Speech laws turn scumbags into martyrs

From David Irving to Red Ken, speech laws always backfire. They give a wider audience and moral authority to people who really, really don't deserve it.

Inchoate offenses, of which speech is a part, are one thing. Punishing speech itself is always abused for political reasons, if one accepts any benefits to doing it in the first place, which I don't. The UK and Belgium are poster nations in this regard.

He accused the Board of Deputies of British Jews of making the original complaint only to try to “hush” him up over his views on the Middle East. They want him to “tone down” his views on the Israeli Government, he claimed, adding: “For decades the charge of anti-Semitism has been used to try to suppress any meaningful debate about the policies of the Israeli Government.”

What calling a Jewish reporter a prison camp guard has to do with criticizing the Israeli government, I have no idea. Red Ken gets another free shot for the price of one, this time as a "martyr."

Latest Wank Poll

David Gregory, Eric Alterman, and Keith Olberman need more lotion.

Why should I care about the latest opinion poll of a lame-duck president?

Just wondering. Cuz, Bush isn't running again, and it's nearly impossible for congressional incumbents to lose.

If the Democrats thought jihadists were more of a threat than Republicans, hell, I might vote for one. It wouldn't be the first time.

If you read my blog regularly - hey, it's like a membership at Augusta National in terms of exclusivity - you'll know I think polls are not worth the calories used to create them.

Shocka (/sarc), the most basic rule of political polling was broken (hat tip: PJM) AGAIN.

Total Respondents 1018

Total Republicans 272 27%

Total Democrats 409 40%

Total Independents 337 33%

WEIGHTED

Total Respondents 1018

Total Republicans 289 28%

Total Democrats 381 37%

Total Independents 348 34%

Part of me hopes the Democrats continue to believe their push polling, but the other part of me wants a healthy two-party system.

Polling no longer has anything to do with MEASURING opinion.

Arabs upset - also, sun predicted to rise in East

Arabs see phobia behind uproar over ports deal

"Islamophobia is rising and has become like an infectious disease that spreads... in the West," wrote columnist Rashid Saleh al-Oraimy in the UAE daily Gulf News this week.

Maybe if you didn't issue fatwas over cartoons, kill civilians, blow up hospitals, and behead innocent people, etc., etc. Have you considered that?

There are consequences to not policing your own.

Finally, a term for me: "crunchy con"

Meet Rod Dreher, a conservative who is critical of capitalism.

One area which particularly bugs me is protection of Florida wildlife.

I was listening to talk radio one day and the obviously-northern caller referred to manatees as...

speedbumps on the water.

Now I don't mean to sound feral Floridian, but that's not funny. There's a good chance someone will pull a scimitar and split you ear-to-ear for saying something like that down here.

No, sorry, that's cartoons in Denmark.

Anyway, many of us don't cotton to your Yankee "jokes" about killing off our native animals. Honestly, if the alligator eats you, most of us will excuse the alligator. You have NO right to swim in our lakes. Anyone raised here would agree. So don't run over our manatees, kill our gators, or poison our birds.

M'kay?

In Mr. Dreher's view, consumer-crazed capitalism makes a fetish of individual choice and, if left unchecked, "tends to pull families and communities apart." Thus consumerism and conservatism are, for him, incompatible, a fact that mainstream conservatives, he says, simply do not grasp. He warns that capitalism must be reined in by "the moral and spiritual energies of the people." It is not politics and economics that will save us, he declares. It is adherence to the "eternal moral norms" known as the Permanent Things.

Much of the world does not think you are what you spend. Understanding this fact, and putting consumerism in perspective, is critical to understanding and living happily in the world.

Rod's world sounds livable even if you don't agree with everything he argues.

Mr. Dreher sees "Crunchy Cons," in part, as "a handbook of the resistance." He advocates homeschooling. He applauds community-supported agriculture, small businesses, simple living, historic preservation and much else that promotes a "sacramental" (non-utilitarian) sense of life. You cannot be truly conservative today, he avers, without being countercultural.

Left shows ass: not pretty

I've avoided much comment on the UAE taking over New York's port security.

On the face of it, the UAE seems like a lousy candidate. Why "on the face of it"? Do I really need to spell it out? Second letter, starts with "a."

Thing is, I don't know that much about the UAE. Compared to the Saudis, Syrians, Iranians, or "Palestinians" they don't seem particularly dangerous.

If you don't already see the rank hypocrisy on the Left, let me make it clearer.

Where is the Left on the PATRIOT Act, terrorist surveillance, or fighting jihadists overseas?

