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Steven Vincent writes on NRO of Shiite martyrdrama: Unless you have the instincts of a pre-Reformation Catholic peasant-or Mel Gibson — it is nearly impossible to grasp this appreciation of suffering and death. But here it is not death as a redemptive power, death as spectacle — a public expression that seeks the admiration of man as much as God. This is what, in my mind, separates Shia radicalism from its Sunni counterpart. Wahabbi and Palestinian suicide bombers seek honor and glorification by killing their enemies; the Shiites’ spiritual apotheosis, on the contrary, comes from having their enemies kill them — a kind of suicidal exhibitionism that fetishizes Hussein’s fate at Karbala. Early Christians felt that the blood of martyrs nourished the Church; Shiites believe that martyr blood will embellish their own holiness and that of their families for untold generations.

Seen in this light, it’s not surprising that the first eleven of Shia’s twelve sinless imams died by unnatural causes, their infallibility apparently unable to detect the poisons that dispatched each to Allah. (The 12th imam, Mohammad al-Mahdi, disappeared down a hole in Samarra and won’t be seen again until Judgment Day.) Contemporary imams have likewise met grisly fates. Last August, a car bomb killed Mohammad Baqr al-Hakim in Najaf. An interesting Shia poster depicts the slain cleric along with over 60 extended family members — all of whom were executed by Saddam Hussein — superimposed over a bleeding map of Iraq. More prevalent is a poster that shows a stunned Moqtada al-Sadr cradling his father, whom Saddam’s thugs murdered — along with Sadr’s two eldest brothers — in 1999. In 1980, Sadr’s uncle, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Baqr al-Sadr, and his aunt, Bint Hoda, also met death at Baathist hands — a legacy of martyrdom that gives the 31-year-old cleric a spiritual authority his youth would not otherwise warrant among the age-revering Shiites.

I have no doubt that the Marines will give al-Sadr what he appears to be seeking, but this underlines the point that I was making about how “lowering the boom” is unlikely to have the effect that it would have in a less death-worshipping culture. I don’t know precisely what the effect will be, nor do I fear the effects of “Shiite anger” – what does it matter if they’re angry when they hate you already – but I find it difficult to imagine that a people steeped in a mindset so alien and warped by decades of suffering are going to respond as we think they should.

I suspect it may be as Dobson writes of an abused child. Whereas discipline corrects the behavior of a normal, loved child, it does not have the same salutary effect on an abused child that has been given reason to fear and hate the abuser. And yet, it’s hard to even conceive the possibility of showing metaphorical love in this situation, particularly through the unlikely device of the USMC. Well, it’s unwise to attempt to build a military strategy around a metaphor anyhow.

Actually, it’s just an amusing little poli-spectrum test. It’s not serious and mistakenly describes libertarians as libertines, but some of the characterizations are quite good. Here’s my favorite two:

17: For what offenses should unlimited asset forfeiture become standard operating procedure?

CONS: Drug dealing.

LIBL: Insider securities trading.

LBRT: Nothing.

COMM: Being too successful in the marketplace.

56: What are the responsibilities of all good citizens?

CONS: Pay some taxes, begrudgingly.

LIBL: Pay lots of taxes for the betterment of all mankind- without whining.

LBRT: Fight foreign invaders on American soil.

COMM: Unquestioned obedience.

For some reason, that last one cracks me up, as it beautifully lampoons the way in which libertarians strike both Republicans and Democrats as being completely over-the-top out there. And then, the Communist answer is the perfect follow-through.

Alex asks: What would you say Vox about attractive women who find average-looking brainiac types hard to resist? Do you believe that a beautiful woman can be attracted primarily to a man’s intellect, higher the better?

Absolutely. This isn’t always the case – it doesn’t happen anywhere nearly as often as your average computer geek wishes – but I’ve certainly known it to happen to more than a few individuals. Space Bunny, who is by all accounts a very attractive woman, has usually tended to gravitate towards more intelligent men. The Chilliette pursued Big Chilly remorselessly in preference to men like the UCLA quarterback she’d previously dated. And years ago, I happened to date an Elite girl who was only interested in either brains or fame. As long as the guy wasn’t a complete toad, looks were irrelevant. So, it happens.

That being said, it’s more the exception than the rule. You don’t see women flocking around game developer conventions the way they do around even college athletes, never mind that the game developers are smarter and far wealthier. I don’t recall hearing about Gatesian groupies either, for that matter. The problem, I suspect, is that women require a minimum level of social adeptness that many intelligent men cannot muster. Come to think of it, intelligent men whose intelligence tends towards the verbal instead of the math tend to do better, to put it in SAT terms.

