The Grim Milestone of Blogs "I find the language and rhetoric coming from America too confrontational" - Prince Charles "Nuts" - Gen McAuliffe America: Saving idiots from themselves since WWI

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Guardian's Neocon Fascists Seek World Domination

Uncle Sam needs a push

there is no longer any part of the world that is not our business, too


This breathtaking push for hegemony is reminiscent of of Genghis Khan. Why did they choose to reveal their plan for world domination right now?

Ending the embargo on Castro's Cuba, of course.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Kathryn Robinson, of the Australian National University: WTF?!

Some lies are easier to spot than others.
Queensland Islamic Council spokesman Sultan Deen said it was unacceptable to kill someone because they chose to leave their religion.

He said families should use other methods to convince a relative not to abandon their religion, but said killing was never appropriate.

“There are other ways to deal with it, you talk to them and try to work it out but you don't kill them, if they're going to go they are going to go,” he said.

“In no circumstances in Islam are you allowed to take another person's life, no-one can say the Koran tells you to do that.”

Islam expert Kathryn Robinson, from the Australian National University, said most Muslims would be horrified by the death.

“Clearly there is something going on about the type of control that father wanted to have over his family, but you can't blame the religion.”

Really? I'm sure the father who killed his wife in an effort to kill his daughter is familiar with the central tenants and texts of Islam. Otherwise he wouldn't have acted as he did. After "the Qur'an" (only slightly less explicit on death for apostasy) come ahadith and the Sunnah. Those are horribly explicit on the issue.

Woe to him who changes (his religion) after me.

...for the Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.' "

' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'"

Search "Islam kill religion" for more.

What would we do without "Islamic expert(s)"?

Robert Spencer's Jihad/Dhimmi Watch is always a good resource for the unvarnished truth about Islam if the clear statements of the ayatollahs and imams aren't available due to the mainstream media blackout of their off-camera remarks. Death for apostasy in Islam is not debatable by serious students of Islam.

Pretending something isn't true is not the same thing as dealing with the issue forthrightly. It's possible to mount arguments against the morality and behaviors of the Seventh Century, but only if the so-called experts first admit the problem exists. The Australian National University should ask for its money back.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Word of the Century?

I hope it's not sahwa.

Contrast that very important bit of information with this well-funded tripe at the Boston Globe. It's from Hah-vahd.

It's not a big secret unless you still rely on newspapers or TV for information. That's so last millenium.

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Wake-Up Call: Brigitte Gabriel

Pay particular attention to the first question 31:25 into the presentation.
Europe is doomed if that's the best solution they can muster. Gabriel takes the passive European multiculturalist "moderate Muslims" solution out of the park, over the street, and down the railroad tracks. "Actions speak louder than words."

Amen!

Another brave woman, Diana West, wonders about the moderates as well.

It's a female three-fer. This is the only article I've ever seen which deals with the very real problem of radical Islam at universities.
Candace de Russy notices a real root cause: higher education. The usual tropes about poverty and alienation almost never reflect actual jihadis, who tend to be well off and educated.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Algerian at the UN lectures US on human rights

Yes, the world has gone completely mad. Inmates not only run the asylum, but the state board which governs the asylum.

Of course the Islamic government in Algeria doesn't want terror plotters to give up information, but using human rights as an excuse under UN cover is particularly hypocritical.

Alice:
"We call on the government to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention center and, until that time, to refrain from any practice amounting to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," they said.

The statement was read out by Leila Zerrougui, the Algerian chairwoman of the U.N. working group on arbitrary detention.


Wonderland:
The human rights situation in Algeria is terrible. Thousands of men, women and children have been killed, many massacred in their own homes, both by security forces and the government-backed militias or by extremist Islamic groups. Thousands more were arrested and imprisoned, many without charges or trials, and hundreds have been sentenced to prison after unfair trials. Torture by the security forces is widespread, both at secret detention centers and in prison. The security forces continue to "disappear" people, and the fate of thousands of the disappeared remains unknown.

Of course Reuters won't even consider telling you the real story.

Even anti-American and pro-Islamist Human Rights Watch has trouble putting a fig leaf over Algeria.

The issue of prisoner treatment is now before Congress and the UN is already involved. Anyone else see something wrong with this picture? I guess we need to save a seat for the UN representative from here on out.

But worst of all, Algerians presently in Gitmo (if they exist) cannot be sent to Algeria due to all the HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS!

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Iran: How to Win Friends and Still Kill Millions of People

When did everyone forget the early space boosters doubled as ICBM's? China is planning on providing Iran with advanced ICBM technology under the guise of a "space program."
As if we needed any more proof Iran is racing towards nuclear weapons, here it is.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Unfrozen Enlightenment Caveman Voter

Unfrozen Caveman Voter

For people trying to understand American public opinion but questioning recent use of polling "data." Numbers depend on phrasing.

Don't caricature this attitude with a desire for more invasions, more nation-building, more regime-change, random airstrikes, or wanton slaughter. It's hard to say just what policy exactly might satisfy the caveman demographic. But really, the Unfrozen Caveman Voter intuits a large portion of the art of warfare: opportunities must be created and then exploited -- or if they come by luck, they must be exploited all the same. And finally, the use of extreme and otherwise intolerable violence is necessary if used in the service of victory.


Hollah! Sam (SM) ("Egyptian Sandmonkey," rants)

FTR, I'm not a WASP or from New England.

There's good multicultural and bad multicultural. It's like touching.

Not sure why anyone would risk summing up the greatest intellectual movement in western history - not noted for simplicity - this way:

The Enlightenment, however, by consigning Christianity to the private sphere, also removed the basis and justification for these values in the public sphere.


It's much simpler with examples. The bible, qur'an, torah, hadith, sunnah, davinci code, all books, are entitled to no special protection or privilege under the law, but equal protections. They're books. That's the Enlightenment view if we're extreme generalizing. Generalizing is not necessary.

Baruch
Spinoza

John
Locke

Wikilock
Wikispin

Pico della Mirandola: Renaissance or Enlightenment?

Wikipico

The French Revolution? (from "Enlightenment view") The French Enlightenment (Rousseau, Voltaire) wasn't the blueprint for successful governance, or particularly relevant to the major English thinkers.

I don't have the time to explain how unenlightened the French Revolution became.

American "democracy" (a representative republic, limited government, federal system, state sovereignty, enumerated federal powers, pre/post Civil War, no establishment or infringing on religion...), one could argue, succeeded in large part due to the popularity of Deism.
Thomas Paine:
The Persian shows the Zend-Avesta of Zoroaster, the lawgiver of Persia, and calls it the divine law; the Bramin shows the Shaster, revealed, he says, by God to Brama, and given to him out of a cloud; the Jew shows what he calls the law of Moses, given, he says, by God, on the Mount Sinai; the Christian shows a collection of books and epistles, written by nobody knows who, and called the New Testament; and the Mahometan shows the Koran, given, he says, by God to Mahomet: each of these calls itself revealed religion, and the only true Word of God, and this the followers of each profess to believe from the habit of education, and each believes the others are imposed upon.

But when the divine gift of reason begins to expand itself in the mind and calls man to reflection, he then reads and contemplates God and His works, and not in the books pretending to be revelation. The creation is the Bible of the true believer in God. Everything in this vast volume inspires him with sublime ideas of the Creator. The little and paltry, and often obscene, tales of the Bible sink into wretchedness when put in comparison with this mighty work.

The Deist needs none of those tricks and shows called miracles to confirm his faith, for what can be a greater miracle than the creation itself, and his own existence?

Society is built on intellectual presumptions, or "pillars" for effect.

Deism is one ?small? historical ideological pillar of the United States, unlike the dominant historical European sectarian secularism. Given Thomas Paine's use of several major religious figures in writing of the times, in the Colonies/United States religion was very much in the public sphere. Many warring European religions coexisted in the United States.

Whenever you read George S. Patton quotes (UCV)...
"Many of you have in your veins German and Italian blood. But remember that these ancestors of yours so loved freedom that they gave up home and country to cross the ocean in search of liberty. The ancestors of the people we shall kill lacked the courage to make such a sacrifice and remained slaves."


And then this,


"We Americans are a competitive race ... We love to win. In this next fight, you are entering the greatest sporting competition of all times. You are competing with Americans and with Allies for the greatest prize of all -- victory."

