Here's the creepiest complaint we've received in a long, long time. Reader Sam says he was filmed by a security guard contracted by Time/Warner during a recent showing of The Invasion at an AMC movie theater.
When he complained about it to customer service, they told him "Time Warner/Warner Bros had contracted a security company to film movie theater audiences around the country during the opening weekend of its movies in an effort to prevent piracy."
Ew! We think this is scary. If we saw some potential psycho filming us during a movie we'd be weirded out and we'd leave. Especially if it was during a (sort-of) remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Do not go to sleep. Warner Bros. will film you. The Invasion died horribly, pulling down only $6M nationwide with a $80M production budget. So imagine only six people in the theater, while some guy intently films just you for the entire length of a movie. Eek!
#1
At some point htey'll put powerful electromagnets on the theater exits to screw with DV storage.
The movie companies seem as clueless as the music industry when it comes to protecting their stuff. Here are a few truisims I've noticed during my life:
(1) Before the days of online music and napster kids in college would copy each others music tapes. This led to greater exposure to bands and the number of legal tapes I purchased increased ten or twenty fold when I finally had the cash. Think of the swapping as an investment and keep the actual cost low enough not to scare people out of going legit. (2) MOvies prior to Batman often cost $80. They were copied and copyprotection was put on a number of tapes. Then Batman came out at $20 and sold through the roof. Nobody was gonna risk buying or making a half-arse copy when going legit was so cheap and the quality of a legit is generally considered to be superior. (3) A friend of mine bought me a chinese bootleg of BATTLEFIELD EARTH. This is not a lost sale to the movie industry because I never in my right mind would have paid for such a movie and I love bad movies. Not every pirated move or music means a lost sale, sometimes your products are simply a good joke. (4) My mom bought SATANIC VERSUS because the Iranians tried to keep it out of peoples hands. If you get all totolitarian in the way you do things people will do the illegal deeds as an act or rebellion. (5) For a long time the Star Wars movies were the top pirated movie on DVD because they were not available legally on DVD. As soon as they came out I'm pretty sure the pirated copies dried up.
So the lessons. Make the products available at a reasonable price and people will buy them. Jerk people around and they will intentionally stick a thumb in your eye. And a certain amount of illegal activity can often gin up legal sales assuming you don't tick people off.
#2
rjschwarz: I've long proposed that copyright and perhaps patent law should be much more like the original 19th Century US mining law.
In short, it said that you could stake a claim about anywhere, but you had to either improve the claim or make a profit each year amounting to $500, one way or the other, or you would lose the claim.
Translated to copyright, this would extend valuable copyrights for many years, as companies could either attribute profits to them in particular, or retail them to the public in fair sale for at least a nominal amount, say $500, even in the 21st Century.
However, the vast libraries of copyrighted material that are neither retailed no allowed to go public domain, would *have* to be retailed or lose their copyright protection.
For example, Disney refuses to re-release "Song of the South", because it just doesn't want to, thinking it racist. But they should not have the right of government protection in *not* selling something *and* not letting anyone else sell it.
But at the same time, Disney's very profitable Mickey Mouse character makes them countless millions of dollars every year, so it should continue to get protection.
When you think of the enormous libraries of recorded music, books, TV and movies, and other things that are now unfairly receiving government copyright protection, even though they are not for sale by anyone, you can see this would apply to mountains of content.
The purpose of copyright and patent law is *not* to protect ideas forever. It is to stimulate business and foster innovation by giving a small amount of protection to new ideas. It should be returned to that idea.
THE West was still underestimating the evil of Islam, an influential Muslim thinker has warned, insisting that Australia and the US have been duped into believing there is a difference between the religion's moderate and radical interpretations.
On a two-week "under the radar" visit to Australia, Syrian-born Wafa Sultan secretly met both sides of federal politics and Jewish community leaders, warning them that all Muslims needed to be closely monitored in the West.
In an interview with The Australian, Dr Sultan - who shot to recognition last year following an interview on al-Jazeera television in which she attacked Islam and the prophet Mohammed - said Muslims were "brainwashed" from an early age to believe Western values were evil and that the world would one day come under the control of Sharia law.
The US-based psychiatrist - who has two fatwas (religious rulings) issued against her to be killed - warned that Muslims would continue to exploit freedom of speech in the West to spread their "hate" and attack their adopted countries, until the Western mind grasped the magnitude of the Islamic threat.
"You're fighting someone who is willing to die," Dr Sultan told The Australian in an Arabic and English interview. "So you have to understand this mentality and find ways to face it. (As a Muslim) your mission on this earth is to fight for Islam and to kill or to be killed. You're here for only a short life and once you kill a kafir, or a non-believer, soon you're going to be united with your God."
Dr Sultan, who was brought to Australia by a group called Multi-Net comprised of Jews and Christians, met senior politicians, including Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Labor deputy leader Julia Gillard.
Private security was hired for Dr Sultan, who left Australia yesterday, and state police authorities were also made aware of her movements in the country.
The organisers of her visit asked the media to not publish anything about her stay until she had left the country because of security-related concerns. Dr Sultan said Islam was a "political ideology" that was wrongly perceived to have a moderate and hardline following.
