WAPO SOPHISTICATION - CONSERVATIVES TOO STUPID TO KNOW THAT EUROPE IS DOING REALLY SUPER

Oh grow up:

5 Myths About Sick Old Europe... Not so long ago, American pundits and economic analysts were snidely touting U.S. economic superiority to the "sick old man" of Europe. What a difference a few months can make... But what about Europe? You may be surprised to learn how our estranged transatlantic partner has been faring during these roller-coaster times - and how successfully it has been knocking down the Europessimist myths about it... Beware of stereotypes based on ideological assumptions. As Europe's economy has surged, it has maintained fairness and equality. Unlike in the United States, with its rampant inequality and lack of universal access to affordable health care and higher education, Europeans have harnessed their economic engine to create wealth that is broadly distributed.

Super. Except that the US could do a lot more about those inequalities if they put a little less blood and treasure into European defense. It's really easy to harness your economic engine when you don't have to have a military because the US is treaty-bound to come to your defense in case of an attack.

Even if that wasn't true, this would still be a text-book example of what we teach our undergrads to call a "straw argument" and what we prefer to call "breathtaking, probably intentional obtuseness." The conservative critique of the European welfare state is only partly - and not mainly - based on its economic consequences. Even if they were economically sustainable, cradle-to-grave, make-more-on-unemployment-than-you-do-working welfare policies would still be a bad idea. They estrange different segments of society from each other, hinder public mingling and assimilation, and foster a seething culture of entitlement. This is a more pointed critique of Europe's socioeconomic policies than any economic concerns.

The WaPo published an article purporting to debunk conservative criticisms of the European welfare state without mentioning either immigration or demographics. Sophistication.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

WELL-KNOWN PEACEFUL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GAZA CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS ABOUT TO BE DISRUPTED BY ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE. AGAIN.

Elder caught this last week, and we got the JPost story dropped into our inbox, but we didn't think that it was getting any coverage outside of the Israeli press. Until we saw this stellar piece of conventional wisdom journalism from the Christian Post:

A recent attack on an 80-year-old Christian woman in Gaza City raised fear among Gaza’s Christian community not only of subsequent assaults, but also the fate of long-held peaceful relations with their Muslim neighbors. Claire Farah Tarazi was the latest victim of anti-Christian attacks in Gaza since Hamas took control of the area in June, reported The Jerusalem Post this past week. Tarazi’s house was invaded by a masked man who, during the course of the robbery, beat her hands with a club and also hit her head with a tool causing her to bleed. “As soon as I opened the door, he pushed me inside and shouted: ‘Where is the money, you infidel?’ I shouted back: I’m not an infidel - I’m a proud Palestinian Arab,” Tarazi recalled to the Post. The assailant locked her in her bedroom as he searched for money, but Tarazi was able to escape through another bedroom door and went to a neighbor for help. Tarazi’s relatives pointed out that she was attacked because of her faith.

Just how many times is the "peaceful" relationship between Gaza Muslims and Christians going to be endangered for the first time by an anti-Christian attack? Because the AP said last June that a Muslim attack on a Gaza Church "signaled the end of a relatively peaceful... relationship" between Gaza Christians and Muslims. And that was already pretty generous, since at that point the firebombing of Christian bookstores had been going on for months. It's like there's always this mythical state of Muslim-Christian harmony, which is perpetually being almost-disrupted by incessant, organized campaigns of anti-Christian violence.

Oh well. At least Reuters isn't blaming the Jews this time. Yet.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

UN SET TO BLAME ISRAEL FOR INTENTIONAL, HAMAS-ENGINEERED HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN GAZA

Oh this is just too precious:

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned Sunday that if Israel carries out its threatened sanctions after declaring Gaza "hostile territory," it would likely create a humanitarian crisis. "In the past three months, 106 cargo trucks were allowed into the Gaza Strip per workday," the organization wrote in a paper issued in response to Israel's September 19 announcement of a change in policy towards Gaza in response to the continued shelling of western Negev communities. "This assured the prevention of a humanitarian crisis among the Gaza population. The continuation of this situation cannot be guaranteed if there is an additional deterioration regarding the restrictions at the Gaza border crossings," the paper said.

