From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Our
Friends the Saudis
Ghazi Algosaibi is at it again. He's the Saudi ambassador to London, best known
for his poetry
glorifying the mass murder of Jews. Now he's turned up at London's University
of Westminster, where he delivered a speech yesterday in which he said the
Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza--areas under Jordanian and Egyptian
occupation until 1967--is "far more severe than anything the Germans did
when they occupied Europe in World War II."
This is so ludicrous that to refute it would be to accord it too much respect. But it's worth considering why Algosaibi would say such a thing. It's quite simple, really. If you ask a normal person to enumerate Hitler's greatest evils, the murder of six million Jews would be somewhere near the top of the list. In the Saudi view, however, this is no doubt a mitigating factor.
What's Wrong With This Picture?
"U.S. Deported 131 Pakistanis in Secret Airlift"--Washington Post, July 10
"71 Arabs Received Fake Visas [in Qatar] Prior to 9/11"--United Press International, July 10
"Immigration Policy to Bar Canadian and Mexican Part-Time Students"--New York Times, July 9
"Saudis Get Easy Access to Visas"--Washington Times, July 10
Chutzpah
Watch
Rabih Haddad, a Lebanese national behind bars for a visa violation, wants political
asylum in America. If he returns to Lebanon, his lawyer tells the Associated
Press, "there is a justifiable fear that he will be persecuted." And why
would that be? Because he's such an outspoken critic of the Syrian occupation
of his country? Because he's advocated peace with Israel?
Well, no. Haddad heads an Islamic "charity," the Global Relief Foundation, whose assets the Treasury Department has frozen because of suspected links to al Qaeda. His lawyer says he fears persecution in Lebanon because "the United States has cast an aura, unjustifiably, against him as a man with links to terrorism."
Terrorist
Numbers Game
"The Sept. 11 hijackers were able to open 35 American bank accounts without
having legitimate Social Security numbers and opened some of the accounts with
fabricated Social Security numbers that were never checked or questioned by
bank officials," the New York Times reports. Fourteen of those accounts
were at SunTrust banks in Florida, and more than $325,000 passed through them.
The FBI has traced a 2000 deposit for $100,000 back to the United Arab Emirates
"and believes that it was sent to the hijackers by Mustafa Ahmed al-Hisawi,
who is accused of helping to manage Osama bin Laden's finances."
The
Latest Nudes Report
"Three men with Arab names were charged Tuesday with making terrorist threats
after allegedly telling a stripper at a topless bar they intended to blow up
military bases in San Antonio," United Press International reports. Two
of the men told police they lived in San Antonio, but the third, Rabhi Abdalla,
claimed to be from the West Bank. "Police confiscated a brown paper bag
from Abdalla containing 'several names and numbers and vehicle keys,' as well
as 21 gold and platinum credit cards. They also confiscated three Texas driver's
licenses from Abdalla." Similar
reports surfaced immediately after Sept. 11.
"The manager of the topless club declined to comment," UPI reports. Hey, he runs a respectable establishment.
Multicultural
in Michigan
In his effort to unseat incumbent Sander Levin in a primary battle for a Michigan
House seat, state Rep. William Callahan has resorted to bald anti-Semitism.
The Detroit Free Press quotes Callahan as saying to the Associated Press of
Levin: "I mean, the man has never owned a Christmas tree. He's not a Christian.
And I'm thinking, 'Jeez, how can he represent me then?' "
When the Free Press asked him about his comments, he tried unsuccessfully to backpedal from them: "I am a Catholic who is pro-life and of Irish, Polish and German descent," Callahan said. "He is very much pro-choice and Hebrew. Enough said."
Enough indeed. It's worth noting, though, that Callahan's attitude is perfectly in tune with the reigning Democratic ideology of multiculturalism, which holds that only blacks can represent blacks, only Hispanics Hispanics and so forth.
Great
Moments in Airport Security
What are the folks at America
West Airlines smoking? Reuters reports the airline kicked a San Francisco
passenger off a flight to Tucson, Ariz., because she "jokingly questioned
whether the plane's pilots were sober."
