Mailbag

Joseph Alexander Norland of Israpundit writes to advise us that he has collected 23 articles criticizing the “roadmap.” He has posted the articles as one PDF file under the heading “23 reasons to oppose the creation of a second Palestinian-Arab state in Yesha.”
Lynn Rossiter writes to note: “I think I’ve already heard the denials coming from the Frogs – all those chemical weapons are ‘pesticides.’ Heard on Bill Handel – KFI this morning 4/8. Love your blogspot.” Iraq appears to be the site of a previously unknown but surprisingly massive infestation of insects requiring the presence of vast warehouses of insecticide throughout the country.
Dafydd ab Hugh writes to ask: “Given that we appear, on the slight chance that the Iraqi Information Minister may be mistaken, to be sitting in the middle of Baghdad, is it too early to judge the accuracy of my predictions?
“I suggested (1) that there would be no mass uprising in Baghdad during the fighting, and (2) that the vaunted Republican Guard divisions would turn out to be pushovers compared to how they were portrayed — I seem to recall using the phrase ‘paper panzers,’ but maybe I should amend that to paper camels.
“In any event, I will of course leave the judging of my prophecies to you guys. Since you posted my predictions publicly, perhaps you can post your judgment there, as well. I never object to free publicity, especially on such an extraordinarily perspicacious Web site as PowerLine!” Mr. ab Hugh is not only one of our most eagle eyed readers, he has proved our most prescient as well.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Kay Miller was the author of the excellent profile of Alexandra Stein that we posted on Sunday — “The Story of O.” The profile chronicled Stein’s membership in the Twin Cities cell of a Maoist cult. We asked Kay for a bit more information that we might share with our readers about Stein’s present-day political views, and she has graciously responded:
“As you’ll see from [Stein’s] book, the ideological material in the O. was excruciatingly boring. The wonder of it is that anyone would submit to so much done with printed forms…Stein has undergone a significant change in her own ideology. One of the additional provocations for her leaving the O. was an understanding that communism – as practiced – had failed so miserably in other countries. And yet, she certainly adhers to socialist beliefs – including the idea that profit should not be made supplying health care to people.
“Those are certainly interesting views, but I consciously chose to focus on her personal struggle – mostly because of the considerable space limitations writers face at any newspaper today. I thought that the two most interesting elements of this story were the fact that the O. existed HERE in the form that it did (and endured as long as it did) and the way that a quite intelligent woman could be trapped in it. Both can be read as metaphors that – to me – are more important than getting into specifics of ideology. Anyway, I appreciate your interest very much.”

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses