Martyrs or Fools?

Rich Lowry on the Plame Affair's MSM "victims".

Some Things You Might Not Know About Black History

At least not if you were educated in the American public school system or relied solely on MSM for your history.

Deroy Murdock has the goods:

January 26, 1922: The U.S. House adopted Rep. Leonidas Dyer's (R., Mo.) bill making lynching a federal crime. Filibustering Senate Democrats killed the measure.

May 17, 1954: As chief justice, former three-term governor Earl Warren (R., Calif.) led the U.S. Supreme Court's desegregation of government schools via the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. GOP President Dwight Eisenhower's Justice Department argued for Topeka, Kansas's black school children. Democrat John W. Davis, who lost a presidential bid to incumbent Republican Calvin Coolidge in 1924, defended "separate but equal" classrooms.

September 24, 1957: Eisenhower deployed the 82nd Airborne Division to desegregate Little Rock's government schools over the strenuous resistance of Governor Orval Faubus (D., Ark.).

May 6, 1960: Eisenhower signs the GOP's 1960 Civil Rights Act after it survived a five-day, five-hour filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats.

July 2, 1964: Democratic President Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act after former Klansman Robert Byrd's 14-hour filibuster and the votes of 22 other Senate Democrats (including Tennessee's Al Gore, Sr.) failed to scuttle the measure. Illinois Republican Everett Dirksen rallied 26 GOP senators and 44 Democrats to invoke cloture and allow the bill's passage. According to John Fonte in the January 9, 2003, National Review, 82 percent of Republicans so voted, versus only 66 percent of Democrats.

True, Senator Barry Goldwater (R., Ariz.) opposed this bill the very year he became the GOP's presidential standard-bearer. However, Goldwater supported the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts and called for integrating Arizona's National Guard two years before Truman desegregated the military. Goldwater feared the 1964 Act would limit freedom of association in the private sector, a controversial but principled libertarian objection rooted in the First Amendment rather than racial hatred.

And yes, that was the same Robert Byrd the MSM insists on calling "the conscience of the Senate."

It's a pretty sad thing that the Democratic Party successfully engaged in electoral sharecropping from the Johnson Administration on, and that people who very well knew better in the press maintained the fiction that the Left in this country was interested in doing anything more than exploit the legitimate racial grievances of an oppressed minority for the ongoing electoral power of their oppressors.

Abraham Lincoln and the men of the party he championed may not have a spotless record, but at least it's not the dark, evil litany Robert Byrd and his fellow Democrats boast of when the cameras aren't rolling.

Mothering: Blessing or Bother?

John Podhoretz has an article that's sure to get the better of the navel-gazing "me first-ers". Hint: parenting is selfless, tiring work.

Hat Tip: Between Two Worlds

60th Anniversary of Iwo Jima

Today is a landmark day---six decades since the Battle of Iwo Jima.



As an avid student of military history, I am often awed by the magnitude of what soldiers faced and accomplished. I frankly wonder if, faced with the same daunting challenges, I would have been able to accomplish what these men did.

I don't wonder when it comes to Iwo Jima---there's no way I would have had the steel in my blood that the Marines had throughout that bloody battle.

Might I Suggest Settling Matters in Thunderdome?

Nothing better than watching two liberals hate on each other, for once.

I particularly enjoyed this bit, from the woman who gets her talking points from the Democratic leadership and who claims the Republicans are big meanies:

My suggestion that your publishing it would be better (for you too) than my having to go outside somehow constitutes me blackmailing you is so outlandish that it underscores the question I've been asked repeatedly in recent days, and that does worry me, and should worry you: people are beginning to think that your illness may have affected your brain, your judgment, and your ability to do this job. The fact that you were not in Los Angeles all week hardly helps matters, nor does the fact that you don't return phone calls. You are making things worse for yourself.

I don't know what horrifies me more: that she accuses a man suffering from Parkinson's Disease with being mentally unstable (Parkinson's doesn't do anything of the sort), or that someone who is supposed to be a writer can't seem to write a simple, clear sentence. Subject. Verb. Object. Repeat.

(HT: The Corner).

BlogRoll: The Volokh Conspiracy

All right, I admit it: I goofed.

Eugene Volokh's one of my regular reads and I just plain forgot to include him in the BlogRoll to this point.

