Today Gleen goes screedy on America’s loss of international standing, according to data compiled by Pew, during the Bush administration. If one argues — as I frequently do, including as a central argument in A Tragic Legacy — that America’s hard-earned moral credibility in the world has collapsed as a result of the Bush presidency, one can hear similar objections from each side — namely, that while America is despised
July 5, 2007
One step forward, two steps back, redux
Via LGF and Italy’s Corriere della Sera comes notice that one of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s cabinet ministers is a Truther: Italy’s leading newspaper Corriere della Sera discloses today on its website that Christine Boutin, a French politician who is a member of Sarkozy’s cabinet, said during the electoral campaign that Bush might have been responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks. Her exact words on the journalist’s question is:
"Abundant Oil"
From Vincent Carroll, Rocky Mountain News: More bad news for “peak oil†enthusiasts  those wishful thinkers and doomsday peddlers who say the world is running out of oil. BP’s annual “Statistical Review of World Energy†shows “proved oil reserves continue to exceed 1.2 trillion barrels, equivalent to current production levels for more than 40 years.†If that’s not long enough for you, consider this: “Global proved oil and natural
The Color Purple
George Will, on the diversity tinkerers: Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas joined Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion for the court, in which Roberts said: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Anthony Kennedy, although agreeing that Seattle’s and Louisville’s practices are unconstitutional, chastised Roberts for an “all-too-unyielding” opposition to race-based programs. Yet when dissenting in the
Rhetorical questions that nevertheless beg for answers, #749
“How ‘extremist’ can it be to act upon beliefs that are ‘the norm’?”
Live Earth / Dead Authors and other infidels
From John Miller at NRO’s The Corner: The artist formerly known as Cat Stevens  and now known as Yusuf Islam  will perform at one of Al Gore’s Live Earth concerts. Click here for more info, including links to a video in which Mr. Peace Train expresses his desire for Salman Rushdie to burn at the stake, plus his connections to Hamas. This kind of thing strikes me as
Policing "hate speech": or, "yes, but it's a good censorship…"
I wrote a week or so back about the Edwards campaign’s attempts to turn pointed criticism into “hate speech,” a designation that carries with it the stigma of criminality thanks to the (unfortunate) existence of actual hate speech laws, which are increasingly poised to grease the slipperly slope toward a linguistic “tolerance” based upon the illiberal premise that particular identity groups have a “right” not to be offended — a
The Media Non-Blitz: a reporter explains why the mainstream press gives scant coverage to certain stories (UPDATED)
So, why hasn’t Michael Yon’s report on the al Qaeda massacre of women and children in Baqubah been picked up by the legacy media? Well, if you can believe one reporter, the answer (that the mainstream press, too, has an agenda to push and protect, and certain stories, if given too much play, will weaken the master narrative) will come as little surprise to most readers here — just as
Pajamujadin Chat: Meet Virgins! [Dan Collins]
Hot, or Not? The three are the first defendants in Britain to be convicted of inciting terrorist murder on the internet. They waged cyber-jihad on websites run from their bedrooms. Tsouli promoted the ideology of Osama bin Laden via email and radical websites. He said in one message he was “very happy” about the July 7 bombings in London in 2005. Tsouli, along with Tariq Daour, a biochemistry student, and
Best Headline–Evah! [Dan Collins]
HERO CABBIE: I KICKED BURNING TERRORIST SO HARD IN BALLS THAT I TORE A TENDON “He didn’t even flinch. I couldn’t believe he didn’t go down.” I think the lesson here is that before you smeat a jihadi flambe in the melting brass cojones, stretch. UPDATE: Dammit, some guy calling himself Instapundit said pretty much the same thing about the headline, yesterday.
