AL-REUTERS: HEZBOLLAH PROPAGANDIST
Reuters announced Sunday (August 6) it was suspending its relationship with Adnan Hajj, a freelance photographer in Lebanon who had worked for the British news service since 1993, because he doctored a photograph on the aftermath of an Israeli air strike in south Beirut. Mr. Hajj cloned the image of a plume of smoke rising from a bombed building, which made it appear the damage was more widespread than in fact it was. The doctoring was discovered by Web logger Charles Johnson (Little Green Footballs), the man who proved the memo then CBS anchor Dan Rather was relying on for his expose of President Bush's National Guard service had been typed on Microsoft Word, which did not exist at the time of the date on the memo.
2006 FOR THE DEMS: 1972 OR 1974?
My dish of crow went down easier after I read the hilarious editorial in the New York Times Wednesday celebrating zillionaire businessman Ned Lamont's victory over Sen. Joseph Lieberman in Connecticut's Democratic primary. (I'd predicted a Lieberman win in a July 16 column.) "The rebellion against Sen. Lieberman was actually an uprising by that rare phenomenon, irate moderates," the Times declared. Flanking Mr. Lamont when he gave his victory speech were those famous moderates, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Just the faces, I'm sure, Democrats in swing districts want representing their party in the fall.
DOWNSIZING THE ILLEGAL ALIEN POPULATION
Perhaps the most difficult problem of immigration policy is how to cope with the 11-20 million illegal aliens already within this country. This number includes not just unattached working age males, but also millions of spouses, children and aged relatives. Some of them have been here illegally for decades, either on false documentation or simply in the shadows beyond the reach of the law. Deporting illegals apprehended within the country is difficult. The courts have held that apprehended aliens have due process rights, and legal aid organizations are ready to provide assistance. Since apprehended illegals not wanted for a crime (other than illegal entry) cannot in practice be detained until the legal process plays out, they are commonly released on their own recognizance, quickly to disappear from view. What the debate so far lacks is a proposal that will expeditiously reduce the illegal alien population at modest expense to American taxpayers. For instance, why not require illegals who want to remain as guest workers to pay for other illegals to depart? Think in terms of the Civil War practice of draftees paying for a substitute.
ADIOS, MIRIAM!
For the past year, there has been a pest on the To The Point User Forums named Miriam Brownlee. She enjoys driving To The Point members around the bend with her Buchananite anti-Bush anti-Israel conspiracy theories. I have tolerated her until last week when she lost it and called TTP contributor Jack Kelly a Nazi for revealing the staged Hezbollah photos of the phony Qana "massacre." I am happy to report that Miriam's annual subscription expires this Saturday, August 12 and will not be renewed. Due to the complete inappropriateness of her comments last week, she will not be allowed to post to the User Forum this week. So Miriam will have to find some other site to pester. TTP Members can now enjoy the User Forums without having to be subjected to her any longer. Adios, Miriam!
BEACONS OF SOVEREIGNTY
In 1974, I took a year off from my doctoral studies and teaching philosophy at the University of Southern California at the suggestion of the Chairman of the USC School of Philosophy, John Hospers. John had been the 1972 Presidential Candidate of the Libertarian Party and was involved in the New Country Project. Financed by wealthy libertarians such as Mike Oliver from Nevada, this was an effort to locate some viable piece of real estate in the world that could be transformed into an actual sovereign nation founded on libertarian principles of minimal government. Such a country was to have total free trade with no customs or tariffs on any imported goods; no corporate, income, or sales taxes; and a government restricted to a police force, a small professional military, and courts. Government expenses were to be paid from contract fees - for the courts to recognize any sort of contractual relationship, the parties would pay a fee for the contract to be legally binding. John Hospers and Mike Oliver sent me out into the world to locate where such a new country could be established. I spent a year going to some very weird places.
ABOLISH THE FED?
Miami. The skyline appears to have more cranes than buildings, as if the city were just one vast construction site, and that has been the good news. The bad news here in Miami, as well as most major U.S. cities, is that the real estate boom of the last few years is coming to an end. The villain in this drama is the U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed), which fueled the boom and now is destroying it. The Fed, by its own admission, has been failing to keep inflation within its own targets. Yet, the Fed's main responsibility is to provide the U.S. with a sound currency; one that neither loses value (inflation), nor gains value (deflation). The Fed has a long history of reacting too late, then overreacting, to the inflation or deflation it causes. One reason the Fed keeps failing is its overreliance on lagging indicators of inflation, such as the well-known consumer price index (CPI).
WORLD OPINION IS OVERRATED
Hezbollah and its sponsors, Iran and Syria, are relying upon our soft hearts and softer heads to destroy us. Many think Israel suffered a major defeat last Sunday (July 30) when the Israeli air force bombed a building in the village of Qana, near the Lebanese port city of Tyre. Initial reports were that 57 people -- most of them women and children -- had been killed. The Red Crescent (the Muslim version of the Red Cross) has been able to confirm only 28 deaths. The bombing's aftermath featured some of the most dramatic pictures of the war. Several featured a man wearing an orange reflective vest and a green helmet, carrying a dead child from the rubble to an ambulance. Dr. Richard North, a British Web logger, noticed something odd about the photos. Some of the workers are wearing different gear in different photos, yet they were clearly carrying the same corpse.
CASTRO’S CUBA IS NO MORE
On Monday, July 31, less than two weeks before his 80th birthday, Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished power to his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro, the official successor as head of state, the armed forces, and the Communist Party. Whether or not Fidel, who seized power on January 1, 1959 and has not relinquished it for a single day until now, recovers from this particular infirmity - officially described as an "intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding" - it is clear that his rule is at an end. Less clear is what will happen to his regime.
THE RESILIENCE OF MAN
This is the medieval walled city of Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian Coast of the Adriatic Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean across from Italy. The English playwright George Bernard Shaw declared on a visit here in 1929, "If you want to see heaven on earth, come to Dubrovnik." Over a million visitors a year from all over the world agree with Shaw, marveling at its huge fortress walls, swimming in the sparkling clear Adriatic, choosing which hidden restaurant in a myriad of tiny alleys to enjoy marvelous food and wine, and partying all night at the Troubador Jazz Café owned by my friend Marko Breskovic. Only the smallest fraction of them pay any attention to this sign affixed to the stones at the city's entrance:
THE THIRTIES ALL OVER AGAIN?
Certainly there is lots of bad news, most of which confirms what we already knew: The Western world hates Israel; the taboo on anti-Semitism is off; the Western world has been P.C.'ed to the edge of death; there is no stomach for fighting the war against Islamic fascism. Sounds like the thirties to me. The history of 20th-century America is largely about a country that never prepared for war, and was always compelled - by our enemies - to conduct enormous crusades. The history of America in war, like that of most others, is largely about making enormous blunders at the beginning, and then sorting it out. Our great strength is not so much avoiding error, but the ability to recover quickly, change tactics and even strategy, and get it done. The scary thing about our current jam is that 9/11 was supposed to have been the wakeup call, but we are again asleep. For this I blame our leaders - both the administration and the Dems. Their greatest failure is their refusal to see the war plain, which means Iran and Syria.