...it's important to remember he was a working theorist trying to defend the cavalry services, modernize armored forces, and convey a particular image to his soldiers. Patton was calculated and professional, contrary to many depictions of him in film. He scrupulously followed orders and accepted command discipline. Patton was a secular, professional warrior whatever his personal beliefs about religion. Patton knew that unnatural organization, logistics, yet aggression, and courage were advantageous in warfare.

As an unfrozen caveman blogger, scared by your blogging tools and viruses, not a strategist for either party, I'll simply (and that's all I know) conclude with this:
It's not healthy in our republic for such a large slice of the populace to be unrepresented by any politician. But that is the case today. Soon enough it will change. Just remember what happened to Phil Hartman's Caveman Lawyer:


"Thank you! Thank you very much, thank you! First of all, let me say how happy I am to be your nominee for the United States Senate! . . . I don't really understand your Congress. . . because, as I said during the campaign - I'm just a caveman! I fell on some ice, and later got thawed out by scientists. But there is one thing I do know - we must do everything in our power to lower the Capital Gains Tax. Thank you!"

Friday, August 11, 2006

Olmert the Johnson-McNamara of Israel?

This won't end well.

If true, this explains a lot of what we've been seeing. War is not politics. Politics is not war. But war is politics by other means. Politicians and generals sometimes forget the first two, usually politicians. Towards the end of his career General Douglas MacArthur dabbled in politics and watched the Chinese come streaming over the Yalu River.

Politicians: objectives

Generals: means

Got it?

UPDATE: apparently not

UPDATE: "Right-wing" Haaretz?

Perhaps Reuters should have said a "broad strata" of Israeli society thinks Olmert is not up to the job?
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced a backlash on Friday over a U.N. proposal to end the war in Lebanon, with army officers saying they were held back and right-wing rivals calling for new elections.

"Olmert must go," read a front page headline in Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper.

Military incompetence when under rocket fire and threats of annihilation from the patron of the shooters negates partisan affiliation apparently. Notice how there's a right wing but the left only leans? Check news articles for "left wing." You'll almost never see it, even applied to former members of the Baader-Meinhof Gang who became EU politicians. The only extreme tends to be right. But Haaretz got a "left-leaning" from Reuters which is progress(ive).

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Iran's Aryan Obsession

Most people don't know that Iran's leader at the time was a big fan of Adolph Hitler. "Iran" - the name given to Persia in 1935 - was intended to connote a connection to the original Aryans. The "Aryans," you may recall, were a big hit in Germany. German scientists, when not trading the Arc of the Covenant back and forth with Dr. Indiana Jones, were using the pseudoscience of the time to prove - measuring noses, foreheads, and skull bumps - a racial linkage back to the original Aryans. Given the state of DNA technology today, this story would be funny if it weren't associated with the last major global conflict which destroyed much of human civilization and killed tens of millions of people.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Don't say nobody warned you (dropping a cluster blog)

Terror cult clue time hat tip: No Pasaran

Multiculturalism is great when you mean restaurants, clothing, or holidays.

Before political correctness and multiculturalism disarmed the West intellectually...

After After After

Downfall of the Netherlands, a book far ahead of its time, and censored using prior restraint.

How did we forget that Israel's story is the story of the West? Charles Moore, one reason to read the Telegraph.

Quote of the last three centuries?

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property‹either as a child, a wife, or a concubine‹must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science‹the science against which it had vainly struggled‹the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."


Ten months since the countdown started. Anyone plan on doing something?

Not the Left's plan: Throwing the Jews Under the Bus.

Monday, August 07, 2006

My Joe Lieberman Post

First posted at Dr. Sanity - "Joe Lieberman's Sin".

I welcome refutations of the factual observations I make in this piece. If the truth of it hurts you deeply, feel free to vent angrily. I'd love to post your unhinged rantings in a future post.

OK, I'll say it.

The Left is now mainstreaming the notion Israel is "a mistake." This comes months after normalizing the notion HAMAS and Hizballah want "to destroy Israel." They're fine with that. The Left thinks Israel's supporters are dupes of AIPAC and the "Jewish Lobby" of Walt and Mearsheimer. The Left buys into the old "dual loyalties" argument which plagues Jews only for some reason. Anyone can have mixed motivations, but if it's Jews somehow the term morphs into treasonous sounding "dual loyalties." The Left's major enemy these days is the "neocons" - codeword for Jews in power. Ever since the 1967 War and Israel's backtrack from socialism, the Left has been turning away from Israel. Leftist icons like Fisk, Raimondo, Kossholes, etc., believe Jews control America.

But worst of all, Lieberman is a practicing Jew. Few on the Left would admit that has anything to do with it. That's what all the arguments in the first paragraph are used for: dressing up anti-Semitism.

I support Israel because it angers all the bigoted scumbags on the Left. All this crap about "Jewish State" and "Apartheid State" ignores the fact every state ruled by Muslims is bigoted against non-Muslims. Israel allows non-Jews power in government. In other Arab-Muslim states there might be one or two legislated token Jews, and that's it.

If you're not angry yet, the modern Left is merely an extension of radical socialist organizations which have always demonized their opponents and usually tried to reeducate or exterminate them.

And before some leftist bigot asks, no, I'm not Jewish. I don't particularly like organized religion and I'm not of the "Jewish race" whatever that means.

But nothing makes me angrier than the disgusting bigots on the Left I've been debating for decades. What could possibly be worse than hypocritical, preachy, bigots?

To me, nothing.


UPDATE: links

Notice that Lanny Davis, linked last, seems to think Ann Coulter's biting sarcasm is on par with the vicious anti-Semitism so common on the "Progressive" Left. Until the Left honestly looks at what it's been for decades, and remains, only continued image scrubbing by the mainstream media can protect its political influence. Bringing Zuniga "Kos" into the public sphere while ignoring the views of his supporters is the best recent example. Relying on bigotry for support, then covering it up, is no way to run a big tent. I could list many examples from the CBC, or among other elected Democrats, but you know who they are. If someone can't decide between Hizballah and Israel, that person might be an anti-Semite.

UPDATE: The intellectual Left finally responds.

Here's a brilliant analysis of my arguments and the situation in Iraq weighing all the sectarian divisions, considering the nascent Arab democracy, America's foreign policy interests over the coming decades, and what our relations should be with the Iraqi government. Oh, who am I kidding? This is their typical kinky and scatological output.
Look, I don't know what the fuck Joe has done for you lately (precious bloody little, I bet) but his unwavering, Dubya-asslicking support for Iraq must make even people like you say 'what the fuck? vote for that brain-dead piece of crap again'? No way.
Lieberman's an idiot.

Thanks! Any more takers?

Monday, July 31, 2006

Insanity is just another opinion

A Skeptic on 9/11 Prompts Questions on Academic Freedom

“I want to avoid as much as we can creating some kind of a political test for instructors or faculty, to say that only those whose thinking fits within some predetermined mold are well equipped to teach our students,” Mr. Farrell said. “I think that creates a dangerous precedent.”



There are countless topics which no professor would dare raise in university classrooms all over the nation. "Hate speech" regulations and "diversity" being the buzzwords for a kinder, gentler totalitarianism, insanity somehow slips through the cracks. Let's talk about gender affecting intelligence! Whoops, you're fired.

Anyone who's seen this Barrett nut on TV knows he's at least six or seven slices short of a full loaf. But being in a protected class (Muslim convert) means he can spew any venom he wants to a captive, paying audience. If we offend him he might kill us after all. And it would be our fault for offending Barrett's hypersensitive belief system. As the essayist fjordman notes:

In this age of Multiculturalism and cultural relativism, the only places we can identify evil and fight it are in fictional worlds, be that the Middle Earth of Tolkien or the Hogwarts of JK Rowling. Maybe that's why it's such a relief to visit them, if only for a few hours. In the real West, our Universities would advice us to negotiate with Sauron and identify his legitimate grievances. Our media would say that the real reason why the Orcs kill people is because they suffer from institutionalized racism and Orcophobia. We would all get sensitivity training, invite Orcs to settle in our major cities by the millions and teach our children about the richness of Orc culture.



Barrett's "freedom" to speak is totally and fairly constrained by the subject matter. If I were to teach a class on American history, and I practiced Scientology, it would not be proper to go into a week-long diatribe on Scientology's theory of alien seeding of the planet. Barrett is trotting out the same "theory" one might hear on a seedy street corner in Karachi. Does nobody see the obvious connection between Barrett's newfound faith and his penchant for Jew-hating conspiracy theories?

