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Mullahs lose NWFP control after five years
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Britain
A Brit Speaks Out Against Crazy Middle Easterners
My term, actually, trying to be PC and all. Six minute speech, video, worth every second!
Posted by: Bobby || 02/20/2008 17:32 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Archdruid: too intellectual to lead?
Or just a dumbass?
We report. You decide.
Mark Rice-Oxley
When it comes to leadership in the Church of England, the former Bishop of Norwich once reportedly said: "If you want to lead someone in this part of the world, find out where they're going. And walk in front of them." Rowan Williams, who celebrates five years as Archbishop of Canterbury next week, could never be accused of doing that.
Then he's not a leader, is he?

There are other ways of leading, of course. For example, you can lay out a destination, explain to everyone else why it's desirable to go there, then blaze the trail. Or even just head in that direction with the rest of them, each doing a part in the trailblazing.

But if you simply decide on a destination and you're either unwilling or incapable of explaining why you go there, or if it's the wrong destination, and you head for it, you're not leading. You're wandering.

And if you have no destination at all, you're just fond of dithering and vaporing and ajusting the lighting so your forehead looks higher, you're not even making it to the "wandering" category. You're a poseur.
Since he took over the delicate task of leading the Anglican church's 77 million strong worldwide communion, Dr. Williams has repeatedly found himself marching against the current of public opinion, government policy, or both.
They call him the Wanderer,
The Wanderer,
He roams aroun' and aroun' an' aroun',
Until he gets dizzy.
There was his criticism of British involvement in the Iraq war, which put the government's nose out of joint. There were proclamations on issues ranging from stem-cell research, abortion, and the criminal-justice system to America's foreign policy record and the economic iniquities of globalization. But nothing has troubled England quite as much as his remarks this month on the inevitability of certain elements of sharia law in Britain. Sharia, he said, offered a way of arbitration, particularly in marital or family disputes, that could provide an alternative to divorce courts. "Certain conditions of sharia are already recognized in our society and under our law, so it is not as if we are bringing in an alien and rival system," he said.
"Vogue. Vogue. Strike a pose..."
The comments ignited a furor that has seen British tabloids call for his resignation and members of his own hierarchy publicly disown him. For some Britons, Williams's remarks came as an unwanted reminder of the forward march of Islam in their midst. For some in the church, there was a sense of outrage that Muslims would get special dispensation, while Christians get no such favors in secular Britain.

The episode says as much about the personality of the archbishop, say observers, as it does about the knee-jerk tabloid proclivity to judge first and inquire later.

Part of the problem was not what was said (sharia justice has been arbitrating in civil affairs of British Muslims for 25 years) but the way it was communicated. The sentiments were woven into a lofty speech that was not easily boiled down into snappy headlines.

Therein lies the conflict: Williams is a public intellectual, ponderous, studious, and given to rich, convoluted peroration, which doesn't always sit happily in the era of sound-bite journalism...

Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Or just a dumbass?

If ignorance is bliss, then this guy would have died of an orgasm long ago.
Posted by: gorb || 02/20/2008 1:28 Comments || Top||

#2  You're not a leader if no one is following you. Getting folks to follow you is the one real mark of a leader (not that that makes them good - Adolph had a lot of followers straight to hell). I don't see too many following the Big Druid.
Posted by: Spot || 02/20/2008 8:22 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Islamic Multiculturalism
excerpt from a long interview. RTWT if you haven't already.

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Abul Kasem, an ex-Muslim who is the author of hundreds of articles and several books on Islam including, Women in Islam. He was a contributor to the book Leaving Islam – Apostates Speak Out as well as to Beyond Jihad: Critical Views From Inside Islam.

FP: Abul Kasem, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Kasem: Thank you for having me back Jamie.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: ed || 02/20/2008 10:36 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Gold Star Mom bitch slaps Bezerkeley City Council - Video
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/20/2008 15:52 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good for Debbie Lee; Gold Star mother. God bless her.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/20/2008 23:21 Comments || Top||


I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius- driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies
Pugnacious Surrogates, Milquetoast Candidates

Jim Geraghty, National Review

Hmm. Instead of Hillary's pretty empty non-concession speech last night, maybe the cable news networks should have shown her opening act:

Early in his speech, Tom Buffenbarger [president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers] asked, "So now we have a decision to make. Will we rely on the Harvard Law Review editor? The silver-tongued orator from Kansas, Hawaii and Illinois? The man in love with the microphone?"

