Month: October 2006

The Nork WAS a nuke!

U.S. confirms radiation was detected[*1] after North Korean test:

“Analysis of air samples collected on October 11, 2006 detectedradioactive debris which confirms that North Korea conducted anunderground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of Punggye on October 9,2006,” the office of the Director of National Intelligence said Monday.

“The explosion yield was less than a kiloton,” the statement said.

Question Authority!

Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal[*1] , noting (once more) the intellectual intolerance of the Left:

What is most missing from the left in America is an element of grace–of civic grace, democratic grace, the kind that assumes disagreements are part of the fabric, but we can make the fabric hold together. The Democratic Party hasn’t had enough of this kind of thing since Bobby Kennedy died. What also seems missing is the courage to ask a question. Conservatives these days are asking themselves very many questions, but I wonder if the left could tolerate asking itself even a few. Such as: Why are we producing so many adherents who defy the old liberal virtues of free and open inquiry, free and open speech? Why are we producing so many bullies? And dim dullard ones, at that.

Most reasonable folks on the center/right of the political agenda (and I’d hope to be included in that number) are desperate for a level of intellectual discourse with those on the left that rises above mindless angry sloganeering and outright suppression of speech, as happened recently at Columbia University.

Is there intelligent life on the Left?

Wheat makes you stupid

From Science Daily[*1] :

Mayo Clinic researchers have uncovered a new link between celiac disease, a digestive condition triggered by consumption of gluten, and dementia or other forms of cognitive decline. The investigators’ case series analysis — an examination of medical histories of a group of patients with a common problem — of 13 patients will be published in the October issue of Archives of Neurology.

“There has been very little known about this connection between celiac disease and cognitive decline until now,” says Keith Josephs, M.D., Mayo Clinic neurologist and study investigator. “This is the largest case series to date of patients demonstrating cognitive decline within two years of the onset of celiac disease symptom onset or worsening.”

Says Joseph Murray, M.D., Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and study investigator, “There has been a fair amount written before about celiac disease and neurological issues like peripheral neuropathy (nerve problems causing numbness or pain) or balance problems, but this degree of brain problem — the cognitive decline we’ve found here — has not been recognized before. I was not expecting there would be so many celiac disease patients with cognitive decline.”

No more Wheaties, Wheat Beer, shredded wheat, bread, . . . (I’m being facetious, of course.  At least I think so.  I’m so confused!)

Respecting the establishment of religion

Remember this?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, orprohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or ofthe press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition theGovernment for a redress[*1] of grievances.

Now, think about this[*2] :

MINNEAPOLIS – CabdriverMuhamed Mursal doesn’t wear his Muslim beliefs on his sleeve, but hemay soon broadcast them from a light on top of his cab.

Mursaland hundreds of other Muslim cabdrivers at Minneapolis-St. PaulInternational Airport refuse to take fares they know are carryingalcohol. No one is searching bags, but a Napa Valley wine box or asee-through bag from the duty-free store can be enough to leave a farewaiting for the next cab. Airport officials estimate that happens atleast three times a day.

Now, the airport and cab drivers haveworked out a proposal that calls for cabdrivers who won’t carry alcoholto have a cab light that’s a different color. That way, the airportworkers who hook up travelers with taxis can steer alcohol-carryingfares to cabs that will take them. Airport officials hope to have thenew lights ready by the end of the year.

Wouldn’t putting special Muslim-lights on taxi cabs be kinda the definition of “respecting the establishment of a religion?”  Remember please that the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport is a government agency.

I have no problem with Muslim taxi drivers refusing fares because the fare is carrying alcohol.  I’d also have no problem with the cab company firing the driver’s sorry asses for refusing to do their job.  Everybody wins–the cab drivers stay true to their beliefs, cab companies get more reliable drivers, and Martha Minnesotan back from her wine weekend in Napa Valley gets home OK.

Is multiculturalism good for society?

The banners of “diversity” and “multiculturalism” have been held high for decades as goals to be assiduously striven for by right-thinking people everywhere. From the painfully ham-handed diversity of Star Trek: The Next Generation to the chirpy happiness of Sesame Street, we are fed a daily diet of messages saying diversity is in and of itself a good thing, with the implicit and unquestioned belief that those who question the relentless march of diversity are the worst kind of bigots.

Now comes this Belmont Club article[*1] , highlighting a Financial Times article[*2] discussing a new study by Harvard professor Robert Putnam, author of the popular book Bowling Alone[*3] . His new work casts doubt on the social desirability of diversity and multiculturalism.

From the Financial Times article[*2] :

The core message of the research was that, “in the presence ofdiversity, we hunker down”, he said. “We act like turtles. The effectof diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that wedon’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, wedon’t trust people who do look like us.”

Prof Putnam found trustwas lowest in Los Angeles, “the most diverse human habitation in humanhistory”, but his findings also held for rural South Dakota, where”diversity means inviting Swedes to a Norwegians’ picnic”.

When the data were adjusted for class, income and other factors, theyshowed that the more people of different races lived in the samecommunity, the greater the loss of trust. “They don’t trust the localmayor, they don’t trust the local paper, they don’t trust other peopleand they don’t trust institutions,” said Prof Putnam. “The only thingthere’s more of is protest marches and TV watching.”

Richard Fernandez (Wretchard) of the Belmont Club then comments:

But if Putnam is correct, then one of the central tenets of multiculturalism— that it brings people together if they simply “respect” eachothers differences — immediately requires qualification. In fact, it becomesentirely conceivable that the multiculti program is actually the driver behindmany of the tensions which are now rising in places like France, the Netherlandsand the UK.

Tribalism is programmed deep into the human animal. That’s why it’s World Problem #1.

