War again?! In retrospect, from both the perspective of my youthful, generally neoconservative self and the paleoconservative years that have ensued, it has taken far longer for the United States to reach the brink of embroilment in a third Middle Eastern war after our last one began on March 20 of 2003, almost exactly eight years ago. Though the War in Afghanistan remains hot, the Iraq conflict has been fought through, and the government's claim that all our troops will come home by December 31, 2011 is believable. But oh! Despite President Obama's claim that

The United States is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya, and we are not going to use force to go beyond a well-defined goal, specifically the protection of civilians in Libya.

I rather doubt we can, with any degree of publicly verifiable responsibility, simply leave it at a no-fly zone. Read this foresightful Pat Buchanan cautionary article my well-informed mother was kind enough to show me over break [mama's boy by nature, politico by vocation one might say]. Now, though a bit dated. who can really argue with this?:

What would be the purpose of establishing a no-fly zone over Libya? According to advocates, to keep Moammar Gadhafi from using his air force to attack civilians.

But if Gadhafi uses tanks to crush the rebellion, as Nikita Khrushchev did in Hungary and the Chinese did in Tiananmen Square, would that be OK?

What is the moral distinction between using planes to kill rebels and running over them with tanks? Do we Americans just want to see a fair fight?

As it happens, "individual states" are considering air strikes, so it's not like they're planning to surprise anyone. My hope, see, was that NATO and friends would continue their hand-wringing until the war was over. Even now, it is so close! Bad Guy Col. Moammar Gaddafi insists he is just days away from crushing the revolt, insisting that he will "show them no mercy" (as Obama has repeated when making his case for intervention), though he does claim "those who surrender and throw down their arms will be saved." Of course, there's no reason to believe anything the dictator says given his recent run of comically obvious lies, such as that al Qaeda is the mastermind of the uprising. As it is, thanks to another lie--that there is a ceasefire, even as fighting continues--who knows, maybe he will win if the West is not sufficiently aggressive.

Though hardly to the same degree, the West, despite our obsession with liberal democracy, has certainly been disingenuous this affair. In all of this, perhaps the wisest and most telling comments on the foreign attitudes toward the Libyan civil war come from Col. Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam. Along with his brother Khamis, he's become something of an Aeneas struggling to save his city in flames. And my, he has wit! In a Time interview he quipped:

"One month ago [Western countries] were sooo nice, so nice like pussycats," Saif says in a contemptuous sing-song tone. "Now they want to be really aggressive like tigers. [But] soon they will come back, and cut oil deals, contracts. We know this game."

Totally not fooled. I adore his realpolitik. As much as Westerners inhale, exhale, and sweat democratic ideology, our patience with presidents and prime ministers who presume to pronounce that any peevish, down-on-their-luck old dictator "has no legitimacy" astounds me. Throughout this entire affair, when have we read of Gaddafi committing Saddam Hussein-style massacres of his own people? The media acts like this were his chosen mode of operations. Less-than-precision air strikes against rebels? Yes. Artillery shelling out invested civilian neighborhoods? Yes. Violence against protesters? Yes--they seek to overthrow the government by force, after all. After a town is retaken, we hear that the people are frightened, and remaining in their homes; we do not hear of them being murdered in their homes. But we never hear of Gaddafi's henchmen wantonly committing genocide, even though everyone is reacting as if they were. Unless I am missing something (say so), the supposed madman is simply attempting to suppress a rebellion, without great concern to either commit side atrocities or offer mercy to enemy combatants. To heed the Western powers and refrain from all actions that might upset rights watchdogs, would be tantamount to giving up his power. It is, I maintain, absurd and wholly outside the scope of a leader's proper authority to demand another leader step down simply because we don't like him. If you want the strongman out that badly, do it yourself: do it we will, though almost no national interests are on the line, and Gaddafi and son pose no threat to the United States or Europe.

What do we expect will come of all our trouble and interference? The popular pipe dream is that nation-building will lead, in the long term, to stable, electoral democracy. Translation: North Africa shall be the new Europe. One man, one vote, high standards of living, and rights, rights, rights. No protests get shot up, and people are content with their lives. I can see it now. Optimally prosperous, Africa's Arabs slide into softer, majority-driven mores, cool in their Muslim faith, and live long and commodiously as their souls shrivel unto death. The proud Arab, too, sinks into existentialism and relativism. Incipit the last man.


















