Dr. Jack Wheeler
ALLAH’S WAITING ROOM
In the Military Alphabet, AWR is Alpha Whiskey Romeo. In Iraq today, it’s a code term of American soldiers. Whenever they use “AWR” or “Alpha Whiskey Romeo” in their communications, everyone knows what it really stands for: Allah’s Waiting Room. That’s what our soldiers have turned Iraq into for the terrorists, and that’s why our soldiers know they are winning this war. That’s also why our soldiers have more contempt for MSM journalists and Democrat politicians than the Jihadi terrorists – for at least the terrorists are honest about being an enemy, instead of pretending they’re on your side while stabbing you in the back. As the evidence mounts that the Jihadis are losing in Iraq, the more desperate the Democrats’ and the media’s attempts to suppress and deny the evidence. So I thought I would provide you with some direct evidence of how things are really going in Mesopotamia. This is an unvarnished, personal SitRep – situation report – from a Marine who just spent seven months at “Camp Blue Diamond” near Ramadi, Iraq, deep in Apache country.
FALLUJAH IN FRANCE
When, seven months ago, I finished writing my book, The West's Last Chance, London had not been attacked by Islamist terrorists, the Tate Museum in London had not removed an art exhibit because it offended radical Moslem sensitivities, and France had not yet experienced the explosion of violence from elements of its Moslem population in its "no-go zone" communities. The fact that I predicted all those events in my book was not the result of clairvoyance. It was merely the result of a normally intelligent person looking at the facts, and their rather obvious implications, without the blinding effect of a politically correct mentality.
THE WAR FOR THE FREE WORLD
Not too long ago, the conventional wisdom was that Europe would emerge as a unified and mighty economic and political superpower. We were told it would engage in earnest, if friendly, competition with the United States, but that -- thanks to its substantially larger population and productive capacity -- the European Union (EU) would inevitably displace America on the world stage. It took less than a fortnight of rioting in France, and now in several other countries of what Donald Rumsfeld has called "Old Europe," to lay bare the preposterousness of this prospect. Even before Islamists took to the streets of Paris' suburbs, the EU was a house of cards waiting to be toppled or burned down. As usual, underlying conditions are clearer with hindsight. It is now unmistakable that Europe faces a "perfect storm" of socioeconomic, demographic, military and Islamist challenges.
ARE THE HEADHUNTERS RIGHT?
A multitude of events this past week provides convincing evidence that the world in general, including vast numbers of Americans, and the majority of voters in California, is going certifiably insane. That 53% of California voters made it illegal to require a pregnant teenage girl to tell her parents about her having an abortion is way beyond moral depravity. We’re into organisms perilously close to no longer being normally human. Then again, what sort of human bond can you feel towards rioting barbarians in France, savages who behead Christian girls in Indonesia, or suicide bombers in Iraq, Jordan, and Israel? I could multiply further examples of insanity – such as Harry Reid and his Democrats who hate George Bush more than Moslem terrorists – but instead let’s talk about a case that just appeared before the Supreme Court, Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, and the connection between religion and hallucinogenic drugs. Doesn’t that sound like more fun? So get set, for this is going to be a mind-blow.
A YOUNGER BODY
This is a companion piece to A Younger Brain from last March. That discussed how a nutrient called SAM-e (S-adenosyl-methionine) can actually youthen your brain. Now we’re going to talk about it can youthen your body. The older you get, the more creaks and aches and tightness and soreness you get, particularly in connective tissue like cartilage. Our bodies aren’t designed to last as long as we live today, and these tissues wear out. Unlike rheumatoid arthritis, which is an auto-immune disease, osteoarthritis is a mechanical wearing away of joints, cartilage, and connective tissue. I started taking the SAM-e regimen described in A Younger Brain for mental benefits. For some time, however, I was increasingly afflicted with sciatica and a variety of aching ailments. After about a month or so on the regimen, I noticed that the sciatica and ailments were gone. Gone as in completely vanished, gone as in I felt many years younger.
TO THE BIG HOUSE INSTEAD OF THE WHITE HOUSE?
