Chicago Mayor Daley Admires China's Schools

WorldNetDaily reported today that Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley has called for Chicago's school system to become more like China's schools.

Mayor Richard Daley says he wants the city's public schools to move to a six-day school week.

Children, he says, need more time in the classroom, a longer school year and earlier exposure to foreign languages to compete in the global market.

Daley said when he visited China, he found that children there learn English before they reach the equivalent of 8th grade, spend more days in school each week and don't have a summer break.

Eighth grade! My kids learned English before they even started school.

Mayor Daley has a few screws loose. I find it hard to believe that he doesn't understand that this is China. They're COMMUNISTS! They "compete in the global market" by using child labor, prisoner labor, and other types of forced labor at rock-bottom pay rates.

Is this the kind of future that Daley aspires to for his children and grandchildren?

When leaders within the Democrat party start pushing communist practices as the ideal, it makes Michelle Malkin's latest book title, Unhinged, seem like an understatement.

Movie Weekend

I went to the movies--twice--this weekend. Saturday, I took my daughter (who no longer works at the movie theater) to see "Harry Potter." If you love Harry Potter, you'll love installment four. My daughter loved it. I enjoyed it too. My only criticism would be that it didn't convey the same sense of the events taking place over an entire school year that the earlier movies had. But that's a tiny point and didn't detract from the movie.

Sunday, The Girls saw "Walk the Line," and we all loved it. Before this movie came out, I had thought Johnny and June had been married their whole lives, so I learned a lot. The point that stood out for me, like in the movie "Ray," was how big an impact parents can have on their children, good or bad.

This weekend's movie-going was way better than last week, when we saw "Derailed" and left about halfway through. We weren't at our usual theater, and the one we went to was creepy. The seats weren't comfortable, the clientele was less savory than we were accustomed to, and the commercials they played while we waited for start time were risque.

And then the movie started. My friend had really wanted to see "Derailed" because the trailer made it look like a suspense thriller. But the trailer kept all the suspense and didn't leave any for the movie. It was an uncomfortable exercise in watching a bored man make stupider and stupider decisions (Hadn't the character ever watched TV??? If he had, he would have known what to do). And then the movie got foul, and so we left.

The next night we talked to someone who sat through the whole movie, and she told us how it ended, which was what I had already figured out. And that means the "plot twist" was horribly obvious, because I never try to figure out a movie. I just let it happen.

So we'll be sticking with the good theater, and on the movies we aren't sure about, we'll wait until we hear from someone normal that it's a good one before we head off to see them.

Deuce Four Returns Home

I was going to post about the whole Democrat/Republican Senate response to the war in Iraq, and what Congressman Murtha said about Iraq and our country's leadership, which revealed how completely unhinged Murtha is.

But then I grabbed a sandwich at one of the sandwich shop chains and went through an entire ordeal trying to get them to understand English, and I decided to post about that instead.

But while I was eating my sandwich, which dripped all over my hands so I couldn't type, I read Hugh Hewitt's site, which had a link to Michael Yon's post on the return of Deuce Four stateside, which settled the question of what my post should cover.

If you haven't read Michael Yon, you should. He's been embedded with the Army's Deuce Four unit and sending back dispatches from Mosul and the work this unit did there. His writing is vivid and conveys a profound respect and love for these men.

In today's post, Yon describes the return-home party, which included Bruce Willis as a guest. It's a good recap of who these soldiers are, and by extension who all of our soldiers are.

We are at war, and good men's lives are on the line. Take some time to read some of Michael Yon's other dispatches (linked on the right in his post) and get to know the caliber of men who are fighting to defend us and to help strengthen Iraq's fledgling liberty.

Update:

While you're reading about Iraq, don't miss Mohammed and Omar's blog, Iraq the Model, where they tell you what's going on from an Iraqi's perspective. And that perspective is in favor of what the US is doing in their country.

Humiliation Helps

Work is really doing a number on my blogging time!

I saw a whole lot of articles yesterday that caught my eye. Did I save them? No.

There were two stories in particular that were in the same vein. One woman had an ex-boyfriend set a mattress on fire against her apartment door, because she was seeing another man. In the time since the fire, she and the arsonist got married. She figured he must have really loved her to do something that drastic.

The other story was about a woman who married a man who had beat the carp out of her earlier.

Loser women with a death wish. Ugh! Don't get me started.

But one story I saw yesterday, and didn't save, popped up this morning on AOL News when I booted up. It's about a girl whose mother humiliated her. Great story, but boy oh boy, does it show how far the psychological professionals have strayed from good old common sense. (Truth-in-Blogging Note: I have a Bachelors degree in Psychology.)

The AP reported yesterday:

Tasha Henderson got tired of her 14-year-old daughter's poor grades, her chronic lateness to class and her talking back to her teachers, so she decided to teach the girl a lesson.

She made Coretha stand at a busy Oklahoma City intersection Nov. 4 with a cardboard sign that read: "I don't do my homework and I act up in school, so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food."

The result?

Tasha Henderson said her daughter's attendance has been perfect and her behavior has been better since the incident.

Coretha, a soft-spoken girl, acknowledged the punishment was humiliating but said it got her attention. "I won't talk back," she said quietly, hanging her head.

She already has been forced by her parents to give up basketball and track because of slipping grades, and said she hopes to improve in school so she can play next year.

The other result? Psychologists and psycho-wannabe's running amok.

One letter to the editor of The Oklahoman warned that Coretha's parents could be "kill[ing] their daughter psychologically."

A passing motorist called the police to report the incident as psychological abuse, but the police said there was no crime. They turned it over to the Department of Human Services, in case DHS wanted to follow up, but a DHS spokesman said it wouldn't get high priority.

Finally--and this is the one that takes the cake for me--Donald Wertlieb, a professor of child development at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, warned that such punishment could do extreme emotional damage. He said rewarding positive behavior is more effective.

"The trick is to catch them being good," he said. "It sounds like this mother has not had a chance to catch her child being good or is so upset over seeing her be bad, that's where the focus is."

Oh please! Raising children in this culture is a war. Parents have to fight against the entertainment, fashion, music culture and all the peer pressure that comes with it. There is a time and place for Quiet Diplomacy, and there's a time for Shock and Awe.

These critics of Tasha Henderson's successful attempt to bring her daughter around seem to believe that Tasha hadn't already tried all the rest of the options. They think that a parent can reward good behavior while letting the child keep on going to heck in a handbasket, and everything will be fine. That's psychobabble at its worst.

Tasha's Shock and Awe campaign did the trick in only an hour and a half, and now Coretha is on the road to responsibility and success in life. Way to go, Tasha!

Bird Flu Treatment

I can't believe Hugh Hewitt missed this one, considering he's been following the avian flu news pretty closely.

It's an article from the November 13 London Telegraph, describing a treatment that has been found for the H5N1 avian flu: Sauerkraut. If you're in Asia, the treatment is kimchi.

Scientists believe that the traditional recipe, which is made from chopped cabbage that is fermented for at least a month, contains a bacteria that may combat the potentially fatal disease.

Their findings follow a study in which kimchi - a spicy cabbage dish popular in South Korea and similar to sauerkraut - was fed to 13 chickens infected with bird flu. Just one week later, 11 of the birds showed signs of recovery from the virus.

Prof Kang [Sa-ouk]'s team claims that lactobacillus, the lactic acid bacteria created during the fermenting process, is the active ingredient that could combat bird flu.

According to the article, comsumption of kimchi is up in South Korea, sales of sauerkraut in America are soaring, and even the British--who generally don't eat sauerkraut--are increasing their purchases of the product. All this without much publicity. This might be a good time to buy into sauerkraut futures or something.

A further study on sauerkraut, carried out recently by Polish and American scientists, concluded that the meal might be the reason for the lower breast cancer rate observed among Polish immigrants in America.

It all looks good. I think I might go for a Ruben sandwich for dinner tonight.

Issues Of Race

La Shawn Barber has an excellent post on the unevenness of the Mainstream Media's coverage of race issues. When whites make racially related statements, the MSM is quick to cover and denounce them. When blacks make racially related statements, the MSM is quick to keep its mouth shut.

