The Irish Independent reports that the Republic of Ireland's Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, was incensed over that letter of support for America and against Saddam Hussein that was signed by the leaders of eight European nations:

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Just when I think I'm thoroughly sick of the current crew over at The New Republic, they go and publish something like this story of a brave young Iraqi woman who fought Sadam. To quote:

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Whenever I look at almost anything in the news about Africa, I get upset. The dysfunctional regimes and economic systems of most of that continent generate a sense of hopelessness. It's usually easier not to think about it. In a continent where Egypt, a land run by a brutal dictatorship, and South Africa, much better today but still a wreck, are the most successful nations, what more can be said?

The most dysfunctional habit many of these nations have is to blame the West in general and America in particular for "colonialism," while simultaneously demanding more money to prop up their failing systems. This is like blacks in America today who continue to blame racism and slavery for their problems: it's little but a crutch, an excuse for failure, and a way to evade responsibility.

Some libertarians are upset that Bush plans to spend a few billion to fight AIDS in Africa. But today's OpinionJournal has a depressing and yet hopeful article on what might help Africa. Bush has been smart enough to put strings on his programs for inner city schools. Will he be smart enough to put similar strings on the money sent to Africa?

We can only hope.

Line of the week comes from Jed Babbin, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense:

Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless, noisy baggage behind.

As stated on last night's Hardball with Chris Matthews.

And while you're chuckling, go read this, which won't make you laugh, but did put a lump in this Texan's throat.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a very good interview with Dr. Stephen Cole about the destructive effects of so-called "Affirmative Action" programs that utilize quotas, lower standards, or otherwise make race more important than achievement. As has been noted by many others, the primary victims are often the very black students it's supposed to help. Good reading.

So. According to the The Guardian, the Prime Ministers of Albania and Slovakia are breaking with Germany and France and taking an even more pro-Bush, pro-war stance than the 8 national leaders mentioned yesterday. Which means we now have 10 European countries backing us and 2 against, with only a few fence-straddlers left. In the meantime, Bush is personally on a diplomatic blitz to drum up more support for the coalition, according to the State Department.

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For the caring that you showed when I was really ill. Now that I'm on the mend, I just want to express my heartfelt thanks.

So very many of you took the time to express kind words and thoughts and I deeply, deeply appreciate it.

Thank You All Very Much.

I had meant to post last night that Norman Schwartzkopf was expressing doubts about war with Iraq, but frankly I forgot before I fell asleep.

Now CNSNews reports that Schwartzkopf has done a 180 and practically wants to lead the charge himself. Stormin' Norman seem a little moody to you? (via Instantman.)

I'm far from the first to make note of this, but: if Bush's continued leadership on building and maintaining the coalition in the Middle East is impressive, what's even more astounding is the New York Times. Its editors have, so far, failed to even mention that open letter of support for Bush from European leaders.

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The Guardian reports the following recent exchange on the floor of the British House of Commons:

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The President of the Czech Republic, along with the Prime Ministers of Spain, Portugal, Italy, the U.K., Hungary, Poland and Denmark, have all signed a letter in strong support of the United States and its position regarding Resolution 1441. They are urging the U.N. to live up to its own words lest it suffer a major loss of credibility that threatens world peace. Read about it in this BBC story. If you want to read the complete statement, click here.

It's clear that our coalition does not lack support in Europe.

Speaking of OpinionJournal, former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith has a pretty good essay on what the term means to him and others in government.

There will be some predictable sneers, of course, but the article essentially defines it as a libertarian-oriented form of conservatism that is resigned to the permanent influence of government in everyday lives, but trives to make it more responsive to market forces, more localized, and more dedicated to empowering individuals.

Funny thing is, that's not radically different than what Bill Clinton was talking about in his 1992 Presidential campaign.

The Washington Post reports that Hossein Ali Montazeri has been freed. (You'll have to scroll down to find the story. Just search on "Montazeri.")

As with many things, it would not do to put too much on this one man, who is hardly a liberal by most standards. But freeing him signals a continued shift by the regime in Tehran, and in the right direction. We can't do enough to try to help these folks.

I've had a really interesting couple of weeks. I go in for outpatient surgery. The easy type. The no worry type. The quick healing minimal pain type. The kind everyone thinks you are overreacting a bit - for being nervous type.

I'm nervous anyway because general anesthesia has some risks and I wanna wake up, you know? Plus, in general, I'm a paranoid control freak that HATES giving someone else control of my destiny.

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Brad DeLong has some rather disappointing criticisms of Bush's State of the Union. In short, the claim is that at last year's State of the Union address, Bush: 1) Used the phrase "Axis of Evil" but doesn't anymore, 2) promised to get bin Laden dead or alive, 3) said the budget deficit would be small and short-lived, 4) said that his economic plan then was oriented toward jobs, and 5) his fans will uncritically praise anything he says.

DeLong is a smart guy, but:

#1 is probably true but meaningless, #2 is false, #3 is arguably a fair criticism, #4 is twisted because most in the administration, including Bush himself, have been saying that the tax plan will take more than a year to have a salutary effect and that more needs to be done, and #5 is demonstrably false.

So what's it boil down to? Oh yeah. The economy's weak, we've seen continued increases in unemployment, and the deficit's going up like it usually does during economic slumps. So why not just say that? Why the need to act like such intellectual weaklings with criticism?

Rose is home and feeling almost human. Welcome her home. :-)

I saw the first part of the State of the Union on TV. I heard the rest of it in my car, on the radio. Then I caught the end on TV at my office. It really is remarkable how different a speech can be when heard vs. seen.

But it appears that, once again, the retarded monkey President has effectively outmaneuvered his opponents. On domestic affairs he gave them little room to do their usual schtick of calling him a mean-spirited right-wing extremist who's going to throw orphans and old people into the snow--leaving them only their default position of envy for "the rich." On foreign affairs, he gave them nothing to complain about at all.

Did anyone catch the Democratic response? It was barely better than Bob Dole's SOTU response to Clinton in 1996 (and if you remember that one, it was probably the worst in history).

On Saddam Hussein, he finally laid the case out for the American people. Sure, those of us who are constantly plugged in to the media heard very little new. But most people don't keep up with the news that much. It's important when a President speaks directly to the American people like this, because people who haven't been listening much will pay attention to him.

Now if only he follows through. The cruelty of continued inaction toward the oppressed of Iraq and Iran cannot and should not go on. Nor should our soldiers have to fight in the summer if that can be avoided.

Let's roll, George, let's roll.

* Update * Lileks has some good comments, although he misses something big. On TV Bush looked and sounded commanding and confident. On radio he sounded tired, if resolute. You can decide which is more revealing. In any case, Lileks once again gets off a great line: "Defeating Iraq isn’t the camel’s nose in the tent - it’s the camel’s head in the bed of every other Arab leader." Ka-BAM! Right on the money. Why more people don't get this I have no idea.

* Update 2 * I also liked Jane Galt's comments.

In looking at our entry on Blogstreet, I notice that it says I don't seem to have an RSS feed. Well, I do have an XML feed, which is what I thought that was. Can anyone tell me why Blogstreet thinks I don't have this, or at least what I can do to make it realize that I do?

Thanks for any help you guys can give me.

Does anyone know anything about the Iraq Institute for Democracy? I'd like to promote them, but I'm leery. Especially having seen the way all the poor anti-war people who endorsed the "Not In Our Name" were so badly embarassed after it became clear who was behind that group. These Iraq folks look pretty legit, though...

In other news, it looks like the mullahs in neighboring Iran are finally going to release the radical reformist cleric supported by most of the young people who want democratic reform. Meanwhile, the Internation Herald Tribune reports that Iran is providing a haven for Saddam Hussein's enemies. Just as interesting, the Iranian news service is reporting on the activities of Democratic activists in Iraq, who are struggling but obviously making progress.

Those who want democracy in the Middle East are obviously making headway. How much longer are we going to deny these people the help they need--when it's so obviously in our best interests as well as theirs?

So. The ever racially-sensitive Fritz Hollings (D) has joined Charlie Rangel (D) in proposing that we re-institute the draft. Proving, once again, that the left and right, some time in the last decade or so, switched places when no one was looking.

It's happened before. It'll probably happen again.

