HYPOCRISY IS WINNING
To its enemies, the most endearing quality of the Bush administration must be the frequency with which the Bushies act as if they've done something wrong, even when they haven't. President Bush caused himself no end of grief when he apologized for saying in his 2003 state of the union address "the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa," even though every word of it was true. That blunder may have been topped by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at his news conference last Wednesday. The "senior Justice Department official" who told reporters Mr. Gonzales' performance was "disastrous" was being kind.
Only President Bush, with his apparently boundless enthusiasm for mediocrities (Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job), imagined that Mr. Gonzales was a good choice to be attorney general, and he has lived down to the expectations most held for him.
THE TRUTH ABOUT WALTER REED
In response to the media frenzy, initiated by the Washington Post, regarding the treatment of our soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, I wish to give my perspective. Please understand that I am speaking for myself and I am responsible for my thoughts alone. The news media and politicians are making it sound like Walter Reed is a terrible place and the staff here has been abusing our brave wounded soldiers. They are lying. I am completing my 24th year of service in the Army next month. I am currently the senior clinical chaplain at Walter Reed and have been so for the last four years. I will leave to go back to the infantry this summer. Here is the truth of what has happened.
YOUR PRAYERS MAY HAVE WORKED
I can't adequately express how appreciative I am for all the prayers by TTP members for me and my family in response to What's Dhimmitude in Russian? There were even a number of offers to bodyguard my family or provide us with safe houses! It was so very touching I don't have the words. A number of the messages brought tears to my eyes. Thank you all so much. I also must tell you how much your prayers for Paul Joyal have meant to his family. Paul's wife Liz sends you her deepest thanks. As of today (Thursday 3/15), Paul is still in intensive care. He has begun to talk, but only physically, not lucidly - he can make sounds but not any sense. To be in this state after two weeks shows how horrible the attack on him was by the Kremlin-hired gunmen. And now, two weeks later, I know why the Bush White House has been quiet about it.
WHINING REPLACES IMPERIALISM
In the last week, two news items caught my attention. News item No. 1: Dateline Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - The Louvre Museum is selling the use of its name for a museum in Abu Dhabi for $520 million, and will rent out some of its art exhibits and provide technical museum management services for another $747 million. News item No. 2: Dateline Dubai, United Arab Emirates - The Halliburton Corp. is moving its worldwide corporate headquarters to Dubai. It will keep most of its staff in Houston, will maintain its legal incorporation in the United States, will remain listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but will list its shares on a Middle East exchange also. Twenty years ago, even 10 years ago, these items would have given rise to Third World screeching about Western cultural and economic imperialism. But today it is French and American whining that greets these moves.
THE MOONBAT ALBATROSS
These are good times for moonbats, hard times for wingnuts. This bodes ill for Democratic prospects in 2008. "Moonbat" is a term popularized by the Web logger Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) to describe people on the extreme left. "Wingnut" is a term coined by liberals to describe those on the extreme right. Most of us learn by the third grade the difference between addition and subtraction. But both moonbats and wingnuts think a majority can be built by driving away everyone who doesn't agree with them totally on everything. Little better illustrates the rising influence of moonbats than the on again, off again efforts by Democratic leaders in Congress to hamstring the war effort in Iraq by imposing crippling conditions on the defense appropriations bill.
LEOPARDS AND EAGLES
A news item today, New species of leopard discovered in Borneo, brought up a lot of thoughts and memories. Like the times I've spent in Borneo, especially of climbing Mount Kinabalu. The animal discovered is a new species of Cloudy Leopard, the rarest big game cat in the world. So before any thoughts or memories came to mind, I looked up from my desk to the mantel above my office fireplace. On it is a mounted cloudy leopard, perched on a branch, fangs bared, ready to pounce. I shot it in South Viet Nam in 1961. I was 17 years old. I mentioned hunting tigers back then in Tigers and Treason (Sept. 2004) - but it was less about tigers than John Kerry's betrayal of his fellow soldiers and of the wonderful people with whom I hunted, the Montagnard tribesmen of South Viet Nam. So I skipped any mention of leopards. It was more important to talk about the Democrat presidential candidate's treason towards America and her friends. I'll tell you about the leopard - but first let me tell you about another act of treason and what you can do about it.
COULTER AND THE BRECK BOY
Ann Coulter's famously calling Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards a "faggot" at the CPAC conference here in Washington earlier this month has scandalized a great many conservatives and every single Republican candidate. It was brilliant. That's a description, not approval. I winced when I heard the forbidden word, not because it's forbidden but because it's so hurtful. It's purposefully demeaning to homosexuals, especially to those who really can't help what they are. Yet Ann's use of the term was diabolically clever, for with it she accomplished her goal: demolishing Edwards' candidacy. With this one single word, she made sure John Edwards will never be elected President of the United States. She knew exactly what she was doing.
PRO-AMERICA LATIN AMERICA
As our president arrived in Brazil last week, our media made it sound as if Latin America had erupted in flames. TV news featured flying tear-gas canisters; a typical newspaper headline read, "Angry Crowds Rally Against President in Brazil." Message: Bush is hated. He's ruined our relations with the hemisphere. Nobody loves us anymore - and it's all his fault. If you bothered to read the reports below the headlines, you learned that 6,000 Brazilians had gathered in Sao Paulo to protest Bush's arrival in their country. Wait a minute - wasn't that 600,000? Or at least 60,000? Nope. Just 6,000 outraged citizens. In one of the world's largest cities, with a population close to 20 million. But no way were you going to see a headline that admits, "Anti-Bush Demonstrations Fizzle, Numbers Just Aren't There."
THE WHORES OF JAMA
Last week (2/28), JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, published a hit piece on antioxidant vitamins. JAMA's Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E concluded that taking supplements of them increases one's chances of death by 5%. The lamestream media gleefully ran stories on the study, with headlines like "Vitamins Can Kill You." It's the whores of JAMA and their media shills who can kill you, not vitamins. Note the "Meta" in the study's title. That means it's an analysis of other studies, not research itself. What these folks did is, out of the close to a thousand clinical antioxidant studies, they cherry picked 68 that showed what JAMA wanted. And they had to lie about many of those in order to force the data to fit their pre-ordained conclusion.
WHO CARES IF MOSLEMS KILL MOSLEMS?
Imagine the reaction if Western agents slaughtered a hundred Sunni pilgrims on their way to Mecca. The outrage would spark incendiary rhetoric, riots and revenge killings from Peshawar to Paris. But when Sunni suicide bombers murdered 118 Shia pilgrims (and wounded almost 200 more) on Tuesday (3/6), Sunnis around the globe looked away: Shias only count as Moslems when America can be blamed for their suffering. Human-rights groups were too busy applauding European requests for the extradition of CIA operatives (the real enemies of Western civilization, of course). Since this butchery wasn't the fault of Americans or Brits, the Europeans themselves took no interest. American leftists, who raved that Abu Ghraib was another Auschwitz, didn't offer a single word of pity for the Moslem victims of Moslems. All to be expected. But shouldn't Moslems have denounced the attacks on the pilgrims? How do you say "fugedaboutit" in Arabic?