Article

2007-02-28 Britain

Mark Steyn reviews The History of the English-Speaking Peoples

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Posted by Mike 2007-02-28 08:06|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 LOL, raping and pillaging the world be lurid crime matey.

Posted by Spamp Chinelet6903 2007-02-28 11:30|| 2007-02-28 11:30|| Front Page Top

#2 Of the three great global conflicts of the 20th century - the First, Second and Cold Wars - who called it right every time? Germany: one out of three.

I'd give Germany half out of three. East Germany was on the wrong side of the cold war.

Posted by rjschwarz 2007-02-28 11:38|| 2007-02-28 11:38|| Front Page Top

#3 Here's my favorite quote: "But, in their present political sensibilities, Canada is semi-French, Britain is semi-European, and New Zealand is semi-bananas."

Posted by xbalanke 2007-02-28 13:42|| 2007-02-28 13:42|| Front Page Top

#4 If you click the link at the bottom it will lead you to an amusing review of d'Souza's book:

But DSouza identifies a much more widespread and dangerous form of ethnocentrism in the photographs from Abu Ghraib. For hysterical liberal ninnies, this was (and remains) a shocking expose of torture. The question for western commentators was very simple: How far up the chain of command did authorization for these revolting techniques go? Faced with a guy being led around on a dog collar with female panties on his head and a banana sticking out his butt, the anti-war crowd wanted to know whether the Attorney-General had issued a memo on the use of tropical fruits in interrogation techniques and whether there was a smoking-gun invoice at the Pentagon revealing massive bulk purchases from Victorias Secret. The larkier conservative commentators scoffed: Anyone whod spent ten minutes in an Iraqi or Syrian or Egyptian or Saudi or Yemeni prison would not regard the Abu Ghraib scenes as torture.

We scoffers were only half-right. In the Arab world, the shocking expose of torture was shocking not because it was torture but because it exposed something worse. Most Muslims did not view it as a torture story at all, writes DSouza. Abu Ghraib was one of Saddam Husseins most notorious prisons. Tens of thousands of people were held there and many were subject to indescribable beatings and abuse. Twice a week, there were hangings outside the prison. This is what Muslims mean by torture, not the lights-on, lights-off version that American liberals are so indignant about The main focus of Islamic disgust was what Muslims perceived as extreme sexual perversion. Saddams guards pulling out your fingernails is torture. But a nobody like Lynndie England, a female soldier and adulteress, boozed up and knocked up and posing naked for photographs with paralytic casual acquaintances and making men masturbate in front of her and e-mailing the photographs all over the Internet, all that to Muslims that represented something far darker than a psycho dictator: It was just for fun, reported Paul Arthur, the military investigator who interviewed Private England. They didnt think it was a big deal. Thats the point: a society whose army recruits drunken pregnant adulterous fornicating exhibitionist women, and its no big deal.

When the Ayatollah Khomeini dubbed America the Great Satan, he was making a far more perceptive critique than Canadians and Europeans who dismiss the US as the Great Moron. Satan is a seducer, and so is America. And, when Muslims see Lynndie England, they dont like where that leads.

Posted by KBK 2007-02-28 20:50|| 2007-02-28 20:50|| Front Page Top

#5 KBK: If you click the link at the bottom it will lead you to an amusing review of d'Souza's book:

What D'Souza says about Muslim views is, in my view, accurate - they do see the US as Satan (in the guise of say, Liz Hurley dressed in a suitably skimpy costume) luring them towards perversion. The Europeans are far more libertine, but the pull of American culture is far greater because of the accessibility of its pop culture, the undeniable success of its consumer brands and its technological dominance - success is extremely seductive.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2007-02-28 21:36|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2007-02-28 21:36|| Front Page Top

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