Saturday, February 22, 2003

SAD NEWS FROM NORTH CAROLINA
17-Year-Old Jesica Santillon Dies; Victim of Botched Transplant Operation


For those of us who have been following this story, this is a sad day indeed. (Lord Jesus, bring this dear child into your Kingdom and send your comforting love and peace to the grieving family she left behind. Amen.)

One of the most astonishing aspects of this story is the reaction of some to the fact that young Jesica was the child of illegal aliens, who came to this country specifically for the purpose of helping their daughter, who had been born with a defective heart. These cold-hearted naysayers "argue" that Jesica had no "right" to the surgeries she received in the US because she and her parents weren't American citizens. Never mind that her medical treatment was funded by private donations, NOT taxpayers' money.

Pathetic.

Friday, February 21, 2003

OF PROTESTING THAT OTHER WAR:
"Peace In Middle Earth In Our Time"


An especially witty piece of satire written by blogger and Lord of the Rings fan Domenico Bettinelli opens thusly:

MINAS TIRITH (Gondor News Network) - Thousands of peace activists took to the streets of Minas Tirith and other cities of Middle Earth today to protest what they termed a rush to war with Mordor.

“We need more time for diplomacy,” said a key member of the Middle-Earth Security Council, Saruman the White. “I am not convinced by the evidence presented by my esteemed colleague, Gandalf the Grey, or that the Dark Lord Sauron presents an imminent danger to the peoples of the West.”....

Go HERE to read the rest of this fine piece.

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

OF IMMATERIAL "PEACE" PROTESTING:
Madonna Expresses Herself On Iraq and War


Long before President Bush made clear his determination to oust Saddam Hussein, the Hollywood glitterati --who tend to be liberal Democrats-- have been on the anti-Bush bandwagon. Their long-held antipathy for Dubya is now dressed up as "concern" for "peace" and "the Iraqi people."

Never mind that the Iraqi people have known no peace under Saddam during his entire 25-year regime. He started the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980's, which dragged on for years at the cost of millions of Iraqi lives. Never mind that he has imprisoned, tortured, and murdered tens of thousands of Iraqis who've expressed the least degree of disagreement with him, and has waged war on minority ethnic groups such as the Kurds. And never mind that he has used his own people, by the hundreds and thousands, as guinea pigs for his chemical and biological weapons.

Not to be left out of the Hollywood "peace" chorus is none other than the Material Girl herself, Madonna. It seems Madonna has been working on a controversial music video based on her new anti-war song "American Life." The video opens at a fashion show but "escalates into a mad frenzy depicting the catastrophic repercussions and horror of war," says Madonna spokesperson Liz Rosenberg.

However, numerous early reports claim it also includes alarming film clips of dead Iraqi soldiers and body parts --reports Madonna categorically denies. Moreover, Madonna asserts, "I feel lucky to be an American citizen for many reasons, one of which is the right to express myself freely." She added, "I am not anti-Bush. I am not pro-Iraq. I am pro-peace. I have written a song and created a video which expresses my feelings about our culture and values and illusions of what many people believe is the American dream -- the perfect life."

Of course, it's as much Madonna's right as anyone else's to express her views about Iraq or any other issue. No one would gainsay that. (In fact, we hope she'll add a blog to her web site for that very purpose.) Her liberalism aside, Madonna is one of the more insightful and intelligent (and, surprisingly enough, more intellectual) folks in show biz, as her 1994 Esquire interview by Norman Mailer demonstrated. Despite some monumental imbecilities --that silly Sex book, for example-- Madonna's no dummy. Too bad she tends to squander her keen intellect on cultural shallowness and inane causes.

The same question which applies to most celebrities-turned-political-pundits, who seem to live under the delusion that their fame and expertise in show business somehow makes them foreign policy experts, applies to Madonna as well (your humble servant is an Equal Opportunity Curmudgeon, after all): Namely, who cares what she thinks about Iraq or Sadam or any issue other than the sorry state of entertainment, the music industry, and popular culture in general? Like most big-name entertainers making a big to-do about Iraq these days, what Madonna knows about foreign affairs most likely wouldn't fill a thimble; except, perhaps, what she knows about the ones she's had herself.

What Madonna and other Hollywood naysayers need to remember and to keep in mind is that what has been required of Saddam today by both the US and the UN --namely, the dismantling of and cessation of development of WMDs-- was required of him 12 years ago as part of the terms for ending the Persian Gulf War without taking Baghdad and ousting him. Thus the proposed use of force against Saddam in response to 12 years of proven defiance and deception is more an act of finishing the last war than starting a new one. Therefore, if military action is taken against Saddam the responsibility for any and all innocent civilian casualties among the Iraqis falls squarely on Saddam's shoulders and no one else's.

Monday, February 17, 2003

SNOWBOUND IN BABYLON-ON-THE-POTOMAC
"It Ain't a Fit Day Out for Man or Beast" --W. C. Fields


The big news here in the DC area since Friday the 14th has been Saturday, Sunday, and Monday the 15th, 16th, and 17th. To be more precise, the nearly two feet of snow dumped on us since Saturday nite, a storm which didn't end until this afternoon.

Just about everything is closed here, including the Fed, until Wednesday at the earliest. Meanwhile both private citizen and public servant strive to dig us out of this. (One can hear laughter regaling from the upper Midwest and the snow belt around the Great Lakes. To those blizzard veterans, we poor benighted DC area folk are snow wimps: This is but a "flurry" to them.) But we're slowly digging out, and things'll be back to normal in a jiffy.

Or at least what passes for normal in Washington.