The Sidney Crosby Era began last night in Wilkes-Barre, of all places.

I am not a fan of this shootout nonsense, but flawed hockey is better than no hockey.

Crosby nets one assist in Penguins' OT loss

Sidney Crosby didn't light up the scoreboard, didn't carry the Penguins on his back and wasn't even one of the game's three stars in his professional debut Wednesday night.

The 18-year-old rookie wonder from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, even had a few fairly unremarkable shifts as the Penguins lost in overtime, 5-4, to the Boston Bruins at the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza.

But Crosby, nonetheless, proved anyone who dares look away when he's on the ice runs the risk of missing something impressive.

"You saw what he can do out there; he's a difference maker," said Mark Recchi, who along with Ryan Malone was one of Crosby's wingers for most of the night. "He's extremely fast, and he's going to get stronger and get better and better as he gets a feel for the game. But he makes plays a lot of guys can't make."

Crosby had one assist, while defenseman Sergei Gonchar led the team with one goal and two assists. Recchi and Ziggy Palffy each had a goal and an assist, and Mario Lemieux had two assists. (Thanks to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for the heads up.)

BTW, be on the lookout for EA Sports new "Hockey's Back" commercial with the babe being stalked by the Leafs' goalie. Classic. (Too bad it couldn't be Cujo. Get it? Scaaaaary!)

Animal Flesh Recipe of the Day.

The prawn is Nature's assassin.

Never turn your back on one, even if you know he's dead.

Never let your sister, your niece, or your female cousin date a prawn.

Fortunately, our Greek friends (via Emeril Lagasse and the Food Network) know what to do with this menace.


Yarithes Yiouvetsaki (Roasted Prawns with Fresh Tomatoes and Feta Cheese)



12 large prawns (U-10), in their shells
1/2 cup olive oil
1 medium onion finely sliced
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1 cup dry white wine
Fresh Feta cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Rinse the prawns in cold water and drain. Peel the prawns, leaving the head and tail intact, discarding the shells. Season with salt and pepper. Place the prawns in a large oven-proof baking dish. In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil. Add the onions. Season with salt and pepper. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes, or until translucent. Add the tomatoes, garlic, and herbs. Saute for 1 minute. Add the wine and bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes. Pour the mixture over the prawns. Sprinkle the top with the cheese. Place in the oven and roast for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and garnish with parsley.

Conservative from the waist up Repansycans.

Instant refresher course: Conservative from the waist up and Repansycan.

Bob Novak (from Townhall.com) shows one and all just what's wrong with the party of Lincoln, (who suspended habeas corpus) and why any man with even a loose grip on reality associates with them at his own risk.

For two full days, George W. Bush was bashed. He was taken to task on his handling of stem cell research, population control, the Iraq war and, especially, Hurricane Katrina. The critics were no left-wing bloggers. They were rich, mainly Republican and presumably Bush voters in the last two presidential elections.

The ultimate elitist "problem": Population control!

See the hordes of people taking to the streets demanding that population be controlled! Wackier than even Environmentalism! (Its kissin' cousin.)

Instant Translation: We gotta stop those fertile darkies and slant-eyes or they'll build their mud huts on the 12th fairway.

Sorry, Haji, no kids for you. You too, Hop Sing.

The Bush-bashing occurred last weekend at the annual Aspen conference sponsored by the New York investment firm Forstmann Little & Co. Over 200 invited guests, mostly prestigious, arrived Thursday night (many by private aircraft) and stayed until Sunday morning for more than golf, hikes and gourmet meals. They faithfully attended the discussions presided over by PBS's Charlie Rose on such serious subjects as "global poverty and human rights" and "the 'new' world economy." The connecting link was hostility to President Bush.

"All discussions are off the record," admonished the conference's printed schedule. Consequently, I will refrain from specifically quoting panelists and audience members. But the admonition says nothing about personal conversations outside the sessions. Nor do I feel inhibited in quoting myself. Even if I am violating the spirit of secrecy rules, revealing criticism of Bush by this elite group, and the paucity of defense for him, is valuable in reflecting the president's parlous political condition.

Puttin' the pansy in Repansycan. You got something to say, suckers? You should be men and shout it from the mountain tops.

The Forstmann Little Aspen Weekend is made possible by the generosity of Theodore J. Forstmann, a doughty supporter of supply-side economics and longtime contributor to the Republican Party. Invited guests are drawn from government, diplomacy, politics, the arts, entertainment and journalism.

The very definition of conservative from the waist up! I'll bet ol' Teddy Forstmann likes to think of himself as a conservative. The NYT would probably call him a moderate Repanyscan because he thinks it's ok to have your own flesh and blood murdered if you find yourself in a tough spot.

I was surprised that the program indicated the first panel, on stem cell research, consisted solely of scientists hostile to the Bush administration's position. In the absence of any disagreement, I took the floor to suggest there are scientists and bioethicists with dissenting views and that it was not productive to demean opposing views as based on "religious dogma." The response was peeved criticism of my intervention and certainly no support.

I do not see myself as a defender of the Bush presidency, and I am sure the White House does not regard me as such. But as a member of the second panel consisting of journalists, I felt constrained to argue against implications that Hurricane Katrina should cause the president to rediscover race and poverty. My comments again generated more criticism from the audience and obvious exasperation by Charlie Rose. Indeed, after the closing dinner Saturday night, the moderator made clear he was displeased by my conduct.