In her "Unrelated Update," La Shawn links to Michelle Malkin's post on the media's use of "African-American" to the point of absurdity. Malkin said, "CNN anchor Carol Lin referring to the two French teenagers of Tunisian descent whose death sparked the Paris riots as 'African-American.'" (emphasis in the original)

When the use of "African-American" started, I had two women acquaintances who were black but were British citizens living in the US. I wondered then what we were supposed to call these women: African-British? They certainly weren't Americans. The term, "black," included them. The term, "African-American," excluded them. But the MSM and the African-American leadership didn't seem to care about the exclusion of a number of residents by this choice of name.

But now, due to habit, "African-American" has become so inclusive that even French-Tunisians are included. And so are black Vulcans (see Michelle Malkin's post).

Perhaps the inclusive nature of hyphenated Americans has spread enough that now I can be counted as Asian-American. After all, I'm a quarter Hungarian, and the Hungarians are descended from the Huns, who came from Central Asia, possibly with the Mongol hordes. It makes as much sense as any of the rest of the PC race lingo.

Bird Flu News

Instapundit has a post Saturday about some of the latest news on the bird flu front (HT: Hugh Hewitt). It doesn't look good.

First, in China it looks as though the virus has spread to pigs, as the Epoch Times reported Friday.

Zoology experts at Hunan Agriculture University say that since pig genes are similar to human genes, and that viruses of many animals can live and mutate in pigs, it becomes dangerous for humans once the virus has been found (sic) its way to pigs.

The second concern is over who is likely to be hardest hit by the virus. Instapundit quotes from an article in Forbes Friday (emphasis added).

Experiments with human cells have found the H5N1 virus can trigger levelsof inflammatory proteins called cytokines and chemokines that are more than 10 times higher than those that occur during a bout of the common flu.

This massive increase in cytokine and chemokine activity can inflame airways, making it hard to breathe. It also contributes to the unusual severity of the avian flu, which can result in life-threatening pneumonia and acute respiratory distress.

"This is basically a cytokine storm induced by this specific virus, which then leads to respiratory distress syndrome," [director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Michael T.] Osterholm said. "This also makes sense of why you tend to see a preponderance of severe illness in those who tend to be the healthiest, because the ability to increase the production of cytokines is actually higher in those who are not immune-compromised. It's more likely in those who are otherwise healthy."

It's possible the bird flu won't amount to much. It's possible the mutations will remain within the bird community, or maybe just the birds and the pigs. It's possible the disease won't become as virulent as some are warning about. It's possible.

But we can't afford to take that chance, because it's just as possible that this could be devastating. I've explained it before, but the non-scientific basics are this:

The H and N numbers aren't just arbitrary identification numbers. They indicate the structure of the particular virus, and the same H/N numbers mean the different strains are related. So if there was an outbreak of a strain of H3N2 forty years ago, the people who were exposed to it and survived have antibodies in their systems. If another strain of H3N2 hits next year, even though it's a different virus, the people from forty years ago will be better equipped to fight off the new strain and won't have as severe a reaction as people who have never been exposed to any H3N2 flu.

H5N1 has not been seen since the medical community started identifying flu strains this way, about 1900. So nobody alive today has related antibodies, so everybody is at risk for having a severe reaction--especially healthy people. If this flu mutates into a human-to-human form that spreads with casual contact or through airborne means, we're in trouble.

The best we can hope for is that H5N1 becomes a much-hyped non-event.

Which Middle Earth Race Are You?

I am a Numenorean.



I love quizzes--the ones that aren't for a grade. And this one is great. It's quick without being obvious which answers to pick to get you the "good" result.

Take the quiz here and learn which Middle Earth race you are. (Hat Tip: Hugh Hewitt)

Tinfoil Helmets

Nerd humor is priceless.

National Business Review reported Thursday on a "study" out of MIT from back in February of this year. A few guys at MIT took a serious look at the effectiveness of tinfoil helmets to resist mind control by aliens and governments. The abstract of the study reads:

Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.

The experimenters, Ali Rahimi, Ben Recht, Jason Taylor, and Noah Vawter, tested three different helmet designs. These were the Classical (shaped close to the head), the Fez (a cylinder), and the Centurion (a high Mohawk look). All three designs amplified, rather than reduced, the frequencies used by the government and by cell phones.

The researchers concluded, "We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings." Indeed. Perhaps a followup study can look at the innovative design used in the movie "Signs."

