration authorities recognize as much:

'Hinzman also testified he had been willing to fulfill his full four-year obligation to the Army, but not to participate in combat.

"I find Mr. Hinzman's position to be inherently contradictory," Goodman said in the ruling. "Surely an intelligent young man like Mr. Hinzman, who believes the
war in Iraq to be illegal, unjust and waged for economic reasons, would be
unwilling to participate in any capacity, whether as combatant or noncombatant."

I really hope the Army doesn't let him off easy.

New Scientist 13 things that do not make sense - Features

Wow, Indeed:

It's a banner day for Southern Appeal, which is also the source of this link. From The New Scientist, it's called "13 things that do not make sense."

Read it and marvel.

Serenity

Serenity:

We have a tradition in my family of naming vehicles, in the same way that you would name a ship or a horse. I recently came to own a 4x4 Chevrolet Blazer (which is twelve years old, making it the oldest new car I've ever had). I decided to name her "Serenity."

Why? If you haven't previously been aware of the movie Serenity, which is due out in September, allow me to introduce you.

This is going to be one of those movies that comes from a television series, Firefly. Those with highspeed connections who want a sample can download episodes here, apparently with the approval of the studio. Watch one or two, and see if you don't go buy the DVDs so that you can see them without the wait, and in a full-size form. I assume that's why the studio has been letting them post these things.

Firefly was a Western set in space. It's not the first of that ilk (I remember watching as a teenager Sean Connery's Outland, which was just a remake of High Noon, this time set on a space station). They're usually not very good.

This one was. I think it's because it isn't a genre piece. It's a space western, but it didn't have to be. These characters are very close to real, which means they could have fit in anywhere. They just happen to be on a spaceship, in the way that I happen to be in Virginia.

I'm not the only one of the Nation of Riflemen who thinks highly of it. I have seen people suggesting it over at Kim's place in the forums, and at Doc's place in his comments. But it isn't just gunfighters and Red Americans who like it. The thing was introduced to me by arch-liberal Sovay, who adores it, and has a whole host of friends who do likewise.

Give it a try. Start with the pilot, also called "Serenity," which is listed as 1x00 parts 1 and 2 on the download page.

See if it doesn't grab you. I'll bet it will.

Southern Appeal

What About Federalism?

There's been a lot of talk about this whole Congressional intervention. I was rather surprised by it, but assumed it was Constitutional and legal under the 14th Amendment's guarantee of federal review of civil rights cases, plus Congress' Constitutional authority to define court jurisdiction. Now, longtime readers know I am one of those, trained in the discipline of history, who point to the fact that the 14th was never properly ratified. In theory, then, this was only the latest in a long series of abuses by the Federal gov't, and one that was at least kindly intentioned and explicitly limited against providing legal precedent.

William over at Southern Appeal has an excellent post explaining why I was wrong about the bill's place in American constitutional law. His post is short and clear, and lays out some background issues that he understands as a lawyer but which I did not, not having any formal legal training. I believe that it is important that we who are not lawyers, policemen, judges or the like, still yet take time and trouble to understand the law. The law is too important to leave to lawyers, and so pieces like William's -- which inform the general public of the issues and traditions at stake -- are greatly valuable. Thank you, William, for taking the trouble.

t r u t h o u t - Niall Ferguson | Sinking Globalization

Ok, I'll Bite:

Niall Ferguson asks, "Could Globalization Collapse?"

It may seem unlikely today. Yet despite many warnings, people were shocked the last time globalization crumbled, with the onslaught of World War I.

Long time Grim's Hall source The Agonist has thoughts, and links to others by Brad DeLong. Sean Paul has this to say (and in the original, there are links to all these assertions):

China is aggresively trying to secure energy supplies. They are also making kissy-kissy with the Iranians. They were engaged in a crash course for an aircraft carrier but seem to have settled on rapidly ramping up their ASW capacity (anti-submarine warfare) for now. (I wonder who the target is?) They forked over several billion dollars to help the Putin steal Yukos. And they're going to hold joint-exercises with the Russkis. (My wife still can't believe this!)

Throw in the Taiwanese and you have an explosive mix.

Yeah, that's all true. Many of us believed before 9/11 -- I lived in China in 2000 -- that China would be the next big war. We've had a break since then, as China's been letting us spend our resources while building its own.

I'm with Sean Paul on this one. China absolutely will go to war over Taiwan if it feels it has to do so. He saw it from Taiwan, but I saw it from China. Even people who were otherwise skeptical of "Marxist" tendencies in their gov't were sure of their nationalist right to Taiwan.

That's not to say we can't win. But with the need to contain the DPRK nuclear programs from becoming a feeder to terrorists and other groups, we need China. It's a delicate situation, to say the least. The best bet is to let Japan take the forward position, if they will, and they may -- the next Prime Minister in Japan is expected to be Shinzo Abe, a rough and ready fighter by Japanese standards.

But even that presents dangers. China is spoiling for a fight with Japan for historic reasons. World War II is generally understood by Chinese students, in my experience teaching them, as 'the war of Japanese aggression.' They are only vaguely aware that any part of the rest of the world was involved.

All this explains the talks between Dr. Rice and China this week, in which she offered major concessions on the DPRK (calling it a "sovereign state" for the first time). All attention remains on Iraq. The game is afoot, however, in Asia.

Question

A Question for Soldiers:

On the train home tonight, I saw but did not have a chance to talk with a Major of the Special Operations Command. He was in his BDUs, with both the "AIRBORNE" shoulder sleeve insignia and wings. But he was wearing a black beret.

Now, I don't claim to understand this whole "beret" thing you guys do anyway (though I do get the Smokey Bear, A.K.A. the "Campaign Cover," A.K.A. a "Montana Bash" hat), but I thought I knew that Airborne soldiers wore maroon berets. I didn't see a Ranger or SF tab on the guy's uniform, but I thought he would still get the Airborne beret. Or are these things issued only to units designated as Airborne (e.g., 18th Airborne Corps, 101st Airborne Div), without regard to the individual soldier's accomplishments?

I ask because heraldry is a hobby of mine; and I remember the furor when they went to issuing black berets, which had been the symbol of the Rangers before. Now I'm wondering if even Special Operators are being told to wear the "standard" beret, or if I just don't understand the rules the Army plays by with regard to its headgear.

BLACKFIVE

Training:

BlackFive has a story to tell about a fellow soldier who died right in front of him. He's also got some links.

Training is dangerous. There have been years in which we have lost no fighting men to hostile fire, but I doubt there's ever been a year that we haven't lost people to training accidents. Marches are conducted in the heat. "Confidence" courses involve obstacles that are sometimes genuinely dangerous. I remember very clearly the first time I negotiated one such: I was eighteen, a great distance from the ground, without a rope or harness, and leaping into the air to catch the next rung of a giant-sized "ladder" that went up into nothing. Get to the top, climb over the top rung, climb back down. You could have died; you didn't, and you never forget that you managed to do something that seemed outrageous.

Training in jujitsu with a Marine named Ken Caton -- who was a genuine master of the art, but it's a contact sport -- I was nearly hurt, and was rendered unconscious for (I'm told) quite a while. The geography of the hold he was applying at the time is hard to put into words, but it was a leglock around my neck, with him in such a position that neither he nor the witnesses could see my precise reaction, or be sure of how tight the hold was. I lost consciousness before I could tap out, and he held on thinking I might be bluffing.

