A Lesson by VDH

Long essay by Victor Davis Hanson about the realities of muslim terror and what we need to do about it.

He cites some nutcase rantings by a San Antonio columnist but point to this:

"More coherent—but, in its way, even more frightening—was “Time to Talk to al Qaeda,” a Boston Globe op-ed by Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou of Harvard’s Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research. Mohamedou assures us that bin Ladin is a reasonable adversary with whom we can reach accommodation."

My concern is that there are actually people out there that will read things like that and see it as reasonable.

Also, is it just me or does the magazine cover on that page looks a lot like Spiderman's head shot?

Hollywood and Religion

Brent Bozell over at Townhall has a piece about the dearth of Christian themed movies coming out of Hollywood.

He complains, rightly I think, that the industry is afraid of religious themed films in spite of the success of "The Passion" but he does say this:

"This is not to say, however, that a book with a Christian message is going to be a guaranteed hit at the theater. The "Left Behind" series of books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have sold an astronomical 70 million copies, but when the first two books were turned into movies, they bombed at the theater. Hollywood is now trying a radical innovation with "Left Behind: World at War." the third movie attempt. It is releasing the film exclusively in churches -specifically, on screens in 3,200 churches, 1,200 of which can seat more than 2,000 viewers."

I have news for Mr. Bozell and Hollywood, the success of religious themed films are going to be based on their quality a hell of a lot more than anything else by far. The fact is that most religious films suck. They tend to range from amateurish to ridiculous. Sure, give me a list of good religious films to rebut me but odds are I can name 20 good secular ones for every "Passion" you throw at me.

At the same time, the vast majority of serious "erotic" films suck too. Every time I read about some director being a titty-baby because his film got an NC-17 for sexual content, I can rest assured it will be about as erotic as buying kartofels from the local babushka. Henry and June anyone?

Good movies, that's all we ask.

It's Cool

Kofi Annan assures us in this commentary in the Washington Post that we have nothing to worry about when the UN takes its rightful place as overlord of the internet.

As a remedy to this situation, I suggest somebody inform Mr. Annan that the internet is currently inhabited by a large population of agitated Hutus and see what happens. The UN won't find time to actually doing anything about the internet for decades.

Changing the Clock

Or not.

Thursday I was getting ready to teach a class when I looked at my
kitchen clock and saw that I was running just a tad later than I like.
So I ran down to the Marshrutka (you know, the passenger vans used as
mini-buses) and jogged to my class with 15 minutes to spare. I hate to
be late, bad example and all for the students you know, so I was very
happy with myself when I actually arrived a little early.

One student shows up, puts her books down and leaves. I've had a
problem with students not attending classes, apathy runs rampant here,
but I usually have my core group in attendance. Well I decided to wait
for a while and get some writing done. 30 minutes later, no students.
Finally the one student returns, sits and stares at me as if I am going
to teach her even if she doesn't even speak English (I use one of the
students as an interpreter and they weren't there).

I've found that I have to really reach inside myself sometimes to find
the necessary patience with my students but there are moments in which
my annoyance shines through and this was one I guess because I asked
"So, where is everybody?" That's when she told me we still had 45
minutes before class started. I had failed to adjust the kitchen
clock.

In fact, as I write I still have not gone to the trouble of taking the
clock down and setting it back. I'll get around to it.

Eventually.

Libby's Fibby

Has anybody come up with the definitive clever name for the current
situation with Scooter? I'm sure everybody has worked with the same
old variations with "gate" but isn't that so 20th century by now?

Libby's Fibby is my nomination.

Marketing Religion

Jeff Jarvis has this to say about recent decisions by the Methodist church.

"God’s work?

I sure as hell don’t think so."

Whatever dude. I'm as un-religious as is possible, but I've never understood people's demands that a church change its belief system based on changing times. Of course since I'm not part of any religion I guess I have no say but, having said that, I SAY that if a particular religion doesn't fit with the times, let it serve it's members or lose membership and fade away as part of a natural process.

Isn't that where all the protestant religions came from?

I support gay marriage but I'm not going to tell my mother that she has to ignore what she believes is the word of god. I gave up that kind of time-waster years ago.

Cat Fight

Ever been in a situation where a couple of people you know have a disagreement and start yelling and saying things you think they might regret later? You know, where their emotions get the best of them and neither is willing to back down? Try this exchange over at Daily Pundit.

A question

By the way, is there a Blogger's styleguide?

Get with the Program!!!!!

I did it again! The film fest links come from Hit and Run.

http://www.reason.com/hitandrun/

I'm a dope.

Liberty Fest reports

Themed film festivals are always a little creepy since they are most concerned with serving their theme and can find themselves running really crummy movies because of the festival's narrow scope. But if there is one constituency that is poorly served in film it is conservatives so maybe the Liberty Fest has a purpose.

Here are two wildly different takes.

First the rave.:

And then, the rasberry.

Ahem, an Introduction

So I started this blog way, way back and then dropped it for various
reasons, mainly lack of internet access.

I've resumed without actually telling anybody so if you found me,
welcome.

