U of C Considering Churchill Buyout

University considering Ward Churchill buyout. Daily publicity over controversial professor, faculty protests damaging school's reputation.

Ice Shelf Collapse

Global warming cleared on ice shelf collapse rap

The high-profile collapse of some Antarctica's ice shelves is likely the result of natural current fluctuations, not global warming, says a leading British expert on polar climates.

Political Correctness and Academia

An interesting and analytical column appears in the Weekly Standard delving into the Larry Summers flap, looking at political correctness and feminism. (Hat tip to Powerline.)

"Fear and intimidation at Harvard."
What do academic women want?
by Harvey Mansfield , Harvard professor of government

Canada's Missile Snub

Yahoo News: Canada's historic missile snub will have unpredictable consequences.

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada's rejection of missile defence is a historic shift in its relationship with the United States and could have deep unforeseen consequences, analysts warn.

Full story.

Colin's Interview

Colin Powell gives an interview to the conservative UK Telegraph (London), as noted by Captain's Quarters.

The story can read in its entirety here: London Telegraph.

Captain Ed summarizes: "This interview practically asks aloud why Powell gave his first post-office interview to a British conservative broadsheet instead of any American media outlet. Perhaps Powell, ever the diplomat, intended on sending yet another subtle message."

It couldn't possibly be because our (U.S.) media is not .................................., nah couldn't be.

Recent News Headlines

Hillary Rebuked by Iraqi Leader

Putin: Meeting With Bush 'Very Positive'

Rape allegations renew call to evict U.N.

Despite Europe's 16-year weapons ban, its firms building Beijing's army

Bush requests only 210 of 2,000 additional agents authorized by Congress

Policy to deal with race-based gangs must bow to 1954 desegregation ruling

Oh My G.....! He's Gay?

I don't always agree with Anne Coulter, but that's OK isn't it? It's still acceptable to agree to disagree, am I right? Just checking. It gets so confusing sometimes in todays world. (See Larry Summers, for example.) Well Anne does have a great column (hat tip to PowerLine) that's worth reading and can be read here.

It's titled, "Republicans, Bloggers and Gays, Oh My!" Some excerpts: (emphasis mine - HH)

The heretofore-unknown Jeff Gannon of the heretofore-unknown "Talon News" service was caught red-handed asking friendly questions at a White House press briefing.Now the media is hot on the trail of a gay escort service that Gannon may have run some years ago. Are we supposed to like gay people now, or hate them? Is there a Web site where I can go to and find out how the Democrats want me to feel about gay people on a moment-to-moment basis?

Liberals keep rolling out a scrolling series of attacks on Gannon for their Two Minutes Hate, but all their other charges against him fall apart after three seconds of scrutiny. Gannon's only offense is that he may be gay.

Democrats in Congress actually demanded that an independent prosecutor investigate how Gannon got into White House press conferences while writing under an invented name. How did Gary Hartpence, Billy Blythe and John Kohn (Gary Hart, Bill Clinton and John Kerry) run for president under invented names? Admittedly, these men were not reporters for the prestigious "Talon News" service; they were merely Democrats running for president.

The column is quite good and should be read in its' entirety. Go read it.

Does it Matter?

Over at The Daily Demarche, Dr. D. is commenting on the "if you are not part of the solution..." mantra of the Viet Nam war and how it relates today to Iraq.

Dr. D also makes mention of some writings of Juan Cole (professor of modern Middle Eastern and North African studies at the University of Michigan). Dr. D. posts Professor Cole's question:

What if the newly elected regimes are friendly to states and groups that Washington considers enemies? What if the spread of democracy through the region empowers elements that don't share American values and goals?

The good Dr. is asking for comments to this question. Go visit Dr. D. at The Daily Demarche and weigh-in on the subject.

HeavyHanded weighed-in already with his 2 cents worth and said:

Dr. D. -
I understand your question and concern and in fact share the concern. That being said, my rhetorical question would be: But, so what? If not democracy, then what? I see alliances as temporary anyway; some lasting longer than others, certainly. But as a previous poster commented, every country is going to do what they think needs to be done, i.e. what's in their best interest, regardless of the kind of government they have.

There are no guarantees, of course. And if Iraq, Afghanistan or other ME countries turn out to be true "democracies" and have legitimate elections, I'll take my chances on trying to interact politically and have a chance (at least to some degree) of having foreign policy discourse than trying deal with theocracies that preach hate.

Was Summers Right?

