Morning Report, September 28th: A World of Rattling Sabers, Catching Polanski, Obama: Muslim Community Organizer or Olympic Champion (?), Covering Illegals, Fawning over Clinton, and the Michael Moore Alternative

September 28, 2009 By Timothy Dalrymple

One Christian’s perspective on the day’s news:

1.  A lot of saber-rattling in the world today.  Iran test-fired missiles on three separate occasions over the weekend, missiles capable of delivering a warhead to Israel, parts of Europe, and U.S. military bases throughout the Middle East (the missiles have a range of 1200 miles).  Initially, even after the announcement of Iran’s second nuclear facility (which was known to U.S. intelligence beforehand), the Obama administration spoke of a deadline of December for Iran to change its ways.  Of course, we had a deadline of early September, but that came and went with a 5-page joke of a letter agreeing to talk about anything but their nuclear program.  Others are pressing for much swifter action from Iran.

My impression is that the Obama administration is trying not to do or say anything too provocative, for fear that it would derail the plan to sit down with the Iranians in a week or so.  Even though the Iranians have said they will not discuss their nuclear program, we are assuming this is a public front.  We are assuming that once the honey pot gets sweet enough, the Iranians will be willing to cut a deal.  I’m not so sure this is true.  Saddam refused to fully cooperate in large part (according to insider accounts) because he believed that we would never attack.  Ahmadinejad may be even more justified in such an opinion.  But will Israel not strike at the nuclear facilities?  If Israel does it, it risks igniting a regional war.  If the United States, or NATO or the UN undertook to bomb them, the chances of a war are lower, lower still, and lowest.  We need to be careful not to put Israel into a position where it feels that it faces extinction unless it strikes first; the consequences could be devastating.

2.  At the same time, India claims it now has high-yield warheads, in the 200 kiloton range.  At the UN General Assembly, Obama proposed that India enter into the Non-Proliferation Treaty (it is not a signee) as a non-nuclear state, and India vehemently refused.

3.  OBAMA: MUSLIM COMMUNITY ORGANIZER?  Muslim Prayers in DC in front of the Capitol building.  Some controversy over the organizers, one of whom has defended terrorists in court, but what I found interesting was that some of the Muslims in attendance were convinced that Obama himself had organized the event.  The conspiracy theorists are going to love that one!

4.  CATCHING POLANSKI.  Roman Polanski was seized at a film festival in Switzerland, and extradition proceedings are soon to begin on whether he can be returned to the United States to be held accountable for fleeing the U. S. justice system and living as a fugitive for over three decades.  There is an unfortunate tendency amongst our cultural elites, in regards to themselves and others, to believe that the elites are above not only the laws but also the common moral standards that govern the hoi polloi.  Not love, but talent covers over a multitude of sins in our society.

Polanski has had a difficult life, to be sure.  Born to agnostics in Poland, a Jewish father and a mother of Jewish and Catholic descent, his childhood was warped by the specter of Nazi oppressions and atrocities, as he lived in the Krakow Ghetto after the Germans invaded Poland; his mother died in Auschwitz, his father survived a different camp, and Roman himself survived with the help of Polish Catholic families.  Even after he became a successful Polish director and then a successful American director, tragedy followed after him.  His first wife left him for another man after two years of marriage; his friend Bruce Lee died, and his actress wife, a pregnant Sharon Tate, was killed in the Manson murders.  Manson had been angry with the previous residents, one of whom had refused to record his music; he ordered his followers (not knowing there were new residents there) to enter the house and kill everyone there.  After the others were slain, Tate pleaded for the life of her unborn child, and Susan Atkins said she felt no pity and set about stabbing her repeatedly.  Roman was in London at the time, and he was briefly a suspect, until the Manson group was arrested on other charges and the evidence of their participation came to light.

But no tragedy in his own life, and certainly no amount of artistic genius, can justify pedophilic rape.  The story is that Polanski was photographing a 13-year-old model (31 years his junior at the time) at Jack Nicholson’s house while the latter was out of town.  He gave the girl alcohol and a part of a Quaalude, and then raped and Sodomized her.  The lawyers agreed to a plea bargain on the sole charge of “unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.”  The DA’s office agreed to the lesser charge because of Polanski’s fame, and the girl was reluctant to testify when it became clear that the details of her anal rape would be thrown about in the national media.  Before sentencing, anyway, Polanski fled to England and then to France, where French citizens are rarely extradited.  The U.S. requested extradition, and the French have refused.  Polanski recently won an Oscar and the Palme D’Or for The Pianist.  He is a legend in the film-making industry.

Some had been talking about appealing to President Obama for clemency, on the basis of supposed judicial misconduct “uncovered” by a dubious 2008 documentary.  I can’t imagine that Obama would really want Polanski, a hero to a community (Hollywood) that adores him and lines his pockets, dragged back to Los Angeles and put through a trial, or sentenced to prison.  Nor can I imagine that Swiss authorities, not to mention the French, really want that.  Thus, my prediction: Polanski refuses extradition, forcing a hearing, and the hearing fails to grant extradition, after which the case is dropped (perhaps with an agreement that Polanski is not to return to the United States, since that would be bad PR).

Remember, you heard it here first.

UPDATE: More info on the case from Michelle Malkin, including some background to Anne Applebaum (of the Times) and her defense of Polanski (namely, Applebaum fails to mention that her husband is the Foreign Minister in Poland, who has been pushing for the charges to be dropped).  Also, a writer for the Los Angeles Times says the charges should be dismissed because the state is short on money.  It may be the case that Polanski was arrested this time (he has gone to Switzerland often, and owns a home there) because of the whole UBS disagreement between the US and the Swiss.

5.  OLYMPIOBAMA.  Where I can root for Obama wholeheartedly: in Copenhagen this weekend as he presses for the International Olympic Committee to award the honor of hosting the Olympics to Chicago.  I’m not sure whether America should host it yet again, and I’m sympathetic to the argument that Rio should get it, since the IOC has long neglected South America — but if it were in Chicago, I would be able to go.  Finally.  So…GO BARACK!  These votes are practically all about cronyism, and I don’t like the way that media are being hushed about widespread opposition amongst Chicagoans, but hey, I want to go, and Chicagoans are just spoiled.

Another area where I support him: in pushing for more school time, including longer school days and shorter summers.  We should have a balanced perspective:

Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.

“Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,” Duncan told the AP. “I want to just level the playing field.”

While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it’s not true they all spend more time in school.

Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).

Still, kids in some nations do have more hours, and results with charter schools and public schools too show consistently that increasing the school day by an hour, for instance, thus extending each period/subject by ten minutes, leads to marked improvements.

6.  A NEW LOW for popular support of the health care reform championed by Obama and congressional Democrats: 41%.  What might Democrats do now to change popular perception?  Obama can hardly go on television and radio more often than he has already done.  The PR blitz has not worked.  Democrats face two options: they can (1) press ahead and bend enough elbows to get the Baucus bill passed, and hope that people like the legislation better after it’s passed, or they can (2) withdraw the issue for a little while and come back later with a leaner, more moderate, more limited bill.

I prefer #2.  The rancor would only grow if Democrats forced the bill through now; all the people protesting are starting to believe that they have turned the tide; if the White House forced this through, the anger we’ve seen up until now will pale in comparison to what we would see.  A lot of arms would have to be twisted, a fair number of Blue Dogs (at least) would lose their seats in 2010, and what emerged would probably be an extraordinarily complicated and compromised piece of legislation.  That said, once the bill is passed, the issue of health care reform will fade from public attention for a while, since the changes would begin to take effect in 2011 (for taxes) and 2013 (for health insurance).  The rancor would fade slowly, and the Democrats could engage in a sort of slow-motion PR campaign and then hope that people like the changes once they set in.  But 2010 would be rough, and few will be fond of the tax changes in 2011 either.

The second option gives the Democrats a graceful way to press reset.  They could return with a more gradual approach that moves in deliberate, accountable steps.  If you think you can cut hundreds of billions from Medicare and Medicare Advantage without reducing quality of care, then show me you can do that first, and start saving up money for your big program.  If you think you can improve matters by structuring physician compensation differently, then show me that first with Medicare and military care.  In other words, in those places where we can test whether these claims are true, let’s do so — before we completely redesign 1/6th of the American economy on some fairly dubious propositions.  I understand, some changes have to be made in concert.  But not all.

7.  ILLEGAL COVERAGE.  Relatedly, I’m sure that the Democratic leadership would rather not have the words “illegal immigrants” in the air during the health care reform debate (to be addressed later, presumably).  But one group of congressional Democrats is pushing back, arguing that (1) legal permanent residents (non-citizens) should be able to purchase health insurance on the government exchange, with government subsidies, and (2) illegal immigrants should be able to purchase health insurance on the same exchanges, without federal subsidies.

I agree on both points, actually.  The second point would keep illegal immigrants, or at least those who could afford health care plans, from using the emergency room every time they’re sick.  What bothered me earlier was not the notion of giving health care to illegal immigrants, it was the duplicity in claiming they would not be covered.

8.  GENERAL DISREGARD.  The rift between Obama and General McChrystal seems to be widening; otherwise it’s hard to understand why General McChrystal would let it be known, during a television interview, that he has only spoken with President Obama once since he took over command of the Afghanistan war.  Conservatives, of course, question what this says about Obama’s priorities.

In the meantime, the White House officially received McChrystal’s report and request for more troops, and they have officially put the report on the back burner until they have reconsidered their entire approach to the region.  As Ed Morrisey writes:

Shelving the request makes it clear that Obama and the White House want to conduct a political review of the mission.  That’s not illegitimate; after all, part of the consideration has to be whether our allies have the political will to support us in the Af-Pak theater, as well as whether Americans have the political will to continue the fight.  If neither exists, then the entire question of strategy is moot, and the focus will shift to retreat from the theater.

The problem with this is that the Obama administration has already had plenty of time for political calculation.  They have been in office since January, and Obama campaigned for two years on the pledge to fight in Afghanistan with more resources and focus than the previous administration.  The politics of the war have not changed much, at least in terms other than polling.

Obama wanted to be Commander in Chief, and he has had that role for eight months.  The question of politics should have already been well settled by this time.  So far he has done a good job of fighting the war in Afghanistan, but this very public vacillation undermines the projection of American strength in the region and encourages a defeatist attitude.  It’s time to fish or cut bait on the politics and start seriously addressing the strategy, if we’re going to fight and win this war.

9.  If you want to see the very definition of fawning news coverage, check out this article from the French news service, AFP, about former President Bill Clinton.  Yikes.

10.  Background info on the strange “Hymn to Obama” that made the YouTube rounds.  I can’t manage to get too upset about it.  The lyrics were vaguely worshipful, but apparently the song was made and performed at an assembly in recognition of Black History Month in February.  It makes sense to have a song about Obama and his historic achievement.  I could have done without the “Jesus Loves the Little Children” reworked lyrics, but it’s probably more a matter of poor lyric-writing than political indoctrination.

11.  TODAY’S TWO-SIDES, I.  From the Right, Eliot Cohen on the options that remain with Iran.

12.  TODAY’S TWO-SIDES, II.  Michael Moore on why he hates capitalism.  Kyle Smith wonders what alternative he prefers.

13.  COLUMN OF THE DAY: This remarkably clear essay from one former Secretary of Health and Human Services and two former members of the White House Economic Council.  I made this argument long ago: that the health care reform proposed right now is another form of income distribution.

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Morning Report, September 24th: Finding the Right College, Recession and Racial Integration, The Missing Index, Faith at Harvard, Terrorism Central, Suing the Truth-Exposers, Mamas and (Bad) Papas, Palinasia, Hollywood Morality and Cracking the Nut of Iran

September 24, 2009 By Timothy Dalrymple

One Christian’s perspective on the day’s news:

1.  For those who are guiding children toward college, or interested in the best way to do so, Thomas Sowell has a nice article with some direction on how to find the right college.  The rankings one finds in a place like US News and World Report are not meaningless, but they have very little to do with the quality of the experience the student will have.  I should add, however, that college is largely what one makes of it.  Approached rightly, I believe that almost any student can be happy at almost any institution, if s/he develops the right relationships, maintains the right attitudes and pursues the right things.  For all the focus on finding the right college, there should be more attention to how one makes the college the right college through the actions one takes once there.

2.  RECESSION AND RACIAL INTEGRATION.  Along these same lines, Christianity Today has an interesting account of how the financial pressures of the recession have led black and white churches to integrate and worship together.  Ours is a God who makes good things out of evil, or what the world calls evil.

