Starting today, PetrifiedTruth.com will be offline while this project is being re-evaluated.

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Cheers.

The NY Times has a lengthy article about the new conservative movement on college campuses. The Times writer is alarmed by the fact that the right-wing kids are not only articulate, effective, and growing in popularity, but also -- egad -- connected to conservative organizations. Although the author can't help but discuss the leftist culture prevalent on almost every college campus, there is not one mention in a 6,000-word article about left-wing organizations and support networks, which are easily as well-funded and relentless as those on the right. The young conservative women in the article were impressive. And I learned a new phrase: ''stiletto conservatives.''

One Bucknell conservatives club member, Allison Kasic, buys it. She's a 19-year-old who just finished her sophomore year, and she writes a regular column in The Counterweight and has her own rock-music show each Monday on the college radio station. Raised in Littleton, Colo., the daughter of an administrative judge, she is a confident, tough young woman who wears little makeup and favors jeans and T-shirts. As a management major concentrating in marketing, she sees the importance of selling a new brand of conservatism to female students. ''There's the old stereotype of the WASP-y country-club wife or the Bible-study mom from the Midwest,'' Kasic says. ''But that's not what conservative women are anymore.'' Kasic, instead, points to ''stiletto conservatives'' like Hoff Sommers and Coulter. ''We have role models now,'' she says. ''Hip, strong women who exude the message: 'I don't need hand-holding just because I'm a woman.''' Kasic herself plans to be a working woman when she graduates (''I'm no soccer mom,'' she laughs; ''I don't even like kids''), but she respects women who choose a different path -- to be homemakers, like her own mother. ''Conservatives are inclusive in a way that liberals are not,'' she says, voicing a central theme of the Independent Women's Forum ethos. ''We say that women can be executives or stay-at-home mothers.'' Kasic extends this notion to the abortion debate. Herself an anti-abortion Catholic, she says that the Republican Party today nevertheless supports candidates who espouse the right to abortion. ''But the National Organization for Women has never supported a pro-life candidate,'' she says, as proof of the left's narrowness and the right's ''diversity'' (a term the conservative movement has deliberately co-opted from the left).

It can be disorienting to hear conservatism advanced as the ideology that frees women, but such is the skill with which the right has reframed the issues for the campus crowd, and such is the degree to which the left has allowed its own message to drift into rigidity and irrelevance for many college-age women. Another Bucknell conservatives club member, Denise Chaykun, typifies how some young women are only driven further to the right by what they see as the pieties of the left. Chaykun, with her shoulder-length blond hair, faded jeans and rock T-shirt, could have stepped out of a 1970's campus sit-in. But she is one of the most combative and hard-core conservatives at Bucknell. ''You come to college, and the message they give you is 'Your parents are racist, sexist, bigoted, homophobic, and we're going to take you and change that,''' she says. ''A lot of the courses are mushy stuff about sex and gender and social relations. You can't take a class about a war. We don't have a military historian at Bucknell. Everything is so dumbed down because no one wants to offend anyone.''

via The New York Times Magazine

"A new Jim Carrey movie is coming out about a man who acts like God. I think it’s called "The Bill O’Reilly Story."

- Jay Leno, The Tonight Show

Bill Gertz reports that Donald Rumsfeld is continuing his efforts to tame the Pentagon and cut through the layers of bureacracy. It's amazingly hard. I hope Rumsfeld will stick around for the second term.

Stephen Cambone has assumed sweeping power over the Pentagon's intelligence bureaucracy as the new undersecretary of defense for intelligence. We obtained a copy of a May 8 memorandum from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz setting up the new office. It states that the office takes over all 286 persons and policies attached to the intelligence, counterintelligence and security, and other intelligence-related issues that were in the portfolio of the assistant defense secretary for command, control, communications and intelligence, once the Pentagon's top intelligence official.

Mr. Cambone, a protege of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld who has little intelligence experience, will have several deputies, including three charged with intelligence warning, war fighting and operations, and counterintelligence and security.

The key phrase of the implementing guidance memorandum relates to the office's power over other Pentagon intelligence agencies that in the past have resisted control by Pentagon policy-makers. It states that the new undersecretary will "exercise authority, direction, and control over the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), the National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Defense Security Service (DSS) and the DoD Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA)."

The job of whipping the Pentagon intelligence bureaucracy into shape is formidable. Pentagon intelligence agencies consume the lion's share of the amount spent on intelligence overall, estimated to be about $35 billion annually.

Additionally, the memorandum states that the Pentagon's chief information officer has been given a new title — assistant defense secretary for networks and information integration — and will report directly to the secretary of defense, an unusual arrangement because most assistants report to an undersecretary. The post also comes with new authority over Pentagon space activities.

via The Washington Times

Quote of the Day:

"The advance of freedom is more than an interest we pursue. It is a calling we follow. Our country was created in the name and cause of freedom. And if the self-evident truths of our founding are true for us, they are true for all. As a people dedicated to civil rights, we are driven to defend the human rights of others. We are the nation that liberated continents and concentration camps. We are the nation of the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift and the Peace Corps. We are the nation that ended the oppression of Afghan women, and we are the nation that closed the torture chambers of Iraq. (Applause.)

America's national ambition is the spread of free markets, free trade, and free societies. These goals are not achieved at the expense of other nations, they are achieved for the benefit of all nations. America seeks to expand, not the borders of our country, but the realm of liberty."

- President George W. Bush, in commencement address to the United States Coast Guard Academy

via The White House

Jim Hoagland makes more explicit a point that few journalists have understood so far: the Baathists in Iraq are working very actively to turn back the liberation. As his headline says: "The War Isn't Over." It seems to me that, like in the overall war on terror, we have the advantage right now, but not victory. Not yet. The struggle will continue.

U.S. intelligence initially tended to portray a wave of postwar attacks on coalition forces and civil disturbances as ad hoc, spontaneous events. But on May 16 a secret CIA memorandum pulled together a number of incidents involving former leaders in Hussein's Baathist Party and analyzed them in the same way that many Iraqis see them: as an organized, systematic guerrilla campaign to drive out U.S. forces.

That analytical delay compounded the problems created by the failure of the administration to train and deploy with the invasion force enough U.S. civil affairs officers and Iraqi exiles to act as guides and interpreters. This prewar political decision -- not to put exile forces on a par with renegade Baathist politicians and generals whom the CIA expected to be able to install in power -- has undermined postwar operations.

"The Iraqis saw that we were not prepared to be ruthless in dealing with their jailers and killers, who were reorganizing before their eyes. So, many of the people who could have helped us kept their heads down," said one senior U.S. official. "It is hard to blame them. Threats that Saddam will come back can be dismissed easily in Washington, but not if you live in Baghdad."

Another senior Bush aide would acknowledge only that "there may have been too much desire on our part not to look like an occupation force. We are meeting that problem by reconfiguring our military units there."

But the war is not over, as even the CIA now reports: Ex-Baathists declared the formation of a new national secret movement on May 1. In Mosul on May 12, the Iraqi Vanguard Organization established a network of cells for northern Iraq. The agency has also turned up evidence of a Baathist plot to force a halt to aid shipments by attacking Western and Iraqi relief workers. And so it goes.

via The Washington Post

It's too early to tell for sure, but the Saudis may be taking action at last against the terrorists in their midst. Now if they'll just root out the clandestine supporters and financiers, we can all be safer.

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia -- The kingdom's three major cities -- Riyadh, Dammam and Jidda -- have been turned into near-garrison towns in recent days as the royal family confronts the biggest threat to its authority in more than 20 years. Special armed forces patrol the streets and set up posts outside Western residential compounds. By evening the kingdom's streets are deserted, with Saudis and foreigners alike now certain that a major al Qaeda attack is imminent.

Already reeling from last week's attacks on three housing compounds that claimed 25 victims, authorities yesterday confronted reports that three Moroccans arrested on Monday had planned to hijack an airliner and crash it into a building in Jidda. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef denied any such plot, but a security source who spoke on the condition of anonymity stood by the claim.

Either way, the government has been forced after months of denials to admit to the presence of a terrorist network on its soil. Three cells are said to have been formed -- one that carried out the attacks in Riyadh, one that has fled across the border and a third that is planning another assault.

via The Washington Times

Quote of the Day:

"The United States military is now using the music of Metallica and other heavy metal bands to break the will of Saddam Hussein supporters to get them to talk. They’re blaring heavy metal music at them. That should make the artist feel pretty good, huh? Put your heart and soul into your last CD and the Army is using it to torture people."

- Jay Leno, The Tonight Show

The admirable Norwegians are "puzzled" to learn that their sincerity, good works, and progressive attitudes don't buy them protection from Islamo-fascists. Welcome to the new reality, neighbors.