Taking off the gloves, he said, "Barack Obama is no Muhammad Ali. He took a walk every time there was a tough vote in the Illinois State Senate. He took a walk more than a 130 times. That's what a shadow boxer does. All the right moves. All the right combinations. All the right footwork. But he never steps into the ring."
In Youngstown, Ohio, home of Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, those boxing references probably drew a lot of applause.

But it was Obama supporters for whom Buffenbarger saved his most vitriolic contempt, and he proved that the Democratic Party’s coalition is nothing if not fragile. Channeling Howard Beale from the movie Network, he yelled into the microphone, "Give me a break! I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies crowding in to hear him speak!
Youngstowners also like class-warfare populisim. (They still consider Jim Trafficant a hero.) They dislike foreign-nameplate cars and the people who drive them. (GM's Lordstown Assembly is fifteen minutes away.) They prefer Bud Light to latte.
This guy knows how to stoke his audience.

This guy won't last a round against the Republican attack machine. He's a poet, not a fighter."
But here's a problem with surrogates. Folks in the arena there for the Hillary rally heard it. But they're already convinced. (Or there was nothing else to do in Youngstown last night.)
I grew up in Youngstown. Trust me, kids, there was nothing to do in town last night. (Or tonight. Or tomorrow night. And so on.)
You and I are reading it, but our minds are probably already made up one way or the other. The folks who Hillary needs to hear it - persuadable Democrats in states like Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont will probably never hear it.

Unless, of course, we hear comments in this vein from Hillary or Bill.
I love that description of the Dem elite: "latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies." I'm gonna use that one. A lot.
Posted by: Mike || 02/20/2008 12:40 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius- driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies...

You are still worthless.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/20/2008 13:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Who's he shittin. If she comes back, he'll be the first in line to kiss their asses...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/20/2008 13:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Who's he shittin. If she comes back, he'll be the first in line to kiss their asses...

And it'll work on most of them, too.

Ultimately, it's about splitting up the boodle.
Posted by: charger || 02/20/2008 13:45 Comments || Top||

#4  "Will we rely on the Harvard Law Review editor?"
No, Hillary served on the Board of Editors of the Yale Law Review.

The silver-tongued orator from Kansas, Hawaii and Illinois?"
No, Hillary from Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Arkansas, D.C., and New York.

"The man in love with the microphone?"
The woman in love with philandering Bill Clinton?

"Barack Obama is no Muhammad Ali."
"He's a poet..."
Ummm, so was Ali.

As near as I can figure, this guy is making the case that Hillary's only advantage is that she's better at boxing.
Posted by: Darrell || 02/20/2008 13:49 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm guessing he's making the case that if superdelegates vote for her, it's a legitimate move.
Posted by: lotp || 02/20/2008 13:52 Comments || Top||

#6  I heard a radio commentator use a boxing analogy that Hillary was down and on her back, but not out. My first thought was - 'this is probably the first time in decades Billy Boy has seen her in that position.'
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/20/2008 15:01 Comments || Top||

#7  "Barack Obama is no Muhammad Ali. He took a walk every time there was a tough vote in the Illinois State Senate. He took a walk more than a 130 times. That's what a shadow boxer does. All the right moves. All the right combinations. All the right footwork. But he never steps into the ring."

That's right, fella, but he's the best you got. Kinda scary, huh?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/20/2008 15:35 Comments || Top||

#8  I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius- driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies

And yet you've been faithfully falling in line, as one of their major enablers in making it far more expensive for YOUR EMPLOYERS to build stuff here instead of having it built overseas. And you're just now finding out they're all a bunch of divorced-from-reality spoiled brats?

YOU THINK MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE COME TO THIS REALIZATION BACK WHEN WE STILL HAD A MANUFACTURING SECTOR?
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 02/20/2008 16:02 Comments || Top||

#9  Oh, and it's just been reported over at instapundit that Obambi was just endorsed by the Teamsters.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 02/20/2008 16:46 Comments || Top||

#10  "And yet you've been faithfully falling in line, as one of their major enablers in making it far more expensive for YOUR EMPLOYERS to build stuff here instead of having it built overseas. And you're just now finding out they're all a bunch of divorced-from-reality spoiled brats?

