Heritage Quote

It is evident from the state of the country, from the habits of the people, from the experience we have had on the point itself, that it is impracticable to raise any very considerable sums by direct taxation.

-- Alexander Hamilton, 1787 - Federalist No. 12

Heritage Quote

It is a singular advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they contain in their own nature a security against excess. They prescribe their own limit, which cannot be exceeded without defeating the end purposed - that is, an extension of the revenue.

-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 21

Amazing Grace

Charlotte Allen points out that the new movie, "Amazing Grace", downplays the pivotal role that Christianity played in the abolition of slavery.

A shame, really.

The entire review is in the extended entry.

Hollywood's 'Amazing' Glaze
What the new movie covers up about William Wilberforce.

BY CHARLOTTE ALLEN
Friday, February 23, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST

It is rare that a Hollywood film takes up a subject like William Wilberforce (1759-1833), the British parliamentarian who devoted nearly his entire 45-year political career to banning the British slave trade. Alas, a lot of people watching "Amazing Grace," Michael Apted's just-released film, may get the impression--perhaps deliberately fostered by Mr. Apted--that Wilberforce was a mostly secular humanitarian whose main passion was not Christian faith but politics and social justice. Along the way, they may also get the impression that the hymn "Amazing Grace" is no more than an uplifting piece of music that sounds especially rousing on the bagpipes.

In fact, William Wilberforce was driven by a version of Christianity that today would be derided as "fundamentalist." One of his sons, sharing his father's outlook, was the Anglican bishop Samuel Wilberforce, who wrote a passionate critique of "The Origin of the Species," arguing that Darwin's then-new theory could not fully account for the emergence of human beings. William Wilberforce himself, as a student at Cambridge University in the 1770s and as a young member of Parliament soon after, had no more than a nominal sense of faith. Then, in 1785, he began reading evangelical treatises and underwent what he called "the Great Change," almost dropping out of politics to study for the ministry until friends persuaded him that he could do more good where he was.

And he did a great deal of good, as Mr. Apted's movie shows. His relentless campaign eventually led Parliament to ban the slave trade, in 1807, and to pass a law shortly after his death in 1833, making the entire institution of slavery illegal. But it is impossible to understand Wilberforce's long antislavery campaign without seeing it as part of a larger Christian impulse. The man who prodded Parliament so famously also wrote theological tracts, sponsored missionary and charitable works, and fought for what he called the "reformation of manners," a campaign against vice. This is the Wilberforce that Mr. Apted has played down.

And little wonder. Even during the 18th century, evangelicals were derided as over-emotional "enthusiasts" by their Enlightenment-influenced contemporaries. By the time of Wilberforce's "great change," liberal 18th-century theologians had sought to make Christianity more "reasonable," de-emphasizing sin, salvation and Christ's divinity in favor of ethics, morality and a rather distant, deistic God. Relatedly, large numbers of ordinary English people, especially among the working classes, had begun drifting away from the tepid Christianity that seemed to prevail. Evangelicalism sought to counter such trends and to reinvigorate Christian belief.

---

Perhaps the leading evangelical force of the day was the Methodism of John Wesley: It focused on preaching, the close study of the Bible, communal hymn-singing and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Central to the Methodist project was the notion that good works and charity were essential components of the Christian life. Methodism spawned a vast network of churches and ramified into the evangelical branches of Anglicanism. Nearly all the social-reform movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries--from temperance and soup kitchens to slum settlement houses and prison reform--owe something to Methodism and its related evangelical strains. The campaign against slavery was the most momentous of such reforms and, over time, the most successful.

It is thus fitting that John Wesley happened to write his last letter--sent in February 1791, days before his death--to William Wilberforce. Wesley urged Wilberforce to devote himself unstintingly to his antislavery campaign, a "glorious enterprise" that opposed "that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature." Wesley also urged him to "go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it."

Wesley had begun preaching against slavery 20 years before and in 1774 published an abolitionist tract, "Thoughts on Slavery." Wilberforce came into contact with the burgeoning antislavery movement in 1787, when he met Thomas Clarkson, an evangelical Anglican who had devoted his life to the abolitionist cause. Two years later, Wilberforce gave his first speech against the slave trade in Parliament.

As for the hymn "Amazing Grace," from which the film takes its name, it is the work of a friend of Wilberforce's named John Newton (played in the movie by Albert Finney). Newton had spent a dissolute youth as a seaman and eventually became a slave-ship captain. In his 20s he underwent a kind of spiritual crisis, reading the Bible and Thomas à Kempis's "Imitation of Christ." A decade later, having heard Wesley preach, he fell in with England's evangelical movement and left sea-faring and slave-trading behind. Years later, under the influence of Wilberforce's admonitions, he joined the antislavery campaign. The famous hymn amounted to an autobiography of his conversion: "Amazing grace . . . that saved a wretch like me." In the most moving moment of the film--and one of the few that addresses a Christian theme directly--the aged and now-blind Newton declares to Wilberforce: "I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great savior."

This idea of slaving as sin is key. As sociologist Rodney Stark noted in "For the Glory of God" (2003), the abolition of slavery in the West during the 19th century was a uniquely Christian endeavor. When chattel slavery, long absent from Europe, reappeared in imperial form in the 16th and 17th centuries--mostly in response to the need for cheap labor in the New World--the first calls to end the practice came from pious Christians, notably the Quakers. Evangelicals, not least Methodists, quickly joined the cause, and a movement was born.

Thanks to Wilberforce, the movement's most visible champion, Britain ended slavery well before America, but the abolitionist cause in America, too, was driven by Christian churches more than is often acknowledged. Steven Spielberg's 1997 "Amistad," about the fate of blacks on a mutinous slave ship, also obscured the Christian zeal of the abolitionists.

