Quote of the Day

On Hollywood liberals:

“I’m telling you they’re uninteresting, they’re vicious, they’re vitriolic, they’re really, really not good people. I’m willing to say that on the record. You could probe them scientifically and anthropologically and prove that they’re not good people. They’re not acting on sound judgement, and what they’ve done to those people that disagree with them, whether they be Leiberman democrats or Scoop Jackson liberals, whether they’re Blue Dog democrats – they’ve been shut out of the party as these people do cocaine off of everybody’s buttocks and tell everybody that they need to create a sustainable future. The level of hypocrisy, I go, I’ve seen Fellini movies where I feel like I’m watching Little House on the Prairie compared to these people.”

Quote of the Day

This quote of the day week month is gonna leave a mark…

You end by saying you personally cannot envision that peace can ever be paved with military offensives. May I suggest to you that in many instances in history peace has been achieved exactly that way.

The gates of Auschwitz were not opened with peace talks. Holland was not liberated by peacekeepers and fascism was not defeated with a deft pen. Time and time again men and women in uniform have laid down their lives in just causes and in an effort to free others from oppression.

A Mandatory Opportunity

“One of the things we ought to be thinking about is some level of mandatory service to our country, so that everybody in America — not just the poor kids who get sent to war — are serving this country,” he said.

“We have people from all walks of life in America who are serving, including Reservists and National Guard,” he said. “What we want to do is to have all Americans to have a chance to serve their country.”

This is from John Edwards, who evidently has some kind of degree in Orwell Studies. After all, he’s the guy that just charged $55,000 for a lecture on poverty.

Here’s a bit of a newsflash for folks who subscribe to this brand of lunacy: All Americans (who meet the criteria) already do have a chance to serve their country. I added the phrase, “who meet the criteria” because the military doesn’t just let anybody in who wants to join. For example, they won’t take me for various health reasons, even though back in the day I scored so high on the ASVAB that I was eligible for any MOS I wanted. I didn’t join back in the 80s when I could have and they won’t take me now even for a desk job of some sort. (Whether I could have gotten my husband to agree to my enlistment is another story, but since I’m ineligible that discussion never took place.)

And here’s another newsflash: no poor kids have been sent to war. Not. One. Adults who voluntarily enlisted have been sent to war. Adults who are old enough to marry, sign contracts, vote, go to prison and not the juvenile justice system if they break the law, voluntarily joined the military knowing that they might have to fight in a war even before 9/11, and those who joined afterward certainly knew it. These are not children. These are not kids. They are adults. The fact that they are not legally permitted to drink alcohol is just stupid nanny statism, given the other rights and responsibilities that they have. As to their household income levels, thanks to the invaluable Heritage Foundation, we now know that in spite of all the factless assertions by people who would like to create a special victim class for our troops, fewer troops from poor households, and more from middle class and rich households, are joining the military:

Update: I hadn’t even thought of these points, but Henry Neufeld is spot-on:

On this one I agree with you 100%. I would also note that even if the argument about the social class of the folks joining the military were true (which it is not), there would be two other facts.

1) What precisely is wrong with providing an extra opportunity to folks who want to do so to improve their economic status?

2) This whole business of opportunities and the social structure of the military is beside the point. One wants an effective military to defend one’s country, not as a place to provide “opportunities.” That the military does provide opportunities is a nice extra benefit, but the question for military planners always has to be how you get the best quality troops possible to do the job where they’re needed.

Check out Henry’s blog and his newest discipling book.

The Gitmo Cookbook

Trackback: http://www.pursuingholiness.com/2006/06/29/the-gitmo-cookbook/trackback/
Permalink: http://www.pursuingholiness.com/2006/06/29/the-gitmo-cookbook/

Wizbang Standalone Trackback Pinger

Link to Pursuing Holiness and track back your latest and greatest here! I’ll be adding trackbacks to the body of the post as time allows, and I’ll bump this post to the top once a day as well.

---

After Representative Hunter (CA) appeared on several news programs beginning on Sunday, June 12, 2005, talking about how much we are spending to feed Gitmo detainees halal meals, James at Dummocrats linked to an article and called it Gourmet Fare at Guantanamo. Hunter said:

“For Sunday they’re going to be having Orange Glazed Chicken, Fresh Fruit Roupee, Steamed Peas and Mushrooms, Rice Pilaf - we treat them very well,” he told Fox.

Last night, Hunter said, the U.S. “torture victims” enjoyed the same kind of gourmet fare, including an entree of “Lemon-baked Fish.” On the other hand, feeding the detainees MREs, the standard fare given to our troops on the front lines, is strictly verboten - considered an “abuse” under restrictions imposed by Congress, Hunter said. The top House Republican also noted that the religious practices of the terrorist suspects held at the U.S. “gulag” are scrupulously accommodated, explaining:

“We give them honey and dates when they break fast at Ramadan. We give them prayer beads and prayer oil - all paid for [by the U.S. taxpayer.] In fact,” he said, “if you did that for American GIs - if you had a call to prayer five times a day - the ACLU would sue on the basis that we violated the separation between church and state.”

This led to a discussion that led to the creation of the Gitmo Cookbook. All the Dummocrats pitched in, and pretty soon we had a cookbook. It took a month longer to create than expected, Hurricane Katrina slowed us down in recieving and sending out the cookbooks, there was a problem with the ordering system that caused a bunch of orders to be cancelled, and everybody was uncomfortable with the media attention. We made the front page of the London Sunday Telegraph with a big full color picture of the cookbook, CNS did a story, I was a very nervous guest on the Laura Ingraham show, and Fox & Friends invited us but no one was able to do it. The whole thing was a bit surreal, but we wanted to make a point, and raise a few bucks for a good cause.