(Actually, I have a clear memory of tapping out, but all the witnesses agree that I never did. The mind plays tricks when there's no oxygen left.)

Was all this stuff dangerous? You bet.

However, we were young men, full of fire. The stuff we did when we weren't under "adult supervision" was way more dangerous. A lot of training accidents involve machinery -- helicopters, APCs. These are being handled by professionals in a professional, if high-speed and precision, manner.

When we weren't being watched, we were handling other machines (say, automobiles) in a high-speed and precision manner that wasn't the least bit professional. I can remember one little drag race on I-575 (coming back from running the O-course at NAS Atlanta/Dobbins AFB, in fact) where we passed a guy in the emergency lane at a speed I won't bother to record, returning to the road in time to miss the concrete pillars of a bridge that rose out of said emergency lane. By, maybe, six inches.

And that wasn't the worst thing I can remember doing. Not at all. I remember my father telling me many times as a boy that he could never understand how he hadn't gotten himself killed when he was younger. I never understood -- he was always so upright, so responsible! -- until I got to be about twenty-eight. It was only then that the fire faded enough that I could look back on the train wreck of youth with clear, amazed eyes.

The military involves training and honing that natural madness. It is put to a positive rather than a destructive use, to protect the Republic, her citizens and traditions. Just remember that when you read about these things. Sometimes young men get killed doing this stuff... but some of them would have gotten themselves killed anyway, maybe faster, and with less chance of any good coming out of it.

That's what it's like to be a young man. One of any account, at least.

TheStar.com - Spreading the message

Come On, Dean:

You've got to be kidding:

'Keep it simple' is the key to the White House, failed Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told members of his party from around the world last night.

One major reason his party lost the 2004 race to the 'brain-dead' Republicans is that it has a 'tendency to explain every issue in half an hour of detail,' Dean told the semi-annual meeting of Democrats Abroad, which brought about 150 members from Canada and 30 other countries to the Toronto for two days.

He really said that? On the day that the nation is wrapped up watching Congress, the courts, and so forth and so on fight over the life of Mrs. Schiavo, he said Republicans represent the "brain-dead"?

Well, he did say this, too...

The Vermont's former governor cut short a campaign swing on Friday to return home after his son was picked up by police along with a group of his friends.... Dean was asked how he would win support of Democratic Party leaders given his frequent criticism of them and he responded that the leaders would come around once they got to know him.

"It is a bit of a club down there," he said. "The Democratic Party, all the candidates from Washington, they all know each other, they all move in the same circles, and what I'm doing is breaking into the country club."

On Monday, Dean winced when he heard his own words.

"That was an incredibly unfortunate phrase," he said.

"Why do I say these things?" Dean asked a press aide.

What really makes this latest comment so awful, though, is the fact that it doesn't contribute anything to the debate. The "country club" remark at least presents a coherent image that is accurate as far as it goes. It's only the timing that was unfortunate. The "brain dead" remark adds nothing, though, even if there were no such timing issues: calling your opponents "brain dead" is juvenile and unhelpful even if there are no external events that make the remarks seem so ghoulish.

Dean's not an idiot; he just sometimes plays one on TV. I recall he had some good ideas about Social Security reform. Maybe he should be talking about that. Go ahead: take an hour or two and tell us what you think. If these are your best soundbites, "keeping it simple" is just going to make it worse.

News & Features | Vice in a vise (continued)

On Vice:

It's not every day you see an article in a serious publication approvingly cite Modern Drunkard magazine:

When you look back at history, all the major movers and shakers, these artists, these writers, they were all heavy drinkers. And they were totally fine. They were fully functional drunks! Look at Churchill! Look at FDR! They freed the world from tyranny, and they were drunk all the time.

Well, indeed they were, though there were a few other people involved who were perfectly sober. Not as many as you might think, as European armies of the day got liquor rations. The US Navy & Marine Corps were early adopters of Prohibition. Though they had provided a daily liquor ration from the 1700s, in 1899 they put on the breaks, and by 1914 consuption was banned totally. By 1918, federal law banned alcohol within five miles of a naval station. The situation was similar in the Army during WWI, and so it was the case that our military fought the first two World Wars officially sober.

Officially, but under protest. As Bill Mauldin's Up Front reminds us in several of his collected cartoons, the first "strategic" target on liberating any French village was often the wine cellars. One I remember shows a hogshead that was broken up by the Germans before they retreated. The GIs coming in are shocked. "Them rats! Them dirty, cold-blooded, sore-headed, stinkin' Huns! Them atrocity-committin' skunks..." Another buries his face in his hands. Mr. Mauldin had a long bit of writing on the topic, as well. If any of you out there still haven't read Up Front, you should.

If drinking was an acceptable part of life in the European armies, it was a plain vice in the American forces. Yet, as Bill Mauldin and Modern Drunkard point out, the pursuit of vice didn't preclude the pursuit of virtue. It just helped to fill the long, cold spaces in between.

Blogger

Blogger:

Both Blogger and HaloScan are acting up. As soon as I can force them to let me, I'll have more.

Bolton

Bolton and the UN:

Joe Conason has a piece this week called "Bolton's Nomination an Insult to the U.N.: Latest in Bush Pattern of Appointing People Who Hate The Institutions They Are To Serve."

Not quite.

Twenty years ago, the then Secretary of State George Schultz used to welcome the Reagan administration's ambassadorial appointments to his office and invite each chap to identify his country on the map. The guy who'd just landed the embassy in Chad would invariably point to Chad. 'No,' Schultz would say, 'this is your country' -- and point to the United States. Nobody would expect a US ambassador to the Soviet Union to be a big booster for the Soviets. And, given that in a unipolar world the most plausible challenger to the US is transnationalism, these days the Schultz test is even more pertinent for the UN ambassador: his country is the United States, not the ersatz jurisdiction of Kofi Annan's embryo world government.

Bolton's nomination is an affront to the UN, but it's not an insult. The UN has no dignity to insult.

Sending John Bolton to be UN ambassador is like ...putting Sudan and Zimbabwe on the Human Rights Commission. Or letting Saddam's Iraq chair the UN conference on disarmament. Or...

The challenge posed by Bolton may be bracing, or it may destroy the organization. I'm rooting for the latter, myself. The world would be better off without the United Nations. I join with The New Republic in holding that the UN "performs the magic of evil."

The destruction of the UN isn't the point, however. The point is this: Bolton understands what Conason does not. The ambassador's job is to serve the US, not the UN. This is his country. It's permitted for an ambassador to be of service to his host if it does not interfere with the interests of his country. It is not permitted to go native.

The Background of Edsall Road

On the 17th of March:

I went by my favorite pub north of Savannah, Molly's of Warrenton, for a pint or two today. Edsall Road was playing from two o'clock, and I stayed until the crowd got too loud to hear them -- which was about four. I therefore went home well before sunset.

I'm a semi-regular at Molly's; nobody there knows my name, but they all know my two-year-old son's name, and everybody asks me after him when I stop in. The sign they put out front today promised I'd have my ID checked both at the door and at the bar, but in fact nobody asked at all. While other folks were having their credit cards taken up before they'd see a pint, my credit was assumed valid the moment I sat down. It's a nice way to live.

Normally it's a quiet place. In fact, they've quit opening before four on most days, having run into the Southern gentleman's general prohibition against drinking before five (or at least one, if it's a very bad day, or you just really want to). St. Patrick's Day is an exception, though, as all the amateurs come out.

