There are those who seek to portray the refusal of British holidaymakers to allow two suspiciously acting Arabs on a flight as a victory for terrorists.
The truth is, however, that the exact opposite is the case. This was a clear victory for people who felt threatened and took steps to protect themselves.
Do you know what a victory for terrorists would have been? To allow the dodgy-looking pair on board and then wonder in fear whether they are going to blow up the plane in mid-flight. The holidaymakers did the right and rational thing they removed the perceived threat and traveled home in peace.
They have also put the British government which still stubbornly refuses to profile Arabs and Muslims on notice. It will either do what is needed to protect its citizens or it will face a rebellion among the population. The travelers on that flight are to be applauded, because they showed us that we do not have to cower in fear when our governments refuse to do what is necessary to protect us.
The mutiny on that Manchester-bound flight was a stinging rebuke to a government which is not doing enough to protect its citizens and a sharp blow to terrorists who hope to exploit that governments weakness to carry out their murderous plots. The passengers acted and their message was clear: We do not appreciate being blown up by Muslims in our midst, and we are not going to put up with government-sponsored multicultural madness anymore.
Lets just hope that this attitude will translate into electoral fruit. We need to vote in officials who will take commonsensical measures to ensure our safety and eject multiculturalists willing to sacrifice the lives of innocent citizens on the altar of their misguided ideology.
As details of last week's failed bomb plots started to emerge, I was reminded of a debate I took part in last year at Birmingham's central mosque during a conference in the city. It was shortly after the July 7 bombings in London and we had been invited to discuss the issue of security with local Muslim leaders. It was supposed to be the highlight of the conference. The mosque is widely regarded as a hotbed of extremism. So this was a rare opportunity to question why local youths were being filled with such hatred against British society and what role the mosque was playing in it.
I should have known better. My fellow delegates - mostly left-leaning policy wonks, journalists and academics - were never going to ask the tough questions. Frightened of giving offence, the debate turned into familiar hand-wringing about racism, Western decadence and the need for greater cultural understanding. As a result, we learned little of any value about the role of radical imams and preachers of hate in fomenting terrorism. But as a lesson in the cultural cowardice of the British establishment, it could not be bettered.
Britain's loss of nerve is one of the main reasons it has become a global centre of Islamic extremism. The idea that Britain should become a joyous melting pot of different cultures and religions living side by side in mutual toleration and respect is a noble vision. But it's not working out that way. Instead, the benefits of immigration are being lost through a failure to control numbers and a reluctance to pursue policies that might promote integration. As a result, Britain has a huge Muslim population, much of which is increasingly alienated from mainstream society. "Londonistan" is no longer just a safe haven for foreign extremists. Today, it nurtures home-grown terrorists, many born in Britain, educated at British schools and attending British universities.
Continued on Page 49
#1
He is right Tony Blair government are a soft touch exploited by Muslims who take all they can ie Benefits etc but give nothing to British society.
If they dont like our country and values i am sure they can live in an Islamic land like Saudi or Pakistan but hey there is no welfare state,Free NHS,Free education,Free housing etc.
There is poor reasoning, and then there is head-spinningly, jaw-droppingly poor reasoning. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor's angry 44-page ruling against NSA terrorism surveillance is the latter, and constitutes little more than a political stunt, with ever-so-helpful declarations like "There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution." The American Civil Liberties Union forum-shopped this lawsuit, handed it to a reliably left-liberal Jimmy Carter appointee in Detroit and got its desired result. It probably didn't count on the extreme intellectual embarrassment of Judge Diggs Taylor's opinion, however, which is now being noted by left and right alike.
The New York Times, of course, could be counted on to call the ruling -- which declares NSA surveillance unconstitutional, sides with the journalist-academic-lawyer plaintiffs who alleged that their rights were being monitored and issues a permanent injunction against the NSA program -- "a careful, thoroughly grounded opinion." But aside from the NYT-ACLU-Democratic Party axis, just about everyone commenting on the legal worth of the opinion acknowledges its exceptional logical poverty.
The Washington Post called the opinion "neither careful nor scholarly" and "long on throat-clearing sound bites." A writer for the hard-left Web site Daily Kos called it "poorly reasoned and totally unhelpful." "[A]n atrocity," wrote the liberal blogger Publius: "[p]remature, unsupported, and in violation of elementary civil procedure." "[T]here's no question that it's a poorly reasoned decision," Wake Forest University national-security law professor Bobby Chesney said. "[A] few pages of general ruminations about the Fourth Amendment (much of it incomplete and some of it simply incorrect)," wrote the legal scholar Orin Kerr. "I wouldn't accept this utterly unsupported, constitutionally and logically bankrupt collection of musings from a first-year law student, much less a new lawyer at my firm," wrote Brian Cunningham, a lawyer who served under both the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Continued on Page 49
#1
I'm afraid that poor reasoning, lack of research, disregard of case law and precedent, etc., are not requisites for impeaching a Federal Judge anymore. If they were, Ruth Ginsberg, perhaps the most incompetent judge in SCOTUS history, would have been long gone, along with nearly the entire 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
#2
She's dumber than a box of rocks. I believe the judge might be well advised to go back and take a gander at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as articulated under the USA Patrioit Act.
#3
Congress has no interest in impeaching any of them anymore. So much for the lie of 'checks and balances'. Long past time the judges be subject to the direct consent of the governed.
#4
What more proof of the idea that hiring based upon anything but taking the most highly qualified person will result in dismal failure do you need than this person who was hired on the basis of something other than being the most qualified person and her decision in this case?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/21/2006 9:26 Comments ||
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#5
She may be right in her opinion, but there is no solace in being dead right.
Posted by: john ||
08/21/2006 10:25 Comments ||
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#6
Very old topic, it seems.
"A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Ritchie, 1820. ME 15:298
"Having found from experience that impeachment is an impracticable thing, a mere scarecrow, [the Judiciary] consider themselves secure for life." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Ritchie, 1820. ME 15:297
"Impeachment is a farce which will not be tried again." --Thomas Jefferson to William B. Giles, 1807. ME 11:191
Like W S Gilbert's cowardly policemen in The Pirates of Penzance, Europe's prospective peacekeepers have decided that "a policeman's lot is not a happy one". Europe's serious exercise in peacekeeping led to the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica, when Dutch soldiers turned over Muslims in their charge to Serb death squads.
France offers no more than 200 engineers to join the peacekeeping force that the United Nations Security Council has mandated as a buffer on the Israeli-Lebanese border. The last time French peacekeepers ventured into Lebanon, a Hezbollah suicide bomber killed 58 paratroopers. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has appealed to Italy to lead the 15,000-strong UN force. The last time an Italian army confronted a well-armed and determined force in the region, at the Ethiopian battle of Adwa in 1896, the Italians suffered 70% casualties.
Otto von Bismarck pronounced the Balkans unworthy of the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier, and Europe's governments seem unwilling to sacrifice a single soldier to maintain the peace in southern Lebanon. This raises the question: What is Europe's interest in the Middle East? The answer appears to be: To disappear and be forgotten with the least possible fuss.
