Making North Korea Pay

Thus far in the North Korean nuclear nightmare scenario, misbehavior has brought only benefits to Kim Jong Il. In his essay Kim Jong Il's Nuclear Winter, American Enterprise Institute scholar Nicholas Eberstadt makes a persuasive argument for employing sticks, not carrots, in dealing with the lunatic dictator:

We in the outside world can only speculate about the timing of North Korea's self-proclaimed entry into the nuclear-weapons club. As we reflect on the sorry record of events that has led us to this juncture, however, a most worrisome possibility is that the North Korean state has actually been learning from its interactions with the United States and the rest of the world.

To date, an ever more menacing North Korean nuclear program has in practice encountered only token resistance from the United States and others, despite the obvious and increasing threats that program poses to national interests in many countries. Each new round of North Korean nuclear provocations has generated clear-cut benefits for the North Korean state, rather than incontrovertible costs. It will be very unpleasant--and very expensive--to un-teach Pyongyang the lessons of the past two and a half years.

"We don't have any red lines" for dealing with North Korea, Colin Powell confided on camera in October 2004. So far as can be told, he was telling the absolute truth. The message was intended to be reassuring. In fact, it is chilling. Far from deferring or mitigating the peril of conflict with North Korea, such Western fecklessness only magnifies the eventual scale of the expected disaster.

Sadly, it's not your mother's YWCA.

Charles Krauthammer does a nice job of explaining the real problem with Social Security:

If 2042 were an actuarially significant date, all of this could be forgiven. The president would simply have to work extra hard on getting us to imagine it. But pointing to a date that will instantly lose 90 percent of the audience is doubly crazy when that date is meaningless. 2042 is the fictional date for the fictional bankruptcy of a fictional trust fund.

Cal Thomas is asking the right questions:

If terrorists are slipping into the country over the Mexican border, is the Bush Administration doing enough to defend us and defeat them, or will it wait until weapons of mass destruction wipe out one million more of us? Then what?

Government's primary responsibility is to protect its people. The question that should be asked now, not after another attack, is whether enough is being done to find the fanatics who mean us harm.

Shouldn't a first step be closing the mosques and radical Islamic schools (which receive "teaching" materials from the Wahabi radicals in Saudi Arabia) that foment terrorism?

How about answering these questions and performing these actions now before disaster strikes again?

Michelle Malkin has info on the campaign to free the jailed Iranian bloggers.

This is appalling, but not surprising.

Ward Churchill: Not an Aberration

Since we all support universities with either donations, tuition payments or tax dollars, we should all be listening to David Horowitz:

For nearly thirty years conservative candidates for university faculties have been informally blacklisted and conservative students discouraged from pursuing academic careers, through constant derogation and political harassment in the classroom. Anyone familiar with the result knows that there are thousands of programs like the Kirkland Project and tens of thousands of professors like Rabinowitz and Churchill.

The nation at large has now gotten a little glimpse of what this means. Hopefully, the scandals at Hamilton and Colorado won't be mistaken for a scandal about a couple of bad apples. The system itself is broken. The academic enterprise has been corrupted. Hamilton and Colorado are the Enrons and WorldComs of the university system. It was their misfortune to blunder onto the nation's radar screen and expose a wider corruption. But the erosion of academic standards is now very broad indeed and the rot deeper than you think.

A Moderate Islam

In the book Successful Intelligence, Robert Sternberg offers a step-by-step approach for problem solving. As I recall, one step was "representing information," referring to the accurate representation of information as crucial to determining a solution.

In solving the problem of defeating the Jihadists, Robert Spencer, in quotes like the one below, offers us some rare accurate information -- information we may not want to confront, but eventually must:

The people whom non-Muslim analysts tend to call "Islamists" are those who believe that Sharia should be the law of the land -- every land -- and are willing to do violence to bring that about. But these people are merely traditional Muslims, acting on the example of the prophet Muhammad and core teachings of the Qur'an and Hadith. They move about freely among Muslims and are found in every Muslim community. Most often, Western analysts use the term "Islamists" to suggest a vast majority of Muslims who do not accept "Islamist" premises or principles. Unfortunately, however, such people do not in fact generally exist. There are Muslims, often known as moderate Muslims, who are unaware of or indifferent to the premises of political Islam, and a much smaller number who are honestly trying to reject or reform those principles; but a genuinely moderate Islam -- a Muslim system that accepts the principles of Western pluralism and is ready to teach Muslims to live in harmony with non-Muslims as equals, not as current or eventual superiors and masters -- does not exist.

