In which I agree with Red State:
Derbyshire’s screed was so contemptible, especially in light of his lengthy history, that I cannot imagine a reason that Derbyshire should not have been summarily dismissed within the hour.
Derb’sa racist asshole, and not very subtle about it either, which was the real problem here. That’s always the problem with things like this, with what Don Imus and Rush Limbaugh said that got them in trouble too: Just don’t be OBVIOUS about it, guys, and you’ll be fine. Derb’s real sin here was in saying this stuff out loud, with the same kind of THERE I SAID IT YOU WON’T BECAUSE YOU’RE A PUSS kind of bravado all the greatest fuckers of our time use when trying to pre-empt being pilloried.
Lowry’s prating all day yesterday about the sovereign dignity of the National Review and its need to preserve its sterling reputation by firing Derb now was hilarious. The National Review has been a jerk mag for warmongering bloviators for the past decade, people who decided that we needed to blow up the Middle East because otherwise some Arab somewhere would think our national penis was small, and anybody who said anything differently was anti-American.Here’s Derbyshire in 2002, saying that we weren’t attacking Iraq fast enough:
I favor war against Iraq. I believe a successful war against Iraq would trigger major attitude adjustment in the Middle East, to the benefit of us and the promotion of our values. I believe it would greatly enhance this country’s security by removing a major supplier of WMD to terrorist gangs.But if our leaders believe that “the desire to avoid further slaughter” trumps the desire to take down our enemy; if they believe that Crown Prince Abdullah or Hosni Mubarak will lift one jeweled pinkie to assist our war aims; if they believe that we need the permission of crooks and despots before we act in our own interests; if they believe that Europe is militarily significant; if they believe that the U.N. Security Council is worth anything more than a thimbleful of rat’s piss; if they believe that our fighting men and women cannot carry out their duties without a year and a half of preparation; if they believe all these things, then it would be best if we did not start a war at all.
And here’s Derb using the Iraq elections to say that the dumb browns arevoting the wrong way everywhere:
“We had delegations of sheikhs coming up to lend us their support, but they probably went to every other party as well,” he said, stirring coffee in his villa in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone. “They thought they would get some sort of benefits if we got into power. That’s the old way, the Ba’ath Party way, and now the Islamists are doing the same.” [Derb] Multi-culti politics is a study all by itself. The Iraqis are getting a crash course. It’s not entirely new here in the U.S., either; Who was the last Democratic presidential candidate to win the white vote?** Wanna place a bet that we won’t, in the next 4-5 election cycles, see the rise of a Hispanic party?
And here’sa real winner:
We don’t particularly care whether the Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds of Iraq put down their arms. We only want them to put down their armsagainst us. Henry Kissinger (who has been hanging around on the fringe of the THWTH [To Hell With Them Hawks] clique — come on in, Henry!) famously said of the Iran-Iraq War that it was a pity both sides couldn’t lose. One doesn’t want to be accused of inhuman callousness; but I am willing to confess, and believe I speak for a lot of THWTHs (and a lot of other Americans, too) that the spectacle of Middle Eastern Muslims slaughtering each other is one that I find I can contemplate with calm composure.
You employ a guy after he writes that, it’s kind of beside the point to preserve your purity by firing him when he proudly declares that he tells his kids there are too many black folks at Six Flags on a given Juneteenth.
A.