A people without progeny will not accept a single military casualty. If this generation is the last, there will be no children for whom to sacrifice. Today's Europeans value their distractions and amusements more than they do prospective children. Germany's 2005 birth rate of only 8.5 per 1,000 inhabitants indicates that Europe is following the low variant of UN population estimates. These guarantee the virtual disappearance of the Europeans by the end of the present century.
Only 300 million Europeans, nearly half of them geriatric, will remain at the end of the present century against more than 700 million (including all of Eastern Europe) today. Europeans younger than 60 years of age now number about 560 million; that number will fall by only 150 million by the year 2100. This number excludes immigrants, overwhelmingly from the Middle East and Africa, who show no signs of assimilating as Europeans.
The number of Americans will exceed the number of Europeans, Russia included, by around the year 2080, although the aggregate numbers mask the true extent of the catastrophe, for nearly half of Europe's survivors will have reached retirement age. A fifth of Europeans are past 60 now; by 2050 more than a third will be above 60; and by the end of the century nearly half. The United States' elderly will number about 30%, so that the number of Americans younger than 60, at 280 million, will be close to double the number of young and working-age Europeans.
It might be objected that Europe's demographic catastrophe lies a generation hence, and that it need not determine European policy today. Just the opposite is true: it is Europe's present attitudes that dictate the demographic catastrophe. Europe began to die in the 1990s when deaths outnumbered births.
It seems unlikely that French diplomats deceived the world by promising French leadership and boots on the ground to enforce the latest UN ceasefire resolution. It simply is difficult to find volunteers to bell the cat.
From this we should conclude that the so-called "international community" is an empty construct. The Europeans, Russia included, are the walking dead. Europe wants a quiet transition to the cemetery, while Russia plays spoiler indifferent to future consequences; whatever those consequences might be, very few Russians will be alive to see them. The United States is the only superpower not because no other Western country will have sufficient people to act like a superpower a century hence; the United States will have more people a century hence precisely because Americans think and feel like citizens of a superpower.
All that matters is the coming confrontation between the United States and Iran. Iran's own demographic future resembles that of Europe more than it does the United States. By mid-century, Iran's aged will compose nearly a third of its population, and its population pyramid will invert. Social and economic catastrophe threatens Iran, persuading its present leaders to establish a regional empire while they still have the opportunity.
The Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire came into effect because Washington threatened Tehran with something extremely unpleasant if it continued to enrich uranium. Iran is not sure how far the United States will go, or how it should respond, and wants to buy time. That is why it kenneled its dogs in southern Lebanon, at least for the moment. Israel shrank before the number of casualties required to neutralize Hezbollah, and was happy to let the United States have a heart-to-heart conversation with the dogs' master. The rest of the matter, notably France's buffo part, is light farce.
What happens next is entirely up to Iran. I have predicted that Iran will remain intransigent, for it cannot abandon its last chance for a new Persian Empire. The Persians have been an annoyance since the Battle of Marathon, and it will not displease me to see them fail again. If Iran refuses to change course, nothing short of force of arms will keep it from building nuclear weapons, something the US is reluctant to employ. That would bury what is left of America's nation-building exercise in Iraq, and possibly throw the world economy into recession through much higher oil prices. The two protagonists are circling each other, while their proxy warriors - Hezbollah and Israel - lick their wounds and watch.
In the end, I believe the US will attack Iran's nuclear facilities. But the outcome is in Iranian hands. Even Nineveh repented and was saved after hearing Jonah's prophecy that it would be destroyed otherwise; who can tell if Washington's threats are as potent as the execution?
#1
If there are any European posters in the 'burg - how is it that the government in Brussels can get away with doing nothing to reverse the policies causing the demographic demise of the Continent and remain in power and get away with it, especially since said demise is pretty much common knowledge?
I'm serious about this - I'm curious to know from someone living there how the populace doesn't storm the gates in the face of such blase incompetence.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/21/2006 18:44 Comments ||
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#2
Look at who made the EU. It wasn't the people. It was the King of the Belgians...
(CNSNews.com) - August 22 could usher in an apocalyptic period in the Middle East thanks to some belligerent action on the part of the Iranian regime. Or maybe not. As Tuesday approaches, the Internet is running hot with speculation about what Tuesday may bring, ranging from a new refusal by Iran to shut down its controversial uranium-enrichment activities to an attack -- even a nuclear attack -- against Israel.
The frenzy was prompted by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement, more than a month ago, that his government would deliver its response on August 22 to an international carrot-and-stick proposal aimed at defusing the standoff over its nuclear activities. The date was chosen by Tehran and had no obvious relevance in international diplomacy. The only formal deadline the international community is currently awaiting with regard to Iran is August 31 -- the date set by the U.N. Security Council for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment or face the possibility of sanctions. Some commentators have downplayed the importance of August 22, arguing that the decision was simply one of convenience, akin to saying "we'll respond by the end of the month." August 22 marks the end of the Persian solar month of Mordad.
But others are less sanguine, noting that the date is significant in Islam, for several reasons. It coincides with the Islamic calendar date Rajab 28, the day Jerusalem fell to the Islamic warrior Saladin, in October 1187. Many Muslims regard Saladin's victory as a high point in Islamic history, and just weeks ago, Syrian fans of Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah were likening him to the 12th century Kurdish hero.
On the night of August 21-22, Muslims believe Mohammed underwent his "night journey," a trip on a magical steed from Mecca via the "farthest mosque" -- later said to be al-Aqsa in Jerusalem -- and on to heaven and back. The two-stage journey is known in Islam as the "isla and miraj," and tradition holds that a divine white light appeared over Jerusalem at the time.
"The night of August 21 is a very, very important night in Shi'a Islam," according to Farid Ghadry, a Sunni Muslim and president of the exiled Reform Party of Syria, based in the U.S. Ghadry claimed that Ahmadinejad would deliver his answer to the international community in the form of a "light in the sky" over the al-Aqsa mosque on the night of Aug. 21-22. He urged the world to take the date seriously, adding that "nothing happens without a reason in Iran."
Commenting on Ghadry's interpretation, Robert Spencer of Jihadwatch argued that an Iranian attack on Israel, conventional or nuclear, would "be consistent with Ahmadinejad's oft-repeated denials of Israel's right to exist and recent predictions that its demise was at hand." "Will he attempt to make good on these threats this year on the anniversary of the miraj, illuminating the night sky over Jerusalem?" Spencer wrote in Front Page magazine. "Will Western powers heed Farid Ghadry's words and move to stop Iran before it is too late?"
An article published by the pan-Arabic media organization al-Bawaba noted Ahmadinejad's adherence to the Shi'ite belief in the 12th imam - also known as the "hidden" imam, Mahdi, who disappeared more than a thousand years ago but has been miraculously kept alive, pending his emergence at a time of global chaos and war. "Some believe that Imam Mahdi will be returning some time this August, also the time some military experts predict that Iran will be ready to construct its first nuclear weapon," it said. "Apparently, Ahmadinejad sees himself as an instrument to pave the way for the arrival of Imam Mahdi as well as an important successor to Saladin in terms of the liberation of Jerusalem."
Circulating widely online are the thoughts of the veteran Islamic scholar Prof. Bernard Lewis, who also refers to the belief in the return of the hidden imam.
