A conscientious objector in the war on Christmas

I’m a conscientious objector in the war over Christmas

How’s that for an unpopular opinion? But it summarizes the way I see things, so I have no choice but to stick with it.

Let me make it clear at the outset that I quite willing to fight to keep Christian religious symbols in the public square. Any community that wants to keep its Ten Commandments plaque on the courthouse wall has my full support. Ditto for the use of a cross as part of an official seal, or a memorial to a slain police officer, or other similar solemn use.

I will even go so far as to say that a community that wants to erect a crèche or put Santa and his sleigh in the town square has a perfect right to do so. But they will do it without any help from me.

My problem with the war on Christmas is that one side says all Christian symbols must be banned and the other says that Christmas is the essence of Christianity. I have no sympathy with the former and little with the latter.

The arguments against Christians celebrating Christmas are many. I will not attempt to cite them all. But, here are a few of the more obvious ones:

1. We cannot sure of the date of Jesus’ birth, but December 25 is almost certainly not it.


2. The Bible does not enjoin such a celebration.


3. The major features of the celebration come out of Roman Catholic syncretism, combining features of the ancient Roman rites of the winter solstice with those of similar festivals among the Germanic peoples.


4. As a reformed Christian, I object to the reference to the mass in Christmas.

For these reasons and more, I do not celebrate Christmas and have not for many years. While I might not, others are free to do so and no doubt will continue to celebrate it. If they choose to do this in public spaces and with public funds, I admit they have that power.

As to the wider question of the serious war going on year-round to drive Christianity underground, I am unequivocally on the side of the defenders of tradition.

First, let us make something very clear about the founding of the colonies of British North America which came together to form the United States. The earliest – Virginia - was established as a commercial venture, but the proprietors soon came to the conclusion that profitable plantations would never be established by the sort of desperate single men they were sending to Jamestown at a rate barely able to keep up with deaths from disease and Indian wars.

The best way to get whole families to settle permanently in the wilderness was to offer sanctuary to Christians who were not welcome in the mother country. That was how the Pilgrims who had fled temporarily from Britain to the Netherlands came to settle in the northern part of Virginia in 1620. With the subsequent addition of the Puritans, they achieved status as a separate colony – Massachusetts Bay – and set up a government that established Congregationalism as the official church while Virginia’s government followed the lead of the mother country in establishing the Church of England. People may have come here to practice religion as they wished, but not – in the early days – to extend that privilege to dissenting neighbors. As Roger Williams learned when he was driven from Massachusetts into what became Connecticut, people were not inclined to be tolerant until you were over the horizon.

Tolerance took a while. The Brits acquired New York as an already well-established Dutch colony with a Reformed majority and fair degree of toleration. Maryland was set up as a haven for British Catholics but with the Church of England as the established church – a profession of faith in Christ being required for admittance. Pennsylvania was established under the proprietorship of the Penn family who were Quakers but who welcomed German Pietists of several varieties (Mennonites, Moravians, etc.) as well as German Lutherans who added to the pre-existing Swedish Lutheran colony at Christiana, and other faiths as well. Georgia, founded last and as a haven for convicts, was the sort of place where it was best to mind your own business.

Tolerance came early in a few places, but late and with great difficulty in others. Baptists were persecuted as vigorously in Anglican Virginia as in Congregationalist Massachusetts in the early days, but they kept trying to spread their version of the Gospel whether welcome or not. The Moravians managed to establish a settlement in North Carolina. Scots and Ulster Presbyterians as well as Germans of various denominations established footholds in the western portions of Virginia and the Carolinas (including parts of what became Kentucky and Tennessee) by migrating down the Blue Ridge from Pennsylvania and then moving west and keeping to themselves in wilderness settlements.

By the time of the Revolution, the establishment of the Church of England came into disrepute from its association with the Crown as well for doctrinal reasons and it ceased to be established in the Southern colonies although South Carolina, for instance, still required that those participating in the political life of the state be “Protestant Christians.”

All this is to give a context to what happened during the drafting and ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (1787-91).

