Best of the Web Today - March 8, 2006
By JAMES TARANTO
What's for Desert?
The U.S. military's desertion rate "has plunged since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001," USA Today reports:
The Army, Navy and Air Force reported 7,978 desertions in 2001, compared with 3,456 in 2005. The Marine Corps showed 1,603 Marines in desertion status in 2001. That had declined by 148 in 2005.
The desertion rate was much higher during the Vietnam era. The Army saw a high of 33,094 deserters in 1971--3.4% of the Army force. But there was a draft and the active-duty force was 2.7 million.
Desertions in 2005 represent 0.24% of the 1.4 million U.S. forces.
Accompanying the story is a chart that shows Army desertions have declined every year since 2001.
So how does USA package this good news for the military? As bad news: The headline reads "8,000 Desert During Iraq War," and the first paragraph begins:
At least 8,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. military have deserted since the Iraq war began, Pentagon records show, although . . .
Many in the press seem determined to follow their Iraq-as-Vietnam script, whether or not it's consistent with the facts.
GI Joe
The New York Times reports from Manila on an ingenious protest method by opponents of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines:
One anti-Arroyo group, calling itself eLagda, issued a call to the middle class to express discontent by lining up at Starbucks outlets and buying cups of coffee. "Starbucks is their natural hangout," Vicente Romano, an organizer of this latest version of people power, told The Philippine Star. He said gatherings like this would send a signal that the government would ignore at its peril.
As readers of this column know, for several years millions of Americans have been showing their support for Iraq's liberation by driving with their headlights on at night. But the liberal mainstream media keep claiming support for Iraq is waning, presumably because reporters usually get up early in the morning and thus don't witness these shows of support.
Now, thanks to the folks at eLagda, "morning people" have a way to express their backing for the war. Just drink coffee in the morning! If you're really gung-ho about the war, have some food with your coffee--maybe a plate of bacon and eggs, or some cereal or even a Zionist bagel.
If we all drink coffee and eat food in the morning, we can make it the most important meal of the day: a wake-up call to the American people. Perhaps support for the war will finally percolate past the usual MSM filter.
What Would Ethan Allen Think?
Here is a complete list of universities that have said they will decline taxpayer funds rather than allow military recruiters on campus: .
Yet another campus may be about to join this list, the Associated Press reports from Montpelier, Vt.:
Vermont Law School is unlikely to begin admitting military recruiters to its South Royalton campus even though the U.S. Supreme Court says it's legal for the federal government to withhold money as a result.
Dean Geoffrey Shields said the decision would be up to the school's trustees, but he did not anticipate a change of position just because the high court had ruled unanimously against Vermont Law and other law schools. . . .
Shields said the school's position probably had cost it several hundred thousand dollars a year, although he said he could not be certain because some of the money could have come in the form of grants that it was not able to seek.
The Yale Daily News reports that only two other law schools--William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn., and New York Law School (not to be confused with New York University)--defied the recruiting requirement before Monday's Supreme Court decision upholding it.
Only one law school, George Mason in Arlington, Va., filed a brief on the winning side. Given that not a single justice agreed with the views put forward by profs at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Chicago, Penn, etc., it seems fair to say that George Mason has the most competent professors of any law school in the nation.
This Is Almost Unsporting
The humiliation of the faculties from America's most prestigious law schools is a timely reminder of just how out-of-touch are America's higher educators. "Is there any way to change academia?" asked John Tierney, who writes for a subscribers-only Web site, in a recent column:
"The Achilles heel of academics is their status anxiety," [Cooper Union's Fred] Siegel said. "The only way to attack them is with mockery."
Hey, we can do that! Let's start with a report in the Campus Times, student newspaper of the University of Rochester:
Members of Amnesty International and Students for Social Justice gathered in the Welles-Brown Room on Wednesday night to listen to three UR professors chair a panel on the current war in Iraq.
The panel discussion, entitled "Is Hindsight 20/20: Reflections on the Iraq War," featured professor of philosophy Robert Holmes, professor of English John Michael and lecturer in political science Andrea Gluckman.
If they need three profs to chair a panel, it must be because they want a variety of viewpoints--left, middle and right--right? No, of course not. It's left, left and left. But the funniest participant was the philosopher:
After introductions and applause for each member of the panel, Holmes took the microphone to address the assembled audience and chastise the U.S. Government.
