From the WSJ Opinion Archives
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Friends
of Jimmy Carter
In a Newsweek interview, a Mideast leader has kind words for a former president
and several other prominent Americans:
You weren't encouraged at all by the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton report?
[President] Bush ignored the Baker-Hamilton report and the positions and reports of a number of American figures and former officials, such as [former national-security adviser Zbigniew] Brzezinski, [Council on Foreign Relations president] Richard Haass and former U.S. president Carter. Bush continues to adopt the same philosophy: if power does not succeed in achieving the objective, then more power will.
Still, some Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer seem to be making an effort to reach out.
I believe [Pelosi's recent visit to Syria] was a step in the right direction. Wise people in the U.S. should realize that Israel and the fundamentalist American conservative right have both become burdens on the interests and the future of America.
And who's saying this? Khaled Meshal, described by Newsweek as the "most powerful figure" in the terrorist group Hamas. With friends like these . . .
America
Held Hostage
The mad mullahs who run Iran are holding three "soft hostages," U.S.-Iranian
dual citizens, "whose passports have been confiscated" by the Iranian
regime while they were visiting, preventing them from leaving the country, the
Washington Post reports. Among them is Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle
East Program at the Smithsonian Institution's Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars:
Esfandiari, . . . who has lived in the United States for more than a quarter-century, has been under virtual house arrest since December, when the government refused to allow her to leave Iran after visiting her 93-year-old mother. Since then, she has been summoned repeatedly for interrogations by intelligence officials about U.S. programs on Iran. In particular, she was questioned about Iran programs at the Wilson Center, one of Washington's most prominent foreign policy think tanks.
Esfandiari was summoned by the intelligence ministry again yesterday but was then taken to Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, the sources said. . . .
Esfandiari has brought in many scholars and analysts from Tehran to speak at the Wilson Center, one of the few places in Washington to offer a robust range of opinions on Iran. "The irony is, in Washington she faced criticism for bringing in people who were sympathetic to the Iranian government," said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "By detaining her the Iranian government only eliminates an advocate for diplomacy and strengthens the voices of those in Washington who say the regime is cruel and should not be engaged."
With friends like these . . .
The Itchy and Scratchy Show
- "Iran to Pay Damages for Cartoon Violence"--headline, Jerusalem
Post, May 9
- "Hamas TV Drops Militant Mickey Mouse"--headline, Jerusalem Post, May 9
Spot
the Idiot
A letter to the editor of the Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal is titled "Clarifying
a Quote":
Your story about the rally for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney ("Protesters call for Bush's ouster," April 30) accurately reported that in my speech I called myself a "defeatist."
The story, however, did not explain what defeat I advocated: Not that of our coalition troops in the field, nor the forces of the Iraqi resistance fighting to end the imperialist occupation of their country, but Bush's and Cheney's proxy war against the U.S. constitutional democracy. Bush is using his war on Iraq as a pretext for overthrowing our rights and our democracy, which is why we must defeat him and his war by bringing our troops home. Win for our troops and the people of Iraq; defeat and impeach Bush and Cheney!
Terence Turner
Ithaca
Not surprisingly, this guy is apparently a professor at Cornell.
Hue
and Cry
"If American science is to meet the needs of all of its citizens, its scientists
must reflect the diversity of the country's population," according to an
editorial in Nature Medicine, a journal of biomedical research.
By "diversity," of course, NM means the proportion of particular ethnic groups:
The typical American lab is peopled almost entirely with white scientists. That's not reflective of society at large. . . .
In 2000, the US population was 75% white, 12% black and 12% Hispanic. But the proportion of minorities that completed biology PhDs between 1993 and 2002 did not match these numbers: only 2.6% of new PhDs were black and only 3.7% were Hispanic. The proportion of tenure-track biology faculty in 2002 was even more disparate: 89% white, 1% black and 2% Hispanic.
