December 10, 2003 by s.z.

The Survey Says ..."Exhiliration?" Christopher Hitchens, telling FrontPage Magazine what he felt on 9/11: Watching the towers fall in New York, with civilians incinerated on the planes and in the buildings, I felt something that I couldn’t analyze at first and didn’t fully grasp (partly because I was far from my family in Washington, who had a very grueling day) until the day itself was nearly over. I am only slightly embarrassed to tell you that this was a feeling of exhilaration. Here we are then, I was thinking, in a war to the finish between everything I love and everything I hate. Fine. We will win and they will lose. A pity that we let them pick the time and place of the challenge, but we can and we will make up for that. I find this response to 9/11, well, abnormal.  Hitchens can feel whatever he feels, but when viewed in conjunction with his recent actions, they seem to point to a larger problem, and I think he should seek help.  Maybe from a former psychiatrist like Charles Krauthammer.  I think Chuck would diagnose Hitchens as somebody who has always sought to engulf himself in causes larger than himself in order to compensate for his own perceived inadequacies.  It's no wonder that, after the anti-Clinton crusade (which allowed him to project all of his disappointments about his life onto somebody else) had pretty much been tapped out, he was delighted to be presented with a new cause, and one in which HE PERSONALLY was a victim.  It allows him to externalize all the evil which he senses within himself onto a socially acceptable outside target, and to feel self-righteously "good" for fighting it -- even though his "fight" only involves putting words to paper.  I'm sure Charles could name this disorder, find that it has reached plague-status in this land, and get a whole column out of it.  But he's probably too busy psychoanalyzing the Al Gore's endorsement of Howard Dean (indubitably due to too-early toilet training, which caused a deeply-repressed resentment of his mother, which feelings he transferred to Hillary Clinton, and backed Dean just to spite her). But the scariest thing is, in this email interview conducted by Front Page magazine.com, Hitchens comes across as saner than the interviewer, who asks questions such as: When a leftist leaves the ranks, he often loses many, if not all, of his friends. In my own experience with leftists, I have learned that when they “like” people, they do not like them for who the people are as actual human beings, but for how their structure of political ideals conforms to their own.  If you are a leftist in a leftist crowd and you all of a sudden like George W. Bush and love capitalism, chances are you will soon be made into a non-person. You were once close friends with individuals such as Alexander Cockburn, Sidney Blumenthal, etc. But it appears not any more. Did your leftist friends abandon you? Or the other way around? Was this dislocation hurtful to you? Did it surprise you?  And: You refer to the "alternative version of democratic socialism" that you wished "was available to outweigh and replace both global empires". . .Can it be denied that America represented freedom, democracy and the forces of “good” in the face of Soviet communism? To this latter question, Hitchens replies, Hitchens: Yes it can be denied in very many cases. Just to give you one example in which I was very much involved myself, there is no doubt that the United States imposed a dictatorship, with a fascist ideology, on Greece (a NATO member and member of the Council of Europe) in 1967. This was done simply in order that the wrong party not win the upcoming elections. The result was a disastrous war in the Eastern Mediterranean as well as the stifling of liberty in Greece.  So, Hitchens isn't totally out of touch with reality, which leads to hope that he could be cured, if he seeks treatment in time. And later Hitchens tell the insufferable twerp of an interviewer, "So don’t be so goddam cocky about who was, or was not “pro-American."  Which shows just how annoying this interviewer is, in that he can outshine Hitchens in the annoying, pretentious, preachy, twit department.  Anyway, I thought that the interviewer was one of Horowitz's pet college students until I read the attribution at the bottom of the page: Jamie Glazov is Frontpage Magazine's managing editor. He holds a Ph.D. in History with a specialty in Soviet Studies.  So, I guess I can't blame the kids for all the blather coming out of campuses these days. P.S.  I also noted with amusement David Horowitz's blog entry for this week, in which he writes that he didn't like Angels in America because the characters are all whiney, and never learn anything from their suffering.  Projection again?  Anyway, the main reason I found it amusing it that it shows that David doesn't spell or proofread any better than I do. 7:55:04 AM

