Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

Victor Davis Hanson - "Why Do Europeans Love Obama?"

VDH answers the question here.

MAKING USE OF FLEETING MINUTES AND NOT WASTING TIME

I found the following words of William Barclay challenging:

"Often we find ourselves with a small amount of time; and often we know that there is something which ought to be done; and often we say, 'It's not worth beginning with so little time available.'

It is a dangerous phrase, because it means that the half hour is wasted--and wasted half hours soon mount up to a considerable amount of time.  If we work a five-day week and waste half an hour each day that is two and a half hours.  Over a year that is one hundred and thirty hours; and one hundred and thirty hours is not much short of a week--a whole week's time and work wasted and gone. - From Daily Celebration, 1971, p.172

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU ARE TALKING TO THE PRESIDENT AND YOU'VE GOT TO "GO"

David Kuo wrote a serious book about his experience in Washington, D.C. (Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, 2006), but the part that had me laughing out loud was his description of meeting George W. Bush in the Governor's mansion in Austin, Texas, when he was thinking about running for President.  Kuo and Bush had a long discussion about the possibility of Kuo working as a speech writer for Bush.

"Bush defied easy description.  He seemed not just charming, but weighty, seductive yet pure, likeable but mysterious...  My sole issue was that after all the sitting and talking for who knows how long. . . I was getting uncomfortable.  I had to use the restroom.  They had given me a big bottle of water when I had arrived and I had drained it.  Enough said.

Two conversations began to overlap.  In one he was talking out loud about his vision for

SEN. TOM COBURN (R-OKLA), HERO OF THE SENATE

You can add Sen. DeMint (R-SC) as well.  These are the Republicans standing up for fiscal responsibility and for true debates in the Senate.  Did you know that "94 percent of bills passed in the Dem-controlled Senate have been rammed through without debate or vote?"   Read on.

ALL IS NOT WELL IN IRAQI KURDISTAN

I was saddened and discomfited to read this report. 

HOMOSEXUALS IN THE MILITARY

Elaine Donnelly, head of "Center for Military Readiness," testified on capital hill and received a truly shameful, boorish, rude reception from leftist, politically correct senators.  She wrote:

"Show me members of Congress who verbally abuse witnesses testifying at a hearing, and I will show you a group of liberals doing everything they can to prevent the witnesses from being heard.  This is what happened last Wednesday, July 23, at a hearing of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, chaired by liberal Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-CA).  The topic was “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the problematic policy regarding homosexuals in the military, which was imposed on the military by then-President Bill Clinton. 

 

My mission as an invited witness was to defend the 1993 statute that Congress actually passed, which states that homosexuals are not eligible to serve in the military.   Accompanying me was Brian Jones, a retired Sergeant Major of the US Army’s elite Delta Force.  We did our best to present testimony on the

PLANNED PARENTHOOD TEMPORARILY SUSPENDS ABORTIONS IN SOUTH DAKOTA

I found this a truly remarkable news item.

It says, in part, that doctors in South Dakota must now comply with a new law that requires the abortion doctor to advise the pregnant mother, in writing, that the abortion will "terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being."  The law also requires disclosure of medical risks, including the risk of depression and "increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide."

HISTORY OF MISSIOLOGY WEB SITE AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY

This looks like a terrific resource.  A description: 

"The History of Missiology Web site (http://digilib.bu.edu/mission) . . . provides access to classic writings in the history of Protestant mission thought, including works on mission theology, theory, and strategy.  Written by cross-cultural missionaries, mission administrators, and mission promoters, these writings provide unique insight into the beginnings of Christianity in the non-Western world, the founding of indigenous churches, and early theories of comparative religion.  Mission thinkers produced some of the first ethnographic studies of people in primal societies, as well as histories of encounters between WestR4ners and people from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. They also reflected on the implications for Christian theology of varied religions and cultures.

The site consists of several sections.  The first, "Missionary Biographies,' provides biographical sketches, photos, bibliographies, and links to digitized texts in the public domain by missionaries, missiologists,

TOP FIVE BOOKS (ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS)

From Christianity Today...  beginning with Christopher W. Mitchell on "My 5 Top Books by the Inklings and Friends"  Click through for more "top 5" recommendations on world history, atheism, China, apologetics, and many other topics.