I don't quite know what to do with these folks.

The worst of them consort around Boston, Chicago and Savannah, Georgia. Savannah contains America's greatest Irish pub, and a large contingent of Irish citizens. St. Patrick's Day in these cities -- I've been in Chicago and Savannah on them, and assume it's not different in Boston -- is like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The city becomes unlivable. One-day Irishmen riot through the place. Sane people stay hell and gone from what are otherwise very nice places.

Well, fun's fun. Good luck to the crazies. Everyone deserves their day, I suppose.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to the rest of you. For those of you who believe in saints, Southern Appeal has a prayer.

Samizdata.net

Matters Abroad:

Our honorable brethren across the sea, Samizdata, have two interesting posts today. One is on what they call a "counterrevolution" in British constitutionalism, which is worth considering in light of Scalia's comments on US constitutionalism. That can be read here.

The other is about the current Blair government's attempts to impose global gun control. In this matter, the government in the UK has its principles all wrong. The UN, also cited in the piece, knows exactly what it is doing: it is using its pseudo-democratic mechanisms to pursue the defense of human tyranny, like always.

My wife and I were discussing gun control principles the other day. She began with the assertion that gun control was foolish because it wasn't practical; since it wasn't possible to really remove guns from the hands of criminals (as the British surely ought to understand by now), it was unwise to remove them from the hands of good citizens. People should be allowed to protect themselves.

I'm glad to say that I convinced her completely to reconsider this principle. Firearms, and particularly handguns, represent a positive good in society. The small, handy, concealable firearm is unique in that it makes equals of thuggish brutes and the elderly; or the brutes and young women, who may have children or their own bodies to protect. A rifle makes it practical for such a person to defend their home. In those places where roving gangs control the streets -- say, the Congo or Philadelphia -- that can make all the difference.

If gun control were practical, we would be thrown back into a situation in which the strong had more force to bear than the weak, and crime would simply be easier for the brutal.

We've seen this in Rwanda, as Samizdata mentions, but also the Congo. I assume you saw the piece about African victims cooked on spits and boiled alive? Didn't need guns for that -- just strong men of no character, fire and oil. Didn't need guns for the raping or mutilations either -- nature provided the necessities for the one, and a machete works fine for the other.

A firearm would have been useful for the mother wanting to protect those children. Life would be better if the villagers of the Congo kept rifles handy, instead of merely the "militias." It is a slander to use that word, as the above article does; these are merely gangs of thugs. If there were real militias, militias of the people that trained together and could rise to protect their common peace against these thugs, Africa would be a happier place.

Those are the principles we ought to use when considering the issue.

Scalia

Scalia Is Right:

I had time this afternoon to read this transcript of Scalia's remarks. I think he's right, from first to last.

The "Living Constitution" points to the end of Constitutionalism. It is not the only trend in that direction. Consider the question of Declarations of War, which are now done by simple Congressional votes that aren't, in fact, a Declaration of War. Thus you get what we had in the last election: a Congress that had "authorized military force" but not declared war, and thus a Presidential candidate who had voted 'to authorize force' but claimed to be an antiwar candidate. If Congress were keeping up its Constitutional duties, there would be no such wiggle room: Your Senator would be on record, for or against.

The Supreme Court's abandonment of genuine Constitutionalism is even more dangerous, because the USSC is unacountable, and because the USSC has become the "final word" on what the Constitution is and says. If Congress does something unConstitutional, you can turn to the court; but the USSC claims authority to be the last word.

You don't have to agree with Scalia on any particular case to find his reasoning compelling. He points to some real problems with the system. Unlike many who do that, he has a solution. We need more like him on the Court.

Sharp Knife

Heroism's Alternative:

Noel picks up on an interesting fact:

In 1996, when Canadians were asked to name both the greatest living and the all-time greatest Canadian, 76 percent said "no one comes to mind."

Americans, asked the same question, would have a knock-down, drag-out fight over who belonged on the list -- and who was a Nazi/Socialist/Commie who ought to just be shot. We wouldn't have a shortage of candidates, though, either for hero or scoundrel.

Yeah, I like it that way too.

The Ides of March

Today was my grandfather's birthday. Had he not died at the age of eighty, he would have been ninety-three today. I will shortly raise a glass of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in his honor -- it was his favorite.

He was a welder, and eventually the owner of a body shop and service station catering to long-haul trucks down in Knoxville. He was the kind of man who would, and more than once did, disarm a man of a knife or a gun with his own bare hands. Oh, he had a gun -- never until he was very old was he without one. He just didn't feel the need to resort to it.

His given names were "Jackson Theodore," which tells you enough to know that my politics are honestly inherited. He didn't go by that mouthful. The world knew him as "Jack T." My father, even when he was fifty years old, still called him "Daddy" when he talked about him. He called him "Sir" when he talked to him.

You all know by now that I wear his Stetson a great deal of the time. It's a big old thing, in a color called "Silver belly" by the folks at JB Stetson Hats. [UPDATE: Yeah, that hat.] Almost everything I know about being a man I learned from him. Much of that was filtered through the stories of my father.

It's a fine day, the ides of March. Once it saw the end of a tyrant; once, the birth of a brave, free man. I hear a few other things have happened too: but surely that is enough for any day.

Grim's Hall

Notice:

While pondering Joel's comments to the TR post this morning, I decided to switch the comments section to "oldest to most recent" form. Newer comments will be located at the bottom instead of the top, as is the standard for blogs.

When I first started blogging, there wasn't a standard yet, and I liked the other way better. However, I bow to the common wisdom, and hopefully will cease confusing new readers.

Southern Gentleman, Marine, Germanic Tribalist -- A Different Point of View

March, Texas!

Daniel, who offers monthly posts on tactics here at Grim's Hall, has a post on the month of March in Texas history.

One example: the battle of the Alamo ended on March sixth, after "thirteen days of glory." Daniel ends with a quote on the great Jim Bowie:

By Hercules, the man was greater than Caesar or Cromwell- nay, nearly equal to Odin and Thor. The Texans ought to build him an altar.

Hear, hear!

BLACKFIVE

Thank You, Greyhawk:

BlackFive points out that Greyhawk of the Mudville Gazette is now a twenty-year man. B5 says all that needs to be said, but I'll repeat it: thank you, Hawk, and Mrs. Hawk.

Grim's Hall

On Manly Virtue:

A few days back, speaking of a former President, I wrote: "Courtesy and chivalry are important components of the manly virtue of honor[.]" I see today that the New Criterion has a piece on Theodore Roosevelt. The author frets -- that is the only word for it -- that Rooseveltian manliness is gone from the national character.

"Somehow America in the twentieth century went from the explosion of assertive manliness that was TR to the sensitive males of our time who shall be and deserve to be nameless," he says at the beginning of the piece; at the end, "And Teddy Roosevelt was more a philosopher than he knew. His advocacy of manliness reflects the difficulties of pragmatism and tells us something about our situation today. We have abandoned—not reason for manliness like the pragmatists, nor manliness for reason like their tender-minded opponents—but both reason and manliness. We want progress without a rational justification and without the manliness needed to supply the lack of a justification."

It seems to me he misses an obvious parallel with a more modern President:

A New Yorker by birth, he went to the Wild West, and became a Westerner by deliberate intent, or sheer will-power. He became a cowboy by impressing the other cowboys....