Bottom line: the fact that we wish there were a system of moderate Islam, does not make it so.

Counter-Jihad

Ever wonder what you'll tell your grandchild when he asks, "What did you do in the war against Islamic terror?"

Daniel Pipes has excellent suggestions on What You Can Do To Help Win the War on Terror

Or to put it more starkly, Rita Katz of the SITE Institute says in the current issue of Newsweek, "Almost every [Islamist] Web site has a section on how to do jihad over the Internet" and these advise would-be holy warriors: "If you can't do jihad physically, do it on the Internet." The same applies to counterterrorists.

Ward Churchill's replacement is in training.

Important alerts from the Susan B. Anthony List here and here.

This is satisfying news for those of us who were rather unhappy with Evangelicals after the 2000 election.

A new Pew Forum poll has affirmed that "values voters" turned the November election for President Bush.

Dr. John Green at the University of Akron helped conduct the study of voters, finding that traditional evangelical Protestants and Catholics voted heavily for Bush.

A Chance to Praise Good Behavior

I didn't see this year's Superbowl halftime show, but apparently it was a big improvement over last year's (but then, a test pattern would have been a big improvement over last year's). In any case, Citizenlink has set up a Capwiz form you can use to transmit your opinion to the NFL. If you complained last year, and if your were pleased by this year's show, this is a rare opportunity to offer some praise.

Did You Like This Year's Halftime Show? Let the NFL Know

We've heard from several readers over the past 24 hours
who were pleased with the family-friendly nature of this
year's Super Bowl halftime show and wanted to make their
appreciation known to the NFL.

We've made it easy for you to give your feedback -- even
if you were less-than-thrilled with the show, which
featured Paul McCartney. Just click on the link below, and
you'll find an easy-to-use e-mail form that will allow you
to send a message to Joe Browne, the NFL's executive vice
president of communications.

Surviving the Islamic Bomb

Scary, scary stuff at Time.com this week:

The Man Who Sold the Bomb

Khan's Dangerous Game

Can the U.S. Defuse Iran?

In the face of all this, Time Magazine being, well, Time Magazine, of course counsels appeasement. But the pieces contain some good information. One of the more disturbing articles deals with al-Quada's nuclear program: The Other Nuke Nightmare:

With sufficient fissile material in hand, a trained engineer could build a crude device without too much difficulty. The most basic design is that of the Hiroshima bomb, which fired two pieces of HEU at each other from opposite ends of an artillery tube. The bomb could be assembled at a basic machine shop and would fit in the back of a truck. If smuggled into the U.S. and detonated in a major metropolitan area, such a weapon could kill hundreds of thousands.

What can we the concerned citizens do about these threats? For starters, contact President Bush and our representatives and express support for aggressive immigration control and nuclear interdiction including, particularly in the case of Iran, military action.

Lots of praying wouldn't hurt, either.

Update: Not depressed enough yet? Check out this series of old but still relevant nuclear terrorism posts from my former blog Political Devotions.

Ledeen on The Iranian Referendum

American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Ledeen explains why a US endorsement of the call for a referendum on the Iranian regime would be useful, even though it would almost certainly go unheeded. And he offers this reminder:

As everyone knows, a steady stream of information shows that these evil people [the mullahs] are relentlessly pursuing their dream of building atomic bombs, which they foolishly believe will protect them against the forces of freedom.

It is a measure of their madness that they have it backwards. The closer they get to the gateway to the nuclear club, the greater the urgency to bring down the regime. Most experts believe the mullahs are very close indeed, which means that revolutionary steps need to be taken quickly.

Still another reason why California conservatives are embarrassed by their state: 9/11 hijacker used bypass to obtain California license

Instapundit notes:

"In a written statement to Congress in 1935, Roosevelt said that any Social Security plans should include, 'Voluntary contributory annuities, by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age,' adding that government funding, 'ought to ultimately be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans.'"