No-show, or opposed, that's where. Now we're supposed to hang out a perfectly good (as far as I know) UAE company because the Left sees a threat to itself?

Sorry, but New York only deserves the same PC-protection we get here in Rube Land.

To be clear, yes, I am saying any Democrat who suddenly finds him or herself heavily involved in besmirching the perfectly good name of this fine, upstanding UAE company is Islamophobic, anti-Arab, racist, and should be punished under the applicable hate speech ordinance.

How does it feel, hypocrites?

Religion of overwrought metaphors

PJ Media: Peaktalk

The order makes the astonishing comparison between not wanting (another) big box store on their doorstep and the expulsion of the Israelites from Egypt.

[I did not make that up. This is not one of my fake news stories or headlines.]

There was once a time when religion had some of the BEST thinkers.

LOL!

This month, as Wal-Mart finally began clearing ground on the site, Gillespie introduced a new group, this time including Jesuits, Catholics, Baptists, Buddhists, Daoists, Lutherans and Anglicans, among others, to front the argument that Wal-Mart will blight the practise of religion in Guelph. This time the target is the constitutionality of the local bylaw that permits the Wal-Mart on the site. "The by-law is illegal -- in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms -- in that major commercial activity will directly and substantially interfere with the religious beliefs and practices of individuals of many faiths," reads a release from the group. But is the intent of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms really to permit religious groups to dictate what others may do?

Mixing the oh-so-"tolerant" Left with medieval religious logic is a fascinating milestone of our times. Cartoons of Blasphemy, meet the Wal-Mart of Idolatry.

Rumsfeld states obvious, mildly, but mainstream media seethes

Wretchard

"Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but for the most part we — our country, our government — has not adapted," he said.

(Rumsfeld)

One more time, for posterity.

The modern mainstream media knows four or five basic stories.

1. Vietnam War

2. Protesting the Vietnam War

3. Watergate/presidential scandal

4. Hurricane smashes coast, minorities hardest hit

5. Crap which isn't Earth-shaking national/international news like movie stars, divorces, the latest pretty white woman murder, hunting accidents... The MSM Looney Tunes bias in reporting other issues relates to their star-****ing, IMO.

MSM terrorist coverage would slot into numbers two-four. They basically support anti-American forces, no matter how retrograde or bloody. See, NVA, KJI, Stalin, Che, Saddam, Ahmadinejad, The Dread Cartoons of Blasphemy, HAMAS, or Al-Sadr.

Sandmonkey observes roosting chickens

The chickens are roosting

I have told you before that the people who started this whole cartoon mess were the arab governments, all with their own agendas and goals. Now it seems that they will regret ever instigating this crisis, because it now seems to be out of control. They have unleashed the forces of chaos and now it's backfiring in their faces.

(link in original)

Diana West: Cartoon network

Cartoon network
By Diana West
February 17, 2006



Everything is at stake in the information business, which is now everything else as well. What a perfect backdoor to UN control of the Internet.

