Multi-culti

When will some people learn? This example of eliminating the viewpoint of the many for the benefit of the few is another in a long list. At some point you have to realize that the values of our forefathers and support for the way of life that those values entailed are good things and worth nurturing.

The article linked above sounds, well, almost like the Dutch.

The troubled case of the Netherlands is the most interesting, however, because the Dutch - like the British - said their aim was a multicultural society composed of equals.

wrote William Pfaff (link here). His point was that the Dutch remained a closed-minded Calvinistic society and that the Muslim immigrant population rejected their offered multiculturalism. In the US, I believe, there is more tolerance. But there also needs to be integration: learn English, you are here and English is the language; accept the beliefs of others (even if you do not share them) without fear that those beliefs will be imposed on you; acknowledge that your freedom to act ends at the tip of my nose; respect the law; etc, etc. Again, from Pfaff's article:

This specifically Dutch tragedy was created by good intentions combined with false assumptions about the human, social and political realities of cultural difference. After the Nazi catastrophe, racial and cultural distinctions were interpreted as cause for discrimination and conflict, and accordingly were not only avoided but denied. Certain illusions about the nature of man were - and are - promoted. People in the West want to continue to believe in these illusions, despite all that history has done to disprove them.

They include the belief that the core values of the Western democracies are innate, and that education, the liberalization of political and social institutions, and political action can liberate these values among people who don't yet recognize them. It is believed that everyone is headed not only toward liberal democracy but also toward secularism or religious indifference.
Western political (and even economic) values are said to be universal, valid for all societies now and in the future. Hence the unity of mankind is only a matter of time. The moral complexity of the human condition in the past is ignored, or is simply unknown.

It all adds up to a naïve version of the belief in inevitable human progress that arose during the French Enlightenment and has inspired virtually every Western political ideology we have known since - and that history has repeatedly disproved.

It really is ok to feel that some things are better than others. The Declaration of Independence is a fine document worthy of study in our schools even though the words 'God' and 'Creator' appear in it. And, by God, it should be ok to sing Christmas carols at that school as well. And if someone is offended by that concert, perhaps they should spend the time elsewhere.

The End of Capitalism

The Instapundit posts a piece from The Anglosphere Challenge

The first indication came when the falling price of computers crossed the point where the average programmer could afford to own a computer capable of producing the code from which he typically earned his living. This meant that, for the first time since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the ownership of the most critical tool of production in the most critical industry of the world's leading economy was readily affordable by the individual worker.

By strict Marxist definitions, capitalism ended sometime in the early 1990s. This is a development that has not received adequate attention.

For me, this happened in 1985, when I went into business as a one-man software company working at home. Nearly twenty years later, I'm still at it. But I did not look at my actions as contributing to the end of capitalism. I always thought that I did this because I was the only boss I could work for, and the only one who would have me as an employee.

Get a Grip

Some people need to get a firmer grip on reality. Arguing about the 'political' messages in The Incredibles or The Polar Express is a further example of people who take themselves way too seriously or who believe that the average Joe must be protected from subversive messages in animated movies, protected by the more discerning and mature intellectual elite no doubt.

The Bleat

Today's Bleat by James Lileks brings up a couple of points. First, it has been many years since I've watched any network TV news, and it's not because the viewpoint is biased, but because it offers so little information. I've been online for ten years now and have found many other sources for current news and the ability to delve deeper into any topic should I desire. I'm with you on this one; Dan Rather was long ago and far away.
Secondly, a pat on the back, self-inflicted. I scooped him by a week with the Hamm's beer jingle.

Alumni

Columbia, discussed here in an article referenced by the Instapundit has a problem, one not unique to it however. But like most universities, the fuel for the automobile is the money donated by the alumni. If the alumni of Columbia don't like what is happening there, I suspect the money will slow down and the university president will communicate the need for change. The pendulum does swing.

Holiday cheer

Just in time for the holidays, a drink-mixing guide, courtesy of Yahoo Picks.

Are they nuts?

The EU is apparently suicidal. They will allow a Hezbollah-related television station to broadcast into the EU. Link to the story spotted on Tim Blair.

This sounds right

Troop increase in Iraq according to Christian Science Monitor. I think the January elections are very important and represent the same opportunity for victory to the Iraqi people that the people of Afghanistan took advantage of. Anything that makes the victory more likely is good. And thanks to the troops whose departure is delayed and time away from home lengthened.

bizgirl

Well,here you go. Of course, then there's this. And ultimately, who cares. It's all about the writing in the end.