The great innovation of the Constitution with respect to religion is the seldom cited last clause of Article VI, Section 3:
“…, but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

The provision that gets all the attention is, of course, the first article of amendment which states, in relevant part:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, …”

First, we should observe that the Federalists said a Bill of Rights for the national constitution was unnecessary because the constitutions of the various states covered these points and the national government had not been granted authority in such cases. Furthermore, a federal constitutional Bill of Rights, unless it were a comprehensive enumeration of all the rights of citizens, might cause those rights not specified to be disparaged later. This did not appease the critics and it became necessary to promise a series of amendments constituting a Bill of Rights in order to secure the assent of some states, most importantly New York and Virginia.

Second, we must remember that there was no question of an “incorporation doctrine” at that time. No one – either for or against – considered this or any other part of the Bill of Rights to be a limitation on the governmental actions of the states and the subordinate government entities created under their authority. In fact, it is the incorporation doctrine that gives rise to federal judicial intrusion into this subject.

So, what did the first amendment do with respect to religion? Not much – except, perhaps, to prevent setting up an established church in the federal capital district. It says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion which meant it could not set up a national established church nor disestablish any of the existing established churches in the states. But such powers were not enumerated in Article I, nor anywhere else in the Constitution, so Congress had no authority to legislate in this area anyway. Only in the federal capital district did the Constitution give Congress plenary legislative power. The same applies to the language about “free exercise” of religion.

All this current mischief stems from the incorporation doctrine. This is the nonsensical notion that the 14th Amendment extends the prohibitions on national government action contained in the Bill of Rights to restrain the actions of state governments. The 14th amendment’s purpose was to secure to colored persons, and freedmen in particular, the privileges and immunities of citizens – to acquire, hold and dispose of property; to make contracts generally; to serve as a plaintiff, witness or juror in courts of law; etc. How you get from that purpose to the idea that the 14th turns the 1st into a prohibition on some city having a Ten Commandments plaque or monument is one of those great mysteries which only a judge faithless to his oath of office could understand.

Everything you're supposed to know about inflation and were afraid someone would tell you

ECB: Educational:

"The European Central Bank, in cooperation with the national central banks of the euro area, has produced an information kit entitled 'Price stability: why is it important for you?' for young teenagers and teachers in all the official languages of the European Union.
"This tool consists of an eight-minute animated film, leaflets for pupils and a teachers' booklet. The film features two secondary school pupils, Anna and Alex, finding out about price stability. The leaflets provide an easy-to-understand overview of the topic, whereas the booklet covers it in greater detail."

Follow the link and you can see the cartoon where Anna and Alex learn about the Inflation Monster and how the European Central Bank (ECB) keeps him in a little glass jar. Pure hokum!

Mike Shedlock, writing in Bill Bonner's DAILY RECKONING online investment newsletter, brought this to my attention, he explains it better than I can:

"Even though it is entertaining, it sure flops as an educational tool
unless of course the goal is self-serving propaganda by the ECB, for the ECB.

"Unfortunately the video does not explain that the real source of inflation is printing of money by the central bank itself. Nor does it explain why 2% is such a good inflation target. Finally it does not explain how prices across the board can be contained by broad brushed practices like setting of short-term interest rates.

"Those things were not explained simply because they cannot be explained ..."

NOTE:
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Big Brother will be watching ... and keeping records

Independent Online Edition > Transport:

"In addition to cross-checking each number plate against stolen and suspect vehicles held on the Police National Computer, the national data centre will also check whether each vehicle is lawfully licensed, insured and has a valid MoT test certificate."

Additional uses for this system - which involves thousands of cameras with registration number reading software on city streets, highways, and soon even more on private property at fuel stations and supermarkets - will be tracking the movements of suspected terrorists and checking for convoys. For instance, criminals often steal a car for their getaway and then switch to their own car, so officials hope to be able to track back through th e system to track the stolen vehicle back from the crime scene to where it was stolen and try to identify the criminals' vehicle traveling with it.

YRIHF* - Expect to see transport planners sending helpful hints to auto commuters about people they could be ride-sharing with or pointing out the availabiliy of mass transit. It may also prove useful for spotting trends in commuting patterns that could be used for adjusting bus routes.

