Best of The Key Monk

I've been at this for about 4.5 months and will be taking a long-needed vacation Thursday. After nearly 700 posts (about two for every reader ;-)), I guessed that there would be enough good comments that I could compile a "best of" listing. I think I'm right.

To that end, I've put together this list of essays and comments, with a small taste for each. No entry is very long. I hope you read and enjoy.

MAY 2004:

Memorial Day [on visiting a national cemetary] -- "True heroes don't seek heroism, but instead perform their duty to the best of their ability with courage, integrity and determination."

Shibboleth -- "The Geneva Convention is now a shibboleth for the Left. Its terms and requirements are not examined; its application and exemptions are irrelevant."

Sports bias -- "There's media bias in sports journalism, and lots of it. Just watch ESPN or read Sports Illustrated regularly and it becomes pretty obvious."

Gonzo goes bonkers again [on Abu Ghraib overreaction] -- ". . . if you exalt abuse of tens of prisoners as more horrible than the Nazi regime, if you excuse the depradations of Ho Chi Minh (Sontag/Chomsky), Pol Pot (Chomsky), Stalin, Saddam (Pilger, Scheer, Rall, Kingsolver), Osama (Chomsky, Sontag, Kingsolver, Walker, Doctorow) and if you believe that Israel's treatment of Palestinians is equivalent on any scale and in any manner to the treatment of Jews under the Nazi regime, you are objectively evil."

More proof -- "Simple concept here: the WMD agents Saddam had could kill millions but could fit in an average two-car garage. Think about stuffing your garage with standard-sized bags of popcorn, then hiding those bags throughout the state of Texas. How long would it take someone to find the bags? That's what Saddam essentially did."

JUNE 2004:

Iraq -- two days early: "Acting one step and two days ahead of the Islamicist nutters, whom the press expected would launch a new round of violence Wednesday, the US formally returned sovereignty to the Iraqi people earlier today."

Private rights and public office [on the Jack and Jeri Ryan divorce claims] -- "Even in the US, with our First Amendment's Free Press Clause, the press' interest in any given subject is determined by the 'people's right to know.'"

Media bias -- the truth that won't go away: "A new study of media bias is startling for what it reveals about the media compared to some liberal havens -- i.e., the media may even be more Bush-hating than Berkeley, California or Cambridge, Massachusetts."

Poverty and affluence in the US and Europe -- "Europe and its standards of living, leisure time, insurance, etc. are held up by liberals and Europhiles as exemplars of what America should strive toward emulating. But that notion is farcical in the extreme."

Lies and half-truths about Reagan -- "The anti-Reagan spin has begun. Here are the most notable half-truths and misleading statements about Reagan: (1) he abandoned his principles, became "pragmatic" about what could be done, then tried to achieve his goals; (2) he did nothing viz. AIDS; (3) he trebled the national debt; (4) Iran-Contra is a stain on his legacy; (5) he was a racist."

Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1911-2004 -- "Reagan cured stagflation, jumpstarted a horrendous economy, presided over the best economy in the history of US peacetime, restored American greatness and exceptionalism, DEFEATED COMMUNISM, won the Cold War and did it despite hesitant allies (not including the UK), an unfriendly House of Representatives (where all revenue bills must be initiated under the US Constitution), and a dubious but hopeful populace."

JULY 2004:

John Kerry = not qualified to be commander in chief
-- "John Kerry disqualified himself from the presidency today. He stated that he wants Osama bin Laden tried in one of the three states where the 19 murderers landed the 9-11 airplanes: Virginia, Pennsylvania, or New York. This is the stupidest suggestion by a presidential candidate since Walter Mondale promised higher taxes in 1984. . . "

Proliferation Security Initiative [on US efforts to prevent proliferation of WMDs] -- "This work by the Bush Administration is hugely important and receives no publicity from the press, and naturally no credit from the Democrats for whom every coalition Bush knits together is fraudulent . . . "

Did Clintonism Really Work? -- "Ultimately, upon any examination of the Clinton record, the state of the country during the Clinton presidency was akin to an embalmed corpse -- it looked decent on the surface, but the inside was empty, useless and noxious."

Bad Taste on the Internet -- "If Alexandra Kerry ever sees The Monk in a tux, he would be perfectly ready to hear that a similarly dressed chimp would be distinguishable only by height. But be REAL, whole internet sites devoted to AK's chest? Waste of bandwidth."

It's about time, judicial nominees version -- "Never before have appellate and district court nominees been filibustered by the Senate. The Republicans must be tough for once and actually get something done. Otherwise, there's no value in having them in charge."

Small woman, big heart [on the Monkette2B] -- "Yesterday I return home hearing the Monkette2B shouting at one of the Monkcats. Seems that the boy Monkcat found himself a new toy, a baby bird (sparrow or finch family member), and decided to pluck it from our front yard . . ."

These aren't mine, but they're worth a read, so I compiled them in a post (with links): Jonah Goldberg's Bastille Day columns.

Jumping to conclusion [on the WMD in Iraq search] -- "The Senate Intelligence Committee has proven itself an oxymoron."

AUGUST 2004:

What Reveleance has Andrew Sullivan? -- "If you take off all of August to go to the beach and fail to blog about numerous momentous occurrences during the campaign season, do you have any relevance anymore?"

Kerry's Resume Padding -- "Everyone understands the concept of the person who claims achievements that he did not attain. That is a cardinal sin in politics -- you have overstated your achievements, you are not trustworthy, how can you occupy the most important political office in the world?"

Statistics and misleading information -- Democrats' claims of successful economies -- "". . . sometimes you need to try to explain the big picture to the left."

Electoral College and American stability -- "The Electoral College, and the winner-take-all allocation on a state-by-state basis, is one of the great mechanisms of the US system."

Kerry to Bush: Save me from myself [on Kerry calling for Bush to end Swiftie ads] -- "Ultimately, the Bushies may be hoping that Kerry hangs himself with his whining and his VERY unPresidential demeanor. But they need to connect to dots for the voters in Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa."

John Kerry's Wimp Factor -- "This is not a LEADER. Instead, this is a small animal cornered and fearful. Imagining how Kerry would react in a real crisis does not inspire confidence."

Are you better off now than you were four years ago -- ". . . the rhetorical flourish of 'are you better off now . . .' is just simplistic nonsense. The real question is whether Bush lived up to his promise from the 2000 Republican Convention: 'They've had their chance, they have not led; we will.' The answer is undoubtedly yes."

The Cold War -- "The Cold War for 36 years was really bilateral politicking through proxy wars (think of it as the Great Game in the nuclear age). Only in 1981 (and really in 1983-onward) was the Cold War actually a head-to-head engagement and the Soviets not only lost, the US won."

A decent list, if The Monk says so himself.

Thanks for helping me become a better blogger to Jon Henke at QandO, Dr. Joyner at Outside the Beltway, Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs and Ric and Debbie Frost -- the first bloggers to link me.

The Wongdoer has the controls for the next week-plus. I'll chime in with some quick travelblogging and return full time on Sept. 14.