When did Bush hatred and conspiracy theories, not bordering on, but right in the heartland of insanity become intellectual topics?

The New York Times has overgenerously labeled Mr. Barnett a "skeptic." Really? I thought skeptics were on the sharp edge of Occam's Razor.

You be the judge:

Intellectual?

What about this?

Would you call these people "skeptics"?
The traditional theory suggests people trample crops with boards. Needs a good shaking out perhaps?

Speaking truth to power?

You want credentials?

I have a theory that the Left has become completely unhinged from reality. They could not deal with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and have been rooting aimlessly for something to take down the horrible American Empire ever since. In their desperation they've hitched onto a Seventh Century belief system which features misogyny, beheadings, kidnapping, suicide bombing, and snuff videos. Despite thousands of fatal, brutal attacks, admissions by the culprits on video, celebrations in the Middle East, millions of witnesses, and the lionization of the "Magnificent Nineteen" the Left simply couldn't adjust to 9/11. That particular attack, moreso than the first attack ON THE SAME TARGET in 1993, actually caused Americans to perceive a real external threat. That meant greater support for Israel and more defense spending, violating the two main catechisms of the Left since 1967. Worst of all, they feel George W. Bush stole the 2000 election from Al Gore and will do anything to bring him down.

Think I can get a grant to study it further?

Thursday, July 20, 2006

The Islamists Are Winning

Do you agree?
Those who retain a faith in the ‘force of reason’ may wish it otherwise. Yet just as unreason plainly marks many aspects of the creed of Islam, so it also vitiates the cause of the non-Muslim world. Among the latter’s irrationalities is the myopic belief — held by the non-Muslim Israelophobe and the firebreathing Islamist together — that Israel, the ‘Jewish lobby’ in the US and the actions of Jews in general stand at the heart of this third world war. This belief, akin to that of the Nazis in the second world war, is of the greatest significance in one respect above all; indeed, it could be said to be the West’s Achilles heel. For it is a belief which permits, and even invites, Islamists to play (to their own advantage) upon a favourite prejudice of non-Muslims of all political persuasions. With the other moral debilities that afflict us, it makes it more likely that this war with Islam will ultimately be lost.

David Selbourne’s latest book, The Losing Battle With Islam, was published in the United States by Prometheus Books in November 2005.


Update (for an excerpt, not the website)

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Covering the war

Times, UK

On the spot: Lebanese dead lie in rubble

WaPo's Cohen Consigns Israel to Asheap of History

Hunker Down With History

fisking fisking fisking

fitzing

I'll bet Robert Fisk quotes Cohen at some point.

Israeli Planes Batter Lebanon Again, Killing 30 People

Oh, by the way, over a hundred rockets were fired at Israel...

Hezbollah fires over 100 rockets at northern Israel

One killed in Katyusha strike on house in Nahariya


The fresh volleys struck also Safed, Hatzor, Carmiel, Moshe Sde Eleizer, Acre, Kiryat Shmona, Tiberias, the Krayot region (Haifa suburbs of Kiryat Yam, Kiryat Haim, and Kiryat Ata), Hatzor Haglilit, Yesod Hama'ala, the central Golan Heights, and the Haifa Bay region.


War coverage is all about Israel's strikes in Lebanon with little mention of the ongoing Hiz'b'Allah rocket blitz of Israel. Haaretz, for whatever reason, finds the more recent rocket strikes to be newsworthy.

Israel is besieged by at least two kinds of unguided Iranian rockets. The Fajr-3 and it's larger sibling the Fajr-5 are both Katyusha knockoffs. It sounds like smaller launchers and perhaps smaller rockets are being employed, along with small Katyusha launchers, perhaps single or double tubes.

The anti-ship stealth cruise missile which damaged the Israeli missile boat is the "Kosar," IDF-designated the C-802.

Another missile engaged thus far is the larger "Zelzal" ballistic missile destroyed in Beirut.

Hiz'b'Allah is using a low tech but massive arsenal of unguided rockets to terrorize much of Israel. They have access to advanced Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles and short-range ballistic missiles.

While the Lebanese are certainly victims of the war, the rocket barrage coming from Lebanon receives scant attention by comparison.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Deeyah!

If you don't like it, don't watch the video.

Deeyah interview

Threats

'Muslim Madonna' - Brace for another muslims' riot, bloodshed
Feb 24, 2006


She's smart.


Why is it important to you to make it plain to the world that you are speaking as a Muslim woman?

Because it has become so important to some Muslim leaders and extremists to discredit me as a Muslim, I have had to justify my existence as a “Muslim artist”. I have now inadvertently become a sort of spokeswoman for a younger generation western-born Muslim women. I never really set out to do this. My heritage is something I’ve always been proud of but never forced onto people. Despite this I have never really been allowed to just be an artist and to get on with just music. My background has always become an issue (and a negative one at that) within the community. After years of trying to be the obedient and quiet girl that I was told to be if I wanted to earn support from the community, my efforts were always proven to be wrong and of no use. Proven wrong usually by extremes (mostly men) who were afraid of losing their power in a changing community. The fact that I have chosen a profession that is largely considered unacceptable and not respectable for a Muslim woman has always attracted not just insults and condemnation from certain sections of the community, but also intimidation and physical attacks and threats. It is only after more than 10 years of being silent and quietly taking this abuse that I decided to speak out.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Israel's strategic depth

Comparison to Maryland and Virginia

Israel and Border States

West Bank

United States Civil War battles, Virginia

International Pressure on Bush

NYT

U.S., Needing Options, Finds Its Hands Tied

The administration may yet reconsider its approach in light of the escalating tensions. After all, Ms. Rice has already gone further toward traditional diplomacy than many neoconservatives within the administration would like, by prodding Mr. Bush to offer to join European talks with Iran on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.


Bush Declines to Call for Israeli Cease-Fire
Other World Leaders Denounce Military Strikes Against Lebanon, Which Seeks U.N. Action


"One can ask oneself whether there isn't a sort of desire to destroy Lebanon," French President Jacques Chirac, who will be among the leaders meeting with Bush here, said in a television interview. "I find, honestly, like most Europeans, that the reactions are completely disproportionate." He added that he also considered Hezbollah guerrillas "completely irresponsible" for firing rockets at Israel.

Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Israel was "making a mistake" in striking Lebanon because "it won't bring anything other than an escalation of violence." The Vatican said it "deplores right now the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign nation." Jan Egeland, the U.N. humanitarian chief, called Israel's attacks a "violation of international law," adding, "You are supposed to do something to the armed group. You are not supposed to hurt the children of people who have nothing to do with this."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is hosting the Group of Eight summit, already is moving to put the fighting on the agenda as draft statements were being written. "We will press all the parties to immediately stop the bloodshed," he said.


Ynet: Report: Israel gives Syria ultimatum

London-based Arabic language newspaper Al-Hayat says Israel gave Syria 72 hours to stop Hizbullah’s activity, bring about release of kidnapped IDF troops. ‘Israel will not end military activity until new situation created that will prevent Syria, Iran from using terror organizations to threaten its security,’ newspaper quotes Pentagon official as saying


Bush resists pressure on Israel

Mr. Bush called the leaders of Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan to explore ways to end three days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Turning aside complaints that Israel is using excessive force, the president rejected a cease-fire plea from Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
"The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
In urging the U.N. Security Council to impose a cease-fire, Lebanese Foreign Ministry official Nouhad Mahmoud said Israel's stepped-up military campaign was aimed at "bringing Lebanon to its knees and subverting it by any means."


Mission imperative
By Victor Davis Hanson
July 15, 2006


Ultimately, the Bush administration needs to do a better job of presenting this current war in a far larger context. Jihadists of the Arab world for decades have been at war not with George Bush alone, but with modernity itself. The radical Middle East street may be fascinated by the Internet, satellite television, ATMs and cell phones -- but not by the foreign anathema of democracies, religious tolerance, free markets and gender equality that ultimately accounts for such goodies.
Here at home, we witness the end of the multicultural dogma. Yes, there are really evil people who wish to kill us for who we are, not what we do -- and they embrace cultural assumptions that are not just different from our own, but, let us be honest enough to admit it, far worse.
So, there are many fronts in our struggle against Islamic terrorists from the seventh century. The American people must be reminded of our challenges constantly in lieu of platitudes about the inevitable triumph of freedom and democracy. In short, our government should provide much more explanation of this complex war and far less simple declarations about it.