* YRIHF = You Read It Here First.

More bird flu confusion

Avian flu: Is hype for the birds? (phillyBurbs.com) | Courier Times:

"Still, a moderately severe strain of this avian flu could kill more than 500,000 Americans and hospitalize 2.3 million, according to Trust for America's Health, a Washington, D.C.-based public health advocate group. In Pennsylvania, its projections are 27,185 dead; 112,658 hospitalized.

"CDC estimates, though, are a 'medium-level' pandemic (without vaccinations or medications) could cause 89,000 to 207,000 U.S. deaths, between 314,000 and 734,000 hospitalizations; between 15 and 35 percent of the U.S. population could be affected, and the economic impact could range between $71 billion and $166 billion."

It's almost impossible to know what to make of this, especially when you encounter a jewel like this:
"If this bird flu mutates into a virus strain, people have little or no immunity protection; scientists also predict such a mutation could make it less deadly than it has been among people who've contracted it from direct contact with infected birds, [Dr. William] Schaffner [an infectious disease and vaccine specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville] added."

If you consider that the number of persons living in close contact with domestic fowl in China and SE Asia must number in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, and that only about a 100 of them have died from H5N1 over several years, this hardly seems like the "big one" - and now they tell us the same mutation that allows it to spread human-to-human may well make it less virulent.

The main reason for linking this story was as a contrast with the recent war gaming in Washington. Federal officials admitted that the state and local officials would be key to the effectiveness of any response. Here we have some insight into local preparedness in a relatively wealthy suburb of Philadelphia.

New Orleans in the news again, less than 50 miles from 3.0 quake and new data on Katrina intensity

BREITBART.COM - Hurricane Katrina Hit As Category 3, Not 4:

"MIAMI - Katrina hit the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane, not a Category 4 as first thought, and New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain likely were spared the storm's strongest winds, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday. New Orleans' storm levees were generally believed to be able to protect the city from the flooding of a fast-moving Category 3 storm. But Katrina was generally a slow-moving storm, said Jim Taylor, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers."

The good news is that Katrina was only a moderately strong but slow moving Cat 3. The bad news is what happens if N.O. gets hit with a real Cat 4, let alone a 5?

We may all grow old waiting for the official word on why the levees failed. I predict that right up there, along with a few others thrown is as fig leaves, will be the problem I wrote about during the week after the storm - water undermining the levees from below. As the volume of water moving below the surface increased due to storm surge and heavy rain raising the Lake Pontchartrain water level at the edge of N.O. which increased the water pressure, fine material was swept away increasing the carrying capacity of the water to move coarser material. This eventually reduced the mass supporting the levees on the landward side allowing some of them to collapse. In support of this, I note that it has been found that in several places the levees did not extend downward far enough to reach a firm footing - instead, they rested on unconsolidated material.

AP: Mexico will not allow US to defend our border

BREITBART.COM - Mexico Promises to Block Border Wall Plan:

"MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government, angered by a U.S. proposal to extend a wall along the border to keep out migrants, pledged Tuesday to block the plan and organize an international campaign against it. Facing a growing tide of anti-immigrant sentiment north of the border, the Mexican government has taken out ads urging Mexican workers to denounce rights violations in the United States. It also is hiring an American public relations firm to improve its image and counter growing U.S. concerns about immigration."

Mexican foreign secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez seems to have forgotten that the US is a sovereign nation and entitled to defend its borders - its hard to have a country without them. "Mexico is not going to bear, it is not going to permit, and it will not allow a stupid thing like this wall," Derbez said, according to the AP.

Expanded border fence must be a good idea, Mexican officials condemn it

Journal Advocate - Top Story:

"[Luis Ernesto Derbez] Mexico's foreign secretary Monday leveled his country's sharpest criticism yet at U.S. proposal for a fence along parts of its southern border, condemning it as 'stupid' and 'underhanded.'
...
"Reacting Sunday to the bill's approval, Mexican President Vicente Fox said 'this wall is shameful,' and called the plan hypocritical for a country made up of immigrants."

The irony of President Fox's statement is striking. He leads a country which goes to considerable effort to prevent illegal immigration across its own southern border by people who look a whole lot more like the average Mexican than he does.