Sounds like a "risky gamble" -- that would have benefited Americans immeasurably.

Update: More at GOP.com

A Plea From Tehran

(Via Roger L. Simon)

Dear Mr President;

I heard your wonderful world loving speech ; it brought tears to my eyes ; you couldn't imagine how you made me feel!!!
Your policy is right about Iran ; please don't let anyone get in your way specially the Europian Union ; all they care for , are their benefits (black gold , multi million dollar contracts and etc... )
for price of what ???World humen lives!!! (Terrorism and atomic bombs)!!!
We are behind you %100 ; we would love to have good relations with you ; our nations have mixed with each other ; my son is half American and so lots of others like me.
Our country is in the hands of terrorists who have been brain washing our people for 26 years to hate ; to die ; to kill etc...
On walls of streets they write death to America ; also on the roads!!!
They are anti American and overall western world!!!
We are just like prisoners here in our own country ; no freedom of speech ; no freedom of press ; no freedom of thoughts ; no freedom of religion ; no freedom of pre marriage relationship ; no freedom of social activity (music) , no social freedom ; no political freedom ; no ecconomical freedom and on and on and on!!!!!
Your prisons in U.S have much better living condition than here!!!
Do not trust them for a second ; they are the biggest liers world has ever seen , they might say ok what ever you say in the last minute ; to buy time and when your presidntial term is over ; no doubt they would start again!!!
I am cofident that %99 of our people want regime change!!! Please support us by not negotiating (any talks) and don't let any other country do it either.
Put pressure on our opposition leaders to becaome united ; also our media.
Make sure that people inside hears the leadership by radio station that can't be disturbed by any parasites or noise.
Our movement must be organized to work.
I have a lot more things to say to you but knowing that you are very busy ; I cut it short.
If it's possible for your adminstration ; please reply my email by your comments ; Thank you so much

Babak from Iran --- Tehran
Babak -- sos214(Member of sosiran )
Please support www.sosiran.com

Several bloggers have touted this essay as Victor Davis Hanson's best ever.

They're right.

FYI

Death to America Day has been cancelled.

Well, cancelled at the Bethesda Marriott anyway.

This is one of those stories that's both a joke, and deadly serious.

The Problem With Europe

From Vaclav Havel's EU and Cuba: Freedom vs. Appeasement:

It is suicidal for the EU to draw on Europe's worst political traditions, the common denominator of which is the idea that evil must be appeased and that the best way to achieve peace is through indifference to the freedom of others.

Ouch.

OpinionJournal does a nice skewering of the "exit strategy" Democrats:

Only in the rarest of instances, however, do politicians take positions that are both unpopular and unprincipled. That is where the Democratic Party leadership finds itself today on Iraq.

Iraqis Fighting Back

Powerline has an encouraging post on recent incidents of civilian Iraqis striking back at the terrorist insurgents. Here's one:

Citizens of Al Mudiryiah were subjected to an attack by several militants today who were trying to punish the residents of this small town for voting in the election last Sunday. The citizens responded and managed to stop the attack, kill 5 of the attackers, wounded 8 and burned their cars. 3 citizens were injured during the fire exchange. The Shiekh of the tribe to whom the 3 wounded citizens belong demanded more efforts from the government to stop who he described as "Salafis".

Looks like ordinary Iraqis have determined who is the strong horse in this race.

Is it Something in the Coffee?

This reflects a new level of moral idiocy, even by Seattle standards:

Flip the channels after midnight, past Nick at Nite and the infomercials. If you stumble upon the Seattle area's public-access channel, you might see a man and a woman having sex in a hot tub, followed by another man and woman doing it in a kitchen.

Little is left to the imagination.

In fact, nothing is.

Now questions are being raised again over whether the graphic clips taken from porn movies should be allowed to appear on public-access television. The Seattle Community Access Network, which runs the public-access station for King and south Snohomish counties, has warned Mike Aivaz that his show "Mike Hunt TV" will be yanked off the air if he does not stop airing "the presentation of actual sex acts."

Aivaz says that's censorship, particularly on a channel meant to give access to the airwaves for programming outside the mainstream.

An appeal is scheduled tomorrow night before SCAN's three-member content review board. One member says it will be a difficult decision.

Difficult???