Surely that reminds you of someone of more recent vintage?

The argument examines the philosophy of Roosevelt, the author attempting to explain it and then to seek contradictions within it. First, the explanation:

Roosevelt had his own, brazenly exclusive moralism; he liked being "in cowboy land" because it enabled him to "get into the mind and soul of the average American of the right type." His democracy satisfies not merely the average American but one of the right type. “Life is a great adventure, and the worst of all fears is the fear of living.”

I suspect a lot of this fretting comes from the author's position as a professor at Harvard. We've talked about this recently, but there are other things to say.

So much of this arises from the reaction of the upper classes to the First World War. Almost everyone knows the poem Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen. But the words, from Horace, that he called "The Old Lie" are engraved in stone at Arlington. And not only there.

Today I stopped in Lexington, Virginia, passing through on the way back here. We passed by the Virginia Military Institute, which is one of the finest military colleges in the world, along with West Point, Annapolis, and The Citadel. We stopped, by chance, just in front of Washington and Lee College. There is a memorial there, constructed to honor the students who had died in the First World War. And on a great arch above the memorial, engraved in stone, is the same line.

Is it an old lie, or is it a grim and terrible truth? Through the arch at Washington and Lee is visible the tomb of Robert E. Lee. That tomb lies beneath a chapel named for him but dedicated, as he was, to higher service. It is through such devotion -- only through it -- that what good there is in this world can arise. That was Roosevelt's insight as well.

Roosevelt's explosive devotion was, as the piece explains, the moving force behind a great wave of Progressivism that outweighs anything attempted or envisioned today precisely because there is no similar motivating force. Roosevelt rejected talk of rights, and spoke instead of duties -- another regular theme at Grim's Hall. Modern liberalism talks a great deal about rights, but has little enough concept of duty. We have surely reached the high water mark of this tide with the current movement to restore voting rights to felons, "who have paid their debt to society." No, indeed they have not; that is only a saying.

The debt owed is far greater and more demanding than that, having done wrong, you should endure your sentence. The debt is owed by all citizens. The true debt owed is this: to love and to improve the civilization into which you are born; to defend and sustain the common peace; to preserve the Republic and its freedoms; to suppress rather than to become the unjust; and to uphold the weak.

Roosevelt understood this, and it animated him in great labors to protect the poor, to preserve the land, and to raise the Republic and her principles. A Democrat today, had he the thundering voice of TR, could hammer the Republicans on this question. This recent bankruptcy reform bill is a perfect example. Exploiting people with proven incapacity to handle easy credit is immoral, like selling whiskey to the homeless. We who are not weak have a duty to protect, in at least a minimal fashion, those who are. The government has let down this duty, and allowed immoral behavior to become even more profitable than it was before. And, as with the whiskey to the homeless, this "profit" will create costs for the Republic as well as for the homeless man.

But there is no vocabulary for discussing this among the powerful of the Democratic party. The first error lies here: It wants to speak of the rights of the poor rather than their duties, and so it is incapable of adequately condemning the weakness of those who cannot handle easy credit. It will not do to make assertions that people are poor, and can't be expected to pay their bills. That sounds like an invitation to higher taxes and welfare payouts, rather than a call to restore order so that credit companies do business fairly. The first will not move the heart of much of America; the second would.

This first error gives rise to the second error: they cannot speak of the duties of the rich with any authority if they do not address the unfulfilled duties of the poor, and so they do not do that either. Instead, they appeal to guilt: that you, doing relatively well, ought to feel bad for doing so well while these others are doing badly. But you, presumably, are doing your duty to the Republic, to your family and friends. You are the only actor in this transaction who is doing his part: the debtor is not, the creditor is not, and the politicians certainly are not. You, alone, have no reason to feel bad about this. The appeal to guilt also collapses.

Therefore there are expanding Republican majorities, with the Left scratching its head as to why these common American people don't 'vote their pocketbooks.' There is a one word answer: duty. There is a seven word answer: They feel their duty to the Republic. Roosevelt, understanding that, living it, worked wonders for the Progressives.

So very much comes back to the words: Dulce et decorum est, pro patria... We think of these words, and the feelings they inspire, usually only when pondering the great national questions. They touch them all, however, from the largest to the smallest. The divide in our nation is between those who feel that the words are "the Old Lie," and those who engrave them in stone.

Indiana Printing & Publishing Co.

Welcome Home:

I'm home. This weekend marks the first time I've ever been snowed off the road. About the time we reached the southern gap of the George Washington National Forest, the weather got so bad that there was no point in trying to continue. We ended up spending a late night at a hotel in West Virginia. The roads were clearer this morning, however, and we made the passage across the Alleghenys this morning. More on that later.

There are other homecomings this week, and while heading out I encountered one of them. I flew out with three soldiers returning from Iraq. I got to talking with them because our flight was delayed for an hour. Two were Sergeants, and the other was a Specialist.

The conversation started because I asked the older of the two sergeants about his unit heraldry. I knew the 1st Cav insignia, but not the subordinate unit insignia. I haven't been able to locate it at the Institute of Heraldry, but it is very similar to the Indiana STARC. It's apparently attached to the 1st Cav, providing aviation support. They were on a long trip home, with many stops: but this was the last.

The other sergeant came over when he saw me with his companion, and he brought a great big cardboard box with him. He nodded to my hat, and said, "Let me show you my Stetson." He had lovingly packaged the thing in plastic, built the hatbox for it, and carried it to Iraq and back separate from the rest of his gear.

You can always tell a real American man because of the love he shows for his John B. Stetson hat.

We finally got underway. Because the US Army is so very generous, these fellows were seated all the way in the back for their flight home. As a consequence, I got off the plane in Indiana before they did. I knew that the old Sarge would have family waiting, because he'd had a teddy bear tied to the outside of his bag, but they had more family than I expected.

Their whole unit, from their Major down, had come out to greet them at the airport.

We're getting close to the 17th of March, when I expect that a number of you will be out somewhere hoisting a pint or two. Most likely, there will be a band playing traditional Irish music. If they're taking requests, have them play "Gary Owen." Drink one of those pints to the good lads of 1st Cavalry, who take care of their own.

On the High Road

I'm going to be travelling for the next few days. I'm not sure how much access to a computer I will have, as I'll be enjoying the beautiful (frigid, icy and snow-bound) scenery of our nation's highways. Fortunately, I'll have my 4x4, my faithful wife and a firearm, so with any luck we'll be back in good order by the end of the weekend.

In the meantime, visit some of the links on the sidebar. And maybe Eric and Daniel will take it upon themselves to keep you entertained while I'm gone.

And don't forget Eat An Animal for PETA Day. For the first one, I invented a dish called "PETA Pie," which goes something like this:

2 squirrels, skinned and butchered
1 pound ground wild turkey breast
Venison sausage to taste
3 strips bacon
1 double-crust pie shell (either frozen or, preferably, fresh-made with cracked Red wheat flour.)

Fry bacon; crumble and reserve grease. Brown all other meats; drain. Fill pie crust with meats, crumbled bacon & bacon grease. Spice to taste, including vegetables if you must. Cover with pie crust top; crimp and brush with any remaining bacon grease. Cut three slits in the top of the pie for steam. Bake at 425 degrees until contents are bubbling through the slits at the top.

Enjoy!

