WhatsAPundit

Jeane Kirkpatrick died yesterday.

Stupid blogpost title notwithstanding, America lost a great citizen and patriot. More thoughts later, but suffice it to say, the running Bill the Cat joke about her torrid affair with one of the most (intentionally and hilariously) pointless and graceless cartoon characters of all time only worked because Kirkpatrick herself was such a strong, significant, and elegant figure.

Especially today, we need more like her.

Money Grafs:

This meant changing the internal structure of Arab regimes and in a larger sense the culture of the Arab/Islamic world. This had been the one area of the world that uniquely had been untouched by the modernizing and democratizing influences of the postwar era. East Asia had famously taken off economically and politically, in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere; Latin America and even some parts of Africa had democratized; of course, Western Europe had been democratic ever since World War II, but now Eastern Europe had joined the march. Only the Arab/Islamic world had been left out. Unless it was somehow encouraged and brought along on that march, it would remain recalcitrant, alienated, oppressed, tyrannical, and the place from which the kind of atavistic attacks on America and the West that we have seen on 9/11 and since would continue.

That’s why the entire enterprise of changing the culture of the Arab world was undertaken. It was, as I and others had said at the time, a radical idea, an arrogant idea, a risky idea. But it was also the only idea of any coherence and consistency that anyone has advanced on how to change the underlying conditions that had led to 9/11 and ultimately to prevent the kind of conditions that would lead to a second 9/11.

I keep seeing anti-War comments asking how anyone could support Bush's policies. Well, until someone comes up with a coherent, potentially effective policy that addresses the issues, (instead of a simple laundry list of platitudes) the Bush Doctrine has my support.

BLIM of the day:

[11:29] ashidome: could you pick up a baby name book on the way home
[11:29] ashidome: this one is on the shelf at borders: Baby Name Wizard: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby
[11:29] whatsapundit: what, you don't like our witty back-and-forth banter?
[11:30] ashidome: i think it needs to be better directed
[11:30] ashidome: we're just sitting around thinking of names we know
[11:30] ashidome: or remember
[11:30] whatsapundit: but then we might come to a decision
[11:30] whatsapundit: and lose months of entertaining conversation
[11:30] ashidome: i really doubt we'll come to a decision any time soon
[11:31] whatsapundit: sure, I'll pick it up.

Evil Incarnate (otherwise known as M E-L from Ishbadiddle) posted a link to Funny Farm, a word association game that could turn a weak-willed person into an effective emulator of a million random monkeys.

Any resemblance to the author of this post will get the mentioner smacked upside the head.

Anyway, iterations listed below:

• 12/29/06, 13:10 -- Found "Baseball!" (I'm not sure why this should be exciting, but it's in a different color!
• 12/29/06, 14:00 -- Completed an entire panel! (Of course, it would be the Poker Stars panel....)
• 12/29/06, 15:25 -- The horror, the horror....
• 12/29/06, 16:00 -- No, I can quit any time....
• 12/29/06, 19:50 -- Now Liz is involved....
• 12/30/06, 00:10 -- Why isn't Eric Clapton and "After Midnight" anyplace in this damn thing? Or maybe I just haven't gotten there yet. Liz, the sane one, is at least asleep now....
• 12/30/06, 02:00 -- I surrender.
• 12/31/06, 09:30 -- Liz opens up the board a little more before going on a Target run.
• 12/31/06, 14:10 -- Mark inches forward a bit...
• 01/01/07, 17:00 -- Merging TK's finds....