A new war, but both sides recall old ones

Artillery, rockets and tanks mass along the border

“This was a very bad gamble,” Alex Fishman of Yedioth Ahronoth wrote of Hezbollah’s attack on Wednesday. “(Israel) is acting as if every valve that had been locked for six years has been released and all restraints are off. Everything is permissible.”

In Maariv, Ben Caspit demanded Churchillian resolve from Israelis facing Hezbollah rockets — about 80 missiles hit Israeli towns yesterday, killing a woman and her five-year-old grandson and wounding more than 40 people,. “Not for naught is a parallel being made here between terminology from the World War Two period, the tenacious British resistance against Hitler’s blitz. This threat must be abolished. Nasrallah must die.”


Radical Shiite Cleric Hints at Militia Attacks to Protest Israel’s Actions

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 14 — The radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr said Friday that Iraqis would not “sit by with folded hands” while Israel struck at Lebanon, signaling a possible increase in attacks from his mercurial militia, the Mahdi Army.

Readers' Opinions
Forum: The Middle EastIn a written statement, Mr. Sadr also said that he considered the United States culpable in the conflict unfolding in Lebanon, since America was the largest foreign ally of Israel.


Mr. Sadr’s statement was issued at a time of rising tensions between the American military and the Mahdi Army, with American forces carrying out raids against Mahdi hideouts and arresting senior leaders.

American commanders have strongly denounced militias in recent days and have pledged to try to curtail the militias’ death squads, which they say are feeding the spiraling cycles of sectarian violence. Many Sunni Arabs blame the Sadr militia for abductions and killings, including an episode on July 9 in which militiamen seized up to dozens of Sunni Arabs in the Jihad neighborhood of Baghdad and shot them in the head.

“Eyes are shedding tears, and the heart feels pain and sadness for our people in Lebanon due to the bombing, terror and clear aggression that the Zionist enemy conducts and that is shielded by a number of countries, including the United States,” Mr. Sadr said in the statement.

“Let it be known to everybody that we in Iraq will not sit by with folded hands before the creep of Zionism,” the statement continued.

The fury was echoed in a Friday mosque sermon given by a cleric allied with Mr. Sadr, Sheik Asad al-Nasri, to worshipers from the southern holy cities of Kufa and Najaf.

“We address all the arrogant powers of the world, including the United States and Israel, and tell them to realize the true reality and take lessons from history that show that all world powers, no matter how strong they are, prove to be failures and will definitely vanish,” the sheik said...


Syria says fully backs Hizbullah against Israel
"The Syrian people are ready to extend full support to the Lebanese people and their heroic resistance to remain steadfast and confront the barbaric Israeli aggression and its crimes," said a communique from the party's national command issued after a meeting. (Reuters)

Friday, July 14, 2006

Cry havoc, and let slip the puppies of war

Cry havoc, and let slip the puppies of war
By Spengler

Dogs of war incline toward caution, which after all is how they grew up to be dogs. More worrisome are puppies, who do not know what danger is. Gavrilo Princeps, the Serbian gunman who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand dead in June 1914, was a puppy. So are the Hamas kidnappers, who at this writing still hold Israeli Army Corporal Gilad Shalit, and the Mehdi Army shooters who reportedly disposed of several dozen Sunni civilians in Baghdad on the weekend. The North Koreans, by contrast, are just nasty old dogs who long ago got loose from their leash.

Wars start because no one wants to disown his dog. If your dog bites a neighbor, your neighbor well might come after you with a shotgun. Nicholas II of Russia, I observed recently, did not want war in 1914 and until the end of July insisted that no war would break out. [1] But the Serbian puppies supported by his secret service dragged him into it willy-nilly. The past week's events in the Middle East have a disturbing feel of July 1914 about them.


Surprised? -- Rantings of a Sandmonkey

And then you read something like Hal's latest rant and you ponder the arab mentality. We are the only people in the world who talk about dignity and honor when it comes to military conflict, and who will continue fighting losing wars, unprepared and undermilitarized, because of reasons such as "our pride and dignity" and then wonder why the fuck we lose. I mean, can you imagine if the americans acted the same way? They would never have left Vietnam. They would stay in Iraq forever. You don't see a single american saying "we should stay in Iraq because our national pride and dignity are wounded by the insurgents attacks". Only we would use some half assed justification to keep fighting wars we can't win, where we keep getting our asses kicked, and some how don't see the folly in it at all.


Big powers are split as UN envoys begin work

THE big powers split yesterday over the fighting in the Middle East as leaders gathered for the G8 summit in Russia, with President Bush refusing to demand that Israel halt its military action.

President Putin, host of the summit in St Petersburg, called for an immediate end to hostilities between Israel and Lebanon. “We assume that all sides in conflict should immediately end their military action. That should be the starting point for resolving all other problems,” Mr Putin told an international group of teenagers.


Are Israel's military tactics justifiable?
I am with you, Jeff Melvin; you are bang on. Anyway, the usual response will be to blame America ( I have even heard it suggested on the BBC - by one of their expert correspondents - that America is partly to blame for the bombs that went off in Bombay because apparently India is now thought to closer to the USA (those nasty capitalists).
If you can't blame the Americans then blame the Jews (that tiny nation which is threatened with extinction by Iran peacefully developing nuclear capabilties) and if you can't blame them then you can always blame the police I say - but whatever you do, do not blame the real culprits (those that invade Israel and capture its soldiers). If you want peace it is simple: hand back the captured soldiers and hand over those responsible (not forgetting those murdered in the capture).
My comments will now provoke responses of cries that it is all "tit for tat" thereby excusing the culprits. Blame the police I say.
Posted by Robert Wilson on July 14, 2006 12:54 PM


In response to the poster who seems to think that Hezbollah and Hamas have the right to oust "the occupier" under the Geneva Convention - first of all, neither Gaza or Lebanon were occupied by Israel at the time. Secondly, the soldiers were captured on Israeli soil - in other words, Israel was invaded by foreign forces and their people attacked. Add to that the daily bombardment that Israel suffers anyway and the only question is - why have they taken so long to do something?

Personally, I feel sorry for the Lebanese people. They don't want this, but it's being foisted on them by Syria and Iran. The embryonic Lebanese government - starting to get a life of it's own after finally kicking out the SYRIAN occupiers after 20 years are too weak to prevent Syrian and Iranian proxies from attacking their neighbour and now they have a new war on their land.

But put the blame for this where it truly lies. On the shoulders of the Syrian and Iranian governments.
Posted by Stan on July 14, 2006 1:27 PM


Podcast: Pajamas Media
And what a week to review! Moderator Austin Bay talks with the usual suspects, Tammy Bruce, Eric Umansky, and Glenn Reynolds. The topics: 1) Mumbai terror attacks, (2) Geneva Convention rights for Al Qaeda, and (3) Israel versus Hezbollah—and Iran. As always, Ed Driscoll produces.


Hugh Fitzgerald at Dhimmi Watch

Is Israel's bombing "disproportionate"? "Disproportionate" to what? So far, after all those bombs in three days of sensational and excited and much exaggerated coverage, a grand total of 73 people have died in Lebanon. How many of them were "innocent civilians," that is people who did not ardenly support the continued Hezbollah attacks on Israel when there was not a single Israeli soldier left in Lebanon? Given Israel's size, its lack of strategic depth, the fact that in the pre-1967 armistice lines it is 8 miles wide, and one has some idea of its pitifully tiny size by the fact that Haifa, that was hit with rockets "deep inside Israel," is a mere 18 miles from the Lebanese border. Israel cannot tolerate any of this. It may be difficult for Americans, with the Atlantic Ocean standing guard on one side, and the Pacific Ocean standing guard on the other, and reasonably friendly if often un-admiring Canada to the north, and perhaps too-friendly and a little too-admiring Mexico to the south, to quite perform the feat of imagination required to imagine what it must be like to live in Israel, what the real size of the country, and size of the dangers, are. But at least we should all close our eyes and try.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Today we celebrate King George III

What's that?

Yes. Today we celebrate King George III.

