Saturday, Nov. 19

1. Sharansky's Message: Natan Sharansky, former refusenik and Soviet prisoner, current Israeli cabinget minister, is one of the great men of our time. We have frequently written about him on this site, most recently in "Facing down the pacifists." In that post we quoted Tom Rose's interview of Sharansky ("The view from the Gulag") from the issue of the Weekly Standard that commemorated Ronald Reagan on the occasion of his death last summer.
   The interview in its own way provided special testimony in support of the proposition that Reagan should be known as the Great Liberator, a point made by our friend Steve Hayward in another article in that issue of the Standard. In his interview with Sharansky, Rose asked: "Were there any particular Reagan moments that you can recall being sources of strength or encouragement to you and your colleagues?" Sharansky answered:
   I have to laugh. People who take freedom for granted, Ronald Reagan for granted, always ask such questions. Of course! It was the great brilliant moment when we learned that Ronald Reagan had proclaimed the Soviet Union an Evil Empire before the entire world. There was a long list of all the Western leaders who had lined up to condemn the evil Reagan for daring to call the great Soviet Union an evil empire right next to the front-page story about this dangerous, terrible man who wanted to take the world back to the dark days of the Cold War. This was the moment. It was the brightest, most glorious day. Finally a spade had been called a spade. Finally, Orwell's Newspeak was dead. President Reagan had from that moment made it impossible for anyone in the West to continue closing their eyes to the real nature of the Soviet Union.
   It was one of the most important, freedom-affirming declarations, and we all instantly knew it. For us, that was the moment that really marked the end for them, and the beginning for us. The lie had been exposed and could never, ever be untold now. This was the end of Lenin's "Great October Bolshevik Revolution" and the beginning of a new revolution, a freedom revolution--Reagan's Revolution. When Sharansky was released from the Gulag in a prisoner exchange engineered by the Reagan administration in 1986, Sharansky himself had the opportunity to tell Reagan the story:
   The first time I met President Reagan I told him this story. I felt free to tell him everything. I told him of the brilliant day when we learned about his Evil Empire speech from an article in Pravda or Izvestia that found its way into the prison. When I said that our whole block burst out into a kind of loud celebration and that the world was about to change, well, then the president, this great tall man, just lit up like a schoolboy. His face lit up and beamed. He jumped out of his seat like a shot and started waving his arms wildly and calling for everyone to come in to hear "this man's" story. It was really only then that I started to appreciate that it wasn't just in the Soviet Union that President Reagan must have suffered terrible abuse for this great speech, but that he must have been hurt at home too. It seemed as though our moment of joy was the moment of his own vindication. That the great punishment he had endured for this speech was worth it. Today NRO has posted a column by Joel Rosenberg that is the perfect companion to Rose's interview with Sharansky: "Two great dissidents." Among other things, Rosenberg's article tells the story of Sharansky's meeting last week in the Oval Office with President Bush. What President Bush told Sharansky was off-the-record, but here's Sharansky's account of what he told President Bush:
   "I told the president, 'There is a great difference between politicians and dissidents. Politicians are focused on polls and the press. They are constantly making compromises. But dissidents focus on ideas. They have a message burning inside of them. They would stand up for their convictions no matter what the consequences.'
   "I told the president, 'In spite of all the polls warning you that talking about spreading democracy in the Middle East might be a losing issue — despite all the critics and the resistance you faced — you kept talking about the importance of free societies and free elections. You kept explaining that democracy is for everybody. You kept saying that only democracy will truly pave the way to peace and security. You, Mr. President, are a dissident among the leaders of the free world.'" (powerlineblog)(nro)
2. Iranian boy killed for breaking Ramadan fast: Reader Janet Nilson pointed out this appalling story, complete with a photo, about a fourteen year old Iranian boy who was sentenced by a clerical court to receive 85 lashes for breaking his fast during Ramadan. (I assume this means eating between sunrise and sundown.) The sentence was carried out, and the boy died. The only hopeful note in the article is that townspeople where the boy lived were so outraged that they stormed the cemetery when he was scheduled to be buried, and the burial had to be deferred and carried out under guard.