3.  THE MISSING INDEX.  With the emergence of the Baucus plan, we’re no longer dealing with multiple possible bills and all the confusion that brings.  The Baucus plan represents the Democratic game plan right now.  So it’s gaining more and more scrutiny.  Dick Morris, who is apparently no fan, details (some of) the costs of the Baucus plan for non-rich Americans.  He claims that the uninsured will only receive subsidies for insurance coverage after they have paid 20% of their income.  Of course, Dick Morris could be mistaken, so I will wait for confirmation on that.

What is interesting to me, however, is the 35% tax on “gold-plated” health insurance policies ($8000 for individuals), which is intended to help pay for the subsidies that will be given to the poor.  So  imagine that an individual receives an insurance policy worth $10K.  The insurance provider will then be taxed $3500.  The profit margin in the health insurance business is exceedingly small.  A study in 2003 showed that 70% of insurance providers either had a negative profit margin or one underneath 5%.  Average returns recently have been about 3%, making health insurance less profitable (by margin) than 85 other industries.  So there’s no way the insurer can simply eat the 35% increase in cost.  Naturally, then, the provider will pass that cost along.  Those who paid $10K for their own insurance will now pay $13.5K; those who receive insurance through their employers may find their plans dropped (sending them into the government plan, if there is one) or lowered in quality in order to fall beneath the trigger point.

The Democrats (and of course the Republicans, though they’re not the ones in charge right now, so the Democrats get to enjoy the burden of leadership here) do not want to tax everyone.  So this is a way of taxing individuals indirectly, by taxing those who provide them services with very little profit, knowing full well the cost will be passed along.  But it won’t seem like a tax, since the cost is coming from those evil insurance providers (further cultivating animosity between patients and insurance providers…sending more into the arms of the government?).

But what’s interesting to me is that the “trigger” of $8K for individuals (something like $21K for families) is not indexed to inflation (not to mention, as Morris notes, medical inflation, which has been twice the ordinary inflation rate).  Indexing to inflation would be an obvious thing to do, so someone must have decided not to do so.  According to estimates, 10% of Americans presently have health insurance policies that fall into this category.  Many of them are not rich; many belong to unions that have used their bargaining power for Cadillac insurance plans.  Bear in mind that the reformed system would not “begin” until 2013, by which time 15% or 20% of Americans may reach that trigger.

There are two reasons why Democrats may not want to index the trigger to inflation.  First, of course, is if they intend to spread the burden beyond the 10% over time.  You pass the bill when only 10% would qualify, minimizing the push-back from voters, but by the time the plan is enacted its costs fall on more.  The other reason is if the politicians want the power, as they currently enjoy with the Alternative Minimum Tax, that comes with annually patching the problem.

But who knows?  The Baucus plan may change in dramatic ways.  Pelosi is trying to liberalize it.

4.  OBAMA TIRED OF PAYING FOR YOUR OIL.  Barack Obama wants to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, at least if he can get everyone around the world to do it in conjunction (so there are no competitive disadvantages posed to any one country’s businesses), which seems reasonable to me.  Also, this piece at The New Republic makes the strong point that “the one way” Barack Obama can bring his term back to success is by improving the economy and in particular unemployment.  I have not bought into the argument many have made that Obama’s administration is in mortal peril.  But I think this is roughly correct; the complicating factor is, the economy will eventually turn around, and will almost certainly do so before 2012.  Assessing the extent to which Obama deserves credit for that will prove a complicated matter.

Another move from the Obama White House that deserves notice: they’ve decided that Bush was right about the power of the executive to detain terrorists as combatants indefinitely without trial, based on the war powers already given the President by Congress.  This doesn’t bother me, but we should learn a lesson: some things are easy to castigate when the other party is in power, but look different once you’re in the Oval Office and you’re responsible for keeping America safe from homicidal maniacs.

5.  LIFE OF FAITH AT HARVARD.  Today I met with some great young men from Harvard’s Ichthus journal, and the Evangelical Portal will be developing a relationship with them (and hopefully with some of its sister journals at other schools).  I’m quite impressed with the quality of their material — even at their blog.  Here is a very nice reflection on the “abundant life” found in Christ:

It was Nietzsche who said it first, but it’s a common thought—Christianity is nihilistic. People may not express themselves in so many words, but who hasn’t heard the argument that Christians are prudish, repressed, reactionary, life-denying—life-hating? That Christians want to stamp out natural loves and pleasures? That Christians are so fixated on their pie-in-the-sky, ethereal heaven that they completely lose sight of life on earth?

Read the rest here.

6.  TERRORISM CENTRAL.  A lot of terrorism-related news all at once.  The terror arrests in Queens and Denver — leading to warnings on rail safety.  A new video from Ayman al-Zawahiri.  The terror probe expands.  Warnings also for stadiums, hotels and transit, and travel to Germany.  All coincidence that these things are coming together?  Apparently the video of bin Laden’s lieutenant, which was probably intended to be released on 9/11, may have been delayed for a few weeks by jamming the web sites that distribute these things.  Was that to throw off an intended attack?  To prevent it long enough to give us time to make the arrests?  And was the message a sort of “trigger” intended to rouse a sleeper cell to action?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Just the discovery of what appears to be an active al Qaeda cell within the United States is disturbing enough:

The terror probe that burst into the spotlight in New York last week may have led authorities to the first active al Qaeda cell uncovered inside the U.S. since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to officials familiar with the matter.Current and former U.S. officials say the allegations in the case embody their worst fears — that a legal U.S. resident could quietly leave the country, receive explosives training from al Qaeda in a lawless region of Pakistan, then return to U.S. soil.

7.  TURNING YOUR BACK ON MADNESS.  Congratulations to the UN delegates who walked out on Ahmadinejad.  And I’ve got to say that I’m enjoying this new tone from Obama:

UNITED NATIONS – President Barack Obama challenged world leaders Wednesday to shoulder more of the globe’s critical burdens, promising a newly cooperative partner in America but sternly warning they can no longer castigate the U.S. as a go-it-alone bully while still demanding it cure all ills.

“Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone,” said Obama in put-up-or-shut-up comments before a packed U.N. General Assembly hall. “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”

In his first appearance before the group, Obama promised the U.S. would reach out in “a new era of engagement based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” but he also wagged a rhetorical finger at leaders who spend much of their time at international gatherings excoriating the U.S. He said “an almost reflexive anti-Americanism” that swept the globe under the administration of his predecessor, George W. Bush, is not “an excuse for collective inaction.”

