Vox Popoli

I’ve been involved in some fairly nerdish endeavors. I mean, I was never an A/V club kid, chess club member or band geek, but when you enjoy intellectual stimulation, you tend to find yourself around the less-beautiful, less hygenically-occupied people from time to time. Which is fine; I’m as at home amid a group of overweight and overripe wargamers as I am in velvet-roped VIP area in a haughty nightclub.

A few weeks ago, I made a comment that I am one of the coolest columnists around, and some of you seemed to think that this was bragging. But you see, I was actually making a rather cutting reference to the occupation, as the following quote from Jay Nordlinger, who apparently is not actually 80 years old, deaf, dumb and blind*, would seem to prove:

That little symbol [Michael] Moore made with his hand, at the convention on Monday night? I read that it was “L” for “loser.” I really couldn’t figure it out — it reminded me of that symbol that Filipinos made, all those years ago, in support of Cory Aquino.

Okay, the L-sign went mainstream in the chick flick Jerry Maguire, which was filmed around the time John Kerry was throwing away medals that may or may not have belonged to him, if I recall correctly. I’ve worked with programmers and artists, I’ve spent years in the game development industry, and I can now state, with some assurance, that in the columnists of America we have found the Kings of Nerd.

*Jay’s actually one of my favorites at NRO; his total disinterest in pop culture is quite healthy, in my opinion.

Putting both my abhorrence for what the Republican leadership is doing to the nation as well as my general distaste for the horse race aspect aside, /begin mainstream punditry/ I’d have to say that at this point, the Republicans are doing much, much better with their convention than the Democrats did with theirs. I’ve expected George Bush to win re-election from the start, and I see no reason to alter my view now.

I was at the convention in New Orleans, and as with this convention, there was what Derb describes as a “winning feeling” that was quite palpable. The Republican presentation is slick, powerful, and even occasionally makes me feel somewhat wistful for those bygone days of enthusiastic innocence. If George Bush can keep the program rolling, he should see a significant post-convention bounce. /end mainstream punditry/

I’ve been an old school loyalist to the half-pyramid ever since I started lifting weights. Warmup, 10-8-6-4, that’s about all I’ve done for years except when a shoulder or chest injury has necessitated doing something else.

However, when the Perfect Aryan Male showed up with an additional 20 pounds stacked on from a year ago – he’s up to 240 now – I had to give his program a whirl. And I have to admit, the results are impressive. Here’s how it goes:

2 sets of 10 at 135 to warmup

2 sets of 6 at 225

2 sets of 3 at 285

2 sets repping out at 225. Shoot for 10, but get at least 8.

The great thing is that you get a little bit of the bodybuilder’s pump that you normally get from high rep, low weight workouts, but you get the increased strength of the powerlifter’s workout too. When I first started it two weeks ago, I was doing the third pair at 270, but after four workouts I was able to jack that up to 285, something I could barely hit once a month ago. And best of all, it seems to wear less on the joints than a heavy half-pyramid. I haven’t been sore since I started it.

Space Bunny has been trying to get me to change up my workouts for ages; I can’t say I’m terribly surprised that she’s right. Of course, I’ll probably stick with this one for the next 15 years anyhow.

Fitness is easy. All you have to do is throw yourself into a rut and refuse to get out of it. I’m not crazy, though. Chilliette is training for the marathon; that’s just nuts.

I’m not a huge fan of the Irish Water Poodle, Sean Hannity, but he can be amusingly quick-witted at times. I quite enjoyed this little encounter posted by Powerline:

A few minutes ago, Terry McAuliffe appeared on Sean’s show. They went at it pretty hard, arguing about Vietnam and the war on terror. McAuliffe was stumped when Hannity asked him whether Kerry was lying when he said he spent Christmas in Cambodia.

I posted a little footage of McAuliffe’s appearance, and of the impromptu press conference he gave immediately after, right in front of us, where he talked about the protests against the RNC. McAuliffe strikes me as an amiable rogue, much like his pal Bill Clinton. As Hannity was going into a commercial break, McAuliffe got in one last cheap shot: “How’s your Halliburton stock doing?” To which Sean replied, “Not bad. How’s Global Crossing doing?”