That the Washington Post is traitorously on the side of the Jihadi terrorists and against America was further demonstrated on November 2nd when the paper ran the front page headline story, CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons. To disclose supremely classified information that the CIA operates a number of prisons for Jihadis in Eastern Europe is an unbelievable compromise of national security. The WaPo reporter who wrote the story, Dana Priest, should go to jail for treason, along with the WaPo editors who approved it. The CIA has requested a formal Justice Department inquiry into the source of the classified information to the press. The House Intelligence Committee has announced it will hold hearings to investigate the leak. This is infinitely more serious than the Plamegate farce. Note, however, that the Senate will not, as of yet, hold hearings. That’s because the leak to the WaPo has been traced to.....
DEMOCRAT LYING LIARS
The president went on television to announce: “Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.” “There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years,” the vice chairman of the Intelligence committee told the Senate. The president was Bill Clinton (Dec. 16th, 1998). The senator was Jay Rockefeller (Oct. 10th, 2002). These statements should be kept in mind when assessing the hissy fit Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid threw Tuesday when he called the Senate into secret session to discuss whether Bush administration officials had exaggerated prewar intelligence about Iraq.
DEMOCRATIC FASCISM
Lying to a Grand Jury is a very serious crime. We know this because when Bill Clinton lied under oath to a Grand Jury, he was sentenced to 30 years in a federal penitentiary. His fellow Democrats, putting patriotism before party, all agreed that perjury and obstruction of justice were inexcusable violations of law, and that no one, not even the President of the United States, was “above the law.” What’s that? Bill Clinton willfully perjured himself and impeded the special prosecutor’s investigation but got off scot-free? And the Democrats celebrated, rather than condemned, his evasion of justice? Oh…. I guess, like Bogart in Casablanca, I was misinformed. With the farce of a goody-two-shoes prosecutor named Patrick Fitzgerald spending $20 million to indict a ham sandwich named Scooter Libby for a crimeless crime, it’s time we all stopped misinforming ourselves about what form of government America has today. That form is one of Democratic Fascism.
THE CERTAINTY OF CORRUPTION
Transparency International recently released their Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2005. It may surprise some that China is seriously corrupt with a score of 3.2. It scored worse than Egypt, Laos and Syria. This brings to light a real dilemma. China is one of the most seriously corrupt countries in the world. To get our trade deficit under control we must quickly sell more American products to China. However, American exporters must deal each day with corrupt government agencies and practices. At the same time, American businessmen must contend with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This makes it against U.S. law to give any sort of bribe, kick back or “facilitation fee” to a government official of a foreign country to obtain business or gain some advantage. With the extent of corruption in China, it is impossible to avoid this reality to win contracts or to run China-based subsidiaries that sell U.S. made products. To make significant progress for American exports to China, it will be impossible to stay within U.S. law. Meanwhile, more American jobs are lost each day while our manufacturing industry is being hollowed out by the unfair and corrupt practices of one of our most important trading partners
IS PARIS BURNING?
Hitler’s infamous question is being asked anew by Moslem immigrants, characterized by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy as “thugs” and “scum,” now into their eighth day of violence in Parisian slum suburbs. French President Jacques Chirac promptly condemned Sarkozy rather than the Moslem rioters. Such talk by Sarkozy – Chirac’s main political rival – showed a “lack of respect” for the rioters, which “could lead to a dangerous situation.” Further confirmation that France is doomed.
MAKERS OF MANNERS
The Kabuki Dance now underway between Soon-To-Be Justice Alito and Senate Democrats makes me think of Shakespeare’s Henry V.
The Democrats (and pro-abortion Republicans like Arlen Specter) will be desperately trying to get Alito to forswear any overthrow of sacred SCOTUS “precedents” such as Roe v. Wade, while Alito will genuflect before the precedent shrine and mellifluously commit to nothing.
Both sides will assiduously avoid any discussion of how these precedents were established in the first place – by overthrowing previous ones – what justified their establishment, and what would justify replacing them with new ones today.
Instead, there will be monotonous droning on about the legal concept of stare decisis (Latin for “to stand by that which is decided”), and how it makes Roe v. Wade set in unquestionable stone.
But Alito knows his Shakespeare...Chapter Fourteen: HORROR AND HEAVEN IN ZAUTLA
Cortez finally broke the silence to turn and say to Padre Bartholomew de Olmedo behind him, “It seems that there remains nothing more to do but set up a cross.”
The Padre quietly objected. “Captain, I think it would be rash to do so this soon. These people know nothing of our religion, and will commit sacrilege against any cross we leave here, and we intend not to tarry here long. It would be best to wait until they have learned more of our holy faith.”