After the first two panels, I feared I was the odd man out in accepting Teddy Forstmann's invitation. But during a break, one of the president's closest friends -- who had remained silent -- thanked me profusely for my comments. That set a pattern. Throughout the next two days, men and women who were mute publicly thanked me privately for speaking up. When I said nothing during one panel discussion, some people asked me why I was silent.

Longtime participants in Forstmann Little conferences (this was my first and, after this column, probably my last) told me they had not experienced such hostility against a Republican president at previous events. Yet, they were sure a majority of the guests had voted for Bush.

This analysis was reported to me over lunch by a financier who regularly attends these events. When he thanked me for my comments and said he shared my sentiments, I asked why he did not express them publicly at a session. He replied that he did not feel able to articulate what he felt. Critics of the president who are vocal and supporters who are reticent comprise a massive communications failure.

U.S. News & World Report disclosed this week, with apparent disdain, that presidential adviser Karl Rove took time off from the Katrina relief effort to be at Aspen. He was needed as a counterweight. I settled in for serious fireworks, expecting Bush-bashers to assault his alter ego at the conference's final session. However, direct confrontation with a senior aide must have been more difficult than a remote attack on the president. It would be a shame if Rove returned to Washington without informing George W. Bush how erstwhile friends have turned against him.

What we have here, kiddies, is Blasphemy, Buggery, and 'Bortion light.

Megalomaniacal solipsism on display.

Tina Brown, (obviously a fat chick with low self-esteem who hasn't heard Bill's not in power anymore) writing in Washington's other newspaper brings us this gem from Goober II:

"We are so arrogant because we are obsessed with the present," he told his guests at the conference's end. "I've reached an age now where it doesn't matter whatever happens to me. I just don't want anybody to die before their time anymore."

From the beginning, it has been painfully obvious Mr. Clinton suffers from some sort of psychosis. There is an article entitled "Why The President Can't Think" which was written in 1993 or 1994. I'll see if I can dig it up.

When the pathological liar says he does not care about himself, you can bet the mortgage it is all about him.

Senator Brain Damage update.

Pennsylvania's senior (in more ways than one) Senator finds being the center of attention suuuuuuuuuper.

This Looks Like a Job for Super-Duperman!

During the Roberts hearings last week, Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter asked the future chief justice an especially silly question about Roe v. Wade. Let's go to the transcript:

Specter: When you and I talked informally, I asked you if you had any thought as to how many opportunities there were in the intervening 32 years for Roe to be overruled, and you said you didn't really know.

And you cited a number. I said, Would it surprise you to know that there have been 38 occasions where Roe has been taken up, not with a specific issue raised, but all with an opportunity for Roe to be overruled?

One of them was Rust v. Sullivan, where you participated in the writing of the brief and, although the case did not squarely raise the overruling of Roe, it involved the issue of whether Planned Parenthood, even if it's funded with federal money, could counsel on abortion.

And in that brief you again raised the question about Roe being wrongly decided. And then I pointed out to you that there had been some 38 cases where the court had taken up Roe.

And I'm a very seldom user of charts but, on this one, I have prepared a chart because it speaks--a little too heavy to lift--but it speaks louder than just--thank you, Senator--38 cases where Roe has been taken up.

And I don't want to coin any phrases on superprecedents--we'll leave that to the Supreme Court--but would you think that Roe might be a super-duper precedent in light of--

[laughter]

--in light of 38 occasions to overrule it?

Back in July, Specter put forward the notion of a "superprecedent" in a New York Times op-ed. Blogger and lawyer Bill Dyer pointed out that the source of this idea seemed to have been the Pennsylvania senator's own imagination, and a super-duper imagination it is, to judge by his performance at the hearings.

But in truth, the idea that Roe is a more powerful precedent by virtue of having been upheld so many times is perfectly wrongheaded. If Roe were actually settled law, the Supreme Court could let it rest. That the court instead has reconsidered it at a pace of once a year (by Specter's count) shows the shakiness of the constitutional foundation on which it is built.
(Thanks to Best of the Web Today for the heads up.)

Book of the Day.

Imperial Grunts by Robert Kaplan

Mr. Kaplan set out to visit a hotspot in each command. His grand tour occupied him for two years, during which time he developed an abiding fondness for the men who guard the marches of the American imperium. "I was beginning to love these guys," he writes of a special-forces team in Colombia. "They had amassed so much technical knowledge about so many things at such a young age. They could perform minor surgery on the spot. Yet they had such a reduced sense of self compared to everyone I knew in the media and public policy worlds."

One of the more surprising of Mr. Kaplan's findings is that evangelical Christianity helped to transform the military in the 1980s, rescuing the Vietnam-era Army from drugs, alcohol and alienation. That reformation, together with the character-building demands of Balkans deployments of the 1990s (more important, in his judgment, than the frontal wars against Saddam Hussein), created our "imperial grunts."

The phrase is slightly misleading--even off-putting. As a synonym for American troops, "grunt" came and mostly went with the Vietnam War, evoking the dispirited soldiery of that era. And "imperial," with its adjectival nod to "imperialism," concedes too much to those who argue that the U.S. and the world would be better served if we withdrew behind our own borders. But Mr. Kaplan intends something positive--a way of suggesting that our far-flung troops are the descendants of the cavalry, dragoons and civilian frontiersmen who fought the Indian wars of the 18th and 19th centuries. Indeed, his opening chapter is titled "Injun Country," a term that was also popular in the early days of the Vietnam War and one that soldiers use with respect.

