James R. Rummel

“Moral indignation is a technique to endow the idiot with dignity.”

Marshall McLuhan

Krauthammer, tells us that the trial of Saddam is a botch, and that he is being allowed to turn the trial into a trial of the new regime, instead of a trial of his own crimes

I derive no pleasure from saying I told you this would happen. Saddam devoted a lot of time and energy to studying the Hitler and Stalin dictatorships, and he consciously and openly modeled his regime on theirs. As a student of tyranny, Saddam knew that he was likely to end up in a situation like this one day. So, he has modeled his performance on Herman Goering’s performance at Nuremburg, as I predicted two years ago. He is a tough and ruthless man with nothing to lose. Iraqis have lived in mortal terror of this man for decades. No wonder he is able to upstage everyone in the room.

Saddam wants to be remembered by history as an Iraqi patriot. He is being allowed to lay the foundations of a post-Saddam legend in this trial. Saddam is using our own notions of due process and fair play to undermine our larger efforts to move Iraq beyond him and his regime. Saddam is going to be considered a hero by Sunni Arabs for ever and ever, and this trial, his last moment on the stage of history, may well be his finest dramatic performance.

(Via Ann Althouse.)

On 8 December, Vice Admiral William F. Halsey brought his Enterprise task force into Pearl Harbor, where the enormity of the destruction shocked all hands. Halsey’s comment, “Before we’re through with ’em, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell!”, probably represented a universal feeling, not just in the Fleet, but in virtually the entire Nation.

(From this excellent page.)

Of the hundreds of Americans who died that day, let us at least remember one of them by name today. This is the Medal of Honor citation of Chief Radioman Thomas James Reeves:

For distinguished conduct in the line of his profession, extraordinary courage and disregard of his own safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, by Japanese Forces on 7 December 1941. After the mechanized ammunition hoists were put out of action in the U.S.S. California, REEVES, on his own initiative, in a burning passageway, assisted in the maintenance of an ammunition supply by hand to the antiaircraft guns until he was overcome by smoke and fire, which resulted in his death.

Chief Radioman Reeves, like most Americans, had no idea that a war was going to start that morning. He responded to the violence coming out of a clear blue sky with courage and focus on the necessary task.

Remember him and all the others who died fighting against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan with gratitude. It was not a “good war”, but it was a hard and necessary war.

Remember Pearl Harbor.

God Bless America.

…[S]o long as markets are free and human beings exhibit swings of euphoria and distress, the business cycle will continue to plague us. But even granting human imperfections, flexible economic institutions appear to significantly ameliorate the amplitude and duration of the business cycle. The benefits seem sufficiently large that special emphasis should be placed on searching for policies that will foster still greater economic flexibility while seeking opportunities to dismantle policies that contribute to unnecessary rigidity.

Alan Greenspan, Before the HM Treasury Enterprise Conference, London, England
January 26, 2004 (Via Albion’s Seedling’s)