Congressman Criticizes Election of Muslim - New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 — In a letter sent to hundreds of voters this month, Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of Virginia, warned that the recent election of the first Muslim to Congress posed a serious threat to the nation’s traditional values.
Virgil Goode's comments are a vivid reminder that southern Republicans are the party of bigotry — and that the Old Dominion remains the vanguard of the Confederacy.
Australia's unofficial national anthem, and another take.
Max Boot and Geoffrey Wheatcroft on American Foreign Policy - New York Times
Max Boot and Geoffrey Wheatcroft vie with each other in the New York Times to see who can describe the situation in Iraq in bleaker terms. Wheatcroft's assessment is that we have only two options:
For McCain to advocate another 20,000 troops is a cop-out. He should be saying, "America can win in Iraq, but only if we have the stomach for the fight. We will need to commit an army of at least half a million for five, ten, maybe 20 years, and be prepared for casualties on the scale Europe has known in the past century. In turn that means bringing back the draft (with no exemptions or deferments whatever for anyone with 'other priorities'), and it means raising Federal income tax to World War II levels. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and for what will indeed be a Long War."But those who take the Odom line should also be candid and admit what cutting and running implies: the whole of the larger Middle East, from Turkey to the Gulf, Israel to Iran, will be abandoned to its fate. Back to fully-fledged isolationism, America First, and the narrowest interpretation of the national interest.
Although both of those would be intellectually honest, I have to admit that, looking at America, again from afar, neither seems at present what we call practical politics, or a likely campaign platform. But then what else is there?
If Wheatcroft is right, then facing up to the consequences of this country's, and this President's, actions is going to be very difficult indeed.
White House, Joint Chiefs At Odds on Adding Troops - washingtonpost.com
Apparently, the Joint Chiefs agree with Colin Powell that a surge of 20, 000 to 30,000 additional American troops in Iraq would create more problems than it would solve. But is the Administration listening?
Talk in Class Turns to God, Setting Off Public Debate on Rights - New York Times
Learning about religion got a little too personal in the otherwise obscure town of Kearny, New Jersey, where a history teacher has attracted national scrutiny for preaching the Word to his captive teenage audience. However, Preacher Dave did not reckon on the fact that one his students owned a video cam and put it to good use taping the teacher on eight separate occasions. The Preacher Teacher explained, among other historical truths, that evolution is a myth, Noah's ark a historical fact, and anyone who does not accept Jesus as Lord and Savior is bound for hell, including a number of students in the class but most particularly the Muslim girl. The one thing more shocking than this gross violation of the First Amendment was the number of people in a 21st century American town who believed that preaching the Gospel in a state-funded, non-religious, public school was perfectly appropriate. Clearly, these people have been blessed with "history" teachers like Preacher Dave. Praise be, it looks as though he will be teaching at Kearny's high school for a long time to come.
Powell Says U.S. Losing in Iraq, Calls for Drawdown by Mid-2007 - washingtonpost.com
Colin Powell offers a grim, some would say realistic, assessment of the situation in Iraq, one which apparently largely agrees with the Iraq study group. His most chilling comment, in my view, is his statement that the active military is "broken."
Although he said he agrees with Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, that there should be an increase in U.S. advisers to the Iraqi military, he said that "sooner or later, you have to begin the baton pass, passing it off to the Iraqis for their security and to begin the drawdown of U.S. forces. I think that's got to happen sometime before the middle of next year."
Before any decision to increase troops, he said, "I'd want to have a clear understanding of what it is they're going for, how long they're going for. And let's be clear about something else. . . . There really are no additional troops. All we would be doing is keeping some of the troops who were there, there longer and escalating or accelerating the arrival of other troops."
He added: "That's how you surge. And that surge cannot be sustained."
The "active Army is about broken," Powell said. Even beyond Iraq, the Army and Marines have to "grow in size, in my military judgment," he said, adding that Congress must provide significant additional funding to sustain them.
Bob Woodward, in State of Denial, asks Senator Carl Levin how he feels about Colin Powell's current "anguish" over his support of the Iraq War at its inception. Levin responded that he did not care about Powell's anguish now, because he cannot forgive Powell for not stopping the war when he alone perhaps had the power to do so.
WETA May Fill Classical Music Gap Left by WGMS - washingtonpost.com
Public broadcaster WETA (90.9 FM) is considering dumping its news-and-talk programming and returning to being a classical broadcaster if the music dies on WGMS, WETA's management said yesterday.
WETA's return to classical programming would present a real opportunity to classical listeners; hopefully it would entail longer pieces, more vocal music, and the return of the opera.
Coda for the Classics: Public Radio's Failed Mission - Raw Fisher
Commentary from Marc Fisher and the public on the imminent demise of Classical radio in Washington, D.C. Fisher also excoriates WETA public radio for abandoning Classical music in order to ape the news and talk format of its public radio twin, WAMU.
Lawyers, Guns and Money: I'm actually being quite charitable here
A reflection on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and how the recently deceased Augusto Pinochet systematically violated them. Unfortunately, in too many ways, the Declaration seems to remain largely an aspiration in most countries.
Update: A short history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Interestingly, in addition to the United States, Chile, Iraq, and Iran were among the signatories.
eatbees blog Jimmy Carter vs. Israel Eatbees has a generally favorable take on Jimmy Carter's new book on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Andrew Sullivan, commenting on Jeffrey Goldberg's review in the Washington Post, has a less favorable view. Goldberg seems to feel that Carter is excessively biased in favor of the Palestinians, but he does not address the continuing loss of life and property on the Palestinian side of the Wall, only the deaths of Israelis by Palestinian suicide bombers. My only conclusion is that I am looking forward to reading the book.
