Ah, the tolerant French
This speaks for itself.

by Donald Sensing, 4/30/2004 04:02:00 PM. Permalink |

My take on the Nightline controversy
As I am sure you know by now, ABC News' show Nightline with Ted Koppel will consist tonight of nothing but Koppel reading the names of the 725 Americans who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the Iraq campaign in March of last year.

The fur is flying over the reading for a few different reasons:

Koppel said that reading the names on Memorial Day would be more appropriate, "But we felt that the impact would actually be greater on a day when the entire nation is not focused on war dead." Yeah, right.

Ratings sweeps begin tonight but end before Memorial Day. Might that have had something to do with not reading the names on Memorial Day? Not according to Nightline's executive producer, Leroy Sievers, who plows new ground for a national news-show producer by being, apparently, the only one in the history of broadcasting who doesn't know when the sweeps start. As WaPo writer Lisa de Moraes (same link) asked,

Who'd have thought that the only people in broadcast TV with no awareness of ratings sweeps periods all work at ABC News? I mean, what are the odds, really?

The Sinclair Broadcasting Group, controlling several dozen television stations (not all of them ABC affiliates) directed its stations not to carry the Nightline show, declaring that Nightline's purpose in reading the names was overtly political, intended to leads viewers into opposing the war.

"We find it offensive that Ted Koppel is trivializing the deaths of so many men and women. This is not a one-year anniversary of the war, or Memorial Day. This is 'sweeps week,' and he intends to use a news platform for a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq," said Sinclair Vice President Mark Hyman yesterday.

As other commentati have noted, Nightline seems awfully selective in reading only the names of the service members dead in Iraq, but omitting names of those killed in Afghanistan or for that matter, the names of the military killed on 9/11/01 at the Pentagon.

I think that context is everything. Is it mere coincidence that the reading of the names comes on the eve of the anniversary of President Bush landing on the deck if USS Abraham Lincoln? I think not. Bush's opponents have politicized that event every chance they have gotten.

Reading the names of the dead without explaining why they died does them no service. Koppel might as well simply read their serial numbers.

Nightline's web page about tonight's show does provide some context of the deaths. Examples:

Pfc. Marquis A. Whitaker, 20, of Columbus, Ga., died in Scania, Iraq, after falling from a bridge. His vehicle was hit from behind by a civilian truck and left hanging off the side of the bridge. Whitaker attempted to climb out of the vehicle but fell.

Staff Sgt. Abraham D. Penamedina, 32, of Los Angeles, Calif., died in Baghdad, Iraq, when his patrol came under sniper fire.

Will Koppel read these circumstances tonight? I don't know; the site doesn't say. The show will broadcast photos of the fallen while Koppel reads their names. Note that the list includes, as it should, the names of those dead from accident, illness and I assume suicide as well as those KIA.

I am of two minds about this show. On the one hand, I think that the Sinclair Group's concerns about anti-administration grandstanding are justified, especially since the dead of Afghanistan are excluded. Senator John McCain strenuously disagrees. The producers' claim they are unaware of when sweeps start is nothing but a baldfaced lie that gives just cause to doubt the rest of their disclaimers of intention.

I learned long ago not to expect depth reporting from television. images are everything to TV, all else supports the picture. If there were no photos of the dead available for Koppel, I am confident there would not have been snowball's chance in perdition of this show being done.

But the proof will be in the actual presentation itself. It can be done right and it can be done wrong, both subjective outcomes, of course. I'll try to tune in at least for the first segment.

Update: Blackfive has some cogent comments.

Another note: not much more blogging for me today; other duties call.

by Donald Sensing, 4/30/2004 03:36:00 PM. Permalink |

More on taking Pfc. Chance Phelps home
I posted the link Tuesday to the first-person account of Marine Lt. Col. named Strobl (no first name given) who was the escort officer for transportation of Pfc. Phelp's remain back to his hometown.

I emailed the story's link to a Marine major I know who lives nearby. Turns out he knows Lt. Col. Strobl well; they are both Marine artillery officers and therefore clearly a cut above all the rest. Small world, small Corps.

BTW, there are now 45 days and a wakeup until my eldest son steps on the yellow footprints at Parris Island. Semper fi!

by Donald Sensing, 4/29/2004 08:42:00 PM. Permalink |

Chickenhawk, shmickenhawk
James Joyner decisively refutes the chickenhawk argument, most recently raised by the doddering Senator Frank Lautenberg on the Senate floor.

by Donald Sensing, 4/29/2004 08:31:00 PM. Permalink |

The source of Islamic jihad
Bill V. emailed the URL of a site called Tell the Children the Truth, which purports to show that the very root figure of modern jihadism is on Amin al-Husseini, b. 1893. Inspired by participating in the Turks' genocide of 1.5 million Aremnian Christians, al-Husseini returned to Palestine, bringing the "lessons of genocide and the vision of leading a Pan-Islamic empire, where Jews and Christians are not acceptable."

He gained a political base in 1921, when the British, as protectors of post-Ottoman Palestine, appointed him grand mufti of Jerusalem.

The site also claims that al-Husseini talked Adolf Hitler out of merely deporting the Jews in favor of exterminating them.

It's fascinating reading, but I have no idea whether its history is reliable. Maybe you do.

by Donald Sensing, 4/29/2004 08:19:00 PM. Permalink |

Sanctifying Hell
The Beacon blog has a compelling photo-essay about Marines in Fallujah. Some shots from an LA Times piece of Marines being baptized almost on the battlefield itself are featured.

The Marines built a small baptismal fount from MRE crates into the middle of which they placed a large plastic sheet, then poured water.

Also pix of a small memorial the baptized Marines put together for fallen friends.

After a fierce firefight in which one Marines was killed and 15 wounded, four Marines went to the chaplain.

"I've been talking to God a lot during the last two firefights," said Lance Cpl. Chris Hankins, 19, of Kansas City, Mo. "I decided to start my life over and make it better."

To give the occasion even greater significance, the Marines chose to have Wednesday's baptism in the courtyard of a bullet-riddled school that they used in their fight with insurgents.

Two Marines died and several were injured in the same courtyard when a mortar round landed among their group April 12. ...

The fight Monday, in which insurgents hurled grenades and fired rockets and machine guns at the Marines, left many of the young men of Echo Company shaken and emotionally drained.

Protestant and Roman Catholic services held in the Marine encampment hours after the battle drew heavy attendance. On Wednesday, little of the initial pain was evident.

Capt. Douglas Zembiec, commander of Echo Company, said he had tried to console his Marines while reminding them that they have to continue to do their jobs, including launching a possible assault on insurgent strongholds in the center of Fallouja.

"There's no room for self-pity out here," he said. "It will get you killed faster than the enemy." ...

Insurgents are holed up in houses a few hundred yards away, their weapons aimed at the school, hoping to kill Marines with a well-timed shot.

Still, the four Marines thought that the courtyard was the ideal spot to make a public profession of their religious belief.

"What better place to do this than here, in the middle of hell," Fuller said.

Read the whole thing.

by Donald Sensing, 4/29/2004 05:05:00 PM. Permalink |

Ralph Peters sings Bill Hobbs' song
Back on April 21, Bill Hobbs blogged the question, Where is Iraq's Wyatt Earp? He was responding to the incineration of 16 Iraqi schoolchildren by terrorists.

Today Ralph Peters writes in the NY Post that Iraq "needs a Wyatt Earp." Once again, blogdom gets there first conceptually.

by Donald Sensing, 4/29/2004 04:13:00 PM. Permalink |

Islamofascist targeting criteria
I posted two days ago about Muslims in Europe Euro-Muslims calling for jihad there. One of the Muslim clerics concerned, Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad of London, calls his group, "al Qaeda Europe." Saying attacks there are inevitable, he explained their targeting rationale:

"We don't make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity."

I would hope that from this rhetoric that the appeasers of the Western Left would learn a very fundamental lesson: they and the most hardcore American neocon are alike lumpen infidel to the Islamofascists. Liberal, conservative, progressive, reactionary, Democrat, Republican, Christian, Jew, agnostic, Mets fan or Yankees, businessman, farmer, whatever: Islamofascists have one label for us all: "infidel enemy."

After taking heat from some reader for publishing explicit photos of the burnt corpses of the four American contract employees murdered then hung from a Fallujah bridge on March 31, Phil Lucas, executive editor of the Panama City New Herald, published his reply:

Look at your spouse and children. Look at your self in the mirror. Then look at the pictures from the paper last Thursday. You better look at them. Those are the people out to kill you.

Who do you think will win? You? Or them? Think you can take your ball and go home and they will leave you alone? Read a little history. Start with last week, last month, last year, and every other year back for half a century. Then go back a thousand years. Nobody hides from this fight.

Like it or not, that's the way it was and that's the way it is.

But many Americans don't get it.

That's why we published those pictures.

If they jarred you off the sofa, if they offended you, if they scared your children and sent you into a rage at mass murderers or heartless editors, then I say, it's a start.

The fact that so many people remain in denial simply astounds me.

Update: People like this writer, whom Andrew Sullivan gave his "Susan Sontag" award.

by Donald Sensing, 4/28/2004 10:07:00 PM. Permalink |

And they don't even offer you a beer
Reid Stott, blogmeister of Photodude, and I were classmates or nearly so at Wake Forest University back in the 70s. He pithily and insightfully compares selecting a fraternity to join with deciding on a candidate to vote for.

by Donald Sensing, 4/28/2004 09:33:00 PM. Permalink |

Thailand: Muslim uprising leaves more than 100 dead
There are no clear links to al Qaeda in today's Muslim uprising in Thailand that resulted in more than 100 Muslim terrorists being killed by police and the army.

Police said they shot and killed 107 Islamic fighters - including 32 inside the mosque - after repelling near simultaneous attacks by hundreds of militants.

The violence began when the militants, mostly teenagers, stormed about 15 police stations and government buildings in three provinces.

Most of the attackers were armed only with machetes, but at least some of those killed in the mosque had guns and knew how to use them, said army chief Gen. Chayasith Shinawatra.

So much for mosques being off limits to violence. Muslims in Thailand have long complained of oppression by the central government of the mostly-Buddhist country.

by Donald Sensing, 4/28/2004 09:20:00 PM. Permalink |

The president's quagmire
Victor Davis Hanson has the transcript from a hammering the president took from the press over the misbegotten war. Pretty harsh stuff.

by Donald Sensing, 4/28/2004 08:14:00 PM. Permalink |

Cosmopolitans, imperialists and nationalists in America
Daniel Pipes explains how these three paradigms shape the way their adherents assess the Iraq war and its aftermath. Citing Samuel Huntingdon, Pipes writes of the three world views thus:

Cosmopolitan : America “welcomes the world, its ideas, its goods, and, most importantly, its people.” In this vision, the country strives to become multiethnic, multiracial, and multicultural. The United Nations and other international organizations increasingly influence American life. Diversity is an end in itself; national identity declines in importance. In brief, the world reshapes America.

Imperial : America reshapes the world. This impulse is fueled by a belief in “the supremacy of American power and the universality of American values.” America’s unique military, economic, and cultural might bestows on it the responsibility to confront evil and to order the world. Other peoples are assumed basically to share the same values as Americans; Americans should help them attain those values. America is less a nation than “the dominant component of a supranational empire.”

National : “America is different” and its people recognize and accept what distinguishes them from others. That difference results in large part from the country’s religious commitment and its Anglo-Protestant culture. The nationalist outlook preserves and enhances those qualities that have defined America from its inception. As for people who are not white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, they “become Americans by adopting its Anglo-Protestant culture and political values.”

Huntington sums up this triad of choices: “America becomes the world. The world becomes America. America remains America.”

Like Pipes, I tend to have one foot in the imperialist camp and one in the nationalist.

by Donald Sensing, 4/28/2004 08:02:00 PM. Permalink |

Salami slicing Fallujah
In the mere nine days since I posted a piece on the negative trends of battle attrition in Iraq, things have changed. I said that the then-present tactics being used against insurgents in the city could not be sustained because the odds were not in our favor.

"The question, though," I said, "is how long are we and the insurgents both willing to fight like this? Who will give up first?" Meaning not who will surrender to the other side, but who will change tactics to gain a decisive advantage. The question is answered. We did.

Time was always mostly, though not entirely, on our side. If the so-called ceasefire for negotiations had dragged on and on, it would have decidedly worked to our disadvantage. War, as has been endlessly repeated by commentati (including me), is a contest of wills. But not merely that. It is primarily a contest of power. What events of the last couple of days show is that the insurgents don't have the power to match their will. We do. And this week we are proving it.

In Najaf this week American soldiers killed more than 60 insurgents in a single firefight without losing one of their own. In Fallujah this week we don't know how many insurgents have been killed by American defensive actions ("aggressively defending ourselves," said one Marine officer) but the number must be in the many dozens, at least.

A Marine captain told a TV interviewer that the actions so far by no means constitute the long-awaited and much media-ballyhooed "offensive action."

"We've been playing patty-cake so far," said the captain. "When we go on the offensive, the whole world will see."

Over this month American forces have steadily closed the cordon within the city, reducing the terrain available to the enemy slice by slice. President Bush told the media today that in large areas of the city, life has returned pretty much to normal. More and more Fallujan civilians are reported to be escaping from the rebel areas, meaning that the civilians have seen the writing on the wall and no longer wish to hitch to a weak horse, or the insurgents no longer can stop them. Or both.

What we seem to be doing in steadily forcing the enemy to concentrate themselves into a smaller and smaller area. Not only does this liberate more civilians, it makes future targeting and intelligence gathering much simpler.

Some commentati have said that our self-imposed pause allowed the enemy to fortify their chosen redoubt within the city. No doubt. But it won't matter. The patty-cake of Marines getting into street gun battles with insurgents will not continue. The insurgents' modern Alamo will be futile. Imagine if Santa Ana had possessed a few F-15s, Cobra helicopters and Abrams tanks in 1836.

In the last two days we have destroyed more than one major ordnance warehouse used by the insurgents. I am very confident their location was revealed by defectors or civilian escapees. The loss of the munitions hurts the insurgents a lot. Unfortunately for them, ammo storage cannot be dispersed because too many fighters need to be resupplied. Except for what the insurgents can carry, plus a small at-hand store, the reserve munitions must be stored centrally. It seems they have lost a lot of ammo - good news for us, bad for them. They are not being resupplied. We are.

In the spring of 1864, the Union army under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant found itself stymied in maneuver in Virginia. In response to criticism and pointed inquiries from Washington that different tactics were called for, Grant responded in a despatch from Spotsylvania Court House on May 11, 1864, "I purpose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer."

That is really the position we are in at Fallujah now, except that American power is today much more overwhelming against our enemies than Grant's power was to Lee's. And of course, we don't have all summer. We have until June 30, the date when the Iraqis regain sovereignty. We can't leave this mess for them to clean up.

And we won't. The end game at Fallujah is fast approaching.

by Donald Sensing, 4/28/2004 07:47:00 PM. Permalink |

Journalism at its best
. . . is found in about everything that Omaha World-Herald editorialist Geitner Simmons writes. The latest example? This piece on the changing nature of WTO protectionism. Seems the WTO has made a prelim ruling against cotton US cotton subsidies that could have major domestic and international ramifications - here because it could depress midwestern property values and employment pictures, and abroad because of the precedent the ruling sets. It seems that everybody is dirty when it comes to ag subsidies and tariff protectionism, including both Europe and third-world countries. Geitner ties the two realms together most elegantly.

As I have said before, Geitner's blog is one of the undersung jewels of the b'sphere.

by Donald Sensing, 4/28/2004 06:55:00 PM. Permalink |

"The Jittery Fifty"
Armed Liberal responds thoughtfully and carefully to an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair by former British ambassadors, high commissioners, governors and senior international officials who "have watched with deepening concern the policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israel problem and Iraq, in close co-operation with the United States."

by Donald Sensing, 4/28/2004 02:51:00 PM. Permalink |

How to choose a digital camera
Digital Photography blog now has a buyer's guide online on buying a digital camera. I posted my own essay on this topic last November, but the pro's post is better and more up to date.

by Donald Sensing, 4/28/2004 02:35:00 PM. Permalink |

Taking Chance Home
A Marine lieutenant colonel tells of escorting home the remains of an Iraq KIA, Pfc. Chance Phelps.