   Keep this story in mind next time you hear a liberal referring to the "Taliban wing" of the Republican party, or arguing that Christian "fundamentalists" in America are comparable to Islamic "fundamentalists" in the Middle East, or suggesting that the Bush administration is trying to establish a "theocracy." (powerlineblog)
3. Racist Europe: Though many American liberals continue to regard Europe as a model of sophistication and humanism, and thus a great potential check on rampant U.S. "cowboyism," Europe actually is a bit of a fever swamp. There's nothing new about this -- think of pre-World War II Europe. The re-emergence of European anti-semitism, though under-reported, is no secret either. In truth, though, Europe was essentially racist even during the golden age of the former Western Europe. And I'm talking about anti-black racism, not just anti-Semitism. In fact, the appointment of Condi Rice to replace Colin Powell made me recall a remark that a friend of mine who lived in Europe made more than 30 years ago. He said that it would be decades before the U.S. could appoint a black Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense because the Europeans wouldn't take one seriously. Come to think of it, where is England's Rice or France's Powell?
   Anyone who follows European soccer knows about European racism. By the mid-1960s viciously racist crowd behavior was basically a thing of the past in the U.S sporting scene. But it was just getting started in Europe. Black players were routinely abused by English fans for at least two more decades. Unfortunately, Everton fans were considered among the worst, although at least they could be won over by good play. In the famous 1966 World Cup match between North Korea and a Portuguese team full of African players, the Everton crowd cheered the players off the field.
   Overt racism finally has mostly been vanquished from the English game. However, blacks on the English national team often are the targets of terrible abuse when England plays on the continent. Yesterday, England played in Spain, a nation that surely is in the upper echelon of Euro-taste and sophistication. The blacks who played for England -- Ashley Cole, Shaun Wright-Phillips, and sub Jermaine Jenas -- faced a torrent of abuse throughout the match from the Madrid crowd, including chants of "monkey" and imitation monkey noises The same thing happened the day before when the England under 21 team played in Spain. One victim, Carlton Cole, complained that even little kids were joining in. Previously, the Spanish coach had made a racial slur about Thierry Henry, the French super-star who plays in England. And speaking of France, fans of the club St. Etienne physcially attacked opponent Bastia's black players after a match this weekend. Accounts of these disgraceful events can be found here, here, here, and here. (powerlineblog)
4. Richard Clarke's fabricated testimony attacking Condi Rice: Clarke's testimony is actually very interesting. The thrust of the questioning is about why the Clinton administration didn't do a more effective job of pursuing al Qaeda during the 1990s. Clarke says that they tried, but were frustrated by institutional weaknesses whose roots went back at least to the 1970s. The biggest problem, Clarke argues, is that over a period of decades, the CIA was beaten up on so repeatedly by Congress over failed operations that the agency became too risk averse ever to act.
   What happened here is pretty obvious. Clarke testified reasonably candidly in June 2002. But a year later, he had broken with the Bush administration over Iraq, and, like a number of other former bureaucrats, he turned his policy disagreement with the President into a personal attack. Clarke fabricated the story that he had delivered some kind of warning or secret plan to Condoleezza Rice, which she ostensibly failed to understand or to act upon. Clarke's tale briefly caused problems for the administration, until Clarke's credibility collapsed when it was revealed that his story was contradicted by his own contemporaneous words, as, for example, in a briefing that he gave to reporters in August 2002. (powerlineblog)
5. Democrats don't hold the public in contempt because they are now the minority party; rather they are now the minority party because they hold the public in contempt: George Will notes how disdain for the judgment of average Americans has become a dominant theme in "progresive" thinking, to the point that some Democrats "relish interpreting the party's defeat as validation." Will connects this phenomenon to the culture of victimhood under which liberals implement their pet projects (or power grab) by positing an infantile American public. (powerlineblog)
6. Cult of Palestinianism: FrontPage has posted two must-reads. Steven Plaut deduces the mythical nature of "Palestinianism" from the relevant history and infers the underlying agenda of destruction from it: "Incitement to genocide, act II." Plaut's is a powerfully argued case that demands attention.
   Bat Ye'or is the world's foremost historian of "dhimmitude" -- the status of non-Muslim peoples under Islam. Her forthcoming book Eurabia applies the theme to contemporary developments in Europe. Today she previews the theme in the context of Arafat's death: "Arafat's legacy for Europe." Her thesis is that Europe has submitted to "the cult of Palestinianism":
   Palestinianism condenses jihadist values. It promotes the destruction of Israel, the denial of Hebrew biblical history and hence Christianity. It preaches Islamic replacement theology and the Arabization and Islamization of the Holy Land’s biblical archeology. Arafat, its leader, was the bin Laden of a seduced Europe, which applauded his policy of spectacular terrorism. It is Arafat who initiated in 1968 air piracy against Jews, hostage ransoming, suicide bombings, random killings of civilians and the destruction of urban areas as in Lebanon. In short, the current global terror campaign was successfully introduced first by Arafat against Jews and Israelis, as well as Lebanese Christians.