The praise of truth and beauty may not be high on Gaddafi's agenda (see above lies), though interestingly he attempted to be quite pious in his earlier years (those, like me, too young to remember his earlier years may want to read Wikipedia's treatment of Islam in Revolutionary Libya; critics of Sharian chauvinism will be surprised to read that the on-the-books punishment for fornication is, or was, 80 lashes for both men and women, so we're hardly talking Iran or Saudi Arabia). However, as political scientists well know, life in dictatorships tends to stagnate, and the murky currents of Western fads ideological and retail do not have the effect on the everyman that they do in Europe. (On a side note, the Bahraini monarchy's crackdown on protests led to the destruction of an execrable public modern sculpture).

This war, or indeed this intervention should Obama somehow deliver and it goes no further, I oppose from the start. We certainly have no business in Libya; we are probably even taking the wrong side. Ah, at least I am young; I will probably live to see the consequences of this pivot in history, when the peace is entire and this war is but a paragraph on the Libya Wiki page, when I may sigh at my young fears, or cry my correct pessimism.

St. George, narrated in legend to have slain the dragon in Silene in Libya, pray for Libya.

St. Francis, evangelizer of Libya who daringly made the case for the Faith before the Sultan of Egypt, pray for Libya.

Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us+

Rather quickly, spring break has ended. To note my sadness about the earthquake before I depart, is all I can do. As an anime/manga fan, this catastrophe to Japan touches me very much. Thankfully, the fan sites and writers have stepped up to help and offer up their prayers for the victims. The Anime News Network is providing links to donate to relief efforts, and Noizi Ito, illustrator of the Haruhi Suzumiya light novels, drew this Haruhi praying for Japan. Do remember them in your nighttime prayers, as I managed to do.

Despite all the turmoil, I couldn't help but also be sad that so many animes are delayed. To be sure, over there the stations that run anime are all the same big networks whereon breaking news had to take precedence, but I think their children are deprived of a solace I received after our Nation's tragedy. 9/11 was on a Tuesday, and at 12 years of age, I cannot tell you what a (petty creature) comfort it was, after an afternoon of depressing news, to still be able to watch BattleBots (the only decent show) on Comedy Central. But the children of Japan are deprived of Gosick. Oh well, at least the new Fractale aired before the quake.

Where were we? In the last month, I have contemplated reporting the state of affairs at Assumption College, and a few goodies from one's anime and personal lives, but was honestly too busy. But now, on Ash Wednesday night (the ashes are still on my forehead; in my opinion they resenble a black dragonfly as much as a cross), during Spring Break, there is time to relate the manifold late fortuitous happenings.

Among my confidantes and I, the Brennan Censure and its aftermath (see last post) have occupied our thoughts. Happily, a witty professor has written a fine sarcastic defense of Brennan which does not spare the Basic Old Bureaucrats (BOBs) responsible for the leadership regime he stood up to. But my my, believe it or not, this is not the main event! Cassandra Delp, a sophomore in psychology, has written a daring exposé of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. The excellent Miss Delp, attesting her "experiences as a white student on campus"--I know!!--adeptly describes the groupthink prevalent in ALANA and other minority-oriented groups on campus, and the (hypocritical) attitude that white students who doesn't actively join "the minorities' side" are just "privileged," cultureless "yuppies." So do read this must read. *Bonus* There's a sidebar poll about one's favorite Girl Scout cookie (for Crusader88, samoas; gotta have the coconut). I promptly sent Miss Delp, previously wholly unknown to me, a congratulatory email and invited her to run for SGA, but sadly she was too busy.

