Best of the Web Today - November 10, 2004
By JAMES TARANTO
Schroedinger's Thug
Is Yasser Arafat alive or dead? As John Kerry* might say, it isn't that simple! A survey of news stories about the terrorist leader suggests that he is in a highly nuanced condition:
The Associated Press reports that "the comatose Palestinian leader" is "in what an aide called the 'final phase' of his life."
CNN quotes an aide as saying Arafat "is in a 'very critical stage,' with his kidneys and liver now shut down, although his heart and lungs are still functioning."
According to the Guardian, "Palestinian officials said Yasser Arafat was close to death last night after suffering a brain haemorrhage and sinking deeper into a week-long coma." But this isn't all that bad; Palestinian Authority officials have yet to declare Arafat an "incapacitated president."
Reuters quotes "one Palestinian official who did not want to be named" as saying, "We are not sure about the day of burial, but I was told most likely on Friday. The body might be flown to Egypt on Thursday." They'd better hurry; it's almost midnight over there.
In case you're confused by all this complicated medical terminology, here's a translation into plain English: Arafat hasn't kicked the bucket yet, but he's touched it with his foot.
* The haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam.
The Christian Right Is Everywhere!
Ha'aretz has an interesting report on the personal life of Suha Arafat, estranged wife of the Palestinian thug:
French officials who have been following Yasser Arafat's treatment were astonished to discover that Suha Arafat's constant companion and financial adviser was none other than Pierre Rizk, who headed the intelligence service of the Phalanga during the Lebanese civil war and was in close personal contact with the guerrilla group responsible for the massacre at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camp in 1982.
Rizk has been spotted in or near Percy Hospital in recent days. Since Rizk holds power of attorney for Suha Arafat, French and Palestinian officials have been in constant contact with him over Suha Arafat's financial demands, which she says are designed to ensure the financial future of her and her daughter. The outcome of these contacts is still not clear.
Rizk, a Maronite Lebanese, is well known to Israeli officials, and has spent long periods in Israel where he met with government officials and private business figures. Israelis who have met with him in person describe him as a colorful figure, and say that he is something of a womanizer.
And you thought the Christian right had only taken over America!
What a Martyr
Why does Yasser Arafat remain popular with Palestinian Arabs? His rule has been thuggish and counterproductive; Palestinians enjoy neither freedom nor prosperity. The New York Times' James Bennet goes to Nablus, a city in the disputed territories, and tries to discern the secret of Arafat's appeal:
Over and over, when asked to name Mr. Arafat's achievements, Palestinians here spoke of him not as a head of state but as a symbol, and they praised him foremost for suffering like them--unlike the men they think want his job. They know that Palestinian ministers ride in luxury cars and pass easily through Israeli checkpoints to travel to Europe and the Persian Gulf states.
From a stall in the market, Amar Shahshir, 30, was selling chamomile, saffron and dried figs. A few days ago, he posted one of the few pictures seen here of Mr. Arafat, among the thousands of posters of local people who died in the conflict.
He called Mr. Arafat a "symbol" and a "big father," while saying Mr. Abbas and Mr. Qurei could never replace him. "Abu Mazen and Abu Ala are not suitable to lead our people," he said, using their nicknames. "We are revolutionary, they are bourgeois."
So Arafat is fit to lead because of his "suffering"? It's as if America had elected someone president on the basis that he served in Vietnam.
Shop Till He Drops
"Ramallans Shop Now, Will Mourn Afterwards"--headline, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 10
What Would We Do Without UN Nuclear Watchdog Chiefs?
"UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief Says Nuclear Terrorism a Real Threat"--headline, Agence France-Presse, Nov. 8
What Would We Do Without Spy Chiefs?
"Terror Threat Real, Says Spy Chief"--headline, Guardian, Nov. 9
Progress in Fallujah
"Iraq's military said on Wednesday it had found houses in northern Falluja where hostages had been held and killed by their militant kidnappers, and records of those abducted," Reuters reports from Baghdad. Now to find and capture or kill the slaughterers.
You Don't Say
"Rebel Fighters Who Fled Attack May Now Be Active Elsewhere"--headline, New York Times, Nov. 10
Reuters 'Nudes' Service
"U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, a lightning rod of criticism by civil liberties groups for his anti-terror policies after the Sept. 11 attacks and who once even ordered the robing of two partially nude statues in his department, resigned on Tuesday," reports the Reuters "news" service, a lightning rod of criticism by opponents of terrorism for their pro-terror policies after the Sept. 11 attacks and which even once fabricated anti-American propaganda and fraudulently attributed it to a West Virginia reporter.
