Austin Bay Blog » UPDATED: Death of Israel’s “New Center”?:
In November Austin Bay wrote "a column examining Ariel Sharon’s attempt to forge a new “political center” in Israel. The column appeared a couple of days before Shimon Peres agreed to join Sharon’s new centrist party. When I read that Peres and Sharon had linked up for the new election I thought “Finally. Give’em eighteen months. We’ll see significant change in the Israeli-Palestinian situation.”"

Sharon has been important for Israel, but now with both Sharon and Arafat dead, perhaps policies can take priority over personalities.

The US Liberation is a success.
The Opinionated Bastard: Analyzing The Brookings Numbers from December.: "The war in Iraq has ceased to be the US vs. the insurgents, and has become an Iraqi vs. Iraqi battle.

The deaths of Iraqi police seem to be reflecting this:"

Nation building and human rights are not yet fully part of the success, but they're moving in.

A better way to catch the corrupt? Political Wire: Cunningham Wore a Wire: "Sources tell Time that disgraced ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) 'wore a wire to help investigators gather evidence against others just before copping his own plea.'

'The identity of those with whom the San Diego congressman met while wearing the wire remains unclear, and is the source of furious -- and nervous -- speculation by congressional Republicans.'"

Mrs. Gurdon writes about how Hollywood is increasing the number of BIG families shown in movies, although mostly in zany, out-of-control kind of comedic disorder.
OpinionJournal - Taste: "Some adults flare their nostrils with distaste at the sight of even one child. Little wonder then, that large families will come in for hard looks from those who believe that they are overpopulating the planet, or selfishly consuming too many resources, or simply exhibiting religious zealotry. (Demographically at least, the last is true.)

The odd thing is that, off the screen, large families are seldom the ones with wildly misbehaving children. In real life, they tend to be the orderly people with the polite children, the families in which older siblings can be seen caring for their little brothers and sisters without griping about it. Indeed, onlookers are so taken in by the popular stereotype that they are often surprised to see a large family acting peacefully."

The 44 million fetal humans killed would prolly have been mostly from smaller families. Demographics counts the most in the long term.

Stem cell research is not the only path to a cure for spinal cord injuries; and prolly not even the best path.

Wired News: Hwang Woo-suk No Great Loss: "Young's approach is a five-part combination strategy involving a bridging substrate, growth inhibitor blockers, remyelinating substances, molecules that guide axons to reconnect to their proper targets and something that would entice the axons to grow out of and beyond the bridging substrate. Scientists presented similar strategies recently at the International Spinal Cord Injury Treatments and Trials Symposium in Hong Kong."

Vodkapundit - An Open Letter: "Dear Old Europe,

We'd like a little help with one tiny thing, please. In case you hadn't noticed, Iran is trying to get nukes. You remember Iran, don't you?"

Stephen is also afraid, but wants the EU to at least allow the US to resolve the problem with force.

I don't believe the EU will listen or change its behavior. I fear a big problem this year.

The Mullah's Quest, The Mullah's Fear - On Point Commentary by Austin Bay : "The real solution is regime change in Tehran. The EU and the United States have talked about supporting the mullahs' political opponents, but they have not walked that walk with sufficient financial aid, political support, media support and -- yes, it may be necessary -- weapons. Iran's tyrants believe they can finesse diplomatic discourse and ride out a military strike. They fear they cannot quell a popular, pro-democracy rebellion."

I am now, with Sharon out of action, very afraid for Israel. I am afraid of Iran, and very afraid of an Iran with nukes.

Are Elections Democratic? - Dictatorships are hardly preferable. By Christopher Hitchens: "Hey-ho for another bonny New Year, once again trying to work out which of the 'anti-war' arguments will turn out to be the real one. Topic for this week: Are elections democratic? You will perhaps recall that, at about this time last year, the New York Times made an editorial demand that the then-upcoming Iraqi elections be postponed. The reasoning given was that 'security' made such elections impossible and that, in any case, the regions previously aligned with Baathism would not have a fair chance at a proper turnout. Apart from the fact that this logic would have given the saboteurs and video-beheaders an indefinite veto on an election process supervised by the United Nations, and apart from the weird sympathy for the minority who had been used to ruling permanently without elections, there seemed little to fault in this idea. Then came the moment we all now yawn about, with millions of people waiting patiently and getting purple fingers, which has since been repeated twice, to the point where elections in Iraq—Iraq!—have come to seem routine, even banal."