I heard about this study on the radio and promptly forgot about it until I saw Captain Ed blogging about it. "Was Larry Summers Right After All?", he asks.

It looks like academia and the noisy feminists owe apologies to Summers. This new study was carried out by researchers at UC Irvine and the University of New Mexico, and concluded that "women and men use their brains in far different manners, and the differences have significant application to mathematics."

Prime Minister Blames Media

Slovakia leader hits media on Bush slant
By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
From the Nation/Politics section

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- The prime minister of Slovakia yesterday blamed the media for unfairly turning the European public against President Bush by negatively slanting coverage on Iraq.

Full Story

Slovaks Jubilant

Slovaks jubilant at Bush speech on democracy

By Bruce I. Konviser
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- President Bush was welcomed like a rock star yesterday, drawing cheers from thousands of Slovaks who braved freezing temperatures and snow squalls to hear the U.S. president extol the values of democracy.
Mr. Bush delivered an open-air speech at a town square fondly remembered as the scene of protests that led to the collapse of communism 15 years ago.
When he said, "The American people are proud to call you allies and friends and brothers in the cause of freedom," the crowd exploded in applause.

Full Story

Global Warming

The Myth of Greenhouse Gases
By Phil Brennan

Listen up. This is very important.

The global warming fanatics have fingered rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), a so-called greenhouse gas alleged to be in the process of shoving the planet into a global microwave and raising sea levels to the point where the world's coastal regions will be submerged.

They blame the rise of CO2, now about 370 parts per million and rapidly climbing, on us evil humans for using fossil fuels, driving SUVs and barbecuing frankfurters on our backyard grills. They ignore the proven fact that over millions of years, every time CO2 levels have risen above 200 parts per million, an ice age has occurred.

And in past ice ages, we weren't around to cause the levels to rise. Mother Nature did it all on her own, and she doesn't drive an SUV.

Full article.

Cost of Illegal Immigration

Read this: Americans Lose $68 Billion to Illegals

Property Rights

The INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY has an editorial piece about property rights and a suggestion on how courts should handle those cases that come before them. I like it . I think they are onto something.

Property Rights: You break it, you buy it. It's a principle that has been eternally practiced in stores around the world. It's time it's applied in the courts.

[FULL STORY]

Who Cares...

From Cheat Seeking Missiles:

I'm really not interested in what Churchill has to say about America; I am very interested, however, in his opinion on what system can be embraced with innocence. Stalinism? Communism? Terrocricy? Socialism? Amoral to immoral European social democracy?

Yes, indeed. What, WHAAAAAT ?

Larry Summers

It seems to me the first mistake, and only mistake he made, was when he felt compelled/pressured/coerced/forced/railroaded/steamrolled into making his first apology/mea culpa. He has been backpedaling ever since.

From Hedgehog, what others are saying:

Quotes of the Day: The Lawrence Summers Controversy

From Debra Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Summers' third mistake was that he did not treat women badly. Take Summers' old boss, Bill Clinton, who was able to date while married, as his top female staffers (who considered themselves feminists) strove to protect him from nubile workers. In this politically correct era, words speak louder than actions: You can act like a sexist cad, but you can't talk as if you think a sexist cad conceivably might have a point.

The whole piece is spot on.

UPDATE: Peggy Noonan writes:

Tuesday he faced an angry faculty gathering where "his ears were pinned back," as one reporter said. Summers now seems to be saying he made a mistake in airing the idea of gender-related differences in the interests and aptitudes of scholars. But here is what he may be forgetting, for people under pressure often lose track of their lack of culpability: Summers did nothing wrong. He thought aloud about an interesting question in a colorful and un-defended way. That's what universities are for.

Well, yes.

Ms. Noonan also writes:

But what the Summers story most illustrates is that American universities now seem like Medieval cloisters. They're like a cloister without the messy God part. Old monks of leftism walk their hallowed halls in hooded robes, chanting to themselves. Young nuns of leftist deconstructionism, pale as orchids, walk along wringing their hands, listening to their gloomy music. They become hysterical at the antichrist of a new idea, the instrusion of the reconsideration of settled matter. Get thee behind me, Summers.

Voice of Reason

From Scaramouche.
Heh, heh.

At last, a voice of reason: Bush dismisses German calls for Iranian incentives (i.e. bribes). I know Dubya is supposed to be a simple-minded buffoon taking his marching orders from Rove/Cheney/malevolent neo-Con Jews, but sometimes I want to give him a standing ovation. You would think the Germans, of all people, would realize the pointlessness of trying to bribe a fascist regime.

