Image of the week
Submitted by Robber of Zork on Wed, 2006-12-20 07:30.
Rabbi Moishe Arye Friedman, left, shakes hands with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at last week's Holocaust conference. Mr. Ahmedinejad has called the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jewish people a 'myth.' (The New York Sun)
Cozying to Iran, Chasidic Group Draws Ridicule By Gabrielle Birkner
Submitted by Robber of Zork on Tue, 2006-12-19 06:30.Cozying to Iran, Chasidic Group Draws Ridicule
BY GABRIELLE BIRKNER - Staff Reporter of the Sun
December 19, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/45413
When the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, last week hosted a conference meant to cast doubt on whether the Holocaust took place, it was no surprise to see Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and prominent Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel among the conferees. But what was a group of New York Jews in black hats, long black coats, and beards doing meeting with the Iranian president who has called the Holocaust "a myth" and stated publicly his desire to "wipe Israel off the map"?
The Road to Tehran By Bret Stephens
Submitted by Robber of Zork on Sat, 2006-12-16 06:42.The Wall Street Journal
The Road to Tehran
By BRET STEPHENS
December 16, 2006; Page A10
"Not acceptable," says Ban Ki Moon, new Secretary-General of the United Nations. "Repulsive," say the editors of Britain's Guardian newspaper. "An insult . . . to the memory of millions of Jews," says Hillary Rodham Clinton. Global polite society is in an uproar over the Holocaust conference organized this week in Tehran under the auspices of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Moral denunciation is what reasonable people do -- what they must do -- when a regime that avows the future extermination of six million Jews in Israel denies the past extermination of six million Jews in Europe. But let's be frank: Global polite society has been blazing its own merry trail toward this occasion for decades.
Iraq: It's Time To Take Sides By Ralph Peters
Submitted by Robber of Zork on Thu, 2006-12-14 21:30.New York Post
IRAQ: IT'S TIME TO TAKE SIDES
By RALPH PETERS
December 14, 2006 -- AMERICAN diplomats and politically correct gener als want to be honest bro kers in the Middle East, to achieve peace through forbearance and negotiated compromises. It may be the most-hopeless dream in the history of foreign affairs.
The deadly hatred goes too deep between Shia and Sunni (killing Jews is just for practice). You can't broker peace between fanatics.
East of Athens, you have to pick a side and stick to it, no matter how it behaves toward its enemies. Restraint is viewed as weakness; olive branches signal cowardice, and aid is seen as a bribe.
Majority Maker By Kimberley A. Strassel
Submitted by Robber of Zork on Sat, 2006-11-11 07:00.THE WEEKEND INTERVIEW
Majority Maker
Chuck Schumer: "If we are seen as just blocking the president, it will not serve us well in 2008."
BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Saturday, November 11, 2006 12:01 a.m.
WASHINGTON--Sen. Chuck Schumer, the architect of the Democrats' Senate win this week, has only just heard that Virginia has fallen and that his party is officially in control. He's in an irrepressible mood, and a chatty one--neither particularly out of character--and even gets to musing about family life and the benefits of having lots of children. "I wanted four. My wife wanted two. We compromised at two," he says, with a wry smile that suggests this famously stubborn New Yorker does know how to bend--when he's up against a tough enough foe.
Speaker Pelosi ~ Editorial
Submitted by Robber of Zork on Thu, 2006-11-09 22:20.The Wall Street Journal
Speaker Pelosi
November 9, 2006; Page A14
Tuesday's Democratic election victory was by any measure decisive, yet in the perspective of history also unsurprising. In the sixth year of a two-term Presidency, Americans rebuked Republicans on Capitol Hill who had forgotten their principles and a President who hasn't won the Iraq war he started. While a thumping defeat for the GOP, the vote was about competence, not ideological change.
Tuesday’s Ultimatum By William F. Buckley Jr.
Submitted by Robber of Zork on Wed, 2006-11-08 18:30.National Review Online
November 08, 2006, 2:00 p.m.
Tuesday’s Ultimatum
By William F. Buckley Jr.
Partisans (both Democrats and Republicans) grieve especially, on Election Day Plus One, for individual legislators defeated, men and women, however few, who inspired confidence for whatever reason. Tenacity and right-mindedness, in the case of Rick Santorum. Geniality of intellect and an aura of idealism-in-hand, in the case of Jim Talent.
But on the big picture, what should one say, other than that if it hadn’t happened, democratic governance would have been guilty of being asleep at the wheel?
Stern Review By Bjorn Lomborg
Submitted by Robber of Zork on Thu, 2006-11-02 07:04.The Wall Street Journal
Stern Review
By BJORN LOMBORG
November 2, 2006; Page A12
The report on climate change by Nicholas Stern and the U.K. government has sparked publicity and scary headlines around the world. Much attention has been devoted to Mr. Stern's core argument that the price of inaction would be extraordinary and the cost of action modest.
Unfortunately, this claim falls apart when one actually reads the 700-page tome. Despite using many good references, the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is selective and its conclusion flawed. Its fear-mongering arguments have been sensationalized, which is ultimately only likely to make the world worse off.
Two By Ralph Peters
Submitted by Robber of Zork on Thu, 2006-11-02 06:08.New York Post
IRAQ'S NEW SECRET POLICE
By RALPH PETERS
November 1, 2006 -- WE went to Iraq to overthrow a police state. Through a combination of stubbornness, naivete and noble intentions, we've replaced it with another police state - more violent, more corrupt and less accountable.
As an Army officer remarked to me, Saddam's starting to look good.
Our greatest setback in Iraq may be that country's undoing: It has proven impossible to develop an honest, nonpartisan police establishment anywhere in the country's Arab provinces. The police aren't feared by criminals, but by law-abiding citizens.
The secret police are back, in the form of death squads. And the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki looks perfectly happy with the situation.
Rushing for the Exit By Christopher Hitchens
Submitted by Robber of Zork on Thu, 2006-11-02 05:48.Rushing for the Exit
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, Oct. 30, 2006, at 6:14 PM ET
To say that "exit strategies" from Iraq have become the flavor of the month would be to exaggerate the situation to the point of absurdity. Exit strategies are not even the fall fashion. They are the regnant topic of conversation all across the political establishment and have been for some time. Even the Bush administration has some share in this discourse, having now abandoned the useless mantra of "staying the course" without quite defining what that "course" might be—or might have been. (A rule of thumb in politics is that any metaphor drawn from sporting activity is worse than useless, but at least one doesn't hear people saying that in Iraq we are "at the bottom of the ninth" or some such horse manure.)
