Links and Minifeatures 08 17 Wednesday

Stephen Den Beste over at Daily Pundit covers the Gaza withdrawal from a dispassionate viewpoint. I agree with the allegation that it is unfair, anti-Jewish racism. I agree that Israel has bent over backwards to be accommodating to any hint that the Palestinians would act civilized, and repeatedly been stabbed for it. I'm sorry those people lost their homes. Nonetheless, it was a tactical and strategic mistake for them to be there. I hope they are able to start over again, but given that Israel wasn't willing to annex Gaza, the settlements in Gaza were calculated risks from day one. They lost.



And I suspect and hope that this is the last installment of rope that Israel is going to sell the Palestinians. I think they're going to be looking at regular rocket attacks. Attempts to evade the security barrier both by terrorists and by job seekers are going to be an ongoing flood. But the reason they're bringing the Jewish settlers out of Gaza is so they can keep the Palestinians out of Israel. Israel is going to have to explain over and over that the Palestinians can now make their own destiny (How the Jooooos™ can keep the Palestinians impoverished when there are none around and the Palestinians control the area is beyond me; nonetheless that is what the PA is going to claim). The hope on the part of Israel is going to be that everyone will acknowledge they've done so much that they cannot do any more and still the Palestinians are killing Israelis for no good reason. I think Sharon is underestimating the power of denial, but I can see where this separation has to be tried, politically.



If it were the United States, we'd have lost patience with the problem a long time ago and solved it completely. Can you imagine if native american tribes were lobbing rockets at our major cities off their reservations? Sending out suicide bombers? Spewing the kind of hate that Palestinian TV is famous for? The Palestinians would be in one of three categories: Dead, Assimilated, or Exiled permanently and for real. Okay, four. There's also Jail, in all of its incarnations. But Israel is not the United States, and has constraints that we do not.



With stuff like this going on, I'd like to know how anyone henceforward and forevermore could possibly agree that Israel has not done everything it could to treat the Palestinians well and fairly. I'd really like to know.



LLP's Willow Tree has more. I hope she will accept my apologies for not remembering to seek her out sooner on this issue. I keep thinking I'm going to do a comprehensive list of issue blogs, and haven't done it yet.



(So I'm going to do it. Email me with your issue of choice. If it's too broad, like "Politics", I'll ignore it. But Isreali politics, that I'll note. Or to give a specific example, Decision '08, where his angle is how it effects the next presidential election.)



Related, and in both the Just What We Need Department and Business As Usual Department: United Nations Bankrolled Latest Anti-israel Propaganda with a HT to LGF. If ever terrorists attack New York again and only manage to hit the UN, that would fall under Poetic Justice Department.

**********



Captain's Quarters has more on Colenel Shaffer coming out of anonymity. He also points us to The Corner who has some worthwhile background supporting Col. Shaffer's credibility. I'm don't think posting the whole interview would qualify as "fair use", so Here's the link (It's at the bottom). My impression is that Col. Shaffer is being very careful to keep it fact oriented. He has an opportunity to say that the commissioners were lying, and instead of allowing the reporter to put words in his mouth corrected the reporter to say that he didn't know why the report was wrong, but he could attest that it was wrong.



Austin Bay thinks it's time for the President to address this issue. I agree. It's not going to get the sustained light of scrutiny it needs otherwise. If it ends up looking like a political vendetta, so be it. Mr. Bush isn't running for anything, ever again. And when you have everything that has been documented on this subject, not investigating becomes dereliction of duty.



LLP's own Mover Mike adds more.



**********



Michelle Malkin appears to have has the definitive scoop on the Air America stuff. I said some time ago that Air America looks to be teetering on the edge of insolvency, perhaps the kind of criminal insolvency where the feds show up and arrest the receptionist who doesn't know anything because everybody who does has flown the coup. This only strengthens that belief of mine.



Radio Equalizer is supposed to have part II this evening.



Somehow, I don't think Al Franken is a serious threat for the Senate in Minnesota. Now if he were to run for Barbara Boxer's seat here in California, or Nancy Pelosi's, or Hillary Clinton's...



**********



Wholly Double Standards Batman! Generation Why talks about the disconnect between the Berger case (Admitted, convicted, felony level theft of classified National Security documents) and the fact that a few public documents on John Robert's affirmative action work for the Reagan administration were borrowed by White House lawyers, and returned but subsequently went missing.



La Shawn Barber has more, as well as a hat tip for the lead.



**********



Who says it's slow season? All kinds of good stuff going on today! Volokh Conspirator Eugene Volokh debunks an ACLU spokesman, as well as carrying the guy's response, which in my opinion does not in any way explain or mitigate his offense. Evenhanded, fair, and still damning. Things of this nature are why that site deserves special mention on a blogroll.



Professor Volokh is also searching for

Unreliable Assurances: I'm looking for examples where (1) the opponents of some proposed law, constitutional amendment, or judicial decision argued "this action will be interpreted in this particular bad way" or "this action will set a precedent that will be used to reach this particular bad result," (2) the supporters assured the public that no, of course this won't happen, and (3) some time down the line -- preferably no more than 50 years, just to avoid especially hard questions of causation -- the foretold result did take place, despite the supporters' reassurances. (It doesn't matter whether you like the ultimate result or not; and it also doesn't matter whether you think the assurances were sincere or not.)

Now, I tried this morning on Yahoo and Google to come up with the cites for the debate in the Senate that proposed a ten percent cap on income tax in the original Amendment that allowed it, and also the warnings that allowing unwed mothers to collect welfare would cause an explosion in unwed mothers. But both of those debates are over fifty years old and I couldn't find a web citation through search engines. If one of you has one, you might send it to the professor. I found a cite here that AFDC does increase illegitimate childbirth, but couldn't find any cites on the original debate. On the Sixteenth Amendment, I couldn't find references to the original debate, although I did find a Cato report on the circumstances here, including other things that were warned about and have largely come to pass.



**********



"If I Got My News From the Newspapers I'd be Pretty Depressed As Well" Chortle!



**********



Iraq and the War on Terror:



I do subscribe to US News and World Report. Dead Tree Edition. It's worth it. My issue is late this week and I hope it'll be there when I get home today. In the meantime, thanks to the Instapundit for highlighting this Michael Barone piece about Multiculturalism.



Rising cost of oil may be saviour for Iraqi economy. HT to Austin Bay



**********



State of Flux has a good take on Japan taking its place in the world by sending peacekeepers. I disagree with a couple of his analogies, but it's a good article.



All Things Jennifer has a cute "marriage" story.



Big Cat Chronicles has good suggestions on planning. I've just sent myself a reminder e-mail to do an article on it ... eventually.



Done with Mirrors has a nice post about Christianity and the separation of church and state. Actually, it's two posts, this one first.



My response to Environmental Republican is that I was actually wondering about the lack of public connections being made. I'm wondering if the press hasn't been asked to de-emphasize connecting the dots, and miracle of miracles, has actually complied. For those travelling domestically, please note that all of the significant events I noted have been not only foreign, but international - so no law enforcement on board. I also wonder what, if anything, is going on behind the scenes. (Keep in mind, also, that the average US yearly toll for traffic accidents is over 50k, as opposed to 3k for the worst year ever on this subject.)



Boxing Alcibiades has a good piece on modern political thought.



**********



My Summer Ride was a Mustang Convertible, which is probably as close as they can get. I doubt they've got Morgan or Bug-Eyed Sprite listed. Not particular muscle cars, and I've never actually owned either, but can attest that they're both a joy and a blast to drive in a way that nothing else compares.