Different political systems deal with this tribal urge in different ways. One reason why totalitarian governments keep springing up is that they are brutally effective in suppressing the tribal urge internally, in large part by directing the tribal urge outward toward external enemies.

This is also why pure democracies almost always collapse. Democracy is fundamentally unable to manage the tribal urge. The biggest tribe always winds up in power and then begins to impose its tribal customs and mores on the minorities. If the Majority decides it is undesirable for the minorities to ever regain power, a pure democracy can quickly devolve into a totalitarian state–we see it over and over and over again throughout history, from the Romans to the Third Reich.

We can try to pretend that humans don’t have this tribal urge, or recognize the wisdom of the American Founding Fathers in promoting a federal republicanism and a careful separation of powers between a central government and soverign State governments. This provided a structure within which different self-selected “tribes” can interact. This I think is what Benjamin Franklin meant when he famously replied to the question “what have you given us?” with “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”

Further down memory lane

Let’s remember together the words of the Worst American President, Jimmy Carter, June 22, 1994:

CARTER: What the North Koreans were waiting for was some treatment of their exalted leader with respect and a direct communication. I didn’t have to argue with him. When I outlined the specific points that were the Clinton administration’s position, I presented them to him. And with very little equivocation, he agreed. I think it’s all roses now. I’ve known that there were people in Washington who were sceptical about any direct dealing with the North Koreans. They were already condemned as outlaws. Kim Il-sung was already condemned a criminal.

Question: Are you absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are going to honour this agreement, that while talks are going on that it’s not just a matter of buying time on the part of the North Koreans, that they will not secretly pursue the nuclear program they were pushing earlier?

Carter: I’m convinced. But I said this when I got back from North Korea, and people said that I was naive or gullible and so forth. I don’t think I was. In my opinion, this was one of those perfect agreements where both sides won. We should not ever avoid direct talks, direct conversations, direct discussions and negotiations with the main person in a despised or misunderstood or condemned society who can actually resolve the issue.

From a 1994 interview with CNN, as reported by The Australian[*1] , via FreeRepublic[*2] .

Expel North Korea from the U.N.

Claudia Rosett has a good idea[*1] :

But seriously, if the UN has any interest whatsoever inaddressing the clear and present danger of a nuclear-bomb-brandishingNorth Korea, there is something the UN could do, pronto. It could expelNorth Korea.

That might not solve the long-festering problemof a totalitarian state that to this day runs a Stalin-style gulag,peddles missiles, narcotics and counterfeit currency, and has starvedto death at least one million of its own people and staked its fortuneson a nuclear arsenal. But kicking North Korea out of the UN would atleast provide the sort of minimal diplomatic gesture of which the UN ispresumably capable.

Definitely something to think about.

The Clinton Days, the Good Old Days

Remember back when everything was peaches and cream, skittles and beer, fun without end?  Remember those carefree Clinton years?

Since the Blame Bush crowd seems to be out in force in reaction to the North Korean nuclear tests, perhaps it’s time to do a little reminiscing.

FreeRepublic remembers[*1] a news story from the year 2000[*2] :

North Korea’s nuclear production capacity will increase from a dozen nuclear bombs a year to 65 a year by 2010, thanks in large part to American taxpayer money, two renowned U.S. nuclear scientists told congressional leaders last week (April, 2000).
. . .
But an aid policy initiated by the Clinton administration in the mid-1990s to finance two light water nuclear reactors in North Korea puts the isolated communist country on the fast track in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, William R. Graham and Victor Gilinsky told members of the House Policy Committee.

North Korea’s missile proliferation has accelerated dramatically since the Clinton-Gore administration began giving aid to the regime in 1994.

“There were no known No-dong missile sales abroad until after the United States signed the so-called Agreed Framework with North Korea,” House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s North Korea advisory group reported.

But since U.S. aid began, the communist state has sold crucial technology to Iran for the Shahab missile that now threatens U.S. forces and their allies in the Middle East, and for a Pakistani missile in 1998 that disrupted the fragile stability of South Asia.

In 1994 the Clinton administration signed an agreement with North Korea that was designed to halt North Korea’s nuclear weapons development program. North Korea sought light water reactors to provide for their energy needs and the U.S. agreed to provide them in exchange for North Korea giving up its nuclear program.

Western aid also earned donor countries the right to inspect the North Korean nuclear facilities.

The U.S. believed the plutonium produced would have to be refined before it could be used for weapons grade plutonium, said Chuck Downs, a leading North Korea expert and author of “Over the Line: North Korea’s Negotiating Strategy,” in an interview with CNSNews.com. But even though the plutonium wasn’t the same yield as that used by the U.S. and some NATO countries, it could still be used to make nuclear weapons, he said.

For the past six years the United States has been trying to put in place two 1,000-megawatt light water reactors in North Korea.

The Clinton administration gambled that construction would take so long that North Korea would collapse politically and economically before the reactors were put in place, Downs said.

“As things have turned out, North Korea has received $380 million in aid from various countries last year, $210 million of it from the U.S., and that is enough to satisfy the needs of their regime. So the regime is roaring drunk and not at all collapsing,” Downs said.

When they are in place in 2010, the light water reactors will give the North Koreans 490 kilograms of plutonium every year, allowing them to build 60 to 100 nuclear weapons a year.

“The kinds of facilities that existed in 1994 could only have produced two bombs a year and the kind they conceived [before U.S. aid] a dozen a year,” Downs said.

We can deal with the here and now, or we can argue pointlessly over who’s more to blame for how we got here.  Diplomacy has been famously called “saying ‘nice doggie’ long enough to reach for a stick.”

The time for saying “nice doggie” has past.  The only relevant discussion now is, what stick should we use?