---

Nowadays it is all too common--and not only in Hollywood--to assume that conservative Christian belief and a commitment to social justice are incompatible. Wilberforce's embrace of both suggests that this divide is a creation of our own time and, so to speak, sinfully wrong-headed. Unfortunately director Apted, as he recently told Christianity Today magazine, decided to play down Wilberforce's religious convictions--that would be too "preachy," he said--and instead turned his story into a yarn of political triumph. The film's original screenwriter, Colin Welland, who wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed and unabashedly Christian "Chariots of Fire," was replaced.

The movie "Amazing Grace" nods occasionally in the direction of granting a role to faith in social reform, but it would do us all well to supplement our time in the movie theater by doing some reading about the heroic and amazing Christian who was the real William Wilberforce.

Ms. Allen is an editor for Beliefnet.com, and author of "The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus."

[Used with permission from OpinionJournal.com, a web site from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.]

Heritage Quote

Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

-- Benjamin Franklin, 1789 - letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy

Economics lesson for Sen. Obama

Thomas Sowell presents some economic fundamentals to Senator Obama -- who seems to be ignorant of them.

Senator Obama is being hailed as the newest and freshest face on the American political scene. But he is advocating some of the oldest fallacies, just as if it was the 1960s again, or as if he has learned nothing and forgotten nothing since then.

He thinks higher teacher pay is the answer to the abysmal failures of our education system, which is already far more expensive than the education provided in countries whose students have for decades consistently outperformed ours on international tests.

Senator Obama is for making college “affordable,” as if he has never considered that government subsidies push up tuition, just as government subsidies push up agricultural prices, the price of medical care and other prices.

He is also for “alternative fuels,” without the slightest thought about the prices of those fuels or the implications of those prices. All this is the old liberal agenda from years past, old wine in new bottles, a new face with old ideas that have been tried and failed repeatedly over the past generation.

Senator Obama is not unique among politicians who want to control prices, as if that is controlling the underlying reality behind the prices.

I hope the good senator is teachable.

Go read the rest.

Heritage Quote

"What is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue this part [the necessary and proper clause] of the Constitution and exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them...the success of the usurpation will depend on the executive and judiciary departments, which are to expound and give effect to the legislative acts; and in a last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people, who can by the elections of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers."

-- James Madison, 1788 - Federalist No. 44

Scientists on the "other side"

Thomas Sowell names some prominent, respected, climate scientists who disagree with the 'human-caused global warming' meme.

Are there serious scientists who specialize in weather and climate who have serious doubts about the doomsday scenarios being pushed by global-warming advocates? Yes, there are.

There is S. Fred Singer, who set up the American weather satellite system, and who published some years ago a book titled Hot Talk, Cold Science. More recently, he has co-authored another book on the subject, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years.

Go find out who else does not buy in to the hysteria.

Heritage Quote

"No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity."

-- James Madison, 1787 - Federalist No. 10

Healthcare reform

Sorry I missed this article last week, yet it is intriguing enough to report on it now. Michael Barone reports on Bush's healthcare reform proposal that he mentioned in his SOTU speech this year. Hardly anyone else has even discussed it . . .

Not many expected George W. Bush to advance a serious healthcare proposal in his State of the Union Address, and few expect anyone in Congress to act in response to it. But Bush did, and at least one member of Congress seems interested. More ought to be paying attention.

Bush's proposal in a nutshell is to end the preferential tax treatment for employer-provided health insurance. In 1943, in the midst of World War II, when wage and price controls were in effect, the government decided that employers could deduct the cost of health insurance for their employees and that employees would not be taxed on the value of the policies. This decision has saddled us with a system in which health insurance has been tied to employment, with many perverse results. Healthcare is perceived as a free good, and consumers have no incentive to take costs into account.

Bush proposes to change this by giving every couple paying taxes a standard $15,000 deduction ($7,500 for individuals) for the cost of health insurance. Those with employer-provided insurance worth more than $15,000 (about 20 percent of the total) would be taxed on the additional amount; this would very likely discourage expensive policies.

As a Washington Post editorial on the speech pointed out, this would be a progressive change.

This looks like a good market-based way to make healthcare more available to Americans. Go read the rest.

Heritage Quote

"[T]o preserve the republican form and principles of our Constitution and cleave to the salutary distribution of powers which that [the Constitution] has established...are the two sheet anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be in danger of foundering."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1823 - letter to Judge William Johnson

A Senator with good sense and a backbone

Senator John Kyl actually went to Baghdad and toured the area to try to make his own assessment of the situation. And he said some unpopular things:

U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl said Sunday he's certain that Iran is helping militants stir up violence in Iraq after he toured the region this weekend.

"Everyone here believes the Iranians are involved right up to their eyes," said Kyl, who led a group of congressional members including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., through Kuwait and Baghdad.

He spoke to The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Israel.

[snip]

He said the House of Representatives' nonbinding resolution to reject a 21,500-troop buildup in Iraq bothered some of the soldiers he spoke with.

"It is impossible for the troops not to read about what's going on back in the United States," he said. "It does bother them. Because they see all of the good that's being accomplished here. They're confident in their mission."

[snip]

Nevertheless, Kyl remained committed to supporting an escalation of American troops in the country. He said the added units will give Iraqis hope that the government can clear and hold neighborhoods that had been torn apart by fighting.

"Everybody says that you can feel it when you walk on the streets," Kyl said. "The mood is different. Things are definitely going to change for the better."

At least there are some U.S. Senators with real backbone!

