Category: Current Affairs

A reader writes:

Thanks for the story about the Iraqi priest. Funny (sad actually) how you never read about such things in the mainstream media.

In general, what did your Iraqi Catholic friends think about the war?

Also, what did they think about the Pope’s position and statements on the war? (and also the Vatican in general)

And finally, what did they think about Tariq Aziz’ visit to the Vatican and his much publicized praying at the tomb of St. Francis Assisi just prior to the war?

I’m just curious…

I’ve got an unusual amount of data on the Iraqi Catholic perspective on the war, as I was one of two Americans in a class of thirty-something Iraqi Catholics during the run-up to and prosecution of the war.

Basically, they were almost uniformly in favor of it.

I do know one woman who expressed to me that she was very worried about the war and the collateral damage it might cause, but she was the only Iraqi who expressed any hesitation about it. The others were all adamantly in favor of the U.S. overthrowing Saddam.

In fact, during the war itself the class stayed in regular phone contact with their friends and relatives in Iraq and the class was abuzz with joyful reports about whose village had just been liberated by our boys and how soon they might arrive to liberate others’ nearby villages. Class during this period was often punctuated with cries of “No more Saddam!” and “Bush! Bush! Bush!” from various Iraqi class members.

The topic of the pope’s views did not come up in class, but it is my experience from talking with Middle Eastern priests (Iraqi and non-Iraqi) that–though they don’t say it publicly–they uniformly feel that the Vatican has been hopelessly naive on the subject of Islam.

Regarding Tariq Aziz, I don’t have any special info on their opinion of his visit to the Vatican or St. Francis’s tomb, but my impression is that they uniformly regarded Aziz as an evil, hypocritical collaborator with the villain who had raped and slaughtered their people for twenty-five years. They couldn’t wait for that whole regime–Aziz included–to be gone.

Since the war they have been very concerned that Muslims might inaugurate a new era of religious oppression, though they are still very glad and grateful that Saddam is gone.

My experience also is that other Middle Eastern Christians are champing at the bit to have us come in and knock over their oppressive governments. I was at a lunch which was attended by a couple of Iranian Christians (Assyrians, not Catholics). Since some have conjectured that the problem in Iran may be able to be solved without the shedding of blood, I asked them about this and they replied that, no, they felt the regime would only be changed by force. They then went on to speak joyfully as if it was a *certainty* that the U.S. would come in and knock over Fundamentalist Muslim regime controlling their country. I told them, “Uh, guys, don’t speak so quickly about what the U.S. is going to do regarding your country. You may have to sort this one out yourselves.”

My experience is that Lebanese Christians continue to feel betrayed by the West, which sat back did nothing effectual to stop the disintegration of their country and its takeover by Syria and radical Muslims. Their feeling regarding 9/11 has been “We’re sorry that it happened, but now you understand what we were trying to tell you about the threat posed by militant Islam. Now you have suffered as we have suffered for all these years.”

Excerpts from article:

Not content with asking for an arm and a leg from consumers and artists, the music industry now wants your fingerprints, too. The RIAA is hoping that a new breed of music player which requires biometric authentication will put an end to file sharing.

“In practical terms, VeriTouch’s breakthrough in anti-piracy technology means that no delivered content to a customer may be copied, shared or otherwise distributed because each file is uniquely locked by the customer’s live fingerprint scan,” claims the company.

RIAA officials also have announced plans for an even higher level of copy protection, involving voiceprint, DNA, and brainwave authentication. The new technology will require neurosurgery to implant cerebral probes to prevent the use of falsified brainwaves.

“But the good news is that the cerebral probes will also function as transmitters for the music, giving listeners the highest fidelity presentation of recorded sound ever!” enthused Rip Burnley, an RIAA spokesman.

Copyright lawyers for the RIAA also noted that the new, brain-based system would achieve the industry’s longstanding goal of eliminating the practice of “ear piracy,” which they explained was the overhearing of music that one had not properly paid for and licensed.

Excerpts from article:

Not content with asking for an arm and a leg from consumers and artists, the music industry now wants your fingerprints, too. The RIAA is hoping that a new breed of music player which requires biometric authentication will put an end to file sharing.

“In practical terms, VeriTouch’s breakthrough in anti-piracy technology means that no delivered content to a customer may be copied, shared or otherwise distributed because each file is uniquely locked by the customer’s live fingerprint scan,” claims the company.

RIAA officials also have announced plans for an even higher level of copy protection, involving voiceprint, DNA, and brainwave authentication. The new technology will require neurosurgery to implant cerebral probes to prevent the use of falsified brainwaves.

“But the good news is that the cerebral probes will also function as transmitters for the music, giving listeners the highest fidelity presentation of recorded sound ever!” enthused Rip Burnley, an RIAA spokesman.

Copyright lawyers for the RIAA also noted that the new, brain-based system would achieve the industry’s longstanding goal of eliminating the practice of “ear piracy,” which they explained was the overhearing of music that one had not properly paid for and licensed.

Magicians the world over are outraged that an Appleton, WI museum has revealed how Harry Houdini performed his famous “Metamorphosis” trick, performed while handcuffed in a sack in a trunk.

At a hastily-called press conference, several stage magicians threatend to put a hex on the museum and its patrons.

“They want to see how Metamorphosis works?” an enraged David Copperfield was quoted as saying. “I’ll show them how it works from the inside. POOF! They’ll all metamorphose into asthmatic newts!”

