Streakin'

The University of Miami saw its 14th straight year of having at least one first round pick in the NFL Draft. This is the continuation of their record streak, one that seemed less sure until the selection of Kenny Phillips with the last pick in the 1st Round.

The Miami Herald's Manny Navarro has a retrospective on Miami and the draft. Miami has produced 47 1st rounders since 1984, more than any other school. In addition to that, many have been extremely productive, and often in their first seasons.

Go Canes!

El Plátano

This interesting book review has almost inspired me to read 300 pages about the Banana.

Ever thought about how there are many apples or oranges and only one banana?

Iraq, 5 Years hence

More than 5 years have passed since the U.S. invasion of Iraq. I remain convinced that going to war was the right thing to do and that long-term success is both possible and likely.

Slate is an online magazine that is predictably left-leaning. Notwithstanding those tendencies, several of their writers supported the decision to invade. Like many erstwhile supporters of the war, many have changed their mind. Like me, Christopher Hitchens has held fast. I think that his column to that effect is an excellent one. His conclusion:

There is, however, one position that nobody can honestly hold but that many people try their best to hold. And that is what I call the Bishop Berkeley theory of Iraq, whereby if a country collapses and succumbs to trauma, and it's not our immediate fault or direct responsibility, then it doesn't count, and we are not involved. Nonetheless, the very thing that most repels people when they contemplate Iraq, which is the chaos and misery and fragmentation (and the deliberate intensification and augmentation of all this by the jihadists), invites the inescapable question: What would post-Saddam Iraq have looked like without a coalition presence?
The past years have seen us both shamed and threatened by the implications of the Berkeleyan attitude, from Burma to Rwanda to Darfur. Had we decided to attempt the right thing in those cases (you will notice that I say "attempt" rather than "do," which cannot be known in advance), we could as glibly have been accused of embarking on "a war of choice." But the thing to remember about Iraq is that all or most choice had already been forfeited. We were already deeply involved in the life-and-death struggle of that country, and March 2003 happens to mark the only time that we ever decided to intervene, after a protracted and open public debate, on the right side and for the right reasons. This must, and still does, count for something.

Invading Iraq was just the right thing to do.

R.I.P. William F. Buckley

He passed away at age 82. One of the key figures of the conservative movement and a founder of The National Review.

That'll be one of the best places to learn more about him. There is also this AP article.

UPDATE 2/28

I really enjoyed this remembrance from the WSJ. A piece:

These achievements might not have happened without Buckley, who was uniquely suited to preside over the often-feuding factions of the early political right. He liked arguments over principle, but he also had an uncommon talent for adjudicating disputes and building coalitions. And though Buckley had bedrock beliefs, he had a conservative's distrust for systems and grand theories; his politics were pragmatic. His thinking and prose were governed by a critical-deliberative style that emphasized contingency and complexity. More than anything else, Buckley wanted to promulgate what he often referred to as "a thoughtful conservatism."

Here also are some excellent Buckleyisms.

Farewell President Hinckley

In yet another example of new technology trumping traditional media, we were just made aware via text message of the death of Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He died of causes incident to age, no surprise at his 97 years. He served as Church president for almost 13 years, but it felt like longer, considering his many years of service as a counselor to earlier Church presidents. We who belong to the Church have been richly blessed by his service and example. I'm sure that others not of our faith will also mourn his passing.

I have asked myself about his legacy for me. He was a prophet and a man of God. A good man. I would like to be like him in the way I conduct my life and lead my family. I believe that he was called of God, and that he carried God's word. He served far longer than many people expect to live, and did so with vitality and enthusiasm.

I have no doubt that our next prophet will continue to build on the legacy of President Hinckley and those that came before. It is God's will. President Hinckley knew it. He gave his life to it. I will always be grateful.