The BBC, unbelievable

Hard to fathom bias at the BBC in this story by Mark Gregory. The closing is a classic:

Splits among the diplomats on the UN security council and flaws in the design of the oil for food programme played at least as much a part in what happened as negligence by UN officials or collusion in corruption by foreign firms trading with Iraq.
And it is often forgotten that most of Saddam Hussein's illicit income came from oil smuggling, not kickbacks on UN contracts.
Dealing with smuggling was mainly the job of the American navy, not the UN.

I've got BBC News in a 'News' folder in the 'Favorites' shortcuts in IE. I may have to move it.

Hamm's beer

Sad news as the composer of the Hamm's beer jingle passes away. I must have heard that song thousands of times on television and radio, particularily during Twins baseball games while growing up. Go here to read about, and don't miss the chance to click and listen one last time.
Update: the link now brings you to the Fargo Forum login page. Oh well.

Bankrupt Railroads

According to this Lionel has filed for bankruptcy protection as a result of a $40 million award from a jury for "misappropriating designs" from Mike's Train House (I blame lawyers). Seeing shiny new Lionel trains under the Christmas tree was once highly desired, at least by male members of my generation. The name "Mike's Train House" may conjure up an image of a neighborhood hobby shop, but according to their website MTH, Inc. employs around 80 people. A strange internecine feud.

In related news, P.J. O'Rourke (a very funny man) writes in the December Atlantic that according to the Heritage Foundation "light-rail costs four times as much as automobiles per passenger-mile. But voters like trains." True - can there be anything as romantic as travel across long distances in a train with a restaurant car, a sleeper car, and a viewing car? I'm not so sure about the romance involved in commuting to work in one, but if it gets some of those cars off I-5 in Seattle, I guess I'm for it.

Brakes?

This photo made me laugh.

Condi Rice

What seems most impressive to me should Condileeza Rice become Secretary of State is how underwhelmed I am by her 'femaleness' or 'blackness'. It just isn't that important, and that's wonderful.

And that's a lot!

If the numbers hold up, Minnesota's Norm Coleman has doubled the Oil for Food ripoff amount to $21.3 billion dollars. That seems like a lot of money, but a little difficult to grasp. Bear with me here, I don't have a calculator that can use scientific notation, so the numbers are rough. The ballpark should be correct though. Running from 1991 to 2003, so that's 13 years (being inclusive to err conservatively), that's around $1.615 billion per year, or $4.425 million per day, $184,000 per hour, $3073 per minute, or most pointedly, $51 per second. Would you do me a favor or two if I gave you $50 per second for 13 years? I think so.

Afghan - solar leader

How about this? Afghanistan, leading the world into the future. Sounds like some 'alternate history' tale.

Librarian of Mystery

I've been reading her for a while. Today I've blogrolled her - stop by and give her your congratulations for being named Best Personal Blog at the New Zealand Netguide Web Awards.

Zarqawi

Seems like he is doing us a favor by urging them on. And then, he kinda sounds like Bagdad Bob by saying "There is no doubt that God's victory is on the horizon". Somehow, it doesn't look like that to me.

And this is flipping absurd: " The link to the five-minute tape was posted by an individual who signed himself Abu Maysarah al-Iraqi, known as the media coordinator of al-Zarqawi's group, Al Qaeda of Jihad in Iraq ". Media coordinator? Does the group also have a publicist? a stylist?

Let's hope the Marines 'retire' all of them.

High trust societies

When I was a young boy on a family drive from northern Minnesota to visit the cousins in Missouri, while creating a hill on a two-lane road in Iowa my mother remarked that driving required a great deal of faith. And I understood that on-coming traffic in your lane is not visible to you until you reach the crest and it is only trust that everyone is obeying the lane restrictions that allows you to maintain speed and confidence up the hill.

