Soccer Dad

Watchers of weasels 10/25/2006

Though I haven't posted last week's winners yet, here are this weeks nominations from the Watcher's Council.

AbbaGav considers the options we have in dealing with Iran and North Korea. No option is particularly satisfying leading him to conclude

At this pivotal time, when legitimate and believable threats of deterrence are our best chance, we hear too many reassurances to Iran that it need never suffer the indignity of including the threat of Western force in its nuclear calculations. Germany. Russia. Nut-root democrats who can't tell the difference between Iran and Vietnam, or between Bush and Hitler. They still just don't get it. I hate to think what it will take for that to change. At this point in history, 5 years after the Mossad took down the Twin Towers in order to enforce Zionist world domination and draw America into a war with Islam, even a mushroom cloud over Manhattan could be explained away ("only the CIA and the Mossad are sophisticated enough to blow up a city," "Iran follows the Religion of Peace and could not possibly be responsible," "the Jews were all called out of New York that day," etc.)

American Future specifically covering North Korea gives (with erudition but without the humor) a historical overview of the North Korea's nuclear history and what effect that might have on Japan's nuclear and military ambitions.

If the Japanese are to be dissuaded from transforming their country from a potential to an actual nuclear power, it is essential that the North Korean nuclear weapons program be eliminated, preferably through diplomatic means, but, if necessary, by force. Since 1998, when Pakistan held its first nuclear test, Tokyo has lived in a neigborhood inhabited by three nuclear states. But Tokyo has not perceived Pakistan, India and China as imminent existential threats. A nuclear North Korea under the control of an unpredictable Stalinist regime and harboring long-standing historical grudges against Japan is another matter entirely. Without question, Kim Jong Il unnerves the Japanese. Depending on Kim's future actions and the international community's reaction to them, it is my judgment that Tokyo could decide that it has no choice but to quickly develop a nuclear arsenal overwhelmingly larger than anything of which Pyongyang is capable.

Charles Krauthammer has had a column or two on the topic.

Done with Mirrorshas many questions about Stephen Swails, one of the first black commissioned officers in the US Army

Today, what label would Stephen Swails carry in America? What label ought he to carry? Do we use labels like that anymore? Is there really such a thing as biological race? Are we honoring only half this man today? Is it accurate to describe him as "black"? If accurate, is it proper? What if someone wanted to raise a marker to him to "increase the awareness of the involvement of whites in the Civil War and Reconstruction in South Carolina"?

The Education Wonks reports on some students in Texas who raise the flag - the Mexican flag and observes

As one who has spent quite a bit of time South of the Border, I can positively assert that any Mexican public school student who even attempted to raise an American flag over his or her campus would soon find his or herself expelled for the remainder of the year and quite possibly probably in need of urgent medical attention.

Gates of Vienna observes the growing lawlessness in Paris and wants to know When Will the First IED Explode in Paris?

In reading about this level of destruction and hatred, one can't help but compare again. What other civilized Western nation would put up with this chronic level of lawlessness and destruction? Officer Beschizza is spot on: there is a civil war going on, and the French police are the target the French jihadists are using to get on with the battle. The police perception that these criminals poor, deprived youths are planning to murder them is a reasonable conclusion. The police are the ones on the scene, they are the foot soldiers daily experience; they can calculate the changes in the terrorist weather much better than the airheads in government who promise change and deliver nothing.

The Glittering Eye considers the history of piracy and whether any lessons may be learned from it to apply to terrorism

Although piracy was clearly a matter of law enforcement putting it down was beyond the powers of local constabularies: just as creating the conditions under which piracy flourished required the involvement of central governments so did putting piracy down. There were three key factors which accomplished this.
First, the laws of the sea were changed to make piracy easier to prosecute. Second, armies and navies eliminated pirate bases and actively pursued pirates. Finally, states extended their own power sufficiently that they no longer supported non-state actors.

J O S H U A P U N D I T applauds Rep. Duncan Hunter's efforts to un-embed CNN reporters after CNN broadcast a film of insurgents fighting American troops. And he makes an apt observation

When President Bush made the comparision between what's going on in Baghdad right now and the Tet offensive , he was speaking, I think, more about the strategy the enemy is using than actual similarities in the overall situation - get the leftist Main Stream Media on your side and bring the casualties into America's living rooms so they'll think they're losing.

Rhymes with Right has ticked someone off and that must mean that he's doing something right.

This is an attempt to embarrass me and silence me -- and there have also been email and online threats to try to get me fired from my teaching job (I guess you have to be a left-wing academic fraud and faux-ethnic like Ward Churchill to qualify for free speech in the academy). But I look around at folks I admire -- Sean Hannity, Bill Bennett, Michelle Malkin, Dr. Mike Adams -- and I recognize my beliefs as mainstream. Yes, my rhetoric is Coulteresque, but it certainly is more elevated than what is found on "mainstream" leftwing sites like Kos or Democrat Underground.

Right Wing Nuthouse describes what's wrong with a recently posted Liberal Manifesto

I believe in the collective wisdom of the people over the ability of government to determine what is actually the “common good.” And this is the primary difference between liberals and conservatives. In a nation of 300 million people, popular will makes itself known only through the ballot box and not in some academics ivory tower or conference room at a liberal think tank. The failure of modern liberalism to understand this simple, straightforward truth about America and her people is why they continue to lose elections – not because they haven’t “defined themselves” properly. They can come out with a dozen “Manifestos” and as long as they refuse to acknowledge their utter and complete contempt for the will of the people, they will remain in the political wilderness.

Shrinkwrapped celebrates the arrival of the 300 millionth American and wonders how his generation will continue getting around

When the Narcissistic character ages, his usual sources of self-esteem regulation break down. He no longer has the kinds of sexual stamina and prowess he had in his youth (and no amount of Viagra can hide the fact from himself.) Her beauty is fading and men no longer stare at her on the street, preferring to stare at her daughter (and men are pigs anyway.) Young turks have the energy to compete in the global market and the old graybeards can only get along just so far with their wiles and wisdom before recognizing their time is passing. Approaching retirement, Baby Boomer women begin to have a dawning awareness that they really couldn't have it all; some choices, once made, precluded other possibilities later, and there are no do-overs. This is why the elites are so unhappy. The world has changed and not to their liking, and the world is no longer about us, but about our children.

The Sundries Shack raises the alarm that it's time to wake up

Given that these facts (and I call them such because they have been substantiated by numerous incidents and quotes to bear them out) exist, I can not begin to understand how my countrymen ignore them. It’s not as if there are persuasive arguments to refute any of them. I’ve seen hundreds of people try. None has come even close. Every one of them eventually has to resort to faith and/or insult, or simply admit that they had been wrong.

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Posted by SoccerDad at October 26, 2006 5:53 AM