“Nothing is easier than blaming others for our troubles and absolving ourselves of responsibility for our choices and our actions,” he said.

You mean, the US isn’t responsible for all the evils in the world?  And you mean that other countries would rather sit back and let us address the world’s gravest problems, and then criticize us for doing it wrong?  Hmm.

8.  SUING WHISTLE-BLOWERS.  ACORN sues the filmmakers James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles for the recorded conversation in the Baltimore ACORN office.  It may be the case that Maryland law allows ACORN to sue them, while other state laws do not.  Which is not to say that ACORN will win the case; that seems unlikely.  They may be testing the waters to see whether Andrew Breitbart, whose media organization has rather sheltered and cultivated the filmmakers, will offer to settle out of court.  One has to suppose that ACORN would not want this to go to court, since the discovery process could be incredibly damaging to them.  Or it may be more of a PR move intended to portray themselves as victims, and later, when the lights of public attention have faded, ACORN will withdraw the suit.  You can read the story of the background of the video here.  Conservatives have long felt that ACORN, and in particular its electoral arms, are more extensions of the Democratic party than independent entities, and have shielded illegal activities under the banner of noble intentions and community service.

I’m not a fan of this kind of journalism, whether it’s done on the Right or the Left, and whether it’s high-end material like Michael Moore or low-end material like O’Keefe and Giles.  We need more media products that examine issues from every angle, not polemicizing from one angle, mocking the opposition, showing them in the worst possible light, or in their worst moment.

9.  MAKING THE BAND.  Children wearing different colored bands that denote the different kinds of sexual favors they must bestow if their bands are snapped?  Apparently.  Read about the callous disregard of the store owner who sells these items.

10.  THE BAD PAPA OF THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS.  Mackenzie Phillips, daughter of John Phillips, musician for the Mamas and the Papas, tells about how her father raped her when she was 19, on the night before her wedding.  He taught her to roll a joint at 10, and introduced her to heroin at a very young age.  They carried on an incestuous affair for 10 years.  But, she says: “My father was not a bad man. He was kind of a testament to what drugs and alcohol – in huge quantities – can do to a person’s priorities. Their motives.  I don’t hate him. I understand that he was a very tortured man, and he sort of passed that torture down to me.”  Ugh.  Those 60′s peace musicians were so enlightened, weren’t they?

11.  A NEW LEAF?  Not a link here, but just a note: I greatly appreciated the different tone Obama seemed to offer on the talk shows on Sunday.  I thought he was much more conciliatory, much more willing (following his own advice) to avoid attacking the motives of those who disagreed with him.  That’s what I was hoping to see in the speech he gave before Congress.

12.  COMPETING POLLS.  Some time ago I noted that a majority of physicians seemed to be in favor of health care reform along the lines proposed by Obama and Democrats.  Now another poll appears that suggests the opposite.  Hmm.

13.  SCHOOL PROPAGANDA?  Does this high school quiz seem propagandistic to you?  Before you decide, read the full story here.  It does seem to encourage students to assume that President Obama is telling the unvarnished truth, and doesn’t encourage a critical attitude or assessment.  But I don’t recall many instances in my own education (granted, I did independent study during my high school years because of my gymnastics career) when I was encouraged to view a President’s claims with skepticism.  It doesn’t sound as though the teacher, however, allowed a critical discussion, so that seems wrong to me, if the account is correct.  On the other hand, I have no idea what to make of this video.  The commenters take it too far when they warn of moving toward fascistic indoctrination.  But it is worrisome.  If it doesn’t bother you, ask yourself whether you’d mind if such a song were sung to President Bush in his first year, or after 9/11?

One of my fundamental precepts, however, is that people are more or less the same (profound, I know), and that includes Democrats and Republicans.  Not necessarily the same in their principles, but in their neuroses, their weaknesses, their faults.  There was a tendency after 9/11 to glorify Bush as the leader chosen by God for such a time as this.  Yet I don’t recall quite the same tendency to leader-worship as one finds with Obama.  In some ways that’s understandable; Obama is the first African-American President, so he accomplished something historic simply by being elected.  He speaks in the loftiest of rhetoric, at least on occasion, and inspires many people.  In office, however, Obama should be held to the same critical standard as all politicians, and we should expect him to stumble in much the same way other politicians do.

14.  PALINASIA.  Sarah Palin gave her speech in Asia, and reviews varied from those who thought it was “brilliant” to those who walked out (American delegates who were presumably against her to start with).  And again it always fascinates me to read the comments from the enlightened on websites like Swampland.  My favorite is cfukara, who suggests that Palin only got her degree by giving sexual favors to her professors.  Granted, Palin does not have the preferred ideology of the intellectual elite, and she performed poorly in some early interviews on national policy issues, but she’s accomplished, with no help from her husband or a big-name patron, a great deal more than 99% of the population.  She may not be a genius, and I think she’s wrong on certain issues, but she’s clearly an intelligent woman, competent, courageous, ambitious, and hard-working.  The loathing on the Left for Palin continues to amaze.  My suggestion: like Bush Derangement Syndrome, and the Obama version, let’s call this Palinasia.  And speaking of Palin, this Democratic operative has an interested prediction, if current trajectories hold, for Palin “with her arms raised in triumph on Election Day 2010.”

15.  LANDSCAPE ASSESSOR.  Information on the political landscape, from Byron York:

It’s also far smaller than the massive 19-point lead Democrats held over Republicans in June 2008. So in less than a year and a half, the Democratic margin has fallen from 19 points to 3. (The last time the Democratic lead was so slim was five years ago, in October 2004. The last time Republicans held the lead in the Congressional question was October 2002.)

16.  WONDERFUL HOLLYWOOD.  Yet another television show (“Cougar Town“) with no moral compass.

17.  COLUMN OF THE DAY.  Thomas Friedman on the hopes of cracking Iran with threats of biting sanctions and military action.