"That's why the West has to monitor the majority of Muslims because you don't know when they're ready to be activated. Because they share the same basic belief, that's the problem," said the 50-year-old, who was last year featured in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Dr Sultan, who was raised on Alawite Islamic beliefs before she renounced her religion, began to question Islam after she witnessed her university teacher get gunned down by Muslim hardliners in Syria in 1979.
The mother of three, who migrated to the US in 1989, said the West needed to hold Muslims and their leaders more accountable for the atrocities performed in the name of Islam if they wanted to win the war on terror.
But while she considered the prophet Mohammed "evil" and said the Koran needed to be destroyed because it advocated violence against non-believers, Dr Sultan struggled to articulate her vision for Muslims, whom she said she was trying to liberate from the shackles of their beliefs.
"I believe the only way is to expose the Muslims to different cultures, different thoughts, different belief systems," said Dr Sultan, who is completing her first book, The Escaped Prisoner: When Allah is a Monster.
"Muslims have been hostages of their own belief systems for 1400 years. There is no way we can keep the Koran."
... all Muslims needed to be closely monitored in the West.
Since this is virtually impossible it raises the specter of internment or deportation. To avoid citizenship issues, a combination of the two will be the most likely outcome.
warned that Muslims would continue to exploit freedom of speech in the West to spread their "hate" and attack their adopted countries, until the Western mind grasped the magnitude of the Islamic threat.
Crippled by Politically Correct thought, moral relativism and the Multiculturalist agenda, this probably will not happen soon enough to avoid serious loss of life on our soil. The ensuing backlash against American Muslims will likely involve an even greater death toll.
Islam was a "political ideology" that was wrongly perceived to have a moderate and hardline following.
There you have it, straight from the horse's mouth. Does anyone still believe that Islam is a religion, much less a Religion of Peace? [spit]
That's why the West has to monitor the majority of Muslims because you don't know when they're ready to be activated.
As .com warned all of us so long ago, the vast majority of seemingly moderate Muslims represent nothing but a dormant or covert resource pool for jihadist Islam. The overwhelming lack of any active internal resistance by Muslims to Islamism stands as glaring proof of this.
the West needed to hold Muslims and their leaders more accountable for the atrocities performed in the name of Islam if they wanted to win the war on terror.
None of which has happened. Instead, they have gotten a free ride while those in charge of protecting us persist in hand wringing and appeasement of perpetually aggrieved Muslim sensitivities.
Only some serious collective retribution is going to change the course of things. Retaliation must involve suffering that far exceeds our own or it will be to no avail. Our attempts to deal humanely with the most inhuman creed on earth earns us only well-deserved scorn and encourages further terrorist attacks against the West.
Muslims have been hostages of their own belief systems for 1400 years. There is no way we can keep the Koran.
As a dedicated bibliophile with a personal library that contains many thousands of volumes from every basic category of the Dewey Decimal system, the notion of book-banning is intrinsically abhorent to me. Yes, I even own a Koran. However, for the Koran, I am willing to make an exception. As the essential vehicle of shari'a law, it is the prime mover for widespread human rights violations and cannot be tolerated.
Wafa Sultan understands this and should be commended for so actively delineating to us the peril we face if our inaction continues.
#5
The Flemish should immediately start polling for secession, to get their people thinking about splitting Belgium in two.
They could even gain the high ground by proposing a split like the peaceful division of Czechoslovakia between the Czechs and the Slovaks, which ended up with smiles all around, instead of any lingering animosity.
#6
Split Belgium into two nations. Southern part goes to France, northern part goes to the Netherlands. Problem solved.
DV - no it doesn't. Not for the Flemings. (I am married to one). They hold the same disregard for the Dutch that they do for the Walloons. The language is not exactly the same. Flemish is more Old Dutch than current Nederlandse. Flemings are prominently Catholic. Dutch prominently Protestant except for the far south (Breda) districts. Believe me the best solution is an independent Flanders but only with Brussels as part of it.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/20/2007 12:27 Comments ||
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#7
Flanders has a pretty long history as a distinct area with its own entrepreneurial ways. In the mddle ages it was a center of industry/craftsmanship/trade, with a thriving bourgeoisie (i.e. anti-feudal folks) and home of the northern renaissance.
Posted by: moody blues ||
08/20/2007 13:27 Comments ||
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#8
If Flanders becomes his own country, Moe and Apu are going to want the same deal.
/Homer
#9
Belgium has no longer areason to exist. It existed because at one time it seemed necessary to keep France down. If you look at a map of France you will see that it is bordered either by high mountains, seas or a wide river (the Rhine). Everywhere ecspt between France's right "elbow" and teh North Sea. In addition this border is close to Paris and there is no obstacle between it and Paris. No mountains, no river, nothing.
As long as France couldn't gob what is today Belgium it had to keep a huge army and was unable to challenge teh Royal Navy. Building a string Navy meant either a weak Army and invasion like in 1870 and 1940 or, in case France tried to have both, bankruptcy and revolution like for Louis XVI. That is why France who until middle XIXthe century had two or three times Enagland's population was never able to mount a credible threat of invading England.