"Mr. Ahmadinejad and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced," he said in an article originally published Aug. 8 in the Wall Street Journal.
Pointing to the date of Mohammed's journey, Lewis wrote: "This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world." "It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22," he said. "But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind."
"In the world of radical Islam past events add weight to any contemporary attack," political commentator Micah Halpern wrote in the Israel Insider magazine. "Attacks are programmed to resonate with history and reverberate with meaning beyond the present. Attacks are a tool used to remind the collective Muslim community to recall an historical episode." Halpern argued that the Iranian president chose Aug. 22 because of its significance in Islamic history.
"Ahmadinejad is invoking eschatology, the end of days and the time of 'the great light in the sky' as Muslims call it. Ahmadinejad is informing the Muslim world that, this year also, an event of significance will happen on that date. Ahmadinejad proclaims that the event will change their destiny."
The Israel intelligence website Debkafile reports that there is much speculation about what Iran may be planning for Tuesday. "Tehran may announce success in producing enriched uranium of a higher grade, meaning it is no more than six months away from a weapons-grade capability. While providing justification for U.N. Security Council sanctions, Tehran prefers to believe that this announcement will be its passport for admission to the world's nuclear club and its attendant privileges, including the right to enrich uranium independently."
Counterterrorism consultant Daveed Gartenstein-Ross mulled the possibility that Iran's Aug. 22 date may be linked in some way to recent unconfirmed reports suggesting that North Korea may be preparing for an underground nuclear weapons test. Writing at the Counterterrorism blog, he noted that the two rogue states have cooperated in the past in the nuclear field.
In an article on the question of the Aug. 22 date, investment analyst Larry Edelson said conditions looked ripe for a wider war in the Middle East. The Arab world was convinced Israel had come out of its month-long conflict with Hizballah in Lebanon having "effectively lost its first war," he said on the Money and Markets website. "Hizballah is essentially an extension of Iran, supplied and financed by the country's Revolutionary Guard. End result: Iran is more emboldened than ever." Edelson predicted an increase in volatility and financial risk by the end of August.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 12:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#2
Nothing. That's what happens, or something so insignificant that you wont know it happened anyway.
They are full of shit, always have been, probably always will be. They kidnap and kill unarmed civillians, jail students, mistreat women, abuse their kids, rape goats, inbreed, and generally make a nuisance of themselves. The world doesn't need these crackpots anymore. I say we should make the 22nd a day that they will never forget.
#3
If there's a missile on a pad somewheres in Iran, I hope there's a B-2 in the vicinity packing a sat-guided warshot. It'd be terrible if the Hidden Imam's coming was spoiled by a "work accident."
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2006 11:40 Comments ||
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#4
I wonder if they had a missile test or some such scheduled which would now be anticlimactic after the Hezb'Allah - Israel operations.
#5
Question for Rantburgers, "And then what happens?"
The MMs deliver yet another wordy treatise saying they won't give up their nuclear program-- leaving the rest of us scratching our heads wondering what the fuss was all about.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/21/2006 11:49 Comments ||
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#6
Question for Rantburgers, "And then what happens?"
It might be better to direct the question to the Iranian radar operators. Not that they'd see us coming anyway.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/21/2006 11:56 Comments ||
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#7
Here are some hypothesis I've heard so far:
1) Debka sez that they are planning a large number of unconventional attack in Jerusalem for that day.
2) Remember when they used pilgrims to smuggle axes into Mecca? Interesting MO. Right now there are lots of pilgrims are in southern Iraq.
3) Trying an unconventional decapitation operation against the Saud family.
4) Nuclear test either in Iran or Nork.
5) Closing the Strait of Hormuz.
6) Nork-style ballistic missile tests of long-range Shahab-4 or 5's.
7) Ballistic missile attack against US airbases in Iraq and Bagram in Afghanistan.
#10
August 22 is the feast of Lailat al Miraj. This is the day that the child molestor was transported to Jerusalem, and went to heaven from the Temple Mount, and returned. It is also the anniversary of the death of Abu Bakr, the guy responsible for the original split between Sunni and Shi'a.
You can bet that Iran won't be giving up its program. You can also bet that they won't be accepting any sort of limits or controls.
I have postulated an attack on the Saudis. It would remove a Sunni power in the Gulf, poke a huge finger in the eye of the Guardians of the Holy Places, and revenge the Shi'a killed by Sunnis funded by the Saudis.
A bomb test is equally likely. A move against Oman to control the Straits, hmmmmm?
A strike on Israel is only on the table if it is part of a strike on the US. They don't get to Israel except through us, thanks to geography. Hezb tries something? Maybe, but I see direct action by Iran as far more likely. Hezb might join in but it won't be the only attack.
A successful test, say 80% likely. Some sort of military action 50/50
#12
If there's a missile on a pad somewheres in Iran, I hope there's a B-2 in the vicinity packing a sat-guided warshot. It'd be terrible if the Hidden Imam's coming was spoiled by a "work accident."
Those cement bombs work pretty well on something like that.
Maybe we could 'borrow' a large black iron meteorite from the Smithsonian and use that. Might send an appropriate message.
#18
Question for Rantburgers, "And then what happens?"
My best guess: they announce that they're going to stiff the EU3, IAEA and UNSC. And that's it. The following day they'll offer to 'negotiate', and that will buy them another six months in their quest to build the bomb.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2006 14:56 Comments ||
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#19
Ima votin for nothing happens.
Posted by: jaded in DC ||
08/21/2006 14:59 Comments ||
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#20
I predict nutjob will claim to have a vision or visitation.
#24
Well, on the day after - 23rd - the youngest turns 21 and can legally hit the bars with his own license. Shouldn't be any "good" mooselimbs around all that booze.
#25
4:30 PST - nothing happening yet, so I poured myself a drink to get ready for MNF, and noticed the ice trays were low. I consider that a crisis, and I blame the 12th imam. I demand an apology.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2006 20:22 Comments ||
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#26
I read some Muslim documents on the fake prophet/real pedophile's "ascent" to Muslim heaven. Having conned his own gullible tribesmen with that fabrication, Muhammad then set out on a conversion drive in Taif (remains a Saud city). On arrival, when he started to spin his deceit, locals beat him up and booted him out of town. A "prophet" would, of course, have had prior knowledge of the beating.
Am I a blasphemer for saying that Muhammad made up the descent to hell/ascent to heaven yarn? If so, please don't cut out my tongue.
#27
kay. ima gotn flasherz an plenee hominee in em kan. kandlez an sigarets. plenee ammo to. ima hunkern down an wayte. ima herd 12th eemoms suseptible to silver bulets. anee werd on dat?
#28
Ahmadineedsanuking is going to announce the 12th Imam's "secret" arrival, for which only he and a select few have been witness, and the 12th Imam will have stated that now is not the time for the Great Jihad that will cleanse the world and bring the final peace, but that the time is soon.
The Healing Iraq blog (Aug. 17 post) profiles a new power force in Karbala. Could be interesting if he challenges the Mahdi-goons.
Who is Mahmoud Al-Hassani?