Cusp

Bill Roggio reports on a significant defection from the ranks of Al-Queda in Iraq.

Al-Jabouri's turnaround is stunning, since just last December he was broadcasting al-Qaeda propaganda videos on al-Zawraa. In a response to my article al-Zawraa: Muj TV, al-Jabouri openly admitted to having contacts with the terrorist group to receive their propaganda. Several U.S. military and intelligence officials believe al-Jabouri himself is as close to al-Qaeda as it gets (an accusation al-Jabouri denies). He and his network are based out of Syria, the hub of the Islamist jihadis.

Could this signal a turning point in Iraq?

Read the whole thing.

On Britney, Nazanin, and sin -- in light of Lent

The Anchoress recounts a conversation with her son about current events and America's endless fascination with objectifying others to make ourselves feel better, and expands upon it in a wonderful essay. She brings up the media's focus on Britney's breakdown, the courage of an Iranian ex-pat who fights for the life of a young Iranian woman -- and why the media immersed itself (and us) in reporting the story of humiliation and shame while failing to report the story of morality and courage.

At the end of January, Nazanin Fatehi was released from an Iranian prison. She had been there for almost two years for the “crime” of self-defense against would-be rapists. Nazanin, then 17, fatally stabbed one of the attackers.

[…]

Her guardian angel was a former Miss Canada (2003), Nazanin Afshin-Jam. Afshin-Jam is a native of Iran — her family fled in 1981, her father having been victim of the Revolutionary Guard’s tyranny. In Fatehi, Afshin-Jam very easily saw what could have been her fate and resolved to help her.

Afshin-Jam, an aspiring pop singer whose first record’s release has been delayed as she has worked on saving the life of this young Iranian Kurd, shows what a little star-power and a lot of determination can do. Read the whole thing.

Afshin-Jam uses her influence to bring about the release of a woman imprisoned for the crime of defending herself against rape, and she is no one’s hero. The feminist left does not lionize her and shout her name and call her “good for women.” The press doesn’t cover her. But Britney…she’s ubiquitous, she’s and her sad, desperate bald head are all over the place…not for doing anything heroic, mind you, but for entertaining us with her misery, for allowing herself to be consumed, if that is what it takes to get our attention.

Finally, Anchoress pulls it all together and tells it like it is: our sin is the root cause. Our overwhelming tendency to put our Self first -- to the point of viewing others as objects to be ridiculed and scorned and otherwise treated as *objects* in order to make us feel good about our Self. She defines sin with a quote from, of all places, a Terry Prachett book:

“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.

She does a great job of tying it all together, and she's got the spiritual insight to lay it out in a clear moral context. Regardless of your religious persuasion (and everyone has a religion, whether we care to admit it, or not), you will find that she has nailed it in many ways.

Go read the whole thing. I highly recommend it.

Heritage Quote

"My construction of the constitution is very different from that you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of the others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the meaning of the constitution in the cases submitted to its action; and especially, where it is to act ultimately and without appeal."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1819 - letter to Samuel Adams Wells

Psychological denial

Dr. Sanity has an excellent essay on the consequences of denial.

A while back, I listened in disbelief as Democrat after Democrat denounced the compromise bill that defines for detainees what torture is and isn't. To a person, they paid lip-service to being against torture (whatever it might be); and to a person it was obvious that the detainees "rights" were paramount. How strange that they don't give individual's in our own society the same "rights" to express their religion as they would like in public; or that they denounce opinions with which they differ with such passion. How nice it would be to see them behave consistently for a change....but it isn't going to happen because they just don't see it.

I'm sure that the recent court decision about all this will stimulate even more histrionic moral outrage--particularly since the outrage conveniently obscures the reality that we are at war with an implacable enemy that wants to kill us all.

That's what denial is all about. It allows--nay, it encourages-- the most blatant contradictions in thinking; and the individual does not ever have to account for those contradictions or take responsibility for them because they don't even perceive them! Facts, schmacts.

The left pretends their behavior is motivated from" love" or "peace" or "patriotism"; but these are only words they use to rationalize to themselves their actions, which demonstrate exactly the opposite. Their self-deception and denial is simply stunning in its sweeping grandiosity and self-righteousness betrayal of the good.

I, too, have been completely baffled by the words and actions of those congressmen and senators who oppose the war in Iraq, oppose the struggle against terrorism and oppression in the name of Islam, and oppose the prudent measures being taken to attempt to ensure America's security.

This may explain a lot of it.

Denial: the new policy position of the Democrat Party.

God have mercy on us all.

A world without America

Found here.

Heritage Quote

"The principle of the Constitution is that of a separation of legislative, Executive and Judiciary functions, except in cases specified. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms, it is clearly the spirit of the Constitution, and it ought to be so commented and acted on by every friend of free government."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1797 - letter to James Madison

Shameful invertebrates

Ralph Peters expresses outrage at the treasonous cowards in Congress who voted for the resolution against our troops.

Providing aid and comfort to the enemy in wartime is treason. It's not "just politics." It's treason.

And signaling our enemies that Congress wants them to win isn't "supporting our troops."

The "nonbinding resolution" telling the world that we intend to surrender to terrorism and abandon Iraq may be the most disgraceful congressional action since the Democratic Party united to defend slavery.

The vote was a huge morale booster for al Qaeda, for Iraq's Sunni insurgents, and for the worst of the Shia militias.

The message Congress just sent to them all was, "Hold on, we'll stop the surge, we're going to leave - and you can slaughter the innocent with our blessing."

We've reached a low point in the history of our government when a substantial number of legislators would welcome an American defeat in Iraq for domestic political advantage.

Amen.