Kids! TBOGG reminds us of some of the previous winners of his College Conservative Talent Search contest, and reintroduces us to Joe Sabia, a young man who has a thing or two to say to his slutty female classmates!  (Mostly "Why, oh why won't you throw your bra and panties over the headboard of MY bed?") And Roger Ailes has some fascinating info about Adam Yosida's work with Schizophrenics for Dean.  Yes,  Adam is well on his way to career with New Republic! So, for my contribution to the effort to spotlight wordy know-it-alls who can't yet legally drink, let me share the latest thoughts from Judson Cox, a previous discovery of Roger's (Roger called him the "Hillbilly Virgin Ben.") Young Judson is a student at Liberty University "who aspires to be a journalist and a columnist" when he grows up.  As he modestly described himself in the third-person for his bio, "He is quickly gaining recognition as one of the most popular and influential voices of his generation." And better yet, "With a humor akin to P.J. O'Rourke and Dave Barry, and a plain spoken southern wisdom that matches Charlie Daniels, his confrontational style lies somewhere between Ann Coulter and Merle Haggard."  And to show us his Ann Coulter-like humor and his Merle Haggard-esque wisdom, here's Judson, talking about the "second greatest threat to humanity" in this piece which I found at Young Conservatives called:  Don’t Save The Whales, Save Yourself! An unholy combination of liberal social engineering and a mistaken interpretation of Christian charity is the second greatest threat to humanity. An unholy combination of liberal social engineering and a mistaken interpretation of Christian charity is the second greatest threat to humanity. The greatest threat is Islamic fascism, whether terrorists or governments advance it. The second is subtler; well meaning, misguided idealists are using the powers of government to subvert natural selection. This column will not address the origin of life or species, which evolution cannot adequately explain. [snip] Natural selection is the process through which species adapt to changes in environment. Superior species survive and reproduce, passing on genetic traits best suited to their environment. Inferior species lack adaptability and eventually become extinct. It is the survival of the fittest. See, Judson is a fervent Darwinist, but he covers himself with his creationist conservative fellow-travelers by adding that evolution can't explain HOW life was created, only why we shouldn't try to help sucky animals who can't survive after man destroys their environment.  God himself has no sympathy for loser species. The giant panda cannot adapt; its diet consists mainly (99%) of 9 varieties of bamboo. The panda requires a minimum of 26 - 33 lbs. of bamboo per day. Bamboo is becoming less available and pandas are nearing extinction. Fortunes are being spent to save the panda - why? No species requires panda meat for survival.  The panda is an inferior species.  In his folly, man is resorting to cloning to defy the laws of nature under the banner of protecting nature.  As the science of cloning progresses it will be increasingly employed to preserve not only rare animals, but also particularly admirable specimens (such as show dogs) and even humans.  A clone is an exact genetic copy of an existing organism.  Cloning halts evolution and subverts natural selection.  Absent gradual adaptation, species cannot survive environmental changes.  Clones would perish when faced with an ice age or a new disease.  Such mass extinction would have catastrophic consequences, as non-cloned species would not have the opportunity to adapt to the absence.  Well meaning do-gooders could endanger all life on earth. Cloning is what killed the dinosaurs, after all.  And if you once clone something, all natural selection is forever stopped, just like how identical twins caused the extinction of life on the moon. Anyway, even though helping stupid pandas who are too lazy to grow their own bamboo is the second greatest threat to humanity, Judson's real target is goverment programs that help inferior human beings to live and pass on their unfit genes. Similarly, social programs that minimize the negative consequences of human actions imperil our society.  One learns what not to do through discomfort, for instance learning not to touch a hot stove by burning one’s hand.  An 800 lb. woman was reported last week to have been unable to fit through the doorways of her public housing in Cleveland.  A dozen firemen were required to remove her from her bedroom and transport her to the hospital.  Taxpayers will now be required to build her new housing with doorways adequate for her girth, in addition to continuing to pay for her food, medical care, safety and all other needs.  Such sloth is a flaw inherent to human nature, but a few generations ago it would not have been tolerated. She would have had to adapt to become a productive citizen or perish.  She has become a giant panda. Just like in that Kafka novel. Governmental social programs that protect the stupid, subsidize the lazy and coddle criminals are producing a society of giant pandas.  If we continue to embrace this subversion of natural law, our nation will soon suffer the same fate as the panda.  Don’t save the whales, save yourself! If you want to read more about saving yourself from the fate of the panda, see the work of Josef Mengele.  Or better yet, just refuse to breed with the stupid.  You know, I think that might be why Joe Sabia isn't getting any action. 6:12:27 AM