The book is replete with such catchphrases. The military would grind to a halt without them, as surely as if it ran out of gasoline or computer chips. So nouns become verbs: templating, civilianizing, unassetting (which means emptying a helicopter of troops and which in turn is reduced to unassing). Ideas become acronyms, mostly mind-numbing but sometimes soaring to poetry: I was delighted to learn that what we used to call nation-building is now MOOTWA, for military operations other than war.

And in quiet moments the troops explain themselves in terms that call to mind an earlier America: God, country, honor, duty. "The clichés were spoken with utter seriousness," Mr. Kaplan assures us. "That's ultimately why these guys liked George W. Bush so much. . . . He spoke the way they did, with a lack of nuance, which they found estimable because their own tasks did not require it."

This quote makes me want to read the book:

"We're the damn Spartans," explains Maj. Kevin Holiday of Tampa, "physical warriors with college degrees." A civil engineer with three kids, he is a National Guardsman with an attitude. "God has put me here," he tells Mr. Kaplan. "I'm a Christian. . . . You see this all around you"--the dust, deprivation and anxiety of Injun Country--"well, it's the high point of my life and of everyone else here." It's not just officers, and not only the Green Berets. Cpl. Michael Pinckney, a Marine, tells Mr. Kaplan: "I don't want to be anywhere else but Iraq. . . .This is what manhood is all about. I don't mean macho [stuff] either. I mean moral character."
(Thanks to OpinionJournal for the heads up.)

Fyodor's Mini-Rant of the Day.

It is way past time to completely deregulate the cable tv industry. The government protected local monopolies not only mean high prices and little choice for consumers, they also mean lousy service.

Get the government out of our idiot boxes and perhaps we'll get less idiocy. At the very least, we'll save money.

Did you ever wonder why pilots make good money?

Now that is what I call flying! (See the video here.)

A JetBlue airliner with a landing gear problem has landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport.

The A-320 Airbus, with 139 passengers and crew, had circled for about two hours to burn off fuel.

The FAA says Jet Blue Flight 292 took off from nearby Burbank at mid-afternoon, bound for JFK in New York City. The mechanical problem was quickly noticed and the plane was quickly redirected toward Long Beach, which has a longer runway. It was later diverted again, this time to LAX.

TV pictures showed the extended nose wheel at a right angle to normal. Other wheels extended normally.

The plane balanced on its back wheels as it slowed on the runway at LAX. When the front landing gear touched down it created sparks and then flames, which went out as the aircraft eventually stopped.

Firefighters were standing by. Passengers left the plane on steps brought out on the tarmac. (Thanks to WTSP in Tampa for the heads up.)

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Maurice and the Martyrs of the Theban Legion.

The members of a Roman legion composed largely of Egyptians and serving in the army of co-Emperor Maximian, colleague of the famed hater of Christians, Emperor Diocletian. While serving in France, the legion marched to Agaunum, where it encamped for pagan rituals. Maurice, a commander, and Exuperius, Candidus, Innocent, Vitalis, two Victors, and the men of the legion refused to worship pagan deities, or possibly refused to massacre the local innocent populace. They were supposed to be pressured to obey by witnessing the beheading of some of their officers, but refused to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods. Reportedly, Maximian brought in another legion to slay the 6,600 Christians. A basilica, St. Maurice-en-Valais, was built from about 369-391 to commemorate this remarkable martyrdom. This cult is now confined to local calendars.

Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Zacharias 1:1-8.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 9:7-9.


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today


Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Prayer to Saint Anthony, Martyr of Desire

Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)


PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Fyodor On Fashion (and Girls, both big and little).

The lunacy of little girls wearing their pajamas to school (from The Washington Times) serves as an excuse for ol' Fyodor to ruminate on the vagaries of the fairer sex. (To skip to the hot and steamy peek at Fyodor's private life, follow the bouncing asterisk*. BTW, stop calling it an "asterick". Please.)

"Pajama Day" was once a novelty at school, the chance to be silly and wear attire usually reserved for the privacy of home. But these days many young people - 11-year-old Haley Small included - are wearing PJs in public, anytime and just about anywhere.

Haley's favorite look: a T-shirt, flip-flops and pajama bottoms, with designs on them ranging from Snoopy to monkeys, basketballs to smiley faces.

"Part of it is because it's cute; but the majority of it is because it's comfortable," says the sixth-grader, who lives in Glen Rock, N.J., and often wears her PJs, "so I can sleep the extra five minutes." Pajama bottoms are better than jeans, she adds, because they're cool but less constricting.
Public pajama-wearing grew out of college students' long-standing habit of rolling out of bed and into class. Now pajamas are a fashion statement, with such retailers as Old Navy, Target and J.C. Penney offering myriad styles for adults, teens and preteens.

The trend isn't popular with everyone, though. School officials from Houston County, Ga., to Katy, Texas, to Southfield, Mich., to Bakersfield, Calif., have banned pajama-wearing at school.

And even some under-30s think it's inappropriate to wear them anywhere but home.

"It isn't a matter of being too casual," says Olga Shmuklyer, a 28-year-old New Yorker who readily acknowledges to being a member of the "flip-flop" generation. She simply thinks pajamas aren't flattering, for anyone. "They look like vagrants," says Shmuklyer, whose own college-age sister wears pajamas in public, much to her "dismay."

Others have noted adults getting in on the act. Preston Kirk says he was taken aback when one of the twentysomething cast members in his community theater group in Marble Falls, Texas, came to rehearsal in pajamas. "It took me an hour to figure it out," Kirk, who's 60, says of the woman's outfit. "But then, I'm 'old school.'"