It is the lack of alternatives which makes the anti-war position so terrible. War is bad, but is the least bad choice.

Journalists killed in Iraq in 2005 The Belmont Club: "There's an interesting article about how Steven Vincent might have been the only foreign journalist to have been killed in Iraq last year. The primary data comes from the Committee to Protect Journalists's report. The following table, derived from their information, lists out the names, place and date of demise, affiliation and cause of death of these journalists."

The table must be read to understand its significance.

Michael Totten: TCS Daily - The Slow Rot of Hosni Mubarak: "To those who are easily and perhaps willingly fooled, Egypt’s ruler Hosni Mubarak appeared to cry “uncle!” after sustained U.S. pressure to open up his one-party state and hold real elections. But the reforms are a farce -- and hailing his just-kidding charade as a sign of progress in the Middle East is both naïve and reckless.

Human rights activists and independent politicians -- most famously Saad El Din Ibrahim and, more recently, Ayman Nour -- continue to be harassed, arrested, and booked on trumped up charges. And since kicking around his opponents during “campaign season” isn’t enough to guarantee victory, Mubarak works over the voters as well."

It started with Nasser, who destroyed so much more than he built; a continuation with Sadat and especially Hosni Mubarak, the current dictator in Egypt.

The USA needs to aid only opposition groups in Egypt, not the current corrupt kleptocratic oppressors.

GM's Corner: "Polipundit's DJ Drummond has maybe hit on a severe form of mental illness. As a Mental Health professional, I'm concerned about what the disorder is, how it begins - that is what is the genesis of the disorder and how can it be treated. Drummond calls this form of insanity Political Compulsive Disorder. Now, there will be many in the field, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers etc who will not agree that this is a mental disorder at all, but that would be because of their own political proclivities; one must believe that one who thinks he is Napoleon, doesn't think he has a problem!"

Whether it's Bush Derangement Syndrome, or just Bush-hate, it is sick. The Dems must wake up and get out of the sick zone.

Israel prolly will let Pat Robertson build a Christian theme park.
David Corn: "has nothing against religious theme parks. ('Visit the Resurrection Roller Coaster! Have fun in Herod's House of Horrors! And afterward treat yourself to a snack at the Fish and Loaves Cafeteria. Sorry, the food isn't free. Unlike Jesus, we have to turn a profit.') But can't Israel exploit its custody of holy lands without sleeping with Pat Robertson?"

The Anchoress on the miners and the news: "For the last few days the families and friends of the tragic miners of West Virginia have had to endure an agony that no right-thinking person would ever wish on another - and last night’s “miscommunications” within the press, first announcing that 12 of the 13 miners were alive, only to correct themselves later and declare 12 of 13 dead - well, the face of the anguished young woman heading the Drudge Report, about says it all...

Journalism used to run on facts. It wasn’t enough to have a rumor, you had to nail it down; it wasn’t enough to suspect something - if you suspected it, you expended the shoe leather to prove it. Now, unfortunately, beginning at least with Mary Mapes’ odd idea that the the standard of journalism precludes proving one’s charge (it is now enough that the charge is made, and the accused must prove a negative), but particularly since Hurricane Katrina, mainstream journalism has decided it doesn’t need to run on facts; emotionalism is the new fuel on which the press is running."

This is a bad gas to run the press on.

Attempting to stop flirting; neo-neocon: "From so-called 'honor killings' and stonings for adultery (Gates of Vienna is a good blog for information about such things), to this milder clamping down on youthful fraternizing, it's stunning to think that what was parody way back in 1885, when Gilbert and Sullivan wrote 'The Mikado,' is close to being a grim reality in some parts of the world--in 2006."

The Belmont Club looks at an Iraqi capture: "The story is told from two points of view. The first from an American and an Iraqi officer who think the spirit of the rules, rather than the rules themselves should be the guiding principle behind operations. This American officer is planning to retire in 2007. The second is from another US officer who believes that rules, if they are to mean anything, must be strictly followed."

There is a trade-off, and it's not clear where the trade-off should be. Nor even if there should be any gray area.