AS THEY SEE US

By "they" I mean Europe and the world.  Byron York summarizes a conversation he had in Paris:

In the European mind, Guantanamo is one of the centers of evil in the world, a dungeon where George W. Bush commits unspeakable acts on innocent Muslims who just happened to be on a battlefield in Afghanistan or Pakistan when U.S. troops captured them.

To my mind this illustrates the truly lamentable public relations failure of the Bush administration to make its case to the world.  In today's world, an administration must exert as much time and energy in countering negative public opinion and persuading the public of the rightness of its policies, as  it does in the actual execution of its policies.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON ON OBAMA'S BERLIN SPEECH

Victor Davis Hanson has a way of bringing things down to earth and stating brute facts which too often get forgotten:

With all due respect, I also don't believe the world did anything to save Berlin, just as it did nothing to save the Rwandans or the Iraqis under Saddam — or will do anything for those of Darfur; it was only the U.S. Air Force that risked war to feed the helpless of Berlin as it saved the Muslims of the Balkans. . .

NEW WAYS OF MAKING BABIES

Should they be encouraged?  Kathryn Jean Lopez asks, "Are we really okay with our Brave New IVF world?"  She points out that it is 30 years ago this weekend that Louise Brown was born, the first baby born via in vitro fertilization.  She asks,

But if we had to do it all again, if we really thought about it, would we do IVF, the most common method of assisted fertilization? Would a society taking into consideration what the mechanization and laboratorization of sex has done to marriage and families, do it again?

Her discussion is worth a read.

OBAMA & ISRAEL: THE BEST AND WORST CASE SCENARIOS OF AN OBAMA PRESIDENCY

Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post foresees these possibilities:

The best-case scenario is that Obama is willing to learn from the Bush administration’s mistakes in attempting to appease the Palestinians, the Iranians, and the North Koreans. Such an Obama administration would recognize that its liberal formulations are fundamentally misguided and abandon them in favor of reality-based policies. Given Obama’s stubborn refusal to admit he was wrong about the surge and his insistence that he can strike a deal with Ahmadinejad, the likelihood of this happening is about zero.

The worst-case scenario is that Obama actually bases his foreign policy on his ideological beliefs. If he does that, he will leave Iraq prematurely and so enable Iran’s effective takeover of the country through its Shiite proxies.

He will botch up Afghanistan and end up enabling an open jihadist takeover of nuclear-armed Pakistan.

DOES THE MEDIA AIRBRUSH OBAMA'S SPEECHES? WHAT DOES OBAMA MEAN WHEN HE CALLS FOR A "CIVILIAN NATIONAL SECURITY FORCE?"

Charles Krauthammer penned a commentary on Obama today titled, The Audacity of Vanity.  Krauthammer chronicled Obama's breathtaking arrogance for those who aren't paying attention. 

Speaking of paying attention, do reporters truly listen and report on what Obama actually says?  Hugh Hewitt cites one of Obama's chilling (or at the very least, questionable) statements that was ignored by the press:

We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

Does that scare you like it does me?  Hewitt links to Ed Morrissey who aptly titles his column, "Are the media airbrushing Obama's speeches?"  Not a few folks offer comments at the end of Morrissey's article expressing fears and forebodings similar to my own.  Incidentally, lest anyone wonder about the accuracy of the quotes, Morrissey supplies videotape of Obama speaking.  Scary... And for the record, Sean Robins reproduces the entire text of the speech in question, Obama's July 2nd, "New Era of Service" speech delivered at the University of Colorado.  Robins offers a complete text with side-by-side rendering of Obama's off-the-cuff additions and changes.

On another subject, is it not a little unsual -- not to say weird -- that the man's gravitas restrains the late night comics from telling jokes about him.  (So points out Bill Carter in a New York Times column). Hmmm....  What is the significance of that?  Does it portend anything?  Anyone feeling a little queasy about a future Obama presidency?

CHILD THEOLOGY... (Humor)

Have you seen these? (Courtesy of a friend who e-mailed them to me)

- Three-year old on the Lord's Prayer: "Lead us not into temptation," 
she prayed, "but deliver us some E-mail. Amen." 