But if France had had its whole north-east border on the Rhine she would no longer have a need for large army.
That is why when the Belgians expelled the Dutch the union between Flemish and Wallons was forced upon them and then in an independent state. The Wallons would have been French instead and the former I don't know what 1830 Flemish wanted but their fathers had served with distinction in Napoleon's army and kept loyal.
Now the need for Belgium has gone. But I am not sure to want Wallons into France.
#11
If they are serious about the EU Belgium should disolve and enter the EU as two seperate nations. The Basques should make their case as well. Same with Scotland, Bavaria, Tuscany, etc, etc.
The natural progression of the EU will lead to a number of large regional states leaving their member countries since paying taxes twice sucks and many places like Bavaria will have more power in the EU rather than providing power to all of Germany. As soon as the citizens realize this the EU will die.
#1
As much as I wish this were not an issue, fact is, it IS and issue and will remain so. And its significant enough to cost him the election.
Unlike Kennedy and Catholicism, who were obscure (Mass in Latin at the time), but open to all observers, Mormonism retains "secret" elements (and funny things like special underwear).
Its the "secrecy" of Mormonism that drives a lot of the distrust - temple garments, not allowing outsiders in the inner sanctum, etc.
#2
What bothers me most is LDS persecution of "fundamentalist" Mormons; i.e. Mormons practicing as Brigham Young did. The erasure of their own recent history is more troubling to me than their loony beliefs. In this they are closer to Scientology than than anything in Catholic doctrine which would mystify me.
#3
If you want to have your hair stand on end, read, "The Mormon Murders", by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith. Co-editors of the biennial directory, "The Best Lawyers in America", they lay out one truly disturbing portrait of a church obsessed with concealment and secrecy pertaining to their religion's founders and foundations.
I'll restrain myself from making any comparisons about Mormonism's polygamistic practices and those of another *cough* highly suspect *cough* "religion" currently in dispute as well.
NEW DELHI Indias 40-month old United Progressive Alliance government is in turmoil. The government is likely to fall, much ahead of its full five-year term in April 2009 with its key ally, the Communists, putting the Congress-led UPA on ultimatum over the India-US nuclear deal.
Political parties yesterday called for fresh parliamentary elections even though frantic attempts are being made to save the coalition from its untimely perish. However, if the UPA government tactfully manages to save its rule, they will have to let go the nuclear deal with the US forever. This could mean an end to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singhs tenure with the UPA government as well. Under the aegis of its chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, the UPA is likely to look for a change of prime minister, sources close to Sonia Gandhi said yesterday.
Besides, it is said Dr Singh has unwittingly triggered the present crisis. Dr Singh may have been advised poorly on how to handle his political allies by mentors, but if the deal is scrapped then he would be in an embarrassing position to tell Washington that the much sought-after Indo-US pact is dead.
If the the communists the Left parties having 59 seats in Parliament withdraw support, the government would fall with the country going for fresh polls. The Congress high command is of the view that scrapping of nuclear deal would mean key modification in Indias foreign policy objectives, and to placate the Left, Dr Singh may offer to quit.
Congress sources said Dr Singh did offer to resign once, but Sonia Gandhi along with UPAs non-Left allies are keen that the decision on this be taken as a last resort. Congress is looking to find a middle ground with the four Left parties the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc but to no avail so far.
Dr Singh, a pro-economic reforms veteran, has never been a favourite of the Left parties for obvious reasons. Dr Singh also propagated a pro-US foreign policy very much on the lines of his Congress party that kicked off such a strategy of opening to the West way back during the pre-reform years of the then prime minister Narasimha Rao.
Dr Singh recently said that the nuclear deal was not renegotiable under any circumstances. Peeved by the manner the Left parties issued political diktats to his government even when supporting the regime from outside, he dared them to withdraw support. Now if the government does decide to scrap the deal, he would have to give up his job, it is believed.
Dr Singh is supposed to be a political prime minister having experience in executive more than in politics. It is said if the Left parties are made to conciliate by the Congress to save the government then Dr Singhs authority will be in question. Dr Singh has stood up with grit for the nuclear deal saying it is in the interest of the nation.
His angry outburst against the aggravated communists telling them to take-it-or-leave-it has cast a shadow on his political image, if not his capable administrative skills as an honest and refined economist. If he resigns, the Congress may find it difficult to convince the world its global standing of being pro-reforms, if he stays with nuclear deal being intact then it could be worse.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Internal politics John?
The article suggests he was advised poorly but Dr Singh couldn't be this "witless" in parliamentary arts could he be that slo?
It ISN'T possible that the US was aware of.. or played with the Commies.. is it?
[no hell no!~:)] or knew of some shenanigans a'going on during negotiations?
thanks in Advance John, I rely on you too much.. so much that when anyone asks me a question on India or Pakland I tell them I'll have to get back to them. LOL!
.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/20/2007 3:06 Comments ||
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#2
Manmohan Singh is more of a "babu" (a bureaucrat) than a "neta" (politician).