The National Business Review's review of the study includes this astute assessment:

There's only one problem: The humour of the engineers is so deadpan, the findings are likely to be cited ad infinitum in conspiracy and UFO journals.

Oh, we should be so lucky.

Veterans Day Thanks

Millions have fought in defense of our country and the values she stands for, and so many have given their lives.

My grandfather lied about his age to get into the Army in 1917. He died in 1979 of stomach cancer that resulted from being gassed during World War I. The doctors in 1918 had warned him that cancer would come. He continued to serve, and by World War II was training the troops. After WWII, he was stationed in France for two years, working with the department that was identifying the bodies of our war dead.

My father joined the Navy and served in the Korean War and officially in the Vietnam War, though he didn't see any action in Vietnam. He was a radioman in the submarine service during the Cold War, and he didn't tell any of us (even my mother) until the late 1990s about one time in particular when their sub was in imminent danger of being sunk off the coast of the Soviet Union, and nobody would have been the wiser.

Each veteran--past and present--has stories of courage and sacrifice witnessed or experienced, from the glorious to the mundane. It's an important work that our military does for us. I live and breathe in freedom because of what you and those before you have done.

Thank you. And happy Veterans Day.

Born in the USA

Hugh Hewitt, on his radio show today, asked John Eastman (one of "The Smart Guys") about his proposal to Congress that the citizenship laws be changed, based on the wording of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The first paragraph of Section 1 of this amendment reads, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

John Eastman is a professor of law at Chapman University, as is Hugh Hewitt. The other "Smart Guy," Erwin Chemerinsky, is a professor of law at Duke University (Hugh's list of regular guests, linked above, is out of date for Erwin, who used to be at USC).

Now to the issue: John reads this paragraph of the Fourteenth Amendment with more emphasis on the second clause (" and subject to the jurisdiction thereof") than most people currently give. He cited case law on the air that's beyond my memory to repeat here, but his point was that some of the earliest rulings on challenges to this amendment came down on the side of determining where the person was subject to jurisdiction.

For instance (my "for instance," not John's), if a British family is visiting Disneyland and the pregnant mother goes into labor prematurely and has her baby in an Anaheim hospital, that baby will go home with his family to England, where he will be subject to the laws of the UK, not of the US. According to John, that baby should not be given American citizenship, since he does not meet the full criteria for being granted citizenship. And also according to John, Congress has the power to change the citizenship laws to clarify that the Disneyland baby would not qualify for US citizenship. This change would only need a statute from Congress, not another constitutional amendment, since the wording is already in the constitution.

In a rare moment, Hugh and Erwin come down on the same side of an issue, disagreeing with John over (I believe) both the constitutionality of John's proposal and the wisdom of it.

I can't speak to the constitutionality question, but then Hugh, Erwin, and John are all constitutional law professors and they almost never agree with each other either. But as Hugh said during the Harriet Miers debate, the Constitution isn't that hard to read and understand.

I'm with John on this one. It has always baffled me why we should give citizenship to babies born en route from one country to another. Or why we should dangle such an enticing carrot as "anchor babyhood" to encourage people to come here illegally. Of course the anchor baby issue requires the cooperation of the immigration folks who give naturalized-citizenship priority to the families of citizens. But the combination of instant citizenship and immigration priority draws people here illegally who might not otherwise come.

John's point is that these concerns can be addressed by Congress without having to resort to a constitutional amendment. And it sounds as though the House will be taking up the issue soon (as Congresspeople, not normal people, measure "soon"). It's about time!

Marine Corps Birthday

Happy Birthday, Marine Corps!

230 years and still strong.

Thanks for all you do.

We love you!

CIA Leak Investigation Called For

Hugh Hewitt links to this brief post at The American Spectator, from earlier today. Fox News now has a fleshed-out story.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert are circulating a letter calling for a congressional leak investigation into the disclosure of secret U.S. interrogation centers abroad.

It's about dang time!

"If accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks," stated the letter, which Hastert's office said the House speaker had signed. There was no immediate word on whether Frist had given it his signature.

Compare the stakes involved in leaking this kind of information with the stakes involved in Valerie Plame's name getting in the papers. Absolutely no comparison. And yet, the Democrats and their MSM mouthpieces haven't let the Plame Blame Game stop for a minute.

When it comes to questions of national security, the Dems and the MSM simply cannot be trusted.

Lunar Scam in China

Many people are familiar with the Nigerian Scam. I had heard about it on Clark Howard's radio show before they took him off the radio stations I listen to here in Southern California. And then two weeks after Clark talked about it, I got an actual Nigerian Scam letter in the mail. It was too exciting!

But we don't hear much about scams coming out of China. Most of the concerns people have are related to forced/cheap labor and repressive policies. Since China loosened up its economy just a little, however, allowing a measure of capitalism, rogue capitalists have started doing what rogues everywhere do. They're ripping people off.

The AP reported yesterday about a scam that's out of this world. The Beijing Lunar Village Aeronautics Science and Technology Co. sold land on the moon, including mineral rights up to nearly two miles below the lunar surface. They issued certificates verifying the "authenticity" of the buyer's purchase, and were able to sell a total of 49 acres to 34 different buyers at a price of about $37 an acre. Then the Chinese government shut them down.

While this company's actions are reprehensible, their ingenuity is impressive. But I guess they have to go to the moon, since they don't have the Brooklyn Bridge to sell.

Lefty Party

I went to a friend's party Friday, after a grueling day of work and after trying to fight off a headache all day and not quite managing. My friend's Lefty Friend was going to be there, and LF had even asked if I would be there. Every time we've met, we've talked politics and had a really good time.

But this time, there was a new element in the mix. My friend's Dutch Roommate, a lefty Chemistry professor, was also there, and DR and LF have met and hit it off well, so they teamed up on me when I wasn't quite feeling up to the fight.

It's always interesting to find out which issues the Left sees as the most important. For LF and DR, it was Global Warming and by extension, the environment. Iraq wasn't important at all, because we only went there to line the pockets of President Bush's corporate friends (he has an MBA, so that proves he's a corporate guy). And besides, Bush isn't a scientist, because everyone knows that having an MBA does not qualify a president to be making the crucial scientific decisions that have to be made. I don't know how LF and DR think Bill Clinton's or Al Gore's or
John Kerry's law degree qualified them to make scientific decisions, but I didn't think to ask.

At one point, DR asked me what I thought was most important, and I said the war against Islamofascism. He took offense on behalf of Islam, and I had to tell him, "I didn't say 'Islam.' I said 'Islamofascism,'" and DR calmed down after that.

Later, LF asked me in a slightly different way what I thought was most important, and I said the judiciary, because we're fighting a non-violent civil war, and the war front is the court system (HT: Dennis Prager for the "civil war" terminology).

Both LF and DR were stunned that I could think anything was more important than the environment. They ganged up on me to get me to understand what kind of bully the US
is, by invading other countries, forcing our political agenda on them, and expecting them not to resent it. Of course they resent it, just as we would resent China invading us for our natural resources. What we need to do is stay completely out of other countries' business.

I pointed out that Saudi Arabia invited us in back in Gulf War days, and when they recently asked us to leave, we left. No overstaying our welcome. That wasn't enough to convince them, because they said the opinion polls show that Iraqis don't like having us there. LF said that if I could find an Iraqi-conducted opinion poll where the Iraqis actually liked having us there, then he'd concede the point. I haven't looked for a poll yet.

The conversation turned back to Global Warming, and when I hesitated, DR pounced. He declared that all the hurricanes this year were caused by Global Warming. I told him that the people at the National Hurricane Center had said on the air that the hurricanes were absolutely NOT caused by global warming, but DR disagreed. I suppose that the NHC spokesman's scientific credentials disintegrated the moment President Bush took office.

DR, along with LF and my friend, stated that Global Warming is absolute fact. There are only a handful of lunatic fringe scientists who don't agree with Global Warming, but they're the ones getting all the press. The threats to the world by Global Warming are very real and imminent. They've found mastadons frozen solid, with undigested food still in the stomach, so don't think the effects of Global Warming will come slowly. It's our duty as a superpower to impress on the other nations of the world what needs to be done to save the environment.

I pressed LF on that last point, and when he said that the US has the right to interfere with other countries, because the environment is too important an issue to ignore, I asked him if that was hypocrisy. He had made such a big deal about our staying out of other countries when the question was freedom, but we could go into other countries over Global Warming. He conceded that point to me.

Great party. I learned a lot about how "normal" lefties view the world, though I didn't make much headway with them. Then again, they didn't make any headway, either. All parties should be this much fun.

The Left Predicts the Demise of the GOP

I love the people of the Left. They're so sincerely earnest. And Common Dreams is quickly becoming one of my favorite lefty sites.

Common Dreams published a column today by David W. Orr, which is a sequel to his column published in January of this year. Both are titled, "The Imminent Demise of the Republican Party," Parts 1 and 2."

I'm not sure how Orr defines "imminent," but the dictionary says, "about to occur." If the demise of the GOP was imminent back in January, I'm not sure what happened. Last time I looked, they were still around.

Part 1 has some stunning analysis of the state of the GOP and its prospects:

Following the election of 2004, much has been made of the weaknesses of the Democratic Party, even its possible end. But it has escaped the notice of our blow-dry television pundits and political observers alike that the Republican Party, in the full blush of triumph in control of all the branches of government and large sections of the media, stands on the edge of certain extinction.... The question is not whether it will survive as presently constituted, but what else will be destroyed as it collapses in ruin and ignominy, sooner than later.

Orr lists ten "rules" of the Republican Party that are a series of things they deny, including my favorite: "Deny the necessity for civil discourse, honesty, and transparency in the conduct of public life, thereby holding the citizenry in contempt and promoting a spirit of meanness. "

Let me emphasize that last statement. It's the Republicans who are promoting a spirit of meanness in our country.

The Republican Party has chosen to deny social, ecological, cultural, religious, and economic realities which are unavoidably complicated, complex, diverse, ironic, and paradoxical. Instead they have chosen to make their own simplistic, ideological, and chauvinistic fantasy world that has little affinity for law, science, a free and independent press, fairness, true security, ecological sustainability, and the accountability that is requisite for genuine democracy.

This is the complete list of the Democrat talking points. But that was January.

Today's column is much more ferocious in its condemnation of the GOP:

[The Republican Party] forged an alliance between Southern racists, the extreme Christian right, big business, neo-conservatives, and a group of right-wing financiers willing to invest billions over several decades to build ideologically driven think tanks and a nation-wide media echo chamber to mislead the public and return the country to the world of the Robber Barons of the 19th century. They played the public for fools, covering their tracks with patriotic and religious rhetoric and devising ruinous policies too complex to be widely understood. But, driven by an extremist ideology and directed by ruthless leadership, radical Republicans will fall victim to overreach and its own particular kind of blindness. The recent legal difficulties of Lewis Libby, Tom Delay, Bill Frist, and Jack Abramoff are only the tip of the iceberg. Other revelations are coming about the fabrication of the reasons for the mistaken war in Iraq. Still others will show a pattern of corruption and fraud at a scale for which we have no national precedent. Perhaps it is only a sign of hubris, but more likely it is growing evidence that the national Republican Party, having marginalized its wiser leaders and tossed good judgment overboard became a criminal enterprise given to deception and mendacity in order to cover grand theft at a national scale, all on behalf of something called their "base." But its mounting legal difficulties and decline in recent polls are evidence of deeper causes that will soon bring the entire enterprise to ruin.

Orr spells out the course of action that the Left needs to be prepared to take as soon as the GOP collapses. It's a fast track to a European-style socialist utopia. Read both parts of Orr's prophecy, because it reveals the unvarnished mindset of the Left. Fascinating and disturbing at the same time.

Scotland

My 2005 calendar is A Picture-A-Day(R) Wall Calendar of Great Britain, and today I remembered to flip it to November. This month has pictures of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

I've been to England, Ireland, and Scotland before, but not to Northern Ireland or Wales. And I've enjoyed the pictures of the other months, seeing so many places I haven't visited yet but would love to see sometime. But this month's pictures are stirring a yearning in my heart in a way that England's pictures didn't.

There's a certain wildness to Scotland, a wind that whips across heathered hills. Even on the sunniest and stillest of days, the weathered land whispers a promise of gale storms coming, of a chill and a downpour and a reason to spend the day indoors by a fire, sipping a cup of tea.

