Soccer Dad

Quick hits

This week's Carnival of the Vanities is at Pundit Guy. There were a few items worth mentioning.

The media was all hot for a special prosecutor to investigate the leak of Valerie Plame's name to Robert Novak. Now Libertarian Leanings notices that media's no longer so keen on the investigation because their own have been targeted. Similar thoughts at OpinionJournal. The whole seems like a non issue to me. I forget where I saw it but in all likelihood when Robert Novak heard that the administration sent Wilson to investigate he wondered why the administration would send someone so opposed to its policies. (It's worth noting that Novak himself was against the war with Iraq. He often defends Saudi interests.) Whomever he talked to said, didn't you know, his wife recommended him? And what people forget is that last July Susan Schmidt of the Washington Post reported that many of Joesph Wilson's charges against the administration were unfounded.

Similar to my Taxman contribution to CotV, Coyote Blog notes that governments often regret taxing behavior that they seek to regulate. The taxes work, killing a revenue stream. Just like the jokers who now want to start taxing the miles driven to make up for "lost" taxes caused by hybrid drivers.

Locusts and Honey arguest that the views of the anti-Israel left are repugnant. But he claims that they are just that, anti-Israel and not antisemitic.

Rather, the Left hates Israel because it is Western, not because it is Jewish.

It's a provocative statement (I mean that in a good way), but I'm not sure that I buy it. After all as Locusts and Honey acknowledges the Left is allied with the Arab cause that includes the killing of Jews.

Clarity and Resolve asserts that "Israel is Just." And he backs it up. He's right of course. The problem is that the world's moral center is so confused that it's necessary to make such a statement.

Michael Freund looks at a recent Gallup poll showing that Americans support Israel by a wide margin. Gallup's information used to be free and for as long as I traced it, roughly 3 - 4 times as many Americans stated that they sympathized with Israel as sympathized with the Palestinians. That ratio has largely held reqardless if the popularity 30% Israel/ 10% Palestinians or as it is now 52% Israel/ 18% Palestinian. But I think Michael makes a mistake when he writes:

What is truly extraordinary about the results is the fact that despite the widespread bias of the mainstream media, the overwhelming majority of Americans still side with Israel. It is almost as if the steady diet of anti-Israel propaganda being fed to the American public by various media outlets has little, if any, real impact on their world-view.

If the media weren't biased the ratio would have been 6 or more to 1 favoring Israel. And there wouldn't be as many who blame both sides (or none) for the problems in the Middle East.

Lately I've found myself enjoying the ruminations of Parsha Blog on the Parsha (the weekly Torah reading) and other subjects of Jewish interest. In particular I was impressed with his arguments against Marc Shapiro's critique of the Rambam (Maimonides). I couldn't put my finger on what bothered me of what I'd read of Dr. Shapiro's work. I think that Parsha Blog did an excellent job of identifying the problem. Another post I enjoyed was his analysis of the issue of pre-nuptial agreements and why it is correct for Rabbi Elyashiv to stand on his principles.

The Hedgehog Report reports that Montgomery County Executive, Doug Duncan is starting to hit Baltimore Mayor Martin O"Malley for his wishy washiness on slots. The Washington Post as THR notes noticed it too. (And later on, THR mentions that Duncan is also criticizing the state of education in Baltimore City.)
The Washington Post editorial is important for another reason. Both the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post are opposed to Governor Ehrlich. Each will be doing its utmost to portray him in a negative light. But until the primary each paper will have a different agenda. Each will be working to promote its native son. The Washington Post will be campaigning for the executive of the neighboring jurisdiction as the Sun will be campaigning for the mayor of the city it serves. So the Washington Post's editorial criticizing Mayor O'Malley's stand on slots is the first salvo in that war. Expect Sun editorials to dilute their opposition to slots when discussing O'Malley vs. Duncan.

Dov Bear guesses the ages of Jewish (?) Bloggers. Here, here and here. A former roommate of mine once argued that it made sense to guess who was on the other end of the line (before Caller ID). Either you were right or you were wrong. If you were right, the person would be impressed; if not, he/she would forget. It's a no-lose proposition. The same pretty much applied here. Those about whom DB was correct (like me) are impressed, the others are amused. I thought it was a nice riff off acknowledging another blogger's special birthday!

Crossing the Rubicon2 has an item on Houston Hate Crimes. It's worth noting that since the FBI has started keeping hate crime statistics antisemitic incidents occur about 1/3 the frequency of anti-Black incidents. Given the relative populations of both groups, that would mean that the frequency of antisemitic incidents is twice the frequency of anti-Black incidents. What's missing though is some sort of measure of severity. If most antisemitic incidents were against property and a higher percentage of anti-Black hate crimes were against people that would say that we shouldn't be as concerned about antisemitic hate crimes. However if the breakdowns are similar there's cause for concern. I'm not saying that we have to leave the US on the next flight. (Not that that's a bad idea :-) Just that the problem of antisemitism in the United States is more significant than many people realize.

Posted by SoccerDad at February 25, 2005 01:43 AM | TrackBack