Maybe there's some rarified irony about the fact that in a society increasingly dependent on imagery, not words, to convey information, it is imagery that the media have denied us in conveying the story of the Danish Mohammed cartoons. But with a Gallup Poll reporting that 61 percent of US respondents believe that Europeans who printed the caricatures of Mohammed acted irresponsibly, it's nothing to shrug off.
The rationale goes something like this: "Not all self-censorship is a bad thing."
"Even if all the world had the right of free speech, I still believe there are things that should not be said."
"It's some weird presumption of modernity that says because something can be done it must be done."
The above statements came out of my e-mail bag after last week's column "Cartoon Rage 2006," or, "How a Proud Press Bowed Its Head and Submitted to an Islamic Law against Depictions of Mohammed." These letter-writers, representing a small but noticeable contingent, rejected the submission argument as a point of pride, reading into their own contentment to "see no evil" — that is, see no Muhammad cartoons — an elevated sensibility: good manners, good taste, and self-restraint. This may be highly commendable — the good manners, taste and self-restraint part — but it is entirely beside the point.
Which is what draws me back to this freak show of a story one more time before its narrative-memory is set, and before the beginning of the end of press freedom is permanently attributed to kindly, responsible behavior, not incipient dhimmitude.
In another context, I wouldn't disagree with the reader-comments I quoted above. Indeed, I've been known to make similar arguments against all manner of fetid cultural excess, from lurid children's fiction to the notorious Sensation Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in which Dung Virgin first came to fame. Or was that infamy? It's easy to get them confused.
The topic of Dung Virgin, not to mention its companion piece in shock value, Piss Christ, strikes the Good-Mannerists as an important marker in their personal guides to press etiquette. Not grooving to such "artistic" attacks on Christianity, the Good-Mannerists say they can understand the consternation of the Cartoon Ragers — at least to some point shy of death threats, arson and murder — and see media self-censorship as a matter of common decency.
Is the comparison valid? And is the politeness deserved? Absolutely not, and here's one big reason why. Christianity and Islam are not interchangeable belief systems inspired by a generic divinity. One relevant distinction is the way they operate in relation to their societies. Christianity abides by the separation of church and state; Islam knows no separation whatsoever. As a result, the theological teachings of Islam as revealed by Muhammad, which form the basis of the Islamic law (sharia) that drives Islamic societies, necessarily belong to the political sphere in a way that Christianity does not.
This is not to say that Christianity should be, or has been off the table. Indeed, all the ink (not blood) spilled over assorted Excrement Icons only enhanced their value, not to mention the reputations of their artists (using the word loosely). But the all-encompassing nature of Islam underscores a special need for open, critical examination of the Koran and Muhammad as political, and politically violent, forces that roil our times.
Let's take what are considered the most inflammatory of the Danish Dozen: Bomb-head Muhammad; and Muhammad in the clouds, telling arriving suicide bombers that Islamic paradise is plumb out of virgins. What Denmark's cartoonists did in these caricatures is something few writers have dared to do in words: They made visual reference to the copious, historical and contemporary theological underpinnings of holy war (jihad) and suicide bombings. What is offensive here, then, is not the extremely mild caricature, but rather those theological underpinnings of holy war and suicide bombings. When the widely influential Sheik Yusef al-Qaradawi can praise Muhammad as "an epitome for religious warriors [mujahideen]," Muhammad, a jihad model, shouldn't be a taboo subject in the West, either in caricature or commentary, and certainly shouldn't be super-sacralized, in effect, by a fearfully polite censorship. The subject should be laid out for all to see.
The valiant Dutch parliamentarian and ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali put it this way: "You cannot liberalize Islam without criticizing the Prophet and the Koran... You cannot redecorate a house without entering inside." And especially when you're not allowed to see what it looks like.

Surrender of caricature and illustration rights are just the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps more craven appeasement and groveling will work.

So far, so good, dhimmi mainstream media scum. Diana West is one of the only op-ed columnists to mention dhimmitude regularly. Watching my fellow citizens cringe like shy or abused animals is sad.

The media lied about the religious arguments related to depicting the human form in Islam, mostly ignored the plot of the Danish imams and several governments, overstated the nature of the cartoons, used prior restraint on itself, while pushing the AP French hog-calling photo and two other fakes as real, and running old Abu Ghraib photos with vigor.

I welcome comments from those with apocalyptic viewpoints. Most of the media could not be more self-righteous or cowardly.

Diana West's dhimmified readers who wrote wish we could go back to a simpler, more modern time without any effort.

"Prophet" Law Snags Human Rights Body

A drive by a bloc of Islamic nations for a global ban on "defamation of religions and prophets" has thrown a major kink into U.S. hopes for an overhaul of the leading U.N. human rights body.

"defamation of religions and prophets"

Yes, Virginia, it is 2006, and we're debating blasphemy laws in the context of human rights and defamation.

Subtract a thousand: February 17th, 1006. Now it makes sense.

Private human rights groups say the most problematic part of the amendment is a call for the new U.N. council to "prevent instances of intolerance, discrimination, incitement of hatred and violence arising from any actions against religions, prophets and beliefs which threaten the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms."
Jennifer L. Windsor, executive director of the human rights group Freedom Watch, said the OIC effort was one of a number of attempts by nations and blocs at the United Nations to "dumb down the human rights standards."
Freedom Watch has opposed anti-blasphemy laws both in Europe and the Islamic world as an infringement on free speech, she said. "It is never a good idea to protect one human right by repressing another."

Freedom of conscience, expression, and religion are on the chopping block.

"What a beautiful world we live in, a sweet romantic place. Beautiful people everywhere...."

-- Devo

Gumbel bumbles

No blacks in Winter Olympics
I saw Real Sports and did a spit take. First off, there are black people at the Republican Convention. Second, being white relates to less sun, causing frozen water. Right?

Helen at Caribpundit (PJM) had the same reaction I guess.

Florida to sink or explode?

Simply put, Florida is full. Chock full of every urban ill you can think of with more on the way.

(PJM)

Some might contest the absolutist nature of the opinion, but the coastline is hammered from development. On the other hand, we're supposedly entering a long cycle of increased tropical storm activity.