Heritage Quote

"The convention have done well, therefore, in so disposing of the power of making treaties, that although the President must, in forming them, act by the advice and consent of the Senate, yet he will be able to manage the business of intelligence in such a manner as prudence may suggest."

-- John Jay, 1788 - Federalist No. 64

America embodied in Anna Nicole Smith

Tunku Varadarajan, over at OpinionJournal, likens the story of Anna Nicole Smith's life to the American Dream.

Playwrights notwithstanding, Ms. Smith was the object of a fierce popular fascination. It could be said--and said not entirely as metaphor--that Anna Nicole Smith embodied America. She embodied its bounty as well as its overabundance; its exploitability, and its propensity to exploit. She embodied, also, its litigiousness, its enterprise, its universal offer of the chance to remake oneself (Gatsby did it one way, Anna Nicole Smith did it another). And to many foreigners--particularly foreign men--she embodied America in a literal way, too: in a brassy blondeness that people in repressed cultures marvel at. It is no coincidence that the places in the world where women such as Ms. Smith are the most popular are typically those with which the U.S. has the worst diplomatic relations.

When I am feeling cynical about this great nation, I find myself thinking these kind of thoughts.

It's sad, really.

Heritage Quote

"It is one thing to be subordinate to the laws, and another [for the Executive] to be dependent on the legislative body. The first comports with, the last violates, the fundamental principles of good government; and, whatever may be the forms of the Constitution, unites all power in the same hands."

-- Alexander Hamilton, 1788 - Federalist No. 71

Greenhouse gases

John Marchese, writing for Philadelphia Magazine, interviews Dr. Robert Giegengack, Professor of Geology and Climate Change at Pennsylvania University. Dr. Giegengack has researched climate change for 50 years, and doesn't see a true scientific basis for the argument of human-caused global warming.

He has described Al Gore’s documentary as “a political statement timed to present him as a presidential candidate in 2008.” And he added, “The glossy production is replete with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, and appeals to public fear as shamelessly as any other political statement that hopes to unite the public behind a particular ideology.” This from a guy who voted for Gore in 2000 and says he’d probably vote for him again.

[snip]

Giegengack may have a personal 50-year perspective on global warming, but the time range he prefers to consult is more on the geologists’ scale. The Earth has been warming, he says, for about 20,000 years. We’ve only been collecting data on that trend for about 200 years. “For most of Earth history,” he says, “the globe has been warmer than it has been for the last 200 years. It has only rarely been cooler.” Those cooler periods have meant things like two miles of ice piled over much of what is now North America. Nothing to be nostalgic for.

The professor hits a button on his computer, and the really long-term view appears — the past 650,000 years. In that time, the Earth’s temperature has gone through regular cycles of rise and fall. The best explanation of those cycles was conceived by a Serbian amateur scientist named Milutin Milankovi´c. Very basically, Milankovi´c said this: The Earth’s orbit around the sun is more or less circular, but when other planets align in certain ways and their gravitational forces tug at the Earth, the orbit stretches into a more elliptical shape. Combined with the tilt of the Earth on its axis as it spins, that greater or lesser distance from the sun, plus the consequent difference in solar radiation that reaches our planet, is responsible for long-term climate change.

Recommended.

Heritage Quote

"Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country."

-- Noah Webster, 1788 - On the Education of Youth in America

One consequence of raising the minimum wage

Arizona recently raised the minimum wage and is now suffering from one of the consequences.

Oh, for the days when Arizona's high school students could roll pizza dough, sweep up sticky floors in theaters or scoop ice cream without worrying about ballot initiatives affecting their earning power.

That's certainly not the case under the state's new minimum-wage law that went into effect last month.

Some Valley employers, especially those in the food industry, say payroll budgets have risen so much that they're cutting hours, instituting hiring freezes and laying off employees.

And teens are among the first workers to go.

In any business, when you raise wages, you have less money for other things. If the other expenses cannot go down enough to offset the raise, then you have to cut back on the number of workers that you employ.

Otherwise the business has to make more money. Usually by raising the price of its goods and services. Thus, the consumer ends up funding the Congressionally-dictated minimum wage increase.

It's very simple, really.

Which may be why Congress couldn't figure it out.

Heritage Quote

"History by apprising [citizens] of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1781 - Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14

Clueless in D.C.

David Frum, over at the American Enterprise Institute, provides a sobering assessment of our economy and how it will be reported. Here's how he begins:

Want to get rich in the American stock market? Here's some advice: Don't watch the news.

I'm not being facetious here. One of the iron laws of U.S. news reporting is that the economy gets positive reviews under Democratic presidents and negative reviews under Republican presidents.

In 2004, the Virginia-based Media Research Center (MRC) produced a stark summary of the disparity.

In 1996, Bill Clinton ran for reelection as president. The U.S. economy was doing well at the time: unemployment down to 5.2%, inflation under control at 3%, and overall growth at 2.2%. And the press reported all this good news: According to the 2004 MRC study, 85% of all major economic stories on the economy in the summer of 1996 were positive.

Eight years later, George W. Bush was running for re-election as president. The U.S. economy in 2004 did much better than in 1996: The economy grew at a 3.9% pace, while unemployment and inflation roughly matched their 1996 levels (5.4% and 2.7% respectively). Yet this time, 77% of all major media economic coverage was negative. (For the full report, see www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2004/fax2004
1020.asp.) And since the 2004 election, the barrage of bad news has continued: reports of housing bubbles, warnings of an imminent collapse in the U.S. dollar, and so on.

Things are definitely not looking up in this country now that the Democrats have taken control.