MSNBC - Interview: 'People Are More Hopeful'

On Courtesy:

I'm sure you all saw this interview with former President Bush, since Drudge linked to it. The same thing that interested him interests me:

I'll give you one example of the courtesy he showed me. There is one bedroom on that plane -- a government 757. There's a kind of VIP bedroom with its own bathroom. Then the next room has two tables and eight seats. He decided ahead of time that we want President Bush to have the front room, which was heaven for me, because if I don't stretch out, lie flat, I really hurt my body these days -- spoiled -- so anyway, he was going to have the other room. Well, he got in there and he wanted to play cards at night, and the next morning I got up and stuck my head in and I found him sound asleep on the floor of the plane. We could have switched places, each getting half a night on the bed, but he deferred to me. That was a very courteous thing, very thoughtful, and that meant a great deal to me.

I have very strong, negative opinions about some most of the policies the Clintons pursued while in office. When they were in office, I had very strong negative opinions about them, too.

With time to reflect, though, I have to say that Bill Clinton was a far better man than I thought he was. I retain a perfectly negative opinion of much of his staff, especially Ms. Reno. I know, too, that many of my readers retain a wholly negative opinion of Clinton himself.

Still, I can't help but feel a certain kinship with a poker-playing Southerner who feels it is important to give up the bed to an older gentleman, and who would never think of waking that gentleman out of his sleep halfway through the night in order to improve his own comfort. It is even more impressive when remembering that Clinton is himself a heart patient who nearly died only months ago.

Courtesy and chivalry are important components of the manly virtue of honor, and they impress me when I see them. The fact that there is so much to disagree about, the fact that I was sometimes horrified by certain actions the man took as President, the unfair and tenditious speeches he gave in favor of the recent Democratic presidential candidate, these things remain.

I think we must, though, remember the new facts too: his boldly pro-American words when speaking abroad to anti-American audiences; this kindness to an old gentleman. I salute the man for what he has done well. It is the sort of thing that means a great deal to me, too.

Michael Ledeen on Peter Malchin on National Review Online

Eulogy for the Invisible Man:

Zvika, as he was known. Ledeen isn't a big influence of mine, but I thought this was a well-written and insightful portrayal of one of the 20th century's master spies.

The Spectator.co.uk

A Companion Piece:

Once you've read Doc Russia's piece, below, you might try Mark Steyn's latest:

I hope if ever I find myself one of the unfortunate subjects of a totalitarian dictatorship, that it's Bush and the Republicans who take up my cause rather than the Left.

The other day I found myself, for the umpteenth time, driving in Vermont behind a Kerry/Edwards supporter whose vehicle also bore the slogan FREE TIBET. It must be great to be the guy with the printing contract for the FREE TIBET stickers. Not so good to be the guy back in Tibet wondering when the freeing thereof will actually get under way...

If Rumsfeld were to say, "Free Tibet? Jiminy, what a swell idea! The Third Infantry Division go in on Thursday," the bumper-sticker crowd would be aghast. But for those of us on the arrogant unilateralist side of things, that's not how it works. FREE AFGHANISTAN? Done. FREE IRAQ? Done.

Cuba Libre. It's not just a cocktail.

bloodletting.blog-city.com

"The Death Throes of Hope"

Doc Russia has a post you really ought to read. Brace yourself, first.

"Big Dwarf Rodeo": Reverend Horton Heat: Compilation Albums: Where In The Hell Did You Go With My Toothbrush?

Blues:

The mother-in-law is sick, so the wife and boy are off visiting them this last little while. As I was telling Sovay yesterday, when I happened to have a chance to talk to her for a few minutes, the experience has been enlightening.

As a youngster, I always thought I was a loner by nature. Turns out, that's not quite true. I don't have much use for people, and am happy going whole days without speaking to anyone or seeing anyone -- except my family, which extends to my closest friends. So, turns out I'm not a loner but a family man. I just want to locate my family way out away from the rest of humanity.

In the meantime, life around here is a bit like the Rev. Horton Heat song, "Where In The H*** Did You Go With My Toothbrush?" The house seems suddenly and surprisingly empty, but the unpaid bills keep turning up in the mail.

No reason any of you should care about that. Still, since there's nobody else around to listen to my stories, you're stuck with it.

Belmont Club

Indonesia at the Belmont Club

Wretchard has a thorough piece on reactions to the Bashir sentence. Those interested in the Southeast Asian front will find it worth reading.

TODAYonline

More Fun From PACOM

I'll bet Admiral Fargo is glad to be retiring:

Tensions in the Sulawesi Sea rose a notch yesterday when three Indonesian warships moved into the waters to bolster Jakarta's claim to the potentially-oil-rich area over which they are in dispute with Malaysia.

Meanwhile, across Indonesia, students and workers protested against diesel fuel price hikes in massive street rallies, describing the move to raise prices a mark of government arrogance. Their anger rose further when plans for transport fare increases were announced in Jakarta.

All too soon, it seemed, the goodwill generated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's recent visit to Malaysia, where Malaysian Prime Minster Abdullah Badawi warmly feted him, was fast evaporating.

Well, what's three little warships? Or four, or...

The warships were now patrolling the disputed area off the coast of Malaysia's Sabah state and the Indonesia's East Kalimantan province, Navy spokesman First Admiral Abdul Maliki Yusuf told AFP.

A fourth ship was on its way, Adm Yusuf said, adding that the navy was also considering sending a submarine to the area.

Two Nomad maritime aircraft to conduct reconnaissance for possible incursions into Indonesian territory, including airspace violations by foreign aircraft, had also been deployed, Lt Col Guntur Wahyudi, a spokesman for Indonesia's Eastern Fleet told dpa.

Then there's a little excursion into some reporting on oil prices, which news you probably saw on today's Drudge. The one marked OPEC: Prices Could Hit $80. That's the kind of thing that will inconvenience a lot of Americans, but it can drive poorer states to the brink of resource war.

MC WWII

Leathernecks:

I had occasion last night to play poker with a World War II Marine.

There isn't much to say about it, even thought I thought it was a remarkable experience. The fellow is now nearly eighty, and still a good poker player though he had a bad night. As a consequence, I also had a bad night -- I was damned if I was going to leave the table having made money off a World War II Marine. I ended up playing to lose until he left for the evening. I won my stake back on the last few hands, but I barely came out better than even for the evening.

I asked if he was a Marine because he was, nearly sixty years after having left the Corps, still wearing a cap with the USMC emblem on it. He allowed that he was, and said nothing more about it. Others at the table filled me in on his record with enthusiasm, but he only growled about it and insisted that somebody cut the #$@!ing cards.

Once a Marine, always a Marine.

It made me remember that it was time to change the charity linked behind the Leatherneck Tartan at the top right of the blog. I've set it to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society. Those of you in a giving mood, etc.

The Courier-Mail: Cleric Bashir gets 2� years [03mar05]

Bakar Bashir:

Well, he didn't walk. Not exactly. The death-penalty prosecution, in the most important terror trial in Asia, did manage to find a charge that pinned 2 1/2 years on the fellow. He was, however, cleared of most of the charges.

The trial is telling. At the end, supporters from the Indonesian Holy Warrior's Council (Majelis Mujahedeen Indonesia) cried aloud, dominating the courtroom and the streets beyond. "Allah Akbar!

