Finally! Suing Ahmadinejad for Incitement to Genocide

The lawsuit, whose main points are being published here for the first time, is based on the 1948 UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, one of the most important conventions in international law.
Indeed it is. Where are AI, HRW, and the rest when it comes to the Hitler (but with less nuance) of our era?

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!"

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).

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.

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.

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?