He has no political base. He is PM precisely because of this. He is a seat-warmer for the "young prince" - Rahul Gandhi.
A more powerful Congress politician (like the Defense or Foreign ministers) would be a threat to the succession plans of Sonia Gandhi.
They are unsure of how many votes the opposition BJP and their allies may get and a loss of political power now may doom Rahul's chances forever.
So the interests of India itself play second fiddle to political machinations.
Singh may very well fall on his sword.
This would be just another compromise the Congress has made in their deal with the devil (the Communist Party of India (Marxist)).
The CPI(M) has forced the Indian government to slow down the pace of economic reform - delaying SEZs (which would employ millions of desperately poor Indians in new manufacturing jobs), preventing labor reforms (which would also increase employment but hurt the unions), blocked FDI (foreign investment) in retail.
Chinese interests (the CPI(M) obey their masters in Beijing faithfully) have prevailed over the objections of the Indian intelligence agencies.
Over 1000 Chinese engineers are now in Andra Pradesh working on a pipeline project - as if India lacked engineers.
So Singh may be sacrificed so that Rahul has his chance in a few years.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/20/2007 7:43 Comments ||
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#3
john, when I started reading your post I wondered if you would mention the Chinese and, sure enough, you did. With the Chicoms lurking around maybe it's better if we don't do this deal.
Lt. Gen. Odierno has a press conference on Saturday where he updated us on the on-going action in Iraq. Ive posted the key slide at my site, linked.
With the information from his May 31 conference, it looks like well over 5,000 enemy KIA since January 15. This particular slide is from June 15 to date, when all the troops for the surge were in place.
#3
Unless the enemy:US kill ratio is above 20:1 I don't see the patience of the American people lasting long enough to achieve victory. This is on the order of 10:1. Halfway.
Hat tip LGF.
Following are excerpts from a debate between Egyptian liberal Sayid Al-Qimni and London Islamist Hani Al-Sibai, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on July 10, 2007:
Hani Al-Sibai: These cancerous cells that have spread through the nation's body, which are the garbage and refuse of the obsolete secular ideology, are the source of corruption, and the reason for all the disasters that befell this nation. These are ideological microbes that are alien to this nation.
[...]
Sayid Al-Qimni: We live in a region that does not know what democracy is. In democratic countries, people participate in elections, and the rule changes hands peacefully from the government to the opposition, or vice versa. Here, on the other hand, people prepared cars and bombs, in order to booby-trap the former and blow up the latter. We have no democracy to begin with. We don't understand the meaning of democracy.
Interviewer: But there are attempts to have democracy, Dr. Al-Qimni. There are attempts to have democracy and people like you are thwarting them. This is what happened in Palestine.
Sayid Al-Qimni: No, there are no such attempts.
Interviewer: There are attempts. There were elections in Palestine.
Sayid Al-Qimni: The ballot box alone does not constitute democracy. The ballot box is just a box made of glass, and nobody knows what goes on inside. People put a piece of paper in it. By no means does the ballot box constitute democracy. We are the prey over which two types of [predators] compete: Ruling families and military governments, on the one hand, and Islamic dictatorships, on the other hand. These two types of dictatorships compete over us, the prey.
When the mufti of the government bans a certain book, the mufti of the [Islamist] groups bans a movie. The former places a ban on words, and the latter places a "ban" on an entire person, by killing him. The women wear a uniform like soldiers. You see them in the street, and they all look like soldiers. The government whips anyone who goes to the police station to file a complaint. The Islamists legitimize whipping. If you legitimize whipping, why are you angry when the government does it? How can you be angry at the government for whipping you, when you are the ones legitimizing the whipping? Whipping is part of Islamic law.
When you go to the mosque they humiliate you, saying: "You are responsible for what happened to the nation." This poor man merely came to fulfill his religious duties, and they pile this dirt on him in the mosque. They humiliate him and attribute all the sins of this nation to him. All the nation's defeats are due to this wretched man's defiance of God. They are constantly setting new red lines. Is there such a thing as red lines in democracy? The government has its own red lines, the ruling families have their own red lines, and so do the military and the Islamists. I also have red lines, but it's useless.
As you've said, these people issue fatwas about saliva, about the urine of camels, about the urine of the Prophet, and so on... Look, all these people, this entire process, all the candidates, the people who won the elections, the people who helped them succeed they all belong in the madhouse.
Hani Al-Sibai: Hamas cleaned up the filth and dirt that had existed in Gaza. Then they plotted against it. They want the elections to give rise to Mahmoud Abbases and Muhammad Dahlans.
[...]
What has become of Kemal Ataturk's Turkey? Go to Europe, and you will see. Most of the Turks here are drug dealers, outcasts. Moreover, the English here have a custom. On Christmas, they eat what they call "turkey." Imagine, they call it "turkey," and they serve it as food at the table. This shows the kind of hatred that is deeply rooted in the West they serve the Turkish, Ottoman, Muslim man as food at the table, for entertainment and as a sign that they have slaughtered him. What has become of Turkey? It has not entered the E.U., and it does not belong to either the East or the West. When Erdogan and his people ruled in Istanbul, people did not have to worry about security matters. The E.U. and all the transparent organizations in the world testified that their hands are clean and that they are not corrupt. This is why the people elected them, and this is why the military intervened now.
