How Much Longer?

I wonder how quickly this will disappear from John Kerry's website?

"I'm not a politician and I'm not a political partisan." Yeah, right.



UPDATE: A great Wall Street Journal slammer piece on Joe Wilson can be read here.



MORE: More on the irony of RestoreHonesty.com at Instapundit.

The Cultural Tipping Point

I have a very close friend up in Seattle with whom I regularly chat over the phone and online. Recently, I called him up to discuss some personal issues that were bugging me, and as our conversation bobbed and weaved, we eventually got to the point where we were discussing the cultural "tipping point" I think we are rapidly approaching.



Much has been made about the "culture war" that has been underway for the past several years. In reality, I think we've been having a cultural shouting match. Whether the topic is abortion (and the use/abuse of birth control), the high rate of divorce, or, most recently, homosexual "marriage", I think we're approaching a significant cultural debate, the results of which will determine whether the United States will continue to be a great nation, or slide into a permanent, Euro-esque cultural malaise.



My own thoughts on this were prompted by Ramesh Ponnuru over at National Review Online (Highly recommended). Ponnuru comments on a recent American Prospect piece by Robert Reich, entitled "Bush's God." Here's Reich's conclusion:

The great conflict of the 21st century will not be between the West and terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, not a belief. The true battle will be between modern civilization and anti-modernists; between those who believe in the primacy of the individual and those who believe that human beings owe their allegiance and identity to a higher authority; between those who give priority to life in this world and those who believe that human life is mere preparation for an existence beyond life; between those who believe in science, reason, and logic and those who believe that truth is revealed through Scripture and religious dogma. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives. But terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face.

Ramesh responds:

This goes well beyond the common denunciation of "fundamentalism" where that term is meant to describe an ideology that seeks the imposition of religious views on non-believers. (That's what Andrew Sullivan means when he uses the term.) It is a denunciation — as a graver threat than terrorists — of people who believe that the world to come is more important than this world, or that all human beings owe their allegiance to God.

I join Ramesh in his prayers for peaceful coexistence, but I think Reich's comment points to a coming conflict that is unavoidable, particularly in a nation where a significant segment of the population classifies religious belief as a threat worse than terrorism; and where there is increasing tendency within US judiciary to craft law out of whole cloth, and to change basic cultural institutions without any regard for the electorate.

Categorical Debunking

Dave Kopel's "Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11" can be found here. Kopel's rundown is huge, and includes Moore's "responses."

This Land

It seems that everyone in the blogosphere is posting this hilarious flash movie parody of John Kerry and W. (Because everyone is linking to the movie, you may have to revisit the site several times in order to watch. Good luck!)

What Will They Think of Next?

If you want to hear what my voice sounds like, you can listen to me blather by clicking the link to this audioBLOGGER test post:

The "Intelligence" Report

Instapundit (here and here) and others have now expounded on the big Washington Post revelation that Joe Wilson fabricated accusations about the President and the infamous uranium/Niger story.



Michael Ledeen and Dan Darling have the best rundowns of the Senate's report, and Mark Steyn shreds Wilson here.



The Wilson revelation, apart from the blogosphere, will get almost no coverage, unlike Wilson's original accusation, which was plastered all over the place.



Oh, and there were intelligence failures.



UPDATE: The Senate report can be downloaded here.

Preparation Continues

My move preparations continue. Posting limited today.