A BAD REVIEW FOR TOM PAULIN:

He comes across, in any event, as someone who needs to belabor the obvious in order to drown out his own conscience. He is not an anti-Semite, at least not in the chilly way Eliot was. Paulin is something slightly less dangerous, because easier to spot. He’s a thug.

Actually, it’s probably too kind.

STEVEN CHAPMAN has a nice sum-up post on Britain’s latest gun flap and the policy “summit” that it has inspired.

THE “PEACE” MOVEMENT — still in disarray, as this report and these photos from the Los Angeles demonstration today, er, demonstrate.

So far, Jim Henley’s sighting of reasonable antiwar activism seems an isolated incident.

UPDATE: Reader Bill McCabe emails:

As a further example of how stupid these guys are: Not only are they dumb

enough to associate the U.S. with the Nazis, they also manage to draw the

swastika backwards.

Well, since it’s a digital photo, this can’t come from a reversed negative!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Er, yes, I know that you can reverse a digital photo. But it takes a couple of mouse clicks — it won’t happen accidentally by dropping the negative.

There’s more discussion on this photo and the protests here.

IS THERE A “secret war on condoms?”

UPDATE: Medpundit Sydney Smith says that claims of an anti-condom war are wildly overblown.

On the other hand, SKBubba emails:

I was flipping through the cable news channels night before last (there was a choice of Connie Chung, Phil Donohue, and Bill O’Reilly — what a lineup, eh?).

For some morbid reason, I paused on Donohue for a second, and there was this shrill frizzy air head from some outfit called “Abstinence Until Marriage” or something who goes around to Houston (?) schools teaching abstinence and promoting virginity as the hip new thing.

She said they don’t teach sex education because sex education is “sex invitation” (she said that about fifty times).

When asked about contraceptives, she said they weren’t allowed to talk about that except to say that CONDOMS DON’T WORK. It says so right there on the package. “MAY PREVENT”, the key word being “MAY”. Condoms are dangerous, shouldn’t be given away to kids, yada, yada. Abstinence is the best policy.

When asked about the fact that probably 50% of teenagers are sexually active and wasn’t her message therefore a little late for them, she really didn’t have a good response except that virginity is fashionable.

Guess we’ll see a spike in teen pregnancy and HIV and other STDs in Houston pretty soon. Nice work.

Condoms don’t work all the time, but then neither do seatbelts. But some people just don’t belong behind the wheel, belted or not. . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Brian Ellenberger emails:

I just wanted to give my perspective as one of those evil “right-wing” evangelical Christians the NY Times hates so much.

A) Evangelical Christians have no fundamental problems with condoms, unlike Catholics. See Reformation–Catholics vs. Protestants. I recommend Mr. Kristof rent Monty Python’s Meaning of Life to get a basic understanding of the different views Catholics and Protestants have toward condoms.

B) Evangelical Christians DO have a problem with their kids getting liberal views forced down their throat. Liberals want to ban “Christmas Trees” because they are too Christian, but feel no qualms about forcing their beliefs on others. This battle isn’t about condoms. It is about the culture war.

C) Anyone who isn’t a virgin knows that completely avoiding any contact with bodily fluid during sex is pretty darn hard. Especially if you are going to half-way enjoy yourself. Think Naked-Gun full body condom for complete protection. Heck think foreplay. Sure the risk may be slight, but it still is a risk. And over time probability catches up with you. Not to mention simple human error. Maybe you get lazy after a while or you simply trust the person you are with too much. And your judgement isn’t exactly 100% during sex *cough* raging-hormones *cough*, especially if you have already had a drink or two.

Waiting till marriage sure has advantages. :)

Well, I’m certainly glad that I didn’t wait until marriage, especially as I didn’t get married until age 33. . . .

IS KARL ROVE “GASLIGHTING” PAUL KRUGMAN? If so, it seems to be working. . . .

D.C. GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION AND INEPTITUDE: Another episode.

UPDATE: Reader Doug Jordan emails:

Having recently written you with moderate support for the DC police department, I have no hesitation in blowing the whistle on the DC Department of Motor Vehicles.

My contest to a traffic ticket was just denied. My offense: driving with an expired registration. Reason: even though it is UNDISPUTED that I renewed on time, and paid the fee on time (I have receipts), and it is UNDISPUTED that the district did not register the renewal or issue the stickers (they did both after the ticket was issued, under pressure from my Councilwoman, based on the earlier registration and payment), the adjudicator rules that it was nevertheless MY responsibility to have gotten the sticker.

How? By forgery? Lessee here, three-part process: 1) I register and pay fee; 2) DMV issues sticker; 3) I affix sticker. I did 1), and was prepared to do 3), but was prevented from doing so by non-occurrence of 2), which was kinda outside my control.

Oh, should I have stopped driving when the registration expired without DMV action? Acquiesce in revocation of driving privileges without due process? I think not.

My councilwoman’s staff is frustrated and angry. But I have no recourse but to pay $100 ticket and appeal, which costs an extra $10, with little hope of seeing the money again. To add injury and insult to injury and insult, today’s mail brought news that my license had been suspended for non-response to the ticket — two days after receiving an adjudication predicated on my response!

Kafka on the Potomac. I called a Virginia real estate broker on Thursday. DC ineptitude, illustrated.

I once got a ticketed in D.C. for “driving through a flashing yellow light.” I beat it in court (my novel defense: it’s not against the law to drive through a flashing yellow light) but I shouldn’t have had to.

Don McArthur is also unimpressed with the District’s state of governance.

DOES THIS mean the war’s about to start?

TRENT TELENKO has some observations on what we can learn about North Korea strategy from North Korean defectors.

MY LAW-SCHOOL schoolmate Eric Muller, now a law professor at North Carolina, emails:

I’m surprised to see no blogging today on the guilty plea in the Lackawanna NY case. I think the signficance of this plea is huge, if only because it so starkly distinguishes our situation today from that faced in 1941 after Pearl Harbor. The law reviews are filling up with pieces comparing the Bush administration’s policies touching on race and ethnicity with the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. (David Cole’s, Kevin Johnson’s, and Frank Wu’s recent pieces come most quickly to mind, but I’ve seen others.) But the condemnation of the internment always focuses, at least in part, on the irrationality of attributing pro-Japanese sentiment (and subversive action) to American citizens of Japanese ancestry. And we often hear that there was not a single documented incident of pro-Axis subversive activity by an American citizen of Japanese ancestry during the war. (As it happens, this is not quite true, but it’s very close to true.)

With this guilty plea (and the alleged conduct of Hamdi and Padilla, I suppose), what was true in 1942 is now false: now we *do* have a documented instance of support for Osama bin Laden by *American citizens*, born in this country and of Arab ancestry. The citizen/alien line–so crucial to the wrongfulness of the Japanese American internment–has now been breached.

Naturally, this is not an argument for the internment of Arab Americans, or, for that matter, for *any* sort of programmatic action against anyone. But I think it ought to undermine the too-easy analogy to the internment that many scholars have been slinging at the administration for the last year or so.

(BTW, I’m spouting about this only because the internment is something I know a lot about. My book on the internment, Free to Die for their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II, came out from U of Chicago Press just after 9/11/01.)

I meant to post on that story yesterday, but the “plogging” video drove that thought (and most others) out of my head. . . . But this seems absolutely right to me. The wrongfulness in the World War Two internments, after all, wasn’t that they happened, but that they were unjustified. Had significant numbers of American citizens of Japanese descent actually been working for the enemy, the internments would have been a regrettable necessity rather than an outrageous injustice.

Here’s a link to the guilty-plea story.

UPDATE: Reader Douglas Landrum emails:

As a person who worked to support the redress legislation for the Japanese Internment, I think that Professor Muller is right on the mark.

I attended several JACL (Japanese America Citizen’s League) meetings at the time of the redress legislation and observed a very different reaction by Japanese Americans from Muslims in the United States. Every JACL meeting commenced with the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge was not recited as an empty gesture either, the Japanese Americans made very clear their allegiance to the United States and their pride in fighting for the United States in every war from WWII on. I listened to Minoru Yasui tell his story about how hard he tried to join his reserve unit as a U.S. Army Reserve second lieutenant but was interned instead. See this link.

This is in stark contrast to many Muslims (not all) who howl about perceived civil rights violations and yet refuse to assimilate American values and culture, treat their wives and daughters as slaves and seek to supplant religious freedom with Islamic tyranny. Where are vocal Muslims denouncing Islamist terrorists and supporting America?

I would also observe that Norm Mineta’s random gate searches of airline passengers is based on an overreaction to the injustice of the internment. The circumstances of 9/11 fully justify profiling of males of Arab descent and limiting gate searches to those meeting the profile of people who have actually acted as suicide bombers or suicide hijackers. The guilty plea in Lackawanna further supports the notion that we have fellow travelers in country that meet a specific profile – although Padilla does not meet the profile. Gate searches should be more focused to apprehend or deter the likely perpetrators. Gate searches of Arab men are a far cry from internment camps regardless of the howls of CAIR and lunatic civil liberties groups.

If we have one more big terrorist attack on the United States, we will see public demand for a crack down on Arabic men in the United States. At that time, I will be a voice for a measured and reasonable response to those living here.

I think I should add two points. First, there are American Muslims who are quite loyal — the Lackawanna Six, after all, were turned in by members of the local Yemeni Muslim community. Other American Muslims have begun to question the role of Saudi money in Muslim institutions in the United States, and the drastic drop in giving to foreign charities by American Muslims who wonder where the money goes is also a good sign. Then there’s this guy:

Syed Ali, 35, was working at the Amoco station on Ocean Ave. in Sheepshead Bay at about 4 a.m. when he sold $2 worth of fuel to the alleged would-be arsonist.

The Pakistani immigrant said he watched in disbelief as Sead Jakup, 22, took the canister across the street and began dousing the Young Israel of Kings Bay synagogue.

Ali quickly called 911, and cops arrived before Jakup, a Bosnian Muslim, could set the temple ablaze.

“Mr. Ali saved the shul [synagogue],” said Allen Popper, president of the synagogue. “He’s a hero.”

But Landrum is certainly right to indicate that the conspicuous shows of patriotism by the Japanese American community in World War II have not been matched by the Arab Muslim community in America. (Though there have been a number of barely-covered pro-war demonstrations by Iraqi-Americans).

Sadly, various taboos mean that this issue isn’t getting the examination it deserves from journalists or political leaders. And those who favor extensive profiling should note the photos of Ali — the hero — and Jakup — the alleged terrorist — and think about which one of the two would be more likely to come in for close attention under most profiling proposals.

I HAVE A DREAM: I was dozing just now while my daughter was playing with her dolls. I dreamed I was in a Denny’s-like restaurant where the menu items had a blogger theme. The Egg McMuffin equivalent was something called “The English Idiotarian,” and featured a menu blurb stating that “Robert Fisk himself would be proud to order this hearty. . .” I wish I’d slept long enough to read the whole menu!

SEAN HACKBARTH tried an experiment, covering an accident on his blog and beating the AP by six hours. Scroll up for the results.

When we get widespread combined PDA/cellphone/digital cameras (already more-or-less available) this will really take off, I think. What I’d really like is an add-on to Movable Type that would allow you to email a post, with an attached photo, directly to your blog from one of those devices. I’ll bet we’ll see something like that within a year. With luck, even sooner.

RACINE RAVE UPDATE: Talkleft reports that a settlement may be in the works.

A PACK, not a herd.

JEFF JARVIS says that vlogging is the future. Victor Lams says that plogging is the future. I link — you decide.

Historians and sociologists of the Blogosphere, take note.

PIM FORTUYN’S SUCCESSOR is likely to complicate Dutch politics further. Which they richly deserve.

I THINK THAT MICKEY KAUS is right:

I think they are using Pickering to prick the Lott bubble, to disarm and defuse the old Democratic civil rights/racial politics machine currently clanking back into action. That is, the Bushies expect to win on Pickering, not lose. The case that Lott had expressed unacceptable segregationist longings was strong, after all. The case against Pickering is weak. What better place for the Republicans to make a stand?

Of course, the Bush Administration should really be confusing its opponents by nominating “wedge” candidates who’ll split the liberal coalition: pro-choice, pro-gun, tough-on-crime but strong-on-civil-liberties candidates like, say, Boston University law professor Randy Barnett.

And I have their ultimate Supreme Court pick — but I’ll save his name for later.

WHAT MAKES AMERICA GREAT? Orrin Judd thinks it’s Christianity. John Ray begs to differ. And, whatever it is, Nick Denton thinks America deserves extra points in a degree-of-difficulty sense:

There’s one argument that US cheerleaders should employ, but don’t: it’s a miracle that the US can even match Europe in productivity. Over the last three centuries, the US has taken the world’s dropouts: losers in African tribal warfare, starving Chinese peasants, starving Irish peasants, and wastrel Brits. Sure, there were a few refugees and Nobel prizewinners in the mix, but the mass was overwhelmingly tired and huddled. With such dismal human capital, any kind of functioning economy is a miracle, and testament to the American way.

Well, we let you in, Nick. . . . Or, in Bill Murray’s immortal words from Stripes:

We’re all very different people. We’re not Watusi, we’re not Spartans, we’re Americans! With a capital “A,” huh? And you know what that means? Do you? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world!

It always comes back to Bill Murray, doesn’t it?

UPDATE: Reader Daniel Newhouse observes:

I do not have a complete view of America’s changing demographics, but in current times there is a phenomena that foreigners refer to as the “brain drain.” Because the economies of Europe (and India) are dysfunctional the best and brightest graduates from overseas attempt to come to the United States to go to graduate school or to get a job. Because our education system is dysfunctional we desperately need them. Thus is Western civilization kept going.

There’s a kind of fearful symmetry in that, isn’t there?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Nelson Ascher emails:

I strongly disagree with Denton. He’s not considering the following: to take a plane today and go elsewhere in the planet is just trivial. A century ago, however, most people spent their whole lives in or around the village they (and their ancestors) were born. To move from their hometown to a big city was already a scary adventure.

Imagine, then, crossing the ocean, going to a place reputedly full of man-eating savages, having to learn another language without even knowing how to write one’s own. Leaving Europe for America didn’t take any less “cojones” in the 19th century than in Hernan Cortez’s time, nor did it look less of a risky enterprise than exploring the “Dark Continent”.

Most of those who left said farewell to their parents, families, communities forever. And usually they had indeed a less scary choice: staying where they were, allowing themselves to be enslaved, massacred, starved to death as countless generations had done before. Only those who had courage, motivation and initiative dared to leave their Polish “shtetl”, Irish slum, Sicialian village for good. Even nowadays, ask anybody if he/she would easily abandon everything, every certitude and begin elsewhere, in some unimaginably strange place, from zero.

The migrants who went to the Americas, Australia, Israel were, in a Darwinian sense, those who didn’t want to give up without a fight: and they were the exception.

I’m inclined to agree. That’s one reason why I favor immigration even today. I think it should be just hard enough to produce the requisite sorting effect, and I think that immigrants must accept American values. But if they’re willing to do that, I’m willing to take them, wherever they’re from. In fact, I’m more than willing — I’m eager.

But is it just me, or is the “brain drain” already having an effect on the rest of the world?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Matt Bower notes:

I agree with you and with Nelson Ascher on this front and, like you, I generally support immigration for that reason. But I also suspect that the factors that have made America great–lots of hard-headed, independent, courageous, determined, borderline anti-social people from all over the world–may also be among the reasons that it’s a pretty violent place. I guess it’s true that you’ve got to take the bad with the good.

True enough — and well worth it. Though the currently skyrocketing crime rates in Britain suggest that there’s more to it than that.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Mark Sloboda emails:

As an aspiring immigrant, I’d say the brain drain has no effect on the rest of the world. One reason I’m here is because I know I’d make no difference to my home society if I stayed, whereas here I can make a difference. It’s a question of staying home and wasting your life or coming here and making something of oneself.

Meanwhile, Howard Owens observes:

Freedom, capitalism — pretty much no brainers to me. The human desire to control one’s own destiny is as natural as breathing. You take your huddled masses and let them roam a large, diverse continent and decide for themselves how to make the best of it, they’re going to figure it out, and they’re going to do a damn good job of it.

America did indeed take in the people Europe no longer wanted, largely because Europe didn’t know what to do with them. Often times Europe couldn’t feed them, couldn’t clothe them and couldn’t educate them. Europe put them in a position of having nothing to lose in taking on a dangerous, difficult journey. It may take some courage to leave your ancestral home for the land of milk and honey, but it doesn’t take a lot when all you have is stone soup.

America’s immigrants were not the greatest raw material Europe had to offer, but those who survived the journey were those who were best suited to making the best of what America had to offer.

Yep. The guy — obviously an immigrant, though I’m not sure from where — who served me at Subway the other day was a good example. He wasn’t doing the best job yet, but he was trying damned hard.

Meanwhile, on the subject of violence, another reader writes:

I want to take issue with Matt Bower’s characterization of America as a violent place. It may be that we have a slightly higher level of daily violence, but we never explode into orgies of death like the Old World does. Have we forgotten WWII and Stalin so quickly? Far, far many more people have been killed in Europe in the past century than in the US.

Good point. We do retail; they do wholesale.

STILL ANOTHER UPDATE: Another reader writes:

I agree that immigration acts a sorting mechanism, and that immigrants can bring new vigor to the country. But you make a critical distinction when you say that immigrants: “must accept American values”. This is key.

An immigrant that accepts American values is an asset; one that does not is a danger. And today we seem to be actively fostering the danger.

One hundred years ago, during the last big immigration wave, we had a strong self-confident (call it chauvanistic, if you like) culture, where “Americanizing” immigrants was accepted as a matter of course. Today the government, academia, and the “civil-rights” lobby all combine to promote ethnic separatism, “multiculturalism” and “diversity”.

I agree. I don’t care if people keep harmless aspects of their native culture, so long as they buy into American ideals of freedom, etc. But I think it’s entirely fair to insist on a degree of cultural assimilation where key American values are involved.

BRAD WARDELL weighs in on the let-South-Korea-hang side.

UPDATE: Tacitus has a lot of information and links on Korea, and on anti-Americanism in South Korea.

I predict that — just as East Bloc intelligence services were behind a lot of the anti-nuclear protests in Europe in the 1980s, and slipping money into some politicians’ pockets in the West as well — North Korea has a hand in some of this. I also predict that — again, as with Europe — most of it will be covered up even after North Korea falls.

ANOTHER DRUG-RELATED SHOOTING.

WINDS OF CHANGE is back up, and Joe Katzman has added some excellent co-bloggers.

DANG: I forgot to wish HappyFunPundit happy blogiversary yesterday. But it’s Joanne Jacobs’ blogiversary today!

UPDATE: And Laurence Simon’s too!

RAMSEY CLARK on Jesus as a terrorist.

He’s obviously an agent provocateur sent to discredit the antiwar left. Nobody could really be this stupid.

UPDATE: Michele responds.

PROF. PETER KIRSTEIN has apologized for his remarks about the U.S. military and baby killing. Those who are less advanced in their views than Prof. Kirstein, however, might profit from looking at this.

WHAT WOULD JESUS DRIVE? Who cares! Damian Penny answers the far-more-important question of what do bloggers drive?

IT’S A POETRY-FEST over at Tim Blair’s.