Charting your course through the surridiculous

Cheney

and the magic pellets theory

(PJM)

UN Tables Iran Nukes, Debates Cheney Threat

(Scrappleface)

Bush authorizes deadly force against domestic attorney

President Satisfied With Cheney's Account

WASHINGTON - President Bush was satisfied with Vice President Dick Cheney's account of his Texas hunting accident, but Bush's spokesman declined to say Thursday whether the president felt it should have been revealed earlier.

"I think that the vice president clearly explained the rationale behind that," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, avoiding a direct response to questions about whether Bush felt the shooting accident was publicly disclosed in a timely manner.

The accident happened on Saturday but was not publicly revealed until the next day.

Sometimes speech is governed by one's opinion as to when, or even whether, it should come out.

See, a certain caricature controversy.

But see, old Abu Ghraib photos.

Cheney reveals super power

Very much like Dr. Xavier of the X-Men,

Vice President Dick Cheney disclosed Wednesday that he has the power to declassify sensitive government information, authority that could set up a criminal defense for his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Who is a mutant. "Scooter"?

Rash of VP shootings concerns lawmakers

Cheney Could Face Charges in Shooting

In the only other case of someone being shot by a vice president, Aaron Burr was indicted on murder charges in New York and New Jersey for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804, but he was never tried and finished out his term in office.

Cheney COULD face charges, when monkeys fly out of my butt.

Brit Hume and Cheney

Cheney admitted fault for bad trigger discipline. Good call and should settle things.

Hard to spin that against him.

UPDATE: Apparently it's easy to spin an admission against him.

Some people think he should be charged with a crime.

And nothing is settled.

In other news, there is no other news.

Vice-Presidential Control Lacking?

Vice President Dick Cheney is the most recent in a long line of violent vice presidents of the United States. From Theodore Roosevelt to combat photographer Al Gore, vice presidents are noted for hot tempers and violent outbursts. Some allege Thomas Jefferson was the spiritual leader of an anti-Anglican insurgency some centuries ago.

Dan Quayle, IMO, is by far the best golfer to hold the office of vice president, or president for that matter.

This raises some interesting statuary possibilities.

No-Fun Range Rules Police Backslapping

OH, GOOD GRIEF, YOURSELF YOURSELF [Mark Steyn]

I'm not saying I'm entirely on board with the line that real men shoot each other all the time without whining like a bunch of ninnies about what's no more than a healthy American male bonding experience. But on balance this is one of those no-scandal scandals where Democrat/media hysteria only underlines their estrangement from the average red-state male.

I'm not "on board" with it at all. But shooting tiny pellets all over your surrounding biosphere has been known to cause some small problems. I've never had a similar problem shooting clay birds, but don't bounce shot off metal objects.

That's all I'm going to say about that.

WNMCWJD?

What new muscle car would Jesus drive?

The only old one remaining, retro-mod-redone, is the Mustang.

GTO
Challenger
Charger
Camaro/Firebird

To be fair, foreign cars are getting quite muscle car, ah, ey. Some candidates might include the...

Impreza WRX
Evo
350 Z

And so on.

Feel free to be symbolic.

Commuter Cars

The Tango T600 shows one wave of the future.

The Tango is a glimpse into the future of commuting. Lane doubling, lane splitting, and perpendicular parking will become commonplace. Traffic-induced headaches and lost time will fade into the past. No more worries about safety as you're ballasted for flat-out cornering stability and protected by a racing-certified roll cage designed to protect you and your passenger. Park in places you wouldn't even dream of in a Mini Cooper. Emission-free and exciting, the electric Tango T600 is designed to beat most sports cars in the quarter mile with acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in just 4 seconds and a top speed of 150 mph!

WMWJU?

"Sputnik" - satellite, fellow traveler

see moon

"Soyuz" - Union

"Saturn V"

but see

"Trident"

"Ariane" has the nicest name.

New species? You ain't seen nothing yet

New species? You ain't seen nothing yet

But for the “wow” factor, a treasure trove awaits beneath the sea. Winser, who has been on 10 expeditions, says: “If I was setting out as an explorer today, it would be the deep oceans I would want to work in. I never thought in my lifetime we would discover an entirely different lifeform. David Attenborough’s programme The Blue Planet showed worm-like creatures living off hydrothermal vents in the mid-Atlantic ridge. It shows you don’t have to go to the moon or into space to find something new.”