If you don't know why The Volokh Conspiracy's a must-read for bloggers, you simply haven't read it.

And with a heave, and a ho,
To the BlogRoll it will go!

There Ain't No Free Lunch: Union Blues

Why have unions declined?

The American Spectator has a simple answer:

What's that gag from one of Shakespeare's sonnets? The poet nods and says, "'Tis, true, 'tis true," about some wheeze or other, and then disagrees? I read John Carlisle's "Shrinking Union Labels" on our site last week and agreed with every bit of it. Yes, unions are out of touch with their workers' politics, and yes, they're corrupt, and yes, the union bosses don't really care what the workers want anymore, and all the rest.

But something far more dramatic than that caused private sector union membership to shrink from a third of the U.S. work force in the 1950s to about 12 percent today. The high-tech revolution caught unions flat-footed. They just plain got out-accelerated. I saw it happen. I worked through the whole thing.

Why did companies choose to invest in expensive equipment and training to reduce the amount of labor in their production processes? Because unions made the labor too expensive relative to the price of automation.

There ain't no free lunch, unless you're a union leader getting fat on dues pilfered from the rank-and-file.

BlogRoll: Beltway Buzz

I love NRO, the online community of National Review magazine. If Bill Buckley's aim was to stand athwart history and bid it "Stop!", NRO's taken a very futuristic path of accomplishing that goal.

In addition to The Corner and Jim Geraghty's TKS, I will now be reading Eric Pfeiffer's Beltway Buzz blog regularly.

Here's a sample which demonstrates why:

Reid Between The Lines
02/18 10:55 AM
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid paid a visit to Jim Lehrer and the “News Hour” on PBS last night. During their chat, Reid dropped a few interesting comments, including acknowledging that Social Security has been a “good program for Democrats.” Here’s the full quote:

Lehrer: “So you think the president is really motivated by a desire to get rid of Social Security?” Reid: “Well, I'm a great fan of public broadcasting. I listen to public radio every morning and try to watch you as much as I can. Last week on public radio, you had a couple of Republican operatives, one of which was Grover Norquist, talking about their effort to get rid of Social Security. It's been a successful program for the Democratic Party, and they're committed to getting rid of it.”

Now, this next comment is less revealing than it is desperate. There has been a fair share of grumbling about the president’s failure to place a specific Social Security plan on the table. But it’s not getting in the way of Reid’s strategy. Lehrer: “So you're going to do everything you can to keep the president's plan from being enacted into law?” Reid: “Oh, we certainly will.”

More Lehrer: “So you're going to define your job or define success in your job is in stopping the president from doing things rather than enacting things that you think should be enacted? Reid: “Of course, that's one of the things that I think is successful.”

So, when he’s not putting us to sleep, Reid’s asleep at the wheel of opposition party politics. Not that we’re craving success for Reid, but can’t he shoot higher than being a watered down Daschle?

And with a heave, and a ho, to the BlogRoll it will go!

26th Annual W.C. Handy Award Nominees Named

The Blues Foundation just released the list (my picks in italics):

2005 - 26th W.C. Handy Blues Awards

Acoustic Blues Album of the Year
Paul Oscher - "Alone With The Blues"
Billy Branch & Kenny Neal - "Double Take"
Corey Harris - "Mississippi To Mali"
Paul Rishell & Annie Raines - "Goin' Home"
Carey & Lurrie Bell - "Second Nature"


Acoustic Blues-Artist of the Year
Paul Oscher
Corey Harris
David "Honeyboy" Edwards
Paul Rishell & Annie Raines
Eric Bibb


Best New Artist Debut
Watermelon Slim - "Up Close & Personal"
John Lee Hooker, Jr. - "Blues With A Vengence"
Nora Jean Bruso - "Going Back To Mississippi"
Michael Powers - "Onyx Root"
The Bo-Keys - "The Royal Sessions"


Blues Album of the Year
W.C. Clark - "Deep In The Heart"
Mavis Staples - "Have A Little Faith"
The Holmes Brothers - "Simple Truths"
Guitar Shorty - "Watch Your Back"
Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers - "Keepin' It Real"


Blues Band of the Year
Little Charlie & The Nightcats
Smokin' Joe Kubek Band
Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers
Magic Slim & The Teardrops
Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets
The Holmes Brothers


