Bourgeoise niceties
Apparently, us liberal Westerners have trouble calling a spade a spade--except when they're on the right; Sidney Goldberg points out how our dictionaries call Hitler, Franco, and Salazar dictators, but reserve names like "leader," "statesman", "revolutionary," and "chairman of the Communist Party" for guys like Stalin, Castro, Tito, and Mao. Witness these further examples:

"The American Heritage alludes to 'Hitler's fascist philosophy.' Here is its definition of fascism: 'A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.'"

"Fair enough, especially if the Nazi variation is being described. Communism, on the other hand, is captured this way: 'A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.' No mention of terror and censorship, and no dictator."

There's more:

"Right: 'A political group, as a faction or party, whose policies are conservative or reactionary.' (OK.) Left: 'Those who advocate the adoption of sometimes extreme measures to achieve the equality, freedom, and well-being of the citizens of a state.' Sounds warm and fuzzy. Isn't it possible that even the right cares about the well-being of the citizens of the state?"

"In Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2001 edition) the right, among other things, opposes 'change in the established order' and favors 'traditional attitudes and practices.' Fine. The left, meanwhile, advocates 'change in the name of freedom or well-being of the common man.' Again, noble motives are assigned to one side and not the other."

Some may think this is splitting hairs, but you're being incredbly dishonest if you overlook the biases portrayed in these definitions and think what the dictionaries say are all hunky-dory. It's sublte jabs like these that help reinforce the bunker/persecution mentality that many conservatives have nowadays.

"America should celebrate its independence"
Pointless title, no? But, in fact, its a great play on words, because what Mark Steyn means by independence is America's independence from the rest of the West in how it runs its government. In contrast, the Europeans like to dictate and run things from the top down:

"That's where the EU, in their haste to line up at the Eurinals and spray their contempt over Bush, are missing the point. Who is this arrogant cowboy, they sneer, to tell the Palestinians whom they can vote for. Actually, that's not what Bush said. The guys who tell people who they can vote for are the Europeans. Only a couple weeks back, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder told the French to vote for Chirac. In February, the Belgian Foreign Minister threatened sanctions against Italy if they voted for Umberto Bossi's Northern League. When Austria proved less pliable and admitted duly elected members of Joerg Haider's Freedom Party to the coalition government, the EU did, indeed, impose sanctions."

"But to suggest to Palestinians that things might go better if they elected a non-terrorist leadership is apparently unacceptable. Arafat has far more blood on his hand than Bossi, Haider, Jean-Marie Le Pen and Joerg Haider put together and multiplied a thousandfold, but he's the West's guy: they can talk to him, strongman to strongman, Jacques to Yasser. Suddenly Bush comes along and says not that he wants a non-Yasser President but that he'd like a new constitution, separation of powers, an autonomous legislature, independent municipal institutions. Where does that sound like? Britain, where Tony Blair can simply replace one house of the legislature with another more to his liking? Canada, where municipalities are abolished by order of the Ontario and Quebec governments? No, it sounds like he wants a U.S. Constitution for Palestine, where President Yasser Clinton and Vice-President Mohammed al-Gore get hamstrung by Senator Ahmed Helms and Senator Walid Thurmond, and, either way, it makes no difference to the residents of high-tax Ramallah or no-tax Jenin. Is Bush just winding up the Kofi set? Hard to say. But you can understand why the EU recoils from such a vision: If separation of powers were to catch on in Palestine, who's to say it mightn't spread to the Continent?"

Eurinal, very clever. Steyn finishes:

"There's a famous Fleet Street headline often cited as an example of British isolationism: 'Fog In Channel, Continent Cut Off.' But the odd man out isn't necessarily the guy in the wrong. On matters such as the role of the state, concentration of power, and the usefulness of international institutions, I'll bet on the Americans: There's a fog in the Atlantic, but it's Europe that's cut off."

I love my country. I mean, when you think about it, we're all a bunch of religious nuts and free thinkers who fled persecution, cocky snobs who felt we could succeed better if not trapped by Old World-style government strictures and corruption, and gun-toting cowboys who believed we could turn a dusty Old West into a thriving, bustling hub of civilization through saloon fights and hangman jury justice. No wonder the established, "cultured" Europeans bristle at playing second fiddle to us brash Yanquis.

Old article, timely wisdom
The Republicans have ample opportunity to develop a free-market-oriented environmental policy that would be very appealing to the electorate, but because they're so focused on opposing the extreme Greens instead of brainstorming sensible policy, they get nowhere.

Something's rotten in Denmark
No, literally. A Danish judge has ordered a website to stop linking to Danish newspaper articles online. I'm confident this could never happen in America, but it's a nice reminder that there are still plenty of morons out there who want to try to put limits on people's freedom of access to information via the World Wide Web.

More bad news
It's just been one bad thing after another as far as aviation news today in Southern California. First, three are killed in a shooting at LAX, and later at least one is killed and scores injured when a Cessna crashed at a park out in San Dimas. :-(

How patriotic are Americans?
Some fascinating poll data put together by the folks over at the American Enterprise Institute.

Mucho ado about nothing
Don't believe any of the blathering nonsense being spewed forth in the press about the Bush administration seeking to slash EPA Superfund money. In response to the media's overblown coverage, Jack Shafer of Slate provides a thorough Fisking of Times writer Katharine Q. Seelye for her biased and manipulative reporting of the Superfund issue.

(An aside: why do I feel like the NY Times is being ghost-written by the DNC lately? Seriously, just read Bob Herbert's latest screed, as full of misinformation as misguided ideology. Is the environment really getting worse, against all evidence pointing to the contrary? Or are we just trying to tarnish a still-extremely popular Republican president?)