Haley's mom, Ellyn Small, says that the first time her daughter wanted to wear pajamas to school, "I was dead set against it." Then she realized other kids were doing it and didn't mind so much.

"The pajama bottoms and T-shirts cover just as much of her body, if not more than the clothes she would normally wear," Small says. "I'm sure there will be plenty of times down the road for me to put my foot down and tell her she can't do or wear something."

Bob Hallman, another New Yorker whose 15-year-old who sports sleepwear in public, says he's also fine with it. "All I ask is that they wear PJs appropriately," he says. "Not too big and too loose, not too small and too tight."

Wear PJs appropriately? Makes you wonder what else his 15 year old wears to school.

Kristina Philips, a 20-year-old junior at Ashland University in Ohio, says she'll wear pajamas to early classes, informal meetings or when she's feeling too sick to wear regular clothes.

"But once you start wearing slippers with them, people start to make jokes about a pajama party," she says, recalling how one student got teased for doing so her freshman year.

She also believes that K-12 schools are well within their rights to impose pajama bans.

Haley, the 11-year-old in New Jersey, thinks they shouldn't make such a big deal. She says that few people at her school, teachers included, have said anything about her pajamas. She does concede, however, that she may not be given so much slack, one day.

"It would depend on what type of job I had and what day it was," she says. "If I had a press conference or something, I'd wear something nice. But I'm not a very dressed-up person myself. If you found me in a skirt, that would be amazing."

*This one got me to thinking about a cookout at a friend's house last month. One of his neighbors was there with his wife and college-aged daughter.

Let me get this over with early: The daughter was gorgeous. Drool-inducingly gorgeous, on the Fyodor Scale. Your Humble Servant is no dope. He noticed this immediately.

The thing I noticed almost as quickly was the young lady's belt. She wore one of her father's (I assumed.) old neckties in the loops of her jeans. Even as I flirted with her a bit, the thought that kept rolling to the front of my old idiot noggin was "I have ties older than her." (I have no doubt they will someday be back in style. Then ol' Fyodor will be sitting pretty.)

This made me grin almost constantly, which is definitely not my style. She must have liked it, because she flirted back. Or maybe I was just imagining that.

Then again, maybe not. She Who Must Be Obeyed soon swooped in to end my fun with her usual style and grace and dragged me away from Lil' Miss Temptation.

When She heard what I had been thinking during my moment or three of weakness, She nearly choked on Her Arbor Mist Blackberry Merlot on ice. (Which, BTW, tastes just like sody pop. Great for mellowing the ol' Ball and Chain. [Just kidding, sweetie.] And, now that I think about, it would work wonders on flirtatious college girls.)

I received a red-hot bite on my earlobe and permission to flirt with The Ultimate Coed all I wanted.

How sick am I to be disappointed that She trusts me?

How sick am I to still be wishing She had started a wild sweetened wine and grass stain catfight over me?

Cherche la femme, kiddies. 'Cause I don't think the French would permit cherche l'homme.

Memo To Chirac: Catholicism is free.

Middle-class French women will be offered cash incentives to have a third child amid growing concerns that professional couples are having too few children.

Although France's fertility rate of 1.9 for each couple is relatively high among European countries, family lobbyists are dismayed by a fall in the number of babies born to better-educated women.

The government will announce its proposals tomorrow when Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, the father of three children, presides at a conference on family life. A big increase in allowances has been widely predicted.

France's National Union of Family Associations, which is known by its French acronym UNAF and is playing a key role in shaping policy, said the figure should be set at up to $1,250 a month for women with three children, double the present maximum, and should be set according to the woman's salary. (Thanks to The Washington Times for the heads up.)

Full text of President Musharraf's epitaph.

One does not have to listen very closely to hear the crickets (and little else) from the moslem side of the aisle.

The text of President General Pervez Musharraf's address to the 58th annual session of the UN General Assembly, delivered on Wednesday, 9/14/05.

Mr President, it is with great pleasure that I extend to you our warmest felicitations on your election. I also congratulate your predecessor, HE Mr Jan Kavan, for his effective leadership during the last Session of the General Assembly.

We support Secretary General Kofi Annan's efforts to infuse a new sense of mission in the United Nations and maintain the centrality of its role in the promotion of global peace and security. We pay tribute to the memory of Mr Sergio de Mello and the other UN officials who sacrificed their lives in the service of peace.

When the Berlin Wall collapsed, hopes revived for a new age of cooperation and peace, free of ideological confrontations. Sadly, these hopes were dashed by the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, and then in Kosovo; by the failure to end the occupation of Palestine, leading to the revived intifada against Israeli occupation; by the brutal suppression of the Kashmiris' demand for self-determination and freedom from Indian occupation; by the unending war in Afghanistan and the international neglect which created a climate in which extremism and terrorism could breed; and by the series of international financial crises and the rise of poverty as a consequence of unequal economic globalisation.

The terrible terrorist atrocity of 9/11 jolted the foundations of the international system. The response has weakened Al Qaeda. But, it has not eliminated its associates. Terrorists have struck repeatedly around the world - in Indonesia, Tunisia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kenya and Pakistan.

The tragedy of 9/11 transformed security policies and changed geopolitical calculations. Pakistan took a strategic decision, based on the principles of humanity and our national interest, to support the war on terrorism.