The judges, meanwhile, immediately vacated the court, and vanished behind the protection of the state.

signandsight

Sign & Sight

That is the name of a new website, devoted to European thinking. It is to be published in English, which Arts & Letters Daily describes as 'the only pan-European language.'

Curiously, S&S has an article on just that topic: Manifesto. It begins with the death of a famous French writer, who hated the French press, but loved the German one. So, he stipulated that his final work could only be published in France after it had been published in Germany:

What happened was nothing. Several months after Bourdieu's death, Suhrkamp published "Esquisse pour une auto-analyse" as a slim volume. Utter silence. The German media failed to understand this as a scoop, a text that was awaited elsewhere, a gift from Bourdieu to what he considered a qualified German public. Months later the press published a few obligatory reviews. The French didn't bat an eyelid. While a small excerpt had provoked a scandal only a few months before, the full text went unnoticed. No one in the French media reads the German papers thoroughly, and no scouts are keeping track of cultural trends in Germany. Only when the volume was published in France did the usual brouhaha begin.

The author of this piece asks, "Is there a Europe beyond milk quotas?" If the cultures are that disconnected and disinterested, to what degree is there a Europe at all? Not only are the cultures disconnected, but their understanding of core symbols is often reversed:

The Bourdieu effect is not uncommon. When Jürgen Habermas launched his "Core Europe" initiative, no one joined the debate. Who outside the Netherlands had heard of Theo van Gogh before he was murdered? And when everybody in Paris was celebrating the 60th anniversary of the city's liberation in August last year, no one was aware of what was happening in Warsaw at the same time. While a few streets in Paris were being named after members of the communist resistance, whose valour is indisputable, Warsaw was fixated on the enduring memory of Stalin's icy smile as he watched Hitler bomb the Polish resistance into the ground. The end of liberation.

The piece then turns to the case for, and against, English; and by extension, for and against America. It's an interesting read, but it finishes with this conclusion: "Let's talk European!"

By which they mean English.

Mudville Gazette

Chains:

The Mudville Gazette has a photo essay on the breaking of chains. De Oppresso Liber.

Al Basrah.net invites US military men to break their own chains:

If you are united states military personnel and a conscientious objector to the war in Iraq, don’t wait any longer! As soon as you get back to America, pack your bags and head north.

You can go to the Canadian embassy in Washington D.C. for more information however, in order to make a clean escape, it is recommended that you tell as few people as possible of your plans and just make a break for the boarder.

When you arrive in Canada, head for the first government building you see, and tell them that you are in the united states military and that you would like to seek asylum in Canada.

What are the advantages of desertion? There's a list:

CANADA IS THE CLEAR CHOICE AND THIS IS WHY:

CANADA OFFERS:

* HIGH QUALITY OF LIFE. YOUR LIFE IN CANADA WILL BE JUST AS FUN AND EXCITING AS IT IS IN THE UNITED STATES; WITHOUT ALL THE HEADACHE!

* CANADIAN COLLEGES ARE TOP NOTCH AND THEY ARE FREE! NO INFLATED COST OF TUITION OR BOOKS - LIKE IN THE UNITED STATES.

* HEALTH CARE IN CANADA IS FREE! NO MORE HAVING TO PUT YOUR LIFE IN DANGER TO HAVE MEDICAL COVERAGE!

* THE PEOPLE IN CANADA ARE NICE - NOT VICIOUS LIKE THE PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES!

ONCE YOU MOVE TO CANADA, YOU WILL NEVER WANT TO GO ANYWHERE ELSE AGAIN.

So really, we're all on the same side here. We just want to free people. Just some of us are vicious about it.

Pacific Currents: Gore draws Chinese to animal parks

Chinese Animal Parks:

Via the Best of the Web today, I saw this article on Chinese animal parks:

While some of these visitors may be animal lovers, they have not paid $7 apiece merely to drive around and admire the huge felines lounging about in their snowy compounds.

They are here to see some action. But first, they must pay.

"You can buy a domesticated chicken for 40 yuan ($4.80) or for 100 yuan ($12.10) you can buy a wild one, which flies," the driver announces. "The effect is much different; it's exceptionally thrilling."

In their hourlong tour of this park, tourists will watch ravenous tigers chasing down live chickens, sheep and cows. Feathers will be plucked and limbs torn by the 300-pound cats while the tourists gasp, scream, cheer and recoil at the carnage.

But there is an innate sort of fairness at work:

Like many new industries in China, this one grew quickly without government oversight. Several people have been mauled to death at parks.

Well, sometimes:

One park put a turtle in a glass box and allowed people to throw coins at it so they could try to hit its shell. At another, a tiger's head was chained down so that children could climb on its back for photos.

A few parks even allow visitors to pay extra to watch a live horse get devoured by lions and tigers.

This all reminds me of my time in China. In the city of HangZhou, once capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, there is a place called "the HangZhou Bird's Paradise."

The chief attraction? Daily Cockfights, noon and three.

There are some photos from HangZhou here, which look enough like mine that I won't bother to upload the things.

Times Online - Sunday Times

The March of Science:

Yeah, okay. But I'm still planning on eating one now and then.

The Blue Bus is calling us...: Iraq Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 110

Car Bombs & The Fourth Generation:

It's things like this that have spurred me to teach the military science classes online. It isn't enough to be horrified; you have to go the next step, and realize that these things are probably going to come to America sooner or later. Many military scientists think that in "Fourth Generation" warfare, the distinction between civilian and military will largely disappear: the enemy will attack civilian targets so often that it will no longer be possible to rely on professional forces -- military or police -- as the primary defense of targets.

In broad terms, fourth generation warfare seems likely to be widely dispersed and largely undefined; the distinction between war and peace will be blurred to the vanishing point. It will be nonlinear, possibly to the point of having no definable battlefields or fronts. The distinction between "civilian" and "military" may disappear.

The car bomb (or VBIED/SVBIED, in military-lingo) is by far the most deadly weapon in the hands of modern insurgents -- in Iraq or otherwise. Unless they get their hands on radiological / nuclear material, that will probably remain true; and even the radiological material is most effective when combined with a car bomb.

Car bombs can't be controlled by restricting access to explosives; the ones in Iraq often use tank or artillery shells just because there were so many weapons depots in Iraq, but it's just as easy to make them out of common household or farm chemicals. For the same reasons -- power and access to explosives -- they have been the most popular weapons for serious terrorists. The IRA's long-argued-over surrender of its guns is purely symbolic; the successes of the movement have been won with bombs, not guns.

There isn't a good way of countering these things. The standard way is to create checkpoints where you can stop and search every vehicle that passes, but these are so manpower intensive that you can't set up very many. As a consequence, the best you can usually do is to set them up randomly in the hope of catching the car bomber by surprise. Even then, a suicide car bomber will probably just detonate at the checkpoint, still managing to kill quite a few people. It is possible that in the future, technology solutions may arise to aid these problems: robots to man checkpoints, chemical sniffers to search cars (though again, the wide variety of potential explosives hampers the effort to develop such sniffers).

The other option is to erect barriers and create no-vehicle zones. There are some notable side benefits to doing so -- they create pleasant areas for families and children, a kind of "main street" feel for small-business friendly districts, etc.

However, their size is limited by pratical considerations (e.g., how do you get food to restaurants/grocery stores in these zones? Well, you have to carry it in, which you can only do over so much distance; therefore, the zone can only be so big). They end up being practical for small popular concentrations, such as small towns, but not for large cities (imagine trying to subdivide Manhattan into a series of no-vehicle zones). However, large cities are where they are needed most, b/c of the population concentration that makes it easiest to kill lots of people there.

