Miscellaneous Musings and Threads Worth Reviewing:

Due to time constraints,what is involved in this thread is a combination of two regular features from the present humble weblog. Essentially, your host has dithered on finishing a "miscellaneous threads" installment and in the meantime, a ceasefire has taken place in Lebanon. Your host noted last month that the situation was not right to comment on these matters due to certain personal elements that were viewed at the time as possibly clouding his judgment.{1} However, with there being a ceasefire, it seems appropriate to comment on these things now at the very least by proxy. And as there are a couple other related threads which have been in draft form for posting for a few weeks now, it seems appropriate to note them here so that the upcoming miscellaneous threads posting will be shorter than originally planned. Without further ado...

---I found myself thinking that a piece on the problem with the Vatican approach to geopolitics with regards to the Israel was worth writing when (somewhat serendipidously) an email was sent to me by Joseph D'Hippolito of a piece he wrote for Front Page Magazine on this very subject matter. Here is that thread for those who are interested:

Pontificating Against Israel (Joseph D'Hippolito)

Mr. D'Hippolito and I probably have no small number of disagreements --either positionally on certain issues, in how certain subjects are approached, etc.-- but when I read the above article, I found myself in the rare position of being able to practically use the above article as a rubberstamp for my own views on the matter. Thankyou Joseph for saying what needed to be said on that subject and eliminating from the list one more subject which I felt the need to at some point address.{2}

---Briefly if I may on an Illana Mercer article:

Israel needs precision Pac Men

If Israelis are having a hard time hunting Hezbollah down, a NATO force will be useless; a U.N. presence worse than useless.

And a Kevin Tierney article:

Buchannan is right.... Sort of

The only way you can disarm an enemy like this is to take the fight to them and to them only. Air power can be used, but only to backup an existing ground force and Special Forces meant to combat the threat. This will no doubt mean a huge toll will be exacted, but perhaps then one can see if Israel is being honest about all the rhetoric, or if they are as weak-kneed as the Western Civilization many believe they imitate, who don’t want to sacrifice for security and freedom.

---And on the recent ceasefire in Lebanon:

Victory for Terrorism (Victor Morton)

I am reminded of Tacitus' saying that "a bad peace is worse than war" when pondering the present ceasefire. My prediction is that it will not hold and that when it does not (read: when Hezbollah once again either kidnaps Israeli soldiers or civilians or kills Israeli soldiers or civilians), that the war will resume. At that point, no ceasefire will be accepted by Israel that does not include wiping Hezbollah off the map.

Notes:

{1} Very Briefly on the Invasion of Lebanon By Israel (circa July 13, 2006)

{2} Notice that unlike a lot of people, your host does not mind passing the ball on issues when there is at least a macro concurrence between him and someone else on certain issues -particularly when time limits are factored into the equation.

Having heard of the foiled terrorist attack on the news this morning, it seems appropriate to point out how prescient the content of yesterday's audioposting was. Among the two areas I noted in that posting for Republican election focus in 2006, consider what we learned of this morning to be a third such area -though it ties into the general subject of "national security" that was noted in that audioposting.

Points to Ponder:

Any response to a viable theory constitutes a "refutation" in the minds of mindless sycophants or others incapable of (or unwilling to use) sound rigorous logical thought and rational analysis in striving to ascertain the merits or demerits of said theories thereof. [I. Shawn McElhinney (circa 8/09/06 5:00pm)]

Miscellaneous Musings on Joe Lieberman, His Withdrawal From the Democratic Senate Primary, and Possible Wider 2006 Election Ramifications

Having recently written on the problem with apologetics methodology at this humble weblog --as well as agreeing to host a guest editorial on problematical and contradictory attitudes by prominent Catholic apologetics sorts written by my friend Greg Mockeridge-- it seems a prediction is in order as word of these writings circulate through the proverbial grapevine. To once again show how prescient your host is on these kinds of issues as a rule{1}, here are some predictions on how those writings will be approached by the lions share of our positional adversaries -if they bother to respond to what we wrote at all:

---The actual arguments and rationally well founded criticisms of general apologetical methodology (not to mention the problematical usages by certain persons specifically noted as examples of the problem) will be summarily ignored. Instead, what will be the focus is on irrelevant side distractionary drivel which in no way impacts the substance of what Greg and I are saying as a cowardly expedient by certain parties to continue to promote the dispicable status quo on these matters. Or in in a nutshell: the focus will be if not exclusively on matters other than our actual arguments than darn near exclusively so and the arguments themselves will be substantially ignored.

These predictions can be so confidently made because I have history as my teacher and I like to learn from it unlike most people.{2} History's lessons are not always nice ones but nonetheless, we would be foolish to ignore them. Nonetheless, in the interest of disclosure I should note that it bothers me to make such predictions and I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong on what I predict above. Unfortunately, the likelihood of that happening is about as slim as Twiggy -though hope springs eternal I suppose.

Notes:

{1} One of the reasons for my accuracy being so high is that I learn from history -both distant as well as recent history. And judging from what happened a couple of times last year (as well as earlier this year) with some of the persons involved, I predict we will almost certainly see more of the saimo saimo from these sorts which (while regrettable) is nonetheless sadly all too predictable.

{2} Including the lions share of those who were criticized by Greg or myself in our respective writings published on August 5th of this year.