Jujitsui Generis

More on gulags

Vis a vis this post, an astute JG reader comments:

We're setting the bar pretty low if we have to point out that other countries have worse gulags than us. The whole American creed was that we were an alternative to that sort of thing, not a lesser version of it.

I agree.  But there have been past instances where the US has denied people habeas corpus -- for purely pragmatic reasons and for limited periods -- as we cope with existential threats to our freedom.  And our freedoms have survived each those periods.  That said, I agree that we should do more to provide some sort of process (but not necessarily "due process") for the prisoners at Gitmo.

My gripe is with how organizations like Amnesty International have seized on this for its anti-American propaganda value.  To call Gimto a gulag -- let alone "the gulag of our times" -- is worse than moral equivalency.  And in my opinion, the left is simply in no position to lecture us on this subject, considering, for example, how comfortable they are with the state of due process on the rest of the Cuban island.

Off For Memorial Day

It'll be light posting here at J-G as we head into Memorial Day weekend.  Enjoy your weekend and/or travels.  We'll be right back here Monday night.

Knives Don't Kill People...

Pointed tips do, which is why the British Medical Journal is calling for knife reform.  Knives, they urge, should be made with serrated edges, yes, but not pointed tips.  Pointed tips are a vestige of a cruder age, one in which people often stabbed their food.  Pointing to the rising number of knife attacks, the journal is urging the government to consider knife control, that is, banning sharp, pointed knifes - even in kitchenware.

The rate of violent crime rose 18 percent in Britain from 2003 to 2004.  No doubt it was the prevalence of sharp knives.  Next on the agenda: hacksaws with too many teeth and hammers made of metal.

Britain Ends Boycott

Thankfully the British Association of University Teachers has voted to lift their boycott of Israeli universities.  The professors worried that their boycott was contrary to academic freedom. They also worried that it was being perceived as anti-semitic.

Given the anti-Israel venom that’s been pouring from British universities over the last two years (see here and here and here for a taste), that would seem to be a fairly accurate perception.  But lifting the boycott is a start.

Camp 22 apologist watch!

Andrew Sullivan equates "complete silence" with torture apologetics.  OK.  Now let's apply the same standard to Andrew Sullivan:  From his deafening silence on the subject, we can only surmise that he is an enthusiastic supporter of Kim Jong Il's Camp 22.

This is all getting very silly, no?

On a related note, this blog (via instpundit) highlights Lesson 18 of the al Qaeda training manual, which admonishes captured jihadists to "insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them" and to "[c]omplain [to the court] of mistreatment while in prison."  Sullivan's entire indictment, by the way, is based on taking these prisoners' claims at face value.

The blogger notes another irony:

There’s also a less-explored side of this controversy. We have a crucifix – to Christians, the embodiment of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice for humanity and the most holy symbol of Christianity – being put in a jar of urine and pictures of Mary – Mother of God to billions of Christians – smeared with feces, and instead of being reviled as “desecrations” these displays are celebrated in museums as “controversial” forms of “art” – with public funding, no less. Think you could get an NEA grant to put the Koran in a toilet or a Buddha statue in a jar of urine? Apparently what’s “controversial” and what’s “desecration” depends on whose God you’re mocking.

In other words, the way to get the left to shut up about Koran flushing is to give the flushers a
grant from the NEA.

The End of War

Making predictions is a risky business, especially if one is predicting the end of war.  But Gregg Easterbrook (hat tip to former J-G blogger, Max Borders for pointing to this article) makes a good case that large-scale wars are on the decline, as are the mass casualties usually associated with them.

If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.  More, much more, to say on this later.

Trouble In Utopia

Looks like the citizens of several European countries are less than enthusiastic about the EU's proposed constitutional treaty.  EU President, Jean-Claude Juncker, is urging France and the Netherlands to re-run their national referendums if they fail to produce the 'right answer'.  France's Chirac is set to plead the case with his country tonight in a televised address. 

The European Union, by design, will be much too cumbersome and bureaucratic to operate as a fully-functioning democracy.  So why should they let a hitch, like a citizen referendum, imperil their grand designs?

A Brief Round Up Of The Noteworthy

Syria Cuts Ties: Syria claims to have severed military and security ties to the United States in response to the US's failure to respond to repeated overtures by the Syrian government. Syria, of course, continues in their efforts to support the insurgency in Iraq.

Voyager Reaches Edge of Solar System: The Voyager I spacecraft was launched in 1977 and has now reached the heliosheath, the edge of the solar system bordering interstellar space. Within ten years, the Voyager is expected to clear the solar winds of the heliosheath and make its way deeper into the unknown.

PBS Is Fair and Balanced: Or so reports PBS President, Pat Mitchell. Speaking to the National Press Club, Mitchell explained that, “Our responsibility is to tell the truth no matter what the consequences. And from time to time, it does lead people to question our motives, even suggest an agenda.” Mitchell contends that PBS is objective and free from bias.

Rehabilitated Youth Commits Armed Robbery: Lionel Tate beat and stomped to death a six year old girl when he was twelve years old. Despite Tate’s claim that he was imitating wrestling moves, juvenile psychologists warned that he was prone to violence and a jury sentenced him to life in prison. After three years, however, Tate was released and the conviction overturned. Tate is back behind bars, however, after holding up a pizza delivery man at gunpoint. Tate claims he is being set up because of his notoriety

Spot the Gulag of Our Times!

Ok kids.  How about a little game of Spot the Gulag of Our Times!

Option A) Gitmo!  In this Carribean hell hole, Muslim detainees are provided with sanitary living quarters, clean clothing, nutritional food, medical attention, prayer rugs, and copies of the Koran.  But horrifyingly, as many as nearly a dozen of those copies have allegedly been "mistreated."   Worse, not one of the non-US citizens detained at Gitmo has been granted access to the US court system -- a right that is totally not guaranteed under the US Constitution or any international agreement of which the US is a signatory, including the Geneva Conventions!

Option B) Camp 22!  That's right, boys and girls, Gitmo isn't the only detention facility a little slow in the area of arbitrarily extending due process beyond the political system that guarantees it.  Not that you'd know it from reading the newspapers, but North Korea also detains folks.  Not suspected jihadist militants bent on destroying the West, but its own citizens:  men, women, boys and girls accused of failing to voice enthusiastic support for their Glorious Leader, Kim Jong Il.  And Camp 22 doesn't just detain them by the tens of thousands, it also starves and works them to death and conducts monstrous experiments on them.  Just check out this 2004 account from the Guardian: 

Over the past year harrowing first-hand testimonies from North Korean defectors have detailed execution and torture, and now chilling evidence has emerged that the walls of Camp 22 hide an even more evil secret: gas chambers where horrific chemical experiments are conducted on human beings.

Witnesses have described watching entire families being put in glass chambers and gassed. They are left to an agonising death while scientists take notes.

So:  Spot the Gulag of Our Times!

The "100,000 dead Iraqis" shibboleth

As we try to cope with the unrelenting hail of guano from the moonbat left, it's important to remember that the claim of "100,000 dead Iraqi civilians" is pure, unadulterated propaganda.  Like the "Jenin massacre" of 2002, it gets cited over and over again as evidence of US (or Zionist) depravity, despite the fact that it never happened.  Rather, the "100,000" claim is an empty shibboleth repeated ad nauseum by the likes of Tim Robbins and George Galloway to boost their "anti-imperialist" cred and to undermine support for a democratic Iraq.  The only people it convinces are those already predisposed to believe the absolute worst about the intentions of the US.