Blues Entertainer of the Year
Bobby Rush
Kim Wilson
B.B. King
Pinetop Perkins
Solomon Burke


Blues Song of the Year
"Alone With The Blues" - WRITER Paul Oscher , Performed by Paul Oscher
"Have A Little Faith"- WRITER Jim Tullio and Jim Weider, Performed by Mavis Staples
"Run Myself Out Of Town"- WRITER Wendell Holmes, Performed by The Holmes Brothers
"Piecework Politicians" - WRITER James Harman, Performed by James Harman
"Nothin' Ever Hurt Me"- WRITER EG Kight, Performed by EG Kight


Comeback Blues Album of the Year
Big Joe Duskin - "Big Joe Jumps Again!"
Gary U.S. Bonds - "Back In 20"


Contemporary Blues Album of the Year
Charlie Musselwhite - "Sanctuary"
The Holmes Brothers - "Simple Truths"
Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters - "Now My Soul"
Guitar Shorty - "Watch Your Back"
Michael Powers - "Onyx Root"


Contemporary Blues-Female Artist of the Year
Janiva Magness
Marcia Ball
Shemekia Copeland
EG Kight
Deborah Coleman


Contemporary Blues-Male Artist of the Year
Kim Wilson
Chris Thomas King
Charlie Musselwhite
James Harman
Robert Randolph


Historical Blues Album of the Year
Hound Dog Taylor - "Release The Hound" (Alligator Records)
Charles Brown - "A Life In The Blues" (Rounder Records)
Muddy Waters - "Hard Again" (Epic/Legacy)
Johnny Winter - "Second Winter" (Columbia/Legacy)
Lucille Bogan - "Shave 'em Dry" (Columbia/Legacy)
Muddy Waters - "I'm Ready" (Epic/Legacy)


Instrumentalist-Bass
Bob Stroger
Willie Kent
Bill Stuve
Calvin "Fuzz" Jones
Mookie Brill
Sherman Holmes


Instrumentalist-Drums
Jimi Bott
Popsy Dixon
Sam Carr
Sam Lay
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith


Instrumentalist-Guitar
Ronnie Earl
Duke Robillard
Kirk Fletcher
Bob Margolin
Roy Rogers


Instrumentalist-Harmonica
Kim Wilson
Charlie Musselwhite
Rod Piazza
James Harman
Paul Oscher


Instrumentalist-Horns
Calvin Owens - Trumpet
Mark Kazanoff - Saxophone
Roomful of Blues Horns
Greg Piccolo - Saxophone
Sax Gordon - Saxophone


Instrumentalist-Keyboards
Henry Butler
Honey Piazza
Dave Maxwell
Marcia Ball
Jon Cleary


Instrumentalist-Other
Robert Randolph - Pedal Steel Guitar
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Fiddle
Sonny Rhodes - Lap Steel Guitar
Otis Taylor - Banjo
Andra Faye - Mandolin


Soul/Blues Album of the Year
Mavis Staples - "Have A Little Faith"
Bobby Rush - "Folk Funk"
W.C. Clark - "Deep In The Heart"
Tad Robinson - "Did You Ever Wonder?"
Charles Wilson - "If Heartaches Were Nickels"


Soul/Blues-Female Artist of the Year
Mavis Staples
Bettye LaVette
Etta James
Toni Lynn Washington
Barbara Lynn


Soul/Blues-Male Artist of the Year
Bobby Rush
Tad Robinson
Little Milton
Solomon Burke
W.C. Clark


Traditional Blues Album of the Year
James Cotton - "Baby Don't You Tear My Clothes"
Jody Williams - "You Left Me In The Dark"
Duke Robillard - "Blue Mood: The Songs Of T-Bone Walker"
Pinetop Perkins - "Ladies Man"
Sam Myers - "Coming From The Old School"


Traditional Blues-Female Artist of the Year
Jessie Mae Hemphill
Nora Jean Bruso
Ruth Brown
Koko Taylor
Maria Muldaur


Traditional Blues-Male Artist of the Year
Robert Lockwood Jr.
Jody Williams
Sam Myers
Hubert Sumlin
Pinetop Perkins

What's This? Dirty Tricks at the DNC?

