WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2008

•   Let me just thank readers for your great response to HOW McCAIN BEATS HILLARY, published here yesterday.  Planning, troops.  It's all in the planning.

Coming soon:  HOW McCAIN BEATS OBAMA.

•   Once again, we see signs that some Europeans are taking Iran more seriously than we are.  Since our policy in the Mideast seems reduced to urging Saudi princes to let women drive Buicks, we can use all the help we can get.  Now Franco Frattini, former Italian foreign minister and current EU commissioner for justice, freedom and security, lays down a very hard line, saying, "I support severe sanctions" if Iran does not stop enriching uranium within a month.  That's a month.  That's good. 

Do you recall when the Bush administration used to speak that way?  Ah yes, I remember it well.  But those are days past.  Now we go to big meetings, where refreshments are served, and come up with sweeping resolutions against Iran, like the one described in this New York Sun piece, published today.  We quote:

Hailed by Washington as a blueprint for a Security Council resolution that contains "new elements," the Berlin agreement among the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany in fact only sharpens the language of existing sanctions slightly, several U.N. diplomats said yesterday.

Well, that'll show 'em.  You keep enriching that stuff, Mr. Ahmedinijad and we'll, we'll...sharpen things.  You can't push Uncle Sam around!

Do you get the feeling that our foreign policy is haunted by the ghost of Carter past?

•   Herbert London, president of the superb Hudson Institute, writes of what he calls Britain's voluntary apartheid in today's Washington Times.  Islamic extremists in Britain, he reports, have created "no go" areas across the country, too dangerous for non-Muslims to enter.  A key quote:

If minorities are permitted to live in their own insulated communities, communicating in their own languages and having minimal need to build relationships with the majority, the nation will sink into balkanization. Moreover, this separation feeds and endorses Islamic extremism by alienating youngsters from the nation and creating the impression ideological devotion is a mark of acceptability.

      Read the whole piece.

This has been happening elsewhere as well.  There have been reports that, in some Swedish cities, firemen need police escorts to enter some Muslim areas because they are constantly harassed and attacked. 

Say this in some American universities, and you're guilty of hate speech.

•   The Oscar nominees were announced yesterday.  Don't you feel elevated?  The good news is that none of the predictable, let's-prove-we're-nitwits movies bashing the United States and the Iraq war got anything.  The bad news is that there weren't any pro-American, we're-in-it-for-a-noble cause movies anywhere to be found.

I admit that I've only seen three of the movies nominated for best picture - "No Country for Old Men," "There Will be Blood," and "Juno."  The first two were well made, but they forgot to put on endings, something that I'm sure can be cleared up when these movies are sent in for warranty repairs.  "Juno" was delightful, and, if I may use a dirty word in Hollywood these days, entertaining.  I hope it wins, if only to show that entertainment is still appreciated.

By the way, this site uses "movies," not "films."  "Movie" reminds us of what we're talking about. A film is something your dentist puts in front of a light box to show you that you need $4,000 worth of work, none of which is insured.

•   Reuters, an organization I usually don't rush to for my news, unless I want artistically enhanced photos from the Lebanon war zone, has actually published a solid piece by Steve Holland, going against conventional wisdom.  Holland points out that this might not be a Democratic year, after all.  American voters have a history of surprising the experts, especially when national security - the confidence factor - comes into play.  "It's the economy, stupid," may be a great slogan, but the economy is often trumped by culture, and culture by safety.  There is also the "likability" factor.  If voters don't like a candidate, they may turn her down, regardless of the issues.

Richard Nixon was hardly loved when he ran for reelection in 1972, but he destroyed George McGovern because people had no confidence in McGovern.

We may think, since memory distorts, that Ronald Reagan's 1980 victory was a done deal, but in fact it was a struggle.  Reagan was portrayed as a warmed-over movie actor who didn't have a brain, was a risk to the peace, and was a joker who read lines off a teleprompter.   Jimmy "ich bin ein Palestinian" Carter was an incumbent.  He was plagued with problems, but many conventional wisdom purveyors thought he would win because he was the more "serious" candidate.  Reagan, though, won the voters' confidence, they didn't like Carter personally, and Reagan was remarkable in laying out his vision of America.  What many don't realize today is that, in the face of heavy media skepticism, Ronald Reagan won a landslide electoral-vote victory almost as great as Nixon's.  He received 489 electoral votes to Carter's 49.  Carter won only a handful of states.  Nixon, in 1972, won 520 electoral votes to McGovern's 17, although his popular vote margin was much greater than was Reagan's in 1980.  Reagan corrected that little problem when he ran for reelection against Walter Mondale in 1984.

•   There are these little gems that make blogs worth blogging.  China has apparently shut down some 44,000 online porn sites during a major, continuing campaign.  That's a lot of trade, you know?  You wonder, in such a restrictive country, how the sites got online in the first place.  Well, maybe there's an answer.  Buried in the story is this:

The campaign will continue until September, after the close of the Beijing Olympics.

Oh, so that's it.  Reminds me of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, when the Nazis took down all the anti-Jewish stuff until the games ended.  Ah, Olympic tradition.  What would we do without it?

Look, if you must get your online kicks, here's the link to Air China.  October is nice.

Posted on January 23, 2008.