- 3-year-old, praying: "Our Father, Who does art in heaven, Harold is 
His name. Amen." 

 - Four-year-old, praying, "And forgive us our trash baskets as we 
forgive those who put trash in our baskets." 

 - Six-year-old Angie and her four-year-old brother Joel were sitting  
together in church. Joel giggled, sang, and talked out loud. Finally, 
his big sister had had enough. "You're not supposed to talk out loud 
in church." "Why? Who's going to stop me?" Joel asked. Angie pointed 
to the back of the church and said, "See those two men standing by 
the door? They're hushers." 

 - A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5, Ryan, 3. The 
boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their 
mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting 
here, He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can 
wait.' " Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be 
Jesus!" 

 - A wife invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to 
their six-year-old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the 
blessing?" "I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied. "Just say 
what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered. The daughter bowed her 
head and said, "Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?" 

DUAL ALLEGIANCE IN W. AFRICA - CHRISTIANITY AND THE OCCULT

Christianity Today magazine has the story of a Nigerian pastor arrested for using a human head in rituals for church members.

Christopher Hitchens - "Stop Pitting Iraq Against Afghanistan"

Clear thinking found here.

POLITICAL SCIENCE 101 - LOCKE VS. ROUSSEAU

Jonah Goldberg cuts through the jungle of political science by contrasting the two major visions fighting for supremacy in the world.  He writes   

I think political philosophy, or more accurately, political visions can be boiled down to Locke versus Rousseau. The Lockean vision holds that man is the captain of his soul, that his rights come from God, the individual is sovereign, that the government exists because men of free will cede certain authorities to it in order to best protect  their lives and property.

The Rousseauian vision holds that the collective comes before the individual, our rights come from the group not from God, that the tribe is the source of all morality, and the general will is the ultimate religious construct and so therefore the needs — and aims — of the group come before those of the individual. 

Fascism, like Communism, Socialism, Progressivism and all the other collectivist isms are all based on the Rousseauian vision of the group, the tribe, the class taking precedence over the individual. 

I've also been writing for years that "transnational progressives" are trying to take the Progressive project to the world stage. This was the dream of HG Wells —originator of the phrase Liberal Fascism — who often proclaimed that FDR was the living embodiment of the "world brain." It's the aspiration of Hillary Clinton's It Takes a Village, in which the logic of everything inside the village, nothing outside the village is eventually extended, in Clinton's telling,  to the global village. . . 

BARACK OBAMA - THE "P.C." CANDIDATE

I think I'll start calling him "P.C. Obama."  His views on the causes of the "Islamist threat" are certainly p.c. (poverty and provocations by the west).  What he fails to understand, as Robert Spencer points out, is that it is

"useful to understand that there is an expansionist and supremacist imperative shared by all orthodox sects and schools of Islam, and that some Muslims will most likely continue to act upon that imperative no matter how much we demonstrate our understanding of Islamic diversity?"

QUICK TAKES

- Investor's Business Daily calls on Rep. Pelosi to resign.  "Any leader with an energy record as derelict as Speaker Pelosi's ought to step down."

- "The Associated Press shows itself worse than Al Jazeera" - This article proves the statement. (The AP produced a snuff film of two women murdered by the Taliban at Taliban's invitation)

- Important article on Obama-mania.  Me: An understanding of original sin would produce a healthy realism and save us from massive deception and disappointment.

MORE ON TONY SNOW

Bill Kristol tells us that Tony Snow was an avid reader of C.S. Lewis.  How marvelous!  No doubt Lewis offered significant underpinning to Tony's exuberance, gratitude, and joy -- all qualities emphasized and illustrated in Lewis's own life and writings. Although it had not crossed my mind that Tony Snow was a reader of Lewis, I should have guessed it.

Following are some excerpts from Kristol's tribute, but you've got to read the whole thing; it's that good:

. . But I’ll remember Tony Snow more for his character than his career. I’ll especially remember the calm courage and cheerful optimism he displayed in his last three years, in the face of his fatal illness...