Steve Fossett Body Double

In pictures: Fossett landing

Looks suspiciously like a P-38 Lightning

Pope says science no threat to faith

Pope says science no threat to faith

Scientific discoveries sometimes came so rapidly "that it becomes very complicated to recognize how they are compatible with the truth revealed by God about man and the world," said the German-born Pontiff, 78.

"M-Theory"

I understand the "MPower Theory."

Three dimensions and time are enough for me on an ordinary day.

Big bang theory is introduced
1927


Far-Right PBS purports that...

Georges LeMaitre (1894-1966) showed that religion and science -- or at least physics -- did not have to be incompatible. LeMaitre, born in Belgium, was a monsignor in the Catholic church.

Life of Brian: Scene 4

The stoning

7 Questions

7 Questions
It's a great post on everything from moderate Islam to non-violent tactics.

I'm going to cherry-pick one small possible suggestion when cartoons offend anyone.

ignoring them is certainly a valid option

What Missile Would Jesus Use?

Barcepundit via PJM.

Jesus is depicted holding the AIM-54 "Phoenix" Missile, deployed with the United States Navy F-14 "Tomcat."

Other candidates for Jesus:

SA-7 "Grail"

SS-18 "Satan"

LGM-118A "Peacekeeper"

Hoax cartoons and the continuing saga of the Danish imams

Another Possible Hoax of a Cartoon; Call for Graphology Expertise.—

The Volokh Conspiracy (links in original)

The Danish clerics who spread the 15 Muhammad cartoons have been evasive about where they got the three most offensive ones, ones that had never been published by Jyllands-Posten or media in any country, at least before the dispute arose.

.....These two oddly drawn letters raise a question in my untrained mind whether the author of the "demon pedophile" cartoon was brought up writing some form of the Arabic alphabet.

Iraq quietly approves vote, and car bomb

The final results made official and grants women their right share…


Car bomb

Within minutes of the final election tally, a remote-controlled car bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in southern of Baghdad killing seven Sunnis and wounding 22.

Decapitation Chic

PJ Media links to Lileks. Something for everyone, history buffs, soda jerks, Francophiles, Francocide, whatever.

I'm sure it’s a direct intentional reference to the sort of dead-king porn I posted above. According to the website for the demo organizers, the “endorsers” of the rally include Ed Asner, Susan Sarandon, John Sayles, Martin Sheen, Al Sharpton, Gloria Steinham, Studs Terkel, Jane Fonda, Lawrence Ferlinghetti (still alive!) Gore Vidal (that famous man of the people), Wavy Gravy (he had a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream named after him, so he must be heeded. Attention must be paid!) Jessica Lange, Michael Lerner, Mark Crispin Miller, Ed Begley Jr., Harry Belafonte, Gabriel Byrne. Ward Churchill, and someone described as the “executive director” of the “Hate Free Zone Washington.” Also Casey Kasem, the voice of “Shaggy” on Scooby Doo. I do not think that any of these people want anyone decapitated. I also do not think that any of these people would have told the woman to put the sign away. I do think that I will recall that sign when I hear their names again.

MPAC cribs Holocaust denier Irving and no hat tip

No hat tip

Maybe if Asghar Bukhari and the people at MPAC spent less time reading the works of David Irving then they would not believe all this Zionist conspiracy nonsense so readily.

MPAC do, however, hat tip Bilal Patel for the discovery .

Hat Tip, Pajamas Media

link

Trappes, France

Guest Translator, "joiesauvage"

>Dhimmi Watch

Translation from Paris: the ISLAMISATION OF FRANCE

Trappes, 35 km of Paris: an islamist city

Seen on television last month:
http://www.dailymotion.com/search/islam/video/34176
I decided to give you the link to this impressive video about Trappes, a little town not far from Paris. I hope those of you who understand French will watch it. For the others, I decided to translate the main moments of the video as it really shows how a country gets islamised. A lot of French people have seen it.

First, the journalist tries to film a Muslim prayer in Trappes. People warn him: “if you stay here you will have big problems”. He cannot attend the end of the prayer and he has to leave. Later, a guy in the street threatens him: “What, you want to film what, you want to film the Brothers ? Go away ” etc.

A guy explains to the journalist: “In 20 years, everything has changed here. One cannot buy alcohol anymore. One cannot buy pork. Almost all the whites have left. Amost all the women are veiled. It is a pity because diversity has disappeared”.

The journalist goes to a Muslim book shop... the book seller is a Catholic convert, a radical Muslim (wearing a beard etc.). He only sells religious books about Islam, and he also sells veils for the women. He does not answer when he is asked about lapidation. He says: “it is a complex issue and one would need more time to discuss it”.