Good stuff. As for Mr. Limbaugh, I note that despite his supposedly vociferious opposition to campaign finance reform and the incipient Republican crackdown on free speech, he did not find the time to ask the President about that, although he was able to talk about what an “honor and a thrill” it was to speak with him, and how wonderful it was to hear the President’s “ebullience”.

Supine enough for you? Sound like Santa to me. I’m not saying that Rush should have nailed him to the wall, but he could certainly worked in a casual: “Mr. President, I’ve always regarded you as a staunch defender of American freedom. Who in the name of the nethermost nether region advised you to advocate banning what is not only free speech, but free speech by your supporters, and when will you publicly hang, draw and quarter them?”

William Safire writes:

On a recent visit to Washington, President Harmid Karzai told me he expected that seven million out of the nine million eligible Afghan voters would register to vote. That seemed a vain hope, since nobody had the habit, and with opium growers and warlords roaming the precincts, voting would be risky.

What happened? So far, 9.9 million Afghans have registered, which is a little embarrassing, but the lust to get more than one registration card is only human to a populace that hid its oppressed womenfolk until the United States and its allies overthrew the Taliban. The Afghans don’t take the right to vote for granted, as half of Americans do.

That cracked me up. Of course, the huge registrations don’t necessarily mean that Afghans are enthusiastic about what will no doubt soon be their own bi-factional ruling party, as the minor – cough – discrepancy means that one has no idea who has been registering the masses.

US forces have freed two subjugated peoples from two evil regimes. I salute that. But a slave freed from one master is not necessarily a free man. For those who think we have brought freedom to the various Afghani and Iraqi peoples, I ask this simple question: the Kurdish people overwhelmingly favor independence. They are even using their own currency. Will you still believe that our mission is freedom if the Kurdish people are not allowed self-determination?

Hindrocket of Powerline, who has done yeoman’s work in destroying both the Kerry campaign and the Star and Sickle, isn’t quite as effective in defending the President. He quotes the President’s comments after the infamous pronoun:

I know if steadfast, strong and resolute — and I say those words very seriously — it’s less likely that your kids are going to live under the threat of al-Qaida for a long period of time. I can’t tell you. I don’t have any … definite end. But I tell you this, when we succeed in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s the beginning of the end for these extremists. Because freedom is going to have a powerful influence to make sure your kids can grow up in a peaceful world. If we believe, for example, that you can’t win, and the alternative is to retreat … I think that would be a disaster for your children.

So, the President is not actually saying that the war is unwinnable, only that it can’t be won in what will have been a total of seven years – almost twice as long as WWII – and that even success in Iraq and Afghanistan would only be the beginning of the end. So, what, figure at least another seven years? Furthermore, he also has no concept of how the war will or even could end. Given that the Israelis have not managed to end their miniature version of hunt-the-terrorist in 30+ years, this statement offers no indication that the President actually believes his imitation of the Israeli two-step will work either.

Nor should it. The grand fallacy in which the nation-builders are trapped is that a simple exposure to Western culture is enough to instill individuals with it. Culture is the product of centuries, not years, and as long as there are Islamic clerics willing to stand openly opposed to Western culture, there will be jihadists willing to strike. The previous victories against the jihad, in the Reconquista and the Crusades, involved crushing and humiliating Muslims, not winning them over. It is a tribute to the strength and spirit of Muslims that they are not easily swayed or conquered. But history shows that it can be done.

The basic problem is that Islam is not only a religion, it is a trans-national state. It has a law, a judiciary and, quite clearly, an army that Daniel Pipes estimates at 100 million. The idea that the war cannot be won because terrorists can’t be found is silly. Wars aren’t won by killing enemy soldiers, they are won by taking the strategic centers, and the strategic centers of Islam are not to be found in Iraq. The truth is that George Bush and company want war without commitment so they have settled for quasi-war without end or disruption to the economy. That is why they won’t win it.

Our leadership has two legitimate choices. Leave them alone – which also means not allowing them footholds in the West – or a total clash of civilizations. Islam had nothing against the United States for most of its existence; the “they hate our freedom” line is monstrously absurd. They have their eyes on Israel and the Islamic lands lost in Western Europe, not the USA. As long as the President and his men try to split the difference, they will be as unsuccessful as we would have been by trying to defeat Nazi Germany by occupying Schleswig-Holstein. As they are not stupid, they realize it as well, but they also know that it would be political suicide to speak the truth.

