Freedom Esoterica Friday

The Newsweek scandal continues to play out around the world. Newsweek has apologized, but the retraction is not being believed. There's a whole host of reactions on this, but the best I've seen have been from Andy McCarthy, Jonah Goldberg, and today's Victor Davis Hanson column, all at National Review Online. The jist of these reactions are the same: we don't appreciate or realize how Middle Easterners get their information or how they process it, and all of us - from the government to the press to Mr. Average Voter need to realize those differences. And change our behavior accordingly. For the press, that doesn't mean not reporting problems; but that does mean the press should not blow up incidents into claims that they are actually systematic problems and if they do find problems, they need to make sure their evidence is rock solid. That may mean waiting a week.

Here's some talk on Star Wars. Well, not that Star Wars.

One more article to consider: Invasion of the America-Snatchers.
"At the time of our nation’s founding, there were a bunch of Americans who clung to European values. Today we call their descendants “Canadians.” Up north, the government isn’t something to be distrusted so much as something to be obeyed. For example, when the government told the people to switch to the metric system, they did. Our government told us to do the same thing at about the same time, and America barely even noticed. "

Winston Churchill Quote of the Week:

"We have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat, and France has suffered even more than we have." - WSC, speech made during debate to ratify the Munich Agreement in House of Commons, October 5, 1938. Nancy Astor heckled him by calling out "Nonsense."

Munich would blind Europe at a crucial time; France and Britain thought they had established peace, when all they really accomplished was a postponement of the war. An interesting examination of this can be found here.

This was the result of negotiating with a tyrant, and believing him when he said he wanted peace as badly as you did. How can we negotiate with terrorists, when they have told us that they want to destroy us to our face?