Cortez nodded. “I shall heed your wise advice, Padre. Let us retire, gentlemen.” He stood, together with the officers accompanying him, bowed to King Olintecle still sitting in a daze, and left for the quarters provided him. “It has been a long day – a long week,” he said to his officers. “It will be good to have a roof over our heads for the night.” They dispersed. Malinali stayed. Cortez’s eyes invited her to step inside his room.
* * * * *
For the very first time, Malinali was alone with Cortez. It was what she wasn’t feeling that surprised her. Instead of an emotional tumult of fear, anxiety, heart-thumping excitement, and all the rest she thought would overwhelm her when she dreamed of this moment, instead she felt as serene and calm as still water. They stood soundlessly looking at each other. Cortez, too, seemed filled with her serenity. Finally he spoke.44
I do not have the words to adequately express the extent to which I think “Plamegate” is unadulterated tripe. I will next week, but not yet, since I’m writing this before the indictments (most likely for some fascist “obstruction-of-justice” drivel) have been announced.
With the Miers debacle thankfully behind him – remember that the day after Bush announced her nomination you read in That Tears It that her nomination would be withdrawn – GW can now mount a DeLay-type offensive against any fascist indictments, rally the whole conservative movement behind him to cut spending, throw illegal aliens outta here (yes, I know, it’s about time, but he’s finally getting religion), go after the crazies who run Syria and Iran – and prepare the way for his successor.
This is now the opportunity for me to divulge a tightly-kept White House secret.IRAQIS AND AMERICANS ON ONE SIDE, TERRORISTS AND JOURNALISTS ON THE OTHER
Al Qaeda has claimed credit for a large, sophisticated attack Monday on the two hotels in Baghdad where most foreign journalists and many defense contractors stay. The attack failed, but it was a near run thing. The Palestine and Sheraton hotels are across a short street from each other, adjacent to Firdous Square, a traffic roundabout where the statue of Saddam Hussein was torn down on April 9th, 2003. The attack involved three suicide bombers and an unknown number of other fighters. The attack took place at dusk, over a span of four minutes. Several news organizations were tipped off in advance, and cameras were rolling. And we wonder which side the media is on?
TURNING FOGGY BOTTOM ORANGE
The release of UN investigator David Mehlis’ report last week on the assassination last February of Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri has all the Middle East FSOs (foreign service officers) at the State Department in a tizzy. The report gives Condi Rice a golden opportunity to overcome the entrenched left-wing bureaucracy at Foggy Bottom.
Finally. The Mehlis report was issued last Friday, October 21. The original version named Assef Shawkat as the organizer of Hariri’s killing. You learned that name two days after the assassination, instead of eight months. Hariri was hit on February 14. Two days later, in Can Porter Turn Syria Orange? published in To The Point on February 16, you read:
The hit was conducted by a Lebanese unit of Syria’s Shu'bat al-Mukhabarat al-'Askariyya, Military Intelligence Service, on the orders of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat.
FEAR OF FLU
One more calamity to freak out about now, it seems, is an impending “pandemic” of the Asian Bird Flu virus known as H5N1. Every day we read about five billion more chickens or turkeys or geese in China or Romania or some other country being infected and killed.
A batch of folks in Vietnam have died of it, and the scare stories mount about how any day now, the virus will mutate, enabling not just bird-to-human infection but human-to-human. Then, the stories claim, the pandemic is on.
There are some protective measures you might consider to shield yourself from a H5N1 pandemic should it occur. I don’t want to be dispensing medical advice, so I’ll just say that this is what I am doing myself.
JAMES BOND IN AZERBAIJAN
Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic on the western shores of the Caspian Sea, are scheduled for this coming November 6.
They have all the trappings of a James Bond movie. In fact, the Bond film, “The World is not Enough,” which centered on the struggle to control Caspian Sea oil, was shot in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, in 1999.
But now it is life's turn to imitate art. Today's intrigue in Azerbaijan includes power struggles, a clash between geopolitical giants – America, Russia and Iran – an ethnic conflict with neighboring Armenia, and almost one million refugees. Add corruption, lots of oil and gas, and serve hot. What a perfect recipe for a first-rate thriller.
A BAD WEEK FOR JIHADIS
Moslem terrorists – Jihadis – really took it in the shorts last week. We’ll begin with Iraq. Iraqi voters, including Sunnis, voting in huge numbers to pass a constitution was a major disaster for the terrorists. Lots of Sunnis voted no – but lots of Sunnis voted yes, which means Zarqawi no longer has any chance of igniting a Sunni-Shia civil war. Too many Sunnis have turned against him and towards democracy... ...Now let’s go to the main attraction – the single worst disaster Jihadism has possibly ever suffered.
EARTH TO MAUREEN
Due to time constraints, C-Span ended the broadcast of my speech last week, Why Liberals Are Incapable of Defending America , in the middle of my reply to a question about why most journalists are so liberal. I was about to use the New York Times liberal columnist Maureen Dowd as an example when C-Span switched to another event. This is because in February 2000 during the presidential campaign, I wrote a letter to the New York Times commenting on a column of Miss Dowd which was such a perfect instance of why liberals, and liberal journalists like her, really don’t care about individual people. So to complete the answer you couldn’t see on C-Span, here’s the letter:
SHEIKHS OF DEATH
Here’s a story that should be on the front page of the New York Times but isn’t, since it’s actual news of global importance instead of phony scandals like “Plamegate” or attempts to criminalize conservatives such as Tom DeLay. A group of prominent Arab intellectuals has sent a letter, co-signed by over 4,000 Moslem authors, scholars, poets, and journalists worldwide to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan requesting the establishment of an International Criminal Court for the prosecution of Islamic terrorists and the Moslem leaders who incite them. The letter calls such leaders "Sheikhs of Death." Funny how you haven’t heard about this in the liberal “mainstream” media, huh?
BLASPHEMOUS CARTOONS
In addition to Lafif Lakhdar in Tunis (see Sheikhs of Death ), there are folks in Denmark who also refuse to be intimidated by Moslem fanatics. The Copenhagen newspaper Jyllands-Posten, for example, which recently ran a story about a Danish author writing a book about Mohammed. In response to the author’s complaint in the story that nobody dared to illustrate the book – for fear of angering Moslems as it’s supposedly sacrilegious to depict their prophet – 12 illustrators sent in cartoons which the newspaper promptly published.
SUICIDE IN AND OF SYRIA
On the morning of Oct. 12th, Syria's Interior minister, Maj. Gen. Ghazi Kanaan, was found dead in his office from a gunshot wound to the head. Kanaan's death was ruled a suicide, but there were doubters. "For those of you who don't know what 'committed suicide' means in Syria, it means someone committed it for him," said Anton Efendi, an American PhD candidate who lives in Lebanon. Kanaan's "suicide" may lead to the suicide of Syria as an intact country.
Chapter Thirteen: THE BROMAS
Chapter Thirteen: The Bromas
Upon reaching Villa Rica there was a welcome surprise: a ship had arrived from Cuba with a detachment of seventy soldiers, nine horses, and a goodly supply of arms, commanded by Cortez’s friend, Francisco “Pulido” de Saucedo. His nickname of Pulido – Dandy – came from his handsomeness and immaculate appearance. “I and my men have come to place ourselves at your command and seek our fortune with you!” he grandly declared to Cortez. All rejoiced at the reinforcements, but when Dandy sat down with Cortez in private, the news was not so good. “Governor Diego Velasquez’s procuradore – representative – in Spain, Friar Benito Martin, has persuaded the Court in Seville to grant him a license for exploring this territory, with the profits going to him,” was the message. “Only one-tenth of any gold found goes to the Crown, not the Royal Fifth. You, of course, and those loyal to you, will get nothing.” “My old enemy once again,” mused Cortez. He called in Alonzo Puertocarrero and his closest officers, had Dandy repeat the news, then said, “Gentlemen, the only solution is to petition the King directly. Here is what I suggest we do…”
WHY LIBERALS ARE INCAPABLE OF DEFENDING AMERICA
[This is the text of a speech I gave yesterday, October 13, at the Accuracy in Media luncheon in Washington DC. It was taped by C-Span and will be nationally broadcast at various times over the C-Span network � check www.c-span.org for schedules. Video/DVD copies of the speech may be ordered via the C-Span website. I began the speech by holding up an actual shrunken head.] I’d like to show you a concrete example of why liberals cannot defend their country. This is a human shrunken head. It was made by the man who gave it to me, Chief Tangamashi, who adopted me into his clan of Shuara Jivaros in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador when I was 16 years old. The Jivaros call such a shrunken head a tsantsa. When an enemy is killed in battle, his head is taken via a machete and skinned. The head skin is sewn up and hot sand stuffed in the cavity, drawing out all the moisture and oils until it is dried and shrunken. Now, what would lead the Jivaros to engage in such a practice as shrinking human heads? Because they believe that all death is murder. All death that is accidental or unexplained is for them murder by envious black magic, which must be avenged. The Jivaros, like most primitive and traditional cultures, live in constant fear of the magical aggression of others. They attribute all unfortunate events to the malicious, envious black magic of another Jivaro. Sounds like the Democrats blaming everything on George Bush, right?
