The tone of the "From The In-Tray II" emails reminds me of the
great Ignatius J. Reilly character in A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy
Toole. Maybe the funniest book I've ever read. A few Ignatius gems...
"A firm rule must be imposed upon our nation before it destroys itself.
The United States needs some theology and geometry, some taste and decency. I
suspect that we are teetering on the edge of the abyss.”
and
"I am at this moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When
my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese
dip."
There's a lot to agree with in this almost sensible post by Ed Morrissey:
The truth is that we don’t have any good options on Iran and its nuclear-weapon program. Sanctions won’t work, because the Russians and the Chinese conduct too much trade with Iran. The Chinese won’t agree to them, and the Russians will cheat to get around them. Military strikes sound good, but Iran has significant military capabilities of its own that can hit us in Iraq, the Straits of Hormuz, and throughout the Persian Gulf — and Iran has dispersed its nuclear program to avoid having it destroyed by airstrikes. Invasion would be almost impossible, thanks to the terrain and the 72 million Iranians that would resist it.
The best option we have in dealing with the Iranian nuclear and terrorist threats is regime change. Replacing the radical mullahs with almost anything else would improve the situation, and a popular uprising that replaced the theocracy with a secular republic like Turkey would be the best outcome. Instead, Obama seems intent on regime strengthening. We should be encouraging the democratic activists in Iran not just for the sake of democracy but also to relieve two of the greatest threats to regional stability.
I think it's an absurd stretch of anti-Obama rhetoric to say he believes in "regime-strengthening" in Iran.
Iranian security forces clashed with supporters of dead dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in the northwestern city of Zanjan on Thursday, a reformist website said.
The authorities have banned memorial gatherings for Montazeri in most parts of Iran, reformist websites said, days ahead of an emotive Shi'ite ritual that may draw more opposition protests.
The Jaras website said some people were injured and arrests made when the security services intervened to enforce the ban in Zanjan.
There was no immediate comment from the authorities.
On Wednesday, an Iranian official denied reports by opposition websites of clashes between mourners and police in the central city of Isfahan, one of Iran's biggest cities.
There were also reports of scuffles in his nearby hometown, Najafabad...
On Thursday Jaras quoted an eyewitness as saying mourners held a memorial service in the street because the mosque was locked.
It said a number of people were "severely wounded" and a "large number" were arrested among the crowd who chanted anti-government slogans such as "Oh Hossein, Mirhossein" in reference to opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, "Montazeri congratulations on your freedom," and "Down with the dictator."
Najafabad was Montazeri's home town. To give you a brief glimpse into the extent of the fraud in last June's rigged elections, the coup regime argued that 70 percent of Najafabad's voters backed Ahmadinejad. And yet the entire town is convulsed in anti-Khamenei demonstrations.
(Photo: Iranians hold portraits of Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali
Montazeri during his funeral procession in the holy city of Qom on
December 21, 2009. Hundreds of thousands of mourners turned out in
Iran's holy city of Qom for the funeral of the top dissident cleric,
opposition websites reported. Montazeri, 87, a fierce critic of
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was once tapped to become Iran's
undisputed number one, died of an illness on December 19, his office
said. AFP/Getty Images)
I just opened my book tonight. It's cold and snowing outside, and I'm surrounded by boxes and half-packed items. I'm moving in a few days, into a new home--my first. But the hustle and bustle of the moment means I'm having to forgo traveling to family, and for the first time in my life I am alone on Christmas Eve.
As I leaf through the book in an empty place, there's one deep, constant feeling. I've never felt so at home in the world. We're all here, looking out windows and hoping and working through the day. And the way Chris put it all together--we're waking up together, going to bed together, reading together. We're experiencing together, and we're all connected by the Dish. I'm reading along with people in 80 countries! How amazing to know that? And I don't think I really knew it till now.
You mention in the prologue that you started up the windows to give us insight into ourselves, your readership, to hold up a mirror. For me (a 10 time daily reader) the windows were usually only a passing fancy, breaking up the meat of the day.
Not so anymore. Brilliant job. And you just made my Christmas Eve way warmer than outside. Thanks.
It really is much more than the sum of its parts. You can buy it here.
The voting is going on for the finalists carefully selected by our blue-ribbon panel. If you haven't voted yet, just pick a category and test your judgment against the current totals. Click the following links to vote for the 2009 Malkin Award, Moore Award, Yglesias Award, Poseur Alert, Hewitt Award and Mental Health Break Of The Year. Also - for the first time - Face Of The Year and Cool Ad Of The Year are on the ballot. Among the various contenders for the prizes, a roster of the big names in political and cultural discourse: Gordon Liddy, Rush Limbaugh, Gore Vidal, Erick Erickson, Michael Goldfarb, James Wolcott, Lee Siegel, Leon Wieseltier, Diane Sawyer, Katha Pollitt, Newt Gingrich ... and Michelle Malkin.