By declaring the colonies (that's us) in open rebellion over a year before the Declaration of Independence he gave the Founding Fathers nothing to lose. By the time of the signing of the Declaration, the Redcoats had been driven from Boston and were closing on New York. Not long after that they were chasing our dimuntive Colonial Army through New Jersey. But thanks to George Washington's - ahem - strategic withdrawals, and a victory over the Hessians in Trenton, we quickly wrapped up the Revolution in - What's that? - 1783 with the signing of "the" Treaty of Paris.

By losing nearly 1% of the population (25,000) it was the costliest war in United States history, by percentage, excluding the Civil War.

Of course we showed them in the War of 1812.

What's that?

The Declaration of Independence is one of the most significant and well-reasoned documents in world history. But would the Continental Congress have drafted it in peacetime?

We'll never know.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Guardian's Steele thinks he can fool all of the people all of the time

"The moral in Palestine is not that democracy brings instability, but that it is the failure of powerful forces to accept democracy's results that causes instability."

Some version of this argument makes up nearly the entire weight of "reasoning" as to why foreign governments should continue to support third and fourth generation "refugees" (read: mujahideen terrorists). This argument makes foreign aid some sort of entitlement program for terrorists.

Let's flip that one around, shall we?

George Bush was elected president in transparent democratic elections. Shouldn't the world accept that result and support his policies? Of course not. The Guardian could be published daily on one square of toilet paper if that were the case. Not a bad idea, much more useful.

Secondly, democracy can be defined many ways. If democracy is viewed as narrow process, majority rule, as Steele does here, there's not much to recommend it in places where the majority is bound and determined to wage a war of extermination on its neighbors. HAMAS advocates shari'a, rule by the Qur'an, and following the Sunna (See, HAMAS Charter, infra).

If that's democracy, Iran and Saudi Arabia are closely related to Jeffersonian ideals.

Liberty, rule of SECULAR law, civil institutions, and productive activity trump mere process. If those are valued, process-based democracy usually results. But to hold elections and claim the result is somehow magical and should be respected ignores elected brutes and fundamental norms which govern society.

One thing you'll never see in the Guardian are long passages from the HAMAS Charter.


"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory)."

"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up."

"Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement."

"The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses, both on the regional, Arab and Islamic levels. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters."

"The Islamic Resistance Movement adopts Islam as its way of life. Islam is its creed and religion. Whoever takes Islam as his way of life, be it an organization, a grouping, a country or any other body, the Islamic Resistance Movement considers itself as their soldiers and nothing more."

That leaves exactly no room for the ideals upon which nations build consensual government.

Spain should feel lucky Israel is still around to occupy HAMAS and its jihadist head-choppers. Once any territory is captured or settled by Islam it must always be reconquered until global conquest and the end of days. It's not called the Dar-al-Harb because jihadists want to have town meetings, focus groups, and use push polling.

No jihad would be complete without the media-dominating, money-grubbing, secret society conspiracy theories found in Article 22 of the HAMAS Charter. I'm not making this up:

For a long time, the enemies have been planning, skillfully and with precision, for the achievement of what they have attained. They took into consideration the causes affecting the current of events. They strived to amass great and substantive material wealth which they devoted to the realisation of their dream. With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there.

Democracy will bloom over there if we just sprinkle more money after the millions wasted already?

Please.

The journalists who continue to sugarcoat and lie about HAMAS's intentions - ignoring deep roots in Islamic shari'a, despotism, and warfare - are helping them wage the jihad as much, if not more than, the fumbling "militants" themselves. From Article 30:

Jihad is not confined to the carrying of arms and the confrontation of the enemy. The effective word, the good article, the useful book, support and solidarity - together with the presence of sincere purpose for the hoisting of Allah's banner higher and higher - all these are elements of the Jihad for Allah's sake.

"Whosoever mobilises a fighter for the sake of Allah is himself a fighter. Whosoever supports the relatives of a fighter, he himself is a fighter." (related by al-Bukhari, Moslem, Abu-Dawood and al-Tarmadhi).


Obviously the Guardian's Steele is angling for the 72 virgins, little boys, and rivers of wine.

hat tip: Discarded Lies

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Kofi Annan, just one question

This means you're A-OK with the Jews who migrated into the territories which Israel captured during the 1967 war, right?
Oh, snap. You are a raging hypocrite after all. Why don't you try to keep UN "peacekeepers" from raping kids, m'kay? Then you can get back to preaching about things above your pay grade.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Just read it: Sword Without Leniency

Sword Without Leniency
The West must scuttle arrogant materialism and take jihadists at their word.


Bruce Thornton puts into words what I've been thinking better than I ever could.

By refusing to take the jihadist at their word, we Westerners are indulging our own superstitions and received wisdom. We have accepted the unscientific assertion that all reality is material, and so we dismiss the spiritual as a superstitious fantasy, a hold-over from less enlightened times necessary for those benighted folks still mired in exploded beliefs and incapable of accepting the hard reality of God’s death. Afraid of facing the truth of their own repressions and neuroses, believers cling to these fantasies as bulwarks against all the changes they fear, especially the liberating progress and utopian boons that are mankind’s destiny once these old illusions are discarded.

This view of religious faith is on display everywhere in our culture, from television and movies and “high” art to the ruminations of “progressive” intellectuals and media pundits. The great irony is that this interpretation of religious faith is itself not a scientific truth but mere prejudice at best, bigotry at worst. And it is a stale cliché, the remnant of old Western ideas long discredited. With every expression of this received wisdom, we hear the ghost of Marx telling us that religion is “the opiate of the people,” the “illusory sun” we must discard, the instrument of oppression invented by the oppressor to keep his victims in check. We hear Nietzsche’s cry of liberating joy at God’s death: “We philosophers and ‘’free spirits’ feel, when we hear the news that ‘the old god is dead,’ as if a new dawn shone for us . . . . At long last the horizon appears free to us again.” And we hear another antitheist (because like the other two, he doesn’t so much disbelieve in God as dislike and resent Him), Freud, telling us that “religious ideas” are “illusions, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes of mankind.”

Armed with these old materialist prejudices, we then treat the Muslim as one sick or confused, a victim of Western crimes, a neurotic who resorts to misunderstandings and distortions of his own faith in order to cope with events whose causes he doesn’t understand. Or, as the press has done with Ahmadinejad’s letter, we explain away his belief as a Machiavellian political tactic. Either way, in the guise of rationalizing jihadist violence we display a curious Western arrogance that sweeps away the most cherished beliefs, that asserts we Westerners better understand Islam than do millions of its adherents, and that reduces Muslims to the status of children and dupes, the passive prey to material and psychological forces they can’t comprehend. How superior we are, we Westerners who see the true reality disguised from others by superstition and tradition!



Sun Tzu warned us long ago:
"(If) you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."


But, he cautioned,

"If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat."


On the whole, we (liberal democracies) know neither ourselves nor the enemy. Draw your own conclusions. As the era of nuclear hyperproliferation in the Muslim nation (ummah) is dawning, we've blinked. They sense weakness and smell blood.

The greatest irony is that there could be no unified Muslim jihad effort without the technology of the West, from the printing press to the Internet, oil drilling, and the car (bomb) to the guided missile.

I hope I live long enough to see the ugly divorce of the Left, fascist, Islamist alliance. They only agree on who they hate the most: Jews and Americans.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Hell on Earth?

It must be better than North Korea. Every time a "human rights" organization wastes an hour criticizing nations with actual respect for human rights, how many North Koreans die in gulags, by summary execution, torture, human experimentation, or of starvation? Nobody knows.

Our interview over, the women relax and begin to talk about their first few days in America. "It's completely different from what we learned. It is difficult to accept that there is a world like this," Hannah says. "They [the North Korean government] teach us that America is a country that shouldn't be allowed to exist." "When we were in China," Naomi says, "we always had to hide. Now we don't feel that way anymore."

"We still do feel lonely," says Hannah, "but my heart feels free."

North Korea is a recent addition to "The Nuclear Club." China benefits from our enormous trade deficit and currency manipulation which saps the industrial bases of nations worldwide.

But I hear the United States government might be crunching phone numbers in a supercomputer to avoid another 9/11. Quick, call Human Rights Watch!

Should our enemies have greater rights than common criminals?