We'll leave aside how the near-daily bombardment of Sderot schoolchildren on their way to classes - at 7:30am when they're too far from buildings to seek shelter - is apparently not a humanitarian crisis worthy of UN attention. More importantly: Hamas has shut down medical clinics and prevented Israel from giving medical aid and blocked food shipments and halted humanitarian efforts. All as part of a deliberate campaign to intentionally create a humanitarian crisis - which they know from past experience will get blamed on Israel.

The UN, to nobody's surprise, is preparing to blame it on Israel.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

BRITISH SPY CHIEF CALLS OUT BBC FOR SHOVING AQ PROPAGANDA DOWN KIDS' THROATS, BLAMING US FOR 9/11

This is presumably part of the Britain's campaign to make sure that every single child is exposed to virulent anti-Western Islamist propaganda. They already get a little under a quarter of them in the mosques. Fifty percent of those mosques are already under quasi-Taliban control, which helps explain why they're supporting AQ leaders and putting out pamphlets encouraging their followers to prepare for jihad. And the kids who they can't get there, they get with TV shows:

Britain's former spy chief accused the BBC of "parroting" Al Qaeda propaganda to children as young as six. Dame Pauline Neville Jones, who is also a former BBC governor, is infuriated at the stance the corporation's Newsround programme took on the September 11 attacks. She accused the flagship children's news bulletin of feeding an "ugly undercurrent" which suggests the terrorist outrage was somehow justifiable. Newsround is aimed at viewers aged between six and 12. On its website it answered the question concerning 9/11, "Why did they do it" by saying: "The way America has got involved in conflicts in regions like the Middle East has made some people very angry, including a group called al Qaeda - who are widely thought to have been behind the attacks."

What do you expect? That's what the European left thinks. They rarely if ever deign to talk to anyone who disagrees with them (why would they bother, since their superior sophistication has given them unique insight?) So you can see how they wouldn't know that you're still not supposed to say things like that in polite company. Academia, yes. Polite company, no.

Also, quick reminder: the BBC lies.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

STATE DEPARTMENT GETS BRIGHT IDEA: LET'S SCREW ISRAEL EVEN MORE BY BUNDLING SYRIA INTO THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS

Sure why not? If we're already all sitting down to pressure Israel to make concessions that endanger its existence - why not go the whole distance:

Syria could attend an upcoming Middle East peace conference in Washington as part of an Arab League committee, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attends a Middle East "Quartet" briefing at the U.N. Sunday. Speaking after a meeting of the Mideast Quartet -- which includes the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia -- Rice said Arab League members charged with following up on a Saudi-backed peace proposal were likely to be invited to the November conference. Syria is a member of that follow-up committee.

When we were taught Israeli-Arab Peace Process 101, it was an ironclad principle that Israel pushes for bilateral talks with each individual Arab enemy and the Arabs push for multilateral talks with Israel. Why? Because when the Arab states combine their "negotiating strength", they can make demands in unison: "hey Israel, you want this concession from the Palestinians? Well then you're also going to have to give back the Golan to Syria." Israel has to give something to every Arab state in order to get anything that it wants.

That's why the Saudis are already setting preconditions for their participation (nice to see major media outlets helping them out with that - teamwork). They understand that the State Department has maneuvered Olmert into an impossible situation, and they're ready to exploit it after three decades of Israel successfully resisting multilateral talks. Even Bush I and Baker, when they convened the multinational Madrid Conference, didn't successfully force Israel into large-scale multilateral peace negotiations.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

CRITIQUING THE WASHINGTON POST'S "SOPHISTICATED" DEBUNKING OF TERRORISM

If we conservatives sign something that says "we admit that liberals are better-er and smarter-er than conservatives", will they promise to stop trying to insipidly prove to everyone that their understanding of the world is more sophisticated than everyone else's?

Because of the two kinds of fundamental errors - covering over genuine distinctions vs. pointing to differences that don't make any kind of real difference - the second one is definitely more annoying.

There is nothing easier than pointing out an irrelevant difference - it's the basis of an entire cottage industry in the academy, and the way that toddlers first tell the difference between red and green and hard and soft.

But the reference to the irrelevant becomes particularly annoying when it forms the basis of our international diplomacy.