An ethical blogger

Jay Tea, over at Whizbang!, responds to a commenter with an excellent essay on personal ethics. He concludes with:

So yeah, John, sometimes my own philosophical beliefs directly conflict with my own self-interest. That's OK with me. Hell, in some ways, it's reassuring. It tells me that I am not simply taking the most expedient, selfish, easiest way out of a situation.

So sometimes it gets a bit uncomfortable. But it helps me sleep a bit better at night.

Though he and I differ on several issues, I have a lot of respect for this guy.

Go read the whole thing.

Heritage Quote

"Without wishing to damp the ardor of curiosity or influence the freedom of inquiry, I will hazard a prediction that, after the most industrious and impartial researchers, the longest liver of you all will find no principles, institutions or systems of education more fit in general to be transmitted to your posterity than those you have received from your ancestors."

-- John Adams, 1798 - letter to the young men of the Philadelphia

B1 over Baghdad

Omar Fadhil provides a look at a B-1 bomber over Baghdad and, more importantly, an assessment of what's happening during the surge in Baghdad.

Back in Baghdad the most significant raid conducted yesterday was the one on Buratha mosque, one of the most important Shia mosques in Baghdad which is also considered a SCIRI territory.

The raid ended without blood but the preacher of the mosque, a lawmaker from the SCIRI, expressed his dismay about the raid “because it was American soldiers who searched the mosque” and this seems to be one of the changes in rules of engagement. I recall that there was some kind of a rule that said only Iraqi soldiers or police were allowed to walk into places of worship while American troops would have to stay outside.

This raid too is of political significance as it can be used to prove to that the operation is impartial and not directed against one sect without the other.

On the streets, checkpoints and roadblocks are becoming increasingly serious and strict in doing their job; soldiers and policemen are sparing no vehicles or convoys from searching and I personally saw a case yesterday where an ambulance driver tried to rush his vehicle through a checkpoint but the soldiers ordered him to stop and let him pass only after they checked the inside of the vehicle and found only a civilian medical emergency.

Strict checkpoints always mean slow traffic and inconvenient delays for Baghdadis but this downside is welcome when these security measures make the streets safer.

Despite the traffic jams and though this is the largest deployment for troops in the capital, daily life and civilian activity-contrary to what was expected-still continues at a rather normal level, unlike previous crackdowns where life came to near paralysis.

Go read it all.

Remember Cambodia

In 1998, Jeff Jacoby pointed out, in chilling detail, the results of America withdrawing aid to Cambodia in 1975.

It was noted everywhere that the communist reign of terror in Cambodia lasted nearly four years and that at least 1 million human beings -- by some estimates as many as 2 1/2 million -- were murdered in an orgy of executions, torture, and starvation.

"In the name of a radical utopia,'' The New York Times recalled in its long obituary, "the Khmer Rouge regime had turned most of the people into slaves. . . . Dictatorial village leaders and soldiers told the people whom to marry and how to live, and those who disobeyed were killed. [Those] who did not bend to the political mania were buried alive, or tossed into the air and speared on bayonets. Some were fed to crocodiles.'' Nearby was a photograph of human skulls -- emblem of the dreadful "killing fields'' in which the communists butchered a quarter of Cambodia's people.

But nowhere in the Times story was there a reminder that the Khmer Rouge was able to seize power only after the US Congress in 1975 cut off all aid to the embattled pro-American government of Lon Nol -- and that it did so despite frantic warnings of the bloodbath that would ensue. President Ford warned of "horror and tragedy'' if Cambodia was abandoned to the Khmer Rouge and pleaded with Congress to supply Lon Nol's army with the tools it needed to defend itself.

It appears as if history may repeat itself -- only this time in Iraq.

[Via Jay Tea at Whizbang!.]

Heritage Quote

"History will also give Occasion to expatiate on the Advantage of Civil Orders and Constitutions, how Men and their Properties are protected by joining in Societies and establishing Government; their Industry encouraged and rewarded, Arts invented, and Life made more comfortable: The Advantages of Liberty, Mischiefs of Licentiousness, Benefits arising from good Laws and a due Execution of Justice. Thus may the first Principles of sound Politicks be fix'd in the Minds of Youth."

-- Benjamin Franklin, 1749 - Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania

Disgraceful

OpinionJournal has a pointed op-ed up about our invertebrate Congress' latest move toward aiding and abetting a sworn enemy.

Congress has rarely been distinguished by its moral courage. But even grading on a curve, we can only describe this week's House debate on a vote of no-confidence in the mission in Iraq as one of the most shameful moments in the institution's history.

On present course, the Members will vote on Friday to approve a resolution that does nothing to remove American troops from harm's way in Iraq but that will do substantial damage to their morale and that of their Iraqi allies while emboldening the enemy. The only real question is how many Republicans will also participate in this disgrace in the mistaken belief that their votes will put some distance between themselves and the war most of them voted to authorize in 2002.

How on Earth can Congress behave like this? Why are they opposed to giving Iraqis a fighting chance at a successful democracy? Why do they not realize that Islamic terrorists are aiming at world domination -- which necessarily means a subjugated, if not destroyed, America?

As this country continues to spiral downward in its post-noble period, I can only pray that the decay can be reversed by our children. My generation has done its damnest to wreck the tradition of honor and nobility that has made this country great. I doubt very seriously that it can undo the damage it has wrought. As a result we, as a people and as a nation, are diminished.

The whole op-ed is in the extended entry.

Awaiting the Dishonor Roll
Congress "supports the troops" while emboldening the enemy.

Thursday, February 15, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST

Congress has rarely been distinguished by its moral courage. But even grading on a curve, we can only describe this week's House debate on a vote of no-confidence in the mission in Iraq as one of the most shameful moments in the institution's history.

On present course, the Members will vote on Friday to approve a resolution that does nothing to remove American troops from harm's way in Iraq but that will do substantial damage to their morale and that of their Iraqi allies while emboldening the enemy. The only real question is how many Republicans will also participate in this disgrace in the mistaken belief that their votes will put some distance between themselves and the war most of them voted to authorize in 2002.

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The motion at issue is plainly dishonest, in that exquisitely Congressional way of trying to have it both ways. (We reprint the text nearby.) The resolution purports to "support" the troops even as it disapproves of their mission. It praises their "bravery," while opposing the additional forces that both President Bush and General David Petreaus, the new commanding general in Iraq, say are vital to accomplishing that mission. And it claims to want to "protect" the troops even as its practical impact will be to encourage Iraqi insurgents to believe that every roadside bomb brings them closer to their goal.

As for how "the troops" themselves feel, we refer readers to Richard Engel's recent story on NBC News quoting Specialist Tyler Johnson in Iraq: "People are dying here. You know what I'm saying . . . You may [say] 'oh we support the troops.' So you're not supporting what they do. What they's [sic] here to sweat for, what we bleed for and we die for." Added another soldier: "If they don't think we're doing a good job, everything we've done here is all in vain." In other words, the troops themselves realize that the first part of the resolution is empty posturing, while the second is deeply immoral.

All the more so because if Congress feels so strongly about the troops, it arguably has the power to start removing them from harm's way by voting to cut off the funds they need to operate in Iraq. But that would make Congress responsible for what followed--whether those consequences are Americans killed in retreat, or ethnic cleansing in Baghdad, or the toppling of the elected Maliki government by radical Shiite or military forces. The one result Congress fears above all is being accountable.

We aren't prone to quoting the young John Kerry, but this week's vote reminds us of the comment the antiwar veteran told another cut-and-run Congress in the early 1970s: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" The difference this time is that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha expect men and women to keep dying for something they say is a mistake but also don't have the political courage to help end.

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), that (1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and (2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on Jan. 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.

Instead, they'll pass this "non-binding resolution," to be followed soon by attempts at micromanagement that would make the war all but impossible to prosecute--and once again without taking responsibility. Mr. Murtha is already broadcasting his strategy, which the new Politico Web site described yesterday as "a slow-bleed strategy designed to gradually limit the administration's options."

In concert with antiwar groups, the story reported, Mr. Murtha's "goal is crafted to circumvent the biggest political vulnerability of the antiwar movement--the accusation that it is willing to abandon troops in the field." So instead of cutting off funds, Mr. Murtha will "slow-bleed" the troops with "readiness" restrictions or limits on National Guard forces that will make them all but impossible to deploy. These will be attached to appropriations bills that will also purport to "support the troops."

"There's a D-Day coming in here, and it's going to start with the supplemental and finish with the '08 [defense] budget,'' Congressman Neil Abercrombie (D., Hawaii) told the Web site. He must mean D-Day as in Dunkirk.

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All of this is something that House Republicans should keep in mind as they consider whether to follow this retreat. The GOP leadership has been stalwart, even eloquent, this week in opposing the resolution. But some Republicans figure they can use this vote to distance themselves from Mr. Bush and the war while not doing any real harm. They should understand that the Democratic willingness to follow the Murtha "slow-bleed" strategy will depend in part on how many Republicans follow them in this vote. The Democrats are themselves divided on how to proceed, and they want a big GOP vote to give them political cover. However "non-binding," this is a vote that Republican partisans will long remember.

History is likely to remember the roll as well. A newly confirmed commander is about to lead 20,000 American soldiers on a dangerous and difficult mission to secure Baghdad, risking their lives for their country. And the message their elected Representatives will send them off to battle with is a vote declaring their inevitable defeat.

[Used with permission from OpinionJournal.com, a web site from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.]

A reappraisal of climate change

Nigel Calder, former editor of New Scientist, points out an interesting experiment that suggests we are wrong about climate change.

So one awkward question you can ask, when you’re forking out those extra taxes for climate change, is “Why is east Antarctica getting colder?” It makes no sense at all if carbon dioxide is driving global warming. While you’re at it, you might inquire whether Gordon Brown will give you a refund if it’s confirmed that global warming has stopped. The best measurements of global air temperatures come from American weather satellites, and they show wobbles but no overall change since 1999.

That levelling off is just what is expected by the chief rival hypothesis, which says that the sun drives climate changes more emphatically than greenhouse gases do. After becoming much more active during the 20th century, the sun now stands at a high but roughly level state of activity. Solar physicists warn of possible global cooling, should the sun revert to the lazier mood it was in during the Little Ice Age 300 years ago.

Climate history and related archeology give solid support to the solar hypothesis. The 20th-century episode, or Modern Warming, was just the latest in a long string of similar events produced by a hyperactive sun, of which the last was the Medieval Warming.

This is really interesting stuff. Go read the whole thing!

Marriage Quotes

In the spirit of St. Valentine's Day, and in honor of my lovely bride of 28 years, I have compiled some heritage quotes about marriage.

"The happy State of Matrimony is, undoubtedly, the surest and most lasting Foundation of Comfort and Love; the Source of all that endearing Tenderness and Affection which arises from Relation and Affinity; the grand Point of Property; the Cause of all good Order in the World, and what alone preserves it from the utmost Confusion; and, to sum up all, the Appointment of infinite Wisdom for these great and good Purposes."

-- Benjamin Franklin, 1730 - Rules and Maxims for Promoting Matrimonial Happiness

"Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards."