Despite a 239-182 vote in the US House to expand our border fence, increase patrols and reduce employment of illegals, the AP story goes on to note that Secretary Derbez is "confident" that the Senate will not pass the bill.

When is a war not a war?

WorldNetDaily: Border Patrol fears conflict with Mexican military:

"Indeed, the confrontations have become so routine the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued written orders that agents carry with them regarding 'what to do' if confronted by Mexican military units, many of which are in the employ of Mexico's powerful drug cartels.

"According to the 'Military Incursion' cards, 'Mexican military are trained to escape, evade and counter-ambush if it will affect their escape.' Therefore, the card says, Border Patrol agents should follow recommended procedures in case they encounter armed Mexican military units.

"The paper said the cards also instruct agents to hide from Mexican military operating in their areas. Rather than engage in contact, agents are ordered to 'Avoid it.'"

The answer to my question is: "When one side is ordered not to fight." Mexican army units are routinely crossing the border to escort drug convoys and everyone knows it but our government's response is to tell the Border Patrol to keep their heads down because effective backup will not be provided.

The Posse Comitatus Act was amended years ago to make it easier for the military to coordinate with civilian law enforcement where there is a drug nexus. Our government was quick enough to use that authority to burn innocent children in the Branch Davidian settlement in Texas a few years ago - so anxious, in fact, that bogus allegations of drug manufacture werre made to justify military participation; but, the government won't use that authority to respond to real drug trafficking across our border that is being facilitated by units of the Mexican army.

I've got a suggestion. Let's use military air assets to respond to Border Patrol encounters with Mexican forces. Let the Border Patrol keep their heads down and merely observe until air support is on the scene and make sure the Mexican soldiers see that they are there. Then the Border Patrol can announce in Spanish that the foreign soldiers must lay down their weapons and submit to arrest or they will be destroyed.

NSA listening in on US - is that really new?

Big Brother is listening:

"ROSS COULTHART, REPORTER:
Far above in the empty vacuum of space, the scientists will tell you, nothing can be heard. But in fact Australia is hearing a lot from the void 36,000km above the earth. We are part of the world's most sophisticated spy network. A member of the planet's most exclusive club - UKUSA - a secret alliance that began in the embers of World War II. As you'll see today, that alliance has spawned a worrying grandchild. It is known as Echelon."

I bring this up to put some perspective on the current tempest in the Beltway teapot - the NYT "revelation" that the super secret National Security Agency (NSA, aka No Such Agency) has been spying on US citizens without those annoying FISA warrants since 9/11. According to numerous press reports in other countries, but mostly relegated to the net in the US, spying on our citizens has been going on for a long time.

Some of these stories indicate that the joint electronic intel operation known as Echelon led by the US and including the UK, Australia and New Zealand gets around member countries legal quibbles about spying on their own citizens by the pretense that whatever they learn about their own citizens came by way of their partners and not their own efforts.

Review of troubling book on WW2 Soviet espionage in America

Bombshell: The Secret Story of America's Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy

Bombshell, by Cox Newspapers Moscow correspondents Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel, is a very well researched and written. But it is troubling on two levels. First, that it describes an atomic espionage case which may well have been more significant in its value to the Soviets than either Klaus Fuchs or the David Greenglass-Julius and Ethel Rosenberg cases and yet no one was ever prosecuted. On another level, it is a troubling read because the authors go to such great lengths to sympathetically portray their subject's motivations for betraying our country in time of war.

One supposes a certain amount of sympathy is needed to convince the subject - who is theoretically still liable for prosecution and the death penalty - to consent to a series of interviews. But the authors seem entirely too ready to join in their subject's defense of naivete, mistake and idealism. He was naive about the nature of the Soviet state - it wasn't as wonderful as he thought; he was mistaken about the post-war situation in the US - it did not become mired in depression and turn to fascism and imperialism; and he shared the honest belief of many that assuring post-war parity between the US and USSR would be conducive to world peace.
Where I most fault the authors is their choice to end the main body of the text with their subject's own two-page excuse written in 1997 during his comfortable retirement in England. This is an interesting document, but it deserves some critical commentary.

