Wednesday, September 24, 2003

These Are Historic Times: Is it to be Lincoln or Sisyphus?

Like Sisyphus, we have pushed our terrible rock nearly to the top of the hill. We need only a few dramatic final and critically symbolic shoves — either the capture of Saddam Hussein, proof of bin Laden's demise, textual or material evidence of WMDs, or the finalization of a legitimate government in Baghdad — to go over the top, showing the discontented at home how far we have come. But just as Sisyphus was forever doomed to start pushing his rock anew — once it cascaded back just as he reached the apex — so shall we too have to start all over again should we lose our nerve with the summit now within sight. And such large boulders roll faster and in deadlier fashion downhill than during the slow and arduous push up.
· So will we — if we do the same and push our rock over the top [National Review]

Interview with Dennis Miller. (via Occam)
I always wondered how Hitler happened. I even went so far as to read William L. Shirer?s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I read all 1,200 pages and at the end of it I remember thinking, ?Yeah, but how does Hitler happen?? Part of it has to do with the Left mislabeling people as Hitler. It?s like Pierce Brosnan at the end of the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. He dressed everybody up in the same Bowler cap and overcoat, and then he walks right through the middle of them without being noticed. The Left is so busy saying John Ashcroft is Hitler, and President Bush is Hitler, and Rudy Giuliani is Hitler that the only guy they wouldn?t call Hitler was the foreign guy with the mustache who was throwing people who disagreed with him into the wood-chipper.

· Labeling [AmericanEnterprise ]