Chapter Twelve: ANGRY GODS
Chapter Twelve: Angry Gods The Spaniards now devoted themselves to building Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. On a plain half a league from Quiahuitztlan (qwee-ah-weets-tlan), a fort was erected with high wooden walls and watchtowers, followed by a church, market place, arsenals, barracks, and officers’ quarters. Cortez himself was the first to work, digging trenches and hauling foundation stones. Cajoling his officers to join him, they all set to work, as did all the soldiers at whatever task they could do ? making bricks, nails, and lumber, working the lime kilns ? while over a thousand Totonacs labored with them. Within less than three weeks it was habitable enough for the colony to be formally founded (1). A few days after "Villa Rica" had been established, a delegation of Mesheeka nobles arrived, led by a military commander named Motelchiuh (mo-tell’-chee-you), and including two of Montezuma’s nephews. Motelchiuh grandly presented Cortez with the gilded helmet requested by Tendile at the sand encampment of San Juan de Ulua. It was now filled with gold dust ? as Cortez had requested.
THE WRATH OF ALLAH
This is Rakaposhi, a 25,000-foot Karakorum giant that towers above the hidden kingdom of Hunza in far northern Pakistan. It is one of the world’s great sights to wake up in the morning and watch the sunrise light up Rakaposhi from the balcony of your room in Karimabad, Hunza’s capital.Far northern Pakistan is far and away one of the most spectacularly scenic regions of our planet. Today unfortunately, it has become one of the most tragic. Tens of thousands of people lie dead and millions are homeless with their villages and lives turned to rubble by an enormous earthquake.Having spent quite a bit of time exploring the region over the years, it is heart-breaking for me to think of what has befallen all of the friendly folks I met there. The region, however, had become infested with numbers of decidedly unfriendly folks as well. There are many hidden valleys that were used as Al Qaeda refuges and training camps for Jihadi guerrillas launching attacks into Indian Kashmir.
THE MOSQUE OF NOTRE DAME DE PARIS
The great cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris has been called "the noblest architectural conception of man." Its construction was begun in 1163 by Maurice de Sully (c.1110-1196), the Bishop of Paris, and completed 87 years later in 1250.The small island in the River Seine has been a sacred site for millennia. It was a sacred grove for the Celts who held their most holy rituals there, then for the Romans who built a Temple of Jupiter. Upon the ruins of this temple, Childebert (496-558), son of Clovis who founded the French Merovingian dynasty, built a basilica to St. Etienne in 528. Since that time, the site has been sacred to Christians.Elena Chudinova thinks it won’t be for very much longer. One of Russia’s most popular writers, her latest novel, The Mosque of Notre Dame de Paris is currently a runaway best seller in Russia. So current that it has not yet been translated into English. Let’s hope it soon will be.
WHY WAR WITH IRAN IS INEVITABLE
One of Marx’s more intriguing concepts was that of a "correlation of forces." If you have a sufficient number of factors coming together in the right way at the right time, it’s very hard to avoid a particular outcome. However much George Bush would like to avoid a war with Iran on top of the current war in Iraq, he’ll soon have no other choice.His hope is that somehow a Democratic Revolution will be sparked or spontaneously emerge to sweep away the fascist ayatollahs. The hope is in vain, for it is soon to be OBE: overtaken by events.War is coming between America and Iran because the mullahs in Tehran see war as their only hope of keeping their power. They see war as the only way to prevent the coming democratic revolution that will sweep them away. They have convinced themselves that – get ready – that it is a war they can win, that Iran can militarily defeat the United States of America.
HOWARD AND HARRIET
OK, now that I’ve gotten the outrageousness of the Miers nomination off my chest, let me tell you a story about a wonderful guy named Howard Papush. In 1980, Howard had one of the all-time coolest jobs in Hollywood. As the “talent coordinator” for the Tonight Show, Howard was a primary gatekeeper deciding who got to be a guest and sit in that chair talking to Johnny Carson on national television. Let me tell you how Howard reminds me of Harriet Miers.