Norwegians, proud of their role as a global peacemaker, were puzzled and concerned Wednesday that a leading Al Qaeda member singled out their country in a terrorist threat. The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired an audio tape purportedly by Ayman al-Zawahri, the top lieutenant of Usama bin Laden, urging renewed attacks on the United States, Britain and Australia, which participated in the war against Iraq. But the inclusion of the Scandinavian nation in his warning drew questions. Norway didn't support the war in Iraq but sent troops and fighter planes to help oust Al Qaeda and the Taliban forces from Afghanistan.

"We were surprised," Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Karsten Klepsvik said, adding that experts were racing to try to figure out why Al Qaeda would want to threaten Norway.

via the AP and Fox News

Newly-freed people have decided to take some matters into their own hands. This is a somewhat raw form of throwing off the shackles of state oppression, but sounds like they are getting the job done.

Iraqis have begun tracking down and killing former members of the ruling Baath Party, doubtful that the United States intends to adequately punish the mid-level government functionaries who they say tormented them for three decades.

The assassinations appear to have picked up since the United States issued a decree last Friday that prohibits senior Baath Party officials from holding positions in Iraq's postwar government. A senior U.S. official said the order was intended to "drive a stake through [the Baath Party's] heart," but many Iraqis who continue to see party officials walking free believe it did not go far enough.

The killers appear to be working from lists looted from Iraq's bombed-out security service buildings, which kept records on informants and victims alike. But others are simply killing Baathist icons or irksome party officials identified with the Hussein government.

via The Washington Post

Quote of the Day:

"Each day the conditions in Iraq are improving, and life is slowly beginning to return to what one might call the normal pre-war standard. There are difficulties, to be sure, but that difficulties exist should not come as a surprise to anyone. No nation has made the transition from tyranny to a civil society -- has been immune to the difficulties and challenges of taking that path. As Thomas Jefferson said after our revolution, 'We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.' "

- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Another biased journalist got what he deserved this weekend. I'm sure the Left will say this is "intolerance."

A New York Times reporter cut short a keynote address to graduates at a private Illinois college over the weekend after audience members shouted down his comments about the war in Iraq. Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize winner and author of a recent book that describes war as an addiction, was booed Saturday at Rockford College, a small liberal arts school 80 miles northwest of Chicago. After protesters rushed the stage and twice cut power to the microphone, Hedges cut his speech short.

"He delivered what I guess I would refer to as a fairly strident perspective on the war in Iraq and American policy," college President Paul Pribbenow said Tuesday. "I think our audience at commencement were not prepared for that." Many audience members turned their backs on Hedges, while others booed and shouted, said Pribbenow, who at one point pleaded to let the speech continue.

The local paper printed a transcript, which should be read in full to appreciate the degree of self-loathing this guy feels for his own country. The speech began:

I want to speak to you today about war and empire. Killing, or at least the worst of it, is over in Iraq. Although blood will continue to spill -- theirs and ours -- be prepared for this. For we are embarking on an occupation that, if history is any guide, will be as damaging to our souls as it will be to our prestige, power, and security. But this will come later as our empire expands and in all this we become pariahs, tyrants to others weaker than ourselves. Isolation always impairs judgment and we are very isolated now. We have forfeited the good will, the empathy the world felt for us after 9-11. We have folded in on ourselves, we have severely weakened the delicate international coalitions and alliances that are vital in maintaining and promoting peace and we are part now of a dubious troika in the war against terror with Vladimir Putin and Ariel Sharon, two leaders who do not shrink in Palestine or Chechnya from carrying out acts of gratuitous and senseless acts of violence. We have become the company we keep.

This was before he got around to using words like "occupation," "poison," and "betrayal." And then he said the following. What a way to celebrate graduation from college.

Following our defeat in Vietnam we became a better nation. We were humbled, even humiliated.

Quote of the Day:

"What's funny about using Microsoft Chat is that everybody has to choose an icon to represent themselves. Some of these guys haven't bothered, so the program assigns them one. We'll be in the middle of a battle and a bunch of field artillery colonels will come online in the form of these big-breasted blondes. We've got a few space aliens, too."

- Lieutenant Colonel Norman Mims, intelligence officer for the 11th Signal Brigade, Kuwait

via Wired

The new issue of Wired Magazine arrived today and Joshua Davis files a report from the field about the ground-level impact of new communications technology on the war in Iraq.