Heroes

I went to the funeral of a client today. We were not well-acquainted, as the relationship was fairly recent, but I thought it important that I go. Aside from the professional obligation, I love history. Funerals are a fascinating way of understanding individual histories, often unsung histories. It is an opportunity for family and friend to remember the good and great about the loved one who has passed. For most of us, these are fleeting memorials. Understandably, there will not be plaques or statues enumerating our great deeds, at least not outside of the family album. Sometimes, as when death comes by way of selfless heroism, permanent monuments are appropriate.

Have any of you heard of Frankie Housley? Although I may have heard the name, the circumstances of her life were a mystery until I read this remembrance in the Knoxville weekly Metro Pulse (via Instapundit). Housley, a stewardess, perished heroically while trying to save an infant after a plane crash. She had already pushed and prodded 10 passengers to safety. Just reading this excerpt has left an indelible mark in my memory:

She opened the emergency door and looked down at an eight-foot drop to the ground. One after another, she escorted passengers to the opening. To those who resisted the jump, which was like leaping off a garage roof, she offered a firm shove.
She got 10 passengers out that way. Among them were soldiers, sailors, and young mother Manuela Smith and her two-year-old daughter. But Smith’s infant, Brenda Joyce, was still in the plane. Frankie went back in, one more time, but this time she didn’t emerge.
When the fire was out, they found Frankie in the scorched fuselage with the baby in her arms.

It is at once tragic and inspiring. Memorials were planned and promised. Those that were established have perished with the structures they inhabited. Others never came to fruition. It is clear that she should not be forgotten.

She is not alone. Several years ago I read the book, Black Hawk Down. It chronicles the famous incident where U.S. servicemen in Somalia were forced to work in the worst possible conditions. There are tremendous examples of heroism in those events. The legacy of Mogadishu is not an entirely proud one, but the individual heroes should not be forgotten.

I look forward to learning about more of the heroes in our current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. I look forward to learning about heroes who have come and gone during so many of our nation's turbulent times.

I will also look forward to those quiet services, where I will continue to learn about the men and women that I thought I knew. For a brief moment, their monuments will be clear. I hope to keep them a part of my mind, and a part of my history.

Still the time to choose

The Weekly Standard's WorldwideStandard.com posted this clip of Ronald Reagan's "Time for Choosing" speech. It is 4 minutes long, and worth every minute.



My, oh, my. That is a speech! You can find the complete text and video here.

This speech could be given today, and it would be just as applicable. Reagan is one of my heroes, but I have to admit that I worry about whether or not our constant reference to him is good for modern conservatism. I don't think there will ever be another Ronald Reagan. The sad thing is that watching a video like this makes me wish that there would be.

The Great White Fleet

So was named the 16 battleships of the U.S. Atlantic forces on their 43,000 mile trip around the world. This historical event took place 100 years ago, and as was noted by the Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens, its centennial was noticed by few Americans. He explains the significance of that journey, both in its historical context and its ramifications for today. An excerpt:

There is an enduring, bipartisan strain in American politics (think Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich) that wishes to forgo the military role. As wonderfully recounted by Jim Rasenberger in "America 1908," the voyage of the Great White Fleet, as it was popularly known, was energetically opposed by members of Congress, who sought to cut off its funding when it was halfway around the world. Sound familiar? Mark Twain considered the venture as further evidence that TR was "clearly insane . . . and insanest upon war and its supreme glories."

Despite the objections the voyage continued and was a huge success. Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, it did not endure:

Yet if there was a lesson here, it was lost to the U.S. during the interwar period. Just 13 years after the Great White Fleet returned to the U.S., it was physically scrapped under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, which set strict limits on the number and size of battleships the major powers could build and deploy. Only after Pearl Harbor and World War II did Americans really seem to learn the lesson that their position as a maritime power could not be wished away, and that their maritime interests could only be defended by a powerful Navy.

Our "supremely powerful Navy" is indeed essential.