Teller, silent half of the comedy magic team Penn & Teller, angrily shouted “——— — —- – — ————— — ——— ——– —— – —— —– ——— ——-!”, his eyes bulging with rage.

Even the normally smiling Doug Henning wasn’t smiling at the press conference. “If the BBC thinks that it will escape our wrath because it only explained on its web site what the museum revealed, they’re wrong! They’ll wake up one morning to find their mouths and fingers have disappeared! How will they file their oh-so-informative stories then?”

Despite these threats, Libby Bias, head of the BBC News Division, seemed unconcerned. “The BBC have retained the services of Prof. Quirrell, instructor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I’m sure that with him working at the organization, evil forces will never be able to infiltrate or harm the BBC.”

Speaking of South Korea, a lot of South Koreans are unhappy about their ultra-pungent national dish–kimchi–being subverted by their Communist neighbor to the north. No, not North Korea. The BIG one: China.

Turns out, China is making cheap kimchi and undercutting the South Korean market for the food. They’re also threatening South Korea’s main export market for kimchi, which is in Japan.

I sympathize with the South Koreans. If a highly obnoxious nation–say, France–was dumping cheap hotdogs on the American market and threatening our main hotdog export markets (if we have any) then I’d be mad, too!

(This story reminds me: I haven’t had kimchi in a while. It’s probably fairly compatible with my diet, so maybe I’ll check that out.)

Speaking of South Korea, a lot of South Koreans are unhappy about their ultra-pungent national dish–kimchi–being subverted by their Communist neighbor to the north. No, not North Korea. The BIG one: China.

Turns out, China is making cheap kimchi and undercutting the South Korean market for the food. They’re also threatening South Korea’s main export market for kimchi, which is in Japan.

I sympathize with the South Koreans. If a highly obnoxious nation–say, France–was dumping cheap hotdogs on the American market and threatening our main hotdog export markets (if we have any) then I’d be mad, too!

(This story reminds me: I haven’t had kimchi in a while. It’s probably fairly compatible with my diet, so maybe I’ll check that out.)

Fessio & Healy Write Letter.

Parents Fisk.

Peters Fisk.

CruxNews readers weigh in on controversy.

Fessio & Healy Write Letter.

Parents Fisk.

Peters Fisk.

CruxNews readers weigh in on controversy.

Another excellent piece from the great Thomas Sowell. This time he focuses on Californians’ obsession with protecting wildlife, specifically: the mountain lion. Excerpt:

Fearing that the mountain lion might find one of the local school children a tempting target, the police shot and killed the animal. Outrage against the police erupted up and down the San Francisco peninsula and as far away as Marin County, on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge, more than 30 miles away.

Sowell’s commentary on the situation is excellent. He particularly goes after local academics, and I’m right with him. I’m from an academic family, so I grew up around PhDs. In fact, I think I was in my early teens before I realized that it was not normal for a man to have a PhD. As a result, I’ve seen academics up close, and I can tell you for a fact that having a doctorate doesn’t mean that you have the sense to come in out of the rain.

I also have special resonance for the nuttiness over the mountain lion in California. As I discovered taking a hunting class, hunting mountain lions is illegal in California. Know why? Well, a number of years ago the envionmentalists out here convinced the people of the state that the animal was endangered (it wasn’t) and so got the previously legal practice of hunting it made illegal. No more mountain lion licenses were issued.

The result? The mountain lion population exploded, outstripped its main habitat, and started encroaching on populated areas. Hungry mountain lions started preying on livestock and even humans.

Now, because ordinary hunters still aren’t allowed to purchases licenses to hunt mountain lion, the state has to pay professionals to come in and cull the mountain lion population. That’s right: Previously the state made money from volunteers who paid to serve as agents of the state’s wildlife management program (which only issued the number of licenses each year needed to keep the wildcat population in check). Now the state must pay other hunters to do the job that it used to make money on.

Who says California isn’t crazy?

An interesting collection of horror stories from American public schools. The lead horror story focuses on history. Excerpts:

American students learn how World War II affected Japanese-Americans, blacks and women, but not much about the actual war, writes Jay Mathews in the Washington Post. Students tend to learn social history but not military history.

Tiffany Charles got a B in history last year at her Montgomery County high school, but she is not sure what year World War II ended. She cannot name a single general or battle, or the man who was president during the most dramatic hours of the 20th century.

Yet the 16-year-old does remember in some detail that many Japanese American families on the West Coast were sent to internment camps. “We talked a lot about those concentration camps,” she said.

The Post interviewed 76 teenagers. Two-thirds knew Japanese Americans had been interned during World War II. Only one-third could name a single World War II general; half could name a World War II battle.

On her blog, one teacher is frank about why history gets taught as it does:

I have much more time pressure and concern about teaching the curriculum since my kids have to take a standardized test. For my Advanced Placement kids, we do almost zilch on military history for any war we study. That is not part of the AP curriculum. . . . But the social history….that’s another story. They better know how every single war impacted women and families, blacks and other minorities, civil rights, the economy, the role of the federal government, and politics. Every single AP test will probably have a social history question. And, as I tell my kids, when you see “social” on an AP test, think women and blacks, and you’ll be able to come up with a good answer. And for World War II, throw in Japanese internment and the Zoot Suit riots, and you’re doing great. But for military history, they’ll need to take my elective on the Revolution and the Civil War to get some real military history other than a brief skimming of the surface.

Just more reason to homeschool.