Our intentions should be in no doubt. Our actions speak louder than words. Our capabilities were limited but have been progressively improved. We are acting against Al Qaeda and its associates effectively. We have also acted against other organisations or groups involved in any form of terrorism. Pakistan will remain in the forefront of the war on terrorism.
The war against terrorism must be fought comprehensively, on a global front, with vision and understanding. It should not erode the moral values of our societies. Those who seek to use it as an excuse to suppress other peoples must not hijack it. It must not be allowed to engender a clash of civilisations- a clash between Islam and the West.

It is unfortunate that great religions- which should be a source of hope, tolerance and peace- are seen as being pitted against each other. Many Muslims believe their eternal faith is being demonised.

They see Muslim peoples being cruelly suppressed for demanding freedom and equality or targeted for discrimination and worse.

On the other hand, the West perceives the Islamic world as volatile and hostile, bent upon striking at Western values. Muslims are often seen as fanatics, extremists and terrorists.

In this volatile milieu, the recent war in Iraq has evoked negative reactions in most Arab and Islamic countries. This moment in history calls for reflection, introspection and action.

The thesis of a clash of civilizations is a travesty. We must bridge the gulf of misunderstanding between Islam and the West. We must be the catalysts of change, not the prophets of doom.

Islam is a faith of peace, harmony and justice. Islam is democracy in action. It upholds human rights, social equality, non-discrimination, freedom of speech. The protection of minorities is an article of faith in Islam. It does not discriminate on the basis of colour, caste, creed or religion.

Our faith is dynamic, promoting constant renewal and adaptation. Through the process of ijtehad (or interpretation through consultations), Islam's vision is not trapped in any one period of history; it is modern and futuristic. Islam must not be confused with the narrow vision of a few extremists.

Mr President, I believe the way forward is to adopt a two-pronged strategy - a double pincer - to build harmony, promote moderation, oppose extremism, and ensure justice. I call this strategy `enlightened moderation'. On the one hand, Muslim nations must assume their responsibility for internal reform and renewal. They are at the crossroads. They must eschew extremism and confrontation. They must embrace the march of human civilistion. They must address the deficits in their social and economic development. They must seek science and technology, higher education and human resource development.

The international community, especially the advanced countries of the West, must deliver the other pincer in the strategy of `enlightened moderation'. They can do so by helping to resolve the political disputes and situations where Muslim peoples are being suppressed, such as in Palestine and Kashmir; by rejecting attempts to equate terrorism with Islam; and by assisting the Muslim world in poverty alleviation and socio-economic development.

The United Nations has a crucial role to play in the conception and execution of the strategy of `enlightened moderation'.

Mr President, in this context, it is clear that a consensus must be quickly evolved at the United Nations on ways to restore Iraq's stability, security and sovereignty. Iraq cannot be allowed to remain an open wound. This will impact on the region and could inject a new dimension to the campaign against terrorism and extremism. The consensus evolved must enable the Iraqi people, through an inclusive political process, to determine the sequence of steps leading to a fully representative Iraqi government and an end to occupation. The Iraqi people should assume control of their resources and political destiny as soon as possible. They must receive the full support of the international community, including Iraq's neighbours and the Arab and Islamic countries, in building security and reconstructing their country. Pakistan would be prepared to help in a collective UN-sanctioned Arab and Islamic effort to help the Iraqi people, if they wish us to do so.

Endeavours to stabilise Iraq will be enhanced by progress in promoting peace with justice in the Middle East. Hopes for a just and comprehensive peace were aroused earlier this year by the Quartet's roadmap. These hopes have been progressively dimmed. But failure is not an option. The fate of the Palestinian people is the principal factor in determining public and political perceptions in the entire Islamic world. It is only progress towards a just peace that can marginalise the extremists. Therefore, we must revive faithful implementation of the roadmap and realise the vision of two states, Palestine and Israel, living side by side in peace within recognised boundaries.

Mr President, we must ensure the successful implementation of the Bonn process in Afghanistan. The international stabilisation force (ISAF) should be expanded and enlarged to ensure security and control over all parts of Afghanistan by President Karzai's government. Pakistan will continue to contribute to interdicting and arresting Al Qaeda and associated terrorists. We will further intensify our economic cooperation with Afghanistan. It is essential that Afghanistan's territory is not used by third countries for interference or terrorism against Afghanistan's neighbours.

Mr President, Jammu and Kashmir has been rightly described as the most dangerous dispute in the world. A just solution of this dispute holds the key to peace and security in South Asia.

I am glad that India has stepped back from its dangerous and failed experiment in coercive diplomacy last year. Despite some improvement in atmospherics, India continues to suppress the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions. It refuses Pakistan's offers of dialogue to address and resolve the Kashmir dispute.

India cites cross-border terrorism to refuse a dialogue. It knows full well that the Kashmiri struggle is indigenous. India seeks to exploit the international anti-terrorist sentiment after 9/11, to delegitimise the Kashmiri freedom struggle. On the contrary, it is India, which violates international law by refusing to implement Security Council resolutions and perpetrating gross and consistent violations of human rights in Kashmir.

Mr President, once again, from this august rostrum, I invite India to join Pakistan in a sustained dialogue to resolve the Kashmir dispute. I am convinced that, with goodwill, we can find a just solution, which is acceptable to India, to Pakistan and, above all, to the Kashmiri people. I also invite India, jointly with Pakistan, to observe a complete ceasefire along the Line of Control in Kashmir.

