Jonah Goldberg proposes a return of a Vatican army:
I’m not saying they should use an army for crusades for new lands or for conversion or anything like that. But why shouldn’t the Catholic Church have peacekeepers of its own? The use of force isn’t forbidden by Catholic law, I know that much. And the Swiss Guards still have weapons even on Vatican property. Why couldn’t the Pope dispatch armed soldiers to restore order, open food supplies, secure humaintarian efforts etc?
It couldn’t be worse than one under the command of the UN.
[Update at 2:21 PM EDT]
How would one amend the Treaty of Westphalia? Other than Great Britain, are the sovereign entities that signed it even in existence any more? Who (other than perhaps Italy) would object, and have legitimate grounds to, if the Vatican decided to build up, and utilize, the Swiss Guard? Of course, given the paucity of real estate they have, their biggest problem would be finding a place to house the Pope’s divisions. Though I hear there are some military bases being freed up in Germany…
Lance Armstrong is going bike riding with the president in Crawford. Maybe that will give the media down there something to cover besides Mother Shaheen.
Some jokes just write themselves. Come up with your own tune suggestions for the Clinton music compilation CD. The folks at Free Republic have already started the list, including “Young Girl,” and “Blowing in the Wind.”
I’m amazed that even Dana Milbank could write tripe like this with a straight face:
Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, who like Shrum favors hardball politics, protested that “we Democrats bring a well-thumbed copy of Marquess of Queensberry Rules while the other side unsheaths their bloody knives, with a predictable outcome.” Lehane said the NARAL ad “was great, and exactly the type of offensive that breaks through in the modern age.”
Chris Lehane plays by Marquis of Queensberry Rules? That would be hilarious if it weren’t so nuts. I mean, not even the moonbats at Kos can take that one seriously.
You know, amidst all of the calls to pull the ad, maybe I’ve missed them, but I haven’t seen any that did so because it was scurrilous and false–the line generally seems to be that it should be pulled because it was counterproductive. In other words, lying is all right, if it helps the cause. It reminds me of the “Palestinians” who have disavowed murdering Israelis, not because there’s anything wrong with it, but because it was failing as a tactic.
In my puerile, naive youth, I cast my first presidential vote for Jimmy Carter, an act that shames me to this day. I’m a little sad that so many continue to foolishly worship him, a man who never met a dictator (or, apparently, America-hating polemicist) he didn’t like, in light of things like this:
As a candidate, Carter promised only that as president he would never tell a lie, thereby leaving himself a loophole for his post-presidential career as a fabulist.
I mean, most of them think money and greed are evil, anyway, right?
Amidst the financial scandal at Air America (which (not so) shockingly, seems to get little attention from the MSM), they seem to be having trouble meeting their payroll.
This (though off topic) is a little irritating, though:
Written by company Vice President/Finance Sinohe Terrero (this article confims Terrero’s corporate role), it inferred the payroll processing company was to blame…
No. It implied. The author of the above inferred. This confusion between the two words, apparently suffered by many, is one of my pet peeves (like the inability to distinguish between “loose” and “lose”).
Remember all the Bush haters who promisedthreatened to move to Canada if he won? Well, it turns out that American emigration to Canada actually dropped after the election.
Maybe it’s because they heard the (no doubt terrible) news that the Canadian government may be on the verge of giving up its monopoly on health care.
Ah, well. They’ll alway have Paris. Not that they followed through on that promisethreat, either.
Andrew Stuttaford points out an example of what he mistakenly views as bad government–removing a law that requires legislators to show up to work in order to get paid. But actually, considering how much damage and thievery they engage in when they do show up, I actually like my proposal better.