Say it isn't so, Joe:

Former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe left a few surprises for incoming DNC chair Howie Dean. Perhaps the biggest was McAuliffe's decision to give to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) full access to the DNC's donor database known as "Demzilla."

McAuliffe didn't consult with Dean or any of Dean's advisers in giving the two congressional campaign committees access to the list. For years, the RNC has given its party's House and Senate campaign committees access to its version of the data base, but that's partly because both committees help finance the list and its upkeep. Neither Democratic committee will be paying the DNC a dime for what many on Capitol Hill consider a huge windfall to the DCCC and the DSCC.

Dean was not happy when he learned of McAuliffe's decision. "He was pissed," says a former Dean campaign staffer, now at the DNC. "Demzilla is one of the few tools the DNC had that it can leverage for fundraising. The money we raise would then be used to help support Democratic candidates and the party operations. Now everyone has the same list, the same data. The DNC has no chit to play."

According to a senior adviser to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, McAuliffe was approached about opening up Demzilla during a Democratic retreat after the November elections. New campaign committee chairmen Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Chuck Schumer, along with Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader, lobbied McAuliffe for full access. "Each of them made the point that given Dean's background and the doubts Reid and Pelosi had about him, it would be most helpful to give them the same tools the DNC would have. This was a pure power play by Pelosi and Reid, nothing more, and a slap at Dean."

Dean had better watch his back. Not every Democrat is pleased with his ascension.

Reliable Sources: Jeff Gertz

There's a war on, you know, and information on global foreign policy and military doings is at a premium. Fortunately, Bill Gertz of The Washington Times is available.

Gertz is easily one of the best-connected and most knowledgeable resource for all things military.

Case in point, where else have you seen this?:

Moscow-Caracas axis

The Washington Times reported last week that the Bush administration secretly had protested to Russia its plan to sell Venezuela more than 100,000 AK-47 automatic rifles.

The story included an anonymous State Department official saying the fear is the weapons will be used to arm militias in Venezuela and left-wing rebels in South America.

The story had repercussions. The day it ran, the State Department put on the record to reporters its objections to the sale. Both Moscow and Caracas lashed out at the State Department. And then, the designer of the ubiquitous assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov, spoke out. Interfax caught up with him this week in Abu Dhabi.

"We have been blamed and will be blamed for many things," Mr. Kalashnikov said. "We need to treat these accusations critically, as they are, as a rule, prompted by the Americans' desire to bar us from entering new markets."

He added, "I believe we need to continue to promote our Russian weapons on foreign markets, because they must safeguard peace and friendship between nations."

Gertz is the snopes.com of the Defense Department, and for that, he's one of MoltenThought's Reliable Sources.

Horeshoes, Hand Grenades, and Small Nuclear Weapons

Close enough for government work, I guess:

Britain's biggest nuclear site can't account for 30 kilograms of plutonium – enough to make seven or eight nuclear bombs.

But officials with the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority said Thursday that it's a measurement problem and the plutonium is not really missing.

Of course, the only way you could know for sure is to measure it in some more robust fashion, but why bother? Not like there's a bunch of Muslim fanatics trying to get their hands on nuclear material or anything.

I Would Have Expected This of the Lynchblogs

I am shocked---shocked!---that the MSM practice of "editing" didn't prevent this:

The Boston Herald was ordered Friday to pay $2.1 million for libeling a Superior Court judge in articles that portrayed him as lenient toward defendants and quoted him making insensitive comments about a 14-year-old rape victim.

In a case closely watched by the media and legal communities, a jury deliberated for more than 20 hours over five days before finding that the newspaper and reporter David Wedge were guilty of libeling Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy.

Murphy claimed Wedge misquoted him as telling lawyers involved in the case about the teenage rape victim: "Tell her to get over it."

Must have been competitive pressures. Yeah, that's it.

I'm Sick of Being Hassled by the Julii

You hear me, Rome? Your centuries of enslaving the Portuguese will not stand!

Judges: Better than the OC

I'm on a self-guided program to read the Bible in one year. I've done this before, but find that the text is more valuable the better one knows it. Right now (having been through the tedium of the Law) I am entering the time of the Judges in Old Testament Israel. In so doing, I've rediscovered some storylines which rival prime time.