Two views of Palestine, The Belmont Club: thinks "Bassem Eid's analysis is far better than Juan Cole's. Eid blames Israel for many of Gaza's troubles but acknowledges that many problems also stem from the dysfunctional nature of Palestinian politics. The weakness in Eid's analysis is that he cannot identify any indigenous evolutionary solution to the problem he describes. His paper hopes for a deus ex machina rescue from possible chaos. 'It is generally believed that PA President Mahmoud Abbas will be unable to carry out necessary reforms and rebuild the security services without the support of the European Union and the United States' which is tantamount to a plea for intervention without an acceptance of its necessity. But at least Eid, in recognizing that terrorist behavior will make Arabs its principal victims, is much further along than the Western Left, which has intervened far more deeply in the Middle East than anyone would care to admit."

Shadow of the Hegemon: "the most striking event is the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia, and what it means for South America and the Americas in general. It heralds a trend that most people in North America would never have expected.

That trend?

Socialism is back"

This is true and important.

Some more details about the scandal from Marc Cooper: "So, let’s repeat this one more time. The Abramoff scandal is primarily a Republican scandal. But rank-and-file Democrats should be under no illusions. The Democrats who have been on the Indian dole – from Harry Reid to Byron Dorgan to Patrick Kennedy and many, many, many others – have been mucking around in the very same special interests gutter dominated by Tom DeLay and friends. There is nothing morally uplifting about being on the tribal pad."

La Shawn Barber’s Corner: Justice Sunday III: "It’s time for another Justice Sunday, a gathering which will raise awareness and educate “people of faith on how the judiciary impacts their lives and to show how activist judges seek to end all mention of God in the public square.”

Charmaine Yoest, mother of five, Vice President of External Affairs at the Family Research Council, and a blogger I met at a Christian bloggers meet-up several months ago, selected me and a few others to live-blog the events in Philadelphia this Sunday. I’ll be joined by Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters, Stacy Harp of Mind and Media (met several times, most recently at GodBlogCon), and RightWingSparkle."

LaShawn has more about What Blacks Owe Themselves, where blacks who take responsibility for themselves are annoying to certain liberals.

She's not afraid to call them like she sees them.

" The NEA is a Leftist, Socialist organization. Public schools were once charged with the duty of educating young citizens in the basics and teaching them how to be good citizens. These days, it’s all about indoctrination."

Antimedia also exposes the anti-Bush bias of leakers.
Media Lies : "Everyone knows by now that the US supposedly has set up secret CIA prisons all over the world where President Bush keeps the people he wants to torture, right? Wrong. President Clinton set them up in 1995."

Antimedia notes that the NYT has changed its NSA spy story. Media Lies -NYT Changes-: "So now what we have is the NSA, acting on its own, using its authority to loosen its own rules about surveillance in an attempt to widen the net and capture more terrorists. Congress then objects, prompting the administration to get involved and set up strict guidelines for surveillance. Eventually, the Attorney General objected to some element of the program, and the rules were tightened up even further.

So rather than a rogue administration running rampant over our civil rights, we have an agency acting within its authorities, the administration reacting responsibly to concerns expressed by Congress and setting up a program of routine auditing and notification to Congress. I suspect this news will be met with disappointment by those who hoped to impeach the President and with disgust by those who have been defending the President."

Grim's Hall: "Russ Vaughn sends his latest, which I thought you might enjoy:

Force Multipliers
Wikipedia: force multiplier-a military term referring to a factor that dramatically increases (hence multiplies) the combat-effectiveness of a given military force."

A fine effort at a few verses about the media's desire to help the terrorists.

normblog on Israel trading with Muslim countries: "In this piece from the Jakarta Post, retired Israeli diplomat Emanuel Shahaf sees hope in the expanding economic relations between Muslim countries and Israel."

The greatest hope for peace is trade. But a free press is important.

Norm explains the failure in Palestine.
normblog Palestinian media: "When Arafat arrived in Gaza in 1994, there was a lot of hope that now Palestinians would have a free media like the Jews have. Unfortunately, the first thing the PLO did when they arrived was to order an immediate crackdown, not on Hamas or Islamic Jihad but on the Palestinian media. The result was that many local Palestinian journalists - including those who were working with Reuters, AP, those who had independent press offices - had their offices torched. Some of them were arrested, some were beaten, some had their equipment confiscated. It was even sadder to see how the foreign media did not really cover the story."