He's Knows NUH-THINK! Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't know anything about a libel lawsuit filed by a woman who alleged he sexually harassed her, claiming his staff falsely suggested in an e-mail that she was a convicted felon, the California governor said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity. "I don’t know anything about the woman’s claim," he said. "That’s something to do with the campaign, so I don’t know anything about that.” Schwarzenegger said he has been trying to look forward since winning California's gubernatorial recall race -- attempting to focus on California's fiscal woes and how to solve them. "I’m extremely busy trying to get my vision turned into a reality and trying to keep my campaign promises,” Schwarzenegger said. The woman, Rhonda Miller, says she came forward the day before the recall election with allegations about how Arnold groped her when she was working as a stuntwoman.  Within hours, the Schwarzenegger campaign sent an e-mail to several reporters directing them to the Los Angeles Superior Court Web site and instructing them to type in the name "Rhonda Miller."  That produced court records for a woman named Rhonda Miller with a long criminal record. But it's not THIS Rhonda Miller.  Miller and her attorney say that the Schwarzenegger campaign "deliberately misled reporters about Miller's background in order to raise doubts about her allegations until the election was over."  And now that she's been falsely labled a felon AND been groped, she's suing Schwarzenegger for unspecified damages.  Arnold's lawyer says she's doing it all for publicity (because being known as the stuntwoman who was groped and called a felon will help her career no end in Hollywood.)  He also said that since the campaign didn't actually SAY she was the Rhonda Miller referred to in those criminal records, she doesn't have a case. Schwarzenegger attorney Marty Singer denied that Walsh's e-mail suggested Miller had a criminal record. The e-mail "does not state specifically that this is the same woman who was making the claim the night before the election," Singer said. And Arnold's not going to investigate himself for groping either, since that would also take time away from his efforts to turn his dreams into reality.  His spokesman says, "There comes a time to move on" -- and apparently that time is as soon as the governor's mansion is yours. You know, I think this calls for another installment of . . .The Schwarzenegger Project!  In color! So, keep watching this space.   3:29:19 AM

The TownHall Review!  Now With Iodine! Today's themes are "Give us less goverment, or give us tax cuts!", and "Al Gore's endorsement of Dean shows he's turned his back on all he belives in, in that now he wants to be on the winning side."  Also, some Hillary Clinton bashing and Howard Dean bashing for good measure.  Plus, Little Ben Shapiro tries his hand at parodying the most parodied poem of all time, and Michelle Malkin copies a bunch of stuff from the internet and pastes it into her column. Rebecca Hagelin Demand less from government, not more!  Stick your head out of the window and yell, "I'm mad as hell at getting a tax break for having children, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Men who would bravely fight a thief who entered their home in the dark of night complacently allow politicians to steal their earnings. Citizens who insist on choices in cars, clothes and salad dressing tune out huge new government programs that mandate – at taxpayer expense – specific services with the government as supplier.  Fathers and mothers who toil and sacrifice and save for their children's future yawn and choose to watch fabricated "reality TV," ignoring the true reality that government is out of control, and the first one forced off the island in this "Survivor" series is liberty.   Walter E. Williams Government should only help out big business, not actual people.  If you disagree, you're dissing the founding fathers. My investigative query is: Were the Founders and previous congressmen and presidents, who could not find constitutional authority for today's bread and circuses, just plain stupid and ignorant?  I don't believe in long-run ignorance or stupidity, so I reread the Constitution, looking to see whether an amendment had been passed authorizing Congress to spend money on bailouts for airlines, prescription drugs, education, Social Security and thousands of similar items in today's federal budget. I found no such amendment.   Thomas Sowell Sowell is going to go out on a limb and say that the Wright brothers were important inventors!  (But what we want to know is, did they ever sell their kidneys?) That part of the United States is often referred to disdainfully as "flyover country" because it is part of America that the east coast and west coast elites fly over on their way to what they consider more important places. But they are able to fly over it only because of those mechanics in Dayton.   Kathleen Parker Winner of the "Most Annoying TownHall Column of the Day." (And while it's probably illegal to give my endorsement this early in the campaign, Kathleen is my nominee for inclusion onPandagon.net's  "20 Most Annoying Conservatives" list for next year.  