Remember that question that liberals asked after 9/11? It seems they're not so interested in it anymore, now that Dinesh D'Souza has formulated an answer in his book The Enemy at Home that's not to their liking. Looking inward, apparently, is only enlightened when the conclusion flatters liberal sensibilities. Why do they hate us? Ask them. Anyhow, there seem a few legitimate internal reasons for the external hatred. Terrorists attack American targets, D'Souza posits, because they believe that "their values and way of life [are] threatened. Even as the cultural left accuses Bush of imperialism in invading Iraq, it deflects attention from its own cultural imperialism aimed at secularizing Muslim society and undermining its patriarchal and traditional values. The liberal "solution" to Islamic fundamentalism is itself a source of Islamic hostility to America." I doubt Muhammed Atta was screaming "This is for gay rights!" when he slammed a plane into the World Trade Center, but there's certainly some truth in D'Souza's analysis. Islamic disgust for Western secularism seems to be one of a number of reasons for the hatred. Other reasons certainly include American military actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Bosnia, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Lebanon, and a few other predominantly Muslim nations over the last few decades. Just as many liberals don't wish to admit the former, many conservatives don't wish to admit the latter.

German doctors began hormone treatments on a twelve-year-old boy in preparation for "gender reassignment" surgery. Dr. Achim Wuesthof, who is treating the boy (who views himself as a girl), says of transsexuals: "They are not freaks, nor do they suffer mental illness. They are simply trapped in the wrong bodies. That is why it is best to help them as early as possible and reduce the trauma for them and their families." If only the medical community could be so enlightened about snakes trapped in human bodies who demand double amputation and a fusion of the legs to more closely resemble the reptiles they are. And how about old people trapped in the bodies of children? They have gently petitioned the medical community for years to intensely weather their skin so their octogenarian souls can fit their faces. Bigot doctors treat them for insanity rather than age-reassignment. When will they learn? When?

Billiam is the winner of the FlynnFiles Conference Championship Pool with a perfect 4-0 record. Offer congratulations as you offer Super Bowl speculations. Here's how the Super Bowl pool will work. First, pick the team you think will cover. Second, pick "over" if you think the teams will combine to score more than 49 points; pick "under" if you think the teams will combine to score less than 49 points. Third, predict the amount of points the teams will combine to score in the game. This last pick is for tiebreaker purposes only. The player who gets the first two picks right, and comes closest to his tiebreaker pick, wins the pool. Here are my picks:

1. Colts -7 over Bears
2. OVER 49
3. 55

Offer your picks, and any smack talk about the big game, in the comments section.

* Good for George Bush for seeking to slash the budget deficit by "spending discipline" and for targeting so-called earmarks. Why weren't these good ideas pushed during the six years of his presidency when there was a Republican congress?

* What conservative would label Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security "commitments of conscience"? LBJ and FDR are laughing in their graves.

* The number of appearances of "enemy" or "enemies" in the State of the Union? 14. The number of appearances of "attack" and its variants in the State of the Union? 6. The number of appearances of "danger" in the State of the Union? 5. The number of appearances of "terror" and its variants in the State of the Union? 22.

* "[W]e need to resolve the status of the illegal immigrants who are already in our country." What's there to resolve? They are "illegal," right?

* Wasn't it smart of the Democrats to have Jim Webb give the response to the State of the Union? Or was it just that Barbara Lee, Barney Frank, and Dennis Kucinich weren't available?

* "Let us build on the work we have done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next ten years." Let's not and say we did.

* Bush wants a few good men. Okay, Okay, a few more than a few: 92,000 to be exact. Do we really need a larger military, or might America be better served by fewer commitments around the globe?

"Suppose that a great commotion arises in the streets about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, 'Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good--' At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmediaeval practicality. But as things go on they do not work out so easily. Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted old iron; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash something. And there is war in the night, no man knowing whom he strikes. So, gradually and inevitably, to-day, to-morrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that all depends on what is the philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas-lamp, we now must discuss in the dark."
--G.K. Chesterton, Heretics, 1905

Twenty-five Americans died on Saturday in the Iraqi nation-building exercise. On Sunday, the Bush Administration announced the deployment of 3,200 additional soldiers, which is the first installment in an overall plan to add 21,500 additional troops in Iraq. The doctor prescribed medicine. It made the patient sicker. The doctor prescribes more medicine.