Mahmoud Al-Hassani is a former disciple of Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Al-Sadr (Muqtadas father) based in Karbala, briefly imprisoned by Saddams regime in 1999 following Sadrs assassination. He initially pledged allegiance to the remnants of the Sadrist movement that emerged directly after the 2003 war - as did other former representatives and followers of the second Sadr (such as Abdul Sattar Al-Bahadili, Ahmed Al-Fartousi, and Hazim Al-Araji.) By the time Muqtada Al-Sadr assumed a central role in the leadership of the Sadrist current, Al-Hassani broke off and headed his own Sadrist fringe movement with a limited hardcore following, mainly in Karbala, Basrah and Nasiriya.
By mid 2004, he unilaterally elevated his religious standing and proclaimed himself Grand Ayatollah Mahmoud Al-Sarkhi Al-Hassani. He also issued theological challenges to more established and senior clerics in the Hawza, boasting that he is the most knowledgeable or foremost cleric (al-marja al-alam) and is capable of solving the most intricate jurisprudential issues (ishkalat).
These declarations were often met with ridicule and disdain from the Shiite clerical establishment in both Iraq and Iran. His faction never sought to participate actively in post-war Iraqi politics and, as far as I know, he was not represented with any electoral slate in the 2005 elections. In fact, his movement can be more identified as a religious cult, rather than an active politico-social group.
He exhibits fanatical obsession with the reappearance of Imam Al-Mahdi (the hidden 12th Imam, and a descendant of Mohammed through his son-in-law Ali bin Abi Talib, in the beliefs of Shiite Twelvers), often alluding to current developments in Iraq as signs of his imminent return. Many of these signs were detailed in Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Al-Sadrs writings, such as the operation of Western spies in Iraq against Saddam Husseins regime prior to the war.
Al-Hassani often points out that the al-messiah al-dajjal, or the antichrist, has entered Iraq in the form of the U.S., heralding the reemergence of the 12th Imam, and that Hassanis followers will act as the Imams foot soldiers to restore justice to the world and, more significantly, to fight the corrupt clerical establishment (in reference to false clerics in Iraq and Iran). This claim is often reverberated by Sadrs Mahdi army, as Omar noted in a recent post...
#1
He exhibits fanatical obsession with the reappearance of Imam Al-Mahdi (the hidden 12th Imam, and a descendant of Mohammed through his son-in-law Ali bin Abi Talib, in the beliefs of Shiite Twelvers), often alluding to current developments in Iraq as signs of his imminent return.
Not this sh!t again!
Al-Hassani often points out that the al-messiah al-dajjal, or the antichrist, has entered Iraq in the form of the U.S., heralding the reemergence of the 12th Imam, and that Hassanis followers will act as the Imams foot soldiers to restore justice to the world and, more significantly, to fight the corrupt clerical establishment (in reference to false clerics in Iraq and Iran).
If he thinks "the antichrist, has entered Iraq in the form of the U.S.", I just want to see what he thinks if we abandon him to Ahmedinejad's tender mercies. His sufferings would be as nothing compared to the bliss Iran's mullahs would bring.
#4
Why don't we just declare that we ARE SATAN and ask them what they think their puny human bodies can do against the avatars of the lord of all darkness?
I think I'm starting to see why Islamic culture hasn't progressed much in the last ten or so centuries.
Hey, Fred! Why don't you proclaim yourself Grand Ayatollah and we'll all form a Rantist fringe movement. We can issue snarkwahs and obsess over whether the Paleos will ever show any sense.
#6
#5: "Hey, Fred! Why don't you proclaim yourself Grand Ayatollah and we'll all form a Rantist fringe movement."
Ummm, Steve - That already happened. Didn't you get the memo?
(Though it must be pointed out that Fred didn't declare himself - he was declared the Grand Poobah Ayatollah of everything by the Rantburg regulars. And the trolls.)
"We can issue snarkwahs and obsess over whether the Paleos will ever show any sense."
Haven't read Rantburg much lately, have you? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/21/2006 3:07 Comments ||
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#7
I thought Fred was the Grand Poobah. Sheesh. Everybody really needs to use spell checkers.
I'm down for that accepting the Great Satan thing.
#9
Nope, Al-Hassani, we are THE Satan, Commander of All Dark Forces, Destroyer of Worlds, and Undeniably Fabulous A-List Party Host with the Best Booze, Extra Ice and Hot Chix.
The Antichrist is our errand boy, and we just sent him off to return a few videos before we got hit with late fees, m'kay?
No wonder the other ayatollahs laugh at you. Even they know the difference.
#10
"Al-Hassani often points out that the al-messiah al-dajjal, or the antichrist, has entered Iraq in the form of the U.S., heralding the reemergence of the 12th Imam..."
Sometimes I really wonder whether this democracy stuff is gonna work...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/21/2006 7:16 Comments ||
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#11
Did any of you wonder about the twelvth imam thingy ?
Like Jesus had twelve Apostles, so Mohammet had to have twelve Imams to match. It's a wonder Mohammet wasn't born of a virgin, in a manger, and twelve days later, 3 UN guys showed up with stocks and bonds.
#12
OK, I'll bite: why in the hell do muzzies worry about the antichrist? That's Christian (and only some branches at that) eschatology. I thought muzzies consider Jesus to have been only a prophet.
#20
Nope, Al-Hassani, we are THE Satan, Commander of All Dark Forces, Destroyer of Worlds, and Undeniably Fabulous A-List Party Host with the Best Booze, Extra Ice and Hot Chix.
Right.
Please allow me to introduce myself,
I'm a man of wealth and taste ...
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/21/2006 13:37 Comments ||
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#22
Haven't read Rantburg much lately, have you? ;-p
Heh. Usually first thing every day! Rantburg is an important part of a daily news diet. It's the best place for collected news on the WOT, random snark, and thanks to the wide-ranging expertise of the Rantist fringe, actual serious analysis and discussion. Rantburg should probably be declared a National Treasure.
Once upon a time, I used to read the BBC on the web, back when they were considered an important and impartial news. Gawd, how old do you have to be to remember that! I can even remember when Reuters was a most respected name in international news. Time for my nap now.
#23
I'm down for that accepting the Great Satan thing.
And proving it to be accurate.
As much as I detest the whole embodiement-of-evil thingie, if we have to get Medieval all over their Islamic @sses, then so be it. I'm going to have to back you on this one, flyover. Fused glass, brimstone, scorched earth, whatever. So long as all Muslim majority countries reek of it when we're finished. I have pretty much lost hope for any peaceful resolution of Islam's differences with Western culture. Since universal sharia law is straight out, that leaves only one thing ...
People are starting to ask questions about the relatively scant coverage given to the kidnapping in Gaza last week of two Fox News journalists, Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig. Vaughn Ververs at CBS Public Eye wonders if it's because attacks on journalists are becoming routine and less newsworthy. Joel Mowbray argues that Palestinian thuggery has intimidated the press into downplaying negative stories like this. And Mediacrity suggests that mainstream media outlets are simply revealing their pro-Palestinian bias by ignoring the kidnapping. Or perhaps their anti-Fox bias.
These are all good points, but I think each overlooks the eerie absence of any demands or claims of responsibility from the kidnappers. Without any videos or other newsmaking statements from the thugs who abducted Centanni and Wiig, the media have little to go on. The AP reported on Saturday that according to a senior Palestinian official, "This is the first time kidnappers haven't identified themselves or their demands."
