Re-elect Bush, part 1

If, like me, you grew up in New York and spend your adult life in Southern California, you’re terminally bicoastal. And if you’re terminally bicoastal it’s hard to love George W. Bush. There are too many associations with “Gentlemen’s C’s” and drunken fraternity parties. He says “nucular.” He has an annoying lateral “s.”

Moreover, beyond style, there are plenty of his policies to criticize.

Nevertheless, I’m convinced that this year’s election is the most important in a generation, and it’s imperative that we re-elect the man.

There’s one overriding reason. We are at war. I refer not to the episodic wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, important though they are. We are in a long, twilight struggle much like the 70-year struggle with Russian Communism, with Islamic fascism.

Bush and his associates, whatever their limitations and failings, understand something of the threat, and the need to resist it, at times with force. The Democrats do not understand this. They will temporize. They will rationalize. They will respond symbolically (remember the Sudan factory bombing), but not with force. They are enamored of international bodies such as the tyrants’ cartel at the UN, the search for ‘root causes’ such as poverty (which is NOT an important part of the problem). They fear, and the more left-wing among them hate, any show of strength by this country.

Isaiah Berlin’s metaphor of The Hedgehog and the Fox comes to mind. The fox, like a bicoastal liberal, knows many small things. The hedgehog doesn’t, but he knows One Big Thing. Bill Clinton, for example, knew many little things, and could chatter endlessly into the night about them. George W. Bush, for certain, knows One Big Thing. We are at war against a determined and cruel enemy, and we must sacrifice and fight that enemy.

All the rest, my friends, is commentary.

The Camel's Nose, the Slippery Slope, and Reductio ad Absurdum

An afterthought: Julian Sanchez has an interesting discussion of the difference between the social and logical versions of the "parade of horribles." Worth thinking about.

Laguna Government Resists the Cookie Threat

Saturday, when my daughter's troop attempted to sell Girl Scout cookies near the Farmers' Market, on the paved area around a tree on the City Hall lawn, they were accosted by a bureaucrat, who forbade them to put up a folding bridge table. Last week, the City Manager banned another troop from using the site at all. This in spite of the fact that the cookie sales near the Farmers' Market have gone on unchalleged for years.

Apparently, these folks think that if they allow the Girl Scouts on the City Hall lawn, someone with controversial views (say, pro- or anti-abortion) might also want to use the space. In short, these little eleven-year-olds are not what they seem, but the nose of a dangerous camel in the City Hall tent.

The girls weren't blocking a sidewalk route to anywhere. They weren't bothering anyone. Apparently the desire of some people for control knows no bounds. Whether it's what color people paint their houses, what they build on their property, or who uses the people's headquarters for a charitable purpose, our bureaucrats want to control it.

Is there a lawsuit brewing? It might seem silly, but what a lesson for eleven-year-old girls about freedom of speech in this country! And what wonderful fodder for talk radio!

We're sending the City a letter of protest. Let's see what they say.

Weasels for Kerry

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mathathir and the New "Gazpacho-Eating Surrender Llama" Zapatero have endorsed John Kerry for re-election.

There is no doubt that the Kerry is the candidate of the Weasel International. A Kerry spokesman has repudiated the support of the Malaysian anti-Semite, but in general he's proud of his (largely unnamed) weasel backers.

"Say no more, say no more."

Socialist Dhimmis in Spain

Tom Friedman gets it right today:

"The notion that Spain can separate itself from Al Qaeda's onslaught on Western civilization by pulling its troops from Iraq is a fantasy. Bin Laden has said that Spain was once Muslim and he wants it restored that way. As a friend in Cairo e-mailed me, a Spanish pullout from Iraq would only bring to mind Churchill's remark after Chamberlain returned from signing the Munich pact with Hitler: 'You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.'"  

Dhimmis, by the way, were (and are) the non-Islamic "ahl-al-kitab" or "People of the Book" -- Christians, Jews and sometimes others -- who were tolerated in the Islamic countries but subjected to demeaning restrictions such as a prohibition on repairing their houses of worship, riding horses, as well as a special tax. The modern dhimmis kowtow in the name of multiculturalism or fear to the growing Islamic populations in their midst and to Islamic extremism in the world.

The behavior, in just a few days, of Spanish Premier-elect Zapatero, demonstrates that socialism and utter cultural degeneracy are only a few steps apart.

If former Premier Aznar's regime made the mistake of trying to blame the bombing on the Basque ETA terrorists in the vain hope of saving his party's electoral apples, Zapatero wallows in utter cowardice. Unless it wakes up, Europe, my friends, is in for it.

Al Qaeda Wins One In Spain

The Spanish tragedy deepened Sunday when Al Qaeda, after murdering hundreds of innocent Spaniards, got what it wanted. The courageous government of Prime Minister Aznar was ousted by the defeatist Socialist weasels. Apparently the Spaniards blame Spain's participation in the Iraq war, not Al Qaeda, for the attack.

This event bodes ill for the future. Al Qaeda must now believe it can influence elections by carefully timed acts of mass murder. Don't be surprised if there is a major terrorist attack in this country before November.

Meanwhile, Spain is well on the way to dhimmitude. With a birthrate well below replacement levels, Spain is a target for immigration from North Africa. The weasel multiculturalists do not see the danger. If nothing changes, Spain will be part of the Maghreb by 2050. And the Islam that will reign will not be the tolerant variety that sometimes existed before the Reconquista.

A doubly tragic week!