Misc Commentary For August 3, 2004

03 Aug, 2004 by John Hawkins

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— This guy, Wesley Bono, has a unique take on the 1st Amendment…

“A farmer who acknowledged spreading 3 tons of manure along the route of a gay rights parade pleaded innocent Monday, saying he was exercising his constitutional right to free speech.”

Here’s a hint for farmer Bono, the First Amendment doesn’t say anything about dumping manure on the street. Admit you made a mistake, pay to have the manure cleaned up, and hold up a sign next time like everybody else.

— The names of the blogs that are going to be represented at the Republican National Convention are starting to trickle out. Their numbers include: INDC Journal, Power Line, WizBang!, Slant Point, Dean’s World, Captain’s Quarters, Blogs For Bush & A Small Victory.

Unfortunately, even though I received an invite, I won’t be among them.

I was tempted to go just to make contacts and get interviews, but in the end, the 5 vacation days I would have ended up using and the prohibitive cost (a plane ticket to NY & back, a hotel, buying a lap top, etc, etc) were the deciding factors. Granted, I could have had a fund drive & asked for pledges, but I figured that if I had an extra 2 or 3 grand, I’d rather drop it on a computer or add it to my savings. Besides, I doubt if any news is going to be made at the convention. So, I’m not sure that I’m going to miss out on much…

— The one and only Mark Steyn hammers home the truth about multilateralism and alliances…

“The Defense Secretary was using “success” in the multilateral-speak meaning of the word, which roughly translates into English as “failure”. The greatest of these many successes was the decision by the Alliance to expand its role in Afghanistan beyond Kabul to the country’s somewhat alarmingly autonomous regions. So the enlarged Nato mission ought to be great news, right?

Er, up to a point. After the Secretary-General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, put the squeeze on Nato’s 26 members, they reluctantly ponied up an extra 600 troops and three helicopters for Afghanistan. That averages out at 23.08 troops per country plus almost a ninth of a helicopter apiece. Credit where it’s due, the three Black Hawks all come from one country – Turkey. But it wants them back in six months’ time.

Now I very much like Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. I’ve met him a couple of times before his present eminence, and he’s one of the most thoughtful of European politicians – well disposed toward America, not into stringing along with Chirac and the other Europoseurs for the sake of it. But he finds himself presiding over a sham alliance. Theoretically, it has millions of conscript troops at its disposal. But it has no ability to project more than a few thousand out of area – ie, to any of the places anyone’s likely to need them in the years ahead.

In other words, if a military alliance means a press release and a black-tie banquet for Bush, Chirac, Schroder and co once a year, Nato works fine. If a military alliance means functioning armed forces capable of fighting side by side and killing the enemy, Nato is a post-modern joke.

I really, truly, mean no disrespect to our friends in the coalition, but everyone should be aware of what a military alliance actually entails these days. It’s like a load being pulled by an American elephant, a British mule, and a horde of nations that have let their militaries atrophy down to the point that they’re the equivalent of field mice. You may appreciate the help of the field mice, but do not forget how much of the load they are actually carrying…

— Now this is a movie for the post 9/11 world…

“Wall Street Journal article that reveals details about Steven Spielberg’s forthcoming, top-secret project about the tragic 1972 Munich Olympics.

WSJ reports that the film will be titled Vengeance and will star Eric Bana as an agent of the Mossad (Israel’s secret service) who hunts down the Palestinians responsible for the murder of eleven Israeli athletes.”

Israel Mossad agents roaming around the world wiping out Palestinian terrorists? I’m already there!