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Daily Report, September 18th: Old Testament Wisdom, Run for the Border, Machiavelli in Massachusetts, Worst Dad of the Year Award, Thanking Mahmoud, and Spying on the Spies

September 18, 2009 By Timothy Dalrymple

1.  THE FIRST TESTAMENT.  If you’re interested in better understanding the Old Testament, that strange collection of books and poems and prophecies, filled with stories of wily characters like Jacob, swift-running old men like Elijah and whip-smart women like Esther, then you should be interested in John Goldingay’s three-volume series, a “truly magnum magnum opus.”  The final volume is soon to be released; you can find excerpts here (some good stuff there), and a collection of the rave reviews.  I particularly like the latter link; editors and publishers send books out to be reviewed by famous people, and those famous people supply “blurbs” with words of praise.  But only very small snippets of the reviews can be included in the blurbs, so in this case (the second link above) the editor shares at greater length the glowing reviews for this extraordinary work.  Here is one selection:

In the First Testament and in twenty-first century Western spirituality, the image of life as a journey is prominent, but the image has quite different significance in the two contexts. Western spirituality emphasizes that each of us is on our individual journey. Further, the journey is largely one we are undertaking inside our heads (our hearts or spirits, we may prefer to say). The emphasis of First Testament spirituality (taken up by the New Testament) is that Yhwh has laid out a moral path or track before Israel within whose parameters we are all to walk. This walk does involve the mind or heart or spirit, but it more obviously involves the feet (and hands and mouth), because a walk is something visible and outward. Letting our thinking develop in ways that are authentic to us is not enough, though it is also not enough to be outwardly walking Yhwh’s way but inwardly or privately worshiping other gods or plotting trouble for people. The question is whether we are letting our lives develop in ways that correspond to where Yhwh points. What counts is not the distinctive journey that I make as an individual, finding out who I am and making my distinctive personal contribution to the achievement of Yhwh’s purpose; indeed, looking for my own way is likely to mean finding it is the way to death rather than the way to life (Prov 14:12; 16:2, 9, 25; 21:2; Is 66:3; Jer 21:8). What counts is whether I am walking in Yhwh’s way with other people who are also committed to that way. We walk after or follow Yhwh like an army following its king as it advances to battle and/or follows the standards with the divine symbols that symbolize the divine presence.

You can see the first (“Israel’s Gospel”) and second (“Israel’s Faith”) volumes at Amazon.  The third volume is scheduled for November, and it is subtitled “Israel’s Life.”

2.  RUN FOR THE BORDER.  While President Obama says that the reformed health care insurance should not cover those who are here illegally, he also told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute that this is all the more reason to legalize them (video here).  Also, the new health insurance regime will cover all of those who are here legally, whether or not they are citizens.  I agree with the first point; we do need to find some way to bring those who are here illegally into the system so that they can both contribute to and receive from our social programs.  As mentioned in earlier posts, the flow of illegal immigration has slowed recently, but I suspect that a large portion of the population is not going to be happy to give legal status or social services until they are confident that we have got control over our borders.  A not-insignificant amount of people are understandably upset about the effects of illegal immigration on their local labor markets, about the added strain on our social safety nets and state budgets, and about the perception that politicians on both sides of the aisle are more than happy to turn a blind eye to illegal immigration as long as it helps them politically.  We can allow many, many people from Mexico and South America to enter America legally and become citizens in full even as we strive to control our border.  These are not mutually exclusive.

3.  WHITHER PRINCIPLES?  The Massachusetts House of Representatives gave preliminary approval (one more vote is required) to a bill that would allow Governor Deval Patrick to appoint a successor to the senatorial seat of Ted Kennedy.  After it has passed the House, it will head to the Senate.  In the one-party-rule of Massachusetts, there is really no question whether this power will be granted.  There is only a question of what they will get in return from national figures, like President Obama himself, who are counting on them to do it.  I’m guessing Obama and other national Democratic celebrities will be spending a little more time in Massachusetts next year campaigning for candidates for the midterms.

Machiavelli is alive and well in Massachusetts

Machiavelli is alive and well in Massachusetts

What’s more entertaining still is hearing the Massachusetts politicians trying to portray their action as something principled.  After all, it was only five years ago that Democrats passed a bill taking this exact same power away from the Governor because they were afraid Mitt Romney would appoint a Republican to Senator Kerry’s seat if the latter were elected President.  There is no principle here, but a very specific purpose: putting a 60th Democrat in the Senate in order to be able to overcome a Republican filibuster on health care.  They can’t wait the five months until the special election is held, because they can’t let the health care issue (even though the non-tax aspects of the bill would not take effect until 2013) languish and continue to suffer attack after attack.

We all know this is simply an act of political opportunism.  I just wish they would admit it.  The tactic so far (Robert DeLeo, Speaker of the House, employs this tactic in the article cited) has been to say: We just want to make sure that Massachusetts has a voice on health care and other issues.  Yeah.  This has nothing to do with the fact that they’re Democrats, by the way; the Republicans would do the same thing in the analogous situation.  It just speaks to the absence of principle in our political sphere.

4.  LEFT/RIGHT, OR BLACK/WHITE?  The debate continues over whether the fierce opposition we have seen at tea party protests and health-care town halls is racially motivated.  Of course there are racists and morons on both sides of the aisle.  But I don’t see racism at the heart of this opposition.  The anger toward Reid, Pelosi and people like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd is just as intense, if not more intense, than the anger toward President Obama.  Obama still has a higher support rating amongst whites than John Kerry did in the 2004 election.

I will have a column on this shortly.

5.  WORST DAD OF THE YEAR AWARD goes to Jose Alfredo Ajpacaja-Ajiatraz, who punished his daughter (for stealing, though it doesn’t matter) first by beating her and then by shaving her hair off.  At least, the daughter says that he beat her.  He denies it.  But the fact that he shaved her head…well, let’s just say it lends credence to the claim that he’s enough of a jerk to beat his daughter.

6.  GREEN CONDOMS.  According to the medical journal called The Lancet, there are 200 million women around the world who want contraceptives but do not have access to them — and this results in 75 million unintended pregnancies per year.  There are two separate issues when it comes to contraceptives: promoting contraceptives for children and young adults who are having sex, and promoting contraceptives for married couples who cannot afford them.  I understand why most Christians have mixed feelings about the first: on the one hand you hope that a child will use a condom if he/she does have sex, but on the other hand you worry about promoting a culture of promiscuity.  However, even those who object to giving condoms to children — unless they are persuaded by the Catholic argument against contraception — should be all in favor of promoting condoms for married women who cannot afford contraception — and should expect that this will result in fewer abortions, and will slow out-of-control population growth in developing countries.