The logical consequence is the finality of a trend that started fifty years ago: the death of big American cities. America is large enough, and rich, enough to redistribute its population into a series of no-vehicle exurb-style towns if the business becomes important. There is some indication that Americans would prefer that lifestyle anyway, and it's consistent with the service-based economy and increasing telecommunication. In fact, life in or near such a zone could be relatively more pleasant than in current, vehicle-based suburbs.

It won't work for nations whose economic base is manufacturing, however, where there has to be concentration of manpower in zones easy to reach by transportation. Technology solutions will have to serve there; but, of course, these relatively poorer nations are the least well-suited to developing those solutions.

From the Halls to the Shores

Reviews:

Mike the Marine has some movie reviews for you:

Regardless of all that, "Gung Ho!" is a film for the ages. It lets us see what America saw during a time of crisis sixty years ago. It clues us into the mindset required to win a war. And it lets us know just how far the Hollywood elites have removed themselves from their country in the sixty years since.

Sometime Grim's Hall poster Daniel has book reviews.

And Doc Russia has (in addition to his take on the Tyler shooting) a few firearm reviews.

There you go: performance art, literature, and physical education. We aim for the well rounded man here at Grim's Hall.

BLACKFIVE

And a Little Child...

BlackFive links to this column from the Tennessean. The land of Davy Crockett continues to produce men who volunteer their services in the cause of liberty. That, we expect. But what shall we say to these children of Mesopotamia?

GruntDoc

Why We Love Medics:

This story from GruntDoc tells the whole tale. What these guys did is harder than anything I've ever been asked to do, or want to do. We often think of the serviceman, the armed citizen, and the policeman who confronts evil directly. But the medics are the ones who pick up the pieces, and start putting it all back together.

Sharp Knife

With Trembling Hands:

Noel at Sharp Knife has secret details from the exchange of letters between Ted Rall and David Horowitz. He has the on the record details too, of course.

MECHA WARRIORS: Turning Soldiers into Armored

Mecha Warriors:

That's the title of this article on efforts to build giant robots for the Army. One reservist has built one in his backyard that can shoot spikes and spit fire. Can't walk yet, but... one thing at a time.

Things like this and the TRAP make me think that the military is thinking ahead. What I imagine they are thinking is this: "We used to have the best marksmen in the world, because they all grew up shooting squirrel in the backwoods. What are we going to do when all our potential volunteers have only Xbox shooting skills?"

Well, we'll have the best giant robot warriors around, no doubt.

DriveWerks.com - 7" Straight Jaw Locking Pliers

*Grumble*

Why, oh why, must these manufacturers of automobiles make battery terminals out of such poor quality steel?

Battery died in the truck today, so I hiked into town, got a new one, and carried it back. (An aside: these things are not feathers. My son, who is two, was deeply impressed. He kept trying to lift it after we got back home,and then pointing it out to his mother, and saying, "Daddy do!")

I have exactly the right size ratchet socket for the business of replacing the battery: 7/32. (For some reason, however, other bolts in the engine are metric; parts I have to take off to get at the battery are 12mm.) Fits like a glove; but no matter. The negative terminal came off with no problem, but add a little corrosion, and it's no go on the positive. The "steel" bolt stripped away like butter.

I ended up having to pry the thing loose with a pair of these. What a pain.

So, that's how I spent my afternoon. How was yours?

On the upside, the wife did compose a new song in honor of the occasion. She calls it "the Daddy Hero song." That's a bit much, but it is nice to hear her praise me to the boy, and it is nice to know I made her day.

Musings of The GeekWithA.45

Handguns to a Gunfight:

The GeekWithA.45 has a story today that is both proud and tragic. It is tragic because it involves the death of a good, brave man acting in his proper role as a citizen: a defender of the common peace. It is proud for the same reason.

This law abiding fellow found himself outgunned by the criminal who killed him. He had armed himself with a 9mm handgun, to carry on his daily business. The fellow who came looking for trouble came with a Kalishnikov rifle, plus a bulletproof vest overtop of which he was wearing a flack jacket.

The armed citizen wasn't the only one outgunned; the police suffered three casualties as well. Mr. Mark Wilson, the armed citizen, is credited with saving the life of one of the intended victims, at the high cost of his own.

Another citizen, Ron Martell, followed the fleeing criminal by car in order to point him out to police. Between the two citizens, enough time was purchased for the police to coordinate their response and kill the criminal.

The Geek comments:

We must also remember that the problem of the armored opponent is solveable, and can occur at any time.

Indeed, it is, and it can. There's enough body armor out there to pose a threat to police and citizens alike; we see it popping up just now and then among the more vicious criminals, the ones who set out to cause mayhem rather than just make money at their crime.

One of the easiest ways to solve the problem of body armor is with a rifle. Only the very best body armors can stop even one rifle round, though some of those can stop multiple hits of small-caliber rifle rounds. In addition to a vastly increased ability to overpower body armor, though, the rifle has the advantage of increased accuracy. At the short ranges at which gunfights are likely to take place, a rifle is almost pinpoint accurate. Striking areas not protected by the armor becomes much easier.

When I was growing up, it was entirely usual for people to carry a rifle or two in their truck, in town as in the country, mounted in a gun rack. I never heard of any of those weapons being used in a crime, and they provide a much improved capacity for a citizen called upon by Fate to do his duty for the common peace. In many states, there is no need for a permit to carry such a rifle, so long as it is openly displayed and/or carried without ammunition in the chamber.

There is an old adage: "Never take a handgun to a gunfight." Of course, we don't go looking for gunfights. But if you're going to prepare for the possibility that one might find you, a rifle can make a big difference.

China e-Lobby

No Punishment:

China e-Lobby has a piece that points to an interesting fact: Huawei Technologies is a "principle supplier of Iraqi communications hardware for the current cellular contract."

Why is that interesting? Because Huawei has experience working with Iraq. They are "the Communist Chinese firm that integrated Saddam’s air defenses in 2001."

Good job, too. It's almost enough to make you wonder if they were on our payroll the whole time; indeed, I expect the topic to pop up any time on DU.

Setting aside conspiracy theorizing, however, I do wonder about this business. There was a great deal of moaning and whining about the CPA keeping French companies out of Iraq; but Communist Chinese ones, ones that actually participated in Saddam's defenses, are OK? Or has Iraq's interim government decided that they care more about integration into the world economy than they do about punishing bad actors? That would be an understandable sentiment, though I am always sad to see anyone doing trade with China's defense industry.

Speaking of which, here is a Xinhua piece on US-Japanese military integration. The Chinese have been feeling a bit sour since... well since about 1930, where Japan is concerned. But they've been especially irritable since this joint US/Japan statement on Taiwan. There are attempts to play it down, but there's no doubt that it's big news. I expect to see, in the next year or two, a Japanese amendment removing the pacifist language from their Constitution.

The Daily Collegian - No yellow ribbons here

An Education:

I suppose a man writing from a publication called "The Daily Collegian" must desire an education, and I think he's going to get one. JHD points out that he's earned the wrath of a particularly fearsome bunch: The Marine Corps Moms.

Although I have no use for the fellow at all, I can only pity him a bit. Still, it should be a learning experience indeed. In a few years, when the bruises heal and he's old enough to understand what he's about to be hit with, he should have ample fodder for reflection and edification.

