Petrified Truth

Beauty

This is lovely: 500 years of women in western art.

Tip via The Braden Files.

Losing ground

This statement Tuesday by President Bush about the immigration debate was truly unfortunate.

Those determined to find fault with this bill will always be able to look at a narrow slice of it and find something they don't like. If you want to kill the bill, if you don't want to do what's right for America, you can pick one little aspect out of it, you can use it to frighten people. Or you can show leadership and solve this problem once and for all, so the people who wear the uniform in this crowd can do the job we expect them to do.

Well. Those who "don't want to do what's right for America" now include such radicals as George Will and Peggy Noonan. I don't think we've heard that kind of churlishness since Bush was thwarted in his doomed 2005 attempt to nominate the unfortunate Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

Just a few weeks ago, Mickey Kaus was quoted by the omniscient Instapundit:

The president's ratings have tumbled each time immigration reform dominates the news. Using advanced, high-tech tools, Karl Rove has found the last pocket of support for Bush and destroyed it with laser-like efficiency.

I'd say President Bush is doing his own dirty work now. Maybe he thinks his Democratic allies in this foolishness will save the day. But at what cost?

Faithful

An alert reader writes to say:

I was listening to Laura Ingraham on Friday. She was talking to a mother whose son was re-enlisting in the Marine Corps that evening. The mother told Laura that she was so proud of her son and he would be re-enlisting with only his family there, standing by him proudly.

Laura was so moved by the mom's story that she told her, she [Laura] would be there too. Laura kept her word.

At Arlington

Here's a portion of President Bush's Memorial Day remarks.

As before in our history, Americans find ourselves under attack and underestimated. Our enemies long for our retreat. They question our moral purpose. They doubt our strength of will. Yet even after five years of war, our finest citizens continue to answer our enemies with courage and confidence. Hundreds of thousands of patriots still raise their hands to serve their country; tens of thousands who have seen war on the battlefield volunteer to re-enlist. What an amazing country to produce such fine citizens.

Laura and I have met many of them; we've sat at the bedsides of the wounded. This morning, I met service members who received medals for distinguished service -- and found myself humbled by their grace and their grit. I had the honor of meeting with families of the fallen in the Oval Office, and was amazed by their strength and resolve and decent grace under pressure. We've heard of 174 Marines recently -- almost a quarter of a battalion -- who asked to have their enlistments extended. For these extensions, they would earn no promotion and no promise of a favored posting. They want to serve their nation. And as one of them put it this way: "I'm here so our sons don't have to come and fight here someday."

Those who serve are not fatalists or cynics. They know that one day this war will end -- as all wars do. Our duty is to ensure that its outcome justifies the sacrifices made by those who fought and died in it. From their deaths must come a world where the cruel dreams of tyrants and terrorists are frustrated and foiled -- where our nation is more secure from attack, and where the gift of liberty is secured for millions who have never known it.

This is our country's calling. It's our country's destiny. Americans set off on that voyage more than two centuries ago, confident that this future was within our reach -- even though the shore was distant, and even though the journey may be long. And through generations, our course has been secured by those who wear a uniform, secured by people who man their posts, and do their duty. They have helped us grow stronger with each new sunrise.

On this Day of Memory, we mourn brave citizens who laid their lives down for our freedom. They lived and died as Americans. May we always honor them. May we always embrace them. And may we always be faithful to who they were and what they fought for.

Why we sacrifice

Fred Thompson reminds us that on Memorial Day we might think about more than just gratitude to the fallen.

Almost always, when I talk to people who see America as the problem, their arguments are based on ignorance or an outright tangling of history. What they thought they knew about America and the world came second- and third-hand through people with axes to grind.

That’s why I was troubled recently when I came across a report by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. The report’s conclusion was that American colleges and universities are failing to increase their students’ knowledge of America’s history and institutions.

Students polled in a wide range of colleges and universities showed no real improvement in their historical knowledge. Some actually forgot part of what they’d learned in high school by the time they graduated — and I’m talking about some of our best-known Ivy League schools.

Less than half of college seniors knew that, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal” is from the Declaration of Independence. Less than half knew basic facts about the First Amendment. Half didn’t know that the Federalist Papers were written in support of the Constitution’s ratification. Only a quarter of seniors knew the purpose of the Monroe Doctrine.

This is our quandary. Memorial Day is about remembering. It’s about remembering those who died for our country; but it’s also about remembering why they believed it was worth dying for. Too many Americans, though, have never been taught our own history and heritage. How can you remember something that you’ve never learned?

Memorial Day 2007

Today is Memorial Day. Its origin is mostly forgotten now, but it too is worth remembrance. It's more than a Monday shopping day.

WATERLOO, N.Y. - Like almost everyone in this village, pharmacist Henry Welles joined the jubilant crowds at welcome-home parades for Civil War soldiers in 1865. It got him thinking that a solemn day to memorialize those who didn't make it back alive also was needed.

His idea took root on May 5, 1866. The woolen mills along the canal shut down for the day. Banks and grocery stores did too. And scores of villagers marched in mourning, some like Welles visiting all three cemeteries to decorate each veteran's grave with a floral cross.

More than two dozen communities around the United States, from Boalsburg, Pa., to Macon, Ga., and Carbondale, Ill., to Richmond, Va., claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. Yet the official distinction, signed into law by President Johnson in 1966, is held by Waterloo.

...