Redskins Owner Set to Buy Last Classical Station - washingtonpost.com
Washington Redkins owner Dan Snyder is primed to wipe out Classical music radio in Washington, D.C. so that he can increase the number of radio stations broadcasting his team's games. The Washington Post reports:
Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has reached a preliminary agreement to buy classical music station WGMS-FM in a deal that would expand his budding sports-talk radio empire and likely be the swan song for the area's only classical outlet.
Snyder and the owner of WGMS, Bonneville International Corp., have established a price for the sale but had not formalized the deal as of yesterday, people close to the negotiations said. They said, however, that an agreement could be wrapped up within days.
I have a personal stake, since a member of my family works part time for the station. More importantly, however, it seems that Snyder is sacrificing what remains an important cultural and educational resource in order to glut the insatiable appetite of the city's football empire: it is like smashing a Stradivarius to make room for a plasma TV.
Wendell Dryden has a great poetry site. Here is a sample:
In the ache of morning
the dull pain of coffee and knowing
he watches gravestones emerge
dark against the far hillside
silent and irregular
like bear come out
to kneel
in new snow.
How often have I felt the dull pain of coffee in the morning, but lacked the words to describe it!
Conservative Rabbis Allow Ordained Gays, Same-Sex Unions - washingtonpost.com
NEW YORK, Dec. 6 -- A panel of rabbis gave permission Wednesday for same-sex commitment ceremonies and ordination of gays within Conservative Judaism, a wrenching change for a movement that occupies the middle ground between orthodoxy and liberalism in Judaism.
Now, Conservative Jews have recognized same sex marriage and gay ordination. It almost seems as though the only people who don't these days are Nigerian bishops, Virginia churches, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Jose Padilla has been reduced to a shell of man by the government's pretrial isolation and interrogation tactics. HIs defense lawyers now claim that he is no longer fit to stand trial.
Episcopal Churches To Vote on Departure - washingtonpost.com
Two Washington-area conservative Episcopal congregations are threatening to bolt the Episcopal Church because it treats women and gays as full equals before God. If the Churches do so, they will be submitting themselves to the authority of a lunatic Nigerian bishop who supports jail time for homosexual activity.
However, they know there are questions about a suburban Washington congregation technically under the leadership of Akinola, who has supported a new Nigerian law that penalizes gay activity, whether private or "a public show of same sex amorous relationship," with jail time.
Contrast, for example, the position of Bishop Tutu; the Nobel Peace Prize winner and hero of South African independence is in favor of expansive rights for gays in the Church.
In addition, there is likely to be a bitter court battle as the Episcopal Church seeks to enforce its rights to the property of the two Churches.
History will not be kind.
Homemade Memorial Is Stirring Passions on Iraq - New York Times
A field of white crosses with a sign stating that they were in memory of the Iraq war dead has stirred an ugly controversy in Lafayette, California.
At issue is a hillside memorial, made up of some 450 small white crosses and a 5-by-16-foot sign that reads: “In Memory of 2,867 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq.” The memorial was created by Jeff Heaton, a building contractor and antiwar activist, who said it was meant “to get people involved on a local level” and talking about Iraq.
People are talking, and they are saying that Heaton has to take down his sign. Heaton is defending the sign as integral to his Constitutionally protected freedom of speech. The town, meanwhile, is not amused by a monument to war guilt.
Episcopal Diocese Votes to Secede From Church - New York Times
The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, California, has voted to secede from the Episcopal Church of the United States. For San Joaquin, which does not even ordain women, the consecration of a gay Bishop was apparently the last straw. All I can conclude is that the Episcopal Church will be a more Godly, loving, and tolerant community without them, as they pursue their lives blinded by their own hate and bigotry.
Another interesting commentary on Michael Richards' racist routine.
Over my Thanksgiving holiday, I had a particle physicist attempt to explain string theory, the anthropic landscape, and the mathematical probability of God to me. I confess to something less than a complete understanding of a partial explanation, but this is what I gleaned: (1) The rate of expansion of our universe is slow enough so that it is not a universe that is likely to have occurred by chance, (2) it is possible that there is an unknown principle of physics that determines that our universe is the only universe that could exist mathematically, or (3) it is possible that our universe is one of an infinite number of parallel but unobservable universes, and that we only know about our universe because it gave rise to us, or (4) some kind of creator (not necessarily divine and not necessarily still in existence) created the particular quantum "vacuum state" that resulted in our universe when it expanded, and the rest is history. Remarkably, hypothesis (4) is apparently more probable to many scientists than hypothesis (3), although the expansion of the initial "vacuum state" that created our universe would most likely have obliterated any "creator" that existed in any kind of conventional physical form.
blackprof.com: Why Kramer’s (Michael Richards) Letterman Apology Was Important
Law Professor Spencer Overton accepts Michael Richards' apology as sincere, and thinks it has some lessons for the rest of us. Overton points to Harvard's Project Implicit, which attempts to detect racial and other hidden biases based on unconscious reactions to visual stimuli. A number of sample tests are included with the project, which collects some personal data but promises confidentiality.
On a personal note, while I was not overly surprised by the results of the one test I took, I am confirmed in my belief that I must consciously strive every day to treat people fairly, equally, and as individuals.