What is Snow Cream?

Snow Cream:

It's snowing -- again -- and has been all day. However, this time I don't mind so much. The last time it snowed, I went out and bought some Eagle brand condensed milk, and so this time I was kitted out to make snow cream.

1. Start with 6 to 8 cups of CLEAN, FRESH snow.

2. Gradually add condensed milk (not evaporated). Continue mixing, adding more snow and milk until desired consistency is reached.

3. 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla can be added if desired.

4. Best if eaten immediately, but can be frozen (the consistency will be hard, more like popsicles).

I haven't had the stuff since I was a little boy. It's very good, just as I remember. To make sure the snow is clean enough, wait until it's been snowing for at least two hours. That should draw down all the pollution from the air. Go and clean off a place outside -- the hood of a truck, say -- and then wait for snow to build there. That snow should be perfectly clean, assuming no animals have gotten at it.

Great stuff.

Bangkok Post Thursday 24 February 2005 - Unrest fails to deter Chinese shrine faithful

A Goddess Through Fire:

Never let it be said that the Chinese people are cowards. Chinese culture may have little use for soldiers or warrior virtue, but there is a native heedlessness of violence: the spirit of the famous man who stood down the tanks at Tiananmen.

The celebration of the Chinese New Year (Year of the Rooster, this year) is ongoing across Asia, including southern Thailand. Despite a massive car bomb set off there last week, celebrants flocked to this famous temple. And no wonder! Anyone who will turn up to participate in that ritual isn't worried about a little thing like a car bomb.

INTEL DUMP -

Up The Militia:

INTEL DUMP has a piece on the rise of militias and private regiments in Iraq:

Greg Jaffe had an exceptional piece in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal (subscription required) describing the rise of 'irregular' Iraqi units around the country, which were popping up on their own, raised by individual officers, funded privately, with little connection to the U.S.-led effort to raise an Iraqi army. Surprisingly (or maybe not so), these ad hoc units appear to be better led, better equipped, and more combat effective than their 'official' brethren. And, perhaps more importantly, some U.S. officers are recognizing this, and figuring out how they might co-opt or work together with these Iraqi forces.

Hat tip Chester. The militia, I belive, is an idea which has come again -- or which is, rather, coming again quickly. Nothing says "defense in depth" like an armed citizenry, which complicates the planning for hostage-takers and other terrorists immeasurably.

bloodletting.blog-city.com

Gun Crimes:

Doc Russia is playing Deguello to CNN. He's not the only one:

The Geek with a .45
War On Guns
The Smallest Minority
Freedom Sight
Trigger Finger

Smallest Minority reports that the BATFE is investigating.

Channelnewsasia.com

The Bashir Trial:

In case you are not familiar with the fellow, Abu Bakir Bashir stands accused of being the most important terror-supporting religious leader in Asia. He is accused of being the "spiritual leader" of Jemaah Islamiyah, and is currently standing trial for alleged involvement in various bombings across Indonesia. Although it's largely passed below radar in the US, his is the biggest terror trial in the world just now.

He's going to walk, too.

And not only that, he deserves to walk. This trial has been a joke from start to finish. A prosecution that can't do better than this does not deserve a conviction. The prosecution, which started off pursuing capital punishment, is today reduced to stridently repeating its "demand that Bashir be sentenced to eight years in jail." This trial has seen convicted bombers -- themselves under death sentences -- walk across the stage to kiss Bashir on the cheeks, before testifying that of course Bashir knew nothing about anything at all. It's seen a former US State Department official testify that the whole prosecution was cooked up by evil George Bush.

The only good thing that's come out of the business has been that Bashir condemned terrorism against civilians, although in the same breath he urged Indonesians to go fight Americans in Afghanistan.

This is the problem with the law enforcement approach to terrorism. It just doesn't work real well.

My Way News

Avian Flu:

Still slogging my way through a bout of what al-Reuters calls "garden-variety influenza," count me a believer on this Avian flu thing. Whatever we have to do to avoid a worse version of this, let's do it. Oof.

Grim's Hall

Go Preach Outside, Where God Can Hear You Better:

The only person ever to cheat me in a financial transaction was a minister, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by bad behavior from the pulpit. Still, this use of a common prayer to sneer at political opponents is ugly, low behavior.

Of course, it was ugly last year, too. I'll point this year's offender in the same direction.

BLACKFIVE

Iwo Jima:

BlackFive is running an Iwo Jima memorial today. In honor of Adam (see below), I was not planning on posting any more today; but it would shame no soldier to share this company.

You may wish to read Part One and Part Two.

Kim du Toit - Daily Rant

A Death of One We Knew:

Those of you who have given, from time to time and as asked, to the Walter & Adam Fund know that it was providing resources to a pair of young American snipers in Iraq. Together, we bought them the best of scopes, laser rangefinders, and body armor. But no armor is ever quite good enough.

I have terrible news to relate. A car bomb exploded in Mosul on Wednesday Feb 17, 2005, killing this young man:

U.S. Army Sergeant Adam J. Plumondore
Age: 22
From: Gresham, Oregon
Assigned to: 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regt., out of Fort Lewis, WA.

I regret to tell you that Sgt. Plumondore is the “Adam” of the Walter-Adam Fund.

Kim links to this piece by Rivrdog, who came from the same hometown. Doc Russia has something as well.

Recruitment drive for Iraqi Army draws thousands

Two Pieces of Iraq News:

Via Central Command, two stories you may not have otherwise encountered. First, this: Recruitment Drive for Iraqi Army Draws Thousands:

An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 men arrived by foot, bus, and other vehicles by sun up Feb. 14, at an airfield outside an Iraqi Army base in an effort to join Iraq’s army, officials said.

Of that, approximately 5,000 made it through a screening process that led them onto the base, which is home to several thousand Iraqi Soldiers and a contingent of U.S. service members, officials said. Most will be transferred to other bases in Iraq to supplement existing units.

The process was a result of the largest recruitment effort for the Iraqi Army to date, said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Woodley of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq.

During the screening process, potential recruits were given a literacy test, physical condition check and questioned about prior military service. Once inside the base, they went through a medical screening and received uniforms, boots and other military-related clothing.

Of those who were turned back, or did not make it through the screening, leaders told them to return for another recruitment drive.

Then, some news about American Combat Engineers from down Tennessee way:

In an effort to make Iraqi roads safer for fellow Soldiers, a U.S Army Reserve company of combat engineers patrol selected roads near Baqubah, searching for "trouble" in a mission called Operation Trailblazer.

Soldiers from Company A, 467th Engineer Battalion, Memphis, Tenn., took over operations from the 141st Engineer Battalion, North Dakota National Guard, at Forward Operating Base Warhorse.

Their mission is focused on searching pre-determined supply routes in the Baqubah area for improvised explosive devices planted by terrorists.

"Our job is to go out and look for trouble in the form of IEDs planted near the sides of roads," said Sgt. 1st Class Dallas Bryan, combat engineer.

With teams of 18 Soldiers or more, the "Trailblazers" set out on convoys of several supporting vehicles and one "Buffalo," scouring the road-side for signs of terrorist activity.

The Buffalo, a ground mine detection system, uses a hydraulic arm to sift through trash piles or probe areas where IEDs are thought to have been hidden.

There's more, in both cases.