-- Benjamin Franklin, 1738 - Poor Richard's Almanack

"Harmony in the married state is the very first object to be aimed at."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1798 - letter to Mary Jefferson Eppes

"It is not necessary to enumerate the many advantages, that arise from this custom of early marriages. They comprehend all the society can receive from this source; from the preservation, and increase of the human race. Every thing useful and beneficial to man, seems to be connected with obedience to the laws of his nature, the inclinations, the duties, and the happiness of individuals, resolve themselves into customs and habits, favourable, in the highest degree, to society. In no case is this more apparent, than in the customs of nations respecting marriage."

-- Samuel Williams, 1794 - The Natural and Civil History of Vermont

"More permanent and genuine happiness is to be found in the sequestered walks of connubial life than in the giddy rounds of promiscuous pleasure."

-- George Washington, 1786 - letter to the Marquis de la Rourie

Falling deficit

Bizzyblog asks a good question: What happens if a deficit falls and no one reports it?

Heritage Quote

"History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy... These measures never fail to create great and violent jealousies and animosities between the people favored and the people oppressed; whence a total separation of affections, interests, political obligations, and all manner of connections, by which the whole state is weakened."

-- Benjamin Franklin, Emblematical Representations

Bigger surprise

J. R. Dunn points out that the current "consensus" on global warming may be stifling real research into global climate.

One of the major qualities of nature is that of surprise. The evolution and expression of world climate is very likely far more complex and difficult to follow than we currently grasp. The problem is that the current warming "consensus" may be stifling the research that might in fact tell us what is occurring and how to prepare for it. The earth's climate may have a far bigger surprise in store for us than we can now guess.

Do we now consider research and facts as things that can be determined by shouting about it the loudest? Al Gore seems to. If there is little or no dissent, then it must be so?

Boy are we in for some real surprises . . .

Happy birthday, Mom!

She married Dad against her family's wishes and followed him to places all over the world. She raised four children who grew up to be good spouses, parents, and citizens. She delights in family, friends, and volunteer work in her community.

What can I say? She's my Mom.

And I am proud to be her son. I just pray that I can live up to the high standard of self-sacrifice and love that she has demonstrated throughout her life.

Happy birthday, Mom. You are truly a blessing to me, to our extended family, and to so many others.

Thank you for that . . .

Correction

The New York Times recently "reported" (more like "opined") that 51% of American women today do not have husbands. Thomas Sowell begs to differ. In fact, he points out that the New York Times misrepresented the data in order to make that case. (Emphasis added.)

The latest in a long line of New York Times editorials disguised as “news” stories was a recent article suggesting that most American women today do not have husbands. Partly this was based on census data — but much more so on creative definitions.

The Times defined “women” to include females as young as 16 and counted widows, who of course could not be widows unless they had once had a husband. Wives whose husbands were away in the military, or in prison, were also counted among women not living with a husband.

With such creative definitions, it turned out that 51 percent of “women” were not living with a husband. That made it “most” women and created a “news” story suggesting that these women were not married. In reality, only one fourth of women have never married, even when you count girls as young as 16.

Another assault on the institution of marriage. The irony, chilling though it might be, is that if marriage and similar social institutions are successfully done away with, our society will descend into anarchy.

Recommended reading.

Heritage Quote

"A nation under a well regulated government, should permit none to remain uninstructed. It is monarchical and aristocratical government only that requires ignorance for its support."

-- Thomas Paine, 1792, Rights of Man, Part 2

Why ethanol is NOT the answer

Deroy Murdock makes a compelling case against the widespread use of ethanol in gasoline. Here is his conclusion:

This economic damage will accelerate if President Bush promotes, or if the federal government mandates, a one-fifth drop in gasoline use by 2017. According to estimates by Cato Institute scholars Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren, writing in the Winter 2007 issue of The Milken Institute Review, “If all the corn produced in America in 2005 were dedicated to ethanol production…it would have reduced U.S. demand for gasoline by, at most, 12 percent.” So, to reach Bush’s 20 percent goal, corn production must grow to 167 percent of its 2005 levels, and every kernel must go into ethanol. Kiss your corn pudding goodbye.

Cultivating that much corn will require even more farmland. Securing it likely will require chopping down the same trees that inhale the carbon dioxide that humans and cars exhale. If Al Gore is telling the truth, this will increase global warming. So one of the environmentalists’ favorite tools for fighting global warming could actually exacerbate it. Meanwhile, as the Wall Street Journal editorialized on January 27, “ethanol increases the level of nitrous oxides in the atmosphere and thus causes smog.”

How lucky we are to have a government big enough to tie its own shoelaces together.

Read the rest.

Heritage Quote

"It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives. "

-- John Adams, 1756, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law

The Bush economy

Larry Kudlow, over at NRO, presents some good reasons for crediting Bush for our strong economy. And Wall Street agrees:

On a day when the GDP report came in strong and the Federal Reserve proclaimed a balanced economy marked by healthy growth and contained prices, President George W. Bush became only the second sitting American president to visit the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. As he moved from trading post to trading post, floor brokers and assistants stopped their work and started to cheer.

Huge cheers. Loud applause.

This is the same guy the mainstream media loves to kick around — the same guy who suffers sinking polls while standing resolute on the subject of Iraqi freedom, and who gets virtually no credit for the Goldilocks economy and unprecedented four-year stock market boom. He’s also the same guy who continues to prove he has more character than most anyone serving in public office today.

Go read the rest.

Heritage Quote

"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders. "

-- Samual Adams, November 4, 1775, letter to James Warren

Inside Lebanon

Michael Totten provides a fascinating glimpse of the Lebanese point of view.

