Things Noted Here and There
Sometimes a blogger does a service by translating an important article. Imshin at Not a Fish translates: Ben Dror Yemini,"Genocide, Genocide, Genocide: And the World is Silent," Maariv, Part I, Part II, Part III. The burden of the argument is:
Since 1948, the number of Muslims killed by the Americans and Israelis combined is still less than the number killed by the French. And the number of Muslims killed by the French, Israelis, and Americans combined is still less than the number killed by the Soviets/Russians. And the number of Muslims killed by the Soviets, Russians, French, Israelis, and Americans, combined, is still about 1/3 of the number of Muslims who have been killed by Muslim states.
Those data are enlightening, yet they ignore matters of proximity and alien incitement and intrusion that do not pacify, but inflame violence in the Muslim world.
Christopher Hitchens,"I. F. Stone's Mighty Pen," Vanity Fair, n.d., catches Izzy at his best. At 1968's Republican convention in Miami Beach, for instance:
It was hard to listen to Goldwater and realize that a man could be half Jewish and yet sometimes appear to be twice as dense as the normal gentile. As for Agnew, even at a convention where every speech seemed to outdo the other in wholesome clichés and delicious anticlimaxes, his speech putting Nixon into nomination topped all the rest. If the race that produced Isaiah is down to Goldwater and the race that produced Pericles is down to Agnew, the time has come to give the country back to the WASPs.
Thanks to Arts & Letters Daily for the tips.
Francis Fukuyama,"The American Way of Secrecy," Washington Post, 8 October, considers the folly of security controls on information at the National Archives, when the data is already a part of the public record and available to foreign states.
Robert Dallek calls for the ouster of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.
Coherent Babble has a complete record of President Bush's"Signing Statements" since 2001. The Washington Post reports the most recent example. Without a Congress or a Court that shows more backbone than the current ones do, executive use of signing statements to the degree that George Bush has used them could wreck our system of checks and balances. Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tips.
Finally, Sharon Tune (stune*at*historians*dot*org) and David Beito (dbeito*at*history*dot*as*dot*au*dot*edu) need to hear from another half-dozen AHA members in good standing that you support the resolution against speech codes that inhibit free academic speech. Really, folks, this should be a no-brainer. Don't make me name names!