Based on recent articles I must conclude the mainstream media believes the answer is a resounding "YES!"
Spy Agency Watching Americans From Space

The test is "reasonable expectation of privacy." Every recent article from pen registers to this latest partisan attack has dealt with an issue which was settled during the unreal "War on Drugs." This is a REAL WAR, with WAR POWERS.

I never liked declaring fake wars on things like poverty or drugs. Now I'm seeing the results.

Florida v. Riley, settled law.

Let me explain something very briefly. War powers must be used to fight wars. That's the limit. The instant there is a real abuse for mere law enforcement, blackmail, or political advantage, I'll be all over it like a French prostitute.

But in the case of aerial surveillance, like pen registers, there is no limit on government power. Could anyone fly a Piper Cub over your house at 500'? Why, yes, yes they could. So if you want privacy, stay inside.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Passive Security, Isn't

Cargo containers are universal in our global economy. From factory, to truck, to ship, to distribution point, to retail, cargo containers do everything. Al Qaeda has smuggled in cargo containers. But unfortunately, this is true:
While nuclear smuggling is possible, so are dozens of other attack scenarios. Overinvesting in countering one tactic when terrorists could easily employ another is dangerously myopic.

Unless we get to the root of the problem - religious and ideological - our free and commercial society will always be vulnerable to attack. To make it completely safe we'd have to become a totalitarian and economically dysfunctional society like North Korea.** Terrorism in North Korea is owned by the government and used against the people, but they're "safe" from outside "threats."

It's time to face reality. Mosques and Islamic centers are the problem. Saudi Arabia, among many others, but especially Saudi Arabia, fund the jihad ideology being taught to those who want to kill us. Even in the United States, Saudi taught imams control over three quarters of the mosques. That's the root of terrorism: jihad against the kufr (unbelievers). Islamic imperialism and Islamic supremacism are already here. Screening containers is an important issue but not the most important issue.

**Recent report on worldwide religious freedom, and the lack thereof.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Things which will never come up in European Arab Dialogue

This is not unusual, just one of the cases which made the news. Of course it will never make it to the mainstream media in the United States. The sixteen-year-old girl who stabbed one of her attempted rapists is still awaiting death by hanging in Iran.

Perhaps one of our MESA professors can explain how Arab-Muslim culture pioneered women's rights? I could use some re-education about now. Plus, I love camping.

KARACHI: Sixteen-year-old Isma Mahmood was deported to Pakistan last month after serving six months in shackles and handcuffs in a prison in Saudi Arabia. Her crime: being raped by a Saudi man.

“It’s difficult for me to talk about what happened to me, from rape to prison and from prison to deportation,” Isma told AFP in the office of a rescue trust in Karachi where she sat with her sister Muna, 18, who was also deported.

Isma’s parents, originally from Multan, were trafficked to Saudi Arabia around 20 years ago. But in Isma’s case, being born in Saudi Arabia was no help when she was raped last year in Medina. “I was the victim, I was raped and molested but I was named as the accused, and the man who committed the crime was not touched,” she said.

“He first kidnapped me, dragged me into his car,” Isma said. “At first he asked me to sleep with him and offered good money. When I refused and tried to resist, he warned me of dire consequences and raped me in the car.” The unnamed man warned her she would be imprisoned if she went to the police, and said that the Saudi sponsor who brought her parents to the country through a Pakistani agent would have them all expelled. The sponsor too threatened Isma and Muna, she said, asking that the sponsor’s name not be revealed to spare her family any additional grief. “I and my sister went to the police expecting justice, but after a few hours of filing the report the police changed it,” Isma said. Under pressure from the Saudi sponsor, Isma’s parents asked her to withdraw her report. “My sister Muna tried to help me out but was also arrested and put in prison only because she spoke for me,” she said.

Once in jail, their nightmare began in earnest, Isma said. The women prisoners were mostly Pakistanis, Indonesians, Bangladeshis and Nigerians who came to Saudi Arabia through trafficking networks and were charged with prostitution, she said.

“When I used to protest against the ill treatment they beat me on my back,” Isma added. “We were chained all during this period. The only time jail officials removed the chain was during lunch or when anyone went to the bathroom or at prayer time,” she said. “Once a jail official offered me help and assured me I would be released if I agreed to sleep with him. There was a Pakistani woman who was over 40 years old and developed AIDS in prison, but she remained in chains before she was deported to Pakistan,” she added.

Isma and Muna are now in the care of the Ansar Burney Trust. “It’s pathetic that all this happened with Isma at the hands of a fellow Muslim,” the trust’s president Ansar Burney told AFP. Burney says many poor women and girls from South Asia are lured with promises of good money working as maids or nurses, but their Arab sponsors and Pakistan agents later force them into prostitution. AFP


But look at the bright side, her family may not shoot her in the head, dump acid on her, or burn her alive. :D

Hat Tip: Discarded Lies

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Eurabia wages war against The Force of Reason to obliterate The Legacy of Jihad

I like to read several books at once. Dry non-fiction books, the spinach of reading, are often too difficult to read in huge chunks. When loaded with healthy facts, books can cause the mental palate to become overwhelmed. After about 40 pages I find myself going back and reading the last page again. That's a sure sign my brain has reached temporary storage capacity.

Sometimes books read best in combinations. They are like the chocolate and peanut butter of books, tasty when read together. One book exemplifies or adds some meat to the other.

I don't think any two books are more compatable than Eurabia, by Bat Ye'or and The Force of Reason, by Oriana Fallaci.

For a good beverage to compliment the entire reading experience I'd suggest The Legacy of Jihad, by Andrew Bostom.**

Oriana Fallaci begins the Force of Reason with a short section describing the vicious threats, legal attacks, and vitriol which came after the publication of The Rage and the Pride. With Eurabia sitting next to you, having digested a mere fifty pages, this pincer attack on Fallaci, from all sides, will make complete sense. If you've read The Rage and the Pride you know Fallaci didn't say anything honest students of Islam and observers of modern terrorism haven't been saying all over the Internet and in other books. In one section of The Legacy of Jihad you can read a couple dozen folks who predicted the revival of political, imperialistic Islam.

In the next section of The Force of Reason, Fallaci moves on to a brief history of jihad warfare against Europe without removing all the details which have been carefully excised from history classes and Middle Eastern studies classes all over the world. With The Legacy of Jihad sitting next to you, heavily sourced and footnoted, you realize Fallaci is recounting a past which is slowly making its way down the memory hole. Eurabia explains this is EU policy going all the way back to the early 1970's. The European-Arab Dialogue has been a one-way affair. The Europeans have placed hope, global aspirations of power, oil supplies, and hatred (of Jews and America), over centuries of experience. If enlightened self-interest and mere economics were the only motivations, the Europeans would have used their technology weapon to counter the oil weapon. But that would require a united front without traitors circumventing the technology ban, impossible for Europeans.

In modern academia, it's taken as a given that Islamic nations simply appeared on the borders of China, Spain, and Eastern Europe. The gory details, or any details, have vanished from education.

When President Bush talks about extremists hijacking a peaceful religion everyone should realize this is tantamount to condemning thousands of innocent people to death in our next so-called "wake-up call." Sadly, he's the only president since Jefferson to do anything substantial against the global jihad. Whether Bush knows it is another question.

Hunker down. This "long war" is almost 1,400 years old. Every sign points to it going nuclear before substantial action will be viewed as justified. On the domestic front, Muslim spokesmen whisper sweet lies into every important ear, from President Bush, the mainstream media, your local community college president, down to one-way "interfaith dialogues." Conversion, blasphemy, or apostasy in Islam means death, so I don't see listening to reciprocal dialogue being advisable for Muslims.

Europe is in graver danger than it was in WWII, but nearly every government is Vichy. The EEC-EU was built on the twin pillars of Jew-hatred and anti-Americanism. To accomplish their geopolitical goals policymakers deluded themselves, chose to punish honest history, and sacrifice their indigenous European populations on a social experiment. This experiment was doomed to fail. Anyone who'd read the Qur'an or studied history carefully could have seen it. But hatred and lust for power are the most compelling motivators for people who take survival for granted. Nothing clouds thinking like grandiose schemes.

**Appetizers could include anything by Robert Spencer, Ibn Warraq, or Ali Sina's (Faith Freedom) new book, among many others. The truth is outing, but stupidity evolves like bacteria, ensuring its survival for all time.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

America's Elites and Saudi Money

Read it and puke.

