CNN’s geography issue

Who renamed Tasmania Queensland?

My new opinion piece is posted

“My Problem With Andrew Sullivan,” The Patriot Post (Chattanooga, Tennessee), January 25, 2011. Read more.   

A suspicious resignation

From the charming Tim Blair:

This is ridiculous. Tasmania has a population of around 500,000. It’s approximately equal to that of Melbourne in 1890. Yet Tasmania’s now ex-leader – who has only been in parliament since 2004 – says he can’t run the joint and be involved with his young family at the same time. Maybe the Bartletts just needed another trip to New York.

Churchill: the greatest Jewish ally?

Conservatives can walk and chew gum at the same time. In entertainment news, Martin Knelman:

Millions of people credit Winston Churchill, Britain’s inspiring wartime prime minister during its darkest hours, with saving the world from Hitler.

But was Churchill also — as we’ve rarely heard — the greatest ally the Jewish people have ever had?

The answer is a passionate yes, according to Barry Avrich, whose compelling documentary — An Unlikely Obsession: Churchill and the Jews — will have its premiere at 10 p.m. Monday on the Vision channel.

The Left don’t how to deal with him (still). Anti-Semitic comrade Stalin, by way of contrast, was adored by Leftists, especially Hollywood. But their task is becoming harder:  

The starry commentators tell the story of how at a time of casual anti-Semitism at the highest social and political levels of post-Victorian British society, Churchill took inspiration from Old Testament tales, aspiring to become a latter-day Moses.

Denouncing pogroms in Russia even while British voters wondered what events so far away had to do with them, Churchill hobnobbed with influential Jewish leaders and articulated the view that the foundations of modern civilization and ethics came out of Jewish history — for which he felt the rest of the world should show its gratitude.

Hitler, by way of contrast, hobnobbed with Arab dictators and Palestinians (just like communist dictators, come to think of it). And, many now recognise that the conservative’s Conservative supported Israel more than Obama’s hero, FDR:

“Churchill’s support for a Jewish homeland may have wavered now and then over the years,” Avrich says. “But mostly he was giving the cause huge support when no other world leader was doing so. Not Franklin Roosevelt in the U.S. and certainly not William Lyon Mackenzie King in Canada.”

 The truth: He understood Moses.  

America's identity capitals

Do you live in an identity capital? American cities are like patchwork quilts – but some patterns stand out more than others. Let’s explore:

Provo (Utah), America’s conservative capital 

In 2005, The Bay Area Center for Voting Research, a nonpartisan think tank, found that Utah’s third largest city is America’s most conservative. Or in three words: Rightwing Republican Heaven. Votes aside, in more recent times, it became city-ranked 1^st for volunteerism and is one of America’s healthiest urban centers. But just to scare left-liberals, the conservative Mormon metro is projected to have the greatest population increase. Thanks also to America's Freedom Festival at Provo where they "celebrate, teach, honor, and strengthen the traditional American values of family, freedom, God, and country" patriotism is thriving.

Washington (District of Columbia), America’s AIDS capital

Think: tax, tax, tax. And: liberal, liberal, liberal. Furthermore, “Washington, DC, has the dubious distinction of being America's AIDS capital, with the highest HIV infection rate in the country,” reports Public Radio International.  “A recent study estimated that the infection rate in DC is three percent, the highest in the US. To put that figure in perspective, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization consider a one percent infection rate as the threshold for a severe epidemic.” One certainty: If the AIDS epidemic worsens, more tax-hungry Democrats will be taxing.

Loma Linda (California), America’s longevity capital

Was that centenarian pushing weights? And does life begin at 90 here? Many of Loma Linda’s long- living  Seventh-day Adventist Christians follow a vegetarian diet or eat meat sparingly, attend church services, avoid drugs like the plague, make time for regular exercise, encourage abstinence before marriage, keep the Sabbath holy (from sundown Friday to sundown on Saturday), and like the Mormons, they love volunteering.  As well, it’s hard to ignore the inviting sunny climate associated with other longevity world capitals. I take my hat off to these Protestants - and their highly disciplined lifestyles.

Atlanta (Georgia), America’s gay capital

She’s known as Hotlanta in Georgia. According to The Advocate (a fabulous magazine), “Atlanta is undoubtedly our gayest city—with 29 gay bars.” Reportedly, “Atlanta guys are hunky, the ladies are gracious, the gay sports leagues are seriously well organized, and its housewives (and their gay BFFs, complete with handbags and heels) are now camp icons.” The downside: The crime in Atlanta is relatively high, particularly fabulous property crime. 

Berkeley (California), America’s leftie capital  

Family warning: Berkeley’s street performers, I’m told, perform some unspeakable acts. Also, according to The Bay Area Center for Voting Research, Berkeley is America’s third most “liberal” city, just behind Gary (Indiana) and Detroit (Michigan). But is this because some residents are too stoned to register? Here’s what we know: Berkeley has leftwing form. Smelly hippies and cultural upheaval did characterize the “scene” in the late 1960s, but the soybeans are still boiling. Today, Berkeley is home to the Himalayan Fair in May, the Berkeley Kite Festival in July, and the Solano Stroll in September.