If you know the Bible through the end of Joshua, you know that the Law has been handed down through Moses, he's died, Joshua is leading the people, they've finally stepped into the Promised Land, taken down Jericho (and just about anyone else who gets in their way), and have split the land up according to tribe. They're fat and happy and the last leader to witness the miracles of the Lord, Joshua, has just asked Israel to take an strict oath to follow God. They've agreed and even set up a stone in remembrance of their oath. Everything is going well until the second generation grows up. Apparently, their parents were too busy being serious about their God that they forgot to teach their children about Him. The result? A second generation who didn't know or follow God and instead got friendly with the surrounding nations and their gods instead:

Judges 3:1-11 --
1 These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): 3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. 4 They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD 's commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses.
5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6 They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
Othniel
7 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD ; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. 8 The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. 9 But when they cried out to the LORD , he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, who saved them. 10 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so that he became Israel's judge and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him.

11 So the land had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.

Notice the incredible patience and grace of God. Make no mistake, Israel wasn't merely going astray, becoming lukewarm or apathetic, they were literally worshipping other gods. But still, when they cried out for help, God rescued them.

Judges 3:12-14 --
Ehud
12 Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD , and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. 13 Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. 14 The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.

Again, making their own choices not to follow the Lord and His decrees (which are sound and good and beneficial) they subjected themselves to the natural consequences of their choices. And God took His hands off, letting them reap the consequences of their evil. "Oh, you don't want to follow me? You think I'm too hard on you? Fine! Here -- live under this dictator. Is that better?"

Judges 3:15-25 --
15 Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD , and he gave them a deliverer-Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.

16 Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. 17 He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. 18 After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it. 19 At the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king."

The king said, "Quiet!" And all his attendants left him.
20 Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, "I have a message from God for you." As the king rose from his seat, 21 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly. 22 Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. 23 Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

24 After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, "He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the house." 25 They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their Lord fallen to the floor, dead.

This reminds me of the scene in The Godfather II where young Vito Corleone finally vindicates the honor of his family by taking down the man who killed his father, mother and brothers. Who says the Bible is boring?

Judges 3:26-31 --
26 While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. 27 When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them.
28 "Follow me," he ordered, "for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands." So they followed him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab, they allowed no one to cross over. 29 At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped. 30 That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.
Shamgar
31 After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.

So, recap: we've had a major coup, peace in the land for over eighty years and (apparently) a rekindling of Israel's love of their Lord. And then, as if they hadn't already learned their lesson:

Judges 4:1-3 --
1 After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD . 2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.

Okay, the Israelites are subject to... let's see... Jabin the king and his evil general Sisera...

*Sigh*

I don't know how the Lord felt about this one. Just as I can't imagine how He feels every time I ask forgiveness for the sins I commit. But I know in human terms, I would be pretty sick of helping these people out yet again for the SAME STINKING THING. Again, we are poised for God to deliver the people, we assume it's going to be a warrior or general. But wait! What's this?

Judges 4:4-7 --
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "The LORD , the God of Israel, commands you: 'Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.' "

I'm sorry, what? I thought only men were allowed to have any power in the Bible. Well, maybe in the New Testament where Jesus proclaimed us all equal and women were allowed to teach and heal, but in the Old Testament?! I wonder where the feminists stand on this one... Hmm... And notice the job description of a Judge of Israel: she was a settler of disputes and a prophetess, which gave her sway as a sort of informal commander. Oh, and by the way, she was a WIFE as well, though her husband is mentioned only in name. Wonder what he thought about her position?

Judges 4:8-11 --
8 Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go."
9 "Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman." So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh, 10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.

This guy has so much regard for her power that he's scared to go to battle without her! But notice her reaction. She doesn't get up on a high horse and expound on the equal rights of women in combat. She rebukes him for his fear. His regard should be for God's power, not hers.
God has, in essence, offered him the chance to lead Israel in battle and become a leader in his own right. This is proper and fitting if we remember our Mosaic Law. Women and men are dependent upon each other, but they were both made for specific roles. Neither role negates the power or the importance of the other. We cannot exist without one other. Deborah warns Barak that his request upsets this balance and brings the men of Israel under the leadership of a woman. It makes the men (who are built and called to protect and fight) look like mamma's boys cowering beneath the kitchen table.

