Here's some progress in the world. El Salvador is having elections and the conservative Arena party is poised to get a plurality of the seats with the ruling leftists coming a close second. Since they have a presidential system, we have the prospect of divided government.
That's better than the 70s and 80s, when Arena backers would hire goon squads to kill leftists (or folks they thought were of the left) as the left took to the hills in a civil war; now the left is in the presidency.
_______________
Odd story out of Iraq, where some youngsters have taken up a goth-like meme, rebelling against local Muslim culture; that's gotten a few "emos" a bad case of lead poisioning from traditionalists who aren't above killing infidels.
I'm thinking of the bus scene from Star Trek 3, where a punker is defiantly blaring the eternal classic I Hate You on his boom box (thank the Lord for iPods to save us from the modern dreck in public places); Spock give him his Vulcan nerve pinch to KO him and turns off the noise, getting a sitting O from the rest of the people on the bus. Americans don't go to the point of thinking such youth need killin', but one can see where a culture where jihad is a valid option might go for the kill at their native punks.
________________
That was the movie where Kirk described Spock as doing too much LDS in the 60s. A guy who really was into LDS in the 60s (doing a mission tour in France in the late 60s) is poised to win Mississippi tomorrow. Rassumssen had Romney up eight while PPP has him down to Newt by 2. There aren't too many Mormons in Rebel territory, but the Casino Coast might have a few more-secular folks than the Squirrel Revival image might invoke; former Gov. Barbour has endorsed Romney, which might help.
It's probably do-or-die time for Newt as a serious player. If he wins both Alabama and MS, he has some bragging rights and can bring a large block of Southern delegates to Tampa. If he loses both (even close calls), he'd be hard pressed to go forward and see his backers peel off to either Romney or Santorum. If he wins one and loses the other in a squeaker, he'll likely be cocky enough to muddle on.
___________________
Welcome to a US nightmare in Afghanistan, where a soldier went rogue and killed 16 civilians. No word as to why as of yet and no violent protest has been reported. The lack of backlash is interesting; when a threat to burn a Koran in Florida gets a murderous response, an actual slay ride by a US soldier gets crickets chirping by comparison.
If this gets the responce it could easily get, we might need to pack our bags and get in the practice of Preditor-droning the Taliban from a distance rather than try to build a country that can provide a viable alternative to a harsh jihadish theocracy.
Comments