Cute Tummy, But Ya Wanna Do Some Crunches?

Haditha Scandal

Or maybe not.

California Primary Results

Well, the votes are in.

The Democrats opted for an open lefty (more taxes, licenses for illegals) against the centrist Terminator. I think they lose. People may not be overwhelmed by Arnold's performance, but they like him. Angelides is pretty far to the left and will run a combative campaign.

The Meathead (Rob Reiner) lost his initiative to statify and stultify early childhood education, and library bonds got lost in the shuffle. Reiner lost big time. I think the tide is turning against initiatives, except maybe ones to punish criminals.

Billbray won a fairly close House race in a heavily GOP district. Good for the GOP that he won; alarming that the margin was as close as it was, and the amount of resources that had to be spent to save one of the safest seats in the state. Probably the challenger's taped and widely replayed remark implying that illegal immigrants should go ahead and vote made the difference. That's why candidates have consultants who try to keep them "on message" and keep their feet out of the mouth.

Orange County's weird Sheriff, Mike Carona, a nice guy with abysmal judgment, squeaked in. He would have lost a runoff. If he can keep it zipped and avoid appointing swine as his deputies, he'll be ok.

The OC voters also approved an initiative to ban eminent domain to benefit private parties. The effect is limited, because most redevelopment districts are in cities, which won't be affected.

The Republic hobbles on.

Did Bush Steal the 2004 Election?

Until recently, the belief that the Republicans cheated their way to victory in the 2004 Presidential was confined to Pacifica Radio and other lefties in the ooby-dooby zone.

Now the Rolling Stone has published a piece by Robert Kennedy Jr. retailing the same accusations, a piece that has apparently impressed some, such as the Good Inger.

The charges have also been debunked by such an unlikely source as NPR:

There also was a session called, "Who Really Won the Election 2004?" This was an opportunity for the cyber-active bloggers who think the Ohio vote was somehow fraudulent to present their best case. They didn't. Their presentations were confusing, if not incoherent to this listener, and they all seemed to boil down to one complaint: namely, that the vote totals didn't match the exit polls. The problem with that argument is that if you can give good reasons why the exit polls were wrong in Ohio (and there are many), their entire complaint disappears.

I have to say, though, that I did see the respondent in that panel, who gave a thoughtful and coherent critique of the vote-fraud proponents, chatting for hours one evening with one of the presenters. It's the good thing about a conference like this, even when it rains.

Salon also delivered a thorough Fisking to these charges. (HT: TigerHawk.)

The Salon piece is pretty fierce:

If you do read Kennedy's article, be prepared to machete your way through numerous errors of interpretation and his deliberate omission of key bits of data. The first salient omission comes in paragraph 5, when Kennedy writes, "In what may be the single most astounding fact from the election, one in every four Ohio citizens who registered to vote in 2004 showed up at the polls only to discover that they were not listed on the rolls, thanks to GOP efforts to stem the unprecedented flood of Democrats eager to cast ballots." To back up that assertion, Kennedy cites "Democracy at Risk," the report the Democrats released last June.

That report does indeed point out that many people -- 26 percent -- who first registered in 2004 did not find their names on the voter rolls at polling places. What Kennedy doesn't say, though, is that the same study found no significant difference in the share of Kerry voters and Bush voters who came to the polls and didn't find their names listed. The Democrats' report says that 4.2 percent of Kerry voters were forced to cast a "provisional" ballot and that 4.1 percent of Bush voters were made to do the same -- a stat that lowers the heat on Kennedy's claim of "astounding" partisanship.

Such techniques are evident throughout Kennedy's article. He presents a barrage of seemingly important, apparently damning data to show that Kerry won the race. It's only when you dig into his claims that you see what thin ice he's on.

No one is under an obligation to love W., or support his policies. My decision to vote for him was motivated by my contempt for that stick-up-his-ass French-looking Senator from Massachusetts and the left wing of his party. Better 100 James Dobsons than one Dennis Kucinich!But "if you shoot at a King, you must kill him," as Emerson said. If one is going to attack the President in a time of war, not for mistaken policies or his annoying lateral S pronounciation, but on the grounds he cheated his way into power, better get your ducks in a row first.

Let us assume for a moment that Bobby Kennedy was a great man. If so, Robert Jr. proves that "regression toward the mean" applies to political leadership as to stature, test-taking, and baseball.