Pakistan would also be prepared to encourage a general cessation of violence within Kashmir, involving reciprocal obligations and restraints on Indian forces and the Kashmir freedom movement.

And, if India is genuinely concerned about cross-LOC infiltration, we ask that it agree to a viable mechanism to monitor this on both sides. The UNMOGIP could be enlarged for this purpose.

Mr President, apart from addressing Kashmir, sustainable security in South Asia requires India and Pakistan to institute measures to ensure mutual nuclear restraint and a conventional arms balance. Unfortunately, India is embarked on a massive build-up of its conventional and non-conventional military capabilities - advanced offensive aircraft, ballistic and cruise missiles, ABM systems, nuclear submarines and an aircraft carrier. This will destabilise South Asia and erode strategic deterrence. Those powers which desire peace, stability and security in South Asia - and oppose the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction - must review their decisions to offer such major strategic weapons systems to India. They must contribute to maintaining arms restraint and a military balance in South Asia.

Mr President, the crises and conflicts of the last decade have enhanced, not diminished, the relevance of the United Nations. The United Nations remains the central forum for dialogue and diplomacy. It must be strengthened. The Security Council must be made more representative by increasing the number of non-permanent members. New permanent members will only expand inequality. States which occupy and suppress other peoples, and defy the resolutions of the Security Council, have no credentials to aspire for permanent membership.

Mr President, we are on the cusp of a new millennium. It is a decisive moment in history. We must decide whether to flow with the currents that threaten confrontation and the collapse of our civilization, or muster the collective will to chart the course of history towards a peaceful and cooperative global society. The leaders assembled here bear an enormous responsibility to rescue our world from war and violence, poverty and pestilence; to redress inequity and impoverishment which breeds despair and destruction; and to collectively construct a new global architecture of peace and prosperity for all peoples and nations.

I thank you, Mr President.

Religion of Peace update.

Let us congratulate the President of Pakistan for producing a welcome dose of reality in that great fever swamp known as the moslem world, even if it is built merely of words. Of course, he has likely ensured a bloody end for himself.

Musharraf's Historic Speech
by Daniel Pipes

When the Malaysian currency tanked in late 1997, the country's then-prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, said he had "definite information" that Jews were the cause. "We do not want to say that this is a plot by the Jews, but in reality it is a Jew who triggered the currency plunge, and coincidentally [financier George] Soros is a Jew." Mr. Mahathir went on to say that just as "the Jews would rob Palestinians … this is what they are doing to our country."

Mahathir's antisemitism is so typical of discourse in the Muslim world over the last generation that I have found an "uneasy parallel" between it and Nazi Germany of the 1930s.

This background makes clear the historic nature of a speech by the president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, to the American Jewish Congress on September 17. More coincidentally, he too singled out George Soros as a symbol of Jewish financial prowess, but very differently.

Lauding Jewish groups in the United States, Mr. Musharraf remarked that they "were at the forefront in opposing the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia," adding: "I am told that the largest contributor to the Bosnian cause was the Jewish-American businessman and philanthropist, George Soros."

Most news coverage of the Musharraf speech focused on the prospect of Pakistan opening diplomatic relations with Israel (Reuters: "Pakistan leader urges US Jews to help make peace"), but what is potentially of lasting importance about the Musharraf address – beyond the mere fact of its being delivered to a Jewish organization – was the president's respectful, accurate, and constructive comments about Jews.

He began with the important observation that Jews and Muslims "have many similarities and few divergences in their faith and culture," then listed three specifics: belief in the oneness of God, shared ways of greeting, and a common phrase in the Talmud and Koran. And Moses, he pointed out, is the prophet most often referred to in the Koran.

Mr. Musharraf noted how "our experiences and histories intertwine" and then elaborated on what he called the two communities' "rich and very long" history of interaction. He mentioned the "shining examples" of Cordova, Baghdad, Istanbul, and Bukhara, the golden period of Muslim Spain, and the joint experience of the Spanish Inquisition. Generalizing from the inquisition, he correctly asserted that Jews and Muslims "have not only lived together and shared prosperity, but also suffered together."

Against this background, Mr. Musharraf portrayed the period since 1945 as an aberration. As I have also noted, 1945 was the pivotal year when Jews stopped leaving Christendom for Islamdom and reversed directions. The past six decades, in other words, broke a pattern of 13 centuries. Mr. Musharraf resisted ascribing blame for this gulf but limited himself to noting that the problems occurred during the "bloodiest century in human history."

Then there is this bit of genius from across the pond:

Muslims and the Holocaust
UK government committee tries to nix "exclusive" memorial


Recently in England, four Muslim-staffed committees appointed to advise Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Cabinet on issues related to Islam have come up with a recommendation: Get rid of an official event viewed as offensive to Muslims. What event would that be? A celebration of the Crusades, perhaps? No, Holocaust Memorial Day. In the words of one committee member, "The very name Holocaust Memorial Day sounds too exclusive to many young Muslims. It sends out the wrong signals: that the lives of one people are to be remembered more than others."

That "one people," of course, are the Jews.

The committees aren't exactly proposing that the Holocaust commemoration be scrapped outright. They want it to be folded into a "Genocide Memorial Day" that will also include such crimes as the slaughter of the Tutsis in Rwanda and the massacres of Bosnian Muslims by the Milosevic regime.

They think sodomy is good business.

With humble appy-polly-loggies to the color pink.

