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Category: General
Posted by: Tocqueville
Category: General
Posted by: Tocqueville
"There is something hollow about the blanket praise of 'change,' as if change were always inevitable and always commendable. We know better, but we are reluctant to acknowledge it. Instead, we are bombarded with political oratory, editorial-page bombast, and psychological advice, stressing that one must have the courage to change, to reinvent oneself, to adapt, to move on. Flexibility is to be regarded as the chief virtue of the truly civilized. Suppleness is next to godliness."

"Yet this rhetoric is often a mere rationalization for selling out, giving in to the spirit of the age, reneging on one’s commitments, and taking the path of least resistance, rather than standing fast and resisting in the name of those things that one should really care about, the things that are precious and good. There’s a dirty little secret such oratory is designed to mask: that all too often it’s change that’s easy, all too easy—and it’s continuity, or loyalty, or perseverance, or honor, or idealism, or any number of other firm and steady traits that we used to think of as 'noble,' that is truly difficult. When we choose to forego the fleeting in the name of the enduring, we affirm what is deepest and most admirable in our humanity. But we also swim against the current."

Read the whole thing here.
Category: General
Posted by: Tocqueville
So who has won? Not the detainees. The Court's analysis leaves them with only the prospect of further litigation to determine the content of their new habeas right, followed by further litigation to resolve their particular cases, followed by further litigation before the D. C. Circuit—where they could have started had they invoked the DTA procedure. Not Congress, whose attempt to "determine—through democratic means—how best" to balance the security of the American people with the detainees' liberty interests, has been unceremoniously brushed aside. Not the Great Writ [of Habeas Corpus], whose majesty is hardly enhanced by its extension to a jurisdictionally quirky outpost, with no tangible benefit to anyone. Not the rule of law, unless by that is meant the rule of lawyers, who will now arguably have a greater role than military and intelligence officials in shaping policy for alien enemy combatants. And certainly not the American people, who today lose a bit more control over the conduct of this Nation's foreign policy to unelected, politically unaccountable judges.

Amen.
Category: General
Posted by: Tocqueville
From The Washington Times, a chilling report on the doings in an Islamic school right here in the good ol' USA, courtesy of President Bush's "good friends" the Saudis.
Category: General
Posted by: Tocqueville
Camile Paglia sums up John McCain:

"For disaffected Republicans as well as many Democrats like me, McCain is an irascible grandstander of slippery ideology who has made a career out of flattering and courting the media. It remains debatable whether McCain's traumatic experiences as a prisoner of war have enhanced or distorted his admittedly wide-ranging knowledge of military and security matters. Crystal clear, however, is McCain's startling awkwardness as a public speaker. With stilted, stodgy intonations that seem to descend from the late-19th century era of one-room schoolhouses, McCain laboriously reading a speech is a painful spectacle. After the mumbling, disjointed George W. Bush, doesn't the U.S. deserve a more sophisticated leader on the international stage? "
Category: General
Posted by: Tocqueville
You've probably noticed that Google likes to commemorate certain historical events on its home page by turning the Google logo into an image that represents something relevant that happened on that day. For instance, events like “World Water Day,” MLK’s Birthday, Earth Day, and even the Chinese New Year get recognized every year without fail. And Christmas and Easter are always heavily secularized in their depictions.

On this, the 64th anniversary of one of the most pivotal days in the history of the modern world, the day where thousands of America’s finest young men fought and died on the beaches of Normandy to help push back the forces of fascism and tyranny, how does Google pay tribute to this event?

Naturally, by celebrating the life of
Diego Velazquez, a Spanish painter who died in 1660.
Category: General
Posted by: Tocqueville
Here's a bizarre and disturbing story from India revealing the unintended (but entirely forseeable) consequences of affirmative action.
Category: General
Posted by: Tocqueville
"I was a normal 9-year-old boy with two parents. And then, after a fateful camping trip, I had four."

UPDATE: One Man, Many Wives, Big Problems