THE BEAT OF VICTORY IN IRAQ
The last days on earth of Abu Osama al Tunisi apparently were filled with anxiety: "We are desperate for your help," he said in a letter to al Qaeda chieftains. A copy of the letter was found by U.S. troops sifting through the rubble of the building in Musayb, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, where on Sept. 25 Mr. al Tunisi had been meeting with two local al Qaeda operatives when an F-16 cut their discussion short. Mr. al Tunisi was responsible for bringing foreign al Qaeda recruits into Iraq and placing them in operational cells, U.S. military spokesmen said. That effort suffered a major blow when "Muthanna," the al Qaeda emir for the Iraq-Syrian border region, was killed in early September. Al Tunisi and Muthanna were among 28 local, city or regional al Qaeda leaders killed or captured in September. Two other very big shots nailed last month were Muhammad al Afari, who was responsible for the bloody attack on the Kurdish Yazidi sect in August, and Abu Taghrid, who ran a car bomb network. Al Tunisi wasn't alone in calling for help. "Al Qaeda has lost half its leadership over the summer, and American intelligence collectors have amassed a huge number of desperate messages from al Qaeda leaders and operatives," reports StrategyPage. The beat of victory goes on.
WIMPING OUT ON BURMA, AFRAID OF CHINA
As the junta's misbehavior worsened in Burma (albeit the ruling thugs have rechristened it Myanmar) last week, pundits suggested that we should force China to pressure its client to treat the pro-democracy demonstrators politely - by threatening to boycott next year's Beijing Olympics. Sorry, but Burma's far more important to China's vision for the coming decades than the Pollution-and-Oppression Games. The bullies in Beijing see the Olympics as a coming-out party - but Burma is a strategic lifeline. So, sure, if the Burma situation worsens as China stonewalls, we can and should punish Beijing by boycotting the 2008 Games. But we have to have realistic expectations regarding the results. On the flip side, some Westerners argue that China isn't really the decisive player in Burma - that Western corporations flying under the radar screen do more to prop up the junta than Beijing does. Absolute bull. This doesn't mean that greedy multinationals don't lurk out in those jungles - but to ascribe more power to them than to Beijing is like blaming purse-snatchers for the junk-mortgage crisis. Here's the real situation:
MY SISTER AND THE FURRY BAROO
OK, this is a shameless plug. It has nothing whatever to do with geopolitics, history, science, or whatever else we at TTP normally focus on. My kid sister Judy has written a book - and it would just be wrong if I didn't tell you about it. Judy teaches natural history at the Heard Museum near Dallas. What that means is that her calling is teaching children to love nature and the critters you find in it. Now she's written a book to impart that love for children everywhere. Entitled Jessica The Furry Baroo, it's about a dog, Jessica, and her encounters in the woods with various wild things like skunks and snakes. It's an entertaining and fun way for a young child to understand and appreciate them. The book is beautifully illustrated, has a story kids will really like, so if you know a young person under 12 you might consider it for them. It's also a fun book to read aloud to a child too young to read themselves. So - congratulations to Judy, my sister the author!
HILLARY AND THE BEATLES
In 1966, The Beatles wrote Hillary Clinton's theme song. The quote that most perfectly encapsulates her philosophy of government was delivered on June 28, 2004 at a San Francisco fundraiser for fellow senator Barbara Boxer in which she announced to her wealthy listeners and all Americans in general: We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good. The underlying philosophy of the Democrat Party as personified by the PIAPS is fascist thuggery posing as humanitarian compassion. Witness her project of giving $5000 to every child born in the US (legal or illegal). "Giving" is not the right term of course - it would only be if it were her money. What she is in fact proposing is to steal at the point of a gun money from people who have earned it and hand it over to those who have not. That's called theft, not "giving" or "being compassionate." Thus Hillary's Theme Song, the first track on the 1966 Revolver album. The Beatles had Hillary and her fascist ilk in mind when they wrote it. It's called The Taxman:
THERE WERE NO INDIANS WHEN COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA
Next Friday, October 12, is the 515th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' landing on Guanahani (now known as San Salvador or Watlings) island in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492. Unfortunately, Columbus Day is for most Americans just an excuse for a three-day weekend, which is why it falls this coming Monday, October 8. What it should be is a commemoration and celebration of Western Civilization - which is why the Left hates Columbus and his holiday. So there will be the usual spectacle of American Indians using the holiday to denounce the White Man and his genocidal war-mongering culture-destroying earth-murdering imperialism, blah blah blah - with White Liberals joining in, masochistically condemning their own civilization. If it's your misfortune to run into any of these folk bemoaning the nightmare and tragedy of our coming here, you might suggest to them that they abandon every vestige of the civilization they hate as so evil. Not just every material benefit - electricity, the wheel, and all post-Stone Age inventions. Every psychological vestige as well - starting with the very concept of American Indian or Native American or any other collective term for North American aboriginals. The concept of American Indian is a modern one, not possessed by any Amerindians until they learned it from Europeans. An Indian's pre-Columbian identity was that of his or her membership in a particular tribe such as the Kiowa or Lakota. This is why there were no Indians in America when Columbus discovered it.
