From the WSJ Opinion Archives

by JAMES TARANTO
Tuesday, May 22, 2007 3:40 P.M. EDT

Profiles in Courage
Two weeks ago we noted that Hamas was airing a TV show in which a Mickey Mouse look-alike incites Palestinian tots to become suicide bombers--thereby violating both basic standards of humanity and Disney's intellectual property. Since "world opinion" seems to have settled on the view that humanity is too much to expect from Palestinians, we urged Disney at least to enforce its property rights.

Now Robert Iger, Disney's CEO, is speaking out:

"We didn't mobilize our forces and seek to either have the clip taken down or to make any broad public statement about it," Iger told a gathering of the Society of Business Editors and Writers at the Disneyland Hotel.

"We were appalled by the use of our character to disseminate that kind of message," he said "I think anytime any group seeks to exploit children in that manner, it's despicable."

Still, Iger said it didn't seem to make any sense for Disney to make any loud public statement at the time.

"I just didn't think it would have any effect," he said. "I think it should have been obvious how the company felt about the subject."

You'd think that Iger would be fierce as a tiger, not timid as a mouse. Not only that, but why is he quoting Daffy Duck, who works for rival Warner Bros.? Doesn't Donald have anything pithy to say?

Management Secrets of the Prophet Muhammad
This is quite a story, from the Associated Press in Cairo:

Al-Azhar University, one of Sunni Islam's most prestigious institutions, ordered one of its clerics Monday to face a disciplinary panel after he issued a controversial decree allowing adults to breast-feed.

Ezzat Attiya had issued a fatwa, or religious edict, saying adult men could breast-feed from female work colleagues as a way to avoid breaking Islamic rules that forbid men and women from being alone together.

In Islamic tradition, breast-feeding establishes a degree of maternal relation, even if a woman nurses a child who is not biologically hers. It means the child could not marry the nursing woman's biological children.

Attiya--the head of Al-Azhar's Department of Hadith, or teachings of the Prophet Muhammad--insisted the same would apply with adults. He argued that if a man nursed from a co-worker, it would establish a family bond between them and allow the two to work side-by-side without raising suspicion of an illicit sexual relation.

Well, it's certainly a creative attempt to resolve a conundrum that must bedevil many a jihadi human-resources manager. One wonders if a similar approach could help shield American employers against sexual-harassment lawsuits. Nah, one realizes, probably not.

Ex-Backer Turns On Carter
In the wake of Jimmy Carter's latest execration of President Bush, an erstwhile supporter is speaking out harshly against America's 34th-best president, the New York Times reports:

Reached Monday, Mr. Carter's former communications aide, Gerald Rafshoon, declared of his former boss, "I've never been prouder of him."

Rafshoon spent a little over a year in the Carter White House, and said in his exit interview that he had known Carter for years before then. And in all that time, everything Carter has done has made Rafshoon less proud than he is now, after the silly anti-Bush remarks.

Ouch!

Dan Quayle, Jimmy Carter and Al Gore Walk Into a Bar . . .
"Wild Potatoes, Peanuts at Risk From Global Warming"--headline, Reuters, May 22

Cashing In on Poverty
"He's pretty, he has flowing locks, he's young-looking," Andrew Sullivan has said of the lovely and talented John Edwards. But Edwards is more than just a pretty face. He's also loaded. The San Francisco Chronicle alone reports that he raked in $55,000 in taxpayer dollars for a single speech at the University of California's Davis campus. Topic of the speech: "Poverty, the great moral issue facing America."

(Confidential to other institutions of higher learning: If you want a speaker on poverty but John Edwards is out of your price range, we're willing to do it for just $49,500--a full 10% off.)

BusinessWeek, meanwhile, reports that after losing the 2004 vice presidential election, Edwards "started a nonprofit dedicated to fighting poverty":

Rather than recruiting outside poverty experts, the Center for Promise & Opportunity became a perch for several once and future Edwards staff members.

The line between an ordinary nonprofit and a group formed to test the political waters can be blurry. But legally there's a big difference. Ordinary nonprofits aren't subject to rules on disclosing donors and limiting contributions; exploratory political groups are. No one has challenged the status of the Edwards center, and experts in the field say it may technically pass muster as an ordinary nonprofit. But at a minimum, it appears to have helped Edwards prepare for the 2008 Presidential race.

There's a great campaign slogan: "Edwards in '08: He may technically pass muster!"

One area in which Edwards is getting a bum rap, though, is that $400 haircut. The Politico has video in which Edwards explains what happened: "Other people arrange these things, and I wasn't personally involved in it."

It's not that he's a foppish elitist who spends $400 on a haircut. He's a foppish elitist who has servants to make appointments at the beauty salon for him.

Isn't It Clear He's Too Old to Be President?
"Gravel Spill Snarls I-75"--headline, Enquirer (Cincinnati), May 22

Unholy Alliance
Pro-surrender Democrats are giving in--for now, the Associated Press reports:

In grudging concessions to President Bush, Democrats intend to draft an Iraq war-funding bill without a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and shorn of billions of dollars in spending on domestic programs, officials said Monday.

The legislation would include the first federal minimum wage increase in more than a decade, a top priority for the Democrats who took control of Congress in January, the officials added.