We may have to cry for Argentina

From Rafael Rosen in TCSDaily:

The next president is the wife of a former president. Yes, their story is familiar by now. The couple met in law school. He became governor of a politically backwater state, before winning election to the nation's highest office on an unimpressive plurality. She then handily won the presidency from her post as the junior Senator from Buenos Aires.
Forgive yourself the confusion. For the law school is not Yale but La Plata. The governorship is not of Arkansas but of Santa Cruz. The president is not Clinton but Kirchner.

Latin America has been cursed with poor leadership for far too long. Populism and doomed socialist policites have crippled and continue to handicap its progress. Perhaps Kirchner will avoid that outcome. I'm not optimistic.

Go Canes!

This is my first try at cellphone blogging, coming to you live from the historic Orange Bowl. I love this place. It is my first game here in over ten years, and thanks to Justin Palmer (& of course my sweet Lacy) I get to make this pilgrimage to the OB.
Miami set an NCAA record here with 58(!!) straight home wins. It is old, run-down, and beautiful. Here's hoping for a win. I'll post some pics later.

The Legacy of Che

It disgusts me when I see a college student or teenager wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Che Guevara.
This post from the Reason blog offers a nice remembrance of the dead totalitarian.
The shirt below is more to my liking.

Whither the Mormon Anarchist?

I wrote a post for my friends at In Rare Form on a new publication, The Mormon Worker. It advocates something called Mormon Anarchism. Want to guess how I felt about it?

Go read the post here.

Cheney the Sphynx

There is a lot that I like about Dick Cheney. He is very intelligent, a strong speaker, and doesn't mince words. In this op-ed from today's Wall Street Journal, the Vice-President shows his diplomatic side in his answer to some of the criticisms made in Alan Greenspan's new book. An excerpt:

Alan tells of his first meeting with then President-elect Bush on Dec. 18, 2000, at the Madison Hotel in Washington. I recall this breakfast meeting very well, especially Alan's comments on the state of the economy. The Fed chairman told the president-elect and our team that America faced the real possibility of a recession in the wake of the collapse of the late 1990s technology sector bubble. Alan's prediction proved correct: In the final months of the Clinton administration, the nation began an economic slowdown that turned into a recession...

The combined effects of recession and national emergency could have been devastating for America's economy. Yet President Bush's tax cuts--following through on a promise he had made to the voters--resulted in a shallower recession, a faster recovery, and a platform for growth that remains sturdy to this day. The fact is that in a time of unprecedented challenge, the United States has experienced nearly six years of uninterrupted economic growth and added more than eight million new jobs since August 2003--more than all other major industrialized nations combined.

The economic growth encouraged by the president's tax cuts is now producing sharply increased federal tax receipts--up by nearly 15% in fiscal year 2005 alone, nearly 12% in fiscal year 2006, and projected to rise nearly 7% in the fiscal year that will end this month. That is the highest growth in tax receipts in consecutive years since 1981. As a result, tax revenue as a percentage of our economy is now above the 40-year historical average. Under the circumstances, it's pretty hard for anyone to argue that the American people are under-taxed. Even at a lower rate of taxation, the hard work and productivity of Americans is generating more tax dollars than ever before.

He addresses Greenspan's criticism of the Bush Administration's spending. To me this is a very valid contention. I'm never comfortable with deficit spending. The poor fiscal discipline of the past 6 !/2 years is tempered by 9/11 and increased international commitments, but I do think the government could have done more to limit spending.

I should note that many media outlets have taken some of Greenpan's statements out of contextm particularly regarding the Iraq War. That may be a topic for another day.

Asking "Why?"

