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Mark’s Sun-Times column comments on the backgrounds of the Fort Dix Six.
…what then radicalized so many Western Muslims? Answer: in many cases, the Balkans. When Yugoslavia collapsed 15 years ago, Jacques Poos told the Americans to butt out: “The hour of Europe has come!” he declared confidently. Poos was the foreign minister of Luxembourg, a country as big as your hot tub, but he chanced to be holding the European Union’s rotating “presidency” at the time and, as it happened, the Americans were very happy to butt out. “We don’t have a dog in this fight,” said then-secretary of state, James Baker.
Well, the hour of Europe came and went, and a couple of hundred thousand corpses later the EU was only too happy for Americans to butt back in again. So NATO bombed Christian Serbs in defense of Albanian Muslims, and a fat lot of good it did if the Duka brothers are any indication. …
… Tough, you say. So what? Washington still has no dog in these fights. It’s time to hunker down in Fortress America. Which brings me to the fourth lesson: What fortress? The three Duka brothers were (if you’ll forgive the expression) illegal immigrants. They’re not meant to be here. Yet they graduated from a New Jersey high school and they operated two roofing companies and a pizzeria. Think of how often you have to produce your driver’s license or Social Security number. But, five years after 9/11, this is still one of the easiest countries in the world in which to establish a functioning but fraudulent identity. …
Richard Perle is in WaPo with reaction to Tenet’s book.
The Captain links to a Swedish study that says our health care system outperforms in providing new treatments.
Because he is a gentleman, Larry Arnn, Hillsdale College president, waited a long time before losing patience with the Bush administration’s Education Department.
…Today we watch with trepidation an attempt to establish federal control over all colleges and universities, including our campus. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings wants to extend the testing and standards requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act to colleges. The specific details of what these testing and standards would entail are unclear, but are likely to be determined by education department regulators over the next several months.
President Bush and Ms. Spellings have brought a new approach to education reform at the federal level. They have good motives and a fair appraisal of the situation, at least in K-12 education. But national standards and testing in higher education will only strengthen a bureaucracy that already plagues an otherwise highly competitive system.
Mr. Bush and Ms. Spellings will be not be around long enough to write the rules of this new program. They will leave behind them a much larger department, now armed with the tools to influence education to a much greater extent. Ms. Spellings often uses the language of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society in her speeches. …
WaPo has a profile on Shaha Riza. She would be the woman portrayed by some of Wolfowitz’s enemies as a bimbo.
She is the invisible woman at the center of the storm swirling around embattled World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz. Serious, discreet and strong-willed, Shaha Ali Riza has been variously described as Wolfowitz’s “girlfriend,” his “female companion” and, according to Salon.com, his “neoconcubine.”
But little beyond labels is publicly known about the 52-year-old British citizen who has been dating Wolfowitz, one of Washington’s most high-profile and powerful men, for the past seven years. People close to Riza have encouraged her to go public and tell her side of the story, but she remains silent.
When a friend is asked how Riza is feeling at the moment, the friend, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation, says, “What would you expect? How would you like to be portrayed as somebody’s bimbo when you’re a highly educated person who has actually worked hard to make life better for women and civil society in the Middle East and has actually achieved a lot.” …
Bunch of good posts from Power Line and New Editor. The segue between is when they both post on what should be in the humor section; Zimbabwe selected by the UN to head the U.N. body charged with promoting economic progress and environmental protection.
WSJ reacts to Obama’s Detroit speech.
Shorts from National Review.
NR Online on AARP.
IBD with some good news on trade and congress.
After two years of gloom, Congress has seized the lead on free trade. Its green light for Peru and Panama pacts strengthens our allies and breaks a trail for bipartisanship. This is real progress.
The accord Congress reached Thursday with the Bush administration marks the first true act of bipartisanship since the Democrats won Congress in 2006. The bickering’s gone, and this time the vote was more than “symbolic.”
Members like Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., showed leadership in bringing back free trade from its moribund state. His office tells us he was tired of Congress’ do-nothingism and wanted to work.
Nice post from Division of Labour on Milton Freidman.
Tech Central on the doomsayers.
Paul Krugman who told us that we’d ‘all better start brushing up on our depression economics,” and astonishingly, two months ago, was talking about a short-term drop in the Dow as a sign of “economic collapse.”