My calendar reminds me of the month I spent there--before children--bicycling on nearly deserted roads. It reminds me of rugged cliffs at the ocean's edge, of castle ruins on the Isle of Skye that once belonged to distant ancestors, of turbulent clouds and reflecting ponds and stone-built walls and cottages.

I ache as I look at the scenes of November. And I long to check airfares and look at the vacation schedule here at work and pick a time to go. But it wouldn't be long enough. Only a week to explore new islands and smell the earthy scent of peat and feel the wind bring color to my cheeks, only to have to come back home again.

Not long enough by a long shot.

Hollywood and Normal America

"Jarhead" opens this Friday, and I probably won't go to see it.

Now, I go to the movies darn near every weekend, usually with The Girls after church, and sometimes with my daughter, who works at the movie theater. But when I see trailers for movies that look as though they want to tell me a Message, my hackles go up. Because Hollywood mangles almost every message they try to convey.

Not only do I go to the movies, though, I also buy the good ones on DVD. And on the "We Were Soldiers" DVD Special Features, General Hal Moore says that he saw movie after movie on the Vietnam War, and "Hollywood got it wrong every damn time." When he was approached by Randall Wallace for permission to make Moore's book into a movie, Moore didn't want to give his permission. It wasn't until Wallace sent Moore a copy of the script of "Braveheart" which was being filmed at the time, that Moore gave his OK on the condition that the studio didn't switch directors to someone besides Wallace. About his movie, Moore said, "They finally got it right."

The idea of Hollywood getting it wrong all the time is what makes me hesitant to see a lot of movies. I avoid all the lefty union-screaming movies (think: "Norma Rae") and the feminist-propaganda movies like the plague. No sense in paying Hollywood to beat me over the head with leftist claptrap.

When a movie looks like it could be good, but it also could be a left-swinging two-by-four coming upside my head, I'll wait to see it until after I hear from normal people that it's safe to watch. That's what I did with "North Country." Somebody at work said he thought it was good and didn't feel hit over the head with Message, so my friends and I saw it Saturday. It was good, and even though it covered a topic that could have been right-bashing, it wasn't, and for that I'm glad.

So I'm going to wait on "Jarhead." AOL News has an article today about the story behind making this movie, and it's not very encouraging.

Though it is seen through the eyes of eager Desert Storm soldiers, there are virtually no battle scenes in Jarhead. The movie takes no stand for or against the conflict. Some soldiers want out of the military. Others are desperate to stay.

Indeed, the men of Jarhead's platoon run the political gamut. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Swofford, a third-generation enlistee who quickly comes to regret his decision to join the military.

The main character is the carrier of a book/movie's message. So the Message of "Jarhead" is: You'll regret joining the military.

[Iraq] hasn't been easy terrain for filmmakers. The FX television show Over There, Steven Bochco's series based on the current Iraq war, is expected to be canceled because of poor ratings.

Funny, the blogs I read when "Over There" started said that the show was the Left's stereotypes of the Vietnam War, only in dirt instead of jungles. Of course Vietnam in the desert won't get good ratings.

The problem isn't Iraq. The problem isn't even Vietnam. The problem is that anti-military left-wingers are making movies about the military. The problem is guys like this, quoted in the AOL article (emphasis added):

"The Iraq war has entered an uncertain phase of undetermined length," says Kevin Hagopian, a film historian and professor at Penn State University. "No matter how supportive these dramas may be toward the American troops ... these dramas simply remind Americans of all political stripes that we're in a military quagmire."

These dramas are not supportive toward the American troops. And we're not in a quagmire. Jeez!

My church has lots of military, including some Marines, and we love these men and women and their families. And I want to see movies that show that same respect for what these people do and give themselves to. So I'll listen for Michael Medved's review of "Jarhead" and for Emmett of the Unblinking Eye's review. If both reviews aren't wholehearted endorsement of the movie, I'm not going.

Every time Hollywood makes a movie that trashes our military, I'll be sure not to give them one thin dime in support of that movie. And when they manage to make a movie that truly supports our military (like "We Were Soldiers"), I'll go see that movie in the theaters and then buy it on DVD, because I want to give them my own Message.

Bush Nominates Sam Alito for Supreme Court

I heard the news this morning on my drive to work. Laura Ingraham is thrilled with Judge Sam Alito as President Bush's latest choice for the Sandra Day O'Connor vacancy on the Supreme Court. Here is the text of the President's announcement. Here is Alito's statement.