Mark Steyn is a favorite writer of mine. This column came out yesterday. It examines explanations for why 9/11 occurred. Although I don't think that his characterization of the Massachusetts Governor is entirely accurate, his general point is spot-on. An excerpt:

Fritz Gelowicz. Richard Reid. The Australian factory worker Jack Roche. The Toronto jihadists plotting to behead the Canadian prime minister. The son of the British Conservative Party official with the splendidly Wodehousian double-barreled name. All over the world there are young men raised in the "Multi-Kultur Haus" of the West who decide their highest ambition is to convert to Islam, become a jihadist and self-detonate.
Why do radical imams seek to convert young Canadian, British and even American men and women in their late teens and twenties? Because they understand that when you raise a generation in the great wobbling blancmange of Deval Patrick-style cultural relativism – nothing is any better or any worse than anything else; if people are "mean and nasty" to us, it's only because we didn't sing enough Barney the Dinosaur songs at them – in such a world a certain percentage of its youth will have a great gaping hole where their sense of identity should be. And into that hole you can pour something fierce and primal and implacable.

How little we've learned

9/11 was a seminal event in my life. I remember watching the Challenger explode. I remember watching Tienanmen Square protests and subsequent crackdown. I remember watching the Berlin Wall be torn down. And I remember watching the second plan hit the Tower and the resulting horrific catastrophe. 9/11 will always be a tragic day to me.

I was so inspired by much of what happened in the days and weeks following the attack. I was optimistic about the future. I still am, but not in the way that I thought I would be. Now my optimism comes in spite of what I see in the news every day. It comes despite the idiocy of people like Russ Feingold and Dick Durbin and Nancy Pelosi.

Norman Podhoretz has a great article in today's WSJ. You can read it for free at Opinion Journal. He explains how the Left is using the lessons of Vietnam (the lessons they learned) today.

I wish I had time for more. Instapundit has a good roundup.

Food for Thought

It is almost universally accepted that the decision to disband the Iraqi Army following the 2003 invasion was a mistake. Paul Bremer says it was not, and he makes some compelling arguments:
By the time Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003, the Iraqi Army had simply dissolved. On April 17 Gen. John Abizaid, the deputy commander of the Army’s Central Command, reported in a video briefing to officials in Washington that “there are no organized Iraqi military units left.” The disappearance of Saddam Hussein’s old army rendered irrelevant any prewar plans to use that army. So the question was whether the Coalition Provisional Authority should try to recall it or to build a new one open to both vetted members of the old army and new recruits. General Abizaid favored the second approach.

In the weeks after General Abizaid’s recommendation, the coalition’s national security adviser, Walter Slocombe, discussed options with top officials in the Pentagon, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. They recognized that to recall the former army was a practical impossibility because postwar looting had destroyed all the bases.

Moreover, the largely Shiite draftees of the army were not going to respond to a recall plea from their former commanders, who were primarily Sunnis. It was also agreed that recalling the army would be a political disaster because to the vast majority of Iraqis it was a symbol of the old Baathist-led Sunni ascendancy.

His points are worth reading. We have to understand that sometimes there are no easy options, no fool-proof plans.

The Peace Racket

City Journal has an interesting article by Bruce Bawer entitled "The Peace Racket." Truth be told, I saw it last week and didn't have time to read it then and don't have time now. From what I gather in my perusal, Bowen's contention is that many "peace" programs are doomed to fail. His introduction:

If you want peace, prepare for war.” Thus counseled Roman general Flavius Vegetius Renatus over 1,600 years ago. Nine centuries before that, Sun Tzu offered essentially the same advice, and it’s to him that Vegetius’s line is attributed at the beginning of a film that I saw recently at Oslo’s Nobel Peace Center. Yet the film cites this ancient wisdom only to reject it. After serving up a perverse potted history of the cold war, the thrust of which is that the peace movement brought down the Berlin Wall, the movie ends with words that turn Vegetius’s insight on its head: “If you want peace, prepare for peace.”
This purports to be wise counsel, a motto for the millennium. In reality, it’s wishful thinking that doesn’t follow logically from the history of the cold war, or of any war. For the cold war’s real lesson is the same one that Sun Tzu and Vegetius taught: conflict happens; power matters. It’s better to be strong than to be weak; you’re safer if others know that you’re ready to stand up for yourself than if you’re proudly outspoken about your defenselessness or your unwillingness to fight. There’s nothing mysterious about this truth. Yet it’s denied not only by the Peace Center film but also by the fast-growing, troubling movement that the center symbolizes and promotes.
Call it the Peace Racket.

I should mention that I am a proud Rotarian. Rotary International has programs that are focused on peaceful conflict resolution. Rotary is funded primarily by the efforts of business people. I don't think that there has to be a conflict between strength and peace. The problem is that some entities have crossed the line into an unrealistic and dangerous territory, espousing the idea that peace at all costs is a virtue. As Bawer mentions, history tells us that it is not.

A Reagan Aide Dies.

Michael Deaver passed away last week. He was an aide to Ronald Reagan and was credited with fashioning many of that President's most iconic moments. These include the Evil Empire and Normandy speeches. He also wrote a great book about his time with the Reagans called A Different Drummer: My Thirty Years with Ronald Reagan. I heartily recommend it.

For more read John Fund's retrospective.

Happy 4th of July!

This is a great Independence Day. I am blogging from Marco Island, FL with my family. I wanted to point out an excellent article about the Founding Fathers.

It is written by Joyce Lee Mason, a professor of legal history at George Mason University School of Law. Some excerpts:

It's easy now, in a nation awash with complaints about what our Founders did not do, what imperfect humans they seem to 21st century eyes, to overlook how startlingly bold their views and actions were in their own day and are, in fact, even today. Who else in 1776 declared, let alone thought it a self-evident truth, that all men were created equal, entitled to inalienable rights, or to any rights at all? How few declare these views today or, glibly declaring them, really intend to treat their countrymen or others as equal, entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Certainly not America's 20th century enemies, the Nazis and communists; certainly not today's Islamic radicals, who consider infidels unworthy to live and the faithful bound by an ancient and brutal code of law. We are fortunate that the Founders of our nation were enlightened, generous, jealous of their rights and those of their countrymen, and prepared to risk everything to create a free republic.

More tragically, some seem to enjoy vilifying America, everything it has been and stands for, seeking and finding fatal shortcomings. Adams and Jefferson were not blind to those shortcomings. "We think ourselves possessed or at least we boast that we are so of Liberty of conscience on all subjects and of the right of free inquiry and private judgment, in all cases and yet," Adams admitted, "how far are we from these exalted privileges in fact." Recent moments of real unity after 9/11, when members of Congress stood together on the steps of the Capitol and sang "God Bless America," have been fleeting.

I hope that we remember the sacrifices of those that preceded us, in order to honor them appropriately.

Quick Hits

These are some great links that are worth your time. Unfortunately, I don't have much time to write so my part will be brief:

• Michael Yon continues to provide outstanding reporting from Iraq. He is completely reader-supported, and his insights are far better than what the mainstream media is providing. His most recent dispatch deals with the Arrowhead Ripper offensive, specifically in the city of Baqubah. Read and donate if you can.
• Corn-based ethanol is not the answer to an energy crunch. Beyond the questionable economic considerations lies the unintended consequence of higher food prices for the world's poor. I was especially concerned about the projected rise in the price of cassava, sometimes called yucca. Fry it for some fantastic eating!
• Michael Barone talks immigration with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. He makes some interesting points. I favor the National ID card plan and can see where Chertoff is coming from on the other issues. I just don't see the need for this massive and "comprehensive" reform. That is usually a recipe for confusing and ineffective law.
• My preferred presidential aspirant is Mitt Romney. I think that is work as governor of Massachusetts was very impressive. I do have to admit being intrigued by Fred Thompson. This was an interesting article about how he has managed to keep most of his bridges "fire-free."
• READ THIS: Joshua Muravchik has an article in today's Wall Street Journal that examines the danger of Iranian & Syrian aggression in the Middle East. Very thought-provoking, and very possible.