"It doesn't take away from other places where homage was paid by various individuals," said Tanya Warren, curator of Waterloo's newly expanded National Memorial Day Museum. "The difference is Waterloo's commemoration was consistently observed and community-wide. Everything shut down. That did not happen elsewhere."

In 1866, people were overcome by more than just emotion. It turned out to be stiflingly hot, and Welles was felled by heat stroke severe enough to be blamed for his death 14 months later at age 47.

"Poor Henry! He sacrificed his life for Memorial Day," lamented Warren.

The town switched the holiday to May 30 in 1868 when Gen. John Logan, the new commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued a proclamation to Union veterans designating it a day of commemoration for Civil War dead.

First known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day expanded to an observance honoring all U.S. war dead after World War I and in 1971 was made an official national holiday to be held on the last Monday in May.

More capitulation

Things fall apart faster: now the Bush administration is squishier than Ted Kennedy. On what? Immigration, of course.

The Bush administration insisted on a little-noticed change in the bipartisan Senate immigration bill that would enable 12 million undocumented residents to avoid paying back taxes or associated fines to the Internal Revenue Service, officials said.

An independent analyst estimated the decision could cost the IRS tens of billions of dollars.

A provision requiring payment of back taxes had been in the initial version of a bill proposed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat. But the administration called for the provision to be removed due to concern that it would be too difficult to figure out which illegal immigrants owed back taxes.

The dropping of the back-tax provision was not made clear in the announcement of the immigration reform proposal on Thursday. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, speaking in reference to illegal immigrants seeking legal status, said, "You've got to pay your taxes." He did not state whether he was referring to back taxes, future taxes, or both.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel, asked in a telephone interview yesterday to clarify Chertoff's remark, said it referred only to future taxes.

Mark Steyn has advice for the rest of us.

Instead of attempting to draw the undocumented out of the shadows, it might be fairer to allow the rest of us to "live in the shadows", too. My suggestion is that, on the day this bill comes into effect, all300 million US citizens and legal residents should apply for a Z visa.

Moscow calling

Islamic fanatics aren't our only enemies. Russia's Putin is trying mightily to reassert international influence, through whatever means necessary. Naturally, that means stealing something.

Russia’s covert foreign intelligence operations against America have reached cold war levels under President Vladimir Putin, according to Washington officials.

White House intelligence advisers believe no other country is as aggressive as Russia in trying to obtain US secrets, with the possible exception of China.

In particular the SVR, as the former KGB’s foreign intelligence arm is now known, is using a network of undercover agents in America to gather classified information about sensitive technologies, including military projects under development and high-tech research.

Yuri Shvets, a former KGB agent, said: “In the days of the Soviet Union, the number of spies was limited because they had to be based at the foreign ministry, the trade mission or the news agencies like Tass. Right now, virtually every successful private company in Russia is being used as a cover for Russian intelligence operations.”

Someone explain to me again why Bush and Rice decided this guy could be trusted, ever?

Tanstaafl, again

This new report from the United Nations won't go over very well in some circles, even the utopians accustomed to taking the UN's word for everything.

While saying bioenergy represents an "extraordinary opportunity" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it warned that "rapid growth in liquid biofuel production will make substantial demands on the world's land and water resources at a time when demand for both food and forest products is also rising rapidly."

Changes in the carbon content of soils and carbon stocks in forests and peat lands might offset some or all of the benefits of the greenhouse gas reductions, it said.

"Use of large-scale monocropping could lead to significant biodiversity loss, soil erosion and nutrient leaching,'' it said, adding that investments in bioenergy must be managed carefully, at national, regional and local levels to avoid new environmental and social problems "some of which could have irreversible consequences."

It noted that soaring palm oil demand has already led to the clearing of tropical forests in southeast Asia.

In addition, the diversion of food crops for fuel will increase food prices, putting a strain on the poor, as evidenced by the recent steep rise in maize and sugar prices, the report said.

"Liquid biofuel production could threaten the availability of adequate food supplies by diverting land and other productive resources away from food crops," it said, adding that many of those biofuel crops require the best land, lots of water and environment-damaging chemical fertilizers.

Of course, if you're an eco-zealot and think mankind is a virus, it's probably just confirmation that we're all doomed.

Rocket returns to NY

So, Roger Clemens will play for the Yankees after all.

All in all, it's a blessing. The ongoing fan dance was getting old and counter-productive for the Astros and the fans. It's way past time to move on and get serious without moping around for a savior.

Feith and Tenet

Some folks at the Wall Street Journal have a sense of humor: they assigned unfairly-maligned Douglas Feith to review George Tenet's self-serving new book. Priceless.

Mr. Tenet's point here builds on the book's much-publicized statements that the author never heard the president and his national-security team debate "the imminence of the Iraqi threat," whether or not it was "wise to go to war" or when the war should start. He paints a distorted picture here.

But even if it were true that he never heard any such debate and was seriously dissatisfied with the dialogue in the White House Situation Room, he had hundreds of opportunities to improve the discussion by asking questions or making comments. I sat with him in many of the meetings, and no one prevented him from talking. It is noteworthy that Mr. Tenet met with the president for an intelligence briefing six days every week for years. Why didn't he speak up if he thought that the president was dangerously wrong or inadequately informed?

One of Mr. Tenet's main arguments is that he was somehow disconnected from the decision to go to war. Under the circumstances, it seems odd that he would call his book "At the Center of the Storm." He should have called it "At the Periphery of the Storm" or maybe: "Was That a Storm That Just Went By?"