Chapter Eleven: THE SPANISH ULYSSES
Shortly after Bernal resumed his post as look-out over the sandy dunes of the camp, he spotted five native men walking on the beach. With smiles and bows they approached, and their gestures made it clear they wanted to be taken into the camp. Bernal sent a messenger to bring Doñ¡ arina and Aguilar to the tent of Captain Cortez, while Bernal took the five men to the Captain himself. Bernal had never seen such men. While they cut their hair and wore their loincloths differently than the Mesheeka, it was their lip plugs that distinguished them. They all had a large hole in their lower lips, filled with heavy stone disks of turquoise or covered with thin sheets of gold ? so heavy that they pulled the lip down over the chin exposing the teeth and lower gums. Their ears lobes were also pierced with large holes also filled with turquoise or gold-covered stone disks ? but it was the hideous lip plugs that repelled Bernal. "Lope Luzio, Lope Luzio!" they cried out as they bowed deeply to Cortez while rubbing dirt on their foreheads as a sign of supplication and respect.
THAT TEARS IT
Harriet Miers tears it for me with George Bush. It’s the last straw. John Roberts was no straw at all. Clearly a conservative constitutionalist, overwhelmingly brilliant and qualified, he was an inspired choice. Objections to him by certain conservatives were paranoid. But we are going from the sublime to the ridiculous with Miss Miers. This ludicrous nomination is the bottom of Bush’s barrel. It is as ludicrous for Bush to claim that she is more qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice than J. Harvie Wilkinson, Janice Rogers Brown, or any of a score of distinguished conservative candidates, as it is unbelievable for him to claim that he “knows her heart” but has never discussed abortion with her. Yet there is good to come of it: in the form of a conservative Congressional rebellion. The good that is coming out of Bush’s inept Katrina performance is an end to profligate spending, and deep (hopefully real deep) cuts in both discretionary and mandated programs.In his press conference today (the 4th), Bush predicted Miers will do well in her Senate hearings. She may never get to them. The outcry from Republicans on Capitol Hill may get so loud so quick that Bush may be forced to withdraw her nomination. That will provide the chance to rebuild the Bush Presidency.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH W?
“Jack, what's wrong with W? It seems he has a serious deficit of energy and strength. Maybe it's just me, but he doesn't seem right, and hasn't for some months. I’m worried.”This inquiry by TTPer Paul Rosenberg is typical of many I’ve been receiving. It’s obvious to Paul and lots of others that the Bush Presidency is running out of steam. The deficit in question is not, however, physical - as anyone who tries to keep up with W on a mountain bike at the Crawford Ranch can attest - it’s mental.Which means neurochemical.
BURIDAN’S ASS IN GERMANY
Jean Buridan (1300-1358) was a 14th century medieval French philosopher famous for his paradox known as Buridan’s Ass. If a perfectly rational ass or donkey were placed exactly equidistant between two bales of hay exactly the same, there would be no reason to choose one over the other - and given no reason to choose, the ass would be unable to do so and starve to death.Buridan meant for his thought experiment to demonstrate the irrational barrenness of pure reason and the superiority of emotion to rationality. How medieval.Yet it is just the position of Buridan’s Ass that the German electorate has placed itself in, exactly equidistant between the free market solutions required for their economic survival and the government subsidies to which they have become addicted.
AFGHAN POPPIES UPDATE
Two years ago, in Afghan Poppies: What The Bush White House Should Really Be Afraid Of, I told you about CIA collusion and incompetence regarding opium production in Afghanistan. That was in 2003. Since then, Afghanistan’s poppy crop has exploded. According to Robert Charles, in his capacity as chief counternarcotics official at the State Department, the poppy crop went from 152,000 acres in 2003 to 515,000 acres in 2004 - producing $7 billion in opium and heroin money. This money is financing Al Qaeda, Abu Musab al Zarqawi in Iraq, and international Moslem terrorism - yet the CIA is too impossibly incompetent to stop it, and the Pentagon simply refuses to.
