Shocking, horrifying, sickening news
Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn has been shot and killed. Andrew Sullivan has more info on the man and what he meant for The Netherlands posted on his page (although I wish he would get his archiving and post-linking fixed up).

Fortuyn was an extraordinary leader for Holland and was just beginning to shake up the political inertia there. As an openly gay man, a social libertarian, fiscal conservative, and a person who opposed more immigration until current immigrants could be more integrated and assimilated into Dutch society, his enemies were many and came from all sides. Nevertheless, he had a unique standing that disturbed the ideological consensus (perhaps "stalemate" is a better word there) and his ideas represented the best, most legitimate threat to the undemocratic policies forced on the continent by the EU political hegemony. His party was polling 35% going into the coming elections and he was poised to affect the European scene as dramatically as did Margaret Thatcher when she ascended to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979. Fortuyn's death is a great step backwards; I sincerely hope somebody in his party can take up the slack and propel his cause forward. Unfortunately, I think much of the dynamism has been lost with Fortuyn's murder. Truly sad.

Bush did the right thing
We'll be criticized by many in the world for pulling out of the war crimes tribunal treaty, but it was the right move to make. Such a court was perfectly designed to hound and persecute American forces by illegitimate regimes who wish to oppose us at every turn. The court's standards of justice do not even come close to what we have under the Constitution and I wouldn't have been surprised if the Supreme Court eventually overturned a decision to become a full party to this international court.

This is absolutely fascinating
Stalin's Forgotten Zion: An Illustrated History, 1928-1996; Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland.

Proof of bias in American journalism
Okay, so my source is Dave Barry, but you can't argue with his following observation:

"Another reason why newspapers are in trouble is that the public perceives journalists as being more liberal than the average American. This view is based on a survey showing that in the 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush, 86 percent of newspaper journalists -- a much higher percentage than the general population -- voted for Stalin."

Case closed.

Christian cover-up at the Church of the Nativity?
Nah, this couldn't be true, could it? (sarcasm)

Sullivan on America's attitude towards Israel vs. our attitude towards France
I finally got around to reading Andrew Sullivan's article in the Sunday Times, and I wanted to post it here because it explains a whole lot about the American cultural psyche in a relatively few amount of words. Not only that, but he managed to squeeze in some very good digs on the French, too. By the way, if you're interested in seeing the SNL commercial spoof he cites, scroll down below--I have it linked here.

Beloved Dreher
I don't know how I missed this, but conservative Catholic apologeticist Rod Dreher backs up my comments from earlier regarding the problem of clericism in the Catholic Church. Commenting on a Bill Keller essay in the NY Times, Dreher says,

"For aging Boomers like Keller, there's nothing wrong with the Church that more doctrinal liberalism wouldn't solve. This is exactly wrong. Excessive doctrinal liberalism is a big part of the problem in the American Church, but the greater fault belongs to clericalism, which is a phenomenon of right and left."

I applaud Dreher for not being afraid to bring up the real issue, as solving the problems would require changes in the Church far more radical than merely altering a few of the Church's teachings on sexual morality or installing more conservative (or more liberal, depending on your view) bishops, priests, cardinals, etc.

Why there is no British Le Pen
Thanks to Instapundit for the link to this piece.

Too good to pass up
Instapundit points out this Swedish study which shows that residents of the Scandinavian democratic-socialist utopia have a lower standard of living than African-Americans in the United States. Huh??? Well, how about that! Even the losers and the "oppressed" in a "racist" free-market economy like America's do better than those living in the paragons of culturally and racially homogenous European socialism!!!

Quote of the day
Steve Lopez writes in the LA Times,

"If there is a greater collective failure in American society than the state of public education, it has not been brought to my attention."

School vouchers anyone?

The Gilded Age II
If there was any doubt left that the leaders of AARP are still hopelessly liberal in their political orientation in spite of the interests of the millions of moderate-to-conservative baby boomers who are now retiring and joining AARP, their latest Bulletin should clear that up. In the May 2002 issue alone (hey, what can I say, this literature is more easily available when you're living with your grandparents), AARP takes a swipe at the pharmaceutical industry for gouging American consumers, downplays the real problems behind Medicare in its article focusing on doctors who are leaving the program, and endorses Sen. Ted Kennedy's more liberal, anti-corporate pension reform bill. I guess it's too much to ask an organization that purports to represent senior citizens and retirees to not be so overtly political, but must they be scaremongers and propagandists as well? The piece about the drug companies is particularly, well, wrong. The pharmaceutical industry is not the villian here, government coercion is. It's depressing to watch one of the few American industries left that is far and away better than any of its global competitors come under so much domestic political attack for the very reasons that have made it successful in the first place. Really, I want drug companies to increase their profits and focus on that "bottom line" (oh, how evil!), because then there will be more new, effective drugs when I'm older and in need of them. I say, let them exploit the one free market they have left; if you want to complain about high drug prices, maybe we should exert pressure on foreign countries to quit their coercive pricing tactics so we don't have to pay so large an unfair share. Using government regulation and coercion to lower prices will destroy the incentive for pharmaceutical companies to take the risks inherent in researching and developing new drugs. Progress is worth paying for, people.

Other great articles from today's LA Times
The drug war in Colombia isn't working, says Sen. Patrick Leahy. I agree.

Sharon as the New Comeback Kid.

Any invasion of Iraq must me thought out more thoroughly than has been so far, William M. Arkin, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and an adjunct professor at the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Airpower Studies, argues convincingly.

Newt Gingrich has been saying it since day one (9/11): the head of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, needs to be a Cabinet-level official. The LA Times agrees.