The EU and the UN should demand critical press and press freedom before giving anything but food aid.

Dean describes a popular post WWII Shoe box.

Dean's World -Singularity Danger -: "See, the way it worked was, an tube in the box would be turned on, and would bathe the shoes and feet in x-rays, projecting a live image of the feet as they sat in their shoes. Three little viewing holes at the top would allow friends, family members, and store employees to see live x-ray images of your feet as you wiggled them in the shoes so they could see how well they fit.

This was a good example of a cheap technology that got cheaper and more readily available all the time, just as most technologies do. It was also hideously irresponsible; unlike modern fluoroscopes, which generally give you extremely short bursts of tightly controlled x-rays, this was live footage, a constant bombardment of a barely-shielded x-ray tube. I have no idea how many Grays of radiation were absorbed in an average shoe-fitting session, but I imagine most modern radiologists would shudder."

As our science is able to do more nano-tech, and nano-bio-tech, WE WILL MAKE A MISTAKE.

It's as inevitable as losing astronauts in the space program.

I would be scared except I'm still more worried about the poor; and about lousy gov't.

Tom Maguire prolly has it right on the best way to investigate.
JustOneMinute: Be Careful What You Wish For: "However, if there is to be an investigation, here is the way to do it - give everyone involved immunity from prosecution for leaking classified info, but keep them open to perjury charges."

Tom got it from Michael Ledeen who got it from a friend.
Current officials who leaked can lie and risk jail, or 'fess up and resign (which is a reasonable consequense, if this program was so troubling to the leaker - resigning in protest has an honorable history).

Former officials will at least be identified."

Tom Maguire prolly has it right on the best way to investigate.
JustOneMinute: Be Careful What You Wish For: "However, if there is to be an investigation, here is the way to do it - give everyone involved immunity from prosecution for leaking classified info, but keep them open to perjury charges."

Tom got it from < a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/05_12_18_corner-archive.asp#085105"> Michael Ledeen who got it from a friend.
Current officials who leaked can lie and risk jail, or 'fess up and resign (which is a reasonable consequense, if this program was so troubling to the leaker - resigning in protest has an honorable history).

Former officials will at least be identified."

THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER 2006: "• In the sociology of high accomplishment, Charles Murray (Human Accomplishment) documents that the highest accomplishments occur in cultures that believe in absolute truth, beauty, and goodness. The accomplishments, he contends, of cultures that do not believe in absolute beauty tend to be ugly, that do not belief in absolute goodness tend to be immoral, and that do not believe in absolute truth tend to be false."

Relativists vs. Absolutists is the important fight. It is related to Freedom vs. Security. Clearly.

Iraq is changing; Lebanon is changing. Even Bahrain is changing. Bush is attacking the root cause of terrorism -- non-democracy regimes.

Global Voices Online » Bahrain: "t’s been a very rough week for Bahrain, instead of reveling in end-of-year celebrations and hilarity, we’ve had demonstrations and public unrest instead, and that’s not showing any signs of dissipating in the run up to the country’s second parliamentary elections scheduled for October 2006."

IRAQ THE MODEL: "The Kurds and the UIA already have a clear vision about the shape of the government and they have internal agreement between them on the principals and what supports this thought is that both parties said more than once that they have conditions to ask from other parties but not from one another.

This makes one think expect the Kurdish-Shia alliance to show little flexibility in their negotiations with the rest of parties and I don’t think they will tolerate demands the consider “exaggerated” from the Sunnis or Allawi."

The UIA will soon be suffering the internal dissent common of factionalist "big" co-alitions: not enough power for all the top people. And none willing to give up their shot at power for another.

"It looks like the dispute over choosing the PM has escalated within the UIA itself that instead of two candidates, there are six of them now; Abdulmahdi and Abdulkareem al-Inizi from the SCIRI, Shahristani from the independents, Jafari and Jawad al-Maliki from the Dawa and Nadeem al-Jabiri from the virtue (Fadheela) party."

This is most welcome. Parties need clear "winners" -- who is the speaker/ representative/ leader of the party. And the not-leaders become loyal rivals (like McCain in the Reps of the US), or loyal opposition. Um, like Kennedy? Well, in theory.