(Link courtesy TV's Henry.)

Bill Whittle has written an excellent essay about why fewer will die, fewer will suffer if we take the necessary step of war with Iraq. Countless others have linked to it, but I'll join the chorus, and encourage you to read it too. It's long, but very good.

I also voice one note of dissent. He misses a crucial item: the tyrant-regimes in Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Saudi Arabia have been fence-straddling between the violent radical Islamists and us. They help us, but as little as they can, for they fear the radical islamists as much as us. They must be shown that backing the radical Islamists is a losing proposition, that backing the West is the right move.

The people in the region must also be shown that the West is kind, that the way of freedom and demoracy is better. They can be shown this with a liberated Iraq--and with the fact that far fewer of them will die in the process than if we continue the inspections and sanctions travesties.

There is almost no way this can happen without taking out Saddam Hussein. This monster must be brought down, for the sake of the people of Iraq and the rest of the middle east as much as ourselves.

They say that Bush will probably speak very little about the war tonight. But if so, he had better speak soon after. Lives are at stake, and time is running out.

* Update * - Yesterday's OpinionJournal pretty much lays out the grim possibilities for death and destruction and domestic chaos if we make the cruel, selfish choice and refuse to finish business and liberate the people of Iraq. Bush will be gone of course (which some people would be glad to see), but I suspect that most of the rest would come to pass too. Except they're too optimistic about Musharaaf's future. (Thanks to Bill Quick for the link.)

One of the most horrific urban legends of the last decade has been the vile slander put out by certain feminist groups that Superbowl Sunday is the most violent day for women in America. Supposedly, more women are battered on that day by their husbands or boyfriends than on any other day.

This claim is categorically false. No such increase has ever been found by any responsible researcher who's looked into the matter. Crisis centers and battered women's shelters also uniformly deny seeing any such increase, as do police departments around the nation.

It also happens to be the case that men in general are significantly more likely to be the victims of violence than women are--which doesn't negate the problem of women being battered, but is certainly a perspective that doesn't get aired enough.

In any case, if you hear this bizarre factoid uttered by someone, you might want to set people straight. For more specific references and figures on this, see Richard Bennett's piece here.

Do you think Anna has seen this yet? Not a chance, else she would have posted it by now.

What am I talking about? Strategy Page's reprint of Beatrix Potter and Sven Hassel's great forgotten opus, Peter Rabbit, Tank Killer, of course. Didn't know Peter Rabbit was a grizzled combat veteran, did ya? ("That's for putting my father in a pie, you four-eyed Scots bastard!")

Does anyone know the story behind this? I'm assuming it's a joke, but it looks real. (Thanks to Casey for the link.)

Speaking of World War II: I meant last week to note the passing of cartoon great Bill Mauldin. To learn about this influential artist who both humanized and inspired a generation of dogfaces, click here. To see some more of his work, click here. He died on Wednesday, January 22nd, 2003. Bless him.

The following came from the Center for a Free Cuba, and is dated January 17th, 2003:

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Last week I said I believed Pete Townsend. I still do. In the comments section of that article, near the end, someone named Tim posted an article supposedly written by Pete Townsend. Unfortunatley, "Tim" did not use a valid email address. Can anyone verify the validity of that article, and tell me where it originally appeared? (Note: Someone named Terry also posted an interesting article in those comments. I also have to get back to Arnold Harris on some of his arguments soon. It's on the backburner.)

Man. I remember when Tampa was easily the worst team in the NFL.

I'm getting old.

The recent Affirmative Action discussions (well, that and a few other things) have left me utterly exhausted. So much so that I'm turning off comments on this article, just to discourage further debate for now.

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Has anyone seen original (firsthand) source for this news story on the rise of American anti-semitism? The story as-reported seems a little distorted.

I don't have a problem believing some parts of the survey. They are disturbing, even if they aren't very surprising:

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There is an amusing theory that all people have a super power of their very own. Many do not know what it is. For example, perhaps every time you drop a coin it comes up tails. Perhaps you can break up couples with mere words. Or can read children's minds. I read an amusing story last year about a guy who believed he could destroy coffee shops, because every time he worked at one, it either went out of business, or was bought out by a big corporation that came in and fired everyone.