"We are in violation of international law in the actions that we are taking," Holmes said. "In having attacked Iraq and overthrown its government, we have committed the same violations of the U.N. Charter for which we killed many Nazis."
Too bad there wasn't a historian on the panel to point out that Nazi Germany had fallen by the time the U.N. Charter came in to existence. Oh, and by the way, Holmes supports the troops!
Although Holmes equated the current government with that of World War II Germany, he professed his support for the U.S. troops on the ground to the audience.
"We can support the troops in the only meaningful way--by trying to see that they are brought back whole," Holmes said.
At nearby Syracuse University, meanwhile, students Jessie Kerr-Vanderslice, a senior, and Bobby Powers, a junior, show off the value of their education in a letter to the editor of the Daily Orange:
Sadly, we must bring to your attention yet another example of offensive and insensitive programming sponsored by our university. On March 8, Ann Coulter will be speaking at the invitation of the College Republicans. If you are not familiar with her work, a quick Google search will let you know what's up. Ann Coulter's openly racist, sexist and hateful remarks violate Syracuse University's non-discrimination policy. Have we learned nothing from HillTV about respect for our fellow human beings? Evidently not.
This is not an issue of free speech and hearing "both sides" of an issue. Her remarks directly infringe upon students' rights to feel safe and included in the campus community. At this point, we find it unlikely that this kind of oppressive "entertainment" is due to white privileged ignorance and probably has more to do with overt, unashamed racism.
Now we are the first to admit we occasionally cringe at Coulter's more outrageous remarks. Yet what makes her shtick hard to resist is the way in which students like Kerr-Vanderslice and Powers, trained by their professors to be utterly humorless and self-important, invariably play right into her hands.
Oh well, at least the intellectual caliber is higher at the Ivy League, right? Don't be so sure. Our John Fund has been tweaking Yale for having ardently pursued as a student a former Taliban spokesman with a fourth-grade education. Jim Sleeper, a political-science lecturer at Yale who describes himself as "a civic republican in the old-fashioned, disinterested sense of the term," delivers a Kerr-Vanderslicean rejoinder to Fund, which includes such pearls as this:
If it's individual merit and national security we should weigh, why not ask why George W. Bush, Yale '68, and Dick Cheney, Yale dropout '61, got to the head of the line at Yale, whose offerings were wasted on both of them?
Bush said openly that he "didn't learn a thing at Yale," and I can testify that he didn't try, having taken several of the same courses with him and lived in the same Yale residential college with him for two years. If ever a Yale education was wasted on someone whose ignorance and insecurity made him a serious national security risk, it was wasted on Bush, who, like Cheney, became a draft-dodger--as defined by every conservative since 1965.
Wow, Bush is dumb and Cheney is a draft dodger--that's some pretty cutting-edge work they're doing up there at the Yale political science department.
He's Here, He's Cuellar, Get Used to It
Rep. Henry Cuellar, a moderate Democrat from Laredo, Texas, won renomination in a primary yesterday:
Cuellar defeated former congressman Ciro Rodriguez early Wednesday in the Democratic primary in House District 28, riding phenomenal strength in his home county to avoid an April runoff election.
With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Cuellar had 53 percent of the ballots tallied. Rodriguez, who narrowly lost to Cuellar in the 2004 primary in the South Texas district, had 41 percent. Victor Morales had 2,534 votes, or 6 percent.
A House incumbent winning a primary would be a dog-bites-man story except that the Angry Left had declared Cuellar Enemy No. 1, with bloggers like Markos "Kos" Moulitsas and Duncan "Atrios" Black driving the Rodriguez bandwagon right off a cliff. Black posted some early returns last night showing "Ciro" in the lead but has been mum ever since. Moulitsas, meanwhile, once again has to boast about losing:
The bottom line: we helped a campaign that was the walking dead and gave it new life, pumped in resources, and made it competitive. We did much to even the playing field even if ultimately we came up tantalizingly short.
And yeah, I know "tantalizingly short," alongside "moral victories," is about as desirable as the Bubonic Plague. We want more. But this is a long-term movement, building from nothing. And we are sending notice to Democrats that they can't be Bush's bitch and expect a pass.
