BARELY A BLOG

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FRENCH, ROMANS, AND COUNTRYMEN  

I’d like to preface what Bill Anderson writes by saying that, as is obvious, my column, Rah-Rah for Rioters, is more than sardonic about the French Welfare State, and about state intervention, in general. Witness the comments about affirmative action. Or that about the state, not German civil society, being responsible for liquidating Jews. Can one be more direct than that? However, the thrust of my writing is not deterministic. Sure welfare destroys. But people’s actions, good or bad, are not reducible to a single cause. Some libertarians take the position that it’s all the state’s fault. More accurately: it’s all the American State’s fault. What an utterly unserious stance. Entitlements are available to all who choose them as a way of life. Ditto violence. People have a good degree of free will. They can choose to reject both. One embodies Left-Liberalism if one has succumbed to seeing human motivation as unidirectional and lacking volition. Cleese’s delicious (and brilliant) “What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us” is a spoof just up my alley. Yeah the Romans were the bad guys, but hell, the Jews could be a handful. Then again not everyone shares my sense of the absurd. —ILANA

(Incidentally, Barely a Blog will be going legit—onto a REAL blog format—this weekend.—ILANA)

From: WILLIAM ANDERSON

Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 3:38 AM

Subject: Rah-Rah for Rioters

Very, very good.

People need to understand—and I think you do—that the French "system" of suffocating bureaucracy and antipathy to private enterprise definitely destroys a real future, not only for the Muslims, but also for everyone else. I had a conversation with a Canadian in Vancouver a couple summers ago and his point was that what was left for people like him were government jobs, something he realized in and of themselves were dead end.

 Now, this hardly counts as "oppression" CNN style, but the insistence that people on the left make that "economic security," as peddled by the Europeans, is a REALLY GREAT THING do not realize the longer term implications of destroying private initiative.

 That, however, was not your point.  Your larger issue was that the so-called CNN reasons for rioting were, to put it mildly, something that emanates from the rear end of a bull, and with that, I heartily concur.

—Bill

Jay D. Homnick writes this on The Reform Club’s blog. His guiding lights are the prophets of the Hebrew Testament. They are mine too  (it wasn’t always uncool to look up to a prophet, you know.)—ILANA:

“CALL ME ISHMAEL (WHILE I BURN YOUR CAR)

Is Ilana Mercer an absolute genius or what? What does it say about the conservative movement in America to have this level of passion and talent?

Her article today eclipsed my understanding of the media France coverage, left me feeling like a rank amateur in understanding the depth of the kulturkampf. I had contented myself with the lazy observation that the media was disposed to "excuse" criminality when it wore a liberal-political fig leaf.

Ilana digs much deeper. She explains that the miscreancy is itself cited as "proof of virtue".

Her brilliant insight hit me like an epiphany. I felt like I could actually hear Isaiah (5:20):

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who assert that darkness is light and light is darkness; who assert that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. (My translation.)”

POSTED by Jay D. Homnick at 10:17 AM   

From: Lawren 

Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005

Subject: Rah-Rah for Rioters

Thank you for your article on the unbelievable coverage of the French riots. One CNN pundit, with mike clutched to her bosom called the rioters "lads." I immediately sent my monthly email to CNN that they again confirmed they are on the side of chaos and anarchy. Unbelievable.

Thank you again for giving a voice to the unheard.

—Lawren 

—Written by Ilana Mercer, November 11, 2005 (Link)

Letters to Barely A Blog in response to Dear (Zarqawi) ... and For the Love of Islam. Joy! Not one of the WorldNetDaily readers who wrote believes any longer in Bush’s war. All agreed that the twin evils—inviting an invasion by foreigners and instigating one against them; loving Islam and leveling an Islamic country—are two sides of the same neoconservative coin. I’m so very happy. I’ve been pelted since 2002, when I first exposed Bush’s will to war. No more, though.—ILANA

From: Barbara Grant

Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005

Subject: For the Love of Islam

Dear Ilana:

Glad to see your commentary back on a regular basis at WorldNetDaily.com. You are one of a very few commentators who combines clear thinking with exceptional insight and fine prose. Your columns are a joy to read.

The neocons' approach to the Islamic world seems to rely on the false assumption that regime change can promote a character change among those upon whom a regime is imposed. This is about as reasonable as dressing up a man as a woman and proclaiming that "he" is now a "she." When the makeup wears off, one still has the same old parts. American Christians' continued support of an administration that grovels before Islam is even more irrational.