Comment--Yes, it's time for something ridiculously controversial; I'm not sure which of these dudes I am though--As much as I agree with the article, the glory of which will surely be challenged in the next Le Provocateur (likely to be followed in turn by my op-ed parting shot; ah, this is the Golden Age of the student newspaper), the authoress didn't draw out all the conclusions. As a man disillusioned with multicultural harmony, when I read (for the convenience of those too lazy to follow the link)

I had thought that by meeting new people I would become more of a well-rounded person, but in reality, I started to view people based upon their color. I would dread the times when a group of minority students would come into my room and completely ignore me, or the times when all of my roommates go to a group called WINGS... that only colored women are invited to, or the times where I would hear "white isn't right" from some of my own friends. Being from a predominantly white high school and not having much diversity, I thought that this was normal and apparently I had just had the wrong impression that everyone was equal. However, when I attended my first ALANA meeting with my friends and roommates, I found that the reason that this segregation existed on campus was because the group that was promoting "togetherness"-as Geyer put it, "completely isolating one another."

I find an important lesson (perhaps yet) to be learned: it is human nature to think in groups, and the races are natural groups. The only reason "minorities" (as an insightful blogger notes in the name of his little publication, whites may be a majority in the United States, but globally are but 14% of the global population) seem inclusive is because white people no longer care if they are insulted, or die out altogether (a future for which Tim Wise, and some other whites, loudly moan). So when I read that, We then did an exercise where we picked questions out of a hat and had to answer them out loud. I randomly chose "What is your culture?" and as I read my question aloud, most of the minority students snickered at me and apologized that I had gotten this question, as in to say that I do not have a culture, I think, sad but largely true. White people have no self-respect, or sense of their beauty or heritage, so consequently when multicultis brag about whites becoming a minority in 2042 (since they already moved the date up from 2050, my guess is more like 2035), I wonder: We already live in a Nation where whites are made to feel guilty about their supposed privilege (of course, since minorities benefit from affirmative action, and are allowed to use groupthink, they are the only ones with any "privilege"), and where, with this current article, one of my (other) friends opined that Miss Delp sounded like a "quasi-racist" for writing from a white perspective, how should she expect to be treated when she's in the "minority"?

Until whites simply ignore the multiculturalists' stock insults and reprovals, they will remain incapable of interacting with "minorities" on equal ground, and the "conversation" apparently desired by Multicultural Affairs et al will never progress beyond guilt instillation.

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Well. Other than that, I have finally begun a really cute romance I ordered months ago. The Lilac Sunbonnet is a wholly forgotten 1894 novel by Scottish author S. R. Crockett. Or, I should say almost forgotten, as old S. R. has managed http://www.facebook.com/pages/S-R-Crockett/107775852590470">to join Facebook (friend him). As you know, I love old books, but how did I find this find? As I was scrolling through the stock of an antique books dealer, I found, The Lilac Sunbonnet, and thought of a petite lady friend of mine who would look adorable in a lilac sunbonnet, so I had to buy it, read it, and show her! Fortunately, Crockett is a charming writer, and as a Theology major I am intrigued by the plight of his protagonist, a divinity student who accidently forgets his Hebrew Bible and lexicon and Latin Luther commentary--I can't read either of the languages in question--and discovers they were picked up by a 20-somethng damsel who embodies all the virtues of Proverbs 31 (on which he was writing an exegesis she discovered), and sports a lilac sunbonnet! Too good to be true, which is why it's fiction. I managed to locate an original 1894 copy, but there are a few copies floating around Amazon. Also: There was apparently a 1922 British film of The Lilac Sunbonnet, directed by Sidney Morgan, but sadly I can't find it anywhere.

Bonnets are certainly commendable attire. Lately, though, I have spent more time admiring lolita fashion, and particularly the lolita fashion illustrations by Kira Imai, a sometime hireling of Angelic Pretty. His drawings--see some of them here--are unbelievably dear and elegant. Witness especially the Mary Stuart dresses drawing (named for a lousy Protestant, I know, but still). To connect this with my last work, this is the best Western fashion I've seen in a long time, and it's Japanese!

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Lastly, I tell you about a fine new anime I'm into, named Fractale. For math lovers: yes, there are fractals in the opening. But more importantly, for politicos who enjoyed the utopian/dystopian novels Brave New World and 1984, you will love Fractale. The projected future is even truer to fallen, pathetic human nature than the classics by Huxley and Orwell. I'm not kidding! So far there are just 7 episodes, so anyone who wants to embark on this high adventure following the foes of the oppressive/decadent Fractale System can catch up quickly. Oh, and of course, the characters are really cute and loveable.