If ever there were an occasion in our day for playing the Ashokan Farewell, it would be the funeral of Shelby Foote. The haunting melodic theme of the PBS series "The Civil War" and its most well-recognized face and voice - brought together one last time. Before Foote achieved national face recognition on the PBS series for his colorful recounting of wartime tales, he was a successful novelist and author of the grand, daunting trilogy "Civil War: A Narrative" (the three volumes in paperback weigh more than 9 pounds combined) - ranked 15th on Modern Library's Top 100 list of 20th century nonfiction English-language works. I count myself as one of the few who made it through the 2,800+ pages of rich and detailed military history. The … [Read more...]
Archives for 2005
Economics and Moral Truth: A Book Review
The following review is made possible by the hard work of Stacy Harp at Mind and Media, who sent a copy of the book to me through the generous donation of The Acton Institute, which has edited and distributed Natural Law: The Foundation of an Orderly Economic System as one in a series of “Studies in Ethics and Economics.” The Review Not many economics books could garner a vehement dispute whether taken off the shelf by a hard-core libertarian, doctrinaire Marxist, or New Deal apologist. Yet just such a new treatise will inspire a lot of readers to think outside the box. Natural Law: The Foundation of an Orderly Economic System by Dr. Alberto M. Piedra (Oxford: Lexington Books, 2004) challenges many traditional systems of economic … [Read more...]
Democratic Senators: No Abuse at Gitmo
From this morning's Washington Times... isn't it better to get a little more of the story before jumping to conclusions, and even worse - hurling outrageous and absurd invectives at our own military personnel? Perhaps Dick Durbin needs to follow the lead of his Democratic Senate colleagues Ron Wyden (OR) and Ben Nelson (NE) in taking the grand Gitmo tour. Guy had a great post yesterday, linking to this informative report on who is giving out the most abuse at our Guantanamo Bay detention facilities. Hit a MoveOn.org Kool Aid-drinking Leftie on the knee with a solitary report of alleged prisoner mistreatment, and watch the reflexive kick of giddy anti-Americanism. Folks, there are a few people out there who want to believe that our … [Read more...]
Iran in a New Light
Only a couple days after being "elected" as the new President of Iran, hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stops the charade and announces that his country plans to reconstitute its nuclear program. The reliable and knowledgeable Amir Taheri answers the question of whether the rest of us (especially, the West) should be worried by this development: Should the outside world be frightened? Not necessarily. Paradoxically, the clarity created by this election may prove useful. Khatami went around the world speaking about Hegel and Nietzsche to ruling elites and creating the illusion that the Islamic Republic was part of the global system symbolised by the World Trade Organisation, the Davos forum, and the Western non-governmental organisations … [Read more...]
Is Durbin’s “Apology” Enough?
A few days ago I contacted Senator Ken Salazar's office to get a statement on Senator Dick Durbin's outrageous remarks. This morning I received the following message in my inbox: Thank you for contacting me regarding your concerns about comments attributed to Senator Durbin. I know Senator Durbin, and I know that he has only the deepest respect for our troops and their families. He did not -- and would not -- intend to criticize our troops. Nonetheless, to his credit, Senator Durbin recognized that he chose his words poorly and that he offended many people -- like yourself -- in using the words that he did. As a result, on June 21, Senator Durbin publicly apologized for his remarks on the floor of the United States Senate. … [Read more...]
An Excellent Question
Colorado's eminent leaders of the political Left, the gurus who give us the acerbic wit of ProgressNow, apparently have reached a moment of metaphysical crisis. Below I've pasted an email they are sending out to all their subscribers (my emphases in italics - I have underlined the repeated question of the hour): PLEASE FORWARD THIS QUESTION: WHAT DO WE STAND FOR? Whether you consider yourself a liberal, progressive, populist, moderate, or just part of "the Left," we need to answer a fundamental question. Some are talking about how we can "frame" our issues better. Others are arguing over a list of common values or positions. But it's really the same conversation -- What do we stand for? It seems we agree on much of what … [Read more...]
The Scoop on the “Real” Saddam
Quick link blogging this morning: read this AP story from today's Washington Times - America's fascination with the details of celebrities' everyday lives takes another twisted turn as U.S. military personnel who guarded Saddam Hussein in an Iraq prison give GQ the big scoop on his living habits, favorite foods, and various personal opinions. The AP story gives no hint of the actions that earned Saddam the nickname "Butcher of Baghdad." How easy to forget.... … [Read more...]
Joe Wilson and the Downing Street Memo
Even one prominent career State Department official and notorious, embittered critic of President Bush's foreign policy has noted that some of the hullabaloo surrounding the Downing Street Memo is overblown: ...on Thursday, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson admitted that "we all believed" Saddam had WMD. "I believe the threat to the United States posed by Saddam's weapons of mass destruction -- which we all believed he had -- could have been dealt with using something less violent than the invasion, conquest and occupation of Iraq," Wilson said in a response to a question from Cybercast News Service following a Democrat-sponsored hearing on the matter. Wilson's comment, that "we all believed" Saddam had WMD, appeared to … [Read more...]
“Dump Dick Durbin”
In light of the senior Senator from Illinois's outrageous and vile remarks about our military, this has got to be the most aptly-named blog of the day. After today's lame "apology" attempt, Dick Durbin has shown he is a man without honor. The second-highest ranking Democrat in the United States Senate making whiny, weasely remarks like this: ...I do not even know if the interrogator involved here was an American soldier. I didn't say that at any point. To suggest that I am criticizing American servicemen, I am not. I don't know who is responsible for this.... And this: To suggest that this is somehow an insult to the men and women serving in the uniform, nothing could be further from the truth. But it is no credit to them or … [Read more...]
One-Way Teacher Exchange Program
Stories like this from the Washington Times - an account of Virginia school districts hiring more foreign nationals as teachers - points to some bigger issues going on in education today. Questions that need to be asked (and hopefully explored in future posts): Are our schools of education adequately preparing teachers for the profession? What incentives could be introduced to overcome shortages in hiring educators qualified to teach math, science, foreign language, or special education? What do we do about the single salary schedule, that pays all teachers in a district according to the same rate (by advanced degrees and seniority)? Is offering teachers "performance bonuses" even feasible, and how would you measure that? The … [Read more...]
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