The California State GOP is courting disaster by Bill Simon running on a blatantly conservative platform. I agree with some of this analysis; Simon is not going to win highlighting his social conservatism. But I don't think any pro-life candidate in a statewide race is de facto doomed to defeat in California. The trick is to focus on taxes, the economy, and the environment (and immigration, although that's a hot potato due to the millions of immigrants--legal and illegal--in the state) in a way that will appear to the moderate, swing voters who are largely fiscally conservative and socially libertarian.

Jack W. Germond pens a totally unconvincing attempt to prove that it'd be a bad idea for Bush to use his immense popularity to stump for GOP candidates this fall. Sorry, I don't buy it. Of course voters won't vote for a Republican just because they like President Bush, but Bush can still link his foreign and domestic priorities to the legislative priorities of fellow Republicans and accuse Democrats of being obstacles to his success. If he can paint the Democrats as obstructionists at a time when Americans want--above all else--action, then the GOP has a very strong chance of picking up some key seats in both houses of Congress. This is not at all like the '90s, when the country by-and-large preferred Washington gridlock because it meant neither party could do much damage. Now, citizens are anxious to see things get done, and as long as the Dems control the Senate, that won't happen very quickly.

That was, like, so right on!
High school teacher Matt Johanson has an amusing piece in the LA Times today on the subject of, like, the inability of people, like, my age to speak in sentences that, like, don't have the word "like" sprinkled throughout them. I confess, growing up in Southern California, I used to have this problem, but my English teacher junior year of high school successfully weaned me off deliberately misusing the word. I pray Mr. Johanson has similar success with at least some of his pupils. Otherwise, I can imagine future press conferences sounding like this:

Reporter: Mr. Bush, like what do you want to do to like help the Israel-Palestinian conflict to, like, you know, get better and stuff?

Bush: Well, like, I have some ideas, like, Condi had some good ones for me to like think over, ya know? But it's a tough issue to solve. The Israelis, like, need to stop, you know, like going into the West Bank and stuff, and Mr. Sharon needs to like stop the settlements, or something. And Mr. Arafat needs to like rein in the terrorists. He needs to announce, like, clearly--in, like, Arabic, or whatever it is they speak, that violence is not an answer, and that, like, a better solution would be to, um, I dunno, like maybe deal and stuff--you know, have like negotiations.

Peace is, like, possible, and stuff. Just give it a chance, k?

Excellent war article
The LA Times had a wonderful, excellent, magnificent article on the front page today about the Special Forces working together with local Afghans to topple the Taliban. This is an absolute must read.

Also, the Air Force needs a lot more C-17s. I know a lot of people down in Long Beach who will be glad to hear that.

Gratuitously delectable Spurrier-bashing
I can't stand TJ Simers of the LA Times. Of course, disdain for the man who takes every opportunity to malign my university becomes second nature when you work for the Daily Trojan for four years (or four weeks, take your pick). Nevertheless, I must admit Simers occasionally expresses a clever thought. He says,

"The Redskins, the team that had fans paying to watch training camp practices, are now going to have rotating advertising signs behind Coach Steve Spurrier every time he has a news conference. One of the sponsors is Budweiser, which will make a great photo opportunity when Spurrier has to talk about one of his players being arrested for drunken driving. It will happen."

And you know it will. That's the NFL for ya.

Prince Philip is in trouble again
Yep, the hubby of Queen Elizabeth II got in the news for making a tasteless joke. Reuters records,

"Speaking to the blind Susan Edwards, wheelchair bound and accompanied by her guide dog, he remarked: 'Do you know they have eating dogs for the anorexic now?'"

That's the problem with being royal in England--you're not allowed to have a sense of humo(u)r. Her Majesty et al are always being derided for being stiff and proper, but ol' Philip regularly gets himself into trouble for trying to be funny, too. I guess we should chalk this one up to the overzealous republicanism of the British press. I don't know why they are so unkeen of their monarchy; everyone else in the world is fascinated by it.

Slow news day?
How else to react to this headline:President Attends Church and Jogs?

We have a visitor
My grandpa's sister on my dad's side has flown halfway around the world to come see me. Okay, so maybe that's not completely accurate, but she will be here for my graduation from college this coming Friday, and then she's road-tripping with my grandparents in their RV across the Western US for a month. I've got one more final to go tomorrow night, so the posts should become a bit more rare in the next 32 hours or so.

By the way, maybe I should move to Australia--I already seem to be on their time zone, what with my sleeping habits as of the past few weeks (okay, semester).

No news is good news?
Did a quick review of the major papers online today, and none mentioned that Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem's trainer, Bob Baffert, is a Huntington Beach resident. Even the Orange County Register didn't bother to trumpet the fact that Baffert is an OC resident. Unusual, considering the last few times around (I particularly recall when Silver Charm was dominating the circuit) the news stories seemed to revolve around, Who is this upstart from--Huntington Beach, CA?? They have horses out there in California?? I guess the lack of Baffert's residence being an issue is good news and signals that we're getting a little recognition out here for our diversity of strengths. I'm just a little reflexive since LA and particularly OC have such negative connotations to a lot of people, when in fact I think So Cal is a glorious region to live, work, and play in. Heck, I think it's cool that Baffert lives within a couple miles of me, and that Dennis Rodman and Kobe Bryant also call OC home (that brings up the black population to, what, six people?).

Incidentally, Kobe married a girl from my rival high school, Marina HS. Now the two young'ns reside in Coto de Caza--aka "If you ride your skateboard in here, you'll be shot on site." I think sneezing outside of your home is also a violation of a community noise ordinance, although it probably helps that most of the women living there probably have that super-high-pitched sneeze that sounds more like a mouse squeak than anything else.

Why there is no peace in the Middle East
A picture is worth a thousand words.