Misc. Commentary

24 Jul, 2003 by John Hawkins

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Misc. Commentary: Here are some things I wanted to mention that probably weren’t quite developed enough to merit their own posts…

— Judging by these numbers, Germany is nation full of raving moonbats…

“Almost one in three Germans below the age of 30 believes the U.S. government may have sponsored the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, according to a poll published on Wednesday.

And about 20 percent of Germans in all age groups hold this view, a survey of 1,000 people conducted for the weekly Die Zeit said.”

I know someone whose teenage son just moved back to the states from Germany and I asked him if his son had heard this sort of thing over there. He told me that yeah, not only had his kid told him about this before, but a lot of German kids also believe we never went to the moon. Well, better that they spend their time talking about conspiracy theories than rampaging across Europe…

— I’ve been an Arnold Schwarzenegger fan for a long time and I’ve followed his career fairly closely. So, I have to tell you that I’m a little surprised that he’d consider running for political office. I say that because I’ve always gotten the impression that there are a lot of skeletons in Arnold’s closet. There have been rumors that he has had affairs with married women, that he has cheated on his wife, and there were even accusations that Arnold used to have gay patrons who paid him well for his company back in his bodybuilding days. All of this is commonly known in bodybuilding circles, so any political opponent who ran against Schwarzenegger would definitely be aware of these rumors and would try to confirm them. Furthermore, the media would love nothing more than to plaster any scandal related to Arnold all over the front pages. Were I in Arnold’s place, I think I’d be VERY reluctant to drag some this stuff out into the public eye by running for office — that is if any of the rumors are true.

— Stephen Green explains that what we’re seeing in post-war Iraq is not unusual…

“World War II ended in Europe in May of 1945. But the fighting, on several fronts, lasted for years. Italians battled Yugoslavs around Trieste, Greeks and Turks fought their own, there was a practical mini civil war in France against collaborators, French colonial forces found themselves at war in Indochina, the denazification of Germany was sometimes bloody (much like what we’re seeing in Iraq today), and more. “It’s a little-known fact, Diane,” that partisans in the newly-annexed western Ukraine kept fighting against their Soviet overlords well into the ’50s.

Probably the only reason the occupation of Japan went so smoothly is that the Emperor had commanded his people not to fight – and decades of deified imperial rule had accustomed them to do as they were told. Well, that and getting nuked twice has the single decent side effect of reminding the survivors to mind their manners.”

— Daily Whispers is claiming that Condi might be forced out over the 16 true words in the SOTU speech that the Democrats and their allies in the mainstream press have been incessantly harping on…

“As White House officials try to control the latest fallout over President Bush’s flawed suggestion in the State of the Union address that Iraq was buying nuclear bomb materials, there’s growing talk by insiders that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice may take the blame and resign. For most insiders, it’s inconceivable that Rice, touted as a future secretary of state, California governor, and even vice president, would go, but the latest revelations that her shop and deputy Stephen Hadley mishandled CIA warnings have put the NSC in the bull’s eye of controversy.”

In my opinion, that’s a complete load of horsecrap that was probably leaked by someone in the administration who doesn’t like Condi or heck — I always doubt the veracity of controversial quotes from anonymous sources — maybe Daily Whispers just pulled a Jayson Blair and made it up. The worst of that “scandal” is already over. Even Bill Clinton said it wasn’t a big deal and he wouldn’t have done that if he thought this whole thing had any life left in it. There’s no way Bush is going to reignite this whole thing by jettisoning Condi, especially since she has a bright political future and is wildly popular with the GOP base. Even firing her aide, Stephen Hadley would be dumb because it would be tantamount to admitting that something “big” went wrong instead of the minor error (and they shouldn’t have gone that far) that the Bush administration is portraying this as. If there was no lie (and there wasn’t), why make the public suspicious and hype up the press by firing someone — especially someone like Condi? It doesn’t make sense and it’s not going to happen…