7.  PARANOIA TIME.  A watch that used GPS technology to show you where your child is, within 10 feet.  Wise security in an unsafe time?  Or the paranoia of helicopter parents?  You decide.  As one commenter notes, however, this could be great for those who have parents with Alzheimer’s.  What other uses might there be?  The watch can be programmed to send you a message if your child strays out of a particular area, and it tells you if it’s been taken off.  A way to make sure your kid goesn’t go to Makeout Point?

Morda Helol in all his glory

Morda Helol in all his glory

8.  JEDI FRIGHT.  Morda Helol, known to non-Jedi as Daniel Jones, was recently expelled from a Tesco store in Wales when he would not remove his Jedi hood.

“I told them it was a requirement of my religion but they just sniggered and ordered me to leave,” he said.  “I walked past a Muslim lady in a veil. Surely the same rules should apply to everyone.”  The handbook of the UK Jedi Church, founded by film nut Daniel last year, states: “Jedis must wear a hood up in any public place of a large audience.”  But a Tesco spokesman countered that Obi-Wan, Luke and Yoda all went about hoodless “without going to the Dark Side.”

Daniel added: “I’ll advise worshippers to boycott Tesco if it happens again. They will feel the Force.”

Religious persecution.  Pure and simple.

9.  BIPOLAR POLICY.  The Poles and Czechs feel betrayed, as though they’ve been sold out in order to appease Russia.  Suddenly they’re not sure whether we will protect them from Russian domination.  I don’t blame them.  We’ve done a great deal to draw the former Soviet States into the twenty-first century as capitalist democracies, and they’ve done reasonably well.  Given what I know right now, I’m not in favor of the deal/plan Obama has made.  It’s never a good sign when Vladimir Putin is leading the applause.  But I’m holding out hope that we will indeed form another strategic partnership with them, and will indeed strengthen our missile defenses.  That requires me to trust Obama, which I’m finding it increasingly difficult to do.  But I’m trying.  As Politico reports, even Democrats are asking: what exactly are we getting in return from Russia?  Obama better have an answer — and a good one.

10.  IS THE ONE’S FOREIGN POLICY WORKING?  Iran promises that Israel will not last much longer.  Blazing words for a country that’s under extreme pressure for developing nuclear weaponry.  I don’t so much mind when he dismisses the Holocaust as a lie.  Anyone who has not been raised under the mental domination of a psycho-theocratic regime knows that is false, and anyone who is in such a regime will believe it anyway.  I mind that Ahmadinejad continues to provoke us, throw out deals back in our faces and tell us that he intends to destroy Israel — and we refuse to believe him and continue to think that he’ll be reasonable and friendly if we’re just nice enough to him.  I don’t think it works that way.  Obama needs something to show for his foreign policy changes, and he needs it soon.  He’s quickly losing credibility and quickly coming to look like a weak-willed appeaser.  He needs to show me that this can work, because so far I’m not seeing it.

Oddly, Joe Klein thanks Ahmadinejad for having enlightened ancestors such as Cyrus, king of Persia who allowed the Israelites to return home (mentioned in Isaiah among other places.  I see no connection between Cyrus and Ahmadinejad.

11.  JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY.  Time has done something of a hit job on Glenn Beck, using for its cover a year-old picture from Jill Greenberg, who admits that she intentionally made him look back.  Greenberg is the one who intentionally made John McCain look bad for The Atlantic (so much that they refused to pay her once they learned the truth).  She is spiteful and childish.  I’m not a Glenn Beck fan, but he makes a good point that it’s rather hypocritical to criticize Beck for trading on people’s fears when that’s precisely what magazines like Time do with all their stories of impending disasters.  The Right cultivates and trades on fears of the Left, and the Left does the same of the right.  It’s a rotten game.

12.  BIG GOVERNMENT: BIG MISTAKE?  A cogent explanation of the argument against big government.

13.  PRIVATE EYES.  The ACLU defends its decision to follow CIA agents to their homes, take photos of them, and share them with alleged terrorists in Gitmo.  I guess they only believe in privacy in certain situations.

14.  FIGURE OF SPEECH.  The Big Speech doesn’t seem to have turned the tide.  Disapproval of Obama’s reform has not reached it’s highest point, at 56 to 43 percent.  Obama will appear in five televised interviews this Sunday.  Will All Obama, All the Time get the bill passed?  Branding opponents as racist nuts doesn’t seem likely to work, either.  Where is the elevated, deliberate discourse we need?  Can the church provide it?  More information that is missing or twisted in the debate.

15.  TODAY’S TWO-SIDES.  A twofer.

First, from the Left, Kai Wright claims that Jimmy Carter was correct that race underlies the Obama opposition.  Eugene Robinson concurs.  From the Right, David Brooks says no, it’s not about race.  And Jonah Goldberg condemns the use of this “tackle box full of race bait.”  This is an important issue.  Read them all.

Second, from the Right, David Kramer at WashPo argues that placating Russia won’t work.  Robert Farley, however, calls it “a victory for a sane foreign policy.”

16.  Finally, COLUMN(S) OF THE DAY.  Since today’s Friday, I’ll give one for the Righties and one for the Lefties.  For the Righties, Charles Krauthammer on the question of whether Obama lies.  For the Lefties, David Gibson arguing that the Left has closed the ‘God God.’

I will not be posting a Report tomorrow.  Have a good weekend!

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Morning Report, September 15th: In the Falling Tower, Poor Sports, Medium is Message, Farewell to Swayze, Rock>Megan Fox's Brain, Child Brides, Racist Babies, and Changing the Culture of Death

September 15, 2009 By Timothy Dalrymple

One Christian’s perspective on the day’s news:

1.  INSIDE THE TOWERS.  I neglected to mention this on the anniversary of 9/11.  But here is a gripping, astonishing account of one person’s experience inside (and getting out of) one of the World Trade Center towers on that horrible day.  This included many aspects of what went on inside the buildings–such as fireballs rolling down elevator shafts and blasting out the bottom–that I had not been aware of.  Amazing stuff.

Speaking of 9/11, there are indications that the plot that may have been foiled by the searches in Queens over the past few days may have been on the same scale.  It looks like the major suspect, who trained with al Qaeda, was apprehended too soon, because the NYPD bungled the job.