Laura played the audio of Senator Chuck Schumer's statement about the Alito nomination. He started with a glowing tribute to Rosa Parks, then degenerated into using Rosa Parks to score a cheap political point against Judge Alito. I called Senator Schumer a really bad name that nobody but God heard. I knew Schumer had chutzpah up the ying-yang, but I had no idea he could be that low, that slimy as to cheapen the memory of such a great woman this way. Here's what he said:

This morning I went and visited Rosa Parks in the Capitol Rotunda to pay my respects.
Being in the presence of Ms. Parks was awe-inspiring. This was a woman who changed history with one thin dime. She paid her fare and took her rightful seat on the bus and America was never the same again.

Like Rosa Parks, Judge Alito will be able to change history by virtue of where he sits. The real question today is whether Judge Alito would use his seat on the bench, just as Rosa Parks used her seat on the bus, to change history for the better or whether he would use that seat to reverse much of what Rosa Parks and so many others fought so hard and for so long to put in place.

Does Sen. Schumer honestly think that having Sam Alito on the Supreme Court will cause all civil rights to roll back to pre-Rosa Parks 1955? Does Sen Schumer honestly think that the Supreme Court is poised on the brink of declaring segregation constitutional save for one lone vote that Alito will provide? Does Sen. Schumer honestly think?

I can't begin to understand just how little Sen. Schumer believes the American people understand.

As I said, Laura Ingraham is thrilled with the choice of Alito. Hugh Hewitt is also thrilled. Of his two weekly guests, The Smart Guys (Left and Right law professors, Erwin Chemerinsky and John Eastman), John is thrilled, and Erwin hates the idea.

Since all these lawyers and law professors on the right are thrilled and those on the left are extremely un-thrilled, then I couldn't be more pleased. Filibusters are threatened. The Democrats are flinging rhetoric all over the place. And the Gang of 14 doesn't look like it's going to hold out for the filibuster over this nomination.

All is right with the world.

Scooter Libby Indictment

Note: This is not an accusation of witch hunts.

When I was in early high school, I was fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials. I wrote more than one report on it, whenever the homework assignment allowed it as a topic. Since I first started the research, I've been upset by the misinformation out there about the whole episode. But even more upsetting was the way the case itself was prosecuted.

Several girls, in a fit of hysteria encouraged by a slave from the Caribbean, accused some of the less reputable women in Salem of witchcraft. Once the accusations were leveled, then hearings were held. At the hearings, the girls again went into fits and accused these same women again of using witchcraft then and there to hurt the girls. The people who were accused during the hearings were tried for charges of witchcraft committed during the hearings. No charges were filed for the alleged incidents of witchcraft that happened before the hearings.

The trials began, the hysterics continued, and the accusations of witchcraft spread until they were leveled against some of the most reputable women and men in town. In the end, one man was pressed to death in an effort to get him to agree to be tried by that court, nineteen people were tried, convicted, and hung, and two dogs were hung (I never found transcripts of the dogs' trial).

My point is that it always seemed unfair to me that the hearings were the basis of the charges filed against the first of these people. If the legal system found the original accusations believable enough, then those people should have been tried on those charges. But the accusations weren't believable and the people weren't tried for those "crimes." The hearings, and then the trials, became simply a vehicle for stirring up new "crimes" for prosecution. If the legal system had decided there were no crimes to begin with and hadn't held these hearings, then nobody would have died.

And that's my gut feeling about the Scooter Libby indictment.

Over and over I've heard that releasing Valerie Plame's name was not a crime. It's a crime to release the name of a covert CIA agent within five years of that agent's cover operations. Valerie Plame had been back for more than five years, so releasing her name would not have fallen under this statute.

So there was no prosecutable offense, but we held Grand Jury hearings anyway. And during the course of the hearings, Scooter Libby said something that turned into a criminal indictment.

Call me naive, but it doesn't seem fair. It almost seems like double jeopardy. Why couldn't Fitzgerald have simply said, "There isn't a crime," and stopped the investigation at that point? Judith Miller would have been spared her time in jail, and Scooter Libby would still be helping the Vice President.