From the WSJ Opinion Archives
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Baby
on Board
Here's a Reuters dispatch on a particularly horrific attack in Iraq:
Maj. Gen. Michael Barbero, deputy director for regional operations in the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, said adults in a vehicle with two children in the backseat were allowed through a Baghdad checkpoint on Sunday.
The adults then parked next to a market in the Adamiya area of Baghdad, abandoned the vehicle and detonated it with the children still inside, according to the general and another defense official.
"Children in the back seat, lower suspicion, we let it move through," Barbero said. "They parked the vehicle, the adults run out and detonate it with the children in the back."
Reuters calls the attackers "insurgents" and the attack a "militant" one, but nowhere does the word terrorist appear. That's because, according to Reuters, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
So who is the man whose "freedom fighter" deliberately blows up children in cars? Whoever he is, he's got a serious beating coming.
Vandals
for Peace
An Army recruiting station in Milwaukee was vandalized by "peace"
protesters, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:
Protesters broke a window and threw smoke bombs, paint and human excrement, police said. There were no injuries reported.
The paper says that "Wisconsin peace activist groups on Tuesday said some protesters might increasingly turn to destruction as their frustrations mount":
Peace Action Wisconsin does not condone violence, said the group's project organizer Julie Enslow, but some anti-war protesters might feel the need to be violent to get their point across.
"We do not use those tactics ourselves, but the movement is very broad, and as this war continues, the anti-war movement is going to take many forms--not all of which everyone feels comfortable with," Enslow said.
Hmm, vicarious vandalism. Detroit's WXYZ-TV reports on a similar incident in the Wolverine State:
Congressman Mike Rogers' home is under police guard after his Lansing office was severely vandalized last night. . . .
Two security cameras were destroyed and the building was spray painted. . . .
The vandals also spread red paint all over the 8th congressional district sign in front of the building, as well as on a sign that says "We Support Our Troops."
They also put a sign on one of the buildings [sic] windows that says Congressman Rogers has "blood on his hands."
Can someone explain to us the logic behind the notion that destroying property is an appropriate response to unhappiness that America is at war?
Unlikely
Backing for Big Oil
The New York Times has an editorial thundering as usual against oil-company
profits. Oh, wait:
Let's hear it for the profit motive. Russia has apparently decided that it can do even better financially if it starts pressuring its longtime client Iran to curtail its nuclear appetites. . . .
The Bush administration also deserves credit if it helped Moscow to see where its larger interests lie. We are far less enthusiastic about recent threats--from Capitol Hill and some in the administration--to impose unilateral sanctions on foreign energy companies that do business with Iran. The administration needs all the friends it can get, and this is another case where quiet persuasion can go a lot further than bludgeoning. . . .
[The administration] should start by dropping fantasies of regime change and pledge to re-establish diplomatic and economic ties if Iran abandons its nuclear ambitions. We know the default position is more threats. But sometimes the prospect of profit--and not just loss--works better.
Apparently the Times can abide Big Oil making money as long as it benefits the mad mullahs who run Iran.
How
Could They?
From the Associated Press:
Democrats are using the same tricks as President Bush in their rival plan to balance the federal budget by 2012: ignoring long-term costs of the war in Iraq and the need to fix a tax law that threatens unsuspecting middle-class families.
Bush used phantom savings to claim he can balance the budget while extending his tax cuts into the future. Democrats would use that money to increase spending on education, health research and other domestic programs while claiming to be budget balancers.
We're so disillusioned. We really thought the Democrats were going to be different!
Where's
the ACLU When You Need It?
The governor of Illinois apparently is one of those Christianist fanatics, reports
Chicago's WBBM-TV:
As CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he is "on the side of the Lord."
The governor called his campaign a "crusade," declaring that, as he sees it, he is on the side of God in offering Illinoisans more access to medical insurance and better schools.
Tuesday's political appearance even began with a prayer.
Surrounded by about a dozen Christian ministers at the South Side's Mt. Vernon Missionary Baptist Church, the governor was once again trying to build political support for his proposals by invoking religion.
"When we get sworn into office, do you know what we do?" Blagojevich said to the crowd. "We put our hand on the Holy Bible and we swear under God that we are going to do our duty for the people. And that's what this fight is really all about--tax fairness to fund our schools and to give everyone the chance to live the American dream.
Hat tip: Steve Bartin.
Oh
Baby, You're Really Hot
Al Gore testified before a House committee hearing today on "global warming,"
and he offered a curious analogy, Fox News reports:
"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem,' " Gore said. "If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant. You take action."
Huh? Shouldn't you get the baby out of the crib and put the fire out before you take the baby to the doctor? And how exactly is the Earth like a baby anyway?
Was
Romney Misquoted?
Blogger Edward Morrissey says maybe. As we noted
yesterday, the Miami
Herald reported that Romney "tripped" and said the following during
a speech to Cuban-Americans in Miami:
''Hugo Chávez has tried to steal an inspiring phrase--Patria o muerte, venceremos,'' Romney said. "It does not belong to him. It belongs to a free Cuba.''
In fact, that Spanish phrase does not belong to a Free Cuba; it is a slogan of the late Fidel Castro. But Romney's prepared text stated things differently:
Chavez and Fidel Castro have stolen the phrase--"Patria o muerte, venceremos." This phrase should not be used by dictators, but by liberators.
It sounds as though Romney deviated from his prepared text and hilarity ensued.
What
Would Teens Do Without Experts?
"Expert Urges Teens to Use Common Sense Online"--headline, Wausau
(Wis.) Daily Herald, March 21
'Oh
Yeah, It's That Building With the "To Serve and Protect" Sign'
"Sheriff's Office Recognized"--headline, Enquirer (Cincinnati), March 19
World
Ends, Etc., Etc.
"U.S.-Led Terror War Victimises World's Minorities"--headline, Inter
Press Service, March 20
Poor
Florence
"Crawfish Bash In Florence Tuesday Night"--headline, WCPO-TV (Cincinnati),
March 20
Black
Ones Are Cooler-Looking, Though
" 'Green' Autos Are Sleek, Fun to Drive"--headline, Express-News
(San Antonio), March 20
Wouldn't
It Be Easier to Turn Up the Radio?
"Parents Hope Crash Will Wake Up Drivers"--headline, Denver Post,
March 21
News You Can Use
- "Online Anonymity Lets Users Get Nasty"--headline, Associated
Press, March 21
- "Automakers Say: Look at Cars Not Women"--headline, Reuters, March 21
Bottom Story of the Day
- "Chris Mihm is Healthy Enough to Eat Lunch"--headline, Los
Angeles Times Web site, March 20
- "Gore Urges Fast Action on Global Warming"--headline, Associated Press, March 21
Three
Cheers for Capitalism
Reuters reports that a Boeing Co. missile-defense system "proved more reliable
than expected and required less maintenance when it went on alert for a prolonged
period last summer before a series of North Korean missile tests":
"We're ready to defend the nation," Scott Fancher, vice president and program director of the system, said of the ground-based midcourse (GMD) missile defense system Boeing is developing for the Pentagon.
The system was built to intercept and destroy enemy long-range ballistic missiles during the midcourse phase of their flight. It went on alert before the North Korean missile tests for "much longer than it had ever been before," Fancher said, although he declined to give an exact timespan.
"The system was much more robust than we had hoped," he said, referring to its software and memory banks.
The U.S. missile defense system was never engaged because North Korea's long-range Taepodong 2 missile fell harmlessly into the Sea of Japan shortly after its launch.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that a privately developed rocket came very close to carrying a payload into space:
The rocket was launched by Space Exploration Technologies--a company based in El Segundo, Calif., founded by Elon Musk, who became a multimillionaire when he sold the company he started, PayPal, to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.
The rocket lost contact with the ground several minutes into the launching. Video from the launchpad and on board the rocket showed a smooth ascent. Mr. Musk's brother, Kimbal, wrote an entry on his blog that used an exhuberant [sic] profanity and then called the launch "awesome beyond words." But the rocket began to shimmy, and the video signal and other information were lost.
Still, SpaceX calls the launch a success, since, as Musk says, the problem is fixable and "we have learned everything we need to know to deliver a satellite."
So the guy who founded PayPal is having more success firing things into space than the avatars of the Juche Idea, who have a whole country behind them. Isn't capitalism grand?
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Brendan Schulman, Don Hubschman, Lewis Sckolnick, Ethel Fenig, Michael Segal, Ed Lasky, Alan Ridgeway, Lyle Katz, David Shapero, Scott Wright, Matt Knudson, Christopher Conrad, Mark Schulze, Steven Stratton, Tom Brosz, Bob Wray, Dennis Clark, Jerry Rhoden, Scott Yates, Daniel Goldstein, Brian Evans, Gregg Geil, Rod Pennington, Kyle Kyllan, Duncan Witte, Dan O'Shea, David Carrad, Richard Belzer, John Williamson, Andrew Robinson and Christian Peck. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Edward Jay Epstein: KSM's confession raises new questions about the link between Saddam and al Qaeda.
- Peter Wehner (from RealClearPolitics): Iraq and the return of McGovernism.
- Jane Garmey: Gardeners who planted hope in times of war.