Will There Always Be an England?

According to this story, various institutions in Britain are refusing to fly Union Jack because some Muslim extremists are objecting:

But the Islamic protest forced some corporations, such as cable companies NTL, Heathrow airport in London, and even the Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Agency to ban the flag in every form due to fears from reactions of Muslims.

The Sun tabloid newspaper has in recent days launched a campaign to bring back the flag, and has published a blacklist of companies preventing their workers from expressing their patriotism at work.

The Sun said that a large pub network has banned drinkers from entering with symbols of the national team.

The hero of the day is a two year-old toddler, who was thrown out with his parents from Leicester, because he wore the England team's uniform.

The British lately have not been such flag-wavers as our queenless immigrant nation. Perhaps these events will encourage them.

I do not want to believe that the land of Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill will sink into dhimmitude without a fight.

HT: TigerHawk.

More Weird Prehistory

Scientists have found signs of a prehistoric crater in Antarctica, relics of a colossal collision that wiped out most life on earth, so they say, and made way for the dinosaurs.

Ohio State University scientists who found the crater said the massive Antarctic crater could explain the global extinction in the Permian-Triassic period when all animal life on Earth died out, clearing the way for the dinosaurs.

The massive impact probably broke up the ancient continent of Gondwanaland, pushing Australia out on its long drift north to its current position. The landmass that became India shot off first, while Africa and South America broke off later.

"This Wilkes Land impact is much bigger than the impact that killed the dinosaurs, and probably would have caused catastrophic damage at the time," said Ralph von Frese, professor of geological sciences at Ohio State University.

As with the Israeli cave crustaceans, I love this stuff.

Study your science, kids. Then you won't have to practice law or write press releases.

Crustaceans

Israeli scientists discovered a new cave ecosystem, including several species of crustaceans.

I love this stuff.

But they're almost certainly not kosher.

Immigration Politics Shifting

A John Fund column in the intensely pro-immigration Wall Street Journal suggests that the political ground is shifting on the illegal immigration issue. There's a grass-roots revolt, apparently, even in places like Connecticut.

It seems elementary to me that a sovereign nation needs to control its borders, and before any form of amnesty, disguised or not, is passed, we need to do that.

• Build the fence, and tighten up the Canadian border, too.


• Build enough detention facilities for apprehension to mean deportation.


• Enforce employer sanctions (Bush isn't).


• Restrict or tax remittances.


• Train local law enforcement in immigration law, so they can enforce it, at least for arrestees.


• Cut grants to local governmetns that undermine the immigration laws.


• Improve record-keeping and enforcement to reduce visa overstays.

If such measures work, then we can talk about what to do with those already here.

When the WSJ says the ground is shifting against its pet policy, you can bet it is.

Honoring the War Dead

The great battle of Serbian history is the defeat of King Lazar by the Ottomans at Kosovo Polje (Crows’ Field) in 1389. Although a crushing defeat, the battle has become the emblem of Serbian national pride.

When I was young, we Americans boasted that we had never lost a war. Although an exaggeration when it comes to the War of 1812, and patently untrue for the South, whose defeat in the Civil War is as much a regional icon as Kosovo Polje is a national one for the Serbs.

After Vietnam, of course, no one can say we never lost a war. Nor can it be said that all our wars have been just or wise.

It’s Memorial Day, and we acknowledge our war dead, and those of earlier generations. The always-interesting Christopher Hitchens ruminates on how best and worst to remember these dead. The rhetoric of high ideals and victory is fine, to a point. War freed the nation from England’s king, freed the slaves, and destroyed Hitler. In all our wars, brave men lost life and limb for their country, their honor, and their buddies, the latter being the great motivator in the heat of battle.

War, however, is also carnage, and never lacks its atrocities and (gruesome euphemism) “collateral damage.” Many of us--our Vice President and me included--managed to avoid (not evade) service in Vietnam, and some, including me, opposed the war effort, which in retrospect appears to have been botched from the start but in the light of the subsequent horrors of Southeast Asian communism and the outflow of refugees from which we have, ironically, profited, to have been a righteous cause.