I am a Peace Corps Volunteer currently posted in Ukraine. If you've
ever been in the PC, you probably know that it is a hive of liberal
group-think so, not being fully with the program makes me something of
an oddball. My PC friends would probably be surprised to hear this but
I would be an oddball in a hive of conservative group-think as well.
I've struggled with the left/right labels in the past, trying to
identify myself as liberal on these issues and conservative on those
but I finally realized that those labels simply don't work for me.

I don't see how a war on terrorism or the war in Iraq can be defined as
liberal or conservative issues. And I find that both parties share the
same enthusiasm for hypocrisy if it suits their particular purpose.

But I do find myself reading more from what is considered the
conservative side of opinion. And the vast majority of my friends are
liberal.

So maybe that makes me a Masochistan. Has anybody started that party
yet?

I am slowly starting to realize various mistakes I've made over the
past week, not attributing some links to the blog that I found them on
being the most inexcusable and I promise to make a better effort.

In Ukraine (it is "Ukraine" by the way, Ukrainians hate it when people
say "The Ukraine"), internet is relatively expensive. My method of
using it is to go online, grab as much as I can and then log off to
save minutes. I do all my reading offline and so when I want to blog a
story, I go back on and blah, blah, blah. Sometimes, in that gap, it
has slipped my mind to attribute where I originally found a story.
Sometimes, I forget where I got it. In any case, I'll try harder in
the future I promise.

Other than that, I need to begin pulling out and posting quotes from
sources that I link to more. I've started that to some degree but I
don't know HTML and I don't get the pretty quote formatting of others.
And since my online time is limited, I think that this will be the
standard for a while.

There are old posts below that I tried to edit and managed to
completely screw up in the process. I'll be repairing that in the
future.

If anybody knows a way that you can post on blogspot by email with
formatting (links etc), please let me know. I don't know if that is
even possible but it would save me a lot of time.

Oh, and I'll be making a greater effort to pontificate on the unique PC
experience in Ukraine.

A grown up's CIA

Interesting article about the way things were run in the 1980's CIA.

Obviously there were some foulups back then but after the current debacle, this is refreshing.

" Casey seemed to know everyone on earth who had ever accomplished anything, and he had a genius for flipping through his Rolodex and plucking out the one individual in the entire world capable of helping us find out whatever we needed to know %u2013 and then talking that man or woman into lending a hand.
It was always done quietly if a meeting was necessary, we held it away from the office and with no paper trail whatever. And we did it all the time. There are literally scores of individuals in Washington, and elsewhere, who during those years gave their time and energy, sometimes at personal risk to help provide information vital to our country security. Of course you don't know who they are because they never, ever talked about what they did, not even to their friends and colleagues, never gave a speech about it, and never published op-ed essays about it even if they thought the resulting Reagan policies were wrong-headed."

Chicken Little

I see that Chicken little is getting tepid at best reviews. The guys
at Pixar must be out house shopping right now.

Lower Ninth Ward update

Nice piece about hurricane aftereffects from NO resident Blake Bailey in Slate

Miss Cleo the Editor

The last time I read USA today was in a hotel while on business. Back then I remember Al Neuharth's editorials as tepid and inconsequential. Since when did he become psychic?:


"We'll never know whether I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby is guilty of lying to a grand jury as charged.
Despite Libby's not guilty plea at Thursday's preliminary hearing, President Bush and Vice President Cheney can't afford to let him go to trial. So they'll offer him the moon to plea bargain for the best deal he can cut."

Pick me up

Interesting review in Slate of new book about depression here.:

I've heard something like this before:

"In many instances, depressives may simply be judging themselves and the world much more accurately than non-depressed people, and finding it not a pretty place.'"

The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris

Horrifying and long description of the growing violence in France via Vodkapundit.

Big surprise is that it is from 2002.

I just discovered City Journal this year and so far have been impressed by the intelligent and well thought essays. But, the absolute hell on earth described here forces me to wonder if it is accurate. I've never been to France and when I do make it, I don't expect to step foot into these areas so I'll never know firsthand. Still, I've grown so leery of believing any news without verification that I'm withholding judgment for now.

It is fascinating though.

Jihad Babes

Ok, its been a long jihad, Allah seems to be on a different schedule sometimes and thinking all day about your plans with those virgins can make you can lose your focus but then it's always good to remind yourself of the Jihad babes you're fighting for.

Groupthink

I was surprised one day when a normally level headed friend of mine became furious when we happened to pass an office for "Jews For Jesus". He felt that any Jew that becomes a Christian has betrayed their people.

Frankly I didn't understand and still don't. I've always believed in individual choice.

Then we have things like this.

There have been times when I thought it would be cool to have a clear ethnic identity rather than the Heinz 57 mix of my family but if it means giving up your ability to be who you want to be, forget it.

UN to the Rescue!

Yet another opportunity for the UN to show its effectiveness and commitment to peace here. I'm sure that with a firm hand they will have this situation quickly resolved.

Oh, and can somebody please tell Stalin to put on a parka? It's going to be cold down there.