We're giving readers a week to pick the winners for these prestigious prizes. The winners will be announced this time next week. You picked many of the entries; we just marshalled the very best/worst for your selection.
Perhaps because I'm a church musician, I find it interesting that many of these "depressing Christmas songs" have nothing to do with Christmas whatsoever. They're straight up pop songs stuffed onto a Christmas album because the lyricist managed to find a way to put the word Christmas in there somewhere. Believe me, there are plenty related to the season that top these if you really think about it. Peter Warlock's "Bethlehem Down" comes to mind. The message? All is sweet for now, but you know soon enough the babe is going to be crucified. If you don't fully buy the notion of the resurrection, what could be more maudlin?
Another of my constant correspondents. The energy this must take. He has penned hundreds this year and many before. A flavor of the usual themes (mainly about my AIDS dementia):
I understand that David Bradley has put you on suicide watch as a
result of this poll. Even your arch nemesis, Dick Cheney, is
approaching Obama approval levels. I wonder when the calls for
impeachment will begin since you and Gleenwald will be just about the
only supporters left.
And again:
The above single sentence excerpt from your post, reads as if written by a drugged and/or drunken fool. As far as one can determine, the folks at The National Review are not, as is your particular case, fucking idiots and dementia-driven fools. Stronger views to follow.
And again:
Your initial post and your response to this reader represent a new low in your dementia-infested mind.
And again:
I do visit your site with a fair degree of
regularity when I'm not otherwise busy with my other life. I must say,
however, that the continued decline in your mental state makes
continuation of that highly problematic. I have offered in the past,
and I continue to offer, the names and recommendations of several
highly acclaimed medical professionals who could perhaps be of
assistance to you in this phase of your life. In fact, perhaps the
leading such authority in the world is among my neighbors in Gstaad.
By
the way, I notice that you have totally ducked the basic thrust of my
e-mail, which had to do with the fact that you have largely relied on
whack jobs and perverts for much of your defamatory comments on
Governor Palin.
Many readers spluttered at my belief that Al Gore would have gone to war against Saddam if he'd been inaugurated in 2000 instead of Bush. As someone who has known Gore for years, and edited TNR with which he was closely associated, and worked for Marty Peretz, one of his closest friends and mentors, I base my assessment on what I know of the guy, and his record. Jeff Weintraub basically agrees, although he argues that the way Gore would have gone to war would have been markedly different than Bush's, a sentiment which I tend to agree with as well. Here's a passage of a speech Gore gave in 2002:
Even if we give first priority to the destruction of terrorist
networks, and even if we succeed, there are still governments that
could bring us great harm. And there is a clear case that one of these
governments in particular represents a virulent threat in a class by
itself: Iraq.
As far as I am concerned, a final reckoning with that government should be on the table.
Ron Radosh, whose blog is fast becoming a petri dish of aging neocon obsessions, fearlessly exposes that Barack Obama over a decade ago had interaction with and support from a group called the New Party, whose left-liberal views amounted to "full employment, a shorter
work week and a guaranteed minimum income for all adults; a universal
’social wage’ to include such basic benefits as health care, child
care, vacation time and lifelong access to education and training; a systematic
phase-in of comparable worth and like programs to ensure gender equity.”
How they must love Obama now! But, of course, Radosh's main concern is Israel, and he joins the throng of Likudniks who want to get the scalp of one Hannah Rosenthal, Obama's appointee to combat global anti-Semitism. His conclusion?
I thought it might be revealing to open up the in-tray from a few of my regular correspondents. A few of them are truly a little, well, passionate. The following writes multiple times a month - and has sent hundreds of emails over the years. Here's a selection. December:
Shameless shill ... …that would be you….celebrating…in dishonest terms, of course….the health care disaster…."the government [sic] helping the working poor [sic]"…meaning, as always, forced re-distribution….well, duh!!....the "government" can always "help" whatever targeted group the bien-pensants wish to benefit, can't they…with MY money….that's always the left's claim as they accrue power and wealth to their New Class selves….at the same time exhibiting and expressing utter contempt for the intended beneficiaries…"clingers", remember? "tea-baggers" with obviously false consciousness failing to recognize the beneficence of their saviours…as that CNN bitch openly expressed it contemptuously…
Oh, yeah…the Hope and Change thing, too….what a crock!...what liars!...what hypocrites, shameless dissemblers!
November:
He's probably just going through a PROH-sess, see…..LOL!!...His Oneness doesn't know whether to shit or go blind….if He lets the kooks have the nukes….He's toast…worse than the helicopters on the roof in Saigon (how did that work out for the left?)…it will be dolchstoss, baby!!.....and if He preëmpts….it's the Bush Doctrine…and the left will eat Him alive….we'll help them….can't wait….
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