Chapter Ten: VERA CRUZ
Malinali and Bernal returned to the camp to find all the Spaniards assembled in front of Cortez’s tent, talking loudly and arguing amongst themselves. In response to Malinali’s questioning glance, Bernal smiled. “Ah, the Captain’s trap is being sprung.”Taking her aside, he explained. “Remember that I told you my cousin, Don Diego Velasquez, was governor of Cuba? The truth is that he is a greedy fat man who has many friends and many enemies - and our soldiers here are made up of both. Those who are friends of Velasquez want to return to their haciendas in Cuba. They think that Velasquez will share most of the gold Montezuma has given us with them. The enemies of Velasquez want to stay and found a colony with lands and haciendas of their own. They will get nothing from Velasquez if they return to Cuba.”“And which side is Captain Cortez on?” Malinali wanted to know.Bernal laughed long and hard. “Ah, Doña Marina, the stories of Cortez and Don Diego are already legendary in Cuba! I must tell them to you someday, then you will laugh as well. No, Cortez made such a fool of Don Diego that he has no thought of returning to Cuba. That is why a few days ago he asked for my help, which I was happy to give.
SOLAR WARMING
It was to be expected that in response to NASA releasing satellite photos this week showing that the ice caps on Mars have been retreating several feet per year for some time now, former vice-president Al Gore claimed this was “the inevitable result of George Bush’s disastrous environmental policies and his unconscionable failure to sign the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty.” At a joint press conference held with Mr. Gore, Democrat Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) denounced the warming of Mars as “demonstrating once again George Bush’s racism - Mr. Bush cares as little for the well-being of Martians as he does about African-Americans.” Democrats and enviro-loonies on space patrol aside, serious people here on earth know the NASA announcement dealt a major blow to the theory of Man-Made Global Warming (MMGW). Here’s another: 
Join the forum discussion on this postINFANTILIZOMANIA
Yes, I invented this term. You won’t find it in Webster’s, the OED, or Google. At least not now. Hopefully soon you will, as it becomes the accepted term for the neurosis with which all those on the Left are afflicted. Just as a pyromaniac is driven by a compulsion to set fires, a kleptomaniac by a compulsion to steal, and - everyone’s favorite example - a nymphomaniac by a compulsion to have sex, an infantilizomaniac is driven by a compulsion to treat adult human beings as children. The compulsion to infantilize people is the neurotic compulsion of liberals. Liberals of course do not call it infantilizomania. They call it compassion.
Chapter Nine: MALINALI’S PRAYER
Chapter Nine: Malinali’s Prayer When Malinali finished her story, Cortez spoke to her directly. She had learned enough Spanish to mostly understand him. “Doña Marina, you know now that I am a man, and not this Mesheeka god, yes?” She nodded. “Yet the Mesheeka king does not think I am a man just like him - he believes instead that I could actually be one of his gods?” She nodded again. Cortez crossed himself. He looked at Aguilar. “These Mesheeka are stranger and more evil than I thought possible, Jeronimo. Their religion is the worship of Satan himself, the gods they worship are devils - except for one god, this Quetzacoatl, who preaches good not evil. And it is him they are afraid of, it is him they have somehow confused with me. What is it they are afraid of?” Aguilar shrugged. Cortez’s dark eyes shifted to Malinali.
TONY AND TOYNBEE
Tony Blankley, the erudite editorial editor of The Washington Times, certainly knows his Toynbee. I can attest to this, with all 12 volumes of Arnold Toynbee’s masterwork, A Study of History, residing on my bookshelf. Toynbee studied the rise and fall of entire civilizations rather than individual countries or ethnic groups. His model for the success and failure of civilizations was challenge-and-response. Those that rose to a challenge flourished, while those that didn’t failed. Tony, however - who is both my neighbor and friend of long standing - focuses on one of the most fascinating yet little understood insights of Toynbee’s model: that without challenges, a successful civilization will stagnate and culturally implode. In other words, Western Civilization will die unless there is a challenge to it. Islam, the whole civilization or culture of Islam with Jihadism as its most extreme manifestation, has become that challenge. “In the strangest possible irony,” writes Tony in his new book, Jihadism is giving the West a “chance to regain its faith in itself.”
BENEDICT SHOULDN’T SURPRISE YOU
This week, the Catholic World News leaked word of an “Instruction” to be issued by the Vatican next month banning the admission of homosexuals to Catholic seminaries. This will come as no surprise to you, as you learned in To The Point last April this was coming in The De-Homosexualization of the Catholic Church . Approved by Pope Benedict XVI three weeks ago, the Instruction argues that: “homosexual men should not be admitted to seminaries even if they are celibate, because their condition suggests a serious personality disorder which detracts from their ability to serve” the Church.