The excuse rambles over a lot of territory from the Chinese civil war to the Cuban missile crisis, but always in such a way as to cast the US in the worst possible light, and is most revealing for what it does not say as for what it does. For example, he worries that, but for his and others' betrayal of nuclear weapons secrets to the Soviet Union which led to its first bomb test in 1949, the US might have dropped bomb on China in "the early fifties."

For the benefit of younger readers, I will point out that he is referring to the Korean War (1950-53) during which about three million Chinese troops were engaged in a war against the United Nations led by the US under General Douglas MacArthur - a war which cost the lives of over fifty thousand US servicemen and many thousands more from the Republic of Korea, the UK, Australia, even Turkey. Maybe if only one side, our side, had the bomb at that time, China would have stayed out of the war and it would have ended in 1951 with less than half the casualties and the whole of Korea free.

After admitting that he "might" have foreseen a postwar boom rather than a depression, he says that "the dangers have not really abated: automation and globalization are generating an intractable world-wide crisis of unemployment, and this has led to an unholy alliance between the weapons industry and the military, some of whom have been quite prepared to blow up the world in their Messianic zeal (General Thomas Power, former head of the U.S. Strategic Air Command, has been quoted as saying that he would regard it as a victory if two Americans and one Russian survived World War III)." He doesn't mention that Gen. Power, a hero among rightwingers in the 60s, had been retired in 1964 and died in 1970.

He goes on the claim that SAC conducted operations over the Soviet Union and prepared war plans for "all-out nuclear war" against the orders without the knowledge of civilian authorities. He says these "perpetrators ... were not punished but were awarded medals and retired with honor. I refrain from spelling out comparisons and conclusions which are all too obvious." In other words, he shouldn't be prosecuted for pursuing peace when those men weren't who pursued nuclear war - what rot!

In the next paragraph, in which he evaluates his actions in his late teens and twenties from the perspective of a 71-year old, he concludes, "I still think that brash youth had the right end of the stick." But he can't leave things there.

He devotes his final paragraph to an attack on the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) and his supporters: "Those who have used revelations of espionage to support their view that McCarthy was right are a real danger to American democracy."After making the ludicrous assertion that all anti-communists of that day were being to trade unionism, civil rights, etc. (This would certainly have been news to the leaders of the AFL and leading politicians like Hubert Humphrey and "Scoop" Jackson.), he concludes by saying, "It would be terrible if that cycle of repression happened all over again."

If you are interested in the history of Soviet espionage in America, you must read Bombshell.

Review of Heinlein's first novel

For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs by Robert A. Heinlein

Just read Heinlein's first, and probably worst, novel. For Us, The Living (the title is taken from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address) contains several elements that feature prominently, and to much better effect, in his later works; but it is mired in excessively-long dialogues on crackpot economics - not too surprising since the book was conceived when Heinlein was at the height of his involvement in Upton Sinclair's utopian socialist EPIC (End Poverty In California) crusade.

For my money, this doesn't rate as serious science fiction as there is so little science in it, very little plot and not much character development - and, despite the subtitle, it's not very funny either. The proper genre is political harangue's thinly disguised as novels. In that genre it ranks above The Constitution of Alpaca and below Philip Dru, Administrator.

Still, if you are a die hard Heinlein fan, you may enjoy seeing the first appearance of coventry, Rev. Scudder, and some other elements of his later work.

Do-it-yourself interior enforcement of immigration law

Minutemen report illegal contractors�-�Metropolitan�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper:

"The founder of the Herndon Minutemen said yesterday that he has turned over to authorities the names and addresses of at least 16 unlicensed contractors who regularly hire immigrants and illegal aliens outside a 7-Eleven in town.

"George Taplin said he reported the contractors for tax fraud and business-licensing and zoning violations to agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Virginia Employment Commission, and Virginia taxation and professional and occupational regulation departments."

Congratulations to the Herndon Minutemen who have come up with a strategy to begin to address the illegal worker issue which side-steps the recalcitrant Department of Homeland Security. Even though DHS has authority to investigate and prosecute illegal workers and those who employ them, this is not a priority for the agency.