Jonah Goldberg offers a new and shocking reason to support George Bush:

McCain and Giuliani’s endorsements of Bush Monday night reflected that more than anything else. George W. Bush is the best option available in the range of possible options given the fact that we are at war.

When the President sends off troops

Then everyone must jump through hoops,

Although the war is undeclared

We are appropriately scared.

Lock up the Japs, the Jews, et al

If need be we can kill them all.

For this is what the grown-ups do

Because someone has told them to.

Again, for the Nth time, I remind the gentle reader that there is no historical reason whatsoever to believe that a Democrat will not fight a war. Democrats love war, because it’s the best excuse to increase the size and scope of government that anyone has come up with yet. The fact that the Democratic party is made up of mindless, treasonous peaceniks no more indicates the probable behavior of a Democratic President than does the fact that the Republican Party is filled with legions of pro-lifers mean that a Republican House, Senate, Supreme Court and President have ended abortion.

If the unwinnable war is your only reason to support Bush, you may well be better off with Kerry. Bush has already proven that he’s a wildly incompetent Commander-in-Chief, the jury is still out on Kerry.

LAUER: You said to me a second ago, one of the things you’ll lay out in your vision for the next four years is how to go about winning the war on terror. That phrase strikes me a little bit. Do you really think we can win this war of ter–on terror? For example, in the next four years?

Pres. BUSH: I have never said we can win it in four years?

LAUER: No, I’m just saying, can we win it? Do you say that?

Pres. BUSH: I don’t–I don’t think we can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that the–those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in part of the world, let’s put it that way.

Very Churchillian. The man has a gift. I got shivers just reading it. Why, Churchill’s six volumes on WWII are just rife with the same sort of lion-like confidence.

Not to mention history. Apparently it isn’t enough that George Delano is Ronald Reagan, but according to Rudy Giuliani, he’s Winston Churchill too. And… and… Cincinnatus and George Washington and Socrates and Paul Bunyan and Julius Caesar and Marius AND Sulla and Frosty the Snowman!

I actually agree that George Bush shows signs of Lincolnhood, but thankfully to a lesser degree. I suppose that calling him a little Lincoln doesn’t quite have the same ring as identifying him with the man who decried the Iron Curtain before the Cold War really started.

George Delano won’t speak out against the jihad even after he’s been fighting it on the periphery for three years, instead of blood, sweat and tears he’s offering us a new Medicare entitlement, and instead of V for victory, it’s U for unwinnable, but you know, tomato, tomahto.

Jonah Goldberg quotes a reader, presumably approvingly:

Just wondered, did anyone notice the echoes of Lincoln in McCain’s speech? Interesting–

(Lincoln) Now we are engaged in a great civil war,

(McCain) We are engaged in a hard struggle against a cruel and determined adversary.

(L) We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

(M) My friends, we are again met on the field of political competition with our fellow countrymen.

(L) It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do so.

(M) It is more than appropriate, it is necessary that even in times of crisis we have these contests

(L) It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion–

(M) It is left to us to keep their generous benefaction alive, and our blessed, beautiful country worthy of their courage.

I note that McCain and Lincoln appear to have a similar regard for the Bill of Rights.

Gregg writes in:

I am a student of human nature, and after seeing your article get top billing two weeks in a row on WND I thought I would catch Hannity today (I knew they read it). He had Newt on as a guest, and they were both talking about how they disagree with the president on the 527 ban. I started laughing my ass off; it was just as you said it would be:

“Oh, how glad I am that Rush et al agree with me on the unconstitutionality of the ban, now let’s see if they still support the treasonous candidate.”

They did, Vox, after admitting as much. I have read Catholic prophets, bud, but you are an intellectual prophet.

I don’t know about the prophet bit, it was simply the only logical conclusion. I don’t think Sean Hannity would disavow the GOP if it announced it was banning the Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist churches and providing free prostitutes to all high-school students. Because, after all, the Democrats would be worse, since they’d be offering gay prostitutes and banning the Catholic church. And that’s why the Irish water poodle gets a chapter….