YOU THINK MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE COME TO THIS REALIZATION BACK WHEN WE STILL HAD A MANUFACTURING SECTOR?


What you said. Every word.

When the true postwar boom ended, and labor decided to make worship at the altar of the false god of perfect job security their main religion, they basically set in motion the ultimate loss of their jobs entirely.
Posted by: no mo uro || 02/20/2008 19:56 Comments || Top||


Pelosi's Wiretap Offensive
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/20/2008 09:58 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Offensive Pelosi Wired" There. Fixed it.
Posted by: GK || 02/20/2008 14:54 Comments || Top||


Hillary's comeback (WARNING: disturbing mental picture alert)
Charles Hurt, NY Post

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton lost in Wisconsin last night - she's 0 for her last 9 - yet she managed to accomplish something that only political genius and obsessive determination could pull off.

She survived.

This very morning, she is picking herself up off the canvas, returning to her corner of the ring where Bill will brush Vaseline across the swollen cuts on her face.
Hillary . . . Bill . . . Vaseline . . . Ick! FOR THE LOVE OF HEAVEN, MAKE IT STOP!!!
Whenever they are about to lose, their minions spread word of giant, yawning point spreads and regale eager reporters with tales of woe and despair behind closed doors in Hillaryland.

When it turns out to be just a nine-point loss - a shellacking by any standards - it doesn't seem so bad. It's is a trick favored by President Bush, who likes to be "misunderestimated." But the Clintons have raised it to an Olympic sport.

That's why there will be no calls for Clinton to get out of the race after last night's obliteration in a state she led by double digits just a few months ago. Everybody already knew she would lose and has gotten used to it.

But all this surviving does not change the math. She still can't win without playing the super-delegate aces she stuffed up her sleeve long ago - a move that will tear the party asunder.
Posted by: Mike || 02/20/2008 09:12 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She ain't done. The still got buckets of mud they haven't even filled up to throw yet.
And don't forget Michigan and Florida...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/20/2008 9:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Besides, one of these days Obamamania will come crashing down like a house of cards. Hilly is hoping for the collapse sometime prior to the convention; I am praying for shortly thereafter.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/20/2008 10:04 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm hoping for a breakdown at the convention itself.

The Dems have largely succeeded in the recent past in stage managing the convention to keep the obvious nut cases away from the camera lens and to maintain the pretense of patriotism, pro business, etc.

We'll see about this time.
Posted by: mhw || 02/20/2008 11:12 Comments || Top||

#4  What we have seen is that the Democratic primary voters prefer a candidate who is half white to one who is half male.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/20/2008 12:49 Comments || Top||

#5  glenmore.....hahaha....that was BAD.
Posted by: Leah Ashley || 02/20/2008 15:18 Comments || Top||

#6  a move that will tear the party asunder

I can't frickin' wait. I hope that convention is just as ugly as Hildebeast herself.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/20/2008 15:53 Comments || Top||

#7  As that is left is her concession speech.

So the GOP faces 'Bama, and his baggage about holding a post-victory meeting with dissatisfied Muslim majority state leaders to discuss...reparations?

Dems: you should know that even if Karl Rove is not in the picture this election, the attack-early-and-often tactics will fly. Rove is a good teacher. 'Bama is toast. Eat 'em up.
Posted by: Glaviper Bonaparte5115 || 02/20/2008 16:19 Comments || Top||

#8  >What we have seen is that the Democratic primary voters prefer a candidate who is half white to one who is half male.<

Another first for Hils, the First Transgender Candidate...

davemac
Posted by: Omiting the Younger9947 || 02/20/2008 19:54 Comments || Top||


The Eternal Hero, eternally disappointing
Jim Geraghty, National Review

Barack Obama doesn’t exist.

Oh, sure, there is a U.S. senator from Illinois named Barack Obama, who appears well on his way to being the Democratic presidential nominee. Barack Obama the Man exists. Barack Obama the Ideal does not — though few Democrats want to believe that right now.