These concerned citizens have staked out the area where casual laborers, most if not all illegal aliens, wait for work each morning in Herndon. By photographing license plates and logos on the contractors' vehicles, following them to worksites, and doing a bit of research in public records, they compiled lists of businesses and reported them to the proper licensing and taxing authorities.

This first batch of 16 seems to be only the tip of the iceberg as it represents only about 10 percent of the vehicles they have observed so far. The announcement comes on the eve of the opening of center for casual laborers built with taxpayer funds by the Town of Herndon. Herndon is in western Fairfax County in what was a rural area in my youth and now is not even considered a fringe suburb in the DC area. For more information, check out the website helpsaveherndon.org.

Rasmussen Reports polls show support for immigration control

WorldNetDaily: Immigration emerging as next big issue:

"A majority – 58 percent – think the United States should build a barrier the length of its border with Mexico, but support dwindles when the term 'barrier' is replaced by 'wall.'"

That finding doesn't surprise me much, what did was that, Republicans are evenly divided on whether immigration or Iraq is the greater issue confronting the country.

More on the possible Israeli pre-emptive attack on Iran's nuke facilities

WorldNetDaily: Israel: Iran 3 months to nuclear point of no return:

"The ominous prediction comes just days after the London Sunday Times quoted Israeli officials who said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has instructed the IDF to prepare a military strike against Iran by the end of March."

Read this in conjunction with my immediately prior post and the the Ha'aretz story linked there. Note also that Palestinians have also this week launched a rocket aimed at PM Sharon's ranch.

Israeli officials differ on "point of no return"

IDF chief Halutz: Iran able to resume enriching uranium in March:

"Iran will be capable of enriching uranium within the next three months, but will have to overcome many technological obstacles before reaching the nuclear 'point of no return,' Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said on Tuesday."

Although this story from the Israeli daily Ha'aretz doesn't make the connection explicitly, it follows upon reports that the Israeli government was setting a March deadline for Iranian compliance with IAEA restrictions on its nuclear program or face unilateral military action by Israel. Those reports hinged on the idea that March would represent a "point of no return" in Iranian nuclear development.

For example, "Two weeks ago, Major Gen. Aharon Ze'evi (Farkash), director of Military Intelligence, told the committee that attempts to use diplomacy to thwart Iran's nuclear plans would be in danger when Iran begins enriching uranium  a phase he defined as the point of no return. 'If Iran's nuclear efforts are not halted by the end of March 2006, there will be no more reason for diplomatic activity,' Ze'evi said at the time."

This would appear to be the context within which we should read the above quote from the IDF COS Dan Halutz. Without renouncing Israel's option to act pre-emptively, he is redefining the "point of no return" to a point some years in the future rather than March 2006.

On the other hand, "[Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense]Committee chair MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said it is clear the Iranians are moving toward nuclear armament and that time is running out for Israel and the world to stop Tehran's advances. He opposed the use of the term 'point of no return,' saying that the process of building a nuclear weapon could be stopped at any point."

Meanwhile, the leaders of Iran continue to make gratuitously unhelpful public statements. Following close on the heels of new President Ahmedinejad denying that the Holocaust ocurred, we have this statement from the real top man in Iran telling one of the region's top terrorist leaders to keep up the killing, "Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, encouraged Palestinians yesterday to continue their struggle against Israel. Iranian television reported that Khamenei told Hamas leader Khaled Meshal that 'the experience of the last 50 years teaches that negotiation with the Zionist occupation doesn't improve the situation. We will achieve victory through the struggle only.'"

Scots-Irish in America

Belfast Telegraph:

"Federal Government estimates, conveyed in the 2000 census, reveal that in the United States an estimated 44 million people have Irish identity, in various forms.

"Of these, 56% are identified as tracing their roots back to families, mainly of Presbyterian stock, who moved from Ulster through the 18th century."

So writes Bill Kennedy, author of nine books on the Scots-Irish and their role in the settlement of the American frontier, especially the area stretching from western Pennsylvania through the western portions of Virginia (including what later became West Virginia) and the Carolinas and into the eastern portions of Kentucky and Tennessee. My paternal granmother was a McHugh, so I figure this is a part of my heritage as well. The article includes a list of Kennedy's books which might be of interest to others, especially Southrons, who share this inheritance.

Evidence of asymmetrical warfare?

BREITBART.COM - Hacker attacks in US linked to Chinese military: researchers:

"[Alan] Paller [the director of the SANS Institute, an education and research organization focusing on cybersecurity] said the US government strategy appears to be to downplay the attacks, which has not helped the situation.

"'We have a problem that our computer networks have been terribly and deeply penetrated throughout the United States ... and we've been keeping it secret,' he said.

"'The people who benefit from keeping it secret are the attackers.'

"Although Paller said the hackers probably have not obtained classified documents from the Pentagon, which uses a more secure network, it is possible they stole 'extremely sensitive' information."

The Pentagon claims that there are many attempts to compromise Defense Department computer systems daily and that all are foiled. However, some defense contractors appear to be less successful in thwarting attempts to penetrate their sensitive systems. For some interesting background on economic espionage aimed at America, I recommend again War by Other Means by John J. Fialka.

A non-Christian appreciation of Narnia

The Lion, the Witch and the Metaphor - New York Times:

"As a child, I never knew that Aslan was 'Jesus.' And that's a good thing. My mother recently remarked that if she'd known the stories were Christian, she wouldn't have given me the books - which are among my dearest childhood memories."

So says Jessica Siegel in an NYT Op-Ed. I didn't discover Narnia until I was in my mid-20s, so I never had the opportunity to see the Chronicles as merely "ripping good yarns." But I do believe that, while it is important to recognize that great literary works have multiple layers of meaning, the first requirement is a good story that keeps the audience interested to the end. You can look at Richard III as a treatise on legitimacy in government or the Merchant of Venice as an essay against racism, but if they weren't good stories no one would still be reading them after all these years.

Some commentators (although not Ms. Siegel) on the controversy surrounding release of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie have questioned how some Christians can be so positive about the role of "magic" in the land of Narnia and so negative about its role in Hogwarts School. Part of the answer is the underlying Christian metaphor of Lewis' stories, but only part. I believe another factor is the uses of magic. The good folk in Lewis' tales (like those in most of the much older stories collected by the Brothers Grimm) are not casting spells and seeking their own power. Their use of magic is mostly defensive and reactive. Of course, some also see Snow White, Rose Red and other Grimm tales as metaphorical retelling of stories with Christian themes.

Seattle think tank assesses Japan's new assertiveness in East Asia vis-a-vis Taiwan

Japan's passive stance over Taiwan long gone - The Honolulu Advertiser :

"The study asserts: 'Taiwan's quiet initiative to push for a greater level of informal defense contacts with Japan arises in no small part from shared history and democratic values, common strategic constraints and island threat environments, as well as the close relations that both Tokyo and Taipei maintain with the United States.'"

The study also note the increasing tendency of of regional politics to split into Chinese vs. US blocs. As a long-time supporter of Taiwan, going back to the days of US Rep. Walter Judd, MD (R-MN) and the Committee of One Million Against the Admission of Red China to the United Nations, I am happy to see this development.

Seattle think tank assesses Japan

Japan's passive stance over Taiwan long gone - The Honolulu Advertiser :

"The study asserts: 'Taiwan's quiet initiative to push for a greater level of informal defense contacts with Japan arises in no small part from shared history and democratic values, common strategic constraints and island threat environments, as well as the close relations that both Tokyo and Taipei maintain with the United States.'"

Dead or Alive: Conservatism in America

RealClearPolitics - Commentary - Conservative Movement at a Dead End? by Michael Barone:

"Has the American conservative movement reached a dead end? That is the impression you might have gotten if you attended the panel discussions sponsored by the James Madison program at Princeton University earlier this month."

An interesting and cautiously optimistic view of the state of the American conservative movement from one of the most astute observers of American politics.

Better than I could say it

New York Daily News - Home - Stanley Crouch: Pryor's flawed legacy:

"When we look at the remarkable descent this culture has made into smut, contempt, vulgarity and the pornagraphic, those of us who are not willing to drink the Kool-Aid marked 'all's well,' will have to address the fact that it was the combination of confusion and comic genius that made Pryor a much more negative influence than a positive one."