   More than Hitler before him, Arafat became the most popular hero in Europe, cradle of Palestinianism, concocted by the second International Conference in Support of the Arab Peoples (Cairo, 25-26 January 1969), as an international strategic war against Israel, and conducted through today. The Conference’s Sponsoring Committee of 54 members comprised 46 influential European intellectuals and politicians. Palestinianism as an ideology bringing together Europe and the Arab countries on the ashes of Israel was conceived and planned in Europe with unofficial Gaullist benediction, and Arafat was its embodiment. (powerlineblog)
7. A Marine writes home: This is one story of many that people normally don't hear, and one that everyone does.
   This is one most don't hear:A young Marine and his cover man cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with Ak-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor(doctor)!" He is badly wounded, lying in a pool of his own blood. The Marine and his cover man slowly walk toward the injured man, scanning to make sure no enemies come from behind. In a split second, the pressure in the room greatly exceeds that of the outside, and the concussion seems to be felt before the blast is heard. Marines outside rush to the room, and look in horror as the dust gradually settles. The result is a room filled with the barely recognizable remains of the deceased, caused by an insurgent setting off several pounds of explosives.
   The Marines' remains are gathered by teary eyed comrades, brothers in arms, and shipped home in a box. The families can only mourn over a casket and a picture of their loved one, a life cut short by someone who hid behind a white flag.
   But no one hears these stories, except those who have lived to carry remains of a friend, and the families who loved the dead. No one hears this, so no one cares. (powerlineblog)
8. True nature of Islam: Jana says: "Monir you dont know anything about Iraq or Islam or the Koran ...."Dear Jana, I was born in the Middle East and went to Islamic school and at one time I memorized parts of the Koran. I am from a neighboring country to Iraq.The Koran says Sureh 4, Verse 35: Men have authority over women (not just the wife but sisters, daughters, maids, etc.). If they disobey, "first admonish them, then refuse to sleep with them, and then beat them". You can read it for yourself at http://www.light-of-life.com/eng/reveal/ or other sites. Also try http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/index.html to see the 2nd class citizenship of women in Islam (for example they are counted as half of one witness, or receive inheritence half of a man).Now Jana you are wrong that this is a matter of interpretation. When the Koran says women receive half the inheritence of a man, then this is not an issue of interpretation. It says Sureh 4:11 - "A male shall inherit twice as much as a female". Now how can you interpret mathematics in multiple ways?You say that I am "not allowed" (by whom may I ask?) - that I am not allowed to say that the Koran has recommended to beat women or to disinherit women because of their gender. And why cant I say this? What stops me and other open minded people to say that the Koran contains nonsense of this sort? If it offends you that I say this, well then take a cold shower, and if you are a moslem (by the sound of it) then change your religion instead of being so embarrased about it, as I am just repeating what is in there complete with verse numbers and am exercizing my right to free speech, and I can say all I wish about Islam, including facts about the Koran - and this is exactly why the Marines are in Fallujah beating the hell out of these Islamofascists - because they want to stop me from saying the facts, and no Jana, you cannot stop me as those Marines are protecting me, the Iraqis, and ultimately America, and neither can you stop the good Marines who are risking their lives, to bring out the truth about this decrepit religion. You should be ashamed of yourself to undermine our men and women in danger at in the battlezone who are fighting tyranny, while people like you suck up to it. (kevin sites)(powerlineblog)
9. Amnesty International flyer: Whatever happened to the left? When did it give up on the cause of freedom? I don't know. But the American left's abandonment of the cause of liberty is one of the saddest facts of modern history.
   How far have we come from the days when liberals instinctively rallied to the cause of freedom? President Bush's policies have freed 50 million people. His grand aim is to liberate the Arab world, not only because freedom is desirable for its own sake--which it is, of course--but because he believes, we think correctly, that only by bringing liberty to that part of the world can we reverse the cancerous growth of terrorism.
