Favorite poster from NR's "The Corner"

also eternal lol at Condi's helmet-hair

fuck it, this is going to be fun. bear with me.

I suppose that in World War II or Korea, the U.S. could have captured non-uniformed infiltrators, shipped them to a POW camp, dithered over how to handle them, and then sent them back to the U.S. for civilian trials, as if they were U.S. citizens, with full legal rights, facing criminal charges of the sort brought against Americans.

ok, you could have looked up what was done with inflitrators and saboteurs in WWII, it was not friendly. in that case, or in the case of KSM, the charges and applicable nat'l security laws are NOTHING like the sort brought against americans. maybe when an american flies a plane into a building with his crazy friends, we'll have the chance to test this little counterfactual. tim mcveigh doesn't suggest a fruitful comparison. but, do go on, professor

But with the upcoming terrorist trials in New York, we have crossed the Rubicon, and lots of eerie questions will arise.

because dickheads like you will continue to ask them? surefire prediction there dude.

Can those attacked or wounded by Predator drones sue in U.S. courts for America's judge/jury/executioner treatment of them?

No, and no one is saying we should. whether we ought to be using the drones is another question. besides, ground commanders routinely pay money to civilians who have lost family members to accidental US fire, this was part of the surge strategy, remember? no, of course you don't.

The next time we catch a terrorist blowing up a building in Kabul, should we read him his Miranda rights, videotape his testimony, offer him a lawyer, and send him to the U.S.?

No, and no one is saying we should. maybe we should focus on doing a better job of catching these terrorists first.

Or should we wink and nod and turn him over to the Afghans, with the understanding that our post-modern justice system is so absurd that we would rather informally rely on others' pre-modern way of doing business? (Is that why Obama kept renditions — because the more we become utopian and loudly perfectionist, the more we will need others to do our dirty work?)

modernity is such a strange, lonely place. if post-modernity is against torture, and pre-modernity uses it with gusto, what is it, exactly? don't worry, i'll wait.

Why the assumption that KSM and others will be found guilty? What if one or two sympathetic souls on the jury nullify (as in the O.J. Simpson case) the evidence?

lol, 'blame the niggers' works in nat'l security now too? not just for economics anymore!

If KSM et al. are found innocent, will we connive to keep them in custody anyway? Can KSM give the jury the names of those who hurt him in Guantanamo? Did Mohamed Atta go a little too far in acting out his mere "suggestion" to take down U.S. high-rises? Did KSM face life-changing bias and hurtful discrimination while a student in North Carolina?

i think this is about nifong/duke lacrosse? this is so far into the rightwing grievance meme association file i don't even know where to start. don't let your white man's tears blind you to the fact that the duke fake rape case turned out the right way in the end. have a little faith.

Once you turn war into a legal tussle, every military act attracts dozens of second-guessers — as if in the cold sobriety of peace, safety, and security, those with law degrees can post facto pick apart the acts of younger fighters amid the chaos, mayhem, and danger of war.

hit pause on zack snyder's 300 a second. is it a war?

There is a larger issue here: Obama's image is at odds with America's self-interest. The civilian trials, loud promises to close Guantanamo, and trashing (if only rhetorically) of Bush's anti-terrorism protocols apparently reflect well on Obama overseas, but they don't enhance our security.

yes they do. but, let's hear it.

We saw all that with his reset-button/apology tour, and the old tropes that he was only a lad when America acted badly. More recently, his not showing up at Berlin hurts us;

how on earth? you give a shit about german public opinion all of a sudden?

using a video link instead to talk about his own landmark presidency merely enhances Obama. Ditto his "first Pacific president" remark. Even the trivial incidents of bowing to Saudi royals and the Japanese emperor in a way other heads of state do not reflect Obama's image of himself as the first post-national global citizen, rather than the commander in chief of the U.S.

a video link! threat to the republic! yeah, you lost me. apparently presidential gestures and signals are meaningless, or they will surely destroy us all.

After another year of all this apologizing, revisionism, ahistoricism, and separation of Obama the Nobel Prize winner from Obama the U.S. president, no one will quite remember that it was the Chinese and Russians who butchered millions of their own and threatened the free world during the Cold War, or that from the Middle East we got international terrorism, crippling oil boycotts, and energy cartels, or that Reagan helped crash the Soviet Union, or that the Japanese started WWII at Pearl Harbor.

oh man, my snarkometer is going NUTS right now. i have some confidence, thought, that the people that live in these countries, and every single one of their neighbors, remember these things fairly will, and will continue to.