Political Satire Fake News - The Nose On Your Face: "These nine were our personal favorites and we hope you enjoy them.

9. Top 9 Things That Cheese Bono Off

8. Top 9 Things It Is Funny To Imagine Osama Bin Laden Is Doing Right Now

7. Top 9 Catherine Baker Knoll Past-Times

6. Bush's Top 9 Ted Kennedy Nicknames

5. Top 9 Worst Halloween Costumes Of All Time

4. Top 9 Alternate Names For The Global War On Terror

3. Top 9 Other Saddam Prison Complaints

2. Top 9 Suggested Ann Coulter Book Titles

1. Top 9 Signs That You Might Be A Prisoner At Guantanamo Bay"

9 is different than 10. Way different.

The Anchoress First 2006 Roundup: "The moon is where I feel like I’ve been! If I ever tell me kids they can have all their friends over, and that everyone can sleep over, and also have my best pal and her family over, and agree to watch a freaking football game - which you know I hate football - and then have to watch a weakened Dick Clark and Mariah “There are my breasts!” Carey at midnight, and then listen to all the young folks NOT SLEEP until almost 6AM, please just shoot me."

After some kind of wild New Year, The Anchoress lists a great roundup of posts. Go read what she's found interesting.

David Corn: "'Abramoff's cooperation would be a boon to an ongoing Justice Department investigation of congressional corruption, possibly helping prosecutors build criminal cases against up to 20 lawmakers of both parties and their staff members.'

Several members of Congress? Up to 20 lawmakers and staffers? While you've been drinking egg nog and making resolutions you'll never keep, dedicated government lawyers have been working over this holiday season to secure a deal that could lead to the biggest scandal to hit Congress in decades. "

David and his Cornuts should keep up the pressure against corruption from lobbying.

Best would be ever more complete tax records and especially gov't expenditure details on the internet.

Marc Cooper: "All of the Cubans in this crew, including Jose, considered themselves men of the left, supporters of the Revolution at one time or another. And now — a decade later– with Latour’s departure, they have, to a man, all left Cuba. Some are in Spain; others in Mexico. A few are in Florida. And now Jose is in Canada. Jose Latour also has three great books now out in English… I recommend all of them: Comrades in Miami, Havana World Series, and The Outcast."

Mr. Latour had become completely disenchanted with Cuba’s political system. “I believed in the revolution” at first, he recalled. “I thought it was the best thing that ever happened to my country. Ah well, it turned out it’s the worst thing that happened to my country.”

Too bad Marc Cooper will never allow himself to be enough in favor of brutal socialism to change his mind and admit he made a mistake. Marc is happy to bad mouth Pinochet, the right-wing Latin dictator who left BEFORE he died. Now being punished.

Yet it's not clear the alternatives, like Castro (or Chavez today) were much better.

normblog on Chavez: " 'The world offers riches to all. However, minorities such as the descendants of those who crucified Christ' have become 'the owners of the riches of the world,' Chavez said Dec. 24 on a visit to a rehabilitation center in the Venezuelan countryside.

Is that from the same speech as this one?

Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez praised Jesus Christ as a revolutionary hero during a Christmas Eve visit to a homeless shelter. 'For me, Christmas is Christ. The rebel Christ, the revolutionary Christ, the socialist Christ,'' he said during a televised speech from the shelter.

Are we back here to a 'socialism of fools'?"

Yes, Norm, we are back to a socialism of fools. Until the aid folk embrace Maximum Employment companies.

Dean's World -No Aid for Egypt -: "'Not one stinking red cent of American money, taken from a populace that is largely Christian and Jewish, should go to the racist, sadistic barbarians inhabiting the land of Egypt. Some things are too deep for tears. Nora Younis's narrative of the Egyptian brutalising of Sudanese refugees is one such. What it is to be black and Christian or black and Muslim in an Arab Muslim land. Have mercy, Jesus.'

I opposed government foreign aid to Egypt long before this incident because (1) it saps the initiative of the giver and givee; and (2) Egypt is not a friend of America. This racist incident only adds to my opposition. "

The US should be cutting aid to Egypt's gov't, and giving aid directly to small Egyptian businessmen. Who make profits.