The challenge for bright women is that intelligent men are even less likely to value intelligence in women. Too many intelligent women are brainwashed into being constantly and needlessly antagonistic through their educational experience, so the notion of a happy cheerleader is very attractive to a conflict-avoidant man. Intelligent women like to interpret this as being “too strong” for their opposite counterparts, but in reality it’s much more a case of being “too unpleasant”. But an attractive, intelligent woman who is able to portray herself as being easy to get along with will seldom fail to clean up with intelligent men. Men primarily want their women to be happy; a cheerful attitude goes a surprisingly long way with men, who contrast it with the many women of their acquaintance who are always bitching, moaning and complaining at the slightest excuse.

You may remember a post a little while ago about the romantic travails of a Pioneer Press reporter who was attending a speed-dating event. Here’s the summary: …let’s start with the results of my recent speed-dating experience. As I mentioned in my last column, the event itself was a lot of fun, and I especially was looking forward to learning if any of the three guys I was interested in felt any sparks for me. About 72 hours later, I received my answer in a short and formatted email from the dating service. Not one. Not a single one. Not the first, second or third guy. A complete strikeout. I felt like a pedestrian who had gotten splashed by a passing car hitting a puddle — embarrassed, clammy and cold. Also like Martha Stewart after a group shower. The e-mail also informed me that I had 13 “missed opportunities” — men who had circled “yes” for me, but not I for them.

I’d say this is Nature’s way of telling you that you have an unrealistic attitude about how attractive you are. The woman doesn’t have to be alone, but she’s choosing that over dating men who are actually in her league. Remember that she thought that the women were higher caliber, despite the fact that many of them booked out of there as quickly as they could afterward. She might have learned her lesson, as she says that she’ll try a different strategy in the future. Then again, she might be considering ways to try to make herself more attractive to the three guys aren’t interested instead of giving the other 13 a chance.

Men as well as women need to get a grip on where they stand. If you’re old and weird-looking like Donald Trump but rich and famous, you can date spectacular women such as Melania Knauss. You can date lesser beauties if you’re poor, but young and handsome. Sadly, these things can change over time, so a man can’t depend on his high-school jock status counting for much post-collega and a woman can’t rely on the fact that all the boys thought she was a babe in eighth grade. Furthermore, and I can’t emphasize this enough, most men don’t care IN THE LEAST that a woman happens to have a college degree or a good job. Not only does it not make a career woman more attractive than the aerobics instructor in the hotpants, but it often raises serious questions in many men’s minds about her commitment to being a mother. That’s the truth. That’s the reality.

Ever wonder why every foundation set up by a wealthy conservative capitalist ends up donating millions of dollars to socialist causes? Here, writ small, is a nice example of the basic process at work. The same concept holds true of investment vultures who feed off the creative genius of entrepeneurs. I think the lesson is that, as with politicians, you should never allow anyone who is eager to seize influence over you to do so. This is something that both bankers and the parasites of the Left have mastered.

O’Sullivan’s First Law: “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.” Leo’s amendment to O’Sullivan’s First Law: any organization with “women” or “girls” in its title will tend to become part of the cultural left in general and the abortion lobby in particular.

From the Washington Times: A paper found in the rented apartment of one Moroccan terrorist said, “We must develop immigration into Western countries as the path to the glory of Islam and the destruction of the Godless pagans.”

I’m actually fine with not letting non-citizens into the country. Among other things, you can’t fit six billion people inside the 48 contiguous states and the wealth and freedom that a libertarian government would produce over time would cause nearly everyone to want to move there. Look how many people want to come to America as it is. But people and capital have to be free to leave it anytime and anyhow they want.

EN writes: You’re a smart lad. You should be advising GW and the neoconidiots who thought they could translate their academic and historical shortsightedness into military victory. Of course they wouldn’t listen but at least they couldn’t act shocked and scream about being undercut by the Democrats when this doesn’t turn out well. BTW, you’ve got to hand it to the Founding Fathers. They made it almost impossible to fight any wars without the gravest threat to the nation uniting us. Unless a war is quick and bloodless then the coming election cycle will make it impossible to continue fighting. Our system is not meant for fighting wars as much as not fighting them. Always a wise choice unless backed into a corner.

You wrote: “The Romans maintained their dominance for so long by constantly sowing discord among their enemies.” Yes, but there’s also that little business of killing all the men, raping all the women and sending the survivors into slavery once you got on the Roman bad side. The Romans make the Russians seem grandfatherly.

It’s hard to argue with that. After his legions killed 4,000 Aduatuci, a Belgic tribe, in a battle following a false surrender, Julius Caesar rounded up 53,000 men, women and children and sold them into slavery. This was after slaughtering the Nervii to such an extent that he claimed the tribe was virtually eradicated and the name Nervii disappeared from the tongues of men. Rome plundered the Celts so thoroughly that after three years of Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul, the price of gold bullion dropped by a third. America, for all its great power, is unlikely to establish a Pax Americana unless it is willing to resort to like measures. One hopes we are not, but nevertheless, considering the conceptual gap between “Islam is a religion of peace” and “carthago delenda est“, one would tend to expect widely divergent results.

