July 26, 2006

Web Reconnaissance for 07/26/2006

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.


Jay Tea of Wizbang writes A skewed sense of proportion “A lot of the people calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon are all using the same stock phrases, and one that sticks out to me is that Israel's response is "disproportionate." This annoys me on a variety of levels.
The first is to say "well, duh." When someone hits you, you don't carefully measure how hard you hit them back. You respond to aggression with DISproportionate force. You make it more painful for them than their own blows to drive the point home:” (read more)

Jay Tea also writing at WILLisms writes Quoth The Craven: Nevermore “One of the recurring elements of the Israeli War On Terror has been the use of human shields -- often willing ones. And while it says something about the courage of those people, it reveals far more about their cowardice. The idea, to me, seems an evolution of Mahatma Gandhi's "nonresistance," the tactic he used against the Colonial British -- to great success. The idea of meeting force with resolve, violence with peace, hatred with acceptance has an enormous moral power. However, it has one critical flaw, one Achilles heel that keep it from being a guaranteed success: it depends on your opponent having a conscience. (read more)

Hugh Hewitt writes What The American Left Really Thinks About Israel: Tom Hyaden Explains It All For You “Unlike most of the netroots, Tom Hayden has never been deceptive or vulgar. He has been relentlessly and transparently honest about the agenda and as a result has never had a career outside of the hard-left precincts of Santa Monica and environs. Today at the HuffPo, the old SDSer offers a genuine expression of the left's view of the current crisis:” (read more)

Expose the Left has Kerry On Mideast Violence: If I was president, this wouldn’t have happened. “Only a week ago we were mocking Howard Dean for his claim that the current Middle East crisis wouldn’t be taking place under Democratic leadership, but it seems the competition for idiot of the month isn’t over yet. Former presidential candidate and senator from Massachusetts John Kerry has named himself the Psychic of the Senate, and made the same odd and unverifiable hypothetical postdiction. I know that’s a mouthful, but I can’t think of another word, because to simply say “postdiction” would imply that he’s pointing to vague claims he made in the past as a prediction of what we now see. So I’m sticking with ‘unverifiable hypothetical postdiction’” (read more)


GayPatriotWest of Gay Patriot writes Pat Buchanan: Ex-Conservative “Last week, many conservative pundits and bloggers criticized Pat Buchanan for calling Israel’s military actions against Hezbollah “un-Christian.” John Podhoretz called the one-time Nixon aide’s comments “anti-Semitism” while the more diplomatic Glenn Reynolds declined to say what he’d “call Pat Buchanan.” Although Buchanan still styles himself a conservative, in the years since working for the greatest Republican president of the last century, has turned from nearly every cause his one-time boss championed, including the Gipper’s strong support for Israel.” (read more)

Politics of a Patriot writes To My Faithful Readers... “I was kind of hoping Cameron would break the news so that I wouldn't have to, but I received an Honorable Discharge for medical reasons. I flew home last night. I will tell the story of my six weeks in Recruit Training and explain further about my discharge and how I feel about that in the coming days/weeks.” (read more)

Some Soldier’s Mom writes Musings from My Livingroom: Love More Than Hate “I keep watching all these reports on the Israeli/Lebanese (or more correctly Hezbollah) war… It’s always the same and I wonder why I can’t stop watching. I continue to hear how support by the Lebanese for Hezbollah continues to grow. I see Lebanese saying that they are supporting Hezbollah because Hezbollah is promising that they will provide bomb shelters from the bombs, protection from the bullets… that Hezbollah will rebuild the buildings, will provide food, that Hezbollah will provide medical care… and it strikes me as the story of the child who murders his parents and then cries because he is an orphan! Hezbollah promises to fix the damage it created!” (read more)

Balding Eagle husband of Grey Eagle writes Do I Make You Proud “It’s funny, not long along I was asked this very same question by Grey Eagle one night on the phone. “Are you and the boys proud of me” she asked. As the year in Iraq, day by day, chipped away at the woman she was, she sought comfort in the answer, for it somehow made it all worth it. In reading the article of the returning Guardsmen and in the contact I have with other soldiers, this one simple message seeks to provide strength and peace of mind for our soldiers to endure.” (read more)

Tom the Red Hunter writes The Israeli attack on Hezbollah “I haven't written anything about the current Israeli war against Hezbollah for two reasons, one, I've been too busy, and two, it all seems so obvious. To me, Israel must be allowed to destroy Hezbollah. If Hezbollah is allowed to survive, all that will happen is that it will reconstitute itself and resume attacks on Israel. In other words, we'll return to the situation that prompted the war in the first place.” (read more)

Dafydd writes The "Proportionality" Fallacy “I've been pondering and mulling for many days now the charge, absurd on its face, that Israel's response to the attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah is "disproportionate." What has puzzled me all this time is where the silly meme of "proportionality" came from in the first place. I understand proportionality in, say, criminal sentencing: if a person stole some cash from the church poorbox, it's grossly disproportionate to punish him by cutting off his hand; the severity of the punishment vastly exceeds the mendacity of the crime.” (read more)

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