Colorado Springs (Colorado), America’s religious capital

If America had a religious capital, it would be Colorado Springs. Men’s Health reports:  “We scoured the U.S. Census and the yellow pages (Yellow.com) for places of worship per capita. Then we tallied up religious organizations (U.S. Census) and the number of volunteers who support these groups (VolunteeringinAmerica.gov). Finally, we considered the amount of money donated to religious organizations (Bureau of Labor Statistics and spent on religious books (Mediamark Research).” While there’s never a perfect way to measure religious values, Colorado Springs is known as "the Evangelical Vatican” and "The Christian Mecca" for a reason.

Huntington (West Virginia), America’s fat capital

When the British television chef Jamie Oliver tried to evangelize about the benefits of healthy eating to the folks in Huntington, West Virginia, he was reduced to tears. Obviously this made for some sensational television and loud tabloid headlines, but his concerns appeared genuine. The emotional Oliver sobbed: “They don't understand me. They don't know why I'm here.” In 2008, the AP named Huntington "America's fattest city." And I wonder, can fat people enter the Kingdom of Heaven?  After all, the path is narrow, according to the Bible, and gluttony is a sin.

Boston (Massachusetts), America’s historical capital

The American Revolution. The Boston Massacre. The Boston Tea Party. And I thought Ann Coulter was controversial. The unofficial “Capital of New England” loves drama.  So when Puritan colonists from England founded Boston, they didn’t just shake the continent, they ended up shaking generations across the world for centuries to come. But there’s more: Real Bostonians have a “Boston accent” and their own elitist language, “Boston English.” Plus, it’s said that your typical Harvard professor is over two-hundred-and-forty-two years old. (Really.) Even the Boston Globe’s august columnist, Jeff Jacoby, is living in the year 1889.

Q&A: Lord Tebbit praises helpful “warming”

Some important questions and no-nonsense answers:

Q: So who is this Lord Tebbit?

A: To fill some Americans in: we’ve all heard of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady. Well, Lord Norman Tebbit of Chingford was one of her “outspoken” senior cabinet ministers. Today he’s a conservative columnist with little time for “global warming” nightmares.

And, to be frank, Tebbit comes from tough stock. Some history: He and his wife survived the infamous 1984 Conservative Party conference bombing in Brighton, England. Years before, Tebbit had escaped out of a burning Mosquito aircraft. (Seriously.)

Q: Why isn’t Tebbit afraid of a warmer world?

A: Did I mention that Lord Tebbit is fireproof? To my understanding, he was also depicted as a skinhead biker, or Thatcher’s enforcer, in the TV series, Spitting Image, the satirical ITV puppet show.

But he’s a realist too. While chatting with a global warm-y suit, for example, Tebbit suggested, “that if Greenland could again grow wheat and barley as it did 1100 or 1200 years ago it might be quite helpful in feeding the hungry.” So if we believe the earth is warming (another debate) there’s surely a positive side.

Q: What fuels Tebbit’s skepticism?

A: He’s no history denier.  As a former pilot in the RAF and British Overseas Airways, Tebbit understands weather/temperature extremes more than Hollywood starlets lounging in First Class. He states: “I was told that already the Russians were worried about the thawing of the perma frost. I asked if he [a distinguished warmist] had read about the recent discovery there of the remains of a baby mammoth beneath the ice which would seem to my untutored mind to show that in earlier times there must have been vegetation there since mammoths cannot feed on ice.”

Q: How is the Left responding to Tebbit-like arguments?

A: After throwing some facts to a warmist, Tebbit (who blogs at The Telegraph) recalls: “Sadly, he lost interest in the conversation, but perhaps one of my blog readers will be able to explain why restoring the world to temperatures it survived in the past would be an unmitigated disaster in the future.” In other words, Leftists don't do history, they just run from it, or change it, if they can. In 2000, British warmists pontificated about a snowless England, where snowmen-deprived children would have to live with snowless Januaries. (Seriously.) 

Q&A: On Churchill's relationship with Islam

Some important questions and no-nonsense answers:

Q: How did Churchill see Islam?

A: Churchill saw misogynistic Islam for what it was. In a word: totalitarian. Whereas Obama likes to feel facts, Churchill didn’t care for fantasy describing the so-called religion of peace in the frankest and therefore most politically-incorrect terms. Of Islam he said:  “How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.” Today, CNN would censor Churchill, without doubt.

Q: What shaped Churchill’s views?  

A:Experience. But also his compassion. Over the years, Churchill, who was well travelled, had witnessed firsthand the realities of life for the individual under Islam. “A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men,” he wrote.

Q: Why did Churchill warn us about Islamo-fundamentalism?

A: Churchill argued in The River War, First edition, Vol. II (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899), pp. 248-250, that Muslims could display splendid qualities: “Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.” To Churchill, however: “No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.” Women and children were and still are vulnerable, a reality, many feminists haven’t dealt with.

Q: Where did he see Islamism heading?

A: Churchill thought militant Islam like Nazism was a cancer. “It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.” Later too, he was well aware of Hitler’s close relationship to radical Islam, a truth our campaigning journalists are not ready (or willing) to acknowledge now. Mein Kampf is still popular in the Middle East.