The Bosque Boys

One of the almost mythically important figures in the history of British/American Liberty is the yeoman. The small land-owner ready to defend his family and community with bow or musket or rifle. Joining with his neighbors in militia units, these citizen soldiers have been seen as the backbone of Anglo-American freedom from tryants both foreign and domestic.

More good news from Iraq as shown by this headline "Iraq Residents Rise Up Against Al Qaida." More and more of this seems to be happening, often with direct action by the Iraqis. Three cheers. A people who will not defend their own liberty themselves will not keep it, nor deserve it.

Picture of the Minuteman statue. May the people of Iraq someday raise their own statue.

I don't have enough context to comment, but this story is interesting--protesting to declare New Zealand a Christian Nation. Link from Instapundit.

Once again, the United Nations has shown itself incapable of living up to the hopes of FDR, and earlier Woodrow Wilson. The UN has proved incapable of stopping the genocide in Darfur. So, President Bush has announced that we will begin to take actions, beginning with economic sanctions. (Link from Gateway Pundit.)

As a general rule, nations operate by the law of the jungle--self-interest determines actions. The UN is a collection of nations each serving its own self-interest. (China has announced that they will continue to support the genocidal regime; they want oil and influence.) The surprise is not that the UN has been unable to stop the genocide in Darfur, the surprise is that the UN has ever accomplished anything positive.

The exception to the self-interest rule are democracies. If the voters possess some sense of idealism, then those nations may act in ways outside (rarely in contradiction to) their own self-interest. We have no real national interest in Darfur; our economic interest is served best by stable oil prices; our national self-interest probably would lead us to support the oil-producing government of the Sudan. The actions President Bush has announced are idealistic, not pure self-interest.

The time has come for us to move forward away from the United Nations, and toward a consortium of democracies. Most of the UN member states represent governments not accountable to their own people. Read the Declaration of Independence again, and the preamble to the Constitution.

By the way, the ongoing genocide in Darfur also demonstrates the humanitarian impulses of Arab governments (alert for the sarcasm impaired), and the inability of Europe to act in concert beyond its boundaries. (Though if The Sudan were a former French colony, action probably would have been taken unilaterally by France before now.)

Like roaches, Islamic terrorists pushed out of one place will pop up in another. This story on Bangladesh as the new exporter of terrorism.

More poison exported from China. This time its toothpaste. An alert from a listserve. Original source NYT.

DIETHYLENE GLYCOL CONTAMINATION, TOOTHPASTE- MULTICOUNTRY EX CHINA
**************
A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases


Date: Tue 22 May 2007
Source: The New York Times [edited]


[As more contaminated toothpaste, including some made for children,
has turned up in Latin America, Chinese authorities are investigating
whether 2 companies from the coastal region of Danyang exported the
tainted toothpaste.]

A team of government investigators arrived [in Danyang] on Sunday
afternoon [20 May 2007], and closed the factory of the Danyang City
Success Household Chemical Company, a small building housing about 30
workers in a nearby village, according to villagers and one factory
worker. The government also questioned the manager of another
toothpaste maker, Goldcredit International Trading, which is in Wuxi,
about an hour's drive southeast of Danyang.

No tainted toothpaste has been found in the United States, but a
spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday
[21 May 2007], that the agency would be taking "a hard look" at
whether to issue an import alert.

Authorities in the Dominican Republic said they seized 36 000 tubes of
toothpaste suspected of containing diethylene glycol, an industrial
solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze. Included were tubes
of toothpaste with bubble gum and strawberry flavors marketed for
children and sold under the name of "Mr. Cool Junior."

Toothpaste containing the toxic solvent was also found in Panama and
Australia in the last week.

(rest below)

» Read More

This weekend I spent some time with old family friends. One man was stationed in Germany in the early 60s with the Army. He reported that along a straight stretch of fence between the Germany's, the troops from both sides drag-raced each other.

When no officers were present, troops of the opposing armies would drag race using jeeps versus Soviet block vehicles, and sometimes even tank against tank. On opposite sides of the fence the young men would line up vehicles, wait for the sign, then roar along the divide.

I am thankful these men were not forced to fight and kill each other.

This story from the BBC.