While details remain subject to change, the measure is designed to close the books by Friday on a bruising veto fight between Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress over the war. It would provide funds for military operations in Iraq through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

London's left-wing Guardian, meanwhile, reports on what may be in store between now and Sept. 30:

Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say.

"Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq and it's a very dangerous course for them to be following. They are already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces," a senior US official in Baghdad warned. "They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine US will and British will, such as the rocket attacks on Basra palace and the Green Zone [in Baghdad]. The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government]."

The official said US commanders were bracing for a nationwide, Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive, linking al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents to Tehran's Shia militia allies, that Iran hoped would trigger a political mutiny in Washington and a US retreat. "We expect that al-Qaida and Iran will both attempt to increase the propaganda and increase the violence prior to Petraeus's report in September [when the US commander General David Petraeus will report to Congress on President George Bush's controversial, six-month security "surge" of 30,000 troop reinforcements]," the official said.

We suppose it would be rude to point out that the donks and the mullahs--even if not, strictly speaking, allies--are working in concert to bring about an American defeat.

Statistical Offense
Last year John Kerry* badmouthed Americans who serve in the military as uneducated failures. Now the Associated Press is badmouthing them as perverts:

Military veterans in prison are more than twice as likely to have been convicted for sex offenses as nonveteran inmates, federal researchers say. They cannot say why. . . .

Veterans are half as likely to be incarcerated as those without service experience in the first place, researchers found, but 23 percent of the veterans in prison were sex offenders, compared with 9 percent of nonveteran inmates. . . .

The incarceration rate for veterans is 630 per 100,000, compared to 1,390 per 100,000 for nonveterans. More than 90 percent of U.S. veterans are male and 99 percent of the veterans in prison are male.

The headline reads "Study: Imprisoned Military Vets More Likely to Have Sex Crime Convictions Than Others." It could just as easily read, "Study: Military Vets Far Less Likely to Be Imprisoned Than Others."

What's more, it's very easy to make the sex-crime disparity vanish. The sex-crime incarceration rate for veterans is 23% of 630 per 100,000, or 145 per 100,000. The sex-crime incarceration rate for nonveterans is 9% of 1,390 per 100,000, or 125 per 100,000. The veteran rate is only 16% higher than the nonveteran rate.

The AP notes that the overwhelming majority of veterans are male, but it does not note that men commit the overwhelming majority of crimes. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 11.3% of all men will be in prison at some time in their lives, vs. just 1.8% of women. Veterans, then, are far more law-abiding, both in terms of sex crimes and nonsex crimes, than nonveterans, once we adjust for the sex ratio.

Probably the AP was just being sloppy, but the result was to smear Americans who have served their country in uniform.

* He should talk--he served in Vietnam!

Who'll Control the Controllers?
"An intensive campaign to enforce strict population-control measures prompted violent clashes between the police and local residents in southwestern China in recent days," the New York Times reports from Beijing:

They gave varying accounts of injuries and deaths, with some asserting that as many as five people were killed, including three officials responsible for population-control work.

But hey, look on the bright side. In giving their lives, those officials managed to reduce China's population by three.

Life Imitates the Onion

  • "RIAA Sues Radio Stations for Giving Away Free Music"--headline, Onion, Oct. 2, 2002

  • "Artists and Labels Seek Royalties From Radio"--headline, Los Angeles Times, May 21, 2007

Sounds Like They Ought to Put Him in Jail
"Minister Accused of Having 8 Wives in Jail"--headline, WGCL-TV Web site (Atlanta), May 21

What Part of the Body Is That?
"Officials: Body Is Missing Constable"--headline, Associated Press, May 21

Wouldn't It Have Been Easier to Tie a Yellow Ribbon or Something?
"Paula Abdul Misses Dog, Breaks Nose"--headline, CNN.com, May 22

This Headline Would Have Been Wittier a Few Years Ago
"Men's Minds Decline More With Age"--headline, LiveScience.com, May 21

News You Can Use

  • "How to Survive in a Black Hole"--headline, Nature.com, May 18

  • "Hamsters on Viagra Have Less Jet Lag, Research Shows"--headline, Bloomberg, May 21

Bottom Stories of the Day

Giving a Toot About Accuracy
MediaBistro blogress Kate Coe notes this hilarious Associated Press correction:

In a May 18 story about 88 Burundian refugees flying to the United States for resettlement, The Associated Press misspelled the ethnic majority in Burundi. They are Hutus, not Tutus.

Meanwhile, the BBC reports on another language difficulty:

A Florida doctor has been convicted of supporting al-Qaeda by pledging allegiance to the group and agreeing to treat its wounded fighters.

Rafiq Abdus Sabir, 52, was found guilty of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda by a federal court. . . .

During the trial, Sabir said he had not realised that "Sheikh Osama" referred to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Sabir also testified that he had misunderstood the word al-Qaeda because of his limited Arabic.

Hey, how do you say "al Qaeda" in Arabic anyway?

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Today on OpinionJournal:

  • Bob Kerrey: Yes, Iraq is central to the fight against Islamic radicalism.
  • Bret Stephens: A BBC reporter held hostage in Gaza.
  • Judith Dobrzynski: The head of the National Endowment for the Humanities stands up for American exceptionalism.

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