   Today, the liberals' response to the spread of freedom is one of sour disapproval. They attribute the liberation of 50 million to a weird "neocon" conspiracy. They call President Bush a "liar" when he speaks of his desire to help Arabs and Muslims realize their God-given right to be free. (powerlineblog)
10. To the Next Secretary of State: Anonymous internal advice (diplomadic.blogspot)
11. Racist editorial cartoons attack Condi Rice (democracy-project)
12. Beautiful young lass… check. High-powered firearm… check. Pissing off the loony liberal left.. check. This one has it all. (jayreding.com)
13. The Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk: takes the world to task for their reporting on Iraq:
    “It is not all death and destruction,” explained Archbishop Louis Sako in an interview Tuesday published by AsiaNews.
    “Much is positive in Iraq today,” he said. “Universities are operating, schools are open, people go out onto the streets normally.” He did acknowledge that “where there’s a kidnapping or a homicide the news gets out immediately, and this causes fear among the people.”
    Yet, “there is no organized resistance” in Iraq, the prelate insisted. “Those who commit such violence are resisting against Iraqis who want to build their country.
    “Iraqis instead are resisting against terrorism and are not carrying out attacks, which instead are the work of foreign infiltrators. I have stressed this before: Saudis, Jordanians, Syrians and Sudanese have entered Iraq. Prime Minister Allawi has said this as well. And clearly, there are also Iraqi collaborators who, for money, help the terrorist hide.” (jayreding)
14. Democrat Tantrum Watch: Democrats’ slogan in 2006 would be, “Vote for us you drooling morons!” The good news for many Republicans (and bad news for the fans of a healthy two-party system) is that so far, many Democrats like that slogan (kerryspot)
15. The Real HumanistsRevolution from Afghanistan to Iraq. After the seven-week defeat of the Taliban, these deer-in-the-headlights critics paused, and then declared the victory hollow. They said the country had descended into rule by warlords, and called the very idea of scheduled voting a laughable notion. We endured them for almost two years. Yet after the recent and mostly smooth elections, Afghanistan has slowly disappeared from the maelstrom of domestic politics, as all those who felt our efforts were not merely impossible but absurd retreated to the shadows to gnash their teeth that Kabul is not yet Carmel. Western feminists, homosexual-rights advocates, and liberal reformists have never in any definitive way expressed appreciation for the Afghan revolution now ongoing in the lives of 26 million formerly captive people. They never will. Instead, Westerners simply now assume that there was never any controversy, but rather a general consensus that Afghanistan is a "good thing" — as if the Taliban went into voluntarily exile due to occasional censure from The New York Review of Books. (victor davis hanson)
16. Come Clean, Kofi The U.N. secretary-general ducks responsibilty for the Oil for Food scam. (opinionjournal)
17. Your Tax Dollars at Work The U.N. discovers the cause of anti-Semitism: Jews. (opinonjournal)
18. Some Democrats Believe the Party Should Get Religion (nyt)
19. Saddam Hussein diverted money from the U.N. oil-for-food program to pay millions of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers who carried out attacks on Israel (ap news, orthodoxnet)
20. In the south of Fallujah yesterday, US Marines found the armless, legless body of a blonde woman, her throat slashed and her entrails cut out. (times.co.uk)
21. Kerry Urges Democrats To Fight Values 'Assault':E-Mail to Supporters Renews Battle Against Bush (wapo)
22. Bush wins majority of Ohio provisional ballots 56% - 43.5% (polipundit)

Other

• NJ high school bans "Messiah" (dawn eden, nypost)
• Myth of the working poor: To stay out of poverty in America, it's necessary to do three simple things, social scientists have found: finish high school, don't have kids until you marry, and wait until you are at least 20 to marry. (steven malanga, cityjournal)
• Moderate muslim: The progressive Egyptian intellectual Dr. Amr Isma'il whose articles are regularly published on the secular Arab website www.rezgar.com, wrote an article condemning the Arabs' lack of self-criticism and the Islamists' abuse of the term "democracy." The following are excerpts from the article, which appeared on the progressive Arabic website www.elaph.com: [1]
  "Why are we the only nations in the world that still use religion, Islam, and the name of Allah in everything – in politics, economics, science, art, and literature. We kill in the name of Allah, blow up cars in the name of Allah, and slit throats in the name of Allah and Islam, and then we protest when others depict the Muslims as terrorists. (memri)
• New Kinsey movie (john leo)
• Kinsey revisited (daniel flynn)
• Iraqi Holocaust (iraqshoahfiles.blogspot)
• Thought for the day: Holy Spirit (antimedia.blogspot)