Another guy explains he is a theater professor. He tries to give theater lessons to the youth of Trappes. He says: “There are less and less girls attending my improvisation and theater courses... sometimes I meet a girl I know in the street, who used to attend my theater courses, I can hardly recognise her: she wears a veil, she acts strangely and does not talk to me. I can’t believe how they changed, it makes me feel uncomfortable”.

A veiled girl says, very moved: “When I pray, I feel like I am soaring... I am facing God. It is as if I was under drugs, I cannot explain it”.

Then the journalist meets a group of Rap, one of the only ones which is male and female, and some singers are non Muslim. He asks the youth what they think about the veil, but the girls, even the non Muslim, are embarrassed and don’t seem to want to answer. Only the guys talk. But then the journalist asks the girls what they think about it. A non Muslim girl says “I am against the veil, but I don’t want to talk about it”. Another girl says: “I don’t wear a skirt here in Trappes, because in the street the guys would call me a whore. But outside Trappes, I like wearing a skirt”.

The journalist finally finds a laic place, it is a high school. There the girls are free to talk: “20 years ago, women were respected here. Now, there is no respect towards women, they are called WHORES by the men in the street”. Another girl: “the French State must do something... they know it happens, it is visible enough no ? “ Another girl: “When the girls wear trousers, they are more respected than if they wear skirts, but they are still inferior to the men”. “Men think we are sexual objects, and cooks”. A blond girl makes fun of the men saying “all they want is a hole” and all the girls laugh.

Then the journalist films the preparation for the big demonstration against the Law against the veil (it had been a big controversy in France). The guys organise everything and tell the women what they must do. There are two buses to go to Paris (for the demonstration), one for men, one for women. A man climbs into the women’s bus and says to them: “do not talk to any journalist during the demonstration”.

But during the demonstration (in Paris), a veiled woman tells the journalist: “wearing a veil is not always easy, because when you have the veil, you cannot go out on evening anymore”.

Back to the high school. A philosophy teacher (white, non Muslim woman) says: “I had never had problems before but now, some pupils question my teachings in the name of Islam. Islam is superior to everything, it has the answer for everything. It is superior to Science. They say the Big Bang is explained in the Coran. I had some parents coming to the school to contest my teaching in the name of Islam. I was sued by the Muslim association of Trappes for “racial hatred” (NB: the journalist does not say who won).

The journalist films an anti Israel demonstration in Trappes.

The journalist then visits some mothers, first generation of immigrants, who cannot speak French (they speak Arabic). They explain that they are against the veil “because we want our daughters to find a job and with the veil it is not easy”. A white woman says “it is the fault of the successive French goverments because they have put all the Muslims together and hence they speak Arabic between them and have no chance to integrate, and now the radicals are here. It is ridiculous, some women are not even veiled in their coutnry and when they arrive here, after a few months they wear a veil”.

The daughters explain (in French): “We are more educated than our mothers, hence we are more religious because we understand Islam better”. One of them says: “They keep asking us to “integrate”... but they must stop now, they must understand that a Frenchwoman does not necessarily drink beer or eat pork... WE DO NOT WANT TO INTEGRATE. France is also Islamic”.

Some Muslims, in Trappes, disagree, it is the black community (from West Africa). A black guy explains: “We have been rejected by the Arab Muslim community. The Arab Muslims have become too political. We do not want that. We are for a tolerant Islam. We respect the laws of France. We African Blacks are not Arab, and we will never be Arab”. And also: “Now I hear some kids saying that Coca Cola is the drink of Satan...”

Back to the Catholic convert (the book seller): “Islam is for everybody... we just have to wait. Islam is a giant which will conquer everything. Everybody will be touched, the Europeans, the Americans, men and women, the lawyers and the workers, everybody”.

Dhimmi part: about the mayor of Trappes, a socialist. A guy explains that “the mayor of Trappes has given his soul for a mosquee”. He explains that the mayor promised the radicals to give them money for a mosquee and for a religious (coranic) school if they voted for him, which they did. The journalist visits the mayor of Trappes who says he will not comment about that.

Laic resistance in Trappes: some teachers have organised a conference about “women and laicity”. The radical Muslims are attending but they do not speak. A woman says “Islam has to renounce some of its principles to be integrated in Europe”. A veiled girl takes the micro: “Who are you to tell us what we must do, you so called laic people...” etc.

That’s all ! Sorry for my imperfect English... I felt I had to translate this video because it might be our future... I will post in on several threads.... (maybe Mr Spencer will argue with me but I take the risk, as long as he does not lapidate me, but I don’t think lapidation is part of his traditions).

