Any royalists out there should be pleased: history is correcting the smears against Marie-Antoinette, executed by the anti-Catholic Jacobin regime, and slandered by enemies before and since. In her last letter before her execution in 1793, she expresses a Christian forgiveness:
I pardon my enemies the wrongs they have done me … I also had friends … Let them know that, to my last moment, I was thinking of them.
Sometimes things work out wonderfully in the world. Twenty-five years ago, mathematician Anatoly Shcharansky was a prisoner in the Soviet Gulag. Now his ideas of spreading peace by spreading democracy have the ear of the Texas businessman who is the President of the U.S.
That amazing turn of events puts GWB’s campaign for democracy into a broader context: perhaps it should be understood as the next phase of the struggle that occupied much of the last century. At present, the world is noticing the Islamic countries, but the status of human rights in the remaining Communist (or semi-Communist) countries reminds us that the Cold War’s work is not yet finished. The idea of peace through democracy applies to China too.
“…archaeologists believe they have uncovered the remains of the Siloam Pool in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem…”
As you know, today in D.C. it was cold. As I was walking to get some coffee in the Nameless Entity’s first floor, I saw a guy with a black fur-trimmed hat way down the corridor. I thought the hat looked Russian, and sure enough, it was — right down to the shiny medallion on the front of it with the hammer and sickle.
I doubt very seriously that the man was a Communist. He probably just liked the warmth, and the hat’s provenance made it a good conversation piece. It was, you know, kitsch: if I were to take it seriously, and ask him why he was wearing a symbol of mass murder and oppression, he would have laughed.
Now, if the guy were wearing a cold-weather S.S. hat with a swastika, that would be another story. From his dress, I’d guess that either he worked for the Entity itself or an affiliated entity. Wearing Nazi paraphernalia would be a career-ending move, especially if he worked with any Jews (and there are more than a few at the Entity). However, if he worked with Ukrainians or Afghanis (again, not very far-fetched), their complaints would not be taken as seriously, even though the Soviets murdered millions of their countrymen.
As you know, I am a lackey of neoconservative Zionist cabal that controls American foreign policy, so I have no problem with people looking down on Naziism. But why doesn’t Communism get the same treatment? I’m hardly the first person to ask this question, but I’ve never heard a satisfying answer. Some say that the Nazis are uniquely evil in a way that the Soviets were not; I have no idea how one evaluates such a statement, and I know of no crime (genocide, slavery, tyrrany, predatory war, forced deportation of populations) the Nazis committed that the Soviets rejected.
The best explanation is that since the Left controls the academy and the media, they are the only ones in the position to administer stigmas such as the Nazis have received, and they are unwilling to stigmatize their ideological cousins. After all, if people get turned off by collectivism, they might get squeamish about applying a statist solution to health care. And so Soviet kitsch is still safe in the halls of the U.S. Federal government.
Three institutions made me what I am today: the Roman Catholic Church, my family, and the United States Marines. The latter is turning 229 today, which is a cause for celebration among Marines around the world.
At the moment, Marines in Fallujah are celebrating by demolishing a snake pit of oppressive murderers. By all accounts, they are doing well, and one more chapter of our history is being written. The Marine Corps has never lost a battle in its entire history, and it will not now.
Long before I went to war, I thought about the kind of person I would want by my side if I were in combat. I figured I’d want a bunch of ruthless killers around. Not amoral murderers, but men who were at peace with themselves and well-trained to react correctly. A moment of mortal danger isn’t the time for self-doubt or philosophizing.
It’s a good feeling to be around hundreds of men whom you’ve never personally met, but who would crawl through a hail of bullets to drag your wounded body to safety. Which is why I’ll forgive my brother Marines for their occasional crudities and failings.
Happy birthday, Marines. I wish you safety, and above all, victory over the unjust. I wish I could be there with you.