How's Our Economy Doin'?

Good, according to Larry Kudlow.

The Great American Economy

Have I told you how strong the American economy really is? We had a market scare yesterday. Please ignore it. Pessimists and declinists are out there all the time. Please ignore them.

A few key points: once again lower tax-rates have worked to promote faster growth, increase jobs, and raise equity values. No surprise here. It's called supply-side.

Want some data points? Consumers are spending and companies are producing at a 4 percent rate. Balanced and excellent. Wages and salaries are up 5 percent. Strong. Unemployment at 5.2 percent and weekly jobless claims just above 300,000. Strong. Business cap-ex? 14 percent. Strong. S&P profits? 23 percent. Really strong. Worried about inflation? Today's chained CPI ex food and energy? Only 1.9 percent. Right where we want it. Low. Long-term interest rates for housing, mortgages and investors? Low. The fabled Treasury yield curve? It's positively sloped, so there's no recession out there. But it has flattened by half, meaning inflation worries are getting, well, less worrisome.

What's wrong with this picture? Not much. It takes a lot of work to be a nitpicking negativist who never believes in business or free markets. Don't even listen to 'em.

Ex-troops aiding drug traffickers

Update to the Zetas that I blogged about here.

From the Nation/Politics section of THE WASHINGTON TIMES
by Jerry Seper

Former Mexican soldiers, police and federal agents, originally trained as an elite force of anti-drug commandos, are working as mercenaries for Mexican narcotics traffickers, bringing a new wave of drug-related killings into the United States, authorities said.Law-enforcement and intelligence officials said the well-armed gang, known as the "Zetas," is linked to hundreds of killings and dozens of kidnappings on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly over a wide area of southeastern Texas from Laredo to Brownsville and in cities throughout Mexico.

In protecting established drug corridors into the United States, gang leaders have targeted U.S. Border Patrol agents and state and local police, authorities said, along with Mexican military and law-enforcement personnel, even offering bounties of up to $50,000.U.S. intelligence officials said the Zetas might have obtained Soviet-made SA-7 shoulder-mounted missile launchers off the black market, although information on the purchase is sketchy.

The Bush administration has been concerned in recent weeks about the fate of Soviet-provided SA-7s in Nicaragua, about 80 of which have not been accounted for by the government and are thought to have been sold on the black market. FULL STORY

A POSER

From LGF:

Churchill Admits He's Not Native American

In his appearance at the University of Hawaii, Colorado University professor Ward “Little Eichmanns” Churchill admitted he is not a native American: Churchill attacks essay’s critics.

Churchill did address the issue of his ethnicity, admitting that he is not Native American.

“Is he an Indian? Do we really care?” he said, quoting those he called his “white Republican” critics.

“Let’s cut to the chase; I am not,” he said.

His pedigree is “not important,” Churchill said: “The issue is the substance of what is said.”

He went on to explain that the issue of whether he is Native American has been blown up by sloppy reporting and reporters quoting other reporters.

Churchill has been lying about his ancestry for years.

(UPDATE: Churchill is incorrectly quoted. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has printed a retraction to their report that Ward Churchill admitted he was not a native American.)

My question is simply this? Why have so many on the left come to his defense claiming freedom of speech, blah, blah, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah? And yet, Larry Summers is being villified for what he said, and is not getting the same freedom of speech defense that Churchill is getting? Both of these gentlemen are coming from the left, so it's not ideology. There is no comparison when it comes to judging whose statements were more "outrageous". Churchill wins this hands down. So why the inconsistent application of free speech to each of these lefties?

Go, Go Newt

Gingrich: Get serious about illegals Wants U.S. to completely seal off border, deport aliens within 72 hours --Washington Times

Newt Gingrich is demanding that the Bush administration get serious about stopping illegal immigration.

HEAVY HANDED RANTS ABOUT MEDIA

An e-mail has prompted this particular rant. I truly believe that our media today is worse than it has ever been. It was probably worse then I realized even years ago, but I just didn't realize it.

That being said, I still believe it is far worse than ever before. Of course it did our country a great disservice - strike that - it did us great harm during the Viet Nam war with its untruths, especially during the Tet offensive, which we were winning handily, but they painted a totally different picture.