"Safety is no joking matter," explains airline spokeswoman Patty Nowak. "While this passenger may have been joking it is difficult to determine if someone is joking or serious. We take any comment regarding safety seriously."
But a joke about plastered pilots is different from a joke about a bomb. Even if the passenger in this case were serious, she would pose no security threat. And if it's hard to know whether she's serious, that's because two America West pilots actually were caught in their cups in the cockpit just last week. Sounds to us as if America West's staffers are drunk on power.
A
Religion of Peace
A Nigerian Muslim is attempting suicide-by-court, asking a sharia tirbunal
"to give him the death penalty for blaspheming against the prophet Muhammad,"
the BBC reports.
"I blasphemed against the prophet in my mind and I was neither in any bad condition nor facing any predicament and was not forced by anybody to commit the offense," says 20-year-old Aliyu Ibrahim. "Now, I want to be sentenced to death, because my blasphemy still irritates me and if I died without prosecution under Islamic law, I will die as an infidel."
Another
Religion of Peace
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has suspended the Rev. David Benke "for
praying alongside non-Christians at Yankee Stadium after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks," the White Plains, N.Y.-based Journal News reports. "To participate
with pagans in an interfaith service and, additionally, to give the impression
that there might be more than one God, is an extremely serious offense against
the God of the Bible," the Rev. Wallace Schulz, second vice president of the
synod, wrote in his decision.
Wide
World of Sports
"Police have rescued five children aged between three and seven who were
allegedly being smuggled to Dubai for use as camel jockeys," the Pakistani
newspaper Dawn reports from Islamabad, citing Sadar Azim, a Pakistani law-enforcement
official. Camel racing is the national sport of the United Arab Emirates:
The use of child jockeys and jockeys weighing less than 45 kilograms [99 pounds] has been banned in the UAE since January 1993, but the law is violated frequently. Most of the jockeys in the Emirates come from the subcontinent. "This is the first time we are seeing children of such a young age being smuggled to be used as camel riders," Mr Azim said.
"The oldest boy could not be more than seven years," he said, adding that the youngest child rescued was aged three. The screams of terrified children tied to the backs of camels were thought to make the beasts run faster, Mr Azim said.
Correction
Nicholas
Kristof's New York Times column, which we cited
yesterday, misquoted the Rev. Jerry Vines's characterization of the Prophet
Mohammed. As we noted
last month, Vines called the prophet a "demon-possessed pedophile,"
not a "demon-obsessed pedophile."
Great
Moments in Public Education
Gilroy High School, near San Jose, Calif., is starting a "pilot honors
program this fall in English and social studies for ninth- and 10th-graders,"
the San Jose Mercury News reports. Principal Wendy Gudalewicz and two of her
assistant principals, Cec Bell and Rosa Nieto, "worry [that] students from
Spanish-speaking households . . . won't enroll in honors classes even
if they can do the work because their parents aren't aware the classes exist
and won't push their children to take them."
Determined to leave no child behind, Gudalwicz, Bell and Nieto have embarked on an effort to educate Spanish-speaking families about the new honors program and to encourage as many students as possible to enroll. They'll arrange for special tutoring sessions for those students who are promising enough that they could make the cut with a little extra attention.
Oh, sorry--that's not what happened at all. Actually, Gudalwicz, Bell and Nieto decided to leave every child behind. They quit their jobs to protest the establishment of the honors program. "I chose Gilroy because of the small community, but that works for you and against you," Gudalwicz tells the paper. "What happened here with the decision on the honors issue was based on community pressure." Ensuring educational mediocrity is just too important a task to be left to democracy.
The
Rev. Mr. Malaprop
Speaking at the NAACP convention in Houston, Jesse Jackson calls President Bush
"unliterate." Does he really think "unliterate" is a word,
or is he just trying to be irreverend?
Who's
on First?
"Family, friends and surviving members of the iconic British rock band
The Who gathered at a rural church on Wednesday for the funeral of virtuoso
bass player John Entwistle,"
the Associated Press reports. The headline, however, says "Who Drummer's
Funeral Held in England."