Votre Anglais est tres bon.

LOL

To translate from the French I'd have to listen to it a hundred times and dig out my dictionary.

The proposed Trappes Mosque looks like a cross between Versailles and the Louvres, pre-pyramid.

Speaking of great obelisks, some Muslims want to destroy the Great Pyramids.

What happens to the Danish imams who created the three most offensive cartoons?

If they aren't under threat, aren't the world's angry Muslims nothing but hypocrites?

Michelle Malkin has all the cartoons here. By any - Islamic - standard, the Danish imams must die.

(That's a rhetorical point, not a suggestion.)

Reconciling Islam With Modernity

He asserts that Koranic verses must be interpreted in their historical context and, paradoxically, that it is by acknowledging the historical roots of the Koran that Muslims can reconcile it with modernity.
I've made this argument on many occasions. Unless Islam leaves Seventh Century morality and behaviors in the Seventh Century the modern world will be forced to take draconian defensive measures.

Free people will not accept theocracy, shari'a, beheadings, blasphemy laws, stonings, dhimmitude, jizya, and Islamic supremacism over all other faiths. Islam - the total regulation of human life according to Seventh Century law, science, and morality - will not conquer the modern world. Without Enlightenment Islam is digging its own grave.

Merkel gets it!

Iran and the Hitler analogy

It's like ignoring the tide suddenly going out much further than you've ever seen it go out before. Genocide is not a talking point.

Mrs. Merkel warned against a repetition of the complacency demonstrated by the international community during the early years of Nazi rule. "Looking back to German history in the early 1930s when National Socialism was on the rise, there were many outside Germany who said, 'It's only rhetoric -- don't get excited,' " she said on Saturday, referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements calling for Israel's destruction and questioning the Holocaust.

As I've said before, Iran has a right - as a nation - to peaceful nuclear energy. Ahmadinejad and the mullahs do not have a right to launch a war of extermination.

Decapitation strategy, all leadership targets, figure out what to do next, next.

Standing on the shoulders of giants (is a big head start) (doesn't leave me cold)

Alexander's middle name is/was Locke. The greatest tragedy in my life will (I hope) always be the fact I never got a chance to explain the meanings of his name to him.

(tear gas attack)

Anyway, Locke and Spinoza are my two favorite Enlightenment philosophers on the subject of religion. Pico made similar arguments during the Renaissance.

Amazing how the true meaning of "liberal" has been distorted and ruined by the passing of time. Marxists are not liberals, or even close.

I have been reading it (Locke’s first major publication, A Letter Concerning Toleration -- Chip) because it so directly addresses the most difficult question of the moment: how can people with different beliefs live with one another in peace? Locke’s first translator sums up the situation as it was in the 1690s: “This narrowness of spirit on all sides has undoubtedly been the principal occasion of our miseries and confusions. But whatever has been the occasion, it is now high time to seek for a thorough cure. We have need for more generous remedies than have yet been made use of . . . absolute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty, is the thing we stand in need of.”

This last sentence was much quoted in the American Revolution, as though the precis had been written by Locke himself. But it was not, and it goes beyond what Locke himself believed. The criticism of “narrowness of spirit” is certainly Lockean, and so is the call for “generous remedies”, but he was a physician and not a fanatic, even in the cause of liberty. He calls for liberty restrained by reason and law, rather than absolute liberty in all kinds and circumstances. That makes him more helpful to our age of contradiction.

Locke argues that religion is a matter for the individual not the State. “The care of every man’s soul belongs unto himself, and is to be left unto himself.” The State ought to give equal protection to all churches and religious opinions. There should be no persecution on religious grounds, indeed: “We must not content ourselves with the narrow measures of bare justice. Charity, bounty and liberality must be added to it. This the Gospel enjoins; this reason directs; and this the natural fellowship we are born into requires of us.”

Locke did not believe in using force but in “the inward persuasion of the mind, without which nothing can be acceptable to God. Such is the nature of the understanding that it cannot be compelled to the belief of anything by outward force”. His liberalism is based on the natural independence of the human mind. It is ultimately a psychological theory.

Food for thought as you watch Muslims all over the world respond to orchestrated calls for violence over months-old cartoons:

Seventeenth-century Islam was included in the criticism. “It is ridiculous for anyone to profess himself to be a Mohametan (sic) only in his religion, but in everything else a faithful subject to a Christian magistrate, while at the same time he acknowledges himself bound to yield blind obedience to the Mufti of Constantinople, who himself is entirely obedient to the Ottoman Emperor.” Fortunately, the Papacy no longer claims the right to excommunicate and depose monarchs, there is no Ottoman Emperor, and if there still is a Mufti of Constantinople he certainly has no universal authority in Islam. But Osama bin Laden really is a dangerous man who does claim obedience of his followers.

