A friend just sent: Der Spiegel's interview with Solzhenitsyn. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4. They cover, respectively, the personal, historical Russia (part 2 is hilarious because S. has to correct the premise of pretty much every question), current Russia, and the role of faith. In the last question they ask him if he's afraid of death, and he says he was in his 20s, but in his 30s he came to see it as natural and not the end. Then:
SPIEGEL: Anyhow, we wish you many years of creative life.
Solzhenitsyn: No, no. Don't. It's enough.
On the re-emergence (or lack thereof) of the grown-up:
- parents held responsible for what 18-yr-olds do.
- people who think natural disasters just happen, and there's no one to blame or sue.
- haven't seen this trend myself, but if she says so: the new Victorians.
- grown-ups worshipping like adults
- John Bolton favors politicians and diplomats speaking their minds.
- The 9/11 generation --way better than boomers.
- Powerline's preview of The Death of the Grown-Up
On Iraq & Myopia in the Senate:
- Mona Charen on Democratomyopia:
One thinks of March 1975. Liberal New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis scoffed at warnings of a coming bloodbath in Southeast Asia. "Some will find the whole bloodbath debate unreal. What future possibility could be more terrible than the reality of what is happening to Cambodia now?" Most Democrats agreed with Mr. Lewis.
- Same track, but documenting John Kerry's denials about the carnage in Viet Nam & Cambodia: It didn't happen. Devastating.
- Michael Yon's latest.
- al-Q members informing on each other in Iraq.
- Heh. A guy we released from Gitmo killed himself. ninme notes if only we'd detained him longer, he'd still be alive. (Also curties to ninme for two links here).
- Michael Totten's in Baghdad. Great photos. He describes good conditions and reports:
“This is not what I expected in Baghdad,” I said.
That last is the point I think the Dems who want to manage the war on terror as a police problem don't get. Scroll down in the post for the account of the conversation between an elderly Iraqi man and the Americans inspecting his home.
“Most of what we’re doing doesn’t get reported in the media,” he said. “We’re not fighting a war here anymore, not in this area. We’ve moved way beyond that stage. We built a soccer field for the kids, bought all kinds of equipment, bought them school books and even chalk. Soon we’re installing 1,500 solar street lamps so they have light at night and can take some of the load off the power grid. The media only covers the gruesome stuff. We go to the sheiks and say hey man, what kind of projects do you want in this area? They give us a list and we submit the paperwork. When the projects get approved, we give them the money and help them buy stuff.”
Not everything they do is humanitarian work, unless you consider counter terrorism humanitarian work. In my view, you should. Few Westerners think of personal security as a human right, but if you show up in Baghdad I’ll bet you will. Personal security may, in fact, be the most important human right. Without it the others mean little. People aren’t free if they have to hide in their homes from death squads and car bombs. - White House fact sheet on al-Qaeda in Iraq. Military estimates 80-90 % of suicide bombings in Iraq are carried out by foreign fighters brought to Iraq for that purpose. al-Q deceit in effort to make fight seem to be coming from Iraqis.
- Bush made a speech in SC about the war today. Draws heavily on the fact sheet cited just above. Calls for nothing less than complete victory in Iraq. Speaking of grown-ups....
Just because it's good news: the Bulgarians are released. Sarkozy's doing? He's the only one who didn't seem to have forgotten them.
And: Signs are all you need to understand the latest Vatican document.
Ooh, ooh! I've been waiting for this. Another of the Holy Father's fantabulous Q & As with priests. Italian video with some of the questions here. Off on another road-trip, but I'll be on the look-out for a translation.