Not as smart as his pa
Saddam Hussein's stepson was arrested in Miami after apparently trying to enroll in flight school without a proper visa. Dumbass.

*Update--Belated bad humor--maybe he should've tried Mastercard.

Empty threats
The US has decided not to pull out of the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia just yet because our representatives at that wonderful body have apparently seen a glimmer of hope for a resolution over the ICC impasse. In addition, some council envoys made a veiled threat against Israel in an attempt to manipulate the US to move towards acceptance of the court's jurisdiction over its troops:

"In addition to the Bosnia operation, four other U.N. peacekeeping missions come up for renewal in July alone, including the U.N. mission in southern Lebanon, which polices the volatile border between Israel and Lebanon."

"Shutting down that mission in a spat over the new court's powers could have serious security implications for close U.S. ally Israel, council envoys warned."

What bugs me here is the fact that the UN people have done little to protect Israel, and always scuttle out of "hot" areas. Syria, ironically temporary head of the Security Council right now, bears full responsibility for all hostilities in the border region, as their troops not only occupy Lebanon, but they also give a free hand to Hezbollah to terrorize Israel from across the border and funnel arms through Damascus from Iran. Of course, a quick glance at history books would also reveal that before the '67 war, the UN peacekeepers gladly relocated so that Egypt could mass its troops along Israel's Sinai border, and UN soldiers have stood by while countless other atrocities were committed during many other missions. Tell me again why we even bother with these people?

Rupert Murdoch is a genius
FoxNews has been the cable news king for six months now, and recent changes at CNN have failed to reverse CNN's fortunes, although their ratings did go up slightly. Really, FoxNews is a success not because it's better broadcast journalism than CNN, and I don't entirely agree with those who attribute it to the glut of "confrontational" shows on FoxNews. Rather, I think the key reason is Murdoch knew that there was a gold mine to be had by tapping into the deep-seated belief of those millions of people who feel that the news is biased and liberal. Really, all FoxNews did is make more of an effort to include the conservative viewpoint; their coverage is fairly similar in bias to other stations simply because "objective" journalism is never just that--there's always a slant.

Good ol' Mexican justice
I'm sorry, but I completely feel that this is a great way to treat child molesters and rapists. Okay okay, I'd settle for chemical castration, but I won't be shedding any tears for this guy.

Powerpuff violence
Hey, maybe I'd enjoy watching this movie after all.

Your tax dollars at work
Remember, airport security is now federally funded, so incidents like this are only more evidence that government involvement inspires less competence, not more. Thanks to underperformin' Norman, our airport security strip-searches old ladies instead of going after the real threats.

I guess the Euro didn't help much
The German economy is still crashing and burning, giving the center-right a major theme to run on in the coming elections. The EU countries as a whole will need to cut back on social spending and waste to compete with the American and Asian economies and it will take more right-leaning leadership to accomplish that.

Again I say
Nuke 'em. If we can't reform 'em, fry 'em.

Malaria and DDT
I read a good article in the Orange County Register op-ed section today, but thanks to the Register's love of frames, I can't link directly to it. Essentially, the authors gave evidence showing that when big government bureaucrats and NGOs (at the advice of alarmist environmentalists) think they know best, people die--in this case millions of them. Despite DDT's record as a hazardous insecticide having been almost entirely refuted, and against the knowledge that even sparing and careful use of the chemical would save millions of deaths from malaria, the World Health Organization--among others--is continuing to oppose its use to fight malaria-laden mosquitos and tetse flies and insist on its blanket ban even in areas of the world where the benefits in lives saved would far outweigh any of the supposed environmental costs (which, as I said, have been disproven anyway).

It almost makes me wonder if these high-ups are letting the people die because of racist motives (Nah, only white Southerners, fundamentalist Christians, and conservative Republicans are guilty of that), or perhaps they still fear the "Population Bomb" and therefore are content to let millions die so that we don't overpopulate our planet and cause irreparable damage. Then again, these are often the same people crying loudest about drug companies not giving away their AIDS and HIV-fighting drugs for free (which they in fact do to some extent) when the real villians are those politicians in Africa who contribute to the ignorance and spread of the disease among their own people.

LA secession
It could happen this November, and here's why. Personally, I am for it, as I think the only way to reform the Los Angeles municipality is to first take a sledgehammer to it, and then start over.

Are we supposed to be surprised?
Actually, this is just more evidence that we're taking the wrong approach, and that we need to follow the Israeli model of looking for terrorists rather than looking for bombs, weapons, and nail clippers. This means we need to start profiling. Until we get with it, we're wasting our time and doing nothing more than needlessly annoying passengers and running up high security costs.

Please, no Bush-bashing on the economy
Andrew Sullivan lays it out for those who would see a demise for the American economy based on recent corporate and accounting scandals:

"After the crash of 1987, the Democrats and liberals made every effort to portray the 1980s as a decade of greed, fomented by selfish Republicans. But that is politically much harder to do with the 1990s. It was an era when the Democrats finally managed to persuade Americans that they could manage the economy. Today, the Democrats don't have any deep incentive to alter that perception. That's why they want to link the current corporate excess with a Republican administration - a strategy undermined solely by the facts."

Of course, it's a given that Democrats will campaign on this stuff and conveniently ignore the fact that if there was any fault here on a president, it lies solely at the feet of Bill Clinton.

What's up with judges these days?
First it was the Pledge decision, and now a district judge says the federal death penalty is unconstitutional. This also is sure to be overturned, but if there is a lesson to be learned here, it's that DNA testing shuold be required in all capital cases to eliminate the possibility of fudging the evidence and ensure that only the truly guilty are punished.