Our educational system is, if anything, worse. As we are working hard to secure our borders from terrorism and fighting terrorist movements overseas, the same people who are financing much of the world’s terrorism are pouring money into American colleges and universities with the intent of undermining support for our government’s efforts in the War on Terror.

American universities – those idealists who claim racism, misogyny, religious persecution and violations of human rights are antithetical to their mission – are more than willing to accept funding from the Wahhabist Saudi regime that practices such behaviors. The funds go to set up Middle East Studies centers that serve to indoctrinate future generations of American college students to support the goals of overseas terrorists and dictators. These centers also promote outreach programs in which teachers and professors in our local communities are trained and provided with curricula that preach a radical anti-democratic, anti-American, and frequently anti-Semitic agenda in our primary and secondary school classrooms. Our children are their targets.


Knowing the government, media, and academia are bought and paid for with Saudi money shouldn't upset me any more. The comical, yet Ivy League, screed suggesting AIPAC controls the nation makes this particularly galling.

Which nation did 15 of the 19 hijackers call home? Which nation is an apartheid kingdom with no freedom of religion whatsoever? Which nation has an abysmal human rights record, including bureaucratic terms for lopping off heads and hands? Which nation spends billions all over the world creating militant Muslims who eventually do damage all over the world?

Maybe I'll convert so I can be trampled at the Hajj. It beats waiting around for our institutions to side with the American people.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Macrotrends

The EU is bound together only by its hatred of Jews and anti-Americanism.

The UN supports genocide in Darfur, Israel, and the United States, Iran having just gained a seat on the disarmament body. Nobody discusses Saudi apartheid, Islamic imperialism, da'wa, demography, or dhimmitude, save intrepid columnists like Diana West or Mark Steyn. The Internet is the only reliable source of information, and only if you know how to use it.

The U.S. university system is controlled by Stalinsts.

The mainstream media, governed by over-reliance on wire services, political agendas, stupidity, and a lack of curiosity, along with the previously mentioned anti-Americanism and Jew-hatred have not educated the masses of ordinary folks, who don't have all day to get their news, one whit about the true global situation.

South America is descending into totalitarianism. Vote Communist, you'll never have to vote again. Or, everyone will for the same guy.

Climatarians around the world are obsessed with global warming which is mostly due to solar warming. Climatarians now speak of mass extermination of the human race in positive terms, the United States being their favored target.

Russia and China continue to play Cold War games.

Islam is getting out of control and policy-makers still haven't read the important books (Bat Ye'or, Robert Spencer, Ibn Warraq, Oriana Fallaci, too many others to list).

I'll leave it for my readers (I love you, man) to decide what all this means.

Once again French policy (from the end of WWII to the present) is directly responsible for many of the problems I listed.

If you think it sounds like another world war is already in progress, or about to begin, I'll indulge your pessimism. Unlike many people, I envy those folks, I never assume a positive outcome or mentally leap to victory in any war before the actual outcome of the major battles.

UPDATE: Now for the bad news. LOL

American University Totalitarians Strike Again: Ohio State University

Hat tip, Jihad Watch/Dhimmi Watch

Anyone who claims the American university system is not run by the totalitarian Left is nothing but a pathological liar or horribly misinformed. The Academic Bill of Rights proposed by David Horowitz would be one small step in the right direction.

It was getting bad when I was in college. Now it's insanity writ large.

OSU librarian slapped with “sexual harassment” charge for recommending conservative books for freshmen
Ohio State University will press forward with frivolous investigation despite ADF letter
Thursday, April 13, 2006, 11:30 AM (MST)
ADF Media Relations | 480-444-0020


Parents, don't let your babies grow up to study for a Bachelor af Arts. Send them to North Korea for a more balanced approach to indoctrination.

Speaking of pathological liars and totalitarians ruling America's universities, Front Page tries to whittle down Noam Chomsky's lies to a top 100.

It must have been difficult to narrow them down so much after his voluminous output of specious crap.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Science beginning to catch up with religion

When I took science, many moons ago, the preferred model for life on Earth was what you might call a Steady State Earth. The ooze produced some sort of early life which slowly progressed into what we see today. The Earth was viewed as relatively calm. More specifically, calderas, space impacts, and earthquakes were viewed through the lens of recorded history.

But in various religious traditions there were stories of global floods, mountains appearing suddenly, out of nowhere, and fire or ash raining from the sky.

Well, guess what? Religion was right.

Now we know Catastrophism is what pushed human evolution. The most recent example is the eruption of the Toba supervolcano (caldera) approximately 70,000 years ago. The human population dwindled under 100,000. Our species nearly went the way of the dinosaurs before it had a chance to get started.

Some argue the Yellowstone caldera is "due" for an eruption. In geologic terms that could be 10,000 years from now, 50,000 years from now, or tomorrow. Research has shown the caldera breathes, the land moving up and down in response to the magma chamber miles below. Yellowstone is just one of numerous supervolcanoes which dot the Earth.

How could a mountain appear from nowhere? Either volcanism or a large impact from outer space?

Global flooding? The end of an ice age or impacts again.

While humanity discovers more reasons to, and a catalog of means for, destroying one another, science is tending more and more towards evidence we needn't bother.

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."

William Shakespeare


I'm not the granola-crunching, hold hands, give peace a chance type. I'm a realist when it comes to human behavior.

However, as the evidence mounts it's becoming increasingly clear our focus should have remained on survival, just as is must have been for our neolithic ancestors. Just when we thought we could conquer nature, science (the means for doing so) has proven nature's teeth are much larger and sharper than anything we can grow, or hope to grow, in the near future.

Conquering the Earth from other humans is a pyrrhic victory at best.

Iran can build nuclear weapons, but the fault lines which crisscross their land will never surrender. Portland's Greens can howl about global warming and saving the Earth, but the Cascades have already signed Portland's death warrant. Who will save Portland from the Earth? It's a question of when, not if.

Now that we are beginning to understand the nature and scope of these types of events for the first time in human history, in terms of science instead of religion, it would behoove us to take them seriously and factor them into our planning.

But short-sightedness is much less frightening and simpler.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Get a Room!

California faces battle over gays in textbooks
I have no problem with consenting adults doing whatever it is they do in the privacy of their homes. But, really, doing it in textbooks isn't sanitary. It's just not right!
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California school textbooks would highlight the role gays have played in the history of the nation's most populous state if a new proposal that has angered conservatives passes the state Legislature.

History books record contributions by gays but their sexual orientation is often ignored, a situation gay activists say is inexcusable in California, home to a large gay population in San Francisco, a city that briefly made history in 2004 by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The proposed bill would require school textbooks to include lessons on how gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons have helped California develop.

Oh, never mind.

I'm straight, boring, and proud! Would you like to hear all about my struggles as a heterosexual man? Yeah, me neither. The only problem I have with the neverending stream of gay issues is trying to stay awake. Is it necessary to discuss sexual orientation when writing history? Usually the historical figure has a SO of some kind, often mentioned in passing. In California politics, sexual orientation becomes obvious through public statements or actions.

Which reminds me, what would it mean for someone to be "openly" gay in the military? Maybe I have an overactive imagination but I'm seeing that guy with the leather hat in the Village People throwing beads off an M1A2 Abrams.

"We're going to have a fabulous occupation! But this place needs some color!"

UPDATE: For Al
The point of this post is really to be funny. Not one "LOL" so I'm tempted to delete it. But I won't because I'm proud of four comments, only one being mine. Yes, that's a very small victory. Please, don't ruin it for me by pointing out other blogs. *sob*

But if there is a serious point, it's trying to figure out what's really going on in California. Is the idea to add gay activists to textbooks?

If so, I suggest we nail down who was president during the Civil War and whether or not the Germans won that one before we move on to teaching our kids who formed ACT UP or Queers for Palestine. Who, by the way, should steer clear of the actual "Palestine" or risk being "killed in the worst ways possible." That's a quote from "Red" Ken Livingstone's favorite moderate cleric.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Balkans Scam Beginning to Surface - New York Times Lies for ANOTHER Pulitzer

The New York Times appears to be on an institutional crusade to disprove the old adage "Honesty is the best policy." That's nice, but lying wins Pulitzers.

I never liked the idea of attacking Serbia. I didn't want to risk war with Russia just when we should have been patching up decades of mistrust. Though I'm no isolationist, the Balkans are a Eurasian problem going back centuries. All ideologies, ethnicities, and religions get bogged down in the Balkans. It's the intersection of strife.