I didn't think I had such a power, but recently I may have figured out what it is.

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The Washington Post reports that Colin Powell has had enough of this crap.

On the other hand, the hackneyed "Cheney & Rumsfeld are hawks, Powell's a dove" script has always been more press spin than reality methinks.

The Rosemary saga continues. On Monday, her routine hernia operation turned into major surgery, and what we thought would be an outpatient procedure turned into a four day in-hospital ordeal. We brought her home Thursday afternoon, but her oral pain medication was both insufficient to keep down the pain and caused severe intestinal discomfort.

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I work the graveyard shift at a very large ISP. While most of you were probably sensibly in bed, there was a period from around 2 AM Eastern to about 4 AM Eastern where a huge segment of the internet was down in the U.S., due to what appears to have been a massive Denial of Service attack on a company called UUnet. It'll probably be on the news later; it's only 4 AM or so as I write this, and access to my own site has only just been restored.

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It's astonishing when you read weblogs how you find stories the mainstream media misses. There's been a crucial development in North Korea that could make the situation even more explosive. But do you hear a word about it from ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, NPR, etc.? Of course not. But this latest development is truly profound.

I only hope Bush has what it takes to respond appropriately. Maybe Anna, our resident expert on the AoD, can tell us more.

It's long been known that most of the very richest members of Congress--those in the top 1%---are (usually) Democrats. So it should surprise now one that it turns out that the very richest and most generous political donors--those who give out a million dollars a year or more to the political parties--give to the Democrats more than ten times as often as to Republicans.

Furthermore, of people who give donations of a thousand bucks or less, Republicans rake in $72 million a year, and Democrats rake in only $46 million a year.

Source: Smarter Harper's Index

The future of the Bush administration, and of the war on terror, is now on the line. In today's Washington Post, Neoliberal Charles Krauthammer says it best:

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As the child of a broken home (I was in the first wave of them that hit the U.S. in the 1970s) I always cringe when I read about studies like the recent British study that was released in the Lancet this week (no direct link, drat it--scientific journals are woefully behind the times.)

Why do I cringe? In part, I suppose, because of the stereotyping of people like myself.

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In a former life, I ran a rather successful online symposium for professional researchers in human nutrition (the archives of which can be found here). About half the members held doctorates, mostly in fields such as biology, anthropology, archaeology, and medicine. I'm also proud to say that a number of professional scientists met each other there for the first time, and wound up collaborating and sharing their research in ways that might not otherwise have happened.

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In Kicking the Old Man Around, I wrote an abbreviated history of the Klu Klux Klan(s), one I'm moderately proud of. Jesus Gil says he's interested in reading more about the subject, so I thought I'd mention a favorite book of mine.

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Okay, I've been looking for this for a while and it's beginning to annoy me.

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On Monday afternoon, Rosemary went to Botsford hospital in Farmington Hills for a routine surgery to fix a hernia. She expected to be home that night, with a small chance for having to stay overnight if there were complications.

When the surgeon opened her up he found massive scar tissue from a previous surgery and a far worse hernia than expected.

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What is the difference between a fiercely independent thinker and a delusional paranoid? Is it a matter of degree, or something else?

This morning I got some email from someone who sent me gobs of articles from "Emperor's Clothes" (I won't link them, they don't deserve the traffic), most of which I've seen and heard before.

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I have not one but, interestingly enough, two friends who are convinced that, over the next century or so, the United States will more or less dissolve into separate entities, parts of it merging into Canada, which will also sort of softly come apart and merge with the U.S.

I've long been skeptical--not because such a thing would be dysfunctional, but for a host of more pragmatic reasons. Canadian Mark Steyn mentions some of the reasons why I think this sort of thing unlikely. (Link via Bill Quick.)

I wish I'd heard about this sooner: Virginia Heinlein has died.

Unable are the Loved to die
For Love is Immortality.
---Emily Dickinson

So. On Wildmonk's Iraqi-War Personality Test, I score an 86, right in the middle of the Realist/Capitalist Stooge ranking. Amusing.

Ya see, Moe was the smart one, Larry was the musical one, Curly was the cute one, and Dean was the one keeping the books in back, and who kept explaining that you shouldn't put too much yeast in the beer...

