Flea: Winston Review, No. 9

September 04, 2004

Winston Review, No. 9

Woozy and confused, she saw her mother at her bedside. “Mom, did somebody beat me up?”
Her mother, Kim Wyatt, had a ready answer.
“You’re in the United States,” she said gently. “You’re not in Iraq. You’re safe. We’re here to take care of you.” Moments later, Jessica nodded off to sleep.

The Winston Review is a Flea-feature intended to offer spirited, uplifting alternatives to the defeatists and apologists of the mainstream media. This week's Review is dedicated to Army Staff Sgt. Jessica Clements. Power Line has been following the recovery of an American hero (via Blackfive).

On August 8 we posted in full the first installment of the story by Star Tribune health care reporter Maura Lerner regarding the devastating brain injury suffered by Sgt. Jessica Clements in Iraq: "A purple heart for Jessica." Lerner told the story of Jessica's injury and recovery-in-progress with great humanity and without a trace of politcal comment. She let Jessica's remarkable spirit shine through her story and let us see Jessica through the eyes of a loving mother.

This week in the Red Box:

"The Courage Factor", David Brooks argues McCain, Giuliani and Schwarzenegger are featured prominently at the RNC "because they are brave" (via The Tiger in Winter).

"Mr. Churchill Says", Mike Campbell invokes (or rather, rebukes) The Kinks to reflect on the Churchillian legacy. Particularly in the art of oratory.

"Psychiatry 101- Defense Mechanisms", Dr. Sanity offers an analysis of some of the strategies people use to "cope with reality and to maintain his/her self -image intact."

"The Fog of Battle", Victor Davis Hanson tells us "the Greeks remind us, pride can lead to hubris and then to Nemesis — on its tragic and ultimate rendezvous with ruin."

"Partisan Protesters", MSNBC's Michael Hastings interviews Protest Warrior, Kfir Alfia (via InstaPundit).

"War against America", Barry Rubin paints a pessimistic picture in the Jerusalem Post (via lgf). But his article only underlines the importance of subverting Syrian fascism and the coming democratic revolution in Iran. Respectfully, Mr. Rubin, just wait until the November election is won. It is always a bad idea to bet against the optimism of United States.

"The Last Word: The attitude problem", Bret Stephens, writing for the Jerusalem Post, has a kind word for France. This is a cogent explanation of the difference between attitudes and policy.

"Al-Qaeda: A movement or an ideology", Stygius describes jihadi ideology as a "kind of aesthetic nihilism" (via ideofact).

"HateWatch Briefing 2004-09-03", Winds of Change posts a round-up of material from "the dark places most mainstream media seem determined to look away from."

And in closing I pass on a trenchant observation from George Orwell concerning moonbats of yore (via Sophia Sideshow).

"During the war it was manifested in the defeatism of the intelligentsia, which persisted long after it had become clear that the Axis powers could not win. Many people were undisguisedly pleased when Singapore fell ore when the British were driven out of Greece, and there was a remarkable unwillingness to believe in good news, e.g. el Alamein, or the number of German planes shot down in the Battle of Britain. English left-wing intellectuals did not, of course, actually want the Germans or Japanese to win the war, but many of them could not help getting a certain kick out of seeing their own country humiliated, and wanted to feel that the final victory would be due to Russia, or perhaps America, and not to Britain. In foreign politics many intellectuals follow the principle that any faction backed by Britain must be in the wrong. As a result, "enlightened" opinion is quite largely a mirror-image of Conservative policy. Anglophobia is always liable to reversal, hence that fairly common spectacle, the pacifist of one war who is a bellicist in the next."

Your courage. Your cheerfulness. Your resolution.
Will bring us Victory.

Posted by the Flea at September 4, 2004 09:31 AM | TrackBack

Comments

Thanks for including me in the Red Box. I enjoyed reading Mike Campbell's post on the Kinks tune. I was surprised too at the "Anti-War" song interpretation (Ray Davies always seemed to have a patriotic nostalgia for some pastoral British greatness).

I remember having the pleasure of being one of the crowd outside Buckingham Palace during the Golden Jubilee concert, and singing along to "Lola" with 500,000 other people while the man was on stage dressed in a Union Jack suit having a great time.

Posted by: Stygius at September 5, 2004 10:49 PM

Ghost of a flea

September 04, 2004

Winston Review, No. 9