From WorldNetDaily:

Below is the list of companies scoring a perfect 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign's 2005 Corporate Quality Index, with policies beneficial toward homosexuals:

Aetna
Agilent Technologies
Alston & Bird
American Airlines
American Express
Apple Computer
AT&T
Avaya
Bausch & Lomb
Best Buy
Borders Group
BP America
California State Automobile Association
Capital One Financial
Cargill
Charles Schwab
Chevron
ChoicePoint
Chubb
Cisco Systems
Citigroup
CMP Media
Corning
Credit Suisse First Boston
Cummins
Daimler Chrysler
Dell
Deutsche Bank
Dominion Resources
Dow Chemical
Eastman Kodak
Ernst & Young
Estee Lauder Companies
Faegre & Benson
Ford Motor Co.
Freescale Semiconductor
Gap Inc.
General Mills
GlaxoSmithKline
Global Hyatt
Goldman Sachs Group
Hewlett-Packard
Intel
IBM
Intuit
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
Jenner & Block
Johnson & Johnson
Kaiser Permanente
Keyspan
Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group
KPMG
Kraft Foods
Lehman Brothers Holdings
Levi Strauss & Co.
Lexmark International
Lincoln National
Lucent Technologies
Mellon Financial
Merrill Lynch
MetLife
Microsoft
Miller Brewing
Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams
Molson Coors Brewing
Morrison & Foerster
Motorola
Nationwide
NCR Corp.
New York Times Co.
Nike
Nordstrom
Northern Trust
The Olivia Companies
Owens Corning
Pepsico
Pfizer
PG&E
Prudential Financial
Raytheon
Replacements
SBC Communications
SC Johnson & Son
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Southern California Edison
Sprint
Sun Microsystems
SunTrust Banks
Tech Data Corp.
Toyota
UBS
Unisys
US Airways
Viacom
Walgreens
Washington Mutual
Wells Fargo
Whirlpool
Worldspan Technologies
Wyndham International
Xerox

Human Events Online: The war next time.

Harry Reid Declares War on Judges Owen, Brown
by Ivy Sellers

Roberts Will 'Get Plenty of Votes'
Reid rules out using filibuster

Leahy to Back Roberts for Chief Justice
"Judge Roberts is a man of integrity. I can only take him at his word that he does not have an ideological agenda."

Senators Suggest Nominees for Next Supreme Court Pick
Specter: next battle will be more raucous than Roberts'

A history lesson from Dr. Walter E.Williams...

...or, Do you know what charity is?

Writing at Townhall.com, Dr. Williams blows up federal disaster relief. Blows it up big time.

In February 1887, President Grover Cleveland, upon vetoing a bill appropriating money to aid drought-stricken farmers in Texas, said, "I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and the duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit."

President Cleveland added, "The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood."

President Cleveland vetoed hundreds of congressional spending measures during his two-term presidency, often saying, "I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution." But Cleveland wasn't the only president who failed to see charity as a function of the federal government.

In 1854, after vetoing a popular appropriation to assist the mentally ill, President Franklin Pierce said, "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity." To approve such spending, argued Pierce, "would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded."

In 1796, Rep. William Giles of Virginia condemned a relief measure for fire victims, saying that Congress didn't have a right to "attend to what generosity and humanity require, but to what the Constitution and their duty require." A couple of years earlier, James Madison, the father of our constitution, irate over a $15,000 congressional appropriation to assist some French refugees, said, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

Here's my question: Were the nation's founders, and some of their successors, callous and indifferent to human tragedy? Or, were they stupid and couldn't find the passages in the Constitution that authorized spending "on the objects of benevolence"?

Some people might say, "Aha! They forgot about the Constitution's general welfare clause!" Here's what James Madison said: "With respect to the two words 'general welfare,' I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators."

Thomas Jefferson explained, "Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated." In 1828, South Carolina Sen. William Drayton said, "If Congress can determine what constitutes the general welfare and can appropriate money for its advancement, where is the limitation to carrying into execution whatever can be effected by money?"

Do you realize how far we have fallen, kiddies? Today, the Founding Fathers seem like a bunch of hippies drunk on wild-eyed optimism. The problem is, they were (for the most part) eminently practical men with a good grasp of political history and philosophy.

Are freedom and responsibility mutually exclusive? Is the American experiment in democratic republicanism a failure?

Pat Buchanan does not use the neologism "neocon" in this entire column.

I'm certain Pat doesn't buy Mr. Blankley's diagnosis or prescriptions, but as Fyodor's Rule #9 says: "If you are going to fight, then fight until you eliminate your enemy, because the only thing remembered longer than power is weakness."

The West's Last Chance is a fire bell in the night.

Tony Blankley, author and son of survivors of the Blitz, is a writer deeply schooled in history who believes that the West, in its lassitude toward a metastasizing Islamist menace, is behaving like Britain and France in the "Phony War" of 1940:

My central assertion is that while we in the United States and Europe have vast resources for protecting ourselves, we have thought ourselves into a position of near impotence ... In Europe, there is a blind denial that radical Islam is transforming the world.

Events like the London bombings and ritual murder of Theo van Gogh by a crazed Muslim on a Holland street, he believes, may be shaking the West out of its somnolence toward an existential threat:

[I]t is beginning to dawn on Europeans that the combination of a shrinking ethnic European population combined with an expanding and culturally assertive Muslim population might lead to the fall of Europe's Western Civilization within a century.

How we arrived in this perilous situation is well known. In what historians, centuries hence, will call the Great European Civil War, Western nations, from 1914 to 1918 and 1939 to 1945, butchered one another with such wild abandon they destroyed all the European empires it took centuries to build. And the colonial subjects then began to migrate to the West and colonize the mother countries.

There are now 20 million Muslims inside the House of Europe. Ghettoized in the great cities, professing a faith that was the rival of Christianity for a thousand years, they have not assimilated. Now their children, though educated in European schools, are fast becoming alienated from Europe's culture. Bored by the hedonism and materialism of La Dolce Vita, they are rejecting Western values.

These Islamic young call to mind German orphans of the Great War who were taught that Germany had been the victim of a "stab in the back." As these youth were instructed by nationalist teachers that it had been Allied treachery and duplicity at Versailles that disarmed, divided, dismembered and disgraced Germany, so the Muslim young of Europe are hearkening to the Western-hating imams of the urban mosques.

There, they are taught the gospel according to bin Laden: that the West today, led by the United States, imposes puppet regimes on Islamic nations, aids Israel in persecuting the Palestinians, steals Arab oil, defiles the Holy Land, crushes heroic peoples who resist, like the Iraqis, and poisons the souls of the Islamic young with its decadent culture.

Like young Nazis raised to hate, always a unifying force, these young Muslims are taught in these mosques that a heroic life, noble death and paradise are to be found by emulating Muhammad Atta and his "martyrs."

This is a powerful narcotic for the deracinated Muslim young. And a large fraction of these youth accept these teachings, as a smaller, more dangerous minority prepares to act on them. In Western society, as vulnerable as a 747 in flight, one does not need too many suicide bombers to create havoc and force Western nations to restrict their freedoms.

With Blankley's analysis of the clear and present danger, rooted in his broad reading of the writings of the Islamists, few will disagree. And one hopes his optimism about a revival of Christianity, a new appreciation of the importance of families and a Europe awakening to the enemy within is justified.

But his policy prescriptions are nothing if not controversial.

Recognizing that a "War on Terror" does not tell us who our enemy is, he calls for a formal declaration of war on "radical Islam" and amending the Constitution if necessary to deal with the enemies in the United States. He yet believes in the wisdom of invading Iraq and wants to expand U.S. armed forces for future expeditionary wars on radical Arab and Islamic regimes.

One need not read too far in his book to know Blankley not only endorses the Patriot Acts I and II, he believes a Patriot Act III is overdue. After declaring war, we should secure the borders, create a biometric national ID card for all citizens, use ethnic profiling to determine who needs extra patting down at the departure gate and deport immediately non-citizens who agitate for violence against our government or society.

If government does not act, he warns, vigilantes will, but that will not save Western Civilization. An unabashed Atlanticist, he concludes on a Churchillian note:

"If the United States and Europe act together as the West, in defense of our common values, we can undo the nightmare scenario of the Islamists and defeat this new threat of global tyranny that is every bit as dangerous as the Nazi threat that the Greatest Generation met and extinguished more than 50 years ago." (Thanks to WorldNetDaily for the heads up.)

Evil Martian SUVs are destroying one of our Solar System's last pristine wildernesses.

A NASA press release details the rape of Mars by free market forces. If only Al Gore had been elected Emperor of Mars.

New gullies that did not exist in mid-2002 have appeared on a Martian sand dune.

That's just one of the surprising discoveries that have resulted from the extended life of NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, which this month began its ninth year in orbit around Mars. Boulders tumbling down a Martian slope left tracks that weren't there two years ago. New impact craters formed since the 1970s suggest changes to age-estimating models. And for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars' south pole have shrunk from the previous year's size, suggesting a climate change in progress. (Emphasis mine.)

Senator Brain Damage strikes again.

Specter Urges Delay in Replacement of O'Connor at Supreme Court

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he urged President George W. Bush today to delay nominating a replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said he talked to Justice O'Connor about staying on the high court. ``She's prepared to do that'' through the court's term ending in June, Specter said. The president ``was noncommittal,'' Specter said. ``The body language was not very positive,'' Specter said.

Hooray Bush!

Specter said the delay would give Congress and the rest of America more time to know John Roberts as chief justice. ``When we know a little more about Judge Roberts it's going to be easier with the next'' nomination, Specter said.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said he urged Bush to submit a name to the Senate promptly. ``I feel we should proceed with the nomination as anticipated,'' Frist said. If so, the confirmation process could be completed ``around Thanksgiving.''

Senator Mengele has a blind-squirrel-with-a-broken-watch moment.

Able Danger is buried. Let's hope they have good reasons.

From Breitbart.com (via Drudge):

The Department of Defense forbade a military intelligence officer to testify Wednesday about the work of a secret military unit that identified four 9/11 hijackers more than a year before the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks, according to the man's attorney.

In written testimony prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, attorney Mark Zaid, who represents Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, said the Pentagon also refused to permit testimony there by a defense contractor that he also represents.

The Judiciary Committee was scheduled to hear testimony about the work of a classified unit code named "Able Danger."

In his prepared remarks, Zaid was ready to say on behalf of Shaffer and contractor John Smith that Able Danger, using data mining techniques, identified four of the terrorists who struck on Sept. 11, 2001 _ including mastermind Mohamed Atta.

"At least one chart, and possibly more, featured a photograph of Mohamed Atta," Zaid said in his prepared remarks.

Maj. Paul Swiergosz, a Defense Department spokesman, said Wednesday that open testimony would not be appropriate.

"We have expressed our security concerns and believe it is simply not possible to discuss Able Danger in any great detail in any public forum," he said.