And why exactly is this a problem? The editorial makes no claim that the lack of "diversity" diminishes the quality of scientific work. Rather, it is, according to Nature Medicine, a problem for the few black and Hispanic researchers who do work in biology:
According to first-person accounts, because minorities are often the only one of their ethnicity in their lab or department--perhaps even in their institution--they often feel isolated from their co-workers. Because they lack colleagues from their own ethnic group, they may feel unable to effect institutional changes to address the unique challenges they face.
As far as we know, we are the only Turkish-American member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page staff, and that has never caused us to feel "isolated" from our co-workers. But of course the "diversity" industry does not single out Turkish-Americans and treat us as if we are "different," the way it does to blacks and Hispanics.
One other curiosity about this editorial is that it omits any mention of one of the ethnic groups in the usual higher-ed taxonomy, namely "Asians," who of course tend to be highly successful in the sciences. Perhaps, in the manner of apartheid South Africa, Nature Medicine has deemed Asians to be honorary white people.
The
End Unjustifies the Means
The New York Times has an article about a peculiar debate over the ethics of
abortion:
Convinced that more couples would choose to continue their pregnancies if they better appreciated what it meant to raise a child with Down syndrome, a growing group of parents are seeking to insert their own positive perspectives into a decision often dominated by daunting medical statistics and doctors who feel obligated to describe the difficulties of life with a disabled child.
They are pressing obstetricians to send them couples who have been given a prenatal diagnosis and inviting prospective parents into their homes to meet their children. In Massachusetts, for example, volunteers in a "first call" network linking veteran parents to new ones are now offering support to couples deciding whether to continue a pregnancy.
The parent evangelists are driven by a deep-seated fear for their children's well-being in a world where there are fewer people like them. But as prenatal tests become available for a range of other perceived genetic imperfections, they may also be heralding a broader cultural skirmish over where to draw the line between preventing disability and accepting human diversity.
The Times notes that many people who try to discourage the abortion of children with Down syndrome "describe themselves as pro-choice. Yet some see themselves as society's first line of defense against a use of genetic technology that can border on eugenics."
There is, to say the least, a tension between supporting abortion in general and opposing it in this particular case. Surely one cannot coherently argue that an unborn child's life is worthless unless that child has Down syndrome.
Trimming
the Hedges
"Democrat John Edwards said Tuesday that he worked for a hedge fund between
presidential campaigns to learn about financial markets and their relationship
to poverty," the Associated Press reports. You almost have to admire someone
who says something so patently untrue and is so brazen about it:
He said he considered going to an investment firm such as Goldman Sachs, but Fortress was the most natural fit. Presented with the suggestion that he could have taken a university class instead, he said, "That's true." . . .
Edwards said it's fair to ask questions about whether there is a contradiction between campaigning against poverty while working for a hedge fund designed to make rich people richer. But he said the job was a complement to his position as the head of a poverty center at the University of North Carolina, something he said he didn't describe adequately when asked about the hedge fund during the first Democratic debate last month.
Nowhere in the dispatch does Edwards explain what his hedge-fund work taught him about poverty. Reader Robert Paci notes:
I work in the hedge-fund industry and have yet to learn anything about poverty from the experience. In fact, I went into the into the field to avoid poverty. I think almost everyone in the industry sees it my way. Maybe Edwards knows something we don't.
Meanwhile, another AP dispatch reports Edwards rival Barack Obama overstated by three orders of magnitude the number of people killed in the latest Republican-orchestrated natural disaster:
Obama, caught up in the fervor of a campaign speech Tuesday, drastically overstated the Kansas tornadoes death toll, saying 10,000 had died.
The death toll was 12. . . .
As he concluded his remarks a few minutes later, he appeared to realize his gaffe.
"There are going to be times when I get tired," he said. "There are going to be times when I get weary. There are going to be times when I make mistakes."