The history of warfare is marked by periodic leaps in technology - the triumph of the longbow at Crécy, in 1346; the first decisive use of air power, in World War I; the terrifying destructiveness of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima, in 1945. And now this: a dazzling array of technology that signals the arrival of digital warfare. What we saw in Gulf War II was a new age of fighting that combined precision weapons, unprecedented surveillance of the enemy, agile ground forces, and - above all - a real-time communications network that kept the far-flung operation connected minute by minute.

Listen to the sound of a stereotype being debunked. Moderation seems to be a casualty of contemporary mores and corporate marketing. There may be a special circle in hell for advertisers.

Alarmed that Ireland has become one of the hardest-drinking countries in Europe, the government announced Monday it plans to require health warnings on alcoholic drinks and limit liquor ads that invade every corner of Irish life. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern insisted in a speech to European brewers in Dublin that young people shouldn't be exposed to saturation marketing of alcohol, which he said was fueling a new "drink to get drunk" culture in a country where the pub has been the hub of life for generations. To that end, he said, the government plans to ban alcohol ads from buses, trains, cinemas and sporting events involving young people, while no ads for beer or other alcoholic beverages would be permitted before 10 p.m. on Irish television. Such ads currently face few restrictions — and adorn just about every public space and event brochure in Ireland, where more than 10,000 pubs serve a population of 3.8 million.

The Irish have long been stereotyped as heavy drinkers, but past surveys have suggested the reputation was undeserved and Ireland was actually one of Europe's more moderate drinking nations. In the past decade, however, figures show that has changed and Ireland has become a leading alcohol consumer.

New details today from the Associated Press about the terror attacks in Morocco. Remember: nothing is what it seems in the first accounts.

The suicide bombers attacked a Jewish community center when it was closed and empty. A day later, the building would have been packed. Another attacker blew himself up near a fountain, killing three Muslims. He apparently mistook it for one near a Jewish cemetery not far away. The cemetery was undamaged. These and other miscalculations indicate that the 14 suicide attackers who killed 28 people in Casablanca in five near-simultaneous assaults Friday were not as well-trained as first believed. One attacker survived and was arrested.

The apparent missteps "could explain a number of things'' about planning and execution of the attack, or indicate the attackers were simply recruited from poor neighborhoods, government spokesman Nabil Benabdellah said. "The experts were the ones behind the scenes,'' Benabdellah said. The attackers "were used, they were simply trained how to act,'' he said.

A high-level Moroccan official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity, that investigators suspect the bombings were the work of homegrown Islamic groups working on instructions from al-Qaida.

Quote of the Day -2:

"Let's not mince words. Hillary Clinton is never going to be president of the United States. There is no more divisive figure in the Democratic Party, much less the country, than the former first lady. And I like her. But many women don't. Even Democratic women. Even working women. Not to mention non-working, independent, non-political women."

- Susan Estrich, Democratic Party strategist

Quote of the Day:

"They say that parents often have to get out of the house when their kids leave because it gets so lonely. Everyone deals with it in different ways. But I told George I thought
running for president was a little extreme."

- First Lady Laura Bush, to graduates of the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies

The New York Times is horrified to discover that popular culture is slipping away from the control of Leftist elites and that the nation has... conservative (ugh) tendencies. Their discomfort is hilarious.

The growing clout of Wal-Mart and the other big discount chains -- they now often account for more than 50 percent of the sales of a best-selling album, more than 40 percent for a best-selling book, and more than 60 percent for a best-selling DVD -- has bent American popular culture toward the tastes of their relatively traditionalist customers.

"They have obviously reached the Bush-red audience in a big way," said Laurence J. Kirshbaum, chairman of AOL Time Warner's books unit, referring to the color coding used on television news reports to denote states voting for President George W. Bush during the last election. "It has been a seismic shift in the business, and to some of us in publishing it has been a revelation."

But with the chains' power has come criticism from authors, musicians and civil liberties groups who argue that the stores are in effect censoring and homogenizing popular culture. The discounters and price clubs typically carry an assortment of fewer than a thousand books, videos and albums, and they are far more ruthless than specialized stores about returning goods if they fail to meet a minimum threshold of weekly sales. What is more, the chains' buyers -- especially at Wal-Mart -- carefully screen content to avoid selling material likely to offend their conservative customers.

Music executives say the chains have helped turn country performers like the Dixie Chicks, Toby Keith and Faith Hill into superstars. And major book publishers say the growth of the mass merchandisers has helped produce a string of best sellers by conservative authors like Bernard Goldberg, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage and Bill O'Reilly.