Given the current attention being paid to Gitmo, I thought a mention of it is appropriate, because aside from giving you the ability to eat like a detainee, it is chock-full of facts and quotes. For example:

Amnesty International called Gitmo the gulag of our times. Encyclopaedia Britannica states that an estimated 15 million to 30 million prisoners died in the Soviet gulag. The highest number of people held at Gitmo was 750, and as of this writing, no detainee of the approximately 500 currently being held has died due to treatment at Gitmo.

And this pair of quotes is a favorite of mine:

Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management: U.S. management. – Senator Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

Those who are shouting for ‘heads to roll’ over [Abu Ghraib] seem to have overlooked the fact that someone’s head has rolled-that of another innocent American brutally murdered by terrorists. Why is it that there’s more indignation over a photo of a prisoner with underwear on his head than over the video of a young American with no head at all? — Sen. Zell Miller, D-GA

The cookbook contains the actual recipes used to cook for the detainees, and there are two versions of each recipe. The standard military recipe is 100 servings, and the scaled down family sized recipe serves 4-6. The Dummocrats tested them, and they’re actually quite good. The bulk recipes are especially handy for clubs and church groups; they’re made with easy to find and inexpensive ingredients. Profits from the cookbook are donated to the USO; we assembled it to make a statement, not a few bucks. Here’s the final quote from the cookbook:

War will disappear only when men shall take no part whatever in violence and shall be ready to suffer every persecution that their abstention will bring them. It is the only way to abolish war.
– Anatole France

1. Planck’s_Constant on 29 Jun 2006 at 9:23 pm

MasterCard LPGA - Michelle Wie

MasterCard LPGA
Matching? outfit: $200
New pair of sunglasses: $100
Nike Endorsements:? $10,000,000
Having a “special place” …

2. Conservative Cat on 01 Jul 2006 at 6:06 am

Some Memoirs are Best Forgotten

Since 70% of the occupants in Bruce’s house are female, chick films are a major hazard. In such cases, I always watch with Bruce as a form of moral support. He needed a lot for Memoirs of a Geisha. While…

3. Planck’s Constant on 02 Jul 2006 at 6:49 pm

Scarlett Johansson Busting Out All Over - Match Point - Photos

I write so many bad things about Islam, why would Muslims visit my site? According to my stat counters my Islamic readers love to look at Alicia Machado Feb Playboy Mexico 2006. I have been an anti-Islamic devil these past few weeks and so it’s time …

4. Tidbits And Treasures on 03 Jul 2006 at 8:24 pm

Praying for the Youth of Today

Today’s young people are hit with every temptation imaginable. Society has forgotten that there are things that are unsuitable for the young. They are pushed from every side to ‘grow up’ and ‘grow up fast’. And, some of the youth cannot withstand …

D-Day

Kris at Dummocrats has a post titled “Fathers, Daughters & D-Day.” She comments on the two men who helped her

understand the enormity of what the men who landed on the beaches or parachuted behind enemy lines accomplished that day.

It’s refreshing to think of a time when people didn’t believe that dissent is the highest form of patriotism. That phrase was originated by Howard Zinn, and not Thomas Jefferson. In fact, Jefferson said this about dissent:

“I fear [political difference] is inseparable from the different constitutions of the human mind and that degree of freedom which permits unrestrained expression. Political dissention is doubtless a less evil than the lethargy of despotism, but still it is a great evil, and it would be as worthy the efforts of the patriot as of the philosopher, to exclude its influence, if possible, from social life. The good are rare enough at best. There is no reason to subdivide them by artificial lines. But whether we shall ever be able so far to perfect the principles of society, as that political opinions shall, in its intercourse, be as inoffensive as those of philosophy, mechanics, or any other, may be well doubted.” –Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Pinckney, 1797. ME 9:389

The “Greatest Generation” sacrificed much to provide freedom for Americans and millions of people in other countries. They recognized that the perfect is the enemy of the good, and they did what it took to win. And some who were not part of that generation, like Kris’s dad, still had the wisdom to recognize and appreciate those sacrifices. They raised their kids to “grow up seeing America the way that he saw it and that Reagan saw it: as that shining city on a hill.” I can’t think of a better inheritance.

The More Things Change…

The more things change, the more they stay the same. We have a nation of people gearing up for war at a frantic pace, which has violated the borders of a neighboring country, and which is eager to kill as many Jews as possible. And many of our own citizens react this way:

Number three is, we want to use all the tools that the US —power. We want to use our diplomacy. We believe the United States should be talking to everyone in the region, including countries we don’t like, like Syria and Iran. We feel like it is a lot better to talk to someone before you have to bomb them. — Wesley Clark
(Video at Expose The Left)

Ever heard of this guy? Wesley Clark’s approach didn’t work out too well for him or for his country.

We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analysing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will. I cannot believe that such a programme would be rejected by the people of this country, even if it does mean the establishment of personal contact with the dictators. — Neville Chamberlain

Here’s one more quote:

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana

Linked at Blue Star Chronicles, Third World Country,

Quote of the Day: Root Causes and Solutions

Islamic fundamentalism is not a product or by-product of poverty. Several studies have shown that a substantial majority of Islamists and their supporters come from the middle and upper socio-economic strata … [this] refutes the widely held assumption that Islamist popularity thrives on economic misery. –Palestinian journalist Khalid Amayreh

A common refrain in the MSM is that Islamists are reacting to extreme poverty against the rich west. This 1995 Daniel Pipes article demolishes that position. If you don’t have his site bookmarked, you should.

As to the real root cause, why won’t the media take them at their word?

Carrying out terrorism…is one of the tenets of our religion and Shari’ah…This war is fundamentally religious…Under no circumstances should we forget this enmity between us and the infidels. For the enmity is based on creed. — Osama Bin Laden