Judges 4:11-24 --
11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, "Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?" So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men. 15 At Barak's advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. 16 But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.
17 Sisera, however, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, "Come, my Lord , come right in. Don't be afraid." So he entered her tent, and she put a covering over him.
19 "I'm thirsty," he said. "Please give me some water." She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
20 "Stand in the doorway of the tent," he told her. "If someone comes by and asks you, 'Is anyone here?' say 'No.' "
21 But Jael, Heber's wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.
22 Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. "Come," she said, "I will show you the man you're looking for." So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple-dead.
23 On that day God subdued Jabin, the Canaanite king, before the Israelites. 24 And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, the Canaanite king, until they destroyed him.

Again, a man let his guard down and cowered in fear behind a woman. This time, a woman with strong and deadly intention. Again I ask: the Bible? Boring?

In Judges 5, we hear The Song of Deborah, a tradition of nearly every ancient oraliterate culture. If you've read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, you know this form. But what is noticeable, is how many tribes of Israel came to fight and how many didn't. Deborah alludes to the already weakening state of the nation of Israel which will lead to their eventual collapse and exile.

All The Votes They Can Steal

It's official---the Democrats court the criminal vote:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House candidate in 2008, joined 2004 nominee John Kerry and other Democrats Thursday in urging that Election Day be made a federal holiday to encourage voting.

She also pushed for legislation that would allow all ex-felons to vote.

So much for "moderate" Hillary.

Somebody Get Al Franken on the Phone, Stat!

Looks like warmed-over Bolshevism does not a good media company business model make.

Here's my 3-point plan to help PBS come back:

1. Refuse all government funding.
2. Spin off Children's Television Workshop into its own autonomous division, something like The History Channel is to A & E. It's a cash cow that should stand on its own two feet.
3. Sell PBS timeslots to any and all buyers, with the exception of pornography. This will make it truly "public"---an open forum for documentarians and talkers on a wider range of issues than anything out there today aside from the blogosphere.

No Habla Estupido

If the Bush Administration is so worried about al Qaeda infiltration through the Mexican border, why are they trying to make it more porous?

Intelligence that "strongly suggests" that Al Qaeda operatives have considered using the Mexican border as an entry point was cited in written testimony by Adm. James M. Loy, the deputy secretary of homeland security. But he wrote that there was "currently no conclusive evidence" that this had succeeded.

In the past, law enforcement officials have said Al Qaeda might try to use the Mexican border, but the testimony on Wednesday seemed to suggest increasing concern. In response to questions from the senators, Admiral Loy described it as a "very serious situation," while Robert S. Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, listed first among his current concerns what he said might already be "the threat from covert Al Qaeda operatives inside the United States."

"Finding them is the top priority for the F.B.I., but it is also one of the most difficult challenges," Mr. Mueller said. He said covert operatives could include "a true sleeper operative who has been in place for years," or someone who entered the country recently.

Isn't it time we became a lot more serious about controlling our borders?

With Bated Breath

If Michelle Malkin's truly waiting for Bret Stephens to call and get her side of the Easongate story, I hope she's lying down and hooked to a nutritional IV. The glaciers will bump Los Angeles again before that happens.

Should American Journalists Be Americans First?

Myrna Blyth has some thoughts on the sobering reality.

I think I know how Joe Galloway would answer that question, at least for himself.

Oh, Yeah? Well My Blogfather's An Astronaut...

Hugh Hewitt, Blogfather, tells the MSM he's willing to pit bloggers' credentials against journalists' credentials any day of the week.

No surprise that successful bloggers tend to be successful people as well.

Patriotism---The Little-Used Refuge of the Left

Guess who funded terrorist-toady Lynne Stewart's defense?

Peggy Noonan's Back on My Christmas Card List

After this:

"Salivating morons." "Scalp hunters." "Moon howlers." "Trophy hunters." "Sons of Sen. McCarthy." "Rabid." "Blogswarm." "These pseudo-journalist lynch mob people."

This is excellent invective. It must come from bloggers. But wait, it was the mainstream media and their maidservants in the elite journalism reviews, and they were talking about bloggers!

Those MSMers have gone wild, I tell you! The tendentious language, the low insults. It's the Wild Wild West out there. We may have to consider legislation.

She's just getting started. Read the whole thing.

Mystery Illness Stalks Returning Soldiers

This is disturbing.