Sadly, there just hasn't been much news to report. But TVNewser has been linking the few updates that have come out, and one would expect Fox News to break the story if the men are returned, as we all hope they will be.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2006 13:26 ||
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#1
Ummm, it wouldn't by any chance be envy?
Since FOX NEWS had wiped the floor with the MSM libs, perhaps it is more a case of contempt, not envy.
#3
Because the Paleos control Gaza and the news media can't blame the Jews (or the Americans like they do in Iraq).
Posted by: ed ||
08/21/2006 14:29 Comments ||
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#4
Simple... because they have a lot more " how cute" photographs of of Jon Benet than they have of Steve Centani.
Also, international news talent has all kinds of kidnap insurance coverage, and the actual people who insure against these event call the shots. The best plan is to avoid the spotlight, in hopes that a breakthrough happens in the shadows.
#5
Fox management instructed its people to report as little as possible on this event, presumably in the (probably correct) hope that they would be better able to 'reach a satisfactory conclusion' in the absence of public scrutiny.
Perhaps the other news organizations are simply following Fox's lead.
...and the Paleos have made it clear that anyone reporting on their crimes will suffer the same fate. Same "people" who threatened reporters should anyone ever air the video of the Paleoswine's celebrating on 9/11.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/21/2006 18:48 Comments ||
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#7
Yeah, that 911 video shoul have resulted in a napalm run over the whole of Palostine.
Forty-Two Percent of Californians Don't Speak English at Home
When the Census Bureau released its American Community Survey analyzing demographic trends among U.S. households last week, the Washington Post and the New York Times, the flagship newspapers of the Eastern liberal establishment, celebrated the news with front-page stories.
The Census Bureaus data confirmed that the U.S. continues to be inundated by a flood of immigrants both legal and illegal (a distinction the bureau does not even make).
The top-of-the-page headline in the Post said: Area Immigrants Top 1 Million. The Times front-page headline read: New Data Shows Immigrants Growth and Reach.
Last year, one in five people in metropolitan Washington were immigrants, compared with one in six in 2000, said the Post.
The Washington, D.C., area, the Post noted, is now one of eight U.S. metropolitan areaswith New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston and Dallasthat have at least 1 million immigrants.
[T]he rise in the immigrant household population since 2000 seems to indicate that the blazing pace of immigration seen throughout the 1990s has continued into the first half of this decade, the New York Times reported.
Out in the Midwest, the Chicago Tribune focused attention on a different aspect of the Census Bureaus survey: English is declining as the common language of the United States. Spanish is on the rise.
The Tribunes front-page story, which reported that 30% of Chicago-area residents do not speak English at home, was headlined: In more area homes, its Español.
For the Barraza family, life is conducted mostly in Spanish, the Tribune reported. The Elgin (Ill.) couple works together, cleaning newly built homes in the Aurora area, where they take orders from a Spanish-speaking supervisor. When they get home, they speak with their two school-age sons in Spanish. It is a situation that is increasingly common, as Spanish becomes the primary language spoken in a growing number of homes across the metropolitan area, according to new census data
With an influx of Spanish-language radio stations, cable channels and newspapers, the Tribune reported, marketers see a huge opportunity to tap into the fastest-growing segment of the population and one that accounts for virtually all of the areas population gains.
Deep in its own story on the Census survey, the Post reported that in Prince William County in suburban Virginia, enrollment in the local public school program for students who do not speak English has increased 274% in five years. Eighty percent of the students enrolled in the program speak Spanish.
Additional survey data published on the Census Bureaus website reveal that the Chicago area and Prince William County are hardly alone in having large and growing populations of non-English-speakingand especially Spanish speakingresidents.
In California, the nations largest state, 42.3% of the people do not speak English at home. More than 28% speak Spanish instead. One in five Californians told the Census Bureau they speak English less than very well.
Within California, the foreign-language speakers tend to be concentrated in certain communities. In the City of Los Angeles, 60.8% of the people do not speak English at home. More than 44% speak Spanish instead. And 31.3% say they speak English less than very well.
In the Orange County city of Santa Ana, 84.7% do not speak English at home. More than 75% speak Spanish instead, and 50.8% say they speak English less than very well.
On the other side of the continent, in Miami, Fla, 78.9% do not speak English at home, 69.8% speak Spanish instead, and 46.7% say they speak English less than very well.
Up North in Passaic, N.J., 72.7% of the people do not speak English at home, 62.9% speak Spanish instead, and 45.4% say they speak English less than very well.
America is headed toward a cultural catastrophe. Chronic non-enforcement of our immigration laws together with a multicultural ideology that seeks to make it easier for immigrantsand their children and grandchildrento retain their native cultures, could strip this nation of a unifying, common language.
There is nothing, of course, wrong with the Spanish language, or with immigrants coming to the United States from Spanish-speaking regions of the world. But there is something profoundly wrong with a political elite that has been so lax in enforcing our borders that it may have established within the U.S. foreign-language enclaves large enough and concentrated enough to successfully resist assimilation.
The Census Bureaus new American Community Survey demonstrates that if the melting pot is not broken beyond repair, it is severely cracked and bubbling over.
In the coming election cycles, enforcing U.S. borders and immigration laws and promoting public policies that resist the primacy of multiculturalism should be at the center of the national debate.
Percent of People Five Years and Over Who Speak a Language Other Than English at Home
#1
I saw this and I got the schedule for CCD classes for my church and I noticed something very interesting. My church has services in Spanish and English but they only offer Spanish CCD classes for grades 1, 2 & 3. Kind of tells me that parents that speak Spanish at home arent forcing their children to speak only Spanish and by age ?8? most kids are proficient enough to have classes in English only.
I am a lot more concerned about what kids are taught to speak at school than what they speak at home. Bilingual education must be ended everywhere. It was shown in California that there was an increase in test scores when the kids went to English only instruction.
And disgruntled Hispanic parents led the fight. They knew their kids couldn't fit in a succeed economically if they couldn't speak English.
Immigrants need to be assimilated by our public institutions. But let them keep their family culture as long as they want. If they're willing to take the economic consequences like the Amish, fine. If they want to be typical Americans that's fine too.
All that listing shows is which states get lots of immigrants and where defence should go to get bi-lingual recruits.
Now what does stick in my craw is bi, tri, you name it-lingual ballots... If you can't speak English well enough to vote, you can't speak it well enough to understand the debate.
#3
What is called New Mexico today was the most populated of the areas acquired in the Mexican-American War. The % shown approximately matches the number in population of the Hispanic community to the whole these days. The Hispanics in NM didn't move there. By and large, they were there from the time of the acquisition. The NM state Constitution, not some federal judge, established both English and Spanish as official languages. So in this case, its a so what.
#6
I'd be willing to bet that when my parents were kids in the 1930s, 42% of Youngstown, Ohio didn't speak English at home. I know there was a Hungarian parish that said a Mass each week in Magyar well into the 1970s. Heck, there's a weekly Vietnamese language service at a protestant church just up the street from where I sit typing right now.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2006 14:52 Comments ||
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#7
Now what does stick in my craw is bi, tri, you name it-lingual ballots... If you can't speak English well enough to vote, you can't speak it well enough to understand the debate.
If you can't read and understand the Declaration and Constitution in its original language, you should not be permitted to vote.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/21/2006 18:49 Comments ||
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#8
I and my two sons (18 and 17) seem to get by OK with a complicated system of grunts, pointing and body language.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2006 19:40 Comments ||
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#9
If you can't read and understand the Declaration and Constitution in its original language, you should not be permitted to vote.
That would rule out about a third of all high school graduates voting. They can't understand a simple parking ticket, how are they going to understand the Constitution?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/21/2006 20:37 Comments ||
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#10
NS-I like what you said about ballots. But I would extend it beyond ballots to English-only governmental documents, utility bills and answering services on the principle of no preferential treatment: no favoritism for Spanish language speakers over those who speak Chinese, Polish or Ewe. We can't (and shouldn't have to) provide equal bilingual services for all-what a waste of money and energy that would be. There are many different groups here-why cater to one?
I have lived in a country where there is more than one official language. While people get valuable multilingual skills, internal communication can be inefficient, exhausting, and more expensive. Most importantly, feelings of rivalry emerge. A common language encourages communities to bind together.
Push for language study in school-we still need to be able to understand the rest of the world, but squelch the government services angle.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands ||
08/21/2006 20:51 Comments ||
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#11
"push 1 for English...push 2 to be disconnected"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2006 21:20 Comments ||
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One of the most prominent Catholics in American public life recently engaged in a pathetic embarrassment that reveals much about himself and the values of all too many Catholics.
That prominent figure is not Mel Gibson.
Raymond Flynn, the former mayor of Boston and former United States ambassador to the Vatican, asked Pope Benedict XVI in writing to lead Catholics worldwide in the quest for a just peace in the Middle East. Flynn publicized the letter as part of a commentary he wrote for the August 6-13 edition of the National Catholic Register, a conservative weekly.
Flynns request, in and of itself, is anything but embarrassing. However, Flynns rhetoric reveals several disconcerting traits: a willingness to exploit the pope to serve a personal agenda, unrealistic expectations of the popes geopolitical role, latent anti-Semitism and a pervasive, dangerous naiveté about human nature.
#1
So-called 'Christians' who denounce Israel and bash the Jews are only displaying their biblical ignorance. If you don't know what the book actually teaches, and it isn't a part of your faith, you're free to form any opinion about Israel that you desire. And of course, this opinion is most likely influenced by the MSM.
Nobody--- virtually nobody--- can believe the Bible and be Anti-Israel simultaneously.
If only people who call themselves Christians would read what the foundation book of their faith actually says.
#2
[Raymond Flynn] asked Pope Benedict XVI in writing to lead Catholics worldwide in the quest for a just peace in the Middle East.
Memo to ex-Mayor McCheese Flynn:
Pope Benedict is already doing exactly this. The only way there'll ever be peace in the Middle East is when there's freedom of religion throughout the land. The Pope has rightfully called Muslim majority nations on the carpet for their refusal to allow freedom of religion. There can be no more sure path towards a just and lasting peace than to finally upbraid Islam for its eggshell ego and violently insecure nature.
Flynn's pathetic attempts to pander to those who neither seek nor want peace is nothing but appeasement. Pope Benedict has taken the correct moral high ground and is to be applauded for it.
#3
As a Catholic and an American, I support our Jewish friends (and allies), the first democracy in the ME, and urge more ammunition, more arms , and more support. Ray Flynn can kiss my non-Irish ass
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2006 21:19 Comments ||
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#4
Sounds like Ray's back on the Budweiser again...
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, citizens of New Orleans had their firearms unlawfully confiscated under orders from former New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass. So during a time when the means of self-defense were most needed, the Second Amendment rights of the citys law-abiding residents were swept away based on a gross misinterpretation of a suspect state emergency powers law.
After hearing about the illegal gun confiscations, the National Rifle Association (NRA) filed suit in federal court and obtained a preliminary injunction that stopped the gun seizure. Not only did New Orleans ignore the court ruling, it also claimed that the gun confiscations never occurred! The NRA then filed a motion for contempt that additionally ordered the return of all seized firearms.
Finally last Wednesday, in what was seen as as a landmark victory for NRA and law-abiding gun owners, Judge Carl J. Barbier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana turned down a motion for dismissal by the City of New Orleans and held that, the Second Amendment applies to law-abiding residents in the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans.
#1
Sounds like the basis of a civil suit on the violation of civil rights. The 'I'm just obeying orders' excuse went out the window with the Federal Court finding. Many jurisdictions do not reimburse employees for legal costs who knowingly violate the law while on duty.
And while the article likes to stick the full blame the left on this, it appears more of a behavior with most law enforcement establishments. They have a hard time grasping that we dont exist to make their job easier. They exist to make ours.
#3
The NOPD has a long, inglorious history of pulling really cute crap over on the citizenry. I'm not surprised to see them acting like this in the slightest.
In our war against Islamo-fascist terrorism, we face enemies both overt and covert. The overt enemies are, of course, the terrorists themselves. Their motives are clear: They hate our society because of its freedoms and liberties, and want to make us all submit to their totalitarian form of Islam. They are busy trying to wreak harm on us in any way they can. Against them we can fight back, as we did when British authorities arrested the men and women who were plotting to blow up a dozen airliners over the Atlantic.
Our covert enemies are harder to identify, for they live in large numbers within our midst. And in terms of intentions, they are not enemies in the sense that they consciously wish to destroy our society. On the contrary, they enjoy our freedoms and often call for their expansion. But they have also been working, over many years, to undermine faith in our society and confidence in its goodness. These covert enemies are those among our elites who have promoted the ideas labeled as multiculturalism, moral relativism and (the term is Professor Samuel Huntington's) transnationalism.
At the center of their thinking is a notion of moral relativism. No idea is morally superior to another. Our covert enemies go quickly from the notion that all societies are morally equal to the notion that all societies are morally equal except ours, which is worse.
These are the ideas that have been transmitted over a long generation by the elites who run our universities and our schools, and who dominate our mainstream media. They teach an American history with the good parts left out and the bad parts emphasized. We are taught that some of the Founding Fathers were slaveholders -- and are left ignorant of their proclamations of universal liberties and human rights. We are taught that Japanese-Americans were interned in World War II -- and not that American military forces liberated millions from tyranny.
Nevertheless, the default assumption of our covert enemies is that in any conflict between the West and the Rest, the West is wrong. That assumption can be rebutted by overwhelming fact: Few argued for the Taliban after Sept. 11. But in our continuing struggles, our covert enemies portray our work in Iraq through the lens of Abu Ghraib and consider Israel's self-defense against Hezbollah as the oppression of virtuous victims by evil men. In World War II, our elites understood that we were the forces of good and that victory was essential. Today, many of our elites subject our military and intelligence actions to fine-tooth-comb analysis and find that they are morally repugnant.
We have always had our covert enemies, but their numbers were few until the 1960s. But then the elite young men who declined to serve in the military during the Vietnam War set out to write a narrative in which they, rather than those who obeyed the call to duty, were the heroes. They have propagated their ideas through the universities, the schools and mainstream media to the point that they are the default assumptions of millions. Our covert enemies don't want the Islamo-fascists to win. But in some corner of their hearts, they would like us to lose.
Via Cartoon Brew, a summary of an off-Broadway play performed by the SpankinYanks:
A searing look into friendship, national identity and the politics of paranoia, the Happiest Place on Earth will never be the same.
Hollywood, 1952. Are the Communists coming? Senator McCarthy hunts Reds, the Rosenbergs are doomed to die, and Walt Disney spies for the FBI. Harris and Finch, scriptwriters at the Disney Studio, are plotting to unionize. Walt's just been called to name names. How much does he know about them? Can Grace, Finch's trust-fund girlfriend, penetrate Walt's private playground? How far will Walt go to save Mickey Mouse from becoming a Commie Yid?
Its now playing at a Scottish festival. Book your flight soon; no telling how long itll last before the animatronic Abe Lincoln Brigade telepathically controlled by Walts frozen head hunts down the actors and brings them to justice. Ice-Walts touchy about these things.
Im not going to defend McCarthy, because he was a brute and boor and a butter-eating drunk who set back the anti-Communist cause four decades. To say that he was sorta right, in the sense that there were Commies about, is like saying that J. Robert Oppenheimer had a salutory effect on Japanese urban renewal. Im not interested in those debates right now. Id just like to point out that its a little late in the game to trot out a play about the mean old witch-hunts. The bravery of the scrappy idealists! The piggish philistinism of the anti-commie brutes! The smothering wet quilt of Conformity that held America motionless until it was thrown off by the undulating hips of Elvis! (Did you know they didnt show him below the waist on TV, at first! True! It was horrible, the Fifties; no one had sex without weeping in shame afterwards. Sometimes during.) It's just interesting how Westerners think that that Red Scare was a historical event of such towering proportions it trumps the tales of the Soviet Union in the same period. US version: communist sympathizers frozen out of screenwriting jobs, justly or unjustly. USSR version: actual communists killed in ghastly numbers by a parody of a legal system underwritten by brute force and an industrialized penal system built on slave labor. Why is the latter ignored, and the former celebrated?
Because a herd of frozen zeks dying in the snows of Wherdifugistan doesnt really connect, you know? Whereas six guys sitting around the Carnegie Deli bitching about cowardly sponsors, that strikes a chord. . . .
If such a plays performed, it wont be in by expats in Scotland; itll run in Tehran after the Mullahs fall. Among the wise and brave in the west, the Red Scare and the Eisenhower Golfocracy will remain the go-to era for the modern Dark Ages, a time when talented, witty people couldnt glibly support a collectivist blood-soaked totalitarian system without fear their boss might get the wrong idea. You can see why the Mouse is Dead premise, however historically flawed, was catnip for the playwrights. Disney = Mickey, and everyone loved Mickey Mouse. He was cheerful, brave, industrious, ingenious, faithful, fair, scrappy and true. He was everything the grownups said we should be.
God how we hate him.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2006 07:20 ||
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#1
Best piece yet by a guy who has written a lot of great ones.
The Santa Claus reference is perfect - just this weekend I had to deal with a lefty boor who went off on - of all things - the Santa Claus myth as some giant evil confronting America.
Lileks nails the psychological neoteny aspect of the left dead on. For the bulk of the postmodern left it's about avenging that time daddy didn't allow the use of the car, or about how the captain of the football team got the pretty girl. (See Ted Rall.) Writ large, it's about how "unfair" it is that "someone" won't fund every human on the planet to just endlessly pursue pleasure, and remove all of the unpleasantries of the human condition that make us feel sad.
This behavior is probably inherent in all 14 year olds, but grownups move beyond it. There are better ways to make yourself and the world better than emotional snide destructive rebellion.
Throughout history, decent societies recognized that adolescence was the most malignant and destructive phase of human development, and sought to minimize the length of time their members spent in the adolescent mindset. Rites of passage were always designed to induce young people to shuck off objectionable adolescent lifestyle and approaches and become young adults, with different strictures for behavior, and different expectations of attitude. Saner individuals have always recognized that this is for the good of the individual AND the tribe.
To be a leftist and a postmodernist, you MUST be a perpetual adolescent. No other stage of the human mind could tolerate the meme set.
It's a sign of the fact that sicker elements of our society prevail in the areas that steer culture when we celebrate adolescent mindsets rather than deride them.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/21/2006 8:04 Comments ||
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#2
Psychogical (and emotional) neotony. Yep, that sums up the Left.
And BTW it's a big insight. Neotony is (one of)evolution's way of experimenting with new ways of doing things - 99% of which fail.
The point being, experimentation is good, as long as it doesn't take down what we have and will achieve.
The Left should realize that they are the experiment (neotony means retention of juvenile characteristics) and like all experiments will be flushed away, when we understand the result.
#4
I thought the neotonys were former leftists who became fans of Tony Danza.
(ducks)
Posted by: Mike ||
08/21/2006 10:40 Comments ||
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#5
I, for one, am proud they are bravely taking on the stultifying conformity of a time fifty years ago, when I'll bet none of the writers were yet born, and which they only know through history books and yellowed newspaper clippings. (Maybe from some old coot's ramblings, too.)
It's even more courageous than when George Clooney did the same in that movie....whatever it was called....last year. The cojones it takes to stage this piece of Art is a searing wakeup call that is five decades overdue. Bravo!
#6
So they are flogging the skeletal dead horse of McCarthyism, one more time? Well, everyone needs a hobby, I suppose.
I have always suspected that McCarthy and the whole HUAC thing has been vastly overblown, by the so-called victims of it, in order to make their own "heroism" in defying it look even more impressive. My parents were young adults, and in college in the early 1950ies, and from what they recall, just about every ordinary person with a lick of common sense knew that he was, in Mr. Lilek's words " a brute and boor and a butter-eating drunk who set back the anti-Communist cause four decades", besides being a glory-hunting and unscrupulous politician looking for the limelight. He only frightened the guilty who had something to hide, everyone else just made some popcorn and sat back to watch the show. I think speed with which McCarthyism collapsed like an over-inflated balloon pricked by a pin after the the Army-McCarthy hearings would argue for that reading. But everyone who ran scared of him has ever since had to build him up into this horrible, dreadful omigawd-we're-all-gonna-die or-get-sacked-from-our-cushy-jobs-and-have-to move-to-France-or-something-plague-upon-the earth-and-weren't-we-brave-when-we-stood-alone, etc, etc, etc.
TORONTO -- Remember the 60s song, "I fought the law and the law won"? Forty years after the tune came out, people are still humming it, at least I am -- although I've changed the lyrics a bit to sum up the political consequences of this AIDS conference. I'm not sure that the 24,000 delegates would like the new lyric I've thought up for them, but here goes, anyway: I fought AIDS and the Right won.
What does that mean? Well, let's consider three true statements about the last 25 years:
First, AIDS has skyrocketed, from zero to 28 million deaths, with another 43 million people diagnosed as HIV-positive.
Second, spending on AIDS has skyrocketed, into the tens, even hundreds, of billions of dollars. An appreciable chunk of that money, of course, has been spent by -- and on -- the activists and operatives who are gathered here at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. These are the folks who run the ministries, philanthropies, and NGOs that constitute the "AIDS-Industrial Complex."
Third, the world has moved to the right, politically, during the same period. We can start with the US, dominated during the last quarter-century by starboard-leaning leaders such as Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, and George W. Bush. Here in Canada, the Prime Minister is Stephen Harper, a conservative who refused even to come to this conference. And to the south, Mexico just elected another conservative. Meanwhile, in Europe, such dominant figures as Margaret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl, Jacques Chirac, and Silvio Berlusconi were on the right. And even their more liberal successors, many of them, were not exactly leftists, e.g. Tony Blair. Continuing our political survey, let's look elsewhere -- to, say, Russia. Say what you want about Vladimir Putin, he's no liberal.
#1
This is way overblown, but one point is on the mark and that is that the left is clueless on the AIDS issue. You want to see what real progress looks like? Here's a link (HT: instapundit). But of course since it's due to Bush, it can't be told. Go on Left, let millions die for your idiot-ology, that's what you're really good at.
#2
Good essay, but the gentleman misses the key point. He gets halfway there when he notes that the face of AIDs is now a female of colour, but loses it when he wanders into the brothel. Most of the women with HIV/AIDS are not prostitutes, but wives and girlfriends whose men freely tomcat with others, whether for their own amusement or the mythical "Virgin Cure". It isn't the traditional, despised prostitutes that are the problem, but the traditional men doing what it is that men have always done when they could. (Not all men of course, she hastens to add; I know that Rantburg men are noble and chaste outside of committed relationships, gallant gentlemen all. But not all are such as you, my dears.)
#4
It's funny, everyone wanted to replace the creationist, puritan, God-lays-down-the-law-and-the-humans-follow it universe with a cold impersonal clockwork universe in which everything happens by evolution, without stopping to think that traditional societies evolved to be cold and hard thanks to a very cold and hard physical world.
Meet the new boss, 100% less Christian Mercy than the old boss.
#5
When the Great Heterosexual AIDS Epidemic [tm] that was forecasted in the 80s by great prophets like Time and Newsweek never materialized, the Gay community started to shift the advocacy propaganda from numbers in the US to numbers in the world.
The problem was that it tried to cover up that social behaviors in the West [EU and North America] were different than behaviors elsewhere. Regardless of what Hollywood and MSM try to put out, a good part of America remains uptight and tied to 'old fashion' values and behaviors. And if the reproduction number of Europe are any indicator, their [hummm] drive has dropped off considerably which means their behaviors do not mimic those of Africa or Asia either. As AIDS continues to expand markedly elsewhere it leveled out many years past in the States.
One of the biggest problems with the whole approach that is prescribed by the Gay community is that they want a magic bullet to cure the problem. Unfortunately for a lot of victims of this disease, one of the more effective methods developed by humans in dealing with plagues [The Plague*, Cholera, etc] is to alter the behavior of people and their communities. It does not rid the species of the afflicting, but it reduces the active presence of the pathogen. That is not what the advocates of the Gay community want. So in this case they brandish labels on behaviors which work effectively against the threat.
* The Plague came from Central Asia where the inhabitants generally do not suffer from it. That is attributed to the adoption of taboos within the region which result in behaviors that inhibit infection and transmission. Adaptation to environment - Darwinism.
#6
This is a bit much, but his point on women and AIDS is close. In Asia AIDS has infected the older generations of prostitutes, the younger ones are much more careful. The older ones have move back to the provences and are spreading it amongst the community. As TW put it, their infected tomcat men are spreading it to the young. BTW, Cambodia and Viet-Nams AIDS problems were brought to them by the UN in the form of African demining teams.
I think he really misses the mark on the third world. The political structure in the third workd cares very little, if at all, for the people outside the capital city. They could care less about education, health care, or the safety of their people, why should they care about someone that is going to die anyway? The only way to get the political structure to act is through incentives that will benifit them, not the people. As sad as it is, in the third world, folks are literally dieing for simple meds like antibiotics and vitamins. AIDS is just a bridge too far and will destroy a large portion of the third world.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/21/2006 10:00 Comments ||
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#7
It's a bit over the top only in the fact that he acts as if it is the PC response to AIDS and only AIDS that has caused the shift.
The PC mentality is an adolescent mentality, born of the 60's and is silly selfish and childish thinking like all adolescent thinking.
It's a generation that thinks that mommy needs to make it right without any inconvenience or trouble to members of the ME generation.
They've already proven they won't grow up. Their children are suffering the consequences of their immaturity.
#8
Oh, one thing I forgot: in the traditional third-world societies under discussion here, there was a feedback loop re: the status of prostitutes; it was (and is) a low-status, undesireable profession, to the degree that most of the people in it were basically those people who were forced into it by dire economic circumstances or coersion by other people. Which reinforced the already existing low status...
Aids in the West was a very stoppable disease. We figured out pretty quickly how it spread and could have killed it cold with some common sense. Instead we got folks screaming repression and continuing unsafe practices. For the life of me I'll never understand why Gays didn't just come up with a fashion thing to help them know who was infected or not. Say a red wristband or something. Than infected folks could be avoided by the uninfected and targetted by those already infected. Do that, combined with semi-frequent tests and condoms and everyone could have been happy without changing a damn thing.
In the third world there wasn't much that could have stopped it, not as long as governments are corrupt and people are poor.
#10
Simple solution,I don't have AIDS because I don't dick around.
Those who do, Die,
So this simply is a Stupidity Cure.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/21/2006 19:29 Comments ||
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#11
I thought prostitutes got rich by marrying wealthy bachelors, I mean look at Pretty Woman, and that Julia chick. This is the first movie she didn't die of sumpthin nasty
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2006 21:03 Comments ||
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation declares its noble mission is to bring "innovations in health and learning to the global community." But the world's largest philanthropic organization also is among the organizations that collectively loaned nearly $400 million to Medianews Group Inc. -- for the acquisition of newspapers in California and Minnesota. The Gates Foundation loaned an unspecified amount to Medianews, along with General Electric. The move into funding media acquisitions was unusual for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose donations usually go to health and anti-poverty purposes.
In April, Medianews agreed to buy four newspapers from McClatchy Co. for $1 billion . With the McClatchy Company set to accept bids starting as early as tomorrow for the 12 Knight Ridder papers it is selling, some of the potential buyers are looking at the country as if it were a giant chessboard. The goal is not to topple a king but to become one a king of each regional market where potential buyers already own newspapers and can achieve economies of scale by buying pieces of Knight Ridder.
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"and there would be no reason for them to compete on either price or quality."
Except that competition doesn't necessarily mean just other newspapers. Print media competes with radio, television, the internet, etc. Price and quality do matter, which is why the newspaper as a product is in decline.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
As details of last week's failed bomb plots started to emerge, I was reminded of a debate I took part in last year at Birmingham's central mosque during a conference in the city. It was shortly after the July 7 bombings in London and we had been invited to discuss the issue of security with local Muslim leaders. It was supposed to be the highlight of the conference. The mosque is widely regarded as a hotbed of extremism. So this was a rare opportunity to question why local youths were being filled with such hatred against British society and what role the mosque was playing in it.
Doug Hanson
