Sharia Law is Politically Correct;Pope Benedict Isn't

I agree with Tammy Bruce, we should have treated Iraq like Japan at the end of WWII, and forced them to Westernize. Letting them write Sharia Law into their constitution just perpetuates the problem Islam has with the rest of the civilized world.

Political Correctness has made it impossible to deal with Sharia Law, which is all the more reason to put an end to the PC nonsense. Political Correctness was a term first coined by conservatives, as an INSULT to describe unthinking people who blindly followed political views in order to be "correct" with the "IN crowd", without fully understanding those views and thinking them through to their logical consequences.

Now we have a large segment of the population who proudly proclaim that "It's VERY important" to be Politically Correct. The irony is completely lost on them.

Pope Benedict is no Dhimmi
From the Times Online, and excerpt:

THE Vatican has begun moves to rehabilitate the Crusaders by sponsoring a conference at the weekend that portrays the Crusades as wars fought with the “noble aim” of regaining the Holy Land for Christianity. ...

At the conference, held at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University, Roberto De Mattei, an Italian historian, recalled that the Crusades were “a response to the Muslim invasion of Christian lands and the Muslim devastation of the Holy Places”.

“The debate has been reopened,” La Stampa said. Professor De Mattei noted that the desecration of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by Muslim forces in 1009 had helped to provoke the First Crusade at the end of the 11th century, called by Pope Urban II.

He said that the Crusaders were “martyrs” who had “sacrificed their lives for the faith”. He was backed by Jonathan Riley-Smith, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University, who said that those who sought forgiveness for the Crusades “do not know their history”. Professor Riley-Smith has attacked Sir Ridley Scott’s recent film Kingdom of Heaven, starring Orlando Bloom, as “utter nonsense”.

Professor Riley-Smith said that the script, like much writing on the Crusades, was “historically inaccurate. It depicts the Muslims as civilised and the Crusaders as barbarians. It has nothing to do with reality.” It fuels Islamic fundamentalism by propagating “Osama bin Laden’s version of history”...

Osama Bin Laden's version of history is the same history that most of the liberal academics in our schools and universities teach. So is it any coincidence that the talking points of al Qaeda's and the Democrat's are the same?

You can read the whole Times article HERE.

Hat tip to Patrick at the "Clarity and Resolve" blog for the excerpt, you can read his commentary about it HERE.

Also, from the same blog...

You can read about the comments of Iraqi Cleric Ahmad Al-Kubeisi, this spokesman for "The Religion of Peace", HERE. This interview appeared on Al-Rislala TV, which is a Saudi channel broadcasting from Kuwait. Its chairman of the board is Saudi prince Walid bin Talal, who is also shareholder in American FOX NEWS.

Related Links:

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Rupert Murdoch and the United Arab Emirates

Why Fox News Is Scared Sh*tless About Dubai Ports World

Iraqi Cleric Ahmad Al-Kubeisi Promotes Jihad on A New Saudi Channel Broadcasting from Kuwait
.

Sunday Funnies 03/19/06

Blogger has been having technical difficulties, the message I read said it is related to server problems, and may take days to sort out. We shall see. (I'm posting this at 11pm Sunday night: if Blogger keeps having problems, I will have to cut back on my blogging til it's fixed). On with the funnies:

The Haircut

A young boy had just gotten his driver's permit and inquired of his father, an evangelist, if they could discuss his use of the car.

His father said "I'll make a deal with you. You bring your grades up from a C to a B average, study your Bible a little, get your hair cut and we'll talk about the car."

Well, the boy thought about that for a moment, and decided that he'd settle for the offer, and they agreed on it.

After about six weeks they went into the study, where his father said, "Son, I've been real proud. You brought your grades up, and I've observed that you have been studying your Bible, and participating a lot more in the Bible study groups. But, I'm real disappointed, since you haven't gotten your hair cut."

The young man paused a moment, and then said, "You know, Dad, I've been thinking about that, and I've noticed in my studies of the Bible that Samson had long hair, John the Baptist had long hair, Moses had long hair and there's even a strong argument that Jesus had long hair."

To this his father replied, "Did you also notice that they all walked everywhere they went?"



Sharing a Room
>
>By the time a Marine pulled into a little town, every hotel room was
>taken.
>
>"You've got to have a room somewhere," he pleaded. "Or just a bed, I
>don't care where."
>
>"Well, I do have a double room with one occupant, a Navy guy," admitted
>the manager, "and he might be glad to split the cost. But to tell you
>the truth, he snores so loudly that people in adjoining rooms have
>complained in the past. I'm not sure it'd be worth it to you."
>
>"No problem," the tired Marine assured him. "I'll take it."
>
>The next morning the Marine came down to breakfast bright-eyed and
>bushy-tailed. "How'd you sleep?" Asked the manager.
>
>"Never better."
>
>The manager was impressed. "No problem with the other guy snoring,
>then?"
>
>"Nope, I shut him up in no time." Said the Marine.
>
>"How'd you manage that?" asked the manager.
>
>"He was already in bed, snoring away, when I came in the room," the
>Marine explained. "I went over, gave him a kiss on the cheek, said,
>'Goodnight, beautiful,' and he sat up all night watching me."
>



Subject: Lottery Winner

A women gets home, screeches her car into the
driveway, runs into the house, slams the door
and shouts at the top of her lungs, "Honey,
pack your bags, I've won the lottery!"

The husband says, "Oh my God! What should I
pack, beach stuff or mountain stuff?"
The wife yells back, "It doesn't matter.....
just get the hell out!"

****


The Oil Shortage
> >
> > There are a lot of folks who can't understand why we have an oil
> > shortage here in the USA. Well, there's a very simple answer.
> > Nobody bothered to check the oil. We just didn't know we were
> > getting low. The reason for this is purely geographical. All the oil
> > is in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, Alaska, etc.
> > All the dipsticks are in Washington, D.C.
> >

Now for the Ted Kennedy Children's book cover of the week:


Hat tip to the Kennedy forum thread at FARK.COM.

****

The teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment. Get their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it.

The next day the kids came back and one by one began to tell their stories.

Ashley said, "My father's a farmer and we have a lot of egg-laying hens. One time we were taking our eggs to market in a basket on the front seat of the pickup when we hit a big bump in the road and all the eggs went flying and broke and made a mess."
"And what's the moral of the story?" asked the teacher.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket!" "Very good," said the teacher.

Next little Sarah raised her hand and said, "Our family are farmers too. But we raise chickens for the meat market. We had a dozen eggs one time but when they hatched we only had ten live chicks, and the moral to the story is, "don't count your chickens until they've hatched." "That was a fine story, Sarah."

"Michael, do you have a story to share?"

"Yes, ma'am, my daddy told me this story about my Aunt Sue. Aunt Sue was a flight engineer in Desert Storm and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory, and all she had was a bottle of whiskey, a machine gun and a machete. She drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn't break, and then she landed right in the middle of 100 enemy troops. She killed seventy of them with the machine gun until she ran out of bullets. Then she killed twenty more with the machete. And then she killed the last ten with her bare hands."

"Good heavens," said the horrified teacher, "what kind of moral did your daddy tell you from that