Is it then hypocrisy for us to honor the war dead? I think not, if we do so honestly and soberly. We honor the Founders, who were better men than we, even if some were slaveholders, some land speculators, and some philanderers. We honor firefighters, even if most of us have never rushed into an inferno to save a stranger. We honor the discoverers, even if we ourselves get seasick, and the great composers even if we sing flat.

So it is that even those of us who have not served in the military and those who took positions that history now condemns, can and should honor all the war dead.

And whether or not all our wars were victorious, and in spite of the vices which infected all our war efforts, we can honor the stoicism, the heroism, and the obedience with which our compatriots’ lives were cut short in war. We should do so soberly, without rhetorical excess, and with a solemn recognition that war may sometimes be unavoidable or necessary, but always, War is Hell.

For Memorial Day: All the Verses

The science fiction writer and polymath Isaac Asimov once wrote an appreciation of all four verses of "The Star Spangled Banner."

My favorite patriotic song is "America the Beautiful." I like it because it combines a heartfelt appreciation of the country with an appreciation both of its highest calling and its unfinished business. My mother often led us in singing this song in the car, even if our typical trip took us over the Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey, an interesting piece of engineering that spans a fetid conurbation. The song was written in 1913 by a Wellsley teacher, Katharine Lee Bates, upon completing a tiring trip to Pike's Peak, and seeing the view.

Here it is.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self the country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America ! America !
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life !
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

Long may it wave. And may God mend our flaws.

Against Campaign Finance "Reform"

I've always thought that "campaign finance reform" was inconsistent with free speech.

Here's a piece by Robin Blumner that goes into a bit of detail on the issue.

Nat Hentoff weighed in a while ago on the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision upholding McCain-Feingold, the latest federal campaign law. Hentoff is one of the more consistently pro-free speech media commentators, and has been for years.

His sponsorship of the "reform" bill is my No. 1 reservation about McCain's candidacy.

In my supervisorial district two millionairesses are going at it hammer and tongs. If I ran, even with lots of support, campaign finance restrictions would prevent me from competing with either, even if I had supporters with money.

The Saddest Movie I Ever Saw

Sometimes, like yesterday, we go to the video store owned by my daughter's friend's parents. We rent DVDs, and sometimes rent them just for one of us.

I chose a Japanese animated film, Grave of the Fireflies. My daughter, who wasn't with us at the video store, likes anime, and I thought we might watch it together. Turns out she and her cousin had seen it, along with the rest of Miyazaki's work. She warned me, "It's very depressing." Later, however, she told me to watch it.

Warning: SPOILER follows.

I did, and like Miyazaki's other work, it is beautifully done. Meticulous animation, careful character development, good music, and so on. But it is the saddest movie I ever saw.

Based on a true story, it takes place in the port city of Kobe, more recently famous for its earthquake, at the end of World War II, when Japanese cities are firebombed. The two protagonists, Seita, a teenaged boy and Setsuko, his toddler sister, are left orphaned and homeless, do not get on with the aunt whose home they flee to. Food becomes scarce, and they flee to a shelter in the side of a hillside, a hauntingly beautiful location, where there are, among other things, many fireflies, which fascinate Setsuko. Seita loyally struggles to find food for both. Setsuko never loses her sweetness through all horror. Seita remains determined and loyal, though headstrong and inept, even as he is prepared to steal to save his sister and himself. Unlike a Disney character, he fails.

The story is an uncompromising account of the effects of war on two blameless children, and symbolizes the completeness of Japan's defeat in the Second World War. It contains many of Miyazaki's themes, including girl heroes, aviation, the beauty of nature and threats to it--but there is no magic, and no villains, except perhaps the faceless bombers.

As an American, one feels more than a twinge at watching the film. Our war, just though it was overall, included more air raids on civilians than just Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Necessary or not--and I am not entering that debate here--the consequences for those under the bombs were ghastly.

Nor are the effects of the war on children a thing of the past. From the conscripted child soldiers of Uganda to the victims of terror and counter-terror in the Middle East, to the day-care children killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, children bear in their bodies and souls the consequences of the wickedness of adults, a fact worth remembering, whatever one's views of a particular conflict, or of the morality of war in general.

Meanwhile, the film, whose title in Japanese is Hotaru no Haka is worth watching. And profoundly sad.

UPDATE: Corrected spelling error, added a sentence about the ending (5/29/06).