As former Bush e-communications strategist Patrick Ruffini has noted, Obama is not being sold as a political leader who supports certain policies. He’s being sold as a brand that makes you feel certain feelings — among them, hope, optimism, and a sense that he represents “change we can believe in.” Don’t ask what kind of change. Just Do It. Because You’re Worth It. Yes, We Can.

While the mania and faux-messianic themes (“we are the ones we’ve been waiting for”; Oprah’s declaration that he is “The One”) are more explicit than in previous election cycles, the yearning for that perfect, unifying candidate seems to come every four years, and every time the Democrats wind up disappointed. The concept of the principled liberal who can win over support from left, right, and center — the political savior; the eternal hero — is resurrected quadrennially by the secular Left. Democrats are now swooning again — sometimes literally — over inexpressible hopes for transformative change that no flesh-and-blood politician could deliver.

Obama, as well meaning as he seems to be, is a human being with flaws. What’s more, he’s a politician, capable of compromising high-minded principles for momentary political gain. . . . But a candidate with consistent views and a list of legislative accomplishments isn’t what Democratic voters yearn for — ask Joe Biden, Bill Bradley, Joe Lieberman, or Bob Kerrey. Democrats want to be romanced. They want easy-on-the-eyes candidates who make their hearts palpitate, who make them feel that utopia is just around the corner, who can usher in the secular progressive equivalent of the Kingdom of God.

Hollywood is part of the problem. Tinseltown constantly teases Democrats with onscreen depictions of ideal presidents of the Left. On The West Wing, President Jeb Bartlett combined the best of FDR and Bill Clinton (a catalogue of West Wing plotlines inspired by the Clinton years can be found here), while Martin Sheen subtly mimicked John F. Kennedy in the role. West Wing creator Sorkin’s earlier film The American President likewise contributed to the impossible Democratic ideal of wise, incorruptible, and unapologetically progressive power.

Hollywood is the appropriate locus for such political yearning — as it is a small step away from waiting for the Man on a White Horse: the decisive leader, a stranger to the broken status quo, who sweeps in and cleans up the town, often with semi-dictatorial tones. Democrats would deny that they want that, of course. But nearly every cycle, a large chunk of the Democratic base and more than a few prominent voices publicly fall in love with a candidate, whom they declare to be “the second coming of JFK.” . . .

The thing is, we’ve seen this movie before. (Perhaps literally, if Obama is the Redford-esque candidate who drops controversial liberal stands in order to get elected on empty cheer and charm before asking, “Now what?” Is Obama’s “Change We Can Believe In” any more meaningless than “For a better way: Bill McKay!”)

Former president Clinton vacationed off Martha’s Vineyard in yachts filthy with Kennedys; he quoted Kennedy regularly; and even compared himself to JFK while admitting the Lewinsky affair to his cabinet. A centerpiece of the 1992 Democratic Convention was the photo of a teenage Bill Clinton shaking hands with JFK, a perfect visual representation of “the torch being passed to a new generation.” That image — which Time called “the anointing touch” — appeared in Clinton’s ads.

John Kerry would try the same thing. . . . Before Kerry and Clinton, presidential hopefuls Gary Hart and (believe it or not) Jimmy Carter were also compared to JFK. This year, the comparisons have been no less explicit, and in Obama, we have one of the few candidates who is compared to both John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury managed to be funny for a change as he portrayed his protagonist’s daughter, a smitten Obama supporter, contemplating the challenges her hero faces running as, “The First Black Kennedy.”

But when everybody’s the next JFK, nobody’s the next JFK. . . . We’ve heard this story before, and we know it doesn’t end well. Every aspiring Democratic president deemed “the next JFK” has revealed feet of clay — be it from scandal, domestic- or foreign-policy failures, a sense of opportunities squandered or great promise unfulfilled. In every instance, there was always a man behind the curtain whom it became impossible to ignore.