Tony was one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet — kind, helpful and cheerful. But underlying these seemingly natural qualities was a kind of choice: the choice of gratitude.Tony thought we should be grateful for what life has given us, not bitter or anxious about what it hasn’t.

TONY SNOW DEAD AT 53

I read the news on Drudge a moment ago and felt sad and ill.  The last I had heard, Tony Snow was doing  better.  What a wonderful man!  I look forward to reading eulogies that will celebrate this man's life.

Update:

Byron York - "a breath of fresh air"

Shannen Coffin - "To call him a "rock star" was an understatement. He brought substance to every meeting he was in and every subject he covered... But what struck me most about him was his ceaseless optimism.. He had a smile that lit up a room and could put a friend at ease in an instant...

HOW IS THE DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED CONGRESS DEALING WITH THE OIL CRISIS? HAVE A LOOK!

Courtesy of Hugh Hewitt:

Wherever Hewitt got this chart, I don't know, but it is way out of date.  Gas now costs $4.10 at the pump.

HUGE FINANCIAL CRISIS LOOMS: FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC IN MELTDOWN

These strange-sounding names will become more and more familiar as they are about to hit the news in a big way it seems. Andy McCarthy pens a blog post today titled "Mortgage Giants Down Again."  Here's the scoop:

Surprising how little talk there has been around here about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose shares this morning are down, respectively, to about $10 and $6 respectively.

The WSJ's editors put it in perpective yesterday:

Investors are saying that a Bear Stearns-like run on the companies is a real possibility, and they're right.... What Americans need to know is how damaging such a failure would be. This wouldn't merely be a matter of the Federal Reserve guaranteeing $29 billion in dodgy mortgage paper, a la Bear Stearns. Fannie and Freddie are among the largest financial companies in the world. Their liabilities – mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) and other debt – add up to some $5 trillion.

HOMOSEXUALS IN BRISTOL, ENGLAND OBJECT TO REMOVING BUSHES (Can you guess why?)

I found this news item pretty amazing.  (HT: Jonah Goldberg at The Corner)

WHITEWASHING A MUSLIM "HONOR KILLING" IN ATLANTA

Phyllis Chesler describes how it is done.  Shame on CNN for failing to set forth the facts.

REMEMBERING SIR JOHN TEMPLETON, DEAD AT 95

- Update - 7/18/08 - Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson of Grove City College surveys the principles that guided Templeton's personal life and career.

-What a remarkable man.  He used his money to pursue research in the interface of science and religion. Click here for a good overview of the man and his life.  The Family Research Council published the following:

The adage says that an institution is the lengthening shadow of a man, but in the case of John Templeton, who died yesterday at the age of 95, the lengthening shadow is the answer his life gave to the biggest of questions. As the founder of the Templeton Prize, he combined his lifetime of financial acumen and personal generosity in an effort to ensure that accomplishments in advancing spiritual knowledge would receive the kind of worldwide recognition accorded to advances in medicine, science, peacemaking and other arts through such vehicles as the Nobel Prize. More specifically, he devoted energy and

PERSECUTION AND MURDER OF IRAQI CHRISTIANS BY MUSLIMS

John F. Cullinan penned an important article today. It begins:

A church of martyrs on the cusp of annihilation. That’s the grim reality that Iraq’s beleaguered and vanishing Christian community faces. And it’s no secret, especially after two pillars of establishment journalism — the New York Times and CBS's 60 Minutes— produced truly shocking accounts of savage persecution right before the Fourth of July.

The June 26 Times piece is one of the most thorough treatments yet of the ubiquitous practice of “protection money” (jizya) being extorted from Iraq’s surviving Christians on pain of death, exile, or forced conversion to Islam. And the June 29 60 Minutes segment recounts in chilling detail how "iraqi Christians are being hunted, murdered, and forced to flee--persecuted on a biblical scale."

Later in the article he writes:

WILLIAM LANE CRAIG & BART D. EHRMAN DEBATE: "IS THERE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS?"

This debate took place March 28, 2006 at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

RENOWNED PHILOSOPHER ANTHONY FLEW ON "MY PILGRIMAGE FROM ATHEISM TO THEISM"

Flew is not yet a Christian, but he has become a "theist."  For most of his long life he has an international reputation as a a formidable and well-known atheist.  Read the interview here (downloadable PDF available here.)  The interview was published in 2004.