At the restaurant, the table had a flier announcing Chance’s service. Dubois High School gym; two o’ clock. It also said that the family would be accepting donations so that they could buy flak vests to send to troops in Iraq.

Read the whole thing, really.

by Donald Sensing, 4/27/2004 10:18:00 PM. Permalink |

Resenting the Crusades
"Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state and feckless appeaser who helped get us into this mess, said last week Muslims still resent the Crusades. Well, Madam Albright, if Westerners were not such a forgiving people, we might resent them too."

by Donald Sensing, 4/27/2004 09:55:00 PM. Permalink |

I wish I was a poet
Like Vanderleun.

by Donald Sensing, 4/27/2004 09:51:00 PM. Permalink |

Primers on Just War theory
I just discovered a site called The Just Cause that has a compendium of readings upholding the centuries-old Western traditions and theology of just war. I haven't read it very much yet, but it seems very good to me so far.

by Donald Sensing, 4/27/2004 05:26:00 PM. Permalink |

United Methodist Women supports unrestricted abortion
The United Methodist Women is an official body of the United Methodist Church. Last autumn the Board of Directors of the UM Women’s Division voted to donate $5,000 to co-sponsor the "March for Women's Lives" in Washington, D.C. Observed the Good News renewal movement of the church,

United Methodism opposes birth control abortions, the March for Women’s Lives does not. United Methodism opposes gender selection abortions, the March for Women’s Lives does not. United Methodism opposes partial birth abortions, the March for Women’s Lives does not.

Despite United Methodism's opposition to the vast majority of abortions being performed in the United States, the Women’s Division has chosen to drag our denomination into a narrow, rancorous, and divisive political agenda. It would be fair to say that local UMW units are not raising money to send to New York in order to support this kind of activity.

No, they are not, I assure you. I am a member of United Methodist Women, btw; all pastors of the denomination are automatically members.

by Donald Sensing, 4/27/2004 05:16:00 PM. Permalink |

News of the weird - the really weird

Grandma gives birth to own grandchildren

Twins were delivered yesterday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center by 53-year-old Barbara Brennan, who served as a surrogate mother for her daughter, Lynne Bevins, and son-in-law Phil Bevins of Knoxville.

Woman marries herself

WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- For Jennifer Hoes, a Dutch student, May 28 will be a doubly exciting day. She'll turn 30, and she'll be a blushing bride -- plus her own groom. In the Trouwzaal, or wedding room, of the City Hall of Haarlem in the Netherlands, Jennifer will marry herself.

Bedecked in a wedding gown studded with 200 perfect latex copies of her own nipples, Jennifer will appear before Ruud Grondel, Haarlem's registrar, and promise to "love, respect and honor" herself in good times and in bad, according to Dutch and German newspaper reports. ...

To be sure, Jennifer's auto-marriage will be a secular event. But, rest assured, it won't be long before some churches and synagogues will give such unions their blessing. To paraphrase Malcolm Muggeridge, there is no cause mad enough not to enlist the services of demented clergymen strumming their guitars.

But not all:

Seen from the monotheistic perspective, Jennifer's "marriage" is the quintessence of idolatry; it is a bow before what Christopher Hershman, a pastor and psychologist in Allentown, Pa., calls the "postmodern Trinity": Me, Myself and I.

I am trying to think of some snappy comment, but folks, I just can't.

by Donald Sensing, 4/27/2004 05:03:00 PM. Permalink |

The Church of Wal-Mart lingerie
Michael Williams cites Florida lay minister Doug Giles, who observes,

Have you ever asked yourself, “Self … why do churches today look more like the lingerie department at Wal-Mart, than a battalion of men poised to plunder the powers of darkness?” Why do men avoid going to church, and what can be done about it? ...

- Enough with the Precious Moments prints and figurines - okay? How about decking out the sanctuary with serious transcendent art work that stops us in our tracks, rather than ubiquitous prints of fat baby angels who look like they’ve got a good buzz going from too much Mountain Dew and children’s aspirin?

- Lose the Church’s “I’m in therapy for ever” feel. Yes, yes, we’re all a work in progress but the co-dependant, extended womb the Church has wrongfully created has allowed congregants to not get a life because of some difficult doo-doo in their lives. Sure life’s hard, little Sally, and the sooner, we celebrate the struggle the quicker we will draw men back to our houses of worship.

As they say, read the whole thing. And I invite you to take a look at my own relevant essay, "The metrosexual Jesus - Would you trust your eternity to this guy? Neither would I.

by Donald Sensing, 4/27/2004 08:34:00 AM. Permalink |

The progression of violence
Hearken back to October 2001. The American air campaign against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan began Oct. 7. By November, the media were a-twitter with warnings that military action in the country had to stop for the Muslim holy season of Ramadan. Reported ABC News,

There is growing concern that attacks by non-Muslim states could aggravate simmering anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world. Pakistan, in particular, has been struggling to contain a tide of sympathy for the Taliban, which has portrayed the U.S. attack as a war against Islam.

"It's an issue in practical terms, it's a period of heightened spirituality, and of course people's sensibilities are more acute at those times, so it could have consequences if it is still going on at that time," says Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the New Jersey-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The consequences, of course, turned out that the Taliban lost much sooner than they would have if we had halted the attacks. To be fair to ABC, its story also quoted another CAIR spokesman thus,

"For Muslims, it is a non-issue. It is a holy month, but Muslims traditionally have fought during Ramadan," says Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR.

Even so, American and British senior officials went on the record as taking the idea of a Ramadan pause seriously, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, for example. The concern, you see, was for the sensitivities of the fabled "Arab street."

Such concerns have gone a-glimmering two and a half years later. Reporting on yesterday's fierce firefight in Fallujah between US Marines and insurgents, CNN reported,

Also, there was a mosque ... here; it had a minaret 50 to 60 feet high. Marine commanders say they were taking sniper fire from that minaret.

That minaret has now been leveled by U.S. military ordnance, missiles and mortars. There's nothing left at all of that minaret. ...

It is only the West that has sensitivities about shooting up mosques or other houses of worship. Western sensitivities are only skin deep. Churches were routinely destroyed by all sides in Europe in World War II. See, for example director John Huston's classic documentary of the war, "The Battle of San Pietro." The film shows the blasted shell of a church with an ironic voice-over, "Note the interesting treatment of the chancel." The chancel had been treated with high explosive.

But the exclusion of houses of worship from combat has no history in Islam. While it is certainly true that few Muslims would wish their mosques to be riddled with gunfire or bombed, the paradigm that mosques or churches or synagogues are off limits to battle purely because of their status as worship houses is not present.

In April 2002 many dozens of Palestinian gunmen invaded the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to escape Israeli soldiers. Most of the Western press immediately trumpeted that they were seeking sanctuary in accordance with the ancient tradition that no one can be arrested in a church. Which is to say, we were told that they wanted the protection of the Church corporate, not merely shelter afforded by its walls. A fair number of my pastoral colleagues were quite sure of this in my conversations with them. (The Vatican, always eager to oppose Israel, naturally took the side of the invaders.) In fact, the gunmen sought to turn the church into their fortress.

Remember also that more than once last year (link, link) that terrorists have fought Saudi police in the city of Mecca itself, the entire city being sacred to Muslims, not just a mosque therein.

International law of war holds that houses of worship are off limits both to attack and to militarization. That is, all belligerent forces are obliged to take positive measures to ensure their actions do not damage the sites. It is equally prohibited for any force, including the side that owns the site, to militarize a protected site. Using it as a sniper post does that. By treaty, militarization of a protected site removes its protection and it may be attacked by the other side with legal impunity.

The natural progression of war is toward greater and greater violence. Two and one-half years ago we were worrying at the national-command level about dropping bombs during Ramadan. Today a local commander on the ground in Fallujah flattens part of a mosque without a moment's hesitation.

Endnote: Some may observe that the concept of sanctuary is indeed found in ancient Near East tradition, citing 1 Kings 1:50-53 as proof. A pretender to Solomon's throne, Adonijah, fled from Solomon by entering the tent of the Lord (a proto-Temple) and grasping the altar. Solomon bargained with him, but the event ended with Solomon's soldiers arresting Adonijah at the altar.

Adonijah's ally, a general named Joab, later fled to grasp the altar as well. After refusing to surrender to Solomon, Solomon ordered him slain on the spot. So Joab was killed by the sword as he grasped the altar.

These passages certainly do not support the idea that immunity from arrest or attack in a religious sanctuary has biblical warrant.

by Donald Sensing, 4/27/2004 08:09:00 AM. Permalink |

The lighter side

Casanova has nothing to worry about:




A little too diverse, maybe?




If the plaintiff is very patient, he'll get it all back




A match made in heaven




A good home for, oh, an hour!




Oh, and we really miss her, too!



by Donald Sensing, 4/27/2004 07:03:00 AM. Permalink |

Euro-Muslims call for jihad
Some immigrant Muslims in Britain and the continent are calling for its Islamization and a jihad to make it so.

They are mostly young men, urged on by a few firebrand clerics such as Abu Hamza or Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammad, both of whom call for holy war against Prime Minister Blair and British society generally.

"All Muslims of the West will be obliged," [Mohammed] said, to "become his sword" in a new battle. Europeans take heed, he added, saying, "It is foolish to fight people who want death - that is what they are looking for."

But the older Muslim generation is less than entranced.

"I think these kids are being brainwashed by a few radical clerics," said Akhbar Dad Khan, another elder of the Central Mosque. He wants them prosecuted or deported. "We should be able to control this negativity," he said.

Only a small percentage of the young men enthralled by the jihadist preaching will accept being recruited into the cells that law-enforcement agencies know are being formed, and fewer still will actually become active. But terrorism doesn't take many. British investigators arrested nine Pakistani-Britons in late March and confiscated more than a half-ton of bomb materials.

by Donald Sensing, 4/26/2004 01:34:00 PM. Permalink |

Tennessee cops to carry hunting rifles

Not an "assault weapon" says Tennessee Highway Patrol:



From a local radio (AM 1510) news spot just now: The Tennessee Highway Patrol has procured a number of Bushmaster 5.56mm rifles. The THP spokesman in the sound bite was at pains to point out these are semi-automatic firearms, "just like the pistols we carry on our hip," and that the Bushmasters are basically no different from a hunting rifle. "These are not assault weapons," he declared.

So there you have it. The Tennessee Highway Patrol is arming itself with hunting rifles.

by Donald Sensing, 4/26/2004 01:09:00 PM. Permalink |

The right to kill the next generation
Michael Williams has an interesting insight: almost all the women activists demonstrating in the nation's capital for abortion on demand are well past child-bearing age. He gives several examples, then,

Where are the young women pushing for the right to kill their babies? The abortion lobby/industry is a movement made up of old women who don't represent the future of America. Surveys indicate that abortion is losing acceptance among women as the bitter boomers die off and are replaced by younger, saner generations of women.

My eyebrows arched when I read what marcher Carole Mehlman, 68, said.

"I just had to be here to fight for the next generation and the generation after that," she said. "We cannot let them take over our bodies, our health care, our lives."

Think that through. She says is is fighting for the next generation and the cause she is fighting for is the unhindered right to kill the next generation.

by Donald Sensing, 4/26/2004 12:54:00 PM. Permalink |

Old folks and cars
I spent several hours today helping my parent buy a new car. They had been looking for a few months, but not very hard. With the weather turning warm and the golf course calling my dad, the need for a second car became more pressing.

They finally settled this afternoon on a 2004 Toyota Camry XLE with leather, JBL sound, moonroof and side-curtain airbags. Nice car. But that's not the point.

The point is the experience made me wonder why auto makers don't do better research on what senior citizens really need in a car. Seniors generally have more money than any other demographic, and will spend it on a car that meets their needs.

Yesterday when my mom was at the dealer (I wasn't there) she happened to see a Toyota Matrix in the showroom. This car is almost identical with the Pontiac Vibe, btw, which should tell you who its market demographic is.

My mom sat inside and loved it. Why? Not the looks or the rather off-putting dash, but the fact the because it sits higher than a sedan, it was easy to get in and out. All she had to do to get in was pivot, sit down, pivot and to get out reverse it.

When people reach their mid-seventies, like my parents, they often find that formerly simple tasks such as getting in and out of a car are no longer so simple. A typical sedan's seating is too low to be comfortably negotiated, especially getting out.

But that's only one aspect of their needs. They also tend to need power-adjustable seats, a mere convenience for folks my age but a real necessity for them. Manipulating small knobs or reaching for underseat levers can be a challenge for the elderly. Likewise they need power locks and windows, easy-to-reach controls that are easy to handle, excellent outward visibility, and easy-to-read gages. Non-gripping fabric or better yet, leather, are desirable because it doesn't hinder them moving their legs getting in and out.

All of these things are available on many cars or SUVs mid-size and bigger. But most post-retirement-age men and especially women (who outnumber the men) also need vehicles that are easy to park. Especially do they want to see the corners of the vehicle and be able to maneuver it handily in crowded parking lots. Anything bigger than the midsize SUV Toyota Highlander is just too big. And the Highlander is often too high - if the problem with sedans is that senior have to climb down too much to get it, they have to climb up too much for midsize and larger SUVs.

I have not found a single small SUV that had all these features, even as options. That category is "youth market" and the imperative there is sporty panache and relatively low cost. But let me tell you, automakers, I think if you sold a vehicle of comparable type with the all convenience features seniors need, you'd make a lot of the old folks very happy. Just a thought.

by Donald Sensing, 4/24/2004 07:43:00 PM. Permalink |

Eli Manning, meet Pat Tillman
Timing, they say, is everything, Eli. You ain't got it.

Number one NFL draft pick Eli Manning threw a hissy fit over the prospect of being drafted by the league's taildrager, the San Diego Chargers. He even threatened to sit out next season if the Chargers insisted on drafting him instead of trading him away.

John Elway pulled this stunt in 1983 rather than go play for the Baltimore Colts. The Colts stood fast and Elway played minor-league baseball for a year, then was traded to the Denver Broncos.

The difference between Elway in 1983 and Manning in 2004?

Former Arizona Cardinals starter Pat Tillman, an Army Ranger sergeant, killed in action three days ago in Afghanistan.

Talk about a poor sense of timing. Manning couldn't time a three-minute egg. The contrast between the two football stars is stark. Manning was petulant, nearly juvenile, sniveling over which team will pay him millions of dollars to throw an air-filled bladder. With publicity carefully engineered by dad Archie, Eli has revealed himself as nothing but a self-centered, spoiled brat.

Eli Manning, please remember Pat Tillman. Tillman who walked away from millions to enlist as a private in the US Army, refused publicity and interviews, served in combat in Iraq and again in the 'Stan, where he died defending your freedom to play football unmolested by Islamofascist terrorists, who want to kill you as surely as you breathe.

It's not a shining day for the Manning legacy. But I don't think they realize it or would care if they did.

by Donald Sensing, 4/24/2004 06:24:00 PM. Permalink |

Kerry's Navy fitness reports, revisited
Doug Dryden, a former Navy officer, emailed me about John Kerry's fitness reports of his naval service that he posted online earlier this week:

The records are unremarkable & show a typical naval officer of that age & grade (other than the references to his yachting ability & refinement). I was an approximate contemporary of his rank & time, & my FITREPs read much the same.

The recommendation for accelerated promotion to Lieutenant (j.g.) is somewhat of a joke. It is equivalent to promotion from Second Lieutenant to First Lieutenant in the Army or Marines (note: reference to him having been a First Lieutenant aboard the USS Gridley refers to his billet, not his rank), & is a practical impossibility. Such recommendations were rather widespread precisely because they were impossible - it was sort of a kiss on the cheek from the CO.

I am curious, though, about his serving only four months in-country, & the severity of his wounds for the Purple Heart. I do not dispute that he fulfilled the technical requirements for the awards, but if your earlier story is valid about his first award, & it is true that he lost no time as a result of his wounds, it does call to question an abuse of the system in relation to others who had more clearly distinguished wounds.

As a comparison, I remember a time as a junior officer when I was cross-assigned to an Army unit which was a true field unit. After several months of duty with my contemporaries in fatigues (now called BDUs), we had to clean up & wear our class A uniforms with ribbons for the visit of some VIP & his horse-holders, allowing us to see each other for the first time with our qualifications. I did a triple-take when I noticed that one of my cohorts, whom I respected greatly due to his obvious skill & modesty, was wearing a Purple Heart with three bronze oak leaf clusters.

"Frank," I said, "you were wounded FOUR times?"

He replied, "Well, actually seven, but three don't really count."

My lesson with him & others I admired was that the real heroes don't talk about themselves & their exploits. They have earned the confidence that comes with knowing that they are content with themselves & their accomplishments, & they didn't have to tell anyone to pump themselves up. It's the quiet ones who are the pros, not the ones freshly graduated from one of our snake-eating schools who have to eat glass & preen.

In contrast, Kerry can't seem to shut up about it. It's as if he's exploiting his honour, in contrast to others who may have paid a dearer price. It bothers me that he has to make almost constant reference to his service in Viet Nam - a more mature man wouldn't feel the need.

I'm also more concerned that he's pumping up his fellow veterans after declaring practically all of them to be guilty of war crimes & atrocities. If he thinks he can appeal to me as a veteran, he can forget it.

So there you have another perspective to mine that I won't elaboate on. As I pointed out in my post, I was an Army officer, not Navy, my time on active duty came years later. So I would trust Doug's evaluation of the records more than mine. I should have caught the part about early promotion from ensign to Lt. j.g., though, as Doug is quite right. There is no such thing as early promotion to any rank below major (Navy: Lieutenant Commander), so a "kiss on the cheek" is about all that really is.

by Donald Sensing, 4/24/2004 04:24:00 PM. Permalink |

"... a dangerous idiot who only thinks in black and white."
David Kaspar says that a German reporter "has reached the ultimate climax of biased reporting." And he's right.

by Donald Sensing, 4/23/2004 12:56:00 PM. Permalink |

Arrivals of KIA at Dover
Yesterday one of the major news stories was the publication hundreds of photos on The Memory Hole showing the arrival of coffins at Dover AFB, Del. Thye coffins, of course, contained the remains of American troops who died overseas. (Memory Hole's server is apparently overwhelmed and offline for now.)

The stuff really hit the fan. Years ago media coverage of arrivals of KIA was de rigeur and used by presidents from Carter through Bush 41 to garner public support for brief wars or actions. The arrivals were media events more than anything else. But the military put on a show for the media: full honor guards and cordon, muffled drums, flag-draped coffins, flags flying, etc.

In August 1990, eight months after then last such event, Saddam Hussein rolled into Kuwait and Bush 41 began actions that culminated in the Gulf War. I was stationed at the Pentagon at the time; preliminary casualty estimates of American KIA ranged up to four thousand. We thought that the Iraqi army would fight us at least as hard as they had fought the Iranians in the 1980s. The defensive positions the Iraqis had built along the border were good and would have been tough to crack had they been well defended (they weren't).

Not long before we launched offensive action in January 1991, the word came down that arrival ceremonies would not be conducted. I imagine the reason was because of the high casualty estimates. Not only would the images of returning dead be potentially overwhelming; the logistic burden at Dover AFB itself would have been immense. The base simply could not have afforded to halt other air traffic while ceremonies were held and covered by the media. There were also other commitments for the joint-service unit of honor guards - they are busy year round for other missions.

No one I knew in the military was sorry to see the ceremonies stopped. Dover is merely a stop along the way of the service member's last trip.

The photos released to Memory Hole were not shots of normal arrivals. They are photos of a real arrival, yes, but the photographer was sent to document the training of an honor guard. The Air Force still has the requirement to conduct honor arrival ceremonies on order, so it used this particular plane of coffins to train new airmen and rehearse procedures.

But routine arrivals don't look like that. Blogger Sgt Stryker, who in real life is a ground crew chief of Air Force cargo planes, explained last December what non-ceremonial arrivals are really like. Joe Gandelman has a thoughtful discussion, too.

by Donald Sensing, 4/23/2004 11:06:00 AM. Permalink |

NFL linebacker turned soldier - KIA in Afghanistan

Arkhangel posts that

... former Arizona Cardinals linebacker Pat Tillman, who joined the 75th Ranger Regiment after 9/11, has been killed in action in Afghanistan. For all our concern about Iraq, Afghanistan has truly become the forgotten front.

So why the attention? Well, because Tillman could have chosen to keep making millions in the NFL, but instead, he chose to give that up and serve a higher cause than himself. And now he's paid the ultimate price. Godspeed, man, and may angels sing thee to thy rest.

Tillman was in his fourth year of NFL play when he " shucked it all and joined his brother, Kevin, in setting out to become an Army Ranger" [link]."

"Pat has very deep and true convictions," Cardinals coach Dave McGinnis said at the time. "He's a deep thinker, and believe me, this was something he thought out."

Tillman made no public statement. He wasn't in this for the publicity. But you didn't need to dig too deeply to find an explanation for his actions. Friends said that the 9/11 terrorist attacks had affected him deeply. Cardinals defensive coordinator Larry Marmie, after a conversation with his former player, said Tillman felt he needed to "pay something back" for the comfortable life he had been afforded.