I've never forgotten that. A client in upstate New York who had just returned from a trip to visit his son in India mentioned to me a few months ago that driving in India was amazing and he did not see how everyone was not killed - there was no respect for lanes or traffic regulations. We discussed respect for the rule of law for a bit and I expressed my view that what was of concern to me in Iraq was not the ability of the Iraqis to understand and participate in democracy or the ultimate installation of at least a prototypical democratic government, but that there would be no respect for the rule of law. This respect is, it seems to me, a social contract of sorts, and it must be present and desired at a societal level in order to work. Perhaps it can be learned; more likely it depends on a culture exported to and (perhaps slowly) accepted by a society.
Professor Reynolds notes a review of The Anglosphere Challenge:

Empire allowed the British to spread to the new world, and to bring many new peoples into their high trust societies

'High trust' is a nice term for it and we in the United States are a high trust society. You trust that there is no unseen vehicle about to crest the hill in your lane. You trust that nobody sees sense in exploding a metro bus full of innocent people or explosively suiciding in a crowded cafe. Seeing that that trust is still possible is the most important thing we can do, and there are clearly identified people who are doing their best to destroy it.
Some people understand this intellectually, some people understand it in their gut, some people don't get it at all.

Diversity

Somebody notices the fact that the Bush administration is more diverse than any before it.

In the last 50 years, which U.S. president has done the most to promote minority leadership in America?The answer is George W. Bush, by a mile and a half. Bush has given America a black secretary of State, a black national security adviser, a Chinese secretary of labor, and now a Latino attorney general.

The entire post is good (scroll down to see this one).

Blair to visit

Tony Blair's visit, with it's Palestinian/Israeli emphasis, should be interesting. Blair, it seems to me, is the premier national leader in the world at the moment. Hopefully, he has some ideas on how to kickstart the process now that Arafat is gone, ideas that he can sell to Bush. If Bush believes in something and action is necessary, that action will be taken. Let's see what the two of them come up with.

Make it stop

Now if only someone would make her go away. I enjoyed Caberet, but that was it. Oh, and take Madonna with you as well.

Does the air seem a little fresher to you?

Arafat is dead. Maybe now there can be some movement in the Middle East.

Like it's needed!

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Nice and easy install.

Mark Steyn

You gotta love Mark Steyn. The always estimable Tim Blair links to Steyn in the Chicago Sun-Times where Steyn writes of the 'moral issues' view of the election.

For me, it was definitely a moral choice. John Kerry was a pathological self-aggrandizing liar. We all know somebody like that, who's personal biography and stories do not stand up to close scrutiny. But unlike our personal acquaintances and the classic Walter Mitty (see Danny Kaye in 1947, Jim Carey next year), John Kerry was running for President of the United States in a time of war.

Fallujah photos

I checked Fox news twice today and both times the AP photos from Fallujah were of the 'wrong' side. I wasn't around for WWII or the Korean War, but I remember something of the Vietnam War, and I don't recall that the CBS Evening News of that era featured photos and video taken from the perspective of the Viet Cong. Where are the photos of the US Marines in Fallujah on the front page of the Fox News website?
Is it safe to assume that if an AP photographer can find and photograph insurgents that the US Marines can as well? What the hell kind of war is this, anyway.

Send in Retief!

Via Instapundit, a lovely group blog. Yes, it does bring Keith Laumer to mind. I'll have to drag those old books out agin.

Chirac throws a hissy fit

I had to laugh when I read this about Chirac snubbing Allawi. And Fox has further information What a self-important little man he is.

MEMRI

I've been reading stuff on the MEMRI site for some time, but I learned from the November Atlantic Monthly that a (the?) director is one Yigal Carmon, a former chief anti-terrorism advisor to Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Yitzhak Shamir, and that MEMRI has been crucial in confirming the authenticity of statements supposedly issued by al-Qaeda. Impressive.

New Blogroll Items

I'm adding The Gweilo Diaries because I like reading and learning about that particular corner of the world (and the Friday posts can be especially interesting) and Roger L. Simon because he normally presents a common-sensical view of a world sorely lacking common sense.

The Election

My sense looking at a map of the nation, seeing the blue on both coasts, is 'Thank God, the Heartland can still elect the President.' But perhaps it is almost fractal - Washington state shows up as blue on the national map, but at the state level, it is only the Puget Sound metropolitan areas that went Democratic (as is normal and expected every year).

Kerry carried only 14 of the state's 39 counties, but they included populous King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap and Thurston. Bush carried Spokane County and Eastern Washington and much of Western Washington outside of central Puget Sound.

So perhaps it is the non-city dwellers who voted Mr. Bush back in. I wonder how that would hold up nation-wide.

Election Day

For what it is worth, it is currently raining hard in Langley. That typically means that it is raining harder in Seattle. I'll be voting Republican for the first time in my life later today.