Could Barack Obama go on to be a successful president? It’s possible, and if he attains the office, Americans of all political stripes will wish him well in his duties to protect the country. But history, and human nature, tell us that no president could live up to the inhuman expectations being created at this moment.
Posted by: Mike || 02/20/2008 08:37 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He didn't just steal Deval Patrick's speeches, he stole his campaign strategy.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/20/2008 9:34 Comments || Top||

#2  JFK couldn't be the next JFK. He'd have been just another president if he had not been assassinated - Vietnam would have been HIS albatross, to go with Bay of Pigs. HE would have had to deal with the race riots, where there were no consequence-free choices.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/20/2008 12:52 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Operation Gratitude in Iraq
Top post: Operation Gratitude is a great cause. I'm embedding their link here for those of you who want to donate. AoS.
Just in case you aren't aware of it, the most trendy catchphrase among the peace-at-any-price left has become:

"We hate the war, but we support our troops."

Lest we forget, however, a good number of these are the same people who call terrorists "freedom fighters."

So, who do they think they're fooling?

Meanwhile, the flip side of the say-all-and-do-nothing leftists are the myriad silent-majority forces at work day and night proving with their actions that they truly love and support our valiant military men and women.

One of the most effective groups at work on behalf of our troops is Operation Gratitude, an assemblage of Americans who put aside every difference among them in the common cause of loving our soldiers. Since its founding in 2003, this one group of all-volunteer supporters has sent 300,000 care packages to our troops serving in harm's way.

And all of it started because one American mom decided that she could not sit idly by in her safe, comfortable home doing nothing while our young men and women willingly left safety and comfort behind to fight for the rest of us.

Carolyn Blashek, founder of Operation Gratitude, has become for all intents and purposes, America's Troop Mom. She and her mission to minister to the morale of our troops through her simple, but ingenious, "care" packages are living proof of Basil King's famous injunction: http://www.online-literature.com/basil-king/

"Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid."

Mighty forces, both seen and unseen, have indeed come to the aid of Operation Gratitude in its essential mission of showing our soldiers we all do care.

And those mighty forces just keep on coming, time and time again, in the most unlikely "coincidences," from the most unlikely sources.

Mighty Forces Take Carolyn to Iraq

In late December last year, when Operation Gratitude's holiday drive was in full gear, with hundreds of volunteers packing thousands of packages, and carefully addressing each to an individual soldier overseas, Carolyn realized that a mission milestone would be reached within the month. The 300,000th package was nearing assembly and its recipient was already named by the computer's data bank.

One of OpGrat's mighty forces had already donated the keys to a brand new Jeep Liberty for the recipient of this milestone care package. And the excitement among the volunteers was palpable.

Coincidentally, the soldier picked by the computer to receive the 300,000th package was a member of the brigade under the charge of Major General Hertling, commanding general of Multi-National Division North in Iraq. Carolyn Blashek and Major General Hertling go all the way back to OpGrat's founding in 2003.

In the beginning, when Carolyn was merely bold, she had no mighty forces. But she had enough boldness to be mighty in her own right, and she got ahold of the General's name through channels, and sent him an email asking for the individual names and addresses of all the soldiers under his command, so that she could send them each a care package from home.

The general now says he thought she was a bit out of it at the time, and wrote back simply: "Ma'am, I don't think you know who I am or how many soldiers I have under my command. I currently have a force of 39,000 soldiers," thinking that would be the end of it.

But our Troop Mom wrote back to the general, quite boldly indeed:

"General, I don't think you know who I am.

Just send me the names and addresses and I will make sure every one of them receives a care package from us at home."


When the 39,000 packages arrived as promised, and the general saw the amazing effect they had on the morale of his troops, he immediately became a treasured mighty force on the side of Operation Gratitude. And as soon as he was notified that one of his own soldiers was slated to receive the 300,000th package, he immediately set things in motion that would coalesce in bringing Carolyn Blashek and her trusted right-hand man, Charlie Othold (USAF, ret), to Iraq to present the package with the keys to the Jeep in person.

Pictures and rest of the story at the site -- you want to read this one
Posted by: Sherry || 02/20/2008 11:11 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  According to their website, they are now up to 319,856 packages delivered including the keys to a Jeep at 250,000 and 300,000 packages.