2.  POOR SPORTS.  Seems to be a recent spate of athletes making fools of themselves, from Serena Williams’ outburst threatening a line judge who had called her on a foot fault (she has apologized), to Roger Federer (of all people) cussing out a judge, to Michael Jordan’s recent extremely ungracious reception speech for the Hall of Fame.  ScriptoriumDaily reflects on the differences between arrogant and thankful athletes.  An example of the latter is David Robinson, the basketball great for the San Antonio Spurs.  His acceptance speech can be seen here:

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Robinson was a devout believer.  As the author writes:

It takes a man who knows that all the worlds’ accolades are nothing, and that we are broken and sick like lepers who need the great physician. It takes a man to know that he is 7’2” of weakness who desperately needs the strength of the Christ to unflinchingly share his desire that all are healed like he has been because of the love of God. Arrogance is done away with by a clear conception of your person in relation to God’s holiness. May David Robinson be an example for all of us of what true greatness is all about.

Another thing I found from the same author there is a piece on “Freshman Follies and How to Avoid Them.”  If you’re new to college (it’s that time of year) this could be worth your time.

3.  MESSAGE AND MEDIUM.  Evangelical Outpost has a great feature on a forthcoming book entitled Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith.  Some outside-the-box ideas.  Also worth reading: a summons for conservative Christians to be culture makers, not merely participants in the culture wars.

4.  CELEBRITY MATTERS.  May Patrick Swayze rest in peace; he was much beloved; everyone seemed to like him as a person.  It was rough to watch his deterioration.  But he soldiered on with courage and strength.  Kanye West apologized for his ghastly behavior at the MTV Video Music Awards, in a sometimes-awkward discussion with Jay Leno on Leno’s new show last night.  I’ve gotta say: it looked like Kanye was genuinely sorry, and genuinely emotional when Jay asked him what his mother would think of his behavior.  Also, Kanye presumably idolizes Barack Obama, so it’s got to hurt to hear that the President called him a “jack***” (audio here).

Megan Fox, who once said that she wished that an evil robot bent on destroying the earth would agree instead just to destroy all those hillbilly redneck Bible thumping Christians, is getting ripped to shreds by the crew of the two Transformers movies.  After she compared the director to Hitler, the crew posted a letter claiming she was dumb as a rock, an awful actress, a hated diva on the set–and, by the way, “we don’t think she knows who Hitler is.”  Yikes.  After she slandered half of the country that has made her fabulously rich for no clear skills she possesses or work she has performed, is it wrong to take pleasure in seeing her slandered, just a little?  Yes.  Do I take some pleasure in it.  The answer again is in the affirmative.

5.  DISMANTLING MARRIAGE.  Congressman Jerrold Nadler put forward proposed legislation today to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.  The bill will put Obama on the spot; he has favored repealing DOMA in theory, yet his Justice department defended DOMA.  This is not a battle Obama wants to fight right now, and I surely don’t blame him.

Also in the House: a resolution passed condemning Joe Wilson for his infamous “You Lie!” outburst.  The White House and even Pelosi did not want to do it, but the measure was introduced, voted on, and passed.  Important stuff.

6.  TOY WIVES.  A Yemeni girl, formerly a child bride, dies at 12 in the midst of a painful childbirth.  I know we’re wary of the “cultural imperialism” of imposing our values on other nations, but…well, perhaps there’s a time and place for it.  This is sick, and needs to stop.

7.  A new Newsweek story with Po Bronson (I just can’t get enough of that name: Po Bronson) suggests that babies learn to discriminate by skin color by the age of six months.  I am skeptical of the value of this data, but it does seem that racial prejudice has been a pretty universal problem everywhere and always.  Skin color is one of the most obvious differentiators of people, and if one notices differences in behavior between the whites one knows and the blacks (or browns) one knows, then I suppose it’s natural to make generalizations on the basis of skin color.  In fighting racism we’re fighting against a natural tendency, to generalize on the basis of observed differences, and reminding ourselves not to judge groups by the actions or failings or individuals.

Already a racist bigot.

Already a racist bigot.

8.  OWNED IN CHINA.  Bad news: China owns us.  Don’t get me wrong.  They need us as much as we need them, since so much of their economy depends on exports to the US.  But being so much in thrall to China is not good policy, economically or politically.  What foreign policy options will we have to take off the table because we fear upsetting our Chinese shareholders?  China will push back and test Obama on his protectionist moves.  In a trade war, it’s not clear right now who would win.

9.  GOVERNMENT, M.D.  A study out today from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reports that 63% of physicians would choose “proposals to expand health care coverage that include both public and private insurance options.”  Only 27.3% would choose “a new program that does not include a public option and instead provides subsidies for low-income people to purchase private insurance,” and only 9.6% would choose a single-payer system.

Those who object to a public option should examine why doctors would prefer to have one.

Death was not always avoided at all costs.

Death was not always avoided at all costs.

10.  PULLING THE PLUG.  Evan Thomas of Newsweek says: maybe we should be thinking about pulling the plug on grandma.  He’s not the only one to make this argument.  Given the vast sums of money that are spent in the final months and weeks of life, perhaps we really should start spending less on those who are dying.  Conservatives would say: it doesn’t take long to go from this point of view to legislating that we spend less.  Liberals might say: we’re not talking about forcing anyone, but about changing the culture.  We’ll see.  The fact that NYC is about to outlaw smoking outdoors doesn’t inspire much confidence that people can hold back from legislating their way to their goals.

11.  Yesterday I objected to characterizations of those who are protesting reform as racist, ignorant, irrational bigots.  One friend and reader objected to my objection, pointing to photographic evidence, I will address this in a later post.

I’ll try to get tomorrow’s “Morning Report” actually done in the morning!  Imagine that.

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Morning Report, September 3rd: "Trigger" to a Snowe Job, Another Palin-Bashing Party, the Best Military Reporter Ever?, Giving the Finger to Opponents, First Lady from Venus, and the Rove-Daschle Clash of '09

September 3, 2009 By Timothy Dalrymple

One Christian’s perspective on the day’s news.

1.  BIGGEST NEWS ITEM OF THE DAY: Happy Birthday to my beloved Joyce.

2.  FORECASTING SNOWE.  The health care reform saga takes another turn, or at least another trial balloon is being floated.  Talk emerges from the White House that the Obama camp and Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, are working on a compromise in which a government option is realized only if other reforms amongst private insurers fail to meet certain targets.  The idea is ostensibly this.  If costs can be made sufficiently low through free-market mechanisms, then wonderful.  If they cannot, if costs are still too high after a certain amount of time has elapsed, then this “triggers” the institution of a government option.

In theory, this is an excellent idea, and something I (and many others, of course) have advocated as a reasonable compromise.  I like the way it asks both parties to be true to their convictions.  Both parties want lowered costs, and, therefore, more accessible coverage for the poor.  If Democrats are truly interested only in increasing choices and competition and lowering costs (i.e., if they do not mean this as a first step toward the socialization of health care), then they should be satisfied if those goals can be met through private market means.  If Republicans are truly convinced that free market mechanisms are sufficient to lower costs and make coverage more accessible, then they should accept a test of this sort.

The devil is in the details.  Conservatives do believe that free market mechanisms are sufficient to lower costs, but the health-care market, even today, is not a free market.  It is radically regulated and constrained by the state, and will only become moreso under the new reform bills.  It is not only a question, given current rates, of whether private insurers can provide a reasonably reduced rate; it is a question of whether private insurers can do so with the added constraints and requirements and regulation entailed in the rest of the health-care reform bill.  Let’s imagine that the average low-cost insurance plan today costs X.  It may seem reasonable under present circumstances to ask private insurers to develop plans that cost 0.8X.  Yet present circumstances will change under the new regime, in ways that no one presently can understand in full.  The free market of private insurers might be able to do it (look at some promising new approaches here).  But they might not, through no fault of their own.

Essentially: the absence of a government option does not a free market make, and absent a truly free market it may prove impossible for private insurers to offer plans at sufficiently low rates.  Thus this would not constitute a true “test” of whether the free market is sufficient when it comes to health care, because the market will remain unfree even if the government option is removed.  Also, if one is concerned about the government gaming the system in order to institute a government plan, it is not sufficient to agree upon a target rate and establish a non-partisan arbiter to determine whether the target has been met.  This is because the government, by altering a single regulation or requirement or mandate, can force insurance companies over the target.  It is partly a question of good faith, then, and neither party presently is inclined to trust in the good faith of the other.

If the signals coming out of the White House are confusing, perhaps it’s because they’re confused.  Ezra Klein reports on divisions within the White House on where to go with health-care reform.

3.  Regular readers of this blog will know that I have mixed feelings regarding Sarah Palin, but that I cannot stand the way in which the mainstream media has abandoned all journalistic standards in its quest to mock and vilify her.  Now comes another hit piece from Vanity Fair, excerpts of which can be found here.  The piece is based entirely on the say-so of Levi Johnston, formerly the boyfriend of Bristol Palin, Sarah’s eldest daughter.  Since when have daughter’s ex-boyfriends become reliable sources?  Yet no attempt is made to verify Johnston’s claims, nor even to compare the present claims with previous ones (which they blatantly contradict).

Picture from www.michaelyon-online.com

Picture from www.michaelyon-online.com

4.  By far the best reporter on the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts has not been employed by any of the major news organizations.  He is rather a citizen-reporter, funded by those who contribute through his website because they value what he offers.  His name is Michael Yon, and if you have never read his material, you are in for a treat.  Ed Morrisey of Hot Air interviews Michael Yon by phone, and it’s worth hearing.  Check it out.

5.  In the midst of this contentious health-care reform debate, surely many on one side have given the finger to many on the other.  This is the only case of which I know, however, in which a man on one side took the finger of a man on the other side.  At a MoveOn.org rally, a supporter of Obama’s proposed reforms was “walking through” (just walking through?) the anti-reform group when an “altercation” began.  Who knows how the fight started, or who was at fault; probably both.  What we do know is that the pro-Obamacare fellow bit off the little finger of a 65 year old man who was protesting against Obama’s reform.  The older man picked up his finger and walked to a nearby hospital for treatment.

6.  Just as liberals feared that Bush would turn the country into a theocratic totalitarianism, conservatives fear that Obama will turn the country into a fascist totalitarian state.  Let me just say: not likely.  Sigh.

7.  A vile commercial, exploiting the 9/11 tragedy, for a pro-environment group.  It’s safe for work; it’s just morally obtuse and in unbelievably bad taste.

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I’m not opposed to showing the planes crashing into the towers (this is an animation, obviously), if the purpose is to remind Americans of the men, women and children who were slain on that day.  I do mind if it is cynically exploited, not to mention minimized, for other purposes, even if those purposes in themselves are worthwhile.  Also, what happened on 9/11 was not a “tragedy” on a par with environmental disasters.  Speaking of it as a tragedy or disaster removes the agency involved.  It was a murderous act, an attack–and, like the killing of Archduke Ferdinand, its detrimental consequences cannot be measured, much less compared to natural disasters, in terms of the number of lives lost.

8.  Tim Pawlenty clearly intends to run for the Republican nomination for President.  Yet does he have the charisma and the keen intelligence that will be required to defeat Obama.  Call me skeptical.

9.  Nine out of ten Americans say the country is still in a recession.  Why is this news?  Got me.

10.  Apparently Japan’s rising First Lady was abducted by aliens and taken to Venus.  Some might see this as a negative, but I say good for her.  We could use a little interplanetary perspective right now.  And why couldn’t the aliens have taken her to Uranus?  The jokes would practically write themselves.  She also claims to have met a previous incarnation of Tom Cruise in a previous life.  I wonder if his thetan count, or midichlorian count or whatever it is, was as high back then as it is now.  Anyway, we can all rejoice that we will have a more entertaining First Lady of Japan than we have in quite some time.

11.  International rumblings.  Remember, Obama’s deadline for Iran’s response to his overtures is in a few days.  And the V-word is, inevitably, spoken: Afghanistan, says one author, is looking like Vietnam.  For a countervailing opinion, two highly respected Washington journalists explain why Afghanistan is not Vietnam.

12.  Column of the Day: the award goes to Michael Barone, who explains that the “facts on the ground” with regard to immigration, and underlying the immigration reform debate, have changed.  The most salient fact to change: there is no longer a flood of immigrants.  Barone gets the prize for turning out attention to a new topic (anyone else feeling health-care burnout?) but also for reexamining old positions in light of new facts.

13.  Today’s Two-Sides comes from two major political players.  Karl Rove, writing (obviously) for the Right, contends that Obama is selling a more radical health-care reform than America really needs.  Tom Daschle, writing (obviously) from the Left, and (it should be noted) in the employ interested parties, provides a different perspective.

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