After the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, and set about creating the Soviet Union, they had to consider the problem of the Russian Orthodox Church. After initial attempts to crush Christianity failed, they adopted the strategy of exerting control over the Church (the Bolsheviks were, after all, totalitarians) and hoping that through continued indocrination in the schools Christianity eventually would wither away.

Some Russian Orthodox, fearing State influence over the Orthodox Church, formed a Russian Orthodox Church in exile. Today good news. The two churches are reuniting. Another Cold-War era wall comes down.

It gets better.

At the ceremony on Thursday the Patriarch of Moscow, Alexy II, joined the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan Lavry, in celebrating Mass at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. It was blown up by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, and rebuilt after the collapse of communism.

Tempering the celebrations are memories of suffering under communism.

On Saturday, the two will jointly consecrate a new church on a site in southern Moscow, where the Soviet secret police shot thousands of Orthodox priests.

As always, the Christian church has survived its oppressors. Thanks be to God.

A must read article from the New York Sun by Efraim Karsh. The Long War.

Link from JihadWatch.

The British government has given the go-ahead for human-animal embryos. Story here.

Paging H.G. Wells. We need you to write an update of The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Almost every day we kill Islamic terrorists and their supporters in Afghanistan and Iraq; daily, weekly, or monthly in Chechnya, Thailand, the Philippines, India, north Africa, the Middle East, more are killed. But, body counts should offer us small comfort; we cannot win a war of attrition as presently conducted. New jihadists arise daily.

On a regular basis jihadis are arrested in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere. But, imprisoning Islamic terrorists or their supporters should offer us small comfort; we cannot imprison all those active in terrorist causes. And, new jihadists arise daily.

We have made some progress against the infrastructure of the Islamofascists: Afghanistan and Iraq and Somalia are denied them, finance networks have been disrupted, and communication has been made difficult. On the negative side, Western money for oil continues to provide immense funding. But, even if the money were to be cut off, jihadists would continue to arise. (more below)

» Read More

A must read by Christopher Hitchins. God save Britain.

Japan has taken its first step toward revising its U.S. imposed Constitution. The current Prime Minister wants to change the "pacifist" provision so as to enable Japan to have a fully capable military. Story here. (ignore the request to install Chinese character pack, the story is in English from the China Post of Taiwan)

This is a realistic step. Their neighborhood is growing increasingly dangerous with a belligerent Korea and an expanding China. They also must be asking themselves if the U.S. would go to war to protect them. And, given the Japanese dependence on imports, a blue-water navy makes sense for them.

From the China Post (in English, just hit cancel if it asks you to install a Chinese pack):

Christians in northwest Pakistan are fleeing after threats to convert to Islam or else. This ultimatum follows bombings of music stores for selling CDs (strict Islam is against any music), threats to barbers if they shave beards, and pressure to close girls' schools.

Progress certainly is not inevitable.

Iran and Syria. It should have been obvious to someone in the decision-making circles that Syria and Iran would not remain neutral in our effort to build a free society in Iraq--they have too much to lose. While I think the Vietnam analogy is false in many ways, in one way it has a bearing. We are allowing the enemies of a free Iraq to oppose us without penalty. See this video that is linked by Powerline.

What will we do?

Story from the Washington Post here. While the Post does acknowledge the special pressures facing women in Islam, they do make a mistake in trying to separate Islam and culture on this issue. In the Quran women are regarded as male property, and wife beating is advocated. And, in Islam interpretation is considered to be now closed: in other words, new intepretations of the Quran are disallowed.

While the Post states that spouse-abuse is found in other cultures, which is true, nowhere in the Bible is wife-beating advocated. And, while the Bible is patriarchal, women are not lowered to the level of property.

From Australia this news article. Lead paragraph

The senior cleric of the biggest mosque in Canberra has been ordered not to attack fellow worshippers after an outbreak of violence split the city's small Islamic community.

In April several house church leaders were arrested while meeting with American Christians. The Americans also were detained. Story here.

We took note of the dog food with a lethel ingredient from China. Be sure to read Photognome's comment.

Now the NYT is exposing poison in medicines from China. Link from Instapundit.

The intent is not to poison, but to make money. Chinese society as a whole after Mao has no bedrock morality from Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, or Christianity. Anything for a buck. Oh the joys of Free Trade. The Progressive reformers and the union activists made progress in bringing justice and safety to America and we are pissing it away, drunk on cheap imports.