[...]
The Islamists are always the ones who help people, and save them from their plight. They are active, and that is why they are envied by these microbes, which have spread their ideology throughout our countries. These Islamists, even in Jordan... Take any place in the world, and you will see that the Islamists are the masters of the world. There are no real men except for the people of Islam. Look at the people who give reason to hold the head of Islam high. In politics they are the masters. In the battlefield they are the masters. They are the ones who rub in the mud the nose of the occupation forces in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Palestine, and throughout the world. The perpetuality of the conflict makes them strong. In contrast, what is the contribution of those who are devoid of any ideology, whose faith has been deformed, who are divorced of their religion? What have they contributed? The only thing they have contributed is destruction. They are evil omens for their peoples. They lead their people to hell. The masses must vomit them from their midst. They should be placed in public squares, so that people can hit them with their shoes and spit on them. Their place is with the occupiers.
Interviewer: We got the idea. Thank you very much.
Sayid Al-Qimni: This man uses filthy and nauseating language. To hell with him.
Hani Al-Sibai: My tongue is sharp, and has no flaw, and my sea is too vast for your buckets, Qimni.
Sayid Al-Qimni: You are completely insane. Go away. Go. What, all the garbage dumps were closed and they had to go [to] the sewage to get you?
[...]
Our colleges and universities are not recognized in the world. The universities of Cairo and Ein Shams are ranked below 3,000 in the world. We do not have education. Look at the universities today all you can see is the hijab and niqab. You see a single pupil peering through an eye of a needle. What is this a centaur. [2x4: meant probably a cyclops]?
Posted by: twobyfour ||
08/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
A turkey is not my faved food, but this part caught my attention:
Moreover, the English here have a custom. On Christmas, they eat what they call "turkey." Imagine, they call it "turkey," and they serve it as food at the table. This shows the kind of hatred that is deeply rooted in the West they serve the Turkish, Ottoman, Muslim man as food at the table, for entertainment and as a sign that they have slaughtered him.
I promise that from now on, I'll make a point of eating turkey at least once per week.
Do you happen to know if there is some kind of a dessert called Mohammed or Mousselman, so I can have a more ballanced meal?
Posted by: Chief torturer Los del Río ||
08/20/2007 3:04 Comments ||
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#5
"The only thing they have contributed is destruction .....they lead their people to hell", etal. Article > Totalitarian Correctness, Hatred, Selfishness, Revenge and Greed, etc manias may cause Muslims, good or evil, honest or corrupt, to destroy the Mahdi-Messiah-Imam [Jerusalem, Mecca?], at the very time they need him the most.
All together now, D *** NGED CARS PLUS COMMERCIALS, D *** NG PRINCE and PURPLE RAIN"! Guam Taotaomonas have known since the 1960's about "December 8th", .....@etal > D *** NG IT, DIDN'T EVERYBODY???
#7
Do you happen to know if there is some kind of a dessert called Mohammed or Mousselman, so I can have a more ballanced meal?
Eat croissants... note that over the last years, I've found that croissants are less and less shaped as crescents, but rather are increasingly straight. On one hand, this may just be a byproduct of mass-production, that is making them easier to stock and move; on the other hand, I wonder if there couldn't be some kind of cultural subtext (inconscious or conscious, from the industrial bakeries???) to remove that anti-islam meaning in this viennoiserie (you "eat islamic crescent").
Am I paranoid? Schoolbooks are alytered to fit the eurabian agenda, history is revised to give islamic roots to Europe and european cultures, cellphone companies websites proposes to give you the arab version of your first name, teevee shows mostly interracial couples with white wimmen and arab/african men (white european men are gays, wimps or old),... is it really paranoia when they're actually after you?
#10
they serve the Turkish, Ottoman, Muslim man as food at the table, for entertainment and as a sign that they have slaughtered him.
Unfortunately, Turkey isn't the only country victimized by our Imperialist brutish insensitivity. Examples are everywhere! We should really clean up our act:
Oman, all this talk of food is making me Hungary.
Iran over as soon as I smelled your cooking.
Jamaica nuff for me? Why yes, I would like some coffee.
Just one Cuba sugar, though.
Your out of cream? Why don't you just milk Macao to get Samoa?
Bring me some booze instead. Lots of it, because I really want to Taiwan on.
This is what you call food? It's nothing but Greece.
#11
How about just drinking beer, wine or whiskey.
The Koran seemed to be ambiguous about this but during the midevil period, Muslim theology experts discovered that the 'I have given you clear guidance' Koran really meant to ban alcohol.
#12
Moreover, the English here have a custom. On Christmas, they eat what they call "turkey." Imagine, they call it "turkey," and they serve it as food at the table. This shows the kind of hatred that is deeply rooted in the West they serve the Turkish, Ottoman, Muslim man as food at the table, for entertainment and as a sign that they have slaughtered him.
