Increasingly I find the opinion of the average American is one of anger toward the Iraqis. Personal politics doesn’t seem to matter. The attitude is, "We tried to liberate them, the Iraqis weren’t interested. The hell with them."
We are already hearing some of the same clich�s that presaged our withdrawal from Vietnam. They just don’t value human life over there. So we are disenchanted with the Iraqis. What is it exactly that they want, anyway?
The reason we are not being greeted like liberators is that we haven’t yet liberated Iraq. The life of the average Iraqi may actually be worse than it was under Saddam Hussein. How, you say? Wasn’t Saddam a butcher? Didn’t he employ rape rooms?
Yes, but Iraqis knew what the price was to stay out of Saddam’s prisons. In giving up the kind of freedoms that we cherish, they received order and discipline in the streets.
It is much easier to love liberty when you can send your child to school and know that she is returning safely. We have given Iraq chaos, not liberty. Democracy needs safe streets to flourish.
The best argument for electing a new president is that it is the only way we have even a chance of getting our European allies and the U.N. to help us out of the hole we have dug for ourselves. We can’t afford four more years of the Bush foreign policy, and neither can the Iraqis …
The Daily News’ decision to publish the photos of the johns who procured the services of prostitutes had a certain justice to it. The argument goes, why should only the prostitutes suffer while the male customers are ignored? Now that we have had our fun and some of the johns wound up losing their jobs because of it, can we pull back and admit that two wrongs don’t make a right?
Prostitution has long been viewed as a nuisance crime by law enforcement and mostly winked at. The girls (and now the johns) are right back out on the street. What we need is a sensible policy of legalizing prostitution within a zone safely away from family residences and churches. Strictly enforce health regulations with regular checkups. Prostitution is not going away …
Does anyone see the irony of Andy Reid expending a first-round draft pick on a player with a weight problem? …
Now that fed chairman Alan Greenspan is acknowledging that higher interest rates are in our future, maybe he ought to explain why. By running up a huge deficit, the government will begin to shrink the money available for the private sector. As the money supply gets tighter, the laws of supply and demand kick in and it will cost both business and the average voter more money to borrow. The inevitable result is higher interest rates and growing inflation, which in turn triggers union demands for higher wages. How does your average $300 tax cut look now? …
More than 40 years ago, John F. Kennedy confronted head-on the ugly prejudice that had prevented a Catholic from gaining the White House. Now a cardinal in Rome is threatening to undo what Kennedy achieved and make it tougher for America to elect a Catholic in the future.
The cardinal did not mention John Kerry by name, but we all knew whom he was talking about. Deny Kerry, a practicing Catholic, the sacrament of communion, the cardinal urged the American bishops — unless Kerry toes the Church line on all matters of public policy, in this case, abortion.
The argument that bigots used until the election of JFK was that American Catholic politicians would take their orders from Rome. We thought Kennedy had ended that debate forever. Now we have a Roman prelate who is inadvertently raising the old fears …
Much has been written about the heroic Pat Tillman, who walked away from millions of dollars and the glorious life of a pro athlete in America to die fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. In recent years, the definition of heroism has become blurred in this country. We have often attributed heroism to people who were merely unintended victims. Too often we have assigned heroic status to athletes who perform well on a playing field. Pat Tillman reminded us of what it really means to be a hero …
Like most of you, I adore Citizens Bank Park, but has anyone noticed how poorly the giant scoreboard is operated? The ball and strike count is always behind, as is everything else — runs, hits, errors, the name of the batter at the plate. Before you attribute it to unfamiliarity with the new message board, I noticed the same problem the last couple of years at the Vet.
And isn’t it a little dated to still be using the Gene Hackman clip from Hoosiers to jack up the crowd?
