Kristol: A blowhard with a record of wrong calls.

The irony of Kristol citing Orwell is simply too much to bear.

Sufis and Quakers and Tamil Tigers, Oh My!

" ... with them -- and only them -- courageous and tough enough to "do what needs to be done" to triumph."

An absolutely delicious rant, with which I totally agree, but a weak ending. Better:

" ... with them -- imagining that they are bestowed with a glorious and superior wisdom -- courageous and tough enough to send other people's children to their death and destroy every vestigate of liberty in our own nation, if that is what "needs to be done" for their own edification."

The drum story reminded me of an industrial engineering koan I read somewhere years ago.

A new high-rise with a computer-controlled, super-efficient elevator system opened to a surprising chorus of complaints about its slow and unresponsive elevators. The owner of the building, who'd spent a lot of money on his state-of-the-art system, and was quite proud of it, was horrified. He hired all sorts of technical experts in computer controls, but despite their suggested software tweaks, none reduced the bitching.

Then he hired an industrial engineering consultant, who came in and observed the ground-floor elevator bank in the morning, as employees arrived at work, at lunchtime, as outgoing and incoming traffic peaked, and in the evening, as employees left.

He told the owner: You're trying to solve the wrong problem. His solution: a full-length mirror on either side of the elevator doors for each floor.

The complaints ceased almost immediately, and never recurred.

I know this is an unpopular fact but Arabs and Muslims are, have been and will continue to slaughter one another in greater numbers than Salon's Great Satan aka the USA.

And there are many, many, many more homicides by handgun in the US each year than deaths on Sep 11, 2001.

What's your point?

Give 'em Hell, Glenn! Show these miserable cowardly puffed-up ARMCHAIR "Culture Warriors" that they have met the enemy, and it is THEM! What a bunch of despicable hypocricial jerks they are in REALITY!

Nasrudin wanted to play the guitar and went to see a teacher, inquiring about cost.

"Twenty dollars for the first lesson, ten dollars for the subsequent ones," said the teacher.

"Excellent," said Nasrudin, "I’ll start with the second lesson."

The story I quoted has different levels of meaning, and I had more than one purpose in picking that particular one, other that it is a perennial favorite of mine. I can hope that a few of the more demented posters here see their obsession and ask themselves what is inside it. :-)

Your story seems to ring a bell and it reminded me of a dervish tale;

-----

One day a Westerner was watching a Chinese gentleman burning bank notes before the tablets of his ancestors. The Westerner said, "How can your ancestors benefit from the smoke of paper money?"

The Chinese bowed courteously and said, "In the same way in which your dear departed relatives appreciate the flowers you put on their graves."

-----

I also like the Nasrudin jokes/stories; perhaps you know of them.

Thanks for the reminder about Quentin Roosevelt. I suspect that if our neocon masters of the universe had lost family members in Iraq or Afghanistan, they'd be singing a different tune about dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

Reading histories and literature of the First World War often tends to make people more anti-war. It certainly did in my case.

BTW, one of the reasons why I read up on WWI is that I played wargames set during this period and wanted to find out more about it. Ditto for Kipling -- the British Empire's colonial era has always fascinated me and he exemplifies the mindset that got them into little wars around the globe (including two in Afghanistan).

Nat Hentoff reports in the Village Voice that New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is pushing for a law which would allow police to cheek swab for DNA samples before anyone who is arrested in the city sees a judge.

Hentoff says the proposal is stalled in the legislature right now and is more sweeping than a similar proposal put forward by Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Hentoff says there are almost 376,000 felony and misdemeanor arrests each year in New York City.

Under the Bloomberg proposal any arrest on any charge will lead to a cheek swab.

The DNA laboratory in the state's crime lab is well along in its work to handle large, new files if such a law is passed, Hentoff says.

Nasruddin used to take his donkey across a frontier every day, with the panniers loaded with straw. Since he admitted to being a smuggler when he trudged home every night, the frontier guards searched him again and again. They searched his person, sifted the straw, steeped it in water, even burned it from time to time. Meanwhile he was visibly more and more prosperous.

Then he retired and went to live in another country. Here one of the customs officers met him, years later.

"You can tell me now, Nasruddin," he said. "Whatever was it that you were smuggling, when we could never catch you out?"

"Donkeys," said Nasruddin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nasruddin was throwing handfuls of bread all around his house. "What are you doing?" someone asked.

"Keeping the tigers away."

"But there are no tigers around here"

"Exactly. Effective, isn't it?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A king who enjoyed Nasruddin's company, and also liked to hunt, commanded him to accompany him on a bear hunt. Nasruddin was terrfied.

When Nasruddin returned to his village, someone asked him:"How did the hunt go?"

"Marvelously."

"How many bears did you see?"

"None."

"How could it have gone marvelously, then?"

"When you are hunting bears, and when you are me, seeing no bears at all is a marvelous experience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I shall have you hanged," said a cruel and ignorant king to Nasruddin, "if you do not prove such deep perceptions such as have been attributed to you."

Nasruddin at once said that he could see a golden bird in the sky and demons within the earth.

"But how can you do this?" the King asked.

"Fear," said the Mulla "is all you need."