Whereas in Turkey they call the same bird "hindi", i.e. Indian.
#16
Turkey is the modern name for the remnant of the Ottoman Empire. The turkey bird has been so named since before the British got thrown out in 1776. There's also a bird called the Turkey Bustard (never seen one). The turkey is an import to Britain - the original Christmas offering was either a goose or a ham. Just another piece of made-up nonsense to seethe about.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/20/2007 23:51 Comments ||
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The United States is at last making significant progress against al Qaeda in Iraq--but the road to victory now requires cutting off al Qaeda's road to Iraq through Damascus.
Thanks to Gen. David Petraeus's new counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, and the strength and skill of the American soldiers fighting there, al Qaeda in Iraq is now being routed from its former strongholds in Anbar and Diyala provinces. Many of Iraq's Sunni Arabs, meanwhile, are uniting with us against al Qaeda, alienated by the barbarism and brutality of their erstwhile allies. As Gen. Petraeus recently said of al Qaeda in Iraq: "We have them off plan."
But defeating al Qaeda in Iraq requires not only that we continue pressing the offensive against its leadership and infrastructure inside the country. We must also aggressively target its links to "global" al Qaeda and close off the routes its foreign fighters are using to get into Iraq.
Recently declassified American intelligence reveals just how much al Qaeda in Iraq is dependent for its survival on the support it receives from the broader, global al Qaeda network, and how most of that support flows into Iraq through one country--Syria. Al Qaeda in Iraq is sustained by a transnational network of facilitators and human smugglers, who replenish its supply of suicide bombers--approximately 60 to 80 Islamist extremists, recruited every month from across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and sent to meet their al Qaeda handlers in Syria, from where they are taken to Iraq to blow themselves up to kill countless others.
Although small in number, these foreign fighters are a vital strategic asset to al Qaeda in Iraq, providing it with the essential human ammunition it needs to conduct high-visibility, mass-casualty suicide bombings, such as we saw last week in northern Iraq. In fact, the U.S. military estimates that between 80% and 90% of suicide attacks in Iraq are perpetrated by foreign fighters, making them the deadliest weapon in al Qaeda's war arsenal. Without them, al Qaeda in Iraq would be critically, perhaps even fatally, weakened.
That is why we now must focus on disrupting this flow of suicide bombers--and that means focusing on Syria, through which up to 80% of the Iraq-bound extremists transit. Indeed, even terrorists from countries that directly border Iraq travel by land via Syria to Iraq, instead of directly from their home countries, because of the permissive environment for terrorism that the Syrian government has fostered. Syria refuses to tighten its visa regime for individuals transiting its territory.
Coalition forces have spent considerable time and energy trying to tighten Syria's land border with Iraq against terrorist infiltration. But given the length and topography of that border, the success of these efforts is likely to remain uneven at best, particularly without the support of the Damascus regime.
Before al Qaeda's foreign fighters can make their way across the Syrian border into Iraq, however, they must first reach Syria--and the overwhelming majority does so, according to U.S. intelligence estimates, by flying into Damascus International Airport, making the airport the central hub of al Qaeda travel in the Middle East, and the most vulnerable chokepoint in al Qaeda's war against Iraq and the U.S. in Iraq.
Syrian President Bashar al Assad cannot seriously claim that he is incapable of exercising effective control over the main airport in his capital city. Syria is a police state, with sprawling domestic intelligence and security services. The notion that al Qaeda recruits are slipping into and through the Damascus airport unbeknownst to the local Mukhabarat is totally unbelievable.
This is not the first use of the Damascus airport by terrorists. It has long been the central transit point for Iranian weapons en route to Hezbollah, in violation of United Nations Security Council sanctions, as well as for al Qaeda operatives moving into and out of Lebanon. Now the Damascus airport is the point of entry into Iraq for most of the suicide bombers who are killing innocent Iraqi citizens and American soldiers, and trying to break America's will in this war. It is therefore time to demand that the Syrian regime stop playing travel agent for al Qaeda in Iraq.
When Congress reconvenes next month, we should set aside whatever differences divide us on Iraq and send a clear and unambiguous message to the Syrian regime, as we did last month to the Iranian regime, that the transit of al Qaeda suicide bombers through Syria on their way to Iraq is completely unacceptable, and it must stop. We in the U.S. government should also begin developing a range of options to consider taking against Damascus International, unless the Syrian government takes appropriate action, and soon.
Responsible air carriers should be asked to stop flights into Damascus International, as long as it remains the main terminal of international terror. Despite its use by al Qaeda and Hezbollah terrorists, the airport continues to be serviced by many major non-U.S. carriers, including Alitalia, Air France, and British Airways.
Interrupting the flow of foreign fighters would mean countless fewer suicide bombings in Iraq, and countless fewer innocent people murdered by the barbaric enemy we are fighting there. At a time when the al Qaeda network in Iraq is already under heavy stress thanks to American and Iraqi military operations, closing off the supply line through which al Qaeda in Iraq is armed with its most deadly weapons--suicide bombers--would be devastating to the terrorists' cause.
Simply put, for the U.S. and our Iraqi allies, defeating al Qaeda in Iraq means locking shut Syria's "Open Door" policy to terrorists. It is past time for Syria to do so.
Is Lieberman the only Democrat (if you can call him that anymore) left in Congress who either truly cares about ,or has a basic understanding of, national security?
#3
If Jim Webb could get over his BDS he would be partner of Liebermans. But unfortunately, Soros got to him and convinced him that Bush would get his son killed in Iraq.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/20/2007 12:43 Comments ||
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Keep a grip on yer wallets when this fellow is around, and wimmins, don't believe any of the sweet things he sez. PJM has an exclusive, and it ain't pretty.
#1
He joined the Army for the same reason John Kerry joined the Navy - Resume stuffing. And he is doing exactly what Kerry later did. He will become the left's poster boy of ex-army goes over to the anti-war side. He may even end up being adopted by Mother Sheheen as a replacement son.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/20/2007 12:29 Comments ||
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#2
Interesting, too, that not everyone at TNR was taken in:
The Monday after the party, at the magazines offices, Foer was locked in a long serious conversation with Leon Wieseltier, the bear-shaped intellectual who has run the magazines literary section with distinction since 1983. They were talking about Beauchamp. Foer couldnt understand why anyone would just make things up.
Wieseltier did. Maybe he [Beauchamp] is a sociopath.
As new details about Beauchamps strange private life emerged, Wieseltiers initial assessment would prove to be on target.
Also interesting that the only person at TNR who got fired over the incident is the guy who leaked some of the gory details to conservative blogs. As soon as TNR canned him, the Huffasnuffaluffagus Post attacked the poor fellow for being gay. (Love that liberal tolerance and inclusiveness!)
As for Beauchamp's German girlfriend, the one he dumped so he could marry in to the TNR family, she now knows that strangely exhilarating feeling that comes from narrowly escaping disaster.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/20/2007 13:00 Comments ||
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#3
What Foer did not tell McGee was that Beauchamp was married to Elspeth Reeve, one of the magazines three fact-checkers (a point that the press missed too). So Beauchamp was effectively an insiderand would get treated as such.
Sorta just screams "conflict of interest", doesn't it?
And, why was the whistle-blower the only New Republic staffer to be fired?
An organization so unconcerned with facts certainly won't let such a trivial and niggling thing like ethics interfere with protecting their own interests.
It is odd that McGee has been the only one fired over the Beauchamp scandal. Wouldnt Foer be a likely candidate? Or the fact-checkers who failed to do their duty? Or Elspeth for knowingly bringing Beauchamp into its respected pages?
In a sane world, McGee should be the only one still at his job. Here's hoping that The New Republic's circulation takes a nosedive. What a bunch of tossers. Too bad they can't have the crap sued out of them over this.
Looks like Beauchamp gave TNR a shovel and they eagerly continue to dig their own grave. And why shouldn't they keep digging? Their reputation is already dead. Best they can do know is to throw dirt on top of it to keep the stink down.
#1
the Sharia-based Afghan and Iraqi constitutions
This one simple and extremely inconvenient fact represents a massive betrayal of America's rights and goals as a military liberator of these two countries. The price of admittance into the global community must include abandonment of constitutionalized shari'a law. Period. No exceptions.
The Bush administration's refusal to understand how shari'a epitomizes a comprehensive violation of human rights stands as a monument to cultural relativism and a willingness to countenance what is nothing less than a direct threat to Western civilization. Our inability to dictate from a position of strength has provided for the ascendancy of retrograde forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Democracy has been flouted under the auspices of an entirely specious freedom of religion.
Shari'a is the absolute anthesis of democracy and a fundamental toxin to any freedom of religion. Having expended so many precious lives and vast financial treasure only to permit the installation of such moral and ethical filth in our wake represents a total abdication of responsibility to both America's own national security and the rights of those who shall continue to suffer under Islam's tyrannous predations.
Islam is a religion of the sword and there are, by even the most conservative estimates, more than one hundred million active jihadists seeking to impose sharia not only in the Islamic world, but in Europe and ultimately in the United States.
There is nothing in our current political or military agenda that adequately addresses this singular fact. Nowhere has there been even a glimmer of any indication that Islam will be held accountable for sowing the hydra's teeth. We have voluntarily opted to battle the endless horde of murderous jihadis that spring forth from the Koran's litany of horrors instead of saddling Islam with its own obligation to peacefully coexist.
By doing so, we have not only shown fatal weakness but an immensely flawed sense of self-worth. We have given Islam unmerited and unearned respectability which it abuses at every turn. This has won us nothing but well-deserved scorn from those who so openly prize deceit and subversion as legitimate tools of faith. To allocate such perfidy even a shred of credibility is self-delusion of a totally monstrous sort.
Whether one believes in Christianity or not, it is necessary now for all lovers of authentic freedom to acknowledge their debt to the Judeo-Christian West, to the Judeo-Christian assumptions that built Europe and the United States, and to acknowledge that this great civilization is imperiled and worth defending.