She Oughtta Know

Alanis Morissette, semiretired silly person, becomes a semi-American:

The 30-year-old singer was among some 4,500 people who took the citizenship oath during a ceremony last week at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Morissette isn't turning her back on Canada — she's maintaining dual citizenship.

"I will never renounce my Canadian citizenship," Morissette said in a statement Wednesday. "I consider myself a Canadian-American.

"There was a turning point during the ceremony where I felt connected to this country in a way that I didn't quite expect," she said. "America has been really great to me and I have felt welcomed since the day I came here."

She surely doesn't live in my neighborhood. We don't tend to welcome her sort of people.

I thought America didn't allow dual citizenship. Technically, it looks like Alanis violated her Oath of Allegiance straight away:

The oath of allegiance is:

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

Isn't it ironic?

He Said, She Said: Evangelism

Word Girl and I occasionally debate spiritual matters. She is far more learned than I in such things, and despite this typically refrains from crushing me with scriptural references.

We have had recurring debates on a few matters. In this inaugural edition of "He Said, She Said", we'll be having a public debate over one of these: evangelism.

I'll get things rolling, since we're on her home turf. Word Girl will hopefully use the comments for her response, at which point I will respond, and so on.

I Am Not An Evangelist

I am not an evangelist. While my own faith is sound, I do not seek to convert anyone nor proselytize to anyone on the subject. Further, I hold that such efforts are almost invariably doomed to failure.

First, in the modern era there are precious few people who have not at least heard of Jesus Christ and what he means to Christians. This is in stark contrast to the state of affairs in the world when he was crucified. Then, a handful of people in a backwater part of a mighty Mediterranean empire were aware of what had transpired, and few of these had enough experience with Jesus to know the arc of his life and ministry.

Evangelism was absolutely essential to the survival of Christ's teachings in the first and second centuries A.D. The good news of Christ's death and resurrection needed to be propagated widely, and in an era of slow communications, this chiefly involved first word-of-mouth and then the publishing of written gospels.

If you were a member of an Inuit tribe at this time, there was no reason short of God Himself speaking to you for you to know of Christ's sacrifice. Thanks to continuing evangelism over the next few centuries, as well as the vast improvement of communications technology, I dare you to find me an Inuit now of sound mind who is ignorant of Christ's story.

I am therefore not an evangelist because evangelism is not necessary to communicate Christ's message.

Second, I would argue that faith is fundamentally a function of individual choice, all the way back to the Garden of Eden. God grants us free will, and that free will requires of us a willing choice to heed our Creator. If we are aware of God and of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our salvation, yet we choose not to believe this, it strikes me as a tragedy. It is also an individual tragedy, between the nonbeliever and God. No amount of evangelism will change the fact that one must willingly open their heart and soul to God. Faith is a retail, not wholesale affair.

Third, if one is not prepared to accept God and to acknowledge the path to Him represented by Jesus, evangelism will not change this fact. If one's faith is so tenuous as to require the weak buttressing provided by Man, it is no faith at all, I would hazard. Put more baldly, if you believe in God because peer pressure so compels you, it would likely be better if you did not profess to faith in God at all.

Fourth, evangelists themselves often evangelize to "win souls for God." At the hazard of establishing a strawman only to knock it down, let me say that while questionable motives may be commonly manifest among evangelicals (are you serving God or scoring points?), I believe this to be a minority of this community. For all I know, every evangelical is heeding the siren call of our Lord. Some, at least, seem to take more pride in counting than in counseling, and this gives me some pause. Moreover, I believe this type of "in-your-face" evangelism actually drives people from God. Nothing is quite so repulsive as someone who seems possessed of certainty when you are struggling with uncertainty.

Finally, I believe that the purpose of our free will is to allow us to struggle honestly with God, as one would wrestle with an angel. Evangelism strikes me as a bit of a copout. Roll with the consensus, do as you're told, join us. My own bent is more to attempt to wrestle directly with God, without intermediaries. Having someone push their own doctrines upon me strikes me as the easy way out, rather like painting by the numbers rather than confronting that blank canvas, dipping your brush into the glob on the pallet, and beginning to fill what had been empty whiteness with bold colors.

I reserve the right to be wrong, and the right to change my position if Word Girl can convince me otherwise.

Over to you, WG.