Actually, the Ashcroft statue tale is largely an urban legend, as National Review's Jay Nordlinger explained in 2002. Reuters' journalistic malpractice, however, is all too real.
Is Liberalism a Sickness?
Over the past week, we've read a lot of stories about how distraught and depressed liberals and Democrats are over having lost the election. We've had as much fun as anyone with this stuff, but it's worth also thinking seriously about it. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that there is really something wrong with these people. Here's a report form yesterday's Boca Raton (Fla.) News:
More than a dozen traumatized John Kerry supporters have sought and received therapy from a licensed Florida psychologist since their candidate lost to President Bush, the Boca Raton News learned Monday.
Boca Raton trauma specialist Douglas Schooler said he has treated 15 clients and friends with "intense hypnotherapy" since the Democratic nominee conceded last Wednesday.
"I had one friend tell me he's never been so depressed and angry in his life," Schooler said. "I observed patients threatening to leave the country or staring listlessly into space. They were emotionally paralyzed, shocked and devastated."
Here's today's follow-up:
More shocked John Kerry supporters on Wednesday sought psychological help with "post-election selection trauma" in South Florida, prompting the American Health Association to officially release symptoms of the disorder and open its doors for free counseling.
And it's not just random denizens of Palm Beach county. Here's Hendrik Hertzberg, a political veteran (speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, ex-editor of The New Republic), letting it all hang out in The New Yorker:
Here in the bluest borough of the bluest city of the bluest state in all our red-white-and-blue American Union, it has not been a happy week. A cocktail of emotions was being felt in these parts after last week's Presidential election, and the most potent ingredient was sadness. We've got the blues, and we've got 'em bad.
The grief that so many felt at Senator Kerry's defeat was quite unexpected, and profound enough that, for the moment at least, it held off bitterness and recrimination.
Two thoughts occur to us. First of all, if American liberals are such emotional weaklings that they go all to pieces over the loss of elections, thank goodness we don't have to rely on them to fight a war. Second, we're no psychologist, but isn't the most likely diagnosis that of narcissistic personality disorder?
Party Like It's 1864
The other day Carole Simpson of ABC News appeared on a postelection panel, which was televised on C-Span. Rush Limbaugh has a partial transcript of Simpson's comments, and blogger Napoleon Cole has video of one particularly inflammatory comment:
I got a little map here of pre-Civil War free versus slave states. I wish you could see it in color and large. But if you look at it, the red states are all done in the South, and you have the Nebraska territories, the New Mexico territories and the Kansas territories, but the Pacific Northwest and California were not slave states. The Northeast was not. It looks like the map of 2004, and when you say, "Let's let the states decide," I remember what the states decided when they had slavery. I think they're going quickly after social programs, despite what he says. I think we're going to get a rollback on all kind of things. Affirmative action is a bad word; liberal is a bad word; gay is a bad word, diversity. All these words that are perfectly fine words now are these touchstones, these trigger points, and that frightens me.
Perhaps Simpson hasn't heard the news that slavery was abolished nationwide by the 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865--139 years ago. New York, which John Kerry carried by a margin of more than 17%, had abolished slavery just 38 years earlier, in 1827. That's less time than has now passed since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made good on the promise of full legal equality for black Americans. That law, by the way was pushed through Congress by a president from Texas.
Meanwhile, over on BillMaher.com, the eponymous Web site of the HBO talk-show host, a reader called "moulty" has posted a message to the discussion board under the title "Shooting Republicans, ethical? Discuss" (quoting verbatim):
At this point in time, would it be morally defensible to apply a "final solution" to republicans?
Let's face it, when Grover Norquist is doing the media rounds...when his agenda of eliminating all taxes on billionaires and letting the poor pay all taxes and carry the debt burdon, and let them scounge around in the garbage for food...builds character.....when THIS type of criminal extreme right wing "thought" is entering the mainstream...it's time for extreme action.
GW Bush and the American right wing Taliban are endangering the entire planet. If the rest of the world had a say, Bush and Cheney would be in jail.
Is it now morally excusable to organize midnight raids on republican groups in the red states and "terminate" them with extreme prejudice?
