Steven Den Beste

An Iranian victory? I fear it is so.

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Some people are speculating as to why the government of Iran suddenly decided to release the British sailors and Marines it was holding. There are a number of reasons that have been bandied about, and the two leading contenders are that we made some sort of terrible threat, or that we caved in and bribed them. Maybe both.

I think there’s another reason. The big game here is Iran’s program to produce weapon’s grade U-235, and what they need now is time. The big danger, as they see it, is that we’ll get nasty before they have a nuclear deterrent and start bombing.

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The Unreality-based Community

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There’s a peculiar thing that’s begun to happen to the left in the last few
years: when reality is, apparently, too difficult to bear; when things don’t go
the way they wish things had gone, then they retreat into fantasy. And they’re
doing it out in public.

Lose the 2000 election? Well, create
a TV show where the Democrats
actually won in 2000. Wish Hillary would win, but fear that she won’t? Make
another TV show about
the first woman (a Democrat, naturally) to be President. Want the War on Terror
to end? Just write
the
history of the future and and have a future President (a woman) end it. Hate
George Bush, and wish he was gone? Then make

a movie about his assassination.

A few years ago left-wing bloggers embraced the term "reality-based
community", apparently as a response to the the "faith-based community". But
it’s increasingly looking like the left wing is actually hallucination-based.
It’s a pathological manifestation of teleology: they seem to believe that if
they just wish for something hard enough, it’ll happen.

Or maybe it’s voodoo, only using TV and film instead of little dolls.

The Disunited States of America

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Dean Barnett writes movingly about his personal experience on 9/11/2001. And
he concludes with this:

IT HAS BECOME A TRITE LAMENT that 9/11 brought us together, and it’s a
shame that since then we’ve come apart. But 9/11 brought us together because
of two transitory emotions – sadness and rage. Once those emotions calmed
down, once our open wounds turned into scars, it was inevitable that our
differences would resurface.

When the flags came out in the aftermath of 9/11, they didn’t signify a
consensus on where we would go from there. They symbolized a consensus that we
were all in pain, all anguished. When the time came to move on, disagreements
inevitably (and not improperly) came regarding exactly how we should move on.

Even though a thorough review of 9/11, including both its lead-up and
aftermath, won’t provide an obvious path forward that everyone will agree on,
there are some valuable lessons we can draw from that awful day. Looking back,
we can clearly see the remorseless murderers that our enemies are – that
knowledge is instructive. And we can also see that they are numerous. That,
too, is important to take into account.

But the most important lesson we can take from 9/11 is this: We must take
every possible step to ensure never again.
Never again will we allow ourselves to feel the way we did that
day. Never again will we be so blind to storm clouds
as they gather. Never again will we choose to believe
comforting lies rather than disquieting truths.

9/11 didn’t bring us together. It’s true that in the immediate
aftermath of the event that we all felt sadness and rage. But not about the same
things.

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