A true patriot, may he rest in peace.

Update: ESPN has reposted its April 2003 article on Tillman's decision to enlist.

by Donald Sensing, 4/23/2004 10:25:00 AM. Permalink |

"Waffles"
Heh! (HT: Justin at Right Side Redux).

by Donald Sensing, 4/22/2004 06:35:00 PM. Permalink |

The draft hypocrites
Conscription as social engineering

Joe Gandelman and other commentators seem to think that a revived draft will somehow compel America's young people to resist the government.

So if it is reinstituted there is a real chance that military issues will meet much more resistance than they do now among youth. The reason: to some, having the option to serve and having to serve determine a political stance -- because personal stakes become higher.

Let me point out - again! - that unless the Congress mandates a larger military, a draft has no point. A draft without a larger Army means that you tell someone who wants to join that s/he cannot in order to induct someone who does not want to serve. Is that the American way? I think not.

There is not a scintilla of evidence that the Congress, for all its rhetoric about needing more troops in Iraq (Sen. McCain today, for example) has the slightest interest in expanding the military enough to make the draft remotely useful to the defense department.

Again, the impetus behind the liberals' (mostly) call for a draft is not national security or military effectiveness. It is social engineering. Kos, for example, wants the draft so that "the burdens of our Democracy [will] be shared by all." I'd like Kos to post how many of his social peer group he has urged to enlist.

But another objective is at play, too: to increase the control of the federal government by making everyone serve the government as part of universal service. "1984," anyone?

No deferments, everyone gets two years of national service and most of them can rebuild the national parks and clean up the inner cities. There are plenty of things that need doing. Only volunteers would enter the military to satisfy national service or any other dangerous job function.

Yeah, let's clean up the national parks with forced labor. Heck, forced labor worked at Dachau; it'll work in Detroit, too. It's amazing that draft proponents complain about low-paid volunteer soldiers (same link) but want to use equally low-paid draftees for "public services."

I'll take conscription proponents' "social-benefit" arguments seriously when the age-eligible ones enlist or, if not age eligible, actively encourage eligible members of their peer groups to enlist. If such a dramatic change is so desirable, lead the way. Otherwise, simple hypocrisy.

Update: Please see my comprehensive posting on the draft. This post is a followup.

Jeff Jarvis attended a press conference with Donald Rumsfeld today and writes what Rummy had to say about the draft. Hint: he's agin' it.

by Donald Sensing, 4/22/2004 05:56:00 PM. Permalink |

How many did Kerry kill?
The BoGlo has a story about the reports (via Glenn) that does not seem terribly balanced to me. Writer Michael Kranish pushes a couple of issues a little too hard. One is the question, again, of how worthy was the wound for which Kerry received his first Purple Heart . Says the Globe:

The Kerry campaign has declined to respond to a question about whether Kerry believed he was hit by enemy fire, and Kerry has been quoted as saying he didn't know where the shrapnel came from.

Set aside the mild controversy over whether this wound was in fact a wound worthy of the P.H. What Kranish is implying, even if accidentally, is that the source of the shrapnel matters. It doesn't. Whether a wound is caused by an enemy's weapon or the boat's bosun's weapon, if it happens during battle it earns the Purple Heart.

For that matter, the injury doesn't have to be caused by a weapon at all. In the Gulf War there was a tank crew shooting up an Iraqi train - a little too closely, as it turned out. A train car full of ammunition exploded, engulfing the tank in the blast and flames, setting the engine compartment afire. The crew abandoned the tank, but in the hurry one of the crewmen smashed his head on one of the dozens of protuberances tanks have sticking out here and there. It gashed his head open. He got a Purple Heart.

The other nit I pick with the Globe's story is over its treatment of a report that credited Kerry with killing 20 enemy. Kranish allows that Kerry himself has never made that claim. The rater concerned, Joseph Streuli, told the Globe he doesn't remember the event.

This is a non-story any way we cut it. Kerry never claimed it and the officer who reported it today disavows knowledge. Were there really 20 enemy killed? With all the importance connected to body counts in those days, and the concomitant exaggerations thereof, it's a wonder the report didn't say he killed 200.

by Donald Sensing, 4/22/2004 03:44:00 PM. Permalink |

Kerry's Navy evaluations by superior officers
For those who may not know, every armed service has a formal program of written evaluations of its officers. Each officer is evaluated by his/her immediate supervisor or commander and also by that person's supervisor. Sometimes there are three evaluators instead of two, but not often.

Variously referred to at "fitness reports" or "efficiency reports," these evaluations are the life or death of an officer's career. Over time, reports become "inflated" - more and more officers get evaluated as the best there are. Call it an amplified "Lake Wobegon effect" for personnel systems: every officer is not merely above average, they are all in the top 10 percent. So the service changes the report format and starts over.

Presidential candidate John Kerry's fitness reports are now online. I was in the Army, not the Navy, so I cannot speak to the naval "culture" of its evaluations. Each service's officers become inculcated with how to write reports certain way - what buzz words are good or bad, what writing style is best, etc. Kerry's reports are also more than 30 years old, and even within the Navy, the evaluation styles and language have changed since they were written. So a Navy officer from their day will no doubt read them differently than I do.

That all said, Kerry's fitness reports strike me as very impressive. One rater wrote explicitly that he should be promoted early, not the sort of compliment senior officers hand out facilely, in the narrative part, at