Watching Bush's acceptance speech on wednesday, with the Cheney's on stage as well....who would not have liked to see a bomb go off under the stage and wipe out the whole despicable slimy lot of them? And hopefully the shrapnel would have gone to the second deck and blown Mary Matalin's head off as well.
Be honest. Who would not like to see Karen Hughes run over by an 18 wheel truck? Who wouldn't like to see her carcass scattered all over highway 99?
Good thing liberals are so tolerant, open-minded and inclusive, or there's no telling what they might say or do.
'The American People Did Not Know That'
The Washington Post reports on a particularly rich comment from Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader:
Pelosi, addressing reporters after lunching with about 100 House Democrats, said her party will speak out when it believes Bush and the GOP-controlled Congress are mismanaging Iraq, tax policies or the deficit. "The president won't be able to blame anyone, because the Republicans have full control," Pelosi said. Although Republicans have controlled the White House, Senate and House for two years, she said, "the American people did not know that. And now they do."
If "the American people did not know" that the GOP held the White House and majorities in both houses of Congress in 2003 and 2004, what makes her think we've caught on now?
What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Party Like This?
"Women Say Kerry Should Have Wooed Them"--headline, Associated Press, Nov. 9
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Krugman Dated Michael Douglas?
"Take the two leading liberal columnists at the New York Times, Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman. As we all know, one's a whining self-parody of a hysterical liberal who lets feminine emotion and fear defeat reason and fact in almost every column. The other used to date Michael Douglas."--Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online, Nov. 8
The World's Smallest Violin
The Washington Post reports on the plight of one youthful would-be voter:
"It's not that I don't care about the election," says Alama, who lives in a group house in Vienna and has been working at Tysons Corner since he was 17. He heard the get-out-the-vote radio commercials on 93.9 FM. He knew about the "Vote or Die!" campaign. He read the fliers the college kids were passing around whenever he rode the Metro.
Standing in front of the Cingular Wireless kiosk on the first floor of Tysons Corner [a Virginia shopping mall], sipping his venti caramel macchiato, the lanky man with droopy eyes has too much on his plate. He works at least 40 hours a week at the Cingular kiosk and another 18 hours a week at Illuminations, the home decor and candle shop only a few feet away. His girlfriend is three months pregnant, and he's worried about how he's going to get her insurance.
Maybe he'd have an easier time of it if he cut back on the fancy coffee.
McGreevey's Second Act
The Associated Press reports on the future of the Garden State's scandal-plagued governor, who's finally leaving office next week:
From advocating for gay rights to pushing for stem cell research, life beyond the governorship appears to be full of possibilities for James E. McGreevey.
As the soon-to-be former governor contemplates a future that begins with his resignation at midnight Monday, his options are seemingly wide open: advocates are courting him to take up their causes, and he has already agreed to be a volunteer for a national education organization, said his friend, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak.
McGreevey must've taken seriously the satirical site ScrappleFace.com's piece titled "NJ Gov. McGreevey Leaves Office with Mandate." We're guessing this is a typo and "mandate" should have been two words.
Homelessness Rediscovery Watch
"If George W. Bush becomes president, the armies of the homeless, hundreds of thousands strong, will once again be used to illustrate the opposition's arguments about welfare, the economy, and taxation."--Mark Helprin, Oct. 31, 2000
"Little Rock 'Meanest' Toward Homeless"--headline, Associated Press, Nov. 10, 2004
Where Did They Bury the Survivors?
"Pilot Ejects After Fighter Plane Crashes North of Nellis AFB in Nevada"--headline Associated Press, Nov. 9
A Political Fight
"Three zoo school students face charges for using a bat to beat another student who taunted them about being John Kerry supporters days after the contentious election," reports the St. Paul Pioneer Press:
"We were sitting in the computer room at school, and there was kind of a political debate," said Chad McKay of Arden Hills. "Some people said only gay people vote for Bush." Chad said the victim said "only gay people would vote for Kerry because he supports gay marriage." . . .
Chad said later in the afternoon when he and the victim were walking to their cars they heard their three senior classmates yelling at them, according to the police report.
Chad got to his car, but the three 17-year-olds attacked the victim, he said, hitting him in face, including with a baseball bat and kicking him. One boy had a padlock wrapped around his finger, Chad said.
"It's a good thing to see young people interested and excited about politics," Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom tells the paper. But he adds: "It's obviously very disturbing to see this kind of violence over it." We guess they took literally all that Kedwards talk about "fighting." |