California
Secedes From Union
A New York Times article on soccer reports that "Mexico's national team,
in fact, plays in Southern California more than the United States."
You
Don't Say
"College Tuitions Likely to Be Rising"--headline, Washington Times,
July 10
Ideology: Now You See It, Now You Don't
In May
2000, the Associated Press published a dispatch about a Judicial Watch lawsuit
against Bill Clinton. The dispatch twice referred to Judicial Watch as a "conservative
group."
Yesterday the AP published a dispatch on a threatened Judicial Watch lawsuit against Dick Cheney. The dispatch makes no reference to the group's ideology, calling it only "a Washington-based watchdog group."
People
for the Ethical Treatment of Kidnappers
Tanya Hadden, a former Las Vegas schoolteacher, is charged with kidnapping one
of her students. In a Clark County jail awaiting trial, Hadden is receiving
a special vegetarian diet. But that's not good enough for her; she wants "vegan"
food--and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have taken up her
cause.
The New York Press's Christopher Caldwell has a nice little riff on the narcissism of vegetarianism: "Oh, I can't eat steak like the nine other people at the table! Not special old me! Make the waiter come back so I can grill him for 25 minutes on whether there's any chicken stock in the wax used to coat the cantaloupe!"
Dead
Weight
Chuck West, the coroner in suburban Kane County, Ill., has a big problem--and
we mean a big problem. "The past 18 months, his office has had to
deal with seven deceased people each weighing in at more than 500 pounds. The
heaviest tipped the scales at 700 pounds." Dealing with corpses weighing
more than 300 pounds "places his staff in jeopardy," he says. "We're
running into problems when we have to call the fire department just to help
us move a body."
Man's
Best Friend
A 40-year-old La Habra, Calif., man is "accused of killing and mutilating
his dog to impress his girlfriend," the Associated Press reports. "He loved
this dog, and he was trying to prove to this girlfriend he just met that he
loved her so much he could kill his dog for her," George Abernathy, father of
defendant James Abernathy, tells the AP. Hey, what girl wouldn't be impressed?
'This
Isn't Soccer'
Fans are furious over last night's baseball All-Star Game, which ended in a
7-7 tie after 11 innings when the teams ran out of pitchers. "This isn't soccer,"
Peter Lograsso of Chicago tells the Washington Post. "They should play to win."
The result means the game had no most valuable player, and that's actually fitting. Earlier this week Major League Baseball renamed the All-Star MVP award after Red Sox slugger Ted Williams, who died Friday. But as we noted yesterday, Williams's son, John Henry, wants to freeze his father so he can be revived as soon as scientists figure out how. It just wouldn't do to have someone receive a posthumous award only to find its namesake arising from the dead. So maybe the baseball gods were sending a message last night.
The
Bottom Line
A blind German "psychic" claims he can "read people's futures
by feeling their naked buttocks," Reuters reports from Berlin:
Clairvoyant Ulf Buck, 39, claims that people's backsides have lines like those on the palm of the hand, which can be read to reveal much about their character and destiny.
"The bottom is much more intense--it has a much stronger power of expression than the hand in my experience," Buck told Reuters. "It goes on developing throughout your life."
Yeah, well, hindsight is always 20/20.
(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Natalie Cohen, Gershon Dubin, Alex Lubarov, S.E. Brenner, Jerome Marcus, Steve Brizel, David Simon, Rosanne Klass, Mara Gold, Raghu Desikan, Damian Bennett, C.E. Dobkin, Peter Melvoin, Cesar Canizales, David Beebe, Solly Ezekiel, Robert Waterson, Spencer Brown, Earl Hill, Kenneth Summers, Chris Nicastri, Joe Singh, Michael Threet, Christian Peck, Ed Miseta, Steve Schildwachter, Ian Clark, Greg Brunt, David Stafford, Rosslyn Smith, Robert Salmon, Matthew Feeney, Elliot Ganz and Phil Bowermaster. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: Bush joins the Democrats in playing politics with the corporate scandals.
- Pete du Pont: A judge makes the perfect the enemy of the Constitution.
- Claudia Rosett: There's no excuse for tyranny anywhere.
