April 4, 2007

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April 4, 2007 (word)

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Five years ago 20 Israelis were killed in a massacre at Netanya. We have Mark Steyn’s contemporaneous column.

… In the days after September 11, we were told that Muslims had great respect for their fellow “people of the book” – ie, Jews and Christians. This ought to be so: after all, the dramatis personae of the Koran include Abraham, Moses, David, John the Baptist, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, though the virginity of the last and the divinity of the penultimate are disputed. Still, it’s one thing to believe that the Israelis are occupiers and oppressors and that the Zionist state should not exist. Harder, you’d think, to blow up a Passover Seder. It would seem to mark a new low in the Palestinians’ descent into nihilism – though, as usual, the silence of the imams is deafening, and no doubt another new low will be along any minute. As for the nonchalance of the Europeans, that too should not surprise us: in my experience, the Continent’s Christians and post-Christians find the ceremonies of Jewish life faintly creepy, notwithstanding that these were also the rituals by which their own Saviour lived. …

John Fund sums up Nancy’s trip.

Dick Morris and Michael Goodwin with thoughts on the dem leadership in congress.

The annoying Chuck Hagel gets an lesson in the constitution from the Examiner.

Speaking of annoying people, John Kerry tries to get himself in the news claiming McCain offered himself to Kerry. John Fund and the Captain do a good job of taking that apart.

… However, Jonathan gives far too much credit to Kerry for honesty. Kerry has a long track record as a fantasist. One only need recall the stories about Christmas in Cambodia and the Magic Hat to recall his sometimes distant relationship with reality. He has a habit of rearranging the truth to shine the best possible light on himself. McCain has many faults, but not this one, and one can expect more personal honesty from him than from his erstwhile running mate. …

Power Line has at too and then posts on the “myth” of the Exodus according to Egypt’s senior archeologist.

NY Sun writes on a CEO with cojones.

NY Observer with a long piece on the appeal of Fred Thompson.

Five years ago, former Senator Fred Thompson seemed ready to say goodbye to White House dreams for good. He’d announced his re-election campaign in the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11, but seemed to lose steam after the death of his daughter a few months later, ultimately abandoning the run in the spring of 2002.

“At the funeral, I went over to him, and he was obviously just drained,” recalled Representative Zach Wamp of Tennessee. “And he said to me, ‘I’ve just lost my heart for [public] service. I’ve lost my heart.’”

So, like his fellow Tennessean, Al Gore, Mr. Thompson wound up nursing his psychic wounds in Hollywood’s warm embrace. …

Bill Buckley notes the religious fervor of greens.

John Stossel says we should worry about the right things.

Here’s another example. What do you think is more dangerous, a house with a pool or a house with a gun? When, for “20/20,” I asked some kids, all said the house with the gun is more dangerous. I’m sure their parents would agree. Yet a child is 100 times more likely to die in a swimming pool than in a gun accident.
Parents don’t know that partly because the media hate guns and gun accidents make bigger headlines. Ask yourself which incident would be more likely to be covered on TV.

Walter Williams tells us what he really thinks. Many of our nation’s colleges and universities have become cesspools of indoctrination, intolerance, academic dishonesty and the new racism.

WSJ on preventing malaria.

Because John Tierney is wise he knows what will come of the greens’ win at the supreme court.

My favorite guide to the E.P.A. is David Schoenbrod, who sued to force the E.P.A. to take lead out of gasoline in the 1970s, when he was a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council. The environmentalists won in court. But as Mr. Schoenbrod watched the agency dither, through both Republican and Democratic administrations, he became convinced that the lawsuit hadn’t really been a victory — that lawmakers at the state and federal levels would have been forced to act sooner if the problem hadn’t been delegated to the E.P.A.

Carpe Diem looks at Michigan students protesting against sweatshops.