Or when it's done smugly in the cause of denying the overwhelming threat of terrorism:

Six years after 9/11, all too many Americans still have only a vague idea of what does -- and doesn't -- motivate terrorists. It doesn't help that many politicians exploit the anxiety that terrorism evokes to promote their own agendas. Here are five key urban legends:

(1) Terrorism is a random act carried out by irrational people who hate our way of life.
(2) Terrorists are no different than ordinary criminals.
(3) Terrorists are likely to cross into the United States from Mexico.
(4) Terrorism is mainly perpetrated by Muslims.
(5) Terrorism never succeeds.

In the interests of space, we'll with just the first one. To deny that jihadists don't hate the Western tradition or way of life strains credibility. We'll gladly agree that terrorists time their attacks - the Palestinians have taken to launching rockets while Sderot schoolchildren are walking to school, to make sure that the 5 and 6 year olds don't have time to reach bomb shelters. So their terrorism isn't random, but it is certainly opportunistic.

They openly state their desire to establish a global caliphate subject to sharia law. They pathologically and viscerally loath the rights that the West gives to religious minorities, women, and gays. Virtually nothing of the twenty-five thousand year Western tradition would be left over if these genocidal lunatics managed to implement half of what they openly declare they want to implement. And yet this glib little list does its work. Any leftists looking for something sophisticated to bring up their next cocktail party will still be able to walk away from the article with the assurance that terrorists do not hate our way of life and can, presumably, be reasoned with.

[Read an extended version of this post at Mere Rhetoric]

AP REPORT ON FRED'S ANNOUNCMENT RECYCLES JERI SMEAR

Hey, what do you think the odds are that the AP writeup of Fred Thompson's June 6 announcement included a drive-by slam at Jeri Thompson? Answer: not low:

Organizationally, Thompson underwent a series of staff changes - including the replacement of his manager-in-waiting - and other departures amid consternation about the active role of Thompson's wife, Jeri. At the same time, little progress was made setting up organizations in key states.

"Consternation about the active role of Thompson's wife, Jeri." Where have we seen that line before? Could it have been earlier this week when the AP used the exact same line to trash Jeri? This isn't scandalous or anything, but it does show a certain degree of total mind boggling laziness on the part of AP hacks. If you're going to try to get a meme to congeal, the least you can do is not use the exact. same. line. We're not asking for objectivity here. Just a little effort.

Seriously - this line was so obviously a poorly written awkward smear that we bolded it the last time that the AP dropped it into their "news reporting". And now they did it again - because apparently no anti-Republican smear is too ham fisted to use just once.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

HEY, WHERE'S ALL THAT HAMAS LAW AND ORDER WE WERE PROMISED?

We've been hearing a lot of "at least Hamas has brought law and order to the streets of Gaza." Yeah? Let's see how that's going:

Hamas security men scuffled with rowdy Fatah supporters, fired in the air and briefly detained journalists at a protest against the Islamic group's rule in the Strip.... The protesters converged on a former Fatah compound in Gaza City now occupied by Hamas, chanting pro-Fatah slogans, throwing stones and empty bottles and waving yellow Fatah flags. It was the second time in recent weeks that Hamas men have clashed violently with Fatah protesters - and could signal possible cracks in Hamas's two-month-old ironclad rule of Gaza... When several Hamas security men roughed up a Reuters TV cameraman filming the protest and tried to confiscate his camera, protesters surrounded the Hamas men, beat them to the ground and prevented the cameraman's arrest. The demonstrators cursed the Hamas men, calling them "Shiites" - a derogatory allusion to Hamas' alliance with the hardline Shiite Muslim regime in Iran.

Notice that even the relatively uneducated Gaza residents - with their relative lack of Western media - know enough to think that the center-left "Shiites and Sunnis don't cooperate" meme is idiotic. So there are two ways to take this post. One is to play up the education angle, and punchline with something like "apparently even the most hysterical criticisms of the American educational system are true: a total lack of schooling really does leave you smarter than any amount of what passes as advantaged education." The other way is to go with the Western media angle, and make is something like "we're not saying that the absence of CNN and the NYT makes Gaza residents not totally misguided about the reality of the Middle East. That would be a post hoc fallacy, and we've got exams on argumentation theory coming up later this afternoon. But there does appear to be, as the social scientists say, something of a correlation". But it's shaping up to be an incredibly long week, and it's way too early in the morning to be making tough decisions. So on this one, you get to choose your own adventure.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]