![The Result of Negotiation with Hamas? Prolonging the War.]()
by Linda Morgan
We’ve recently watched as Israel and Hamas have slugged it out. As always, when Israel seeks to defend itself, there have been many saying Israel’s response to Hamas has not been “proportionalâ€.
What is, in fact, a proportional response?. Any other country suffering under the weight of literally thousands of rockets landing indiscriminately on their territory would not only have responded with harsher and more deadly methods, but the world community would have likely agreed with their doing so. Yet Israel has to defend its right to survive in the court of world opinion. That’s a discrepancy I’ve never understood.
Some historical perspective is in order. Let’s take World War II, Japan. The Allied offer at Potsdam was rejected. Pottsdam demanded surrender. Japan refused and kept fighting.. Nothing short of total Japanese defeat was going to end the war, So, the only way out of this fight was to win it.
As a direct result of unrestrained force.. (What, after all, is nuclear warfare but unrestrained force?) resulting in defeat of Japan, the war [...]
by Linda Morgan
Let’s start, with a premise:
Every Republican president candidate since 1964 has had their level of success or failure, respectively, tied directly to the degree of voter perception that they have or have not turned their back on conservatism.
Consider the history of the thing… and it all flows one way:
- Nixon billed himself a conservative, and successfully, even though in most respects he was a California Moderate, and came down more or less where John McCain was in the most recent election; to the left of George W Bush. Yet, Nixon had an electoral landslide in both elections. (Admittedly, the Democrats he ran against were a laughable lot, which didn’t hurt him.)
- Bush 41 figured if he bent over forward enough, the left would [...]
by Linda Morgan
Britt Hume a couple nights ago:
A traditional Thanksgiving meal between two elementary schools in Claremont, California, has parents in an uproar over costumes.
The kindergarteners have long celebrated the holiday by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and taking turns visiting the other school to share in a holiday feast, but parents this year are divided over what the costumes represent and whether they should be allowed at all.
Michelle Raheja, whose daughter is a kindergarten student, wrote to her teacher, “It’s demeaning. I’m sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis) or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation’s history… There is nothing [...]
by Art Smith
When James Madison and friends put together the Constitution, one of the key things they endeavoured to do was ensure that the Chief Administrator (President) did not have the power of a king. After all, we had just fought our tails off for the right to not have to be subjugated by King George, and as such provide sovereignty to the people and not the President.
I say this in preparation for something that Valerie Jarrett, co-chair of Obama's transition team, said on Meet The Press yesterday:
"Given the daunting challenges that we face, it is important that President-elect Obama's prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one."
DavidL at BitsBlog takes this at face value, which is not in the least unfair. He characterizes this [...]
by Linda Morgan
You’re going to hear quite a bit from the left over ‘the death of conservatism’ over the next few weeks. But they’ve got it wrong. I say, what we’ve got is the death of compromised conservatism as espoused by George W Bush, his father, GHW Bush, and by more recently, John McCain.
This morning, we see a post from Helen Valois at Renew America, who calls this ‘conservative conservatism’. I can quibble with the name she chooses, but not her meaning…
What is conservative conservatism? It is a commitment to playing a good defense (or rather — except for the one, brief, shining moment of Governor Palin’s acceptance speech — a pretty flawed defense) when your opponents have gone decisively on the offensive. It is that which John McCain quintessentially represents — the recalcitrant[...]
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