Cred and Circuses

Never say "never again" again.

Mark Steyns recent column in the Telegraph started me along a certain line of thought. The good meaty bits first...

A neighbour of mine refuses to let her boy play with "militaristic" toys. So when a friend gave the l'il tyke a plastic sword and shield, mom mulled it over and then took away the former and allowed him to keep the latter. And for a while, on my drive down to town, I'd pass Junior in the yard playing with his shield, mastering the art of cowering more effectively against unseen blows.

That's how the "peace" crowd thinks the West should fight terrorism: eschew the sword, but keep the shield if you absolutely have to.

That truly is the thought process of capitulation. By denying yourself the sword you deny yourself any true defense. The shield is a false security blanket. All it can do is lessen the effect of single attacks, but if you have no means of stopping the attacks, the best shield in the world will eventually weaken and break. Even worse, by accepting the shield you are accepting the fact that you WILL be attacked. Otherwise there would be no need for the shield at all. France has been cowering behind a shield for far too long, and maybe it we should accept some of the blame for that. America has been the shield for Europe for too long. Our presence in Europe has allowed some countries to ignore their own defense and spend their budgets on "socialist welfare" systems, which are beginning to show that they aren't working.

The EU is supposedly starting to marshell their own supra-national fighting force, but no one knows what reason they need one for. Supporters argue that a EU force could have been used in Serbia and Bosnia. Critics say that EU countries were represented in the Nato and UN involvements in those countries, and point out how badly that turned out.

"Never again" as Steyn opines is becoming "Neville again". And let us all hope that Spain finds it's inner Churchill to counter it's current Chamberlain tendencies.

Your Daily James

I have been reading James Lileks each day for the past year or so. In all that time, I have never been sorry to have spent my time reading the Bleat (his daily post). Insightful, intelligent, eccentric at times and completely addicting. Go there and read it whenever you can.

Here is an excerpt from todays bleat...

That’s the part of the economy we never see or hear or read too much about. There are guys right now who are on serious antacid medication because they’re in charge of the launch for a new ballpoint pen, and Target has been ambivalent about carrying the high-margin single-pen blister pack, but they are leaning towards the four-pen pack, which is good, but it doesn’t establish the brand as a premium brand, because there’s that whole quantity / discount correlation; I mean, we were trying to make this the Haagen-Daaz of pens, and now it’s going to be sold like a popsicle?

Oddly enough there are probably untold numbers of Americans who this could be, and Lileks latches on where most other writers just slip past and forget about the regular Joe. Lileks is the average Joe (err James) and I am just glad that he has the writing bug.

As others have said... Go read it all.

Potty Mouth

Virgin Airways has always had a interesting approach to travel and travellers. Now they have caused a small stir with their new New York (JFK) airport VIP lounge.

“Kisses - the sexy urinal, makes a daily event a blushing experience! This is one target men will never miss!,” said the Bathroom Mania team via e-mail from the Netherlands.

“The Bathroom Mania designs create a fantasy-world in the bathroom by working on impressions and stories.” They also make the Good Morning Sunshine flower potty, a toilet in the shape of a flower pot with images of flowery freshness, and the Splish Splash bathtub shaped like a hammock.

(picture available at the link above)

While the urinal situation is interesting by itself, I think the important bit of info in the article is at the end.

"With the exchange rate so attractive to Europeans we are jam-packed with Londoners flying over here for bargains,” said John Riordan.

The weakness of the US Dollar compared to the Euro or the UK Pound doesn't seem like a bad thing when you consider that it makes US goods more exportable and attracts more foreign tourists to come inject a little foreign money into our economy.

Iberian Notes

John, an American ex-pat in Barcalona, has been blogging about the various happenings in Spain for several years now. Here is a recent quote pulled from his blog...

Note, by the way, that the fervor of "Tell us the truth" and "We want all the information" and "The Government's covering up" and "Aznar lied" is all gone today. There are no "spontaneous" demonstrations in the streets and no hysterical leftist politicians on TV screaming denunciations of the Government. They seem content for the investigation to continue normally now. That's because the election is over and the demonstrators and politicians got what they wanted: a PP defeat. That's the last you'll hear about their concern for the victims and their demands for justice.

It is sad but most likely true. Last weeks bombing in Madrid was most definately aimed at producing a change in the political theatre of Spain. Unfortunately, in this situation, the terrorist did succeed. Many journalists and pundits are predicting that there will be similar bombings throught the world in the near future as various nations go to the polls. It is my hope that no one else decides that bloody terrorism is not the deciding issue that weakens the news of the free world.

Whispers of a Revolution

Very interesting article about Russia and the threat of revanchism. From the Chronicle of Higher Education.

At dinner Vladimir Pavlovich tells a story about a man in a small village who had an ugly daughter he couldn't marry off. One day a matchmaker came to persuade the man that this homely girl without looks or dowry should marry the grand Prince Pototsky. The father was stupefied. But after long negotiation with the matchmaker, he finally consented to the union. Delighted, the matchmaker clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Now the deal is half done." So much of what is happening in Russia today, Vladimir Pavlovich comments, is like that -- "If only Prince Pototsky will agree." Behind the mask of normal conversation, he observes, is a residue of a bitter witticism that made the rounds in the 1930s: A man looks in the mirror while shaving and thinks, "One of us is a traitor."

Read the whole thing.

Kerry is a Vet? Part Deux

Even more evidence appears that Kerry served in Vietnam. It is a good thing he isn't trying to make this election about a 30 year old war.

From a Humane Society questionnaire...

Do you have any pets that have made an impact on you personally?

When I was serving on a swiftboat in Vietnam, my crewmates and I had a dog we called VC. We all took care of him, and he stayed with us and loved riding on the swiftboat deck. I think he provided all of us with a link to home and a few moments of peace and tranquility during a dangerous time. One day as our swiftboat was heading up a river, a mine exploded hard under our boat. After picking ourselves up, we discovered VC was MIA. Several minutes of frantic search followed after which we thought we'd lost him. We were relieved when another boat called asking if we were missing a dog. It turns out VC was catapulted from the deck of our boat and landed confused, but unhurt, on the deck of another boat in our patrol.

Even a pet society survey provides a means of allowing Kerry to boast about his military service.

(via OpinionJournal Best of the web)

Just like the Good Old Days

Kent State was just like having the Univeristy of Maryland beat Duke at basketball.

"I've never been to a riot before, and I wanted to get in on the action," said Oba Opesanmi, a freshman wearing only gym shorts and socks who had just posed triumphantly in front of the line of stern-faced police officers. "We killed Duke." "My parents went through this kind of thing with protests of Vietnam," said Jason Zarro, a sophomore computer science major. "Even though this is not of the same magnitude."

Now if they can only defeat the NVA in the final four.

Let me tell you how I "feel"

Is this the final destination after 200 years of evolving political theory?

The coincidence of the politics of feeling and an apolitical populism is one of the distinctive features of contemporary protest. By focusing on an individual politician's personality, it personalises politics. But even more importantly, protest has become a strikingly personal matter. It is about the protester as an individual, and says more about how he feels about himself than what he thinks of the issue at stake. That is why it is difficult to define today's acts of protest as constituting a political movement. On the contrary: they are the product of a profound mood of political disengagement that afflicts most Western societies.

To tell the truth, I don't think this is the end-game of our political development. Unfortunately it is becoming obvious that todays protests aren't actually defined by a political movement, but by a desire for some Utopian wonderland where moral equivalance is in the preamble to the Declaration of Inter-dependence.

"We don't need no Education"

This article about how (why) schools (parents) are failing America's children is quite surprising. I always expected some of it was from parental indifference (or lack of strong support for the educational system), but if this article is even half accurate, then I can see why California isn't exactly leading the way compared to other states in the nation.

The New Blog Regime

Since I have been neglecting the blog far to much lately, mostly due to not being able to write long entries at work and a lack of motivation at home, I have hatched a new plan that will hopefully get me more interested.

I will start making short entries with a link to an article or newstory that I find interesting. I will hopefully make enough of a comment regarding the link to promote further discussion in the comments section.

Hopefully this will help get me back into the swing of things and "force" me to write more often and/or better. Quality and quantity is the ultimate goal, but batting .500 most of the time will certainly have to do for now.