But, as it stands, today, as a sum whole total, it stinks. On any "breaking news" story, if you listen to the headlines, and listen for "buzz words" or "catch phrases", no matter which reporter, no matter which news station, they use the same exact words. It is if they have one central clearing station and "talking point factory" and just do "fax blasts" to everyone so they can make sure they are all on the same page.

And it should come to no surprise that the liberal politicians and all their minions have the same info. I think they are, in fact, the aforementioned "talking point factory" and the media is their lap dog.

Mexican Commandos in U.S.

U.S. officials say the feared band of ex-military elite forces, called Zetas, have killed in Texas. Investigators say this feared band of ex-military elite forces are operating in Texas and other parts of the United States. In a news report from The Herald (El Universal Online):

A team of rogue Mexican commandos blamed for dozens of killings along the U.S.-Mexico border has carried out at least three drug-related slayings in Dallas, a sign that the group is extending its deadly operations into U.S. cities, two U.S. law enforcement officials say.

The men are known as the Zetas, former members of the Mexican army who defected to Mexico's so-called Gulf drug cartel in the late 1990s.

Full story.

U.N. Makeover?

Was this headline intentional?
Kerry aides lurch to U.N.
Critics of global body call move to improve image another failure. Story here at World Net Daily.

Q & A

The "Mighty" Chrenkoff bags an interview with Michael Ledeen. Chrenkoff describes Michael Ledeen as " Currently the holder the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, Michael is one of the leading experts on intelligence, terrorism and international politics. Formerly the Italian correspondent for the "New Republic", advisor and consultant in the Reagan Administration, lecturer and historian, he is also a prolific author, most recently of the bestselling 'The War Against the Terror Masters; How it Happened. Where We Are Now. How We Will Win'."

Ledeen is asked 11 questions. Here are some excerpts of Ledeen's answers:

• We should be funding more (mostly private) radio and television broadcasting to Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The people in those countries know that they are being lied to by their governments, but they don't know the truth, especially about their own country.
• We have to tell the royal family that if they do not do that ("shut down the transmission belt of hate") --yesterday--we will make a lot of trouble for them.
• It's quite obvious that the Iraqi Shi'ites don't want an Iranian style Islamic Republic, and if anything, the Shi'ite victory in the Iraqi elections threatens the Iranian regime, not the other way around.
• The regime in Iran is very frightened right now.
• Well, maybe, the mullahs (In Iran) don't trust their own armed forces (and they are right not to trust them).
• On 9/11 the streets of the major Iranian cities were full of people carrying lighted candles, and that lovely ritual has been repeated on each anniversary. Almost every visitor to Iran finds great affection for the United States; even Tom Friedman wrote about it recently, calling Iran a "red state."
• Tyrannies are unstable, and they collapse quite quickly once the people realize how weak the tyrants are.
• ............. as Churchill said, never, never, ever give in to tyranny.

To see the complete interview go here.

Anyone Can be a Critic

Noted author and historian, Paul Johnson, thinks that millions of people are privately supporting the United States of America and tries to tell why he thinks this is the case. He feels that our critics' own attempt at democracy leaves alot to be desired and so perhaps a thumbing of the nose might be in order.
(hat tip to Betsy's Page).

The European Union itself is the epitome of the Continent's pseudodemocracy. There power is distributed among masterful bureaucrats and permanent political elites. The resulting lack of freedom for individuals and businesses means that economic growth is almost nil and the future is bleak.

As for European intellectuals, who command so much power in the media, universities and opinion-forming circles, they have done everything they possibly could to abuse America's initiative in Iraq and to prevent the installation of freedom. Some make it clear that they would much prefer Iraq to be run by men like Saddam than by American-backed democrats. Of course, intellectuals pay lip service to free elections but in practice have a profound (if secret) hatred of democracy. They cannot believe that their votes should count for no more than the votes of "uneducated" people who run small businesses, work on farms and in factories and have never read Proust. Full article.

Terror Cell

From GeoPolitical Review: "The AP is reporting that French authorities have broken up an Islamist terrorist cell that sought to destroy French landmarks in addition to Russian and Israeli targets:

Marines To Retake Ramadi

Captain's Quarters cites this story from Yahoo news and writes: " Reuters reports this morning that Marines intend on clearing out Ramadi, one of the last cities still controlled by Islamofascist terrorists in Iraq and presumed to be a source of the latest round of terror attacks."
Reuters reports:

U.S. forces launched a major security operation around Ramadi on Sunday, saying they hoped to restore order to a western Iraqi city which has been in rebel hands for much of the past year.