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WSJ editors react to the 4th Circuit decision celebrated by the left this week.
On Monday, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that al Qaeda agent Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri can’t be detained as an enemy combatant. The press corps is reporting — no, shouting, cheering, doing somersaults — that this is further proof that Bush Administration detainee policies are doomed to legal oblivion.
Well, here’s a wager: This decision is the outlier and will be overturned on appeal, while most of the Administration’s legal antiterror architecture will survive past January 20, 2009. Any takers?
There’s no doubt that the 2-1 Fourth Circuit ruling in Al-Marri v. Wright is remarkable and dangerous in its sweeping judicial claims. Judges Diane Motz and Roger Gregory, both Bill Clinton nominees, ruled that a person like al-Marri does not qualify as an enemy combatant, because the U.S. cannot be “at war” with a private group like al Qaeda. …
One of the above judges, Roger Gregory got a recess appointment from Bill Clinton which expired upon W’s election. As a courtesy, and in an effort to improve the tone in DC, Bush reappointed him. As Clare Booth Luce would say, “No good deed goes unpunished.”
Marty Peretz posts on Gaza.
Wednesday 24 people were killed — no, not in Iraq — in the Gaza Strip, including two UN aid workers. And the day is not yet done. …
Ralph Peters says look at Gaza if you want to know what happen in Iraq if we leave too soon.
WONDER what Iraq would look like if we left tomorrow? Take a look at Gaza today. Then imagine a situation a thousand times worse.
We need to stop making politically correct excuses. Arab civilization is in collapse. Extremes dominate, either through dictatorship or anarchy. Thanks to their dysfunctional values and antique social structures, Arab states can’t govern themselves decently.
We gave them a chance in Iraq. Israel “gave back” the Gaza Strip to let the Palestinians build a model state. Arabs seized those opportunities to butcher each other.
The barbarity in Gaza has become so grotesque that not even the media’s apologists for terror can ignore it (especially since Islamist fanatics began to target journalists).
Over the weekend, Hamas gangbangers-for-Allah grabbed a Fatah functionary and dropped him from the roof of a high-rise to check out the law of gravity (the only law that still obtains in Gaza). Tit-for-tat, Fatah gunmen grabbed a Hamas capo and gave him the same treatment. …
Andy Ferguson noticed Al Gore’s Lincoln quote has some problems.
… The quote is a favorite of liberal bloggers, which is probably how Gore came across it. And as a description of how many on the left see the country seven years into their Bush nightmare, it’s pretty much perfect.
Too perfect, in fact. If you’re familiar with Lincoln’s distinctive way of expressing himself, you’ll hear the false notes the passage strikes. …
Don Boudreaux writes on the environmental creed.
Careful observers often and correctly note that, for many of its adherents, environmentalism is a religion.
Too many environmentalists disregard inconvenient truths that would undermine their faith that calamities are percolating just over the horizon. It might well be that humans’ “footprint” on the Earth is larger than ever; it might even be true that this larger footprint creates some health risks for us modern humans that our pre-industrial ancestors never encountered.
But it is undeniably true that we denizens of industrial, market economies live far better and far healthier than did any our pre-industrial ancestors. …
Adam Smith posts on a discovery in a Japanese lab.
In a brilliant breakthrough, Tokyo University researchers have modified a rice strain so that it vaccinates against cholera. It can be orally administered – you just eat the rice. It’s cheap to mass produce, can be stored at room temperature for over a year, and is completely safe. …
And on smoking bans in England.
You know the old saw, “they don’t make’m like they use to.” Pickerhead says it’s true, they make them better. Slate explains.
My wife and I ditched our dull late-model sedans a few years ago. We adopted a 1963 Studebaker Avanti as our only car, driven once or twice a week from our downtown San Francisco home. I blame the Avanti’s seductive powers for our infatuation. It looks futuristic even today—Jude Law drove one in the space-age fantasy film Gattaca—and the car is loaded with luxury options.
When we took our first spin, it was like yachting down the boulevard. Its engine is free of the emissions controls that hamper modern motors, so you feel a direct connection between your foot on the gas and the tires on the pavement. Without today’s federal mandates on its construction, the Avanti sports chrome bumpers fore and aft instead of crumple zones. It serves a spacious, wraparound view to passengers, unobstructed by headrests, airbags, or complicated belts. The car’s body, designed by the legendary Raymond Loewy, flips the bird to modern crash tests, while its interior is designed to resemble an airplane cockpit full of overheard switches—try that nowadays. Every grocery outing became a pleasure cruise. As many a passerby reminded us, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore. But several years with this rolling museum piece has taught me the truth: Even the best old cars sucked. …