RICHARD ABANES EXAMINES ECKHART TOLLE'S IDEAS PUSHED SO STRONGLY BY OPRAH

World magazine recently interviewed Richard Abanes, author of A new Earth, An Old Deception: Awakening to the Deceptions in Eckhart Tolle's #1 Best Seller,

WORLD: Why did you think it important to write a book refuting Eckhart Tolle?

ABANES: Tolle claims that his teachings are fully compatible with Christianity. To make matters worse, he misuses the Bible to support his beliefs, going so far as to say he knows what Jesus really meant in various New Testament passages. We also have Oprah regularly assuring her audiences that Tolle's views in no way contradict Christianity. This has confused many people, especially young Christians, potential Christian converts, and Christians not rooted in God's Word. Someone had to show not only where Tolle has theologically erred, but where he is utterly misrepresenting and misinterpreting Scripture.  (more. . .)

"IS CHRISTIANITY GOOD FOR THE WORLD? - A DEBATE BETWEEN CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS AND DOUGLAS WILSON"

This debate (which I've not yet read) took place during May 2007.  It is available here and also here.  I saw an advertisement in a magazine yesterday that indicated Canon Press will publish the interchange in book form  (same title), September 2, 2008.

TV SITCOMS TAKE THE NEXT STEP DOWNWARD

- Update 8/6/08 - AP article: Network TV  likes sex, but not in marriage.

- Ed Veith in a World magazine article writes about the "new normal" which represents yet another step downward. After mentioning previous descents, he says:

In "The Office," arguably the funniest show on TV, it is simply taken for granted that unmarried people are having sex. there is no need for innuendo.  The characters talk about their sex lives openly, and extramarital sex is normal. . . .

In the TV culture, teen sex, single adult sex, and—in the most dramatic shift in sexual mores in history—homosexuality are all perfectly acceptable, unproblematic, and normal. Conversely, traditional sexual morality is presented as weird, strange, and out of the mainstream.

Now we have "Swingtown," a new series from CBS -- not pay TV or cable but a mainline broadcast network.  "Swingtown" is about wife-swapping.

(more . . .)

DANIEL PIPES WRITES ON THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN WESTERN LEFTISTS AND ISLAMIST RADICALS

Daniel Pipes explains the history and contemporary threat of this unlikely alliance, and concludes:

The burgeoning alliance of Western leftists and Islamists ranks as one of today's most disturbing political developments, one that impedes the West's efforts to protect itself. When Stalin and Hitler made their infamous pact in 1939, the Red-Brown alliance posed a mortal danger to the West and, indeed, to civilization itself. Less dramatically but no less certainly, the coalition today poses the same threat. As seven decades ago, this one must be exposed, rejected, resisted, and defeated.

WESTERN SEXUAL PROMISCUITY EXPECTATIONS WRECKING UGANDA'S HIV/AIDS PREVENTION PROGRESS

Why didn't HIV/AIDS "experts" take seriously Uganda's great progress against AIDS when that country stressed marital faithfulness?  The Rev. Sam. L. Ruteikara, co-chair of Uganda's National AIDS-Prevention Committee writes:

In the late 1980s, before international experts arrived to tell us we had it all "wrong," we in Uganda devised a practical campaign to prevent the spread of HIV. We recognized that population-wide AIDS epidemics in Africa were driven by people having sex with more than one regular partner. Therefore, we urged people to be faithful. Our campaign was called ABC (Abstain, or Be Faithful, or use Condoms), but our main message was: Stick to one partner. We promoted condoms only as a last resort.

Because we knew what to do in our country, we succeeded. The proportion of Ugandans infected with HIV plunged from 21 percent in 1991 to 6 percent in 2002. But international AIDS experts who came to Uganda said we were wrong to try to limit people's sexual freedom. Worse, they had the financial power to force their casual-sex agendas upon us. . . .

Read on. . .

DEPRESSION - NEW PERSPECTIVES CHALLENGING OLD PARADIGMS

You might want to take a look at this really interesting article, "How Prozac sent the science of depression in the wrong direction".

Like many other antidepressants, Prozac increases the brain's supply of serotonin, a neurotransmitter. The drug's effectiveness inspired an elegant theory, known as the chemical hypothesis: Sadness is simply a lack of chemical happiness. The little blue pills cheer us up because they give the brain what it has been missing.There's only one problem with this theory of depression: it's almost certainly wrong, or at the very least woefully incomplete. Experiments have since shown that lowering people's serotonin levels does not make them depressed, nor does it does not make them depressed, nor does it worsen their symptoms if they are already depressed.

(HT: evangelical outpost)

IS INFORMATION OVERLOAD AFFECTING OUR ABILITY TO THINK AND FOCUS?

Most definitely.  L. Gordon Crovitz published an article today in the Wall Street Journal and mentioned a new book called "Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age" by Maggie Jackson.   The book sounds fascinating.  Crovitz says author Jackson "warns that the cumulative effect of new technologies is that we may be losing our ability to maintain attention more generally.  Attention requires focus, awareness and what she calls executive attention."

Relying on multitasking as a way of life, we chop up our opportunities and abilities to make big-picture sense of the world and pursue our long-term goals," she writes.  "The way we live is eroding our capacity for deep, sustained, perceptive attention--the building block of intimacy, wisdom, and cultural progress.  Ms. Jackson concludes that "as we plunge into a new world of infinitely connectible and accessible information, we risk losing our means and ability to go beneath the surface, to think deeply."

Check out this Amazon review.

On the same subject, do read "Is Google Making Us Stupid?: What the Internet is doing to our brains" in the current (July/August, 2008) Atlantic Monthly.

"THE 11 BEST FOODS YOU AREN'T EATING" - SO SAYS THE N.Y. TIMES

In point of fact, I am eating some of those foods (but not all).  HT: evangelical outrpost

THE NEW YORK TIMES EXAMINES RUSH LIMBAUGH

Here's the nine-page article (remarkably balanced) -

Michael Harrison, the editor and publisher of Talkers magazine, a trade publication, puts Limbaugh’s weekly audience at 14 million. Limbaugh himself says it is closer to 20 million. Either way, nobody else is close. He has been the top-rated radio talk-show host in America since the magazine started the ranking 17 years ago.

Such massive and consistent popularity makes Limbaugh a singular political force. “Rush has completely remade American politics by offering an alternative to the networks and CNN,” Rove told me. . .

Harrison offered an even more grandiose view: “He’s a phenomenon like the Beatles. Before Rush Limbaugh there was nothing like talk radio. He’s been to talk what Elvis was to rock ’n’ roll. He saved the AM dial.”

Read the article and learn about Limbaugh's $450,000 car, a house of 24,000 square feet, a two-story library (a scaled-down version of the library at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina), and a Gulfstream G550 airplane costing $54 million,  Here's another item:

WASHINGTON POST WRITES ON OBAMA'S SPIRITUAL JOURNEY - AND FAILS TO MENTION REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT!

Hugh Hewitt notes:

The "Washington Post" has a lengthy story on Obama's current account of his faith journey.

The story, strangely, leaves unexamined the role of Pastor Wright in Obama's spiritual journey.  How can a story allegedly about Obama's religious beliefs not discuss in depth the influence of Jeremiah Wright, which is detailed in Obama's memoir, Dreams of My Father? 

It cannot, of course, and it is not a serious story as a result. It is a certain that Obama wants to airbrush Pastor Wright and his views from the candidate's biography, but ought the nation's leading paper cooperate in the exercise?

AL QUAEDA'S LAST MAJOR CENTER IN IRAQ GETTING CRUSHED

Michael Yon in his book Moment of Truth in Iraq (see my previous post here) wrote that Mosul was the last major al Quaeda stronghold.  Today Andy McCarthy titles his post "Victory in Iraq... Yawn."   It's all about major events currently taking place in Mosul. McCarthy writes:

"Al Qaeda's being crushed in Mosul, its last holdout in Iraq.  You need to go to the British press to learn about it.  Here's from the Times of London [h/t TigerHawk]:

American and Iraqi forces are driving Al-Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror.

After being forced from its strongholds in the west and centre of Iraq in the past two years, Al-Qaeda’s dwindling band of fighters has made a defiant “last stand” in the northern city of Mosul. 

MICHAEL YON - REPORTER EXTRAORDINAIRE IN IRAQ

A wonderful friend came visiting with his wife and son last week.  He gave me a copy of Michael Yon’s book, Moment of Truth in Iraq.  The book had moved him, and he, generous soul that he is, gave me his copy.  Michael Yon is well known to those who have been following the independent reporting of the Iraq war on the internet.  On Amazon.com the book has garnished 88 five-star reviews and 8 four-star reviews. Be sure to read the publisher's letter at the Amazon site.  I totally agree with him when he wrote:

Just wait until you read the Chapter "High Noon" (my favorite), the story of the American soldiers who have to arrest a corrupt but politically popular Iraqi police chief we had put in office in the first place because he had been a real hero in fighting the terrorists. He had to be removed by Americans to show the Iraqis we really did believe in the rule of law. The whole thing could have blown up into a one-town civil war with hundreds dead on both sides. Won't tell you how it ends, but you will be amazed and very proud.

Here are some excerpts that I marked as I read.  (I have not included excerpts from the "High Noon" chapter just mentioned -- that's for readers of the book) :

On the American soldier’s thirst for mail:

Mail is more important then even hot showers or hot food…  People at home probably have no idea how much their little cards, letters, and goodie bags boost morale.  Countless walls around Iraq are wallpapered with cards and letters. Soldiers and marines especially love the cards from kids.  There is nothing better over here than reading two-dozen cards from kids who can barely hold a crayon.  If a kid sends a card, rest assured that card will be stuck on a wall somewhere, and it will bring a smile to many a soldier and marine.  (pp. 24-25)

The American soldier is the most respected warrior on earth but also the most gentle:

Part of counterinsurgency is soldiers letting themselves be Americans in the most romantic sense of the word.  The American soldier is the most dangerous man in the world, and the Iraqis had to learn that before they would trust or respect us.  But it was when they understood that these great-hearted warriors. . . are even happier helping to build a school or to make a neighborhood safe that we really got their attention.  (74)

On the American soldier as an example to the Iraqi soldier and policeman:

Iraqi forces that used to flee would now stand and fight, partly because their American trainers would stand and fight with them. The Iraqis were amazed that American officers and sergeants would lead from the front into the worst situations.  .. Seeing how American officers and sergeants behaved, the Iraqi jundis (soldiers) began to hold their own leaders in contempt.  Iraqi soldiers might be a lot of things, but cowards they are not.  (217)

ISLAM VIEWS NON-MUSLIMS AS WORSE THAN ANIMALS

Ex-Muslim Abul Kasem explains.

ISLAM'S ATTEMPT TO CONTROL FREE SPEECH IN THE WEST

A comprehensive summary of the issue can be found here.

G.K. CHESTERTON: REASON NEEDS TO BE BALANCED BY POETRY AND IMAGINATION

Recently I experienced an unusual weariness; indeed, a kind of mental strain. I had begun to find it difficult to concentrate heavily on anything without feeling pressure on my head.  This experience reminded me of the astute observation G.K. Chesterton makes in his book Orthodoxy:

"Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite.  The result is mental exhaustion...  To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain.  The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in.  The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens.  It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head.  And it is his head that splits.

Let no one draw the false conclusion that GKC has no use for reason.  Not so.  But he is making the point that reason has limitations and the healthy mind needs a balancing dose of imagination, poetry, mystery, and mysticism as well.  GKC is one of a group of writers who have been extraordinarily influential in my life.

HOW SERIOUS IS THE THREAT OF "HIGH ALTITUDE ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE" (EMP)?

Reading this article makes me wonder what good is money in the bank or the stock market if electrical transmissions can be totally knocked out by EMP.  All necessary supplies for life would likewise be made inaccessible.  Little is being done to protect us from such a catastrophe.

40% of PATIENTS IN A "VEGETATIVE STATE" ARE MISDIAGNOSED

Is this a cause for alarm or what?!  Read more here.