So we didn't kill off Cuellar, but we gave him an ass whooping where none was expected and made him sweat. That's the reason why [Sen. Joe] Lieberman is sweating in Connecticut and lining up his dog and pony endorsement shows to flex his muscle. He can't take for granted that a no-name businessman with no political experience and zero connections in his state's political establishment will be a non-factor, not with what we've done for people like Dean and now Ciro.
If we were Sen. Lieberman, we'd be breathing easy right now.
Metaphor Alert
"Jeb's Swan Song: Big hits outweighed by bigger misses as Bush starts last dance with Legislature."--headline and subheadline, Florida Today, March 8
That's Saying a Mouthful
Ron Black of Junction City, Ore., offers some gustatory observations in Eugene's Register-Guard (second letter):
After having been force-fed a steady diet of terrorist teriyaki in 2004, fearful Americans re-enthroned a delusional White House chef de cuisine who believes that he has a divine mandate to jam his recipe for theocracy down the nation's throat.
Consequently, a five-star evangelical eatery has its tables set for a battle between Planned Parenthood and the state of South Dakota. This fundamentalist food court is called Chez Scalitomas. And anti-choice members of its staff are now preparing the Lord's supper at One First Street NE in Washington, D.C.
For carnivores, the reactionary restaurant's road kill menu may soon feature eviscerated Roe vs. Wade served on a tasty bed of freshly slaughtered stare decisis. Vegans may be offered a delightful Garden of Eden salad topped with a heavenly creationist dressing intelligently designed by cordon bleu Bible-thumpers.
Voters asked for this born-again carte du jour. Now the meal they ordered from it is about to be served. Bon appetit!
What Would Women on Spring Break Do Without AMA Polls?
"Sex and Intoxication More Common Among Women on Spring Break, According to AMA Poll"--headline, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation press release, March 8
What Would Poor Italians Do Without Berlusconi?
"Make More Money, Berlusconi Tells Poor Italians"--headline, Reuters, March 7
Cat Lovers, THAT'S WHO!
"WHO Urges More Studies on Bird Flu Infections in Cats"--headline, Reuters, March 7
Beware Infected Toys
"FAO to Boost Bird Flu Role"--headline, Reuters, March 7
They Execute Hummingbirds?
"Hummingbirds Have Superb Memories of Last Meals"--headline, Agence France-Presse, March 7
It's 666, Isn't It?
"Satan Has New Jersey Devils' Number"--headline, Associated Press, March 8
Bottom Story of the Day
"Crosswalk Signal Unlikely to Turn Up at Parkway Intersection"--headline, Plain Dealer (Cleveland), March 6
When the Other Woman Is a Man
"Brokeback Mountain," the big-screen saga of same-sex shepherds' forbidden love, is changing the way America thinks about marriage. Well, OK, that's an overstatement, but it is changing the way the New York Times thinks about marriage. Yesterday the Times carried a piece on " 'Brokeback' marriages," or, as they are clinically known, "what are now called mixed-orientation marriages."
These are not those same-sex marriages mandated by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, but rather proper marriages in which the husband has gay relationships on the side. Example:
Paulette Cormack, a teacher who lives in Napa, Calif., has been married to her husband, Jerry, a retired city planner, for 36 years. For 34 years, Mrs. Cormack said in an interview, she has known that although she and her husband are sexually active together, his erotic desires otherwise focus almost exclusively on men. "It's not easy, but I truly do love him," Mrs. Cormack said.
Mr. Cormack is now involved with another married gay man, and Mrs. Cormack has had extramarital relationships. Neither has explicitly discussed this with their son, who is 25.
They remain intensely committed to each other. Last year Mr. Cormack nursed Mrs. Cormack through four months of treatments for cancer of the fallopian tubes. She eventually made a fully recovery.
"What is intimacy?" pondered Mr. Cormack, as the couple sat in a coffeehouse in Berkeley, Calif., after watching "Brokeback Mountain" with others in similar situations.
He added: "I am totally committed on all levels to Paulette. I felt so intimate with her when I was caring for her during her cancer treatments--to me, that's a stronger expression of love than whether I'm having anonymous sex with a man."
Wasn't it George Orwell who observed that the decadent left in its enclaves on the coast is not dead? |