Click here. Then here.

Do you plan to do anything about it?

("Not in our name," eh? Do tell.)

First: Keef, you are a STAR baby, and the baddest rock'n'roll badass of all time. You magnificent bastard. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read this right now.)

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I once was acquainted with a lady named Roberta Pournelle. She was a professional schoolteacher who specialized in hard-to-teach children and illiterate adults. She claimed that she had never once failed to teach any normal-IQ child, or normal-IQ adult, how to read, and read well.

She believed that, except in extraordinarily rare cases, "dyslexia" was a modern form of pseudoscience, like phrenology. Her belief was that teachers 30 or more years ago recognized dyslexia instantly and correctly: a normal kid (or poorly educated adult) who had some very common difficulties developing the right reading habits. The solution?

The exact same training all people used to get in how to read: phonics. Some just needed a little more time and patience.

That's it. Finito. Phonics, and patience. Nothing fancy, no special tricks, and anyone could do it.

I thought of her when I read this.

I recently came across an interesting site on Jim Crow, including the history of Jim Crow outside of the Southern states. (Stolen from No Watermelons)

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

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Want more? Click here.

The first remarkable thing is that the BBC actually published it. The second is how it seems to have come to pass.

Let freedom ring.

I figured I'd posted enough for this morning, but this just broke: The inspectors found solid proof of his ongoing nuclear weapons program. It's called "Material Breach," kids.

You know, if I were one of Blix's boys, I'd be hightailing it out of that country as of yesterday, before I became a hostage.

(Via Instapundit.)

I had an old girlfriend who got her job because a prominent university recruited her. They were looking for a "person of color" to fill the position, and she had the right degree. She was glad to get the job, and loved it. But, while she admitted it only to close friends, it bothered her--a lot-- that people she worked with frequently wondered if she deserved the job.

I had a relative (my sister-in-law's husband's son-in-law, whatever you'd call that) who was a medical professional at a hospital in Detroit. He talked to me a few times about the way patients often treated him. They would frequently try to get a second opinion from a white person. They would sometimes do this right to his face, asking white nurses or even janitors for a second opinion.

Here's the kicker: no white patient ever did that to him.

And it wasn't just him, either. He'd seen patients do it to black doctors who were heads of departments. Sometimes even asking a white orderly about what the black doctor just said.

I hated hearing these stories. They really hurt him. They hurt me too, for a lot of reasons--the biggest being that I understood, and cursed myself and the world for it.

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Congressman Harold Ford Jr. says that he personally benefitted from the "Affirmative Action" policies currently in place at the University of Michigan.

This is the intelligent son of a wealthy and powerful congressman from a very powerful political family. He clearly had more opportunities and more things given to him as a child than I ever did, or will ever be able to give to my own son. From this I come to one of two conclusions:

1) Harold Ford Jr. believes that he is intellectually inferior to the average white student and needed special consideration.

2) Harold Ford Jr. believes that, regardless of his station in life, by dint of being black he is automatically entitled to priviledges that my son will never be entitled to.

Can anyone come up with a reason why I should believe #1, or how in God's name #2 can be even remotely morally defensible?

There is some controversy over what, exactly, Condoleeza Rice's position is in regards to the University of Michigan's racial discrimination practices. However, one way or the other, Joanne Jacobs has a good description of how very different the system Rice worked with at Stanford is from the U of M system. It's hard not to notice how much less destructive such a system must be.

It appears that the Learned Elders of Stockholm are bent on world domination. Red-blooded Americans everywhere should know of the grip on our minds held by the Swede bastards.

Watching the tergiversations of people trying vainly to defend the indefensible, I was prompted to check the dictionary. From the trusty American Heritage:

Discrimination: Treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality or prejudice.

Racism: Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

What's funny is, I don't see where it says, "unless self-described Liberals say otherwise."

So here's the question of the week: When did the Democrats start to be the racist party?

Or did they ever really stop?

This has been around the block a few times, but I've been wanting to link to it. Did you know that violent crime has reached such epidemic proportions in the U.K. that the police no longer even bother investigating such trivial crimes as housebreaking and burgulary? It's true, alas.

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