It's Not Israel's Fault, but ...

I wonder how truly committed Israel is to the peace process. Realizing that Israelis were splattered all over downtown Jerusalem by a vicious, cowardly maniac, and that the responsibility for that attack was fought over by dueling press releases from terrorist groups, it's easy to see where the righteous anger, the burning need, desire an visceral urge for revenge come from. But what is at the end of that road?

If everyone knows that a horrific suicide bombing will cause Israel to drop whatever progress has been made with sane Palestinian representatives, doesn't that empower the lunatics? Of both sides? And doesn't that mean more bombings whenever it looks like progress is being made? This plays directly into the hands of the most violent, intractable knuckledraggers on both sides.

Look at areas in the world where real progress has been made. Northern Ireland for example. Sure, there've been bombings since Good Friday. Sure there've been recriminations, backsliding, grandstanding and gamesmanship. But after 35 years of open conflict (and hundreds of years of oppression) mixed in with particularly virulent offshoots of religion, what did you expect?

The essence of peacemaking is maturity. A mature person sacrifices and suffers in the present to build a better future. A mature society taxes itself both in money and lost present opportunities to build a more stable, equitable and successful society in the future. Sure you have to respond to criminality. But you also have to reward whatever civilization is slowly taking root.

Posted 10:11 AM by Jon Link

Why Does Rich Lowry Hate Citizens of the Republic of India?

Rich is off on another fishing reasearch expedition. This time he would like evidence of "...what a rotten influence Indians are in our politics, pegged to California.". Now, admittedly there are a lot of folks that moved here from the Indian subcontinent to work in high tech and such. And there is a lot of worry in some quarters on how high tech jobs might be exported to India. But I really don't think their yank has reached a point where any reasonable person could call them a rotten influence.

They can't compare in influence, for example, to the gaming industry that works through native american tribes here in California. Jeez Rich, one would think you knew that already. Aren't you a political pundit of some repute?

Posted 4:36 PM by Jon Link

Kiss the Latino Vote Goodbye

All indications are that Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't interested in winning the hispanic vote in the upcoming election. How so? Well, up until now he's made two terrible decisions: first, he's brought on baord as his head of the campaign ex-governor of California Pete Wilson, who has a well earned reputation as an enemy of Latino immigrants, and second, and he's let everyone know he's very proud of this, he voted for Anti-immigrant proposition 187.

That's the lead-off for today's news by the top anchorman at Univision, "The leading Spanish-language broadcast television network in the United States, reaching 97% of all U.S. Hispanic television households. "

I just translated the first paragraph. Here's an English translation of the whole thing

Posted 11:59 AM by Jon Link

What Buffy Fan Wouldn't Vote for Him?

I checked on my website and found the Google had inserted a Gruener for Governor campaign ad at the top. But I misread it, and thought they meant Groener, as in Harry Groener

What self-respecting Buffy fan wouldn't want to see the mayor of Sunnydale try his hand at taming California politics?

Posted 9:05 PM by Jon Link

The Whining Reaches the Point That Only Dogs Can Hear

Mr. O'Reilly is upset by (should Fox Legal beagles get their way) un-fair and un-balanced Al Franken.

Favorite Line?

It makes me sick to see intellectually dishonest individuals hide behind the First Amendment to spread propaganda, libel and slander.

But the multi-million dollar contract helps him stand his fellow Fox-ites just a little longer.

Posted 4:24 PM by Jon Link

There is no God but Google

And we are all its prophets.

Google has added a calculator feature that lets you type in say "5*29" and get the answer. Even cooler though is that it understands common terms like "speed of light" or "mass of the earth". You can also use it to convert between number systems such as "0xAF to binary".

Yet another reeason to keep a browser window open.

Posted 1:25 PM by Jon Link

We're not Pathetic, We've Got Dennis Miller!

Sometimes I think the sole qualification for being a conservative pundit is a childhood spent in high-water pants being chosen last for girl's dodgeball. Stanley Kurtz, taking a moment out from his odd and scary obsession with the issue of Gay Marriage, and Andrew Sullivan, proves this all over again by insisting that conservatism is winning because it's really, really funny. He uses Fox News as one example. While I think a story he pointed out earlier is funny, Kurtz needs to get out to the comedy clubs a bit more. Anyone who thinks Jonah Goldberg "... is the king of comedy on the net", desperately needs to check out The Onion, Adam Felber, Dave Barry or any of a hundred other websites.

Or maybe just stop sucking up to Jonah, Fox, and all the other Kewl Kidz of Konservatizm.

Posted 9:20 AM by Jon Link

A Review of the New Fantasy Toy for Ne'er-do-wells of All Ages

He probably wants a toy smart enough to undo his parachute straps before he tries to walk.

Heh. Ouch. Heh.

Posted 3:20 PM by Jon Link

Coming Soon to a Mailbox Near You

The hyenas of the conservative set have a new/old issue to bother you about, Gay Marriage. It's nothing less than the decline of civilization as we know it, so get on board cause this train is Bound For Glory!

This train also arrives at an intriguing time. This has been a lousy economy for everyone, but these groups have been particularly hard-hit. Focus on the Family, for instance, was $7 million in the hole for the fiscal year ending September 2002. Prison Fellowship Ministries (Chuck Colson's group) was $1.9 million in the red and Traditional Values Coalition refuses to disclose its finances to outsiders.

Hmmm...you know what would go real good right now? A red-meat issue that our partisans will feel really threatened by that targets a group we are admonished by our reading of the Bible to hate (their actions of course) anyway.

Posted 3:02 PM by Jon Link

Just a Standard Stop

Coming out of the gym yesterday afternoon I found that the San Diego PD had stopped a tall, thirtyish, well-built man in scruffy clothes driving an Audi TT roadster. The officer was sitting in his car, while the man fetched papers out of the Audi, then presented them to the officer sitting in his car. As the man did so, a second police cruiser rolled up. The second officer got out of his car, slowly assesed the situation, then spoke to the man and the first officer. Finally geting their approval, the man got back in his car, rolled the ten feet down the road to the driveway for the gym and pulled in to park and begin his workout. That explained his scruffy clothes.

As the tall well-built black man rolled by my wife and me, he saw that we had been watching him calmly talk with both officers. I couldn't read his expression. I don't know why it took two SDPD patrol cars to deal with a single black man driving an expensive sports car. I would like to know how often this happens. I might be able to find that out now. If Proposition 54 passes we can all assume that a pattern of such random stops does not, and will never exist, right?

To all you Californians reading this, and anyone who knows a Californian, get out the vote for this recall. There are more important things at stake than who gets to take the blame for the next few years' budget crises.

Posted 9:48 AM by Jon Link