Yet, given our growing mega-deficits, sliding dollar, mounting debt, spiking unemployment, burgeoning trade deficits, and government takeovers, bowing to foreign dignitaries will soon be, not a sign of Obama's transnationalism, but an obsequious and accurate reflection of our genuine inferiority.

of all the amazing things thrown together here, i'd like to draw your attention to "burgeoning." what is it, to burgeon, to you?

There's a guy who was posting some semi-coherent stuff last night and this morning. I can't think of his name. Has K-Lo sent her hair-licking dogs after him?

no one will quite remember that it was the Chinese and Russians who butchered millions of their own and threatened the free world during the Cold War, or that from the Middle East we got international terrorism, crippling oil boycotts, and energy cartels, or that Reagan helped crash the Soviet Union, or that the Japanese started WWII at Pearl Harbor.

didja know in all those world events the only part the U.S. played was Ronnie Reagan on his white horse??? never forget the gipper!

the more we become utopian and loudly perfectionist, the more we will need others to do our dirty work

I wonder if he even realizes there's a confession embedded in his language here -- criticizing something as an unnecessary attempt toward the "utopian" or "perfect" is acknowledging that on some level it's the right goal!

goole is there anyway you could append your post to the comments board at NRO, or at least email it to this nro turd?

haha thx but short answer, no, and no point

What if you wrote it out on a scroll and shot it through his window on an arrow?

you'd only have to endure a lecture on persian recurve bows vs spartan shield construction or some shit

I read Carnage and Culture years before I started seeing the Honorable Mr. Hanson's name at NRO. If you regard the chapters as discrete units about these great historical battles, they're actually pretty good as narrative; but you have to ignore his thesis, which boils down to "The West wins battles because...well, it just does."

as far as theses go that borders on unimpeachable

Well, duh, he's a Westerner: it's intrinsically correct.

How the West Was Tautological: A Treatise on Intrinsic American Awesomeness by Victor Davis Hanson

I suppose that in World War II or Korea, the U.S. could have captured non-uniformed infiltrators, shipped them to a POW camp, dithered over how to handle them, and then sent them back to the U.S. for civilian trials, as if they were U.S. citizens, with full legal rights, facing criminal charges of the sort brought against Americans.

IMSMR the U.S. captured U.S. citizens with full legal rights during WWII and shipped them to what amounts to a less torturey POW camp in the retroactively-determined-to-be-constitutional assumption that they were non-uniformed infiltrators. Michelle Malkin wrote a book about how it was OK, though.

Also really I like the idea that Muslim (presumably, although maybe he means Truthers or something) jurors are going to find Khalid Sheikh Muhammad not guilty. "Everybody 'Hey look at all them {Muslim} people too happy talkin’ about “Look what we won! We won, we won!” Hey - what we won? I ain’t get nothin’ yet! Every day I look in the mailbox – nothin’ in there. Where my {KSM} prize? O.K.? Everybody talkin’ about its about {jihad}, it’s about {jihad}. That’s a bunch of crap. It’s about fame. ‘Cause if {KSM} wasn’t famous he’d be in jail right now. That’s right -- If {KSM} drove a bus he wouldn’t even be {KSM}. He’d be {Khalid} the bus driving {terrorist}."

there's also the suggestion in there that OJ was acquitted because of a couple people on the jury. As opposed to a unanimous verdict.

Maybe they're so used to the idea of filibusters that they forgot how jury trials work?

From a $30 NRO Contributor [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I give up surfing the web during Lent every year, although I always grant myself a dispensation to read NRO — giving that up would entail too much suffering.

perfect (unintentional) summation of the politicized catholic church's slide into self-serving absurdity. SUFFERING IS WHAT LENT IS ALL ABOUT JESUS SUFFERED FOR YOU ON THE CROSS.

christ. the corner is like NPR w/the pledge drive.

i don't get why they have to do a pledge drive

i mean it seems like they could get some big corporations or the heritage foundation or something to pay them easily

twinkies don't buy themselves

I wonder if he even realizes there's a confession embedded in his language here -- criticizing something as an unnecessary attempt toward the "utopian" or "perfect" is acknowledging that on some level it's the right goal!

you've kinda put your finger on a weird aspect of right-wing discourse. Utopianism is always seen as implicitly oppressive and worth opposing.

loooool:

Shock and Raw [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

ABC really deserves some grief for the Adam Lambert performance last night during the American Music Awards:

the "American Idol" glam rocker who sang his new song "For Your Entertainment" on Sunday's show with an elaborate, S&M-themed production. Lambert fondled a dancer, led another around on a leash, had a dancer briefly stick his head in Lambert's crotch and kissed a man.

I'll confess, too, that I couldn't bring myself to link to the amazingly critical SNL opening skit on Obama's China trip this morning after watching Lambert. Just a little too much crude for one weekend.

what % of the NRO pledge drive goes to smelling salts?

http://www.denofgeek.com/siteimage/scale/800/600/16539.png

kissed a man
kissed a man
kissed a man
kissed a man
kissed a man
kissed a man
kissed a man
kissed a man
kissed a man
kissed a man
kissed a man

somebody's jealous

irlol ty btw <3

Saturday Morning Conservatism [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

From a $100 NRO contributor:

When I was a kid, I would wake up on Saturday morning to watch cartoons. Now I wake up on Saturday morning to read Steyn's latest column and listen to Radio Derb. NRO keeps me young.

http://www.suprmchaos.com/yogi-booboo3_stevieg_mam.jpg

just another yogi with a handout

She's not the only one over there who likes bears.

This whole article is comedy gold. Klo is becoming a parody of herself.

— Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online.

Wait, I thought she was being replaced in that job.

I shouldn't have checked the Corner after reading that article:

re: Princeton [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

An e-mail:

I live in the same county where Princeton NC is located. As I write I sit about 10 miles from the town and I can tell you Princeton NC has no relation to anything Ivy League. It is a small town, maybe 1000 or so residents, and quite conservative in it's politics. The most prominent resident is a very successful car dealer who is known for his serious approach to his religious faith and I am sure once voted for Jesse Helms.

Now — hitting the cider early myself — I'd like to think the president is pardoning a Helms-country turkey.

I hope the cider has arsenic in it.

she has seen some serious shit to consider palin in running shorts as tame.

That Grey is not a fan of Mrs. Sanford, of course, is not shocking. What’s shocking is that I even know her opinion on the woman, on the situation, on politicians and their wives

"even i know her opinion on this subject, after reading a piece written by Grey explaining her opinion on this subject"

freedom of speech only applies to hating gays and abortion.

The Failure of Capitalism? [Veronique de Rugy]

If you remember, The Failure of Capitalism is the title of Judge Richard Posner's most recent book. George Mason University's Russ Roberts has a very interesting podcast with Posner in which they talk about what caused the economic crisis.

etc etc...

Glad I clicked the Amazon link in the post -- the book is called A Failure of Capitalism, not The Failure of Capitalism. Still haven't decided whether or not to email her and call her on it. The error seems a bit puny, but for some reason it irritates the shit out of me.

Princeton NC has no relation to anything Ivy League

+

and quite conservative in it's politics

a double whammy there

and naturally Posner is wrong for advocating "government intervention"

naturellement

"adult film star"

and naturally Posner is wrong for advocating "government intervention"

I like EconTalk and I like Russ but the Posner episode was unbearable. Posner comes across as senile and Roberts annoyingly prefaced a number of his rebuttals with, “Since Milton is no longer with us and therefore unable to defend himself …”

Really.

When did Russ become the spokesman for Friedman’s corpse? This is comparable to Joe Stiglitz using Keynes in the same manner (except Stiglitz has a Nobel and a University Professorship at Columbia).

In Praise of Stigmas [John J. Miller]

Today's NYT says that food-stamp usage grows by about 20,000 people per day:

MARTINSVILLE, Ohio — With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. ... While the numbers have soared during the recession, the path was cleared in better times when the Bush administration led a campaign to erase the program’s stigma, calling food stamps “nutritional aid” instead of welfare, and made it easier to apply.

Seems like there ought to be a stigma attached to the use of welfare. A little bit of shame can go a long way toward encouraging people to find jobs. The federal government may think it's doing people a favor by providing them with access to food, but it's doing them a disservice if it also robs them of the motivation necessary to break free from dependency.

Reagan was right: welfare recipients use their checks to buy vodka and Parcheesi.

i now want to do grave physical harm to John J Miller

or make him repeat those sentiments in person at a food shelf or unemployment office

everyone who criticizes welfare queens should be required to spend 1 week working at an unemployment office and 1 month on unemployment benefits

Kathryn Lopez underappreciated singing sensations include: william shatner, don johnson, jack wagner, and bruce willis (I'm only half serious. Maybe.)
23 minutes ago · Comment · Like

The Wall Street Journal story on the Swiss minaret vote had a great quote in it, from a Jamal-on-the-street interview in Turkey (the source of most Muslims in Switzerland):

Cavid Aksin, an Istanbul metalworker, was angered that the referendum coincided with the end of one of the most important religious feasts in the Muslim calendar. "I think Turkey should have a referendum on whether to close down its churches," he said.

You mean churches like Hagia Sophia? Or the Armenian Church of the Holy Cross? Or the Halki Seminary? After 1,400 years of closing down churches, the gall is unbelievable.

I would call her square but...

xp

does whoever wrote that last post (I take it some at the Corner) know that the Hagia Sophia has been a mosque since the conquest of Constantinople?