My apologies regarding the feigned excitement about Senator Barack Obama in the headline. It's just that all the other media people are doing it and I thought I'd follow the crowd by interjecting an exclamation point. Barack Obama announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee on Tuesday. Five thoughts on Barack Obama running for president:

Barack Obama opposes the Iraq war. Hillary Clinton supports the Iraq war. This issue is important to Democratic primary voters. The vast majority of these voters swing toward Obama's position. That's bad news for Hillary.

Though Obama will have served just four years in congress if elected president, his congressional experience will have been two years longer than the last man from Illinois elected president.

Sure, Barack Obama would be the first black president if elected. But he'd also capture from Richard Nixon the most Western birthplace of any president (Obama was born in Honolulu). From Dwight Eisenhower, President Barack Hussein Obama would capture the title of "least WASPish name" for a president.

Barack Obama scores an (im?)perfect 100 rating on the Americans for Democratic Action's voting record. His lifetime American Conservative Union rating is a nine.

Barack Obama hails, as does Hillary Clinton, from one of the nineteen "blue states" of 2004. Since 1952, Democratic nominees hailing from 2004 blue states are 1-6. Democratic nominees hailing from 2004 red states are 4-3. In other words, what makes Democrats feel good in the spring of election years often makes them feel bad in the fall. Might this abysmal record of blue-state nominees influence thinking Democrats into supporting John Edwards or Al Gore?

Alan is the NFL Playoff Pool champion, winning the week with an impressive 7-1 record. Offer props; Alan is tops. Home teams are in caps. All picks are against the spread. In addition to picking the teams that will cover the spread, pick whether the game will go "over" or "under" the designated total. Here are my picks:

Saints +2.5 over BEARS, UNDER 43.5
Patriots +3 over COLTS, UNDER 48

Make your selections in the comments section.

"Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they clamor for freedom, it is but freedom to establish equality and uniformity. The passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic; one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one can then point us out, measure us against others and expose our inferiority."
--Eric Hoffer, The True Believer, 1951

Wayne Sash went 7-1 to win the wildcard week pool, missing only by opting for the "over" in the Seattle-Dallas game. Offer congratulations, and your picks. Home teams are in caps. All picks are against the spread. In addition to picking the team that will beat the spread, pick an "over" or "under" for each game indicating whether you think the total points scored with exceed or fall short of the designated number. Here are my picks:

RAVENS -4 over Colts, UNDER 41.5
Eagles +5 over SAINTS, UNDER 49
Seahawks +8.5 over BEARS, OVER 37
Patriots +5 over CHARGERS, UNDER 46.5

Make your picks in the comments section

Jonah Goldberg has a neat op-ed piece on the "I" word--isolationism. He notes that the term is generally a misnomer--non-interventionism does better--and that its application solely to figures on the Right conveniently overlooks similar views on the Left. "[N]on-interventionism would have been discredited for a generation" had Iraq been a success. "Now interventionism has been mortally wounded. But one thing stays the same: Whatever position conservatives hold is evil, while the liberal view is wise and just. But don't you dare call it isolationist." The world is turned upside down when the "conservatives" embrace the foreign policy of Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter and the "liberals" sing to the tune of Robert Taft and Calvin Coolidge.

Belatedly, I offer the FlynnFiles top five albums of 2006:

5. Nightcrawler, Pete Yorn
4. Endless Wire, The Who
3. Sing-Alongs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George, Jack Johnson & Friends
2. Show Your Bones, The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs,
1. Sam's Town, The Killers

Any recommendations from 2006? Share them, if they're good, in the comments section.

"Officer's Gun Blamed in Bystander's Death," reads an Associated Press headline.

The regular season is over, and I am week seventeen's AYRFSF pool champion. I posted a 11-5 record. The playoff pool is a little different than the regular season pool. In addition to picking the team that will cover the spread, pick whether the point total of both teams' scores will go "over" or "under" the designated number. Home teams are in caps. Here are my picks:

COLTS -7 over Chiefs, Under 51
SEAHAWKS -3 over Cowboys, Under 47
PATRIOTS -8.5 over Jets, Over 37.5
EAGLES -7 over Giants, Under 46.5

Make your picks in comments section.

I didn't see this coming. The Massachusetts legislature did the right thing. The state constitution mandates that a constitutional convention of both houses of the legislature vote on ballot questions that gather enough signatures and meet the approval of state officials. The ballot question affirming traditional, one man/one woman marriage received more signatures than any question in the history of the state. On the last day of the legislative session, the constitutional convention voted, finally, on the question. Just sixty-two legislators approved the question out of 200 or so in the body. But the state's constitution requires that only one-fourth of the legislators approve a ballot question. At some point over the next two years, fifty or more legislators must again approve the question for it to appear on an actual ballot. And even then, overturning judge-made law may prove difficult. Massachusetts is not only a left-wing state, but by the time that its citizens vote on marriage--presuming that the legislature doesn't succeed in unconstitutionally blocking the vote--the judge-made law codifying gay "marriage" will have been on the books for more than four years. The conservative impulse of not changing the status quo, ironically, is what the anti-democratic radicals instituting gay "marriage" through judicial fiat are counting on.

The Massachusetts constitution, written as it was 227 years ago, is completely silent on gay marriage. Nevertheless, the state's highest court, by a 4-3 vote, claimed that it mandated gay marriage. The Massachusetts constitution demands that the state legislature vote "yea" or "nay" on ballot questions that have met the signature requirements and have been approved by state officials. The ballot initiative affirming marriage as an institution involving one man and one woman met those requirements and received the proper approval. Yet, the legislature has blocked a vote on it. The state's high court, though the state's constitution clearly says that the legislature must vote, refuses to mandate the legislators to vote, order the initiative on the ballot, invalidate its earlier legislation from the bench, or take any of a number of actions that would restore self-government to the Bay State. The court acknowledges the unconstitutionality of the legislature's inaction, it just says that, unlike the instance of it ordering the recognition of gay marriage, it is powerless to do anything. Today is the last day of the state legislature's session. By blocking the vote on the measure, by failing to meet their constitutionally-mandated responsibility, state legislators force the backers of traditional marriage to collect signatures all over again, and delay the ballot initiative to, at the earliest, 2010. It's always harder to overturn than to institute. It's even harder to overturn when the democratic means to do this have been taken away.

The week of Saddam Hussein's execution comes confirmation of the 3,000th dead American serviceman in Iraq. The juxtaposition brings to the forefront the contrasting outcomes of the Iraq war. On the one hand, the U.S. removed a tyrant from power and brought him to justice before his former subjects. On the other hand, the lives of 3,000 Americans, and more than $300 billion, have been spent to liberate Iraq, establish democracy, look for WMDs, stop the next 9/11, and myriad other rationalizations that fall in and out of vogue. "Do Americans somehow place higher value on the lives of their soldiers now?," an Associated Press piece wonders. That's a nice thought, but what's more likely happening is that Americans don't care to endure casualties when they are endured not for the just national interest. Rather than extract ourselves from an unwinnable situation--at least unwinnable from the standpoint of making Iraq an outpost of Western-style freedom and democracy--some congressmen want to further entrench America in Iraq. Bad idea. Iraqis don't want Americans in Iraq. Americans don't want Americans in Iraq. Bush's war in Iraq has lasted longer than Roosevelt and Truman's war in Japan and Germany. That's because defeating Germans and Japanese is an easier task than making pluralistic Westerners out of Muslim Arabs. Wars fought for abstract goals should never be fought. It's a concrete world we live in, not cloudland. Hussein's execution (and the tragedy of 3,000 dead Americans) suggests that it's time to declare VI Day and leave Iraq to the Iraqis.

May it be better than 2006, which wasn't half bad. I have a new child, a new house, and, almost, a new book. Was 2006 better than 1976 for you too? My New Year's resolution is to run ten miles a week. Anyone owning a wayback machine could find me, on a rare occasion, running ten miles in a single jog. Alas, not any more. Anyhow, I vowed to curtail cigar smoking last year. I haven't smoked a cigar since I was in Krakow in January. Anyone owning a wayback machine could spot me smoking five in a day. Not any more. Do you have a New Year's resolution? Do you have a suggestion for a New Year's resolution for someone else? Let's see them in the comments section.