Fortunately, there are still a few genuine satirists around – for example, the chaps who put together the EU report on rising anti-Semitism. “The largest group of the perpetrators of anti-Semitic activities appears to be young, disaffected white Europeans,” said the official summary, introducing us to the concept of Euromaths. If you troubled yourself to look inside, it turned out that some nine per cent of anti-Semitic attacks were by young white males. The remaining 91 per cent were by… well, let’s not get into that. In the EU, nine per cent is enough to make you the “largest group”. One day, there will be only one tattooed knuckle-dragging white skinhead left on the continent. But he’ll single-handedly be officially responsible for the majority of anti-Semitic attacks.

Ah, yes, those peaceful Religion of Peace folk. Fortunately, the exposure to ordered government they’ve experienced in Europe is obviously helping them find a sense of owning their individual destiny and take responsibility for their actions. Though how anyone could argue that blowing oneself up when the police are besieging one indicates a failure to take responsibility for one’s actions is beyond me.

Seriously, is anyone thinking anything through anymore? I’m not the least bit opposed to the concept of a free and peaceful Middle East. I’m just incredibly skeptical that it is anything but a propagandistic crack-smoking dream, especially given that the notion a) flies in the face of a centuries-old historical pattern and b) it’s going to be brought about by a government that is steadily reducing freedom at home in combination with that paragon of individual liberty, the United Nations.

War has been declared on America. If we must fight it, let us fight it. But if we’re only going to fight Schleswig-Holstein and ignore Bavaria, Thuringia, Hesse, Saxony, Saarland and the Rhineland-Palatinate, let’s not pretend that we’re going to make a serious long-term difference in ending the Nazi threat. This is still the Phony War phase. And the jury is far from in on whether George Bush is a competent wartime Commander-in-Chief or a short-sighted, feeble one.

… besides Firestarter and our resident JamieR: When a three-metre crocodile latched on to the arm of an 11-year-old girl swimming behind his boat, skipper Ray Turner leapt into action. The former crocodile hunter dived from the boat, landed on the back of the reptile and gouged one of its eyes until it freed the girl. Hannah Thompson was swimming with other children at Margaret Bay near the top of Cape York Peninsula yesterday when the crocodile attacked. Mr Turner heard screams and a shout of “crocodile” and in no time was hurtling through the air towards the water.

“I was pitching myself off the boat and I could see the black shadow in the water. He came out when I was already launched and I landed right on him,” he said today. “I landed fair on its back and I got a finger in its left eye, I missed the right eye, but he got a fright and he let go,” said the 57-year-old, who hunted crocs in Papua New Guinea more than 30 years ago. He estimated the croc to be around 3.3 metres long. “They will always let go when you go for an eye because it’s their vulnerable point and their livelihood.”

I’d like to think that I’d go after a croc if it was attacking a child. But I’d probably have to drop an f-bomb or two first.

Bill writes: The proposal for Iraq (per every administration official that’s written about it) is to instill order under some kind of responsible government with the goal that they will trade peacefully and begin working in their own best interest – with the ultimate goal of inculcating a sense of ownership of individual destiny. This should drain the swamps of terrorism in the mideast as people take responsibility for their actions, and see that they have a hand in their future. This is The Plan.

That may be so, Bill, although I’d remind you that the propaganda arm brings up the word “democracy” every time it mentions our presence in Iraq. Except, of course, we’re not only not bringing democracy there, we’re actively working to suppress the free determination of the Kurds, who would prefer a Kurdish state to being forced to live in a country that has murdered and savagely oppressed them. But we say we love freedom, so it must be so.

And, of course, everyone knows that ordered government is the best way to force individuals to take responsibility for their actions. After all, government has proved to be such a wonderful tool for encouraging individual responsibility here. And you wonder why I’m skeptical that this is going to work out well? Government is ultimately a reflection of the people, even, to some extent, in a totalitarian society. If the Bush administration truly wants to try to aid the cause of peace in the region, it would create numerous decentralized governments and let the people begin to figure out for themselves where they would like to live.

A strong central government structure only brings all the bad guys together in one place to compete for control of it and ensures that the worst and most ruthless will eventually have it at their disposal. This is why the UN is the most dangerous idea in human history.

I also wonder if the administration officials realize how ridiculous they must sound when they intone these pompous statements about how men like this Iranian puppet will be arrested and brought to face justice and whatnot. Sure, it sounds good to American ears, but who do they think they’re threatening? These are people who are used to being tortured and slaughtered in a hundred sadistic ways, so they probably laugh out loud when a military bureacrat threatens them with a fair trial and jail. Not to mention that jailing a terrorist usually accomplishes little more than determine what the demands of the next terrorist will be.