"Tired?" asks blogger Don Surber. "The man is all of 45. John McCain is 70 and served 5 1/2 years in a Vietnamese dungeon. He never complains about being tired. Why is Obama tired all the time? Has he no stamina at all?"
Of course, the real problem isn't fatigue. It's cynicism.
If
They've Finally Come Up With a Plan, They Deserve a Party, No Matter How Brief
"Dem Leaders Brief Party on New Iraq Plan"--headline, Associated Press,
May 8
'Wait,
Is That Sheryl Crow or Al Gore?'
"UN Says Global Warming Is Confusing Birds and Whales"--headline,
Deutsche Welle Web site, May 8
Press
Calls Differences Irreconcilable
"Cheney Makes Surprise Visit to Press for Reconciliation"--headline,
Arizona Republic, May 9
Psychic
Friends Network
"Blair to Announce Future Tonight"--headline, Australian,
May 10
What's
a Six-Letter Word for 'Humidor'?
"Bill Clinton Pens NY Times' Crossword Puzzle"--headline, Reuters,
May 7
'Hey,
What Do You Expect at My Age?'
"Atlas Shrugged, at 50"--headline, FrontPageMagazine.com, May 9
A Teacher
Who Sticks His Neck Out
"Drunk Students Learn Lesson From Peeved Giraffe"--headline, MSNBC.com,
May 8
Can't
We All Just Get Along?
"Mother and Hospital Battle Over Placenta"--headline, KXNT-AM Web
site, May 8
'That
Boy Hasn't Been Right Since He Went to Work at the Movie Theater'
"Usher Cleans House, Drops Mom"--headline, E! Online, May 8
News You Can Use
- "Human Error Kills"--headline, Edmonton
(Alberta) Sun, May 8
- "Experts: Don't Jump to Conclusions"--headline, Philadelphia
Inquirer, May 9
- "Women Just Mean Trouble for Superheroes"--headline, Indianapolis Star, May 6
Bottom Stories of the Day
- "Vote Delayed on 'Tom' the Tree's Fate"--headline, Daily
Journal (San Mateo, Calif.), May 8
- "China Pig Disease Unlikely to Affect People--Experts"--headline,
Reuters,
May 9
- " 'Idol' Contestants Sing Bee Gees Songs"--headline, Associated
Press, May 9
- "So Far, No Area Churches Join Sanctuary Movement"--headline,
Seattle
Times, May 9
- "Gore Supporters Reunite, Nothing Happens"--headline, New
York Observer, May 9
- "Palestinian Factions Reject New Truce With Israel"--headline, Times of India, May 9
Hot
Persian Women!
"It has become routine in the Islamic Republic of Iran," reports Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
Every year--ahead of the hot summer months--the authorities launch a crackdown on what they describe as "bad veiling." The term is used to describe women who appear in public with colorful scarves and tight coats, or who show their hair or use makeup.
Police accost and sometimes detain such "badly veiled" women on major squares or in shopping malls, warning or fining them--or taking them to police stations, where they must pledge in writing not to appear immodestly dressed in public.
Yet this year's crackdown is described by observers as one of the harshest in recent memory.
It's true what they say: It isn't the heat, it's the humility!
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Ed Lasky, Monty Krieger, David Weissman, Joel Goldberg, Steven Getman, Torsten Trowe, Michael Segal, Steve Prestegard, Richard Belzer, Aaron Cummins, Daniel Bryant, Sid Knowles, Matthew du Mee, Jim Miller, Joseph DeMartino, Matt Kaufman, Chris Green, David Waghalter, Naftali Friedman, John Robb, Steve Karass, Scott Wright, John Sanders, Stefan Sharkansky and Jim Orheim. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: Axis of Soros: The men and motives behind the World Bank coup attempt.
- Amir Taheri: Iran's Ahmadinejad isn't bringing the oil money "to every dinner table."
- Michel Gurfinkel (from Commentary): Can Sarkozy save France?