Well, one of my nominees.) The basic message of this piece, titled "Howard Dean's Search for the South's Poor 'n Oppressed," seems to be that Dean is reaching out to Southern blacks, Southern whites, and to Democrats, and somehow this is bogus and Kathleen hates him for it. Dean, whose manner can shift suddenly from soft-spoken bedside manner to whip'-em-up rant with alarming ease, told folks that Bush has forgotten that we're human beings out here.  As a human being, I began to warm to his message.  To feel embraced by a deeply caring physician.  I suddenly wanted to sew my own clothes and began hating corporate America as I knew I should.  I wished everybody could just get along and hoped there never would be any more wars ever-ever. Then suddenly, Dr. Dean's Mr. Hyde interrupted my reverie and thundered that if elected he would take back the flag from John Ashcroft and Rush Limbaugh!!!!  Edwin J. Feulner We should be nice to those Republican legislators who voted against the Medicare bill, because while they did the right thing, Bush and his thugs promised to rough them up after school for not showing their gang colors. What they [Buchco Inc.] wanted was a bill, any bill, that they could claim as a victory on the campaign trail next year.  But as we’ve seen, this bill isn’t a victory for America’s seniors -- it’s just another win for big government  Jonah Goldberg Al Gore is rude and unprincipled.  (Added bonus: a Simpsons ref and a slam against people who think life is a cartoon.) "The Simpsons" said it best when Bart's friend Martin bought a talking Al Gore doll. When you pull the string on the doll's back it says, "You are hearing me talk."  [snip] Whenever I hear C-Span callers or, say, Barbra Streisand opine that the Iraq war was fought for the benefit of Haliburton, my immediate reaction is that these people need to understand that life isn't a cartoon.  Linda Chavez Al Gore is rude, unprincipled, and Machiavellian. But at least he hates Hillary! But I think there's a more Machiavellian explanation. Gore wants Dean to win the Democratic nomination in 2004 because he knows Dean will lose to George W. Bush, and that leaves open the possibility that Gore would have a shot at becoming president in 2008. Of course, Gore would have to beat out Hillary Clinton to win the 2008 nomination, and there's little doubt she will run. In fact, Hillary's performance on the Sunday talk shows this past weekend may be what drove Gore into the Dean camp.  Brent Bozell Hillary Clinton was on three network TV programs Sunday morning, and nobody tarred and feathered her!  This proves that something is deeply wrong with the media. Twelve years after her national debut, with reporters polishing her pumps as Loyal Spouse and Mother in addition to her reputation as a Policy Genius, the networks are still treating her like an American queen, a madame-president-in-waiting, a "secular saint" in a black pantsuit. But all these years of unpaid advertising still leave a majority of Americans cold. Their soft soap isn't washing Hillary clean. Terence Jeffrey Iraq's constitution won't be exactly the same as OUR constitution, in that it won't allow the Iraqis the freedom to convert to our fine American religions.  Hey, maybe this ISN'T a victory for Christianity! Hard reality already seems to have determined that our goal in Iraq is not to make the ayatollahs accept our full First Amendment, but a government that won't invade its neighbors, harbor terrorists or build weapons of mass destruction  Ben Shapiro It's rap master Ben! Oh, somewhere in this leftist land the sun is shining bright; The band is playing somewhere, and in Europe hearts are light, And somewhere gays are laughing, and somewhere appeasers shout; But there is no joy in Leftville -- mighty Howard has struck out.  Michelle Malkin Michelle KNEW that the Beltway sniper killings were the work of al-Queda terrorists, but you elite media-ists just wouldn't believe Mark Steyn!  Well, maybe the snipers weren't Al-Qaeda terrorists, but they were Muslims, and that's basically the same thing!  And the proof is that Lee Malvo drew pictures in jail such as "Exhibit 65-056: A self-portrait of Malvo as sniper, lying in wait, with his rifle. 'JIHAD' written in bold letters." Plus many, many more, which Michelle lists. Now it is time for Roeper, CAIR and the militant Religion of Peace propagandists to face the facts once and for all. A chilling stack of evidence, introduced by Malvo's own lawyers last week at his capital murder trial, exposes accused sniper Malvo as an unrepentant Muslim extremist. Bill Murchison The editor emeritus of the Wall Street Journal got the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is a great moment for conservatism, Reaganism, anti-communism, free marketism, and anti-Hillaryism.  This is Bob Bartley, editor emeritus of The Wall Street Journal. Without him, and his indispensable editorial page, the state of freedom in the modern world might be more parlous even than we acknowledge it to be. The economy might be humming less brightly. Who knows, Hillary might be president ... !   Tony Blankley No peace is possible between Israel and the Arabs, and the Israelis are wise enough to know this and say "Fie!" on your peace plans. On the other hand, a sensible, well-built wall might result in less dead Jews. That is the beginning of a wise foreign policy for Israel.   So, TownHall.  Making the world safe for "Casey at the Bat" parodies and Simpsons references. 3:02:58 AM