Hillary Clinton and the war

A blogger attending a lunch at which Hillary Clinton was speaking reports the following:

What I do know, is that I heard her say that she would end the Iraq war immediately upon taking office. Lots of heads snapped up when she said that (and there was plenty of applause, even a little whooping) and the very politically plugged in person sitting next to me remarked that the statement was “completely new”. She went on to say that the troops had already done everything they had been asked to do: got rid of Saddam, created a situation where elections could take place, surged to create political stability so the elected Iraqi government could do some legislating and work out a political solution (which she said they have not done) and that it was unfair to ask our troops to stay in Iraq and “play referee to an Iraqi civil war.” She said there is no military solution.

If the report is accurate, and if she sticks – forcefully – to this line, she’s going to be the next POTUS. I think Obama will make a fine VP.

The Great Separation

Mark Lilla has written a fascinating essay entitled Coping with Political Theology, which is also the introduction to his book The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West. Here’s the key thesis. Writing about the religious wars which tore Europe apart in the 16th and 17th century, he observes:

As we know, this crisis of Western Christendom prepared the way for modern political thought, and eventually for modern liberal democracy. And it seems to follow from this fact that modern liberal democracy, with its distinctive ideas and institutions, is a post-Christian phenomenon. I want to insist on this formulation as a way of stressing the uniqueness of Christian revelation and its theological-political difficulties – and therefore the uniqueness of the philosophical response to the civilizational crisis those problems triggered. Though the principles of modern liberal democracy are not conceptually dependent on the truth of Christianity, they are genetically dependent on the problems Christianity posed and failed to solve. Being mindful of this should help us to understand the strengths of our tradition of political thought, and perhaps also its limitations.

(My emphasis.)
Lilla argues that, deep down, Americans recognize this truth, which is why democracy and tolerance have trumped religiosity at every turn, and will (hopefully) continue to do so. Not all agree with him: see, for example, this troubled response by Damon Linker, and this from Philip Jenkins. In any case, it looks like a must-read book. ((Hat-tip to Sully, who also has an essay at Cato on the subject.))

Hell, yes!

Terry just blogged the following; I can do no better than to simply repeat it.

A Question
From Bill O’Reilly we get the following.
[W]ould you support President John Edwards? Remember, no coerced interrogation, civilian lawyers in courts for captured overseas terrorists, no branding the Iranian guards terrorists, and no phone surveillance without a specific warrant.
To which the the only answer I can think of is,
Hell yes.

Absolutely. I hope one of his (increasingly rare) non-lickspittle guests poses the obvious challenge: “Bill: why do you hate the U.S. Constitution?”

Victoria

On Saturday I headed up to Victoria, BC for a day trip to visit some good friends. The weather forecast was good, but as the Victoria Clipper IV pulled away from Seattle’s Pier 69 all we could see was fog. Thick, thick, fog. We made our way up Puget Sound and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca at a very reduced speed, sounding our siren as we went. At we approached Trail Island the weather began to clear, and we entered Victoria Harbour in bright sunshine with a mild breeze. But obviously we were quite late: it was well after 11, and I was going to have to check in for the return trip by 5.
I met my friends, and after an early lunch we drove out of town to their house. They’ve been there 5 years, during which time they’ve turned it from a “fixer-upper” into a really nice place with lots of character. Mind you, it’s the kind of place that has enough interesting quirks and possibilities that it seems likely to be an unending source of “projects”. ((Assuming that they can find reliable contractors to do the work. This seems to be an omnipresent problem.))
As they showed me over the house, we talked about more immediate plans, and it became clear that 3½ hours would not be sufficient. I decided to see if I could extend my visit, so I called Victoria Clipper to ask them to rebook me on one of the Sunday sailings. Incredibly, every sailing was sold out. Oh, well: I’ll just have to plan a longer visit in the spring.
By now it was after 2, so we went on a scenic tour, starting with Government House and Gonzalez Hill Park. From the top of the hill, I took a series of pictures to be stitched into a panorama. (Warning: file is 5.5MB.) ((It’s not a complete panorama: the view to the south was obscured by trees and bright sunlight. Towards the right (east) end of the picture, you can just make out the snowy peak of Mount Baker, the most northerly of the US Cascades.))
Victoria Panorama
Then we drove along the south coast, from Uplands to downtown Victoria. It felt rather like a cross between the English Devon coast and Carmel in California, and the house prices seemed to match! We prowled around the extraordinary Shoal Point building, one of the most advanced “green” projects in the worlds, covered in playful gargoyles and stone carvings. One final stop for espresso and pastries, and it was time for me to check in for my return trip. Fortunately the fog had completely burned off, and the Clipper made good time back to Seattle.

Criminalizing hopscotch

NYPD: Keeping citizens safe from those evil hopscotch-playing children:

Since when is a kid’s chalk drawing “graffiti”? Since the City Council passed local law 111 in 2005, which defined “graffiti” as “any letter, word, name, number, symbol, slogan, message, drawing, picture, writing … that is drawn, painted, chiseled, scratched, or etched on a commercial building or residential building.”

And that, apparently, includes drawing in chalk on the sidewalk/pavement.

Welcome to the cool world of Mac users who don't have to drive ;-)

Steve‘s move to Songbird is more than just a change of job. First, he’s become a Mac user! And second, he’s said goodbye to traffic jams on 880 and the Bay bridges:

But damn if the commute to SF isn’t a helluva lot nicer (and a lot more fun…. riding a skateboard is orders of magnitude better than sitting idling spitting out noxious fumes on 880). Seriously, I don’t drive my car on weekdays anymore…. and that is just lovely.