Well, I’m very sorry that I’m posting this such a long time AFTER the Hi-5 concert at Sesame Place, but it took me a bit of time to get away from a new game I’ve been playing called “Star Wars: Republic Commando.” It’s a simply phenomenal FPS (first-person shooter) game with an interesting story line and intuitive interface. What can I say, I’m a gaming geek too.

But, getting back to the real point of this post, the final day of our Hi-5 concert getaway was even better than the previous two. First of all, my head and stomach were no longer trying to mount their own little revolution. Secondly, we were able to see the Hi-5 cast yet again before we left for home.

On Sunday morning, as we were getting ourselves organized for our trek back home, we had the chance to see the entire Hi-5 cast as they were getting ready to head back out to Sesame Place for a second day of shows. We first spotted some of the cast members while we were at breakfast. The girls really wanted to say hello, so Julie walked over to ask if it was okay. They were so very nice to the girls and even posed for pictures with them.

We saw them again about 30 minutes later as we were bringing our bags out to the van. They were all gathered in the lobby, getting ready to go back to Sesame Place. Again, they took the time to say hello to the girls. Here are a few pictures here for your viewing pleasure:

How in the world do you properly thank such generous people? Shaun and I had another brief chat too and he was telling me about how much he was enjoying being a part of Hi-5. His sincerity came across with crystal clarity.

Julie and I wish the cast all the best. We so appreciate the generious gift of their time over the course of the weekend. I know that both our girls were thrilled to meet everyone and to see them in concert. It’s cliche, I know, but thanks for the memories.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

I had wanted to put up a post regarding liberal views on terror but Taranto beat me to it and did a far better job than I would have done on the topic. Here is the column excerpted from his business daily column, “Best of The Web Today:”

Root, Root, Root for the Bomb Team
So what does the New York Times have to say about yesterday’s terrorist murders in London of more than 50 people at last count? Here’s a quote from the paper’s lead editorial of today:

That fear has already led to questions about why the British security agencies did not anticipate the attacks, why the wealthy nations have not done enough about the root causes of terrorism and why Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden continue to function after almost four years of the so-called war on terrorism. Many will wonder why the United States is mired in Iraq while Al Qaeda’s leader still roams free.

There are no easy answers to these questions.

That’s right, the Times is complaining that “wealthy nations have not done enough about the root causes of terrorism”! Now granted, one can talk of the root causes of terrorism without slipping into liberal weeniedom. This column has long endorsed the theory that terrorism springs from the tyrannical and fanatical political culture that prevails in most of the Arab and Muslim worlds. The Bush administration subscribes to this theory too, which is why it has embarked upon a strategy of democratization, a key element of which was regime change in Iraq.

Do the editorialists at the Times disagree with this theory? No, apparently they are completely oblivious to it. First they complain about the failure to deal with “root causes,” then they scratch their collective head over why we’re “mired in Iraq.”

So what does the Times think are the “root causes” of terrorism? Well, the paper addresses that question in another editorial:

As the leaders of the richest nations carry on their annual conference despite the bombings in London, they have a chance to embrace what should be an essential element of any long-term global strategy against terrorism. By adopting a coherent plan to tackle the extreme poverty of Africa, the leaders of the G-8 countries will also take on the civil wars, governmental breakdowns and illicit financial flows of one of the world’s most troubled regions.

The idea that poverty in Africa contributes to terrorism is not as ridiculous as it sounds. As the Times notes:

American military forces fought what may have been their first encounter with the new international terrorism in the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, a dozen years ago. . . . Failed states that cannot provide jobs and food for their people, that have lost chunks of territory to warlords, and that can no longer track or control their borders send an invitation to terrorists.

It’s worth noting that a dozen years ago, when President Clinton decided to pull out of Somalia, a Times editorial praised this “wise stand-down.” In any case, we don’t disagree with the Times that misrule in Africa is a moral outrage and in some cases a security threat. But how dense do you have to be not to acknowledge that the same is true to an even greater degree in the heart of the Middle East, the place where terrorists actually come from?

At least the Times doesn’t go so far as to say terrorism is America’s fault. Others do. Here’s columnist Derrick Z. Jackson of the Boston Globe:

The world, of course, shares the sympathies of Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, who said the London bombings were a ”despicable, cowardly act.” Yet every invoking of the innocents also reminds us of our despicable, cowardly killing of innocent Iraqi civilians. . . .

The innocents in the so-called war on terror are always ”our” citizens or the citizens of our allies. The only innocent Iraqis are those killed by ”insurgents.” Our soldiers clearly did not intend to kill innocents. But this posturing of America as the great innocent, when everyone knows we kill innocents ourselves, is likely only to make us look more like the devil in the eyes of a suicide bomber.

And here’s someone with the unlikely name of Jann Wenner, on the Huffington Post:

If the London bombings are the work of an Al Qaeda offshoot, then you have to fairly say, in the same way we condemn other’s [sic] terror, this is in part the result of Bush’s War on Iraq.

To Jackson, there is no moral distinction between deliberately targeting civilians and accidentally killing civilians in a war of liberation. To Wenner, it is America’s fault that terrorists deliberately target civilians. And note that the Times and Jackson both sneer at the “so-called war” on terrorism.

This has been a brief tour of the mindset of some American liberals. Folks, Karl Rove is not making this stuff up.

One liberal who makes sense, though, is Slate’s William Saletan:

Bin Laden’s whole game plan is to turn the people of the democratic world against their governments. He thinks democracies are weak because their people, who are more easily frightened than their governments, can bring those governments down. He doesn’t understand that this flexibility–and this trust–are why democracies will live, while he will die. Many of us didn’t vote for Bush’s government or Blair’s. But we’re loyal to them, in part because we were given a voice in choosing them. And if we don’t like our governments, we can vote them out. We can’t vote out terrorists. We can only kill them.

America needs more voices like this on the left.

Amen to that!

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com