Mainstream Media Winning Fight to Remain Clueless

Could we please get two things straight?

1. Islam, according to many, forbids any depiction of human form.

2. Any Muslim (or infidel who angers a Muslim, apparently) who insults a prophet, kill him. (Hadith)

There is no rule on depicting Mohammed.

I realize cracking open the Qur'an, Sunnah, or Hadith is far too much work for the mainstream media, it would require an Internet search, but quit reporting lies somehow.

When Muslims push for blasphemy laws under the guise of hate speech, will any of this be covered? Silly question, of course not. That's just their religion (of hate).

There is no New New World

My ancestors came to the United States to escape state religion, blasphemy laws, and theocracy. Now the American State Department, Bill Clinton, the UN, EU, and countless others have sided with Islamic thugs and theocrats enforcing medieval blasphemy laws at the points of rusty knives.

At what point does it become necessary for free people to take defense of freedom into their own hands? The institutions originally conceived as allies of freedom have abandoned the most fundamental freedom to barbarians.

If our governments would rather side with the enemies of freedom, what does that make our governments?

Yes, cartoons. It actually boils down to cartoons.

I'd move to another planet if it was technically possible. But it's not. So the most serious question remaining is: are there any allies of freedom left in official positions in the so-called West?

If not, what should free people do about it?

Blind Media Fails in Acorn Quest

Some Arabs Aren't Fans of Iranian Leader

By DONNA ABU-NASR Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

BEIRUT, Lebanon Feb 2, 2006 — He wants Israel wiped off the face of the earth, dismisses the Holocaust as a myth and defies the world by pushing ahead with a nuclear program. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fiery rhetoric has found instant appeal among some Arabs, who consider him a hero for standing up to Israel and the West. But not everyone is cheering the hard-line leader.

I'm supposed to take it on the word of some Donna Abu-Nasr that Arabs and Muslims don't support Ahmadinejad for wanting to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, dismissing the Holocaust as a myth, and pushing ahead with a nuclear program?

When did all mainstream media coverage become egocentric drivel? And why wasn't I notified?

Was Hitler a "hard-line leader"? Iran stones women for self-defense. Iran issues fatwas against writers. Iran is the world's largest terror sponsor. Iran's leader is in favor of genocide.

When a nuke takes out New York City, the media elites can't say it wasn't their fault. They will dhimmi until it hurts, and then until it causes death.

The Magic Words, Please

Arabs Pressure Hamas to Renounce Violence

AP - Wed Feb 1, 3:27 PM ET
CAIRO, Egypt - Two top Egyptian officials called on Hamas to recognize Israel, disarm and honor past peace deals Wednesday, the latest sign Arab governments are pushing the militant group to moderate after its surprise election victory. Separately, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has told Egyptian officials he would hold off on asking Hamas to form the next Palestinian government until Hamas renounces violence.

Hard to imagine a less meaningful gesture, excluding some large jizya payments, if accomplished. A Hamas leader will eventually mutter something which won't change their beliefs or intentions one bit.

We will not give up the resistance in the sense of Jihad, martyrdom-seeking, sacrifices, arrests, the demolition of homes, and the uprooting of trees, at the same time, nor the shattering of the Israeli enemy’s honor in all the confrontations - the war of tunnels and of security against the Israeli enemy, which ultimately led to its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank

Suicide Voters

Suicide Voters
How Hamas dooms Palestine.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, Jan. 30, 2006, at 2:59 PM ET

The preferred analysis, which certainly derives from a kernel of fact, is that the vote represents a repudiation of the baroque corruption of the Arafat gang (which was so brilliantly anatomized by David Samuels in the Atlantic of September 2005). But there are at least two difficulties with this comforting conclusion. For one thing, anyone voting for a clerical party in the hope of abolishing corruption is asking to be considered a fool and also treated as one: There is corruption all over the Middle East, but it is nowhere as flagrant and exploitative and damaging as in the region's two main theocracies, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Those who come to power as puritans lose no time in becoming positively gorgeous in the excess of their corruption, and Hamas will not be an exception to this rule.

There is also an element of condescension in the "corruption" explanation. Hamas says that it wants an Islamic state all the way from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. It publishes and promulgates the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Why not assume that it is at least partly serious about all this?