NATO was tasked as a defensive force contra the Warsaw Pact. Sure, the UN is worse than useless, but any American action should have gone through the UN. Unlike Iraq, there was no long history of U.S. involvement and conflict in the Balkans.

Like most people, all I knew was what I saw in the news. So it seemed a bit strange when the "mass genocide" didn't turn up but one mass grave (8,000 bodies, no women and children) after the war.

Former NY Times Reporter: '93 Pulitzer Should Be Revoked
By Sherrie Gossett
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
March 22, 2006


Bill Clinton's legacy will haunt our relations with Russia for centuries.

During his recent appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Binder said it would take "at least a decade" before historians "clear out that wretched underbrush of lies and concoctions" from "despicable" politicians "like Richard Holbrooke," an international negotiator during the administration of former President Bill Clinton and "certainly the journalists" criticized in Brock's book. The rise of blogs and media watchdog groups offers a "corrective" for the public now, Binder contended.


I linked this in a previous post. What did Bill Clinton get out of the attack on Serbia? I can think of some very wealthy desert dwellers who might have been very grateful ($$$).

Sunday, March 26, 2006

ITM: Know Your Enemies, Dudes!

Know your enemies, dudes!

The first step to understanding politics in Iraq is getting away from over-simple MSM or partisan politically-driven analysis. For example, "Secular Saddam would never work with jihadys." That's an obvious crock if one merely looks at the last couple years of Saddam's regime. And I'm not discussing secret meetings or Prague, but Saddam's changing public persona.

If you don't read it all, read this:
One and actually the most important is that we have an American ambassador who recognizes Iran's role in supporting both ends of violence in Iraq; that's the Shia militias, namely the notorious Mehdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr and the extreme terror groups like al-Qaeda's Ansar al-Sunna.

Knowing that ambassador Khalil Zad will be the one leading the talks with Iran makes me feel that the talks are in good hands that are aware of the scope of the conflict.
Many people find it difficult to agree with this theory that Iran has ties with al-Qaeda and its branches and affiliates in Iraq and that's because they think the ideology difference between Wahabism and Shiasm would make any cooperation between Iran and al-Qaeda a fairy tale or a ridiculous American excuse to justify a possible offensive on Iran.

But what really frustrates me is that we have people here who are supposed to be politicians aware of the behind the scenes game who refuse to accept this theory (which I consider a fact).

A few days ago a saw a prominent politician from the UIA talking on al-Hurra and when the point of Zad's accusations to Iran was raised his response was (not literal translation) "No sane person can think that Iran is supporting the terrorists who murder Shia Iraqis…".

It is this kind of blind conviction that make me lose faith in most of the political elites in Iraq; they have entrenched themselves behind their sects to the point that they cannot accept questioning the policies and intentions of their presumed friends forgetting that it's politics 101 to not put absolute trust in anyone.

Read that last paragraph several times and never forget it.

Playing the double game is a very old trick.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Announcement - Zachary

My second son was born.

He weighed six/four.

We've decided to name him Zachary.

Please wish us luck and keep him in your prayers.

After Alexander's tragedy we really need things to go right.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Yale Fails

Why did Yale slam the door on Afghan women?


Give one of these Marines a scholarship.
Marines Notice Things
The Marines unloaded a shiny new pediatric wheelchair from one of their vehicles and rolled it into the house.

The little girl had suffered a severe spinal injury in a car accident two years ago. The old wheelchair was the best the family could do for her.

Until the Marines came.

The family's faces lit up with the smiles. The incredulous father picked up his daughter and immediately placed her in the new wheelchair. He shook the Marines' hands, saying "Thank you," again and again.

"They seemed pretty happy about it," said Cpl. Matthew Rivera.

"We knew we had to help out in some way," said Staff Sgt. Charles Evers.

The Marines didn't stay long. There were smiles and a few tears and then they jumped back into their assault vehicles and headed back to Camp Smitty.


I really like the new M-32 and this post has some interesting detail on specialty rounds.
HUNTIR, HELLHOUND, DRACO and carrying a big stick

M-32

PDF: MGL-140 (aka "M-32")

Blackfive likes it.

WOULD AN ARMY OF DAVIDS FIGHT LIKE THE UNIT?

Army of Davids provokes many reactions, some of them related to the book itself. This is not one of those reactions.

Glenn Reynolds does not own the rights to "heh" "hah" "har" "BWHAHAHA" "ROFL" "spew" "you owe me a monitor" "lol" LOLOLOLOL" or any combination of "ol" or "lo."

Indeed.

Army of Davids

Right-Wing Nuthouse visits the ethical and cultural questions of our times.

“What Would Jack Bauer Do(?)”

I'd counter with "What would THE UNIT do?"

They have a more reasonable mission statement and mandate for fighting the GWOT.

The Unit understands the importance of team work and doesn't rely so much on Jack Bauer's Army-Of-One approach to confrontation. THE UNIT knows 9mm handguns aren't the answer to every tactical situation.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Horrified?

Apocalyptic president

Even some Republicans are now horrified by the influence Bush has given to the evangelical right

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday March 23, 2006


Within hours of its publication, American Theocracy rocketed to No 1 on Amazon. At US cinemas, V for Vendetta - in which an imaginary Britain, ruled by a totalitarian, faith-based regime that rounds up gays, is a metaphor for Bush's America - is the surprise hit. Bush has succeeded in getting American audiences to cheer for terrorism.

You're selling the Democrats, education, mainstream media, and Hollywood short, Sydney. Terrorism chic and ignorant moral equivalences as answers to everything.

I think you're playing with fire which will have long-term damaging consequences to the Democratic Party, but worse the United States and free world.

Meanwhile, in Iran, gays are rounded up and stoned to death. Girls can be hung for self-defense from attempted rapists. The UK features polygamy and honor killings now.

Hollywood and the Democrats only attack soft targets.

Christians don't believe in bringing on chaos in the world so the Twelfth Imam or Madhi reveals himself, as does Ahmadinejad. "Twelvers" are in charge of Iran. When Christians start pushing for a Senate vote on dates for an apocalypse, be sure to send me e-mail alerts.

Blumenthal claims to have a refined sense for apocalyptic danger, but it's overly selective.

Happy Norooz Everybody!

Norooz

Faith Freedom

Norooz greetings to all Mankind and particularly to those who celebrate this great Day. Norooz is the celebration of life and fertility. Its origin fades into history. This is the oldest festivity alive and it will live as long as this planet lives. Ten thousand years from now, the world will be a different place. All races will merge and become indistinguishable. Nationality would make no sense. Long after religions are thrown in the dustbin of history along with their festivities, the Mother Earth will keep celebrating Norooz in the vernal equinox as she has been doing for billions of years. Trees will blossom, deserts will bloom and life will burst with its glory and beauty. Norooz and perhaps its twin festivity Mehregan, celebrated in the other equinox will endure as long as the Earth endures. The festivity of the 21st of December, when in most of the Earth light overcomes darkness, symbolizing the victory of good over evil, will also be celebrated. These festivities do not belong to any nation or religion. They are the festivities of the Mother Earth. We humans only rejoice watching in awe the miracle of her rebirth year after year in Norooz. Happy Norooz!

Monday, March 20, 2006

South Park creator: "...the million-year war for earth has just begun!"

'South Park'-Scientology Battle Rages On
By ERIN CARLSON, Associated Press Writer


NEW YORK - "South Park" has declared war on Scientology. Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the animated satire, are digging in against the celebrity-endorsed religion after a controversial episode mocking outspoken Scientologist Tom Cruise was yanked abruptly from the schedule Wednesday — with Internet rumors it was covert warfare by Cruise that led to its departure.

"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!" the "South Park" creators said in a statement Friday in Daily Variety. "Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies... You have obsructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail!"

.....In another dig at the famously secretive religion, the credits at show's end are filled with names like "John Smith" and "Jane Smith."

The battle began in earnest earlier this week when Isaac Hayes, another celebrity Scientologist and longtime show member — voicing the ladies' man Chef — quit the show, saying he could no longer tolerate its religious "intolerance and bigotry."

Stone and Parker didn't buy that either.

On Monday, Stone told The Associated Press, "This is 100 percent having to do with his faith in Scientology...He has no problem — and he's cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians."