Diane Suffern
To Hitchens, With Love: The Fault of Dogmatic Inconsistency. Yes, Yours.
Dear Christopher,
It’s been a while since our last encounter when I told you I needed some time to think about where this relationship is going (you know how much I like Guinness, yet, you continue to ply me with Johnnie Walker Black, amongst other compromising things). I wanted to keep our personal issues as such–personal. Yet, you seem compelled to confess them to your friends at Slate and elsewhere. Did you think divulging your grievances would not get back to me? Ridiculous. I need to address this.
Don’t think I don’t know what you’re trying to do by bringing philosophy into it (you know how much I love it when you talk philosophy to me). So glibly you pronounce the beginning of Reason and proper skepticism following the 1755 destruction of Lisbon:
On Nov. 1, 1755—the feast of All Saint’s Day—a terrifying combination of earthquake and tsunami shattered the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon. Numerous major churches were destroyed and many devout worshipers along with them. This cataclysmic event was a spur to two great enterprises: the European Enlightenment and the development of seismology. Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were only some of those who reasoned that no thinkable deity could have desired or ordained the obliteration of Catholic Lisbon, while other thinkers—Immanuel Kant among them—began to inquire into the possible natural causes of such events.
Do you honestly believe that these thinkers–Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant–were autonomous geniuses who derived their theories purely out of their own internal processes? Chrissy, I’m surprised by this rudimentary assumption, even from you. read more…
You’re really going to love this gem from Jerry Adler at Newsweek. I mean, it’s just so special.
I can see them now, tightly huddled, reading it with bated breath, tittering, grabbing each other in fits and peals of delirious laughter, “OMG, no wayyyyy. That’s so…bad!” Real inventive, too. Great idea ramming MSNBC talking points and every single hyperbolic comedian’s conception into a solitary, sub-par effort at heroic couplet. Savor the banality:
Win a Date With Sarah Palin
Win a date with Sarah Palin!
Be among the first to mail in
A boxtop from your favorite ammo
A picture of yourself in camo
And you can take her someplace glam-o!
Wives can be quite persuasive. I remember the time when my husband told me flat-out I could not get the iPhone. Sigh. Two months later, it’s hard to express how much I love that shiny, new device… I think I need a pink case for it. Any suggestions?
Now, everyone, I am not saying I can talk him into just anything. I am saying that living with a man, taking care of him and being the primary voice he hears every day gives us unique influence. It is a precious thing, and something not to be exploited. Well, not too often, at least.
When I read Christopher Dickey’s column in Newsweek examining the role wives of jihadis play, I was intrigued. My impression of women “of the black burka” was not exactly one of feminine prowess or persuasion. (This is why.) Dickey unpacks the recent interview and related statements made by Defne Bayrak, the wife of the CIA bomber, and draws an interesting conclusion:
Humam al-Balawi, the 32-year-old Jordanian doctor who blew himself up along with seven CIA employees and a Jordanian handler in Afghanistan on Dec. 30, was always a pretty lonely guy. According to his mother, Shnara Fadel al-Balawi, he had “a social phobia.” She told NEWSWEEK’s Ranya Kadri that he seemed to live his life on the Internet. Whether he focused entirely on jihad there or indulged in other vices, we don’t know [...] He first came across Defne Bayrak in a chat room. An aspiring journalist who was a few months younger than he, she had just recently started wearing the hijab, or head covering, that is a clear political as well as religious statement in modern Turkey. read more…
As news began to pour in yesterday from Haiti, my thoughts turned to Mission of Hope , an orphanage-school which friends of mine volunteered at. I wondered about their safety, the safety of the children and staff, and the condition of the ministry’s infrastructure. I thought about the country, the stories I’d heard, the history I’ve studied, and, then…I heard Pat Robertson’s statement.
It was embarrassing. I’ve grown weary of such spokespersons casting a shadow on the rest of modern Christendom and felt the need to defend proper biblical understanding.
I talked this out with others, settled in to write down my thoughts, and…nothing came out. Thankfully, Peter Wehner (h/t Allahpundit) of National Review Online did it for me in his cogent, correct response: read more…
Looks like Beyoncé isn’t just Crazy in Love for Jay Z, but also enjoys gyrating for Muatsim Gaddafi, the son of Libyan dictator, Muammar-al Gaddafi. According to the Daily Mail, the private New Year’s bash on Nikki Island in the Caribbean compensated Beyoncé a cool $2 million for her…er… services:
The sparkly leotard slashed to reveal sections of her tummy and cleavage is so very Beyoncé, but it’s hard to envisage Hollywood’s highest-earner plying her trade in a tawdry setting resembling a cheap lapdancing club [...] Gaddafi smokes cigarettes, knocks back drinks and laughs with guests including Jon Bon Jovi, Usher and pretty, young female guests. [...] Beyoncé, 28, is believed to have been paid $2m fee for her performance at his private party at Nikki Beach on the Caribbean island – although that amount was not even required to help them top the Forbes magazine list. read more…
When President Obama made the Executive order to allow special privileges and immunity to the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), citizens were rightly concerned. We tend to take our freedoms and national sovereignty rather seriously. As in literally.
Andrew McCarthy of National Review, Newt Gingrich and Glenn Beck vocally spoke out. But, now, according to Michael Isikoff in Newsweek, there’s a new force Obama and the entire Interpol body must contend with: Chuck Norris. read more…
I am a white woman (technically, translucent without a tan, but, that’s a personal problem). There has never been a time when I’ve felt the sting of judgment over something so irrevocable as my skin color. Not once have I sensed that someone was uncomfortable with my racial identity, even in ethnically diverse situations. I have floated along in my peaceful oblivion, assuming all traces of racial disunity and prejudice were relegated to the past best forgotten: a distasteful and shameful (national) indiscretion. While I wanted to keep the memory of tragedies such as Nazi Germany and 9/11 alive so as to never forget the lessons of history, our racist past seemed safe to lock away.
It isn’t. Furthermore, it’s a problem both the Right and the Left, blacks and whites, contribute to.
Allison Samuels, in a poignant Newsweek essay, has responded to Harry Reid’s racist remarks:
Talk about words that sting to the core. Harry Reid’s recent comments about President Barack Obama’s light skin and acceptable non-”Negro” vocabulary and speech brought back a rush of memories that I’m sure most African-Americans would like to forget [...] Reid’s recent controversial and disturbing statements prove that no matter how hard we as African-Americans try to move past a racial stigma that’s haunted us for far too long, mainstream America just won’t let us let it go. read more…
We’ve long known that those willing to terrorize civilians using their own bodies as lethal weapons hold a particularly irrational worldview. We understand that somewhere, there is a disconnect with the mind and true value of the human body, not mentioning the intrinsic worth of others. We’re continuing to discover the complicated relationship between that disconnect, that actualized disdain for the world and its affections, and Islam. How we assimilate and rationally deal with this on an International scale (while protecting our homeland and interests) is, of course, a long-standing diplomatic and national security debate. read more…
In yet another stunning blow to 2nd amendment rights, the Massachusetts First Circuit Court has ruled in favor of a police officer who confiscated the weapon and concealed carry permit of attorney Greg Schubert. The Weekly Standard details this and two other cases involving Americans lawfully carrying firearms, practicing a basic freedom as citizens, and subsequently losing ground to do so in the future.
Madison Conservative, a Hot Air Green Room contributer, wrote an excellent post on the topic. He includes a legal break down of the MA case, detailing the Police department’s initial response to the incident. Amazing: read more…
In a self-conscious missive to the American People published in Newsweek, George Obama reveals the disparity between his life in a Kenyan slum and his famous brother living in the White House.
If there was a leading light in the Obama clan, he was it; and if there was a shadowed place that no one liked to talk about, then that, I guess, was me.
Obama generously details his own post-childhood rebellion, including a life-altering stint in prison for robbery. There, enduring punishment unheard of in comparably posh U.S. correctional facilities, he determined to change…and became an American.
Perhaps it’s his accent, or the disaffected way he brushes his wispy hair from his face, but Christopher Hitchens is growing on me. Then again, it could simply be his latest piece in Newsweek, The Death of Theocracy, that has my heart all aflutter.
Hitchens, no stranger to religious debate, has trained his brazenly atheist sight on Iran’s theocratic regime. By first defining Theocracy, he continues to illuminate the unique struggle the Iranian theocracy presents to its people and the West seeking to hem the regime in.
An odd thing happened as I read the article, however. While Hitchens eviscerated the religious rulers, reducing them to sniveling teen bullies secretly running home to cry to mommy, I noticed a peculiar parallel emerging. Couldn’t characteristics of this theocracy also be found in our, shall we say, Leftist Moralocracy? And, was Hitchens writing me a covert Conservative love note in this article? (Okay, maybe not so much that second part…)
