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

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.