“Lebanon is a disaster right now,” I said, although it certainly didn’t look that way from his spiffy uber-modern tower looking out toward the mountains and the Mediterranean. “And it looks even worse than it is in the media. I wanted to check in with you again and interview somebody sane, show the other side of the story. Lebanon looks like a terrorist state again to Americans. And also to the Israelis.”

He put his face in his hands then blew out his cheeks. “This,” he said ominously and nodded. “This is the most important thing.”

The interview is an interesting and informative one. If you want to have a more complete understanding of what is going on in Lebanon, and what may follow, you should read the whole article.

Climate change debate

Mark Steyn has an amusing op-ed about the current debate on global warming.

From the "Environmental News Network": "Science Is Solid on Climate Change, Congress Told." "The science is solid," says Louise Frechette, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations. "The science is solid," says Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

"The science is really solid," says TV meteorologist Heidi Cullen. "The science is very solid."

And at that point, on "Larry King Live" last week, Richard Lindzen, professor of atmospheric science at MIT, remarked: "Heidi says the science is solid and I can't criticize her because she never says what science she's talking about."

Indeed. If the science is so solid, maybe they could drag it out to the Arctic for the poor polar bears to live on now that the ice is melting faster than a coed's heart at an Al Gore lecture.

Alas, the science isn't so solid. In the '70s, it was predicting a new ice age. Then it switched to global warming. Now it prefers "climate change." If it's hot, that's a sign of "climate change." If it's cold, that's a sign of "climate change." If it's 53 with sunny periods and light showers, you need to grab an overnight bag and get outta there right now because "climate change" is accelerating out of control.

Finally, a commenter with a sense of humor about the issue.

Heritage Quote

"Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of public happiness."

-- George Washinton, January 8, 1790, First Annual Message

Iraqi troops

Bill Ardolino reports about accompanying the Iraqi Army on night ops.

It was after midnight when our convoy of Jundi (Iraqi Army soldiers) and trailing Marine advisors rolled out into Fallujah's neighborhoods, their darkened Humvees barreling down pitch black streets and muddy back alleys. Additional marines from Charlie Company added a security element along with several Abrams tanks, ghostly juggernauts which would periodically materialize out of the darkness, their poised turrets and night optics scanning jumbled city streets.

The mission was a "cordon and knock:" Iraqi Army, the Iraqi Police Special Missions Group and U.S. Marines were to raid residences and snatch up and question suspected insurgents in the middle of the night.

There are quite a few pictures, as well. Go read the whole thing.

Heritage Quote

"If a nation expects to be ignorant - and free - in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

-- Thomas Jefferson, January 6, 1816 - letter to Colonel Charles Yancey

Climate Science

The National Post, of Canada, has a series of articles about the scientists and the science that refutes the 'human-caused global warming' theory that is (incorrectly) being portrayed as fact.

Dr. Shariv's digging led him to the surprising discovery that there is no concrete evidence -- only speculation -- that man-made greenhouse gases cause global warming. Even research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-- the United Nations agency that heads the worldwide effort to combat global warming -- is bereft of anything here inspiring confidence. In fact, according to the IPCC's own findings, man's role is so uncertain that there is a strong possibility that we have been cooling, not warming, the Earth. Unfortunately, our tools are too crude to reveal what man's effect has been in the past, let alone predict how much warming or cooling we might cause in the future.

This is the most recent article of a series. I plan to post excerpts from some of the other articles later.

Recommended reading.

Heritage Quote

"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."

-- Thomas Jefferson (Rights of British America, 1774)

Light blogging

I have been very busy lately with proposal activities at work and a death in the family across the country. As a result, my blogging has been spotty, at best, and it will continue to be for the remainder of this month.

I will try to (at least) post Heritage Quotes every day.

Please don't give up on me, because I'll be back in a few weeks . . .

Heritage Quote

"Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters."

-- Samuel Adams, 1775 - letter to James Warren

Heritage Quote

"No compact among men...can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other."

-- George Washington, 1789 - draft of first Inaugural Address

Heritage Quote

"It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution."

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1781 - Notes on Virginia Query 19

Global warming on a 1500-year cycle

It seems that Earth's climate is, indeed, warming. In fact, two scientists have identified this warming trend as part of a 1500 year cycle that has been going on for at least a million years. They also acknowledge that human activity contributes to this, but maintain that the impact is almost lost in the noise compared with this sunspot-induced cyclical phenomenon.

Avery and Singer, a professor emeritus of environmental research at the University of Virginia and the former first director of the U.S. National Weather Satellite Service, have concluded that the alarmist predictions about how much the earth will warm in the near future are based on a radical overestimate of how much carbon dioxide changes the earth's temperatures.

The massive and natural release of carbon dioxide by the oceans; the fact that "three-fourths of our modern warming occurred before 1940, which was before much human-emitted CO2"; demonstrably false claims of a scientific consensus on global warning; and the fact that it isn't even as warm today as "it was during the medieval warming when the Vikings were able to grow crops in Greenland" - bolster the authors' politically incorrect claims on this dominating issue.

Avery and Singer do not deny the greenhouse effect but state that it is small. They state, "What we're suggesting is that both history and the recent pattern of things, particularly the warming before 1940, would indicate that the CO2 impact is a good deal smaller than the climate models which are telling us to be frightened."

Avery concludes, "it looks to me as though 75 to 80 percent of the warming I see can be credited to the natural cycle". Even then, the authors emphasize, the degree of overall warming that can be expected will be relatively harmless and does not warrant the alarmism and extreme economic and political measures being proposed.

More dissention from the conventional 'wisdom', it seems. Perhaps scientists need to take another look at the data . . .