Amidst all our Herculean endeavors, the philosophical wolf-in-the-fold of moral relativism still ravages our determination to survive. This must change if we intend to endure Islam's vile onslaughts.
Yorkshire Folk were once noted for never calling a spade a spade, it was always a bloody shovel, in these PC times I thought it was a lost art, it is nice to know that that a few of my countrymen still practice it. Please enjoy it as much as I did.
From the excerpts, This guy sounds like someone who would like to be like Norman Podhoretz, but lacks the courage (and potential income, and talent) to do so.
Also, it gives an interesting view from the inside of how a Euro-moonbat thinks. Its not pretty.
Posted by: N Guard ||
08/20/2007 6:00 Comments ||
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#2
Revolting from start to finish. Written as if basic decency, duty and responsibility were and continue to be shocking revelations. "If I were Robert Fisk I would throw rocks at me too."
#7
But it is heartening in its own way to read someone has actually opened his eyes and begun to see what the fallacies of liberalism hath wrought.
Conspicuously absent in this chap's burbling-on is any genuine refutation of the choice liberal nuggets he parades. As in:
For all of them this was an issue of the powerless striking back at the powerful, the oppressed against the oppressor, the rebels against the imperialists.
So, where is the final reorientation towards understanding that some people just plain hate everyone else who is different and want to kill them?
In the end I reached the conclusion that 11 September had already brutally confirmed: there were other forces, far more malign than America, that lay in wait in the world.
Sonow that he has purged the bolus of indigestible liberalism from his upset tummyexactly what are those "forces" that are "far more malign than America"? Does he feel no need to go beyond his endless hand-wringing and begin to address issues of substance?
Methinks this bloke is still clinging to his liberalism despite having had it demolished before his eyes. I certainly hope that Mr. Anthony will begin to use his journalistic pulpit towards better ends than such an inconclusive and self-indulgent confessional.
#8
Written as if basic decency, duty and responsibility were and continue to be shocking revelations.
For some people, these things are alien concepts, quaint remnants from a bygone era.
Posted by: Natural Law ||
08/20/2007 11:30 Comments ||
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#9
Looks like they need the right to bear arms including concealed.
Too many random beatings of folks around that guy.
But... he doesn't have the guts to connect the first part with the next 2 or note how the US waded into the punks...
#10
Self-indulgent confessional is exactly right. I expect he understands he will be pilloried by his "sophisticated" friends and will enjoy that too. This man could barely bring himself to intervene in a vicious gang assault on a young girl and still agreed some evil smirking Eloi was right to think him "pompous" for doing so.
Nietzsche called it the will to decline. Freud called it the death drive. Might as well call it suicide.
#11
To take it even further... his step daughter gets beaten up and given the lack of police action he doesn't even consider that means there is no recourse to government so he's in an "everyman for himself" state. That being the case.... his re-actions are wrong. It was right to rescue the other girl but it is still pretty whimpy.
#12
I think this is actually a very good snapshot of 2007 Britain/Europe, not just of this man's epiphany. Read it beyond his own "journey" (which you should approve, by the way), it's damning in its own way.
#13
This man could barely bring himself to intervene in a vicious gang assault on a young girl and still agreed some evil smirking Eloi was right to think him "pompous" for doing so.
Thank you for catching that one, Excal. I meant to include that startling bit of self-loathing twaddle in my own assessment of this assclown.
#14
This is a guy "guessing", "assuming", "wishing", not someone who has had an epiphany. He is like a gay guy who wants to go straight but still has those "feelings" and just can't finally let go. His rhetoric says it all. He just can't help himself. Plus he can longer live like this, not in Islington, at least.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/20/2007 12:35 Comments ||
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#15
I think you're all being a little hard on the guy. He's having an epiphany, and as self-indulgent and hesitant as his is, still it's a necessary step in changing his opinions -- and, hopefully, those of others.
He says, of the attack outside the liquor store:
There wasn't a liberal vocabulary with which to describe the situation. Indeed, even a phrase like 'civic decency' sounded fuddy-duddy, uptight, somehow right-wing.
It's very hard to say, to even think, things for which you have no vocabulary. It takes a great deal of mulling and sifting to be able to construct one from whole cloth. And it took a small amount of courage to publish this; as Seafarious says, the man's about to be outcast from "decent" society.
I don't want to overplay this guy's insight, but it is rare in Guardian-land. It's a first step we should at least welcome before pouting out its flaws.
#16
It's a first step we should at least welcome before pouting out its flaws.
Agreed, Angie, except that he leaves his poisonous indefensible liberal memes hanging in midair without acknowledging the honest and inescapable refutations that have finally sprung to his attention.
#17
No credit from me whatsoever. This is a free man raised in an open society bought and paid for by generations of blood, tears and sweat. He should know better.
To add to Zenster's thought: The writer acknowledges honest and inescapable refutations of his worldview without so much as alluding to, let alone crediting, conservative views that take his every agonized revelation to be self-evident. And he remains unrepentant for attempting to subvert the defense of the West through his pre-9/11 record of "protest", as febrile as I presume those efforts to have been.
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