Looks like an organization I could will get behind.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/20/2008 12:08 Comments || Top||

#2  this is the first place i have read about this woman going too iraq and amongst the ppl at that. Way too cover REAL new MSM
Posted by: sinse || 02/20/2008 13:20 Comments || Top||

#3  I have cooked lunch for the folks as they package up the goods. Wonderful group of people.
Posted by: rex havox || 02/20/2008 13:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Wonder what the effect would be if she expanded her operation to send care packages to the Berkeley USMC Recruiting Station with request to forward to local vets on leave; the lefties would go bug-sh!t seeing UPS or US Mail trucks pull up unloading scores of packages, especially if they used Code Pink's special wet spot.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/20/2008 16:13 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Mugniyah's fingerprints on al Qaeda's terror
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/20/2008 16:10 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
A Response to Feminists on the Violent Oppression of Women in Islam
By David Horowitz and Robert Spencer

This week, seven hundred feminists signed an Open Letter complaining that “columnists and opinion writers from The Weekly Standard to the Washington Post to Slate have recently accused American feminists of focusing obsessively on minor or even nonexistent injustices in the United States while ignoring atrocities against women in other countries, especially the Muslim world.”
What about Rantburg! We've been slighted!
We recognize this Open Letter as a delayed response to the Freedom Center’s Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which protested the silence of feminists over the “Oppression of Women in Islam” on campuses all over the country last fall, organized sit-ins at a dozen Women’s Studies Departments to protest the absence of courses and department-sponsored events confronting the issue, and made this a matter of national discussion and debate. This is why the signers of the Open Letter complain that “‘Women’s rights are human rights’ was not a slogan dreamed up by David Horowitz or Christina Hoff Sommers,” two of our speakers for Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. (We never claimed it was.)

The signers of this Letter claim that, “contrary to the accusations of pundits,” they support Muslim feminists in “their struggle against female genital mutilation, ‘honor’ murder, forced marriage, child marriage, compulsory Islamic dress codes, the criminalization of sex outside marriage, brutal punishments like lashing and stoning, family laws that favor men and that place adult women under the legal power of fathers, brothers, and husbands, and laws that discount legal testimony made by women.”

Well, we welcome these avowals of support for the rights of Muslim women. However, forgive us for doubting their sincerity. As one of us pointed out in a speech given at the University of Wisconsin during Islamo-Fascism Week:

“One of our concerns … is the failure of the Women’s Studies Movement to educate students about these atrocities. Our researchers looked at more than 600 Women’s Studies programs on fifteen American campuses, which focus on the unequal treatment of women in society. But they were unable to locate a single class which focuses on the oppression of women under Islamic law.”

What was true last October is still true today. As recently as December 10, a Muslim teenager was strangled by her father for refusing to wear a hijab without a protest from the American feminist movement. And that is only one of many crimes committed in the name of Islam against Muslim women over which the feminist movement continues to be silent.
Posted by: ed || 02/20/2008 10:25 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah, yes. The "strongly worded letter"...
Now, leave us alone as we are busy trying to stem the Obama tide...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/20/2008 10:34 Comments || Top||

#2  We burned our bras in the 60s. Jane Fonda used the C-bomb on national TV just last week. What do you want from us?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/20/2008 17:52 Comments || Top||

#3  "600 Women’s Studies programs on fifteen American campuses"

That just f**king frightening!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/20/2008 18:54 Comments || Top||

#4  "600 Women’s Studies programs on fifteen American campuses"

They must mean 600 courses? It is indeed frightening. Indicates the further decline of American higher education. Multiculturalism and PC has run rampant thanks to the tyranny of the leftists.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/20/2008 23:16 Comments || Top||


So what would it take to alarm you?
Hat tip, Instapundit
Since Maclean's got into a spot of bother with Canada's "human rights" pseudo-courts, I've been pleasantly surprised by the number of our media confreres who don't think it should be a "crime" for magazines to publish excerpts from books by yours truly. Nevertheless, in defending free speech in general, they usually feel obliged to deplore my exercise of it in particular:
"Maclean's published an alarmist screed by Mr. Steyn . . ." (The Economist)
"While the book may be alarmist . . ." (CFRB)
"Steyn's argument is indeed alarmist . . ." (The Guardian)
And, oh dear, even:
"The fear of 'a Muslim tide' was alarmist . . ." (Tarek Fatah and Farzana Hassan in Maclean's)
Okay, enough already. I get the picture: alarmist, alarmist, alarmist. My book's thesis — that most of the Western world is on course to become at least semi-Islamic in its political and cultural disposition within a very short time — is "alarmist."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/20/2008 08:20 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  NOUN: A person who needlessly alarms or attempts to alarm others, as by inventing or spreading false or exaggerated rumors of impending danger or catastrophe