For all that we may rightly sympathize with Pryor for the tragic circumstance of his last years ravaged by MS, or his struggle with the demons of his soul that led to his attempted suicide in the famouse cocaine-freebasing incident, it is important to take a realistic view of Richard Pryor's career and its impact on American popular culture in the latter part of the 20th century.

His early career seems to have been a reaction against the unfortunate circumstances of his upbringing. His first TV gig was on the Merv Griffin Show which, in its day, was fairly safe and wholesome venue. Later, as this essay by Stanley Crouch makes clear, Pryor turned back to his roots in a very unhelpful way. This is all the more sad because Pryor was a film writer and actor and live comedy performer of very considerable skill and talent.

Are bikini-clad girls bad for Brazil's image?

Rio de Janeiro cracks down on sex - The Other Side - Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au:

"Rio de Janeiro governor Rosinha Matheus has banned businesses from displaying or selling the postcards [of pretty girls in micro-bikinis]."

The story says the governor is afraid those postcards will encourage "sex tourism." Perhaps so, but it is all in the eye of the beholder. Postcards of fat, middle-aged men in speedos might also have the effect the governor fears; it just depends on the tastes of the audience. All things being equal, which they aren't, I suspect the scantily clad girls will do more good than harm for the image of the beach at Copacabana and the profitability of the businesses and employees that depend upon it.

Native v. Muslim immigrant rioting Down Under

The mob sings Waltzing Matilda - National - theage.com.au:

"'I've got a four-year-old girl and a boy who's 11, and they see these bastards come here and stand around the sea baths 'cos their women have got to swim in clothes and stuff, or they see them saying filthy things to our girls,' he said. 'That's not Australian. My granddad fought the Japs to see Australia safe from this sort of shit, and that's what I'm doing today.'"

So said "Steely" (who was also reported to have said he declined to give his name for fear of reprisals from the Lebs - Aussie slang for Lebanese) of the religious tensions in the surfing community of Cronulla. France, Belgium and Denmark are not the only places where Muslim immigration and reaction against it is causing sporadic breakdowns of public order.

The Age, of course, refers to this as a racial confrontation and says it is the worst in the area since some anti-Chinese riot in 1860. The story notes a class or economic dimension to some prior disturbances of public order in this neighborhood going back to the 1960s, but never a word that this is in any significant way a religious conflict.

This particular round of violence began when a lifeguard asked a group of Lebanese immigrant men not to play soccer on the beach as they were disturbing other visitors and was attacked for his trouble. The next day the locals turned out in force to claim the Cronulla beach as their turf to the exclusion of the Lebs.

A very sad affair all around, but a cautionary tale nonetheless about the limits of rapid assimilation. The government leaders who craft immigration policy may be, as they seem to imply of themselves, the sort of folks who can make such a policy work. Or, they may merely be the sort of folks who figure the only immigrants they will ever have to deal with personally will be their servants. In any case, they don't seem to appreciate that wishing doesn't make things so except in Disney movies and merely making pious speeches about how other people ought to get along with one another doesn't ensure peaceful communities.

I told you so

My Way News:

"She [White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend] said the biggest lesson from the test was the leading role that state and local governments would have to play in responding to a pandemic.

"'This is not going to be a federal answer to the problem,' she said. 'The federal government has got a support role to play. But frankly, I think, really very important is the state and local efforts.'"

It seems to me that I made this point weeks ago when they first started the scare campaign over the H5N1 avian influenza. All the airy talk of the military and quarantines and all boils down to the simple fact that if such a thing happened the Feds could not cope and now they have admitted as much.

Moreover, the responsible authorities seem to be backing off their former worst case scenario and now speak of 92 million infected (about one person in three) and two million deaths. This is awful, but it does not threaten the survival of the nation directly. What we ought to be asking now is "How many people will be sick at any one time?" and just how incapacitated they will be. Is there a real danger of collapse of essential infrastructure? Could this event, if it came to pass, embolden a rival nation to take military action against us?