LOSING OUR SOVEREIGNTY WITH LOST
If Americans have learned anything about the United Nations over the last 50 years, it is that this "world body" is, at best, riddled with corruption and incompetence. At worst, its bureaucracy, agencies and members are overwhelmingly hostile to the United States and other freedom-loving nations, most especially Israel. So why on earth would the United States Senate possibly consider putting the U.N. on steroids by assenting to its control of 70% of the world's surface? Such a step would seem especially improbable given such well-documented fiascoes as: the U.N.-administered Iraq Oil-for-Food program; investigations and cover-ups of corrupt practices at the organization's highest levels; child sex-slave operations and rape squads run by U.N. peacekeepers; and the absurd, yet relentless, assault on alleged Israeli abuses of human rights by majorities led by despotic regimes in Iran, Cuba, Syria and Libya. Nonetheless, the predictable effect of U.S. accession to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea - better known as the Law of the Sea Treaty (or LOST) - would be to transform the U.N. from a nuisance and laughingstock into a world government:
ARE SENATE DEMOCRATS HIGH ON ANTI-SMART DRUGS?
"Maybe he was just high on his drugs again," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. "But that shouldn't be an excuse." That sounds suspiciously like the sort of personal attack Democrats claim to decry. And Sen. Harkin was just one of an impressive number of big foot Democrats to take to the Senate floor last Monday (10/01) to calumniate conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. It's odd enough to have the Senate Majority Leader, his deputy, and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, among others, take up the Senate's time to attack a radio talk show host, instead of, say, working on the appropriations bills that were supposed to have been enacted into law before the new fiscal year began Oct. 1st. But there was something odder still about Monday's performance.
MOQTADA AL-WAXMAN VS. THE HOLLYWOOD HEARTTHROB
If the folks in Hollywood didn't allow their rabid hate-America passions to overcome the functioning of their business brains when they watched the Blackwater hearings in Congress yesterday (10/02)*, they must have been transfixed by Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and seen nothing but dollar signs. It was a scene straight out of a movie. The witness was straight out of central casting - Hollywood handsome, all-American clean-cut wholesome, a rawhide-tough former Navy SEAL who can easily think faster and smarter than anyone in the room. Up against him was a collection of Democrat contributors to Congress' record low 11% approval rating, determined to demonstrate how they earned such public disgust, and led by that quintessence of corruption, Henry Waxman (D-CA), whose eyes bulging out of his sockets and huge buck teeth bulging out of his mouth below his hairy lips make him look like a creepy rat. Hollywood casting again. If you watch Erik's face closely (the hearing was broadcast on C-SPAN3*), you can see how hard he is trying not to grimace in revulsion or laugh out loud at the charade. You just know what he really wanted to say: "Congressman Waxman, I would like to ask you a question: Why are you in league with the chief Shiite terrorist in Iraq, Moqtada al-Sadr? He controls the Ministry of the Interior (MOI), and it was MOI police who attacked us on September 16. All of the "witnesses" claiming we opened fire and killed 11 Iraqi civilians are Iraqi police with the MOI. Are you just using their lies to smear us or are you in active cooperation with al-Sadr to hurt the war effort in Iraq? If so, perhaps you would be more appropriately addressed as Congressman Moqtada al-Waxman."
THERE MAY NOT ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND
Ever heard of the West Lothian Question? West Lothian is the Scottish region immediately to the west of Edinburgh. The question is so called because it was first posed by Tam Dalyell, a Labor member of the British Parliament for West Lothian. Mr. Dalyell wondered how long the English would tolerate the situation in which Scottish members of the British Parliament, such as himself, have a (sometimes decisive) say about issues affecting only England, while English parliamentarians have no say about the same matters in Scotland. Several proposals have been made to solve this anomaly. One of them is to abolish the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Another is to give England its own parliament, which would imply that the United Kingdom become a federation of four states - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The solution proposed by the Labor government in Westminster, currently led by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (a Scot) and previously by Mr. Blair (also a Scot), is to dissolve England by splitting it up into nine regions, each with its own parliamentary assembly.
AHMADINUTJOB AND THE NUTTY PROFESSORS
The Iranian president's welcome to Columbia - following a self-serving whine by the university's president - reflected brainless activism, not academic freedom. It was the professoriate imitating Hollywood's embrace of terrorists. We hear a great deal about the dumbing down of students, but the real problem has been the dumbing down of their professors. Yes, there's been a media fuss over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's propaganda opportunity. But that just makes the faculty-lounge "heroes" feel even more self-righteous. Anyway, post-modern professors seek publicity, not knowledge. And we give it to the weasels. Meanwhile, Columbia denies our military's ROTC programs the chance to recruit and teach on campus - ostensibly because of the Congress-approved "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Of course, it's just a cultural issue when Ahmadinejad executes homosexuals (although, according to him, there aren't any in Iran). The ban on ROTC isn't really about gay rights, though. The professors and student-activists behind it believe they're punishing the wicked, wicked Pentagon. Well, let me break the truth to Professor Bunkum: The military doesn't need Ivy League recruits. We're doing just fine without them, thanks.