In ohter words the other publications are calling Steyn a liar. Politely, but a liar nonetheless.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/20/2008 10:17 Comments || Top||

#2  The MSM would call Paul Revere an "alarmist" now days.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/20/2008 11:42 Comments || Top||


Archdruid Was Right
Feisal Abdul Rauf
Editorial by an Islamic apologist in the Washington Post.
The addition of Sharia law to "the law of the land" complements, rather than undermines, existing legal frameworks. Williams was right. It's time for Britain to integrate aspects of Islamic law.
That's just the blurb from the article. Read the rest if you've a mind -- the usual arguments.

If we could export stoopid we'd have a trade surplus. If the Muslim world could export duplicitous they wouldn't need oil.
Posted by: Fred || 02/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's not just a Muslim issue.
Spengler recently summarized the Archdruid's position thus:
Stripped of casuistry, he proposed that Muslim women subject to forced marriages, genital mutilation, or domestic violence should be handed over to Muslim religious courts, rather than be offered the protection of English Common Law. To my knowledge, this is the first time that one of Europe’s spiritual leaders has proposed to abandon innocent victims to their fate.

Archbishop Dr Rowan Williams, to be sure, has a point. But he should have stated plainly what he really thinks. What he wanted to say is more or less: "To protect a few hundred or a few thousand colored ladies, the English state will have to put its big boots on, kick down the doors of Muslim homes, trample through Muslim living rooms, tear up the fabric of Muslim communities, and disrupt the social order. Why not turn such cases over to [Muslim] religious courts and wash our hands of them?" I reiterate: this is satanic hypocrisy.

If decent and well-meaning men like Dr Williams are so afraid of communal violence as to abandon the founding principles of common law and Judeo-Christian ethics, it is long past time to debate the fine points.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/20/2008 1:58 Comments || Top||

#2  "That doesn't prevent British Muslims from practicing aspects of Sharia that don't conflict with British law, or from seeking changes in British law."

It’s not like it’s some kind of Islamic secret or anything but Feisal boy tips his cards right off the get go. Bottom line - Sharia law is an “all or nothing proposition”. If you hadn’t noticed, once you’re in the club, adherents are not allowed to practice Sharia in an ale’ carte fashion. Perhaps you’ve heard of that whole “Apostate” thingy? Make no mistake, introduction of certain “aspects” from Sharia law is the first step in a calculated path for incremental changes in established western law. The goal is to establish enclaves that are eventually governed by a completely different set of laws. Something the multi- culturists seem incapable of wrapping their little pin-heads around.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/20/2008 10:45 Comments || Top||

#3  The population of the UK is about 60.8 million, according to the CIA World Factbook. Muslims comprise about 1.6 million, or about 2.6%. WTF??!!! The government of Britain are a bunch of wusses is they are tyrannized and/or intimidated by 3% of the population. Let it be a good disturbing lesson to us here in the US. We better learn, and learn quickly.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/20/2008 15:49 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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Wed 2008-02-20
  Mullahs lose NWFP control after five years
Tue 2008-02-19
  Dulmatin titzup in Tawi-Tawi?
Mon 2008-02-18
  Explosion rocks West Texas oil refinery
Sun 2008-02-17
  Somali president unhurt in mortar attack on residence
Sat 2008-02-16
  Islamic Jihad commander kabooms himself, family, neighbors
Fri 2008-02-15
  Multiple explosions at TX pipelines near Mexican border
Thu 2008-02-14
  Muslim group 'planned mass murder'
Wed 2008-02-13
  Mugniyeh rots
Tue 2008-02-12
  Mansour Dadullah in custody in Pak
Mon 2008-02-11
  UN offices attacked in Mogadishu
Sun 2008-02-10
  UK Oil Rig Evacuated After Bomb Alert
Sat 2008-02-09
  Sudan planes, militia attack Darfur towns-witnesses
Fri 2008-02-08
  Israel may target Hamas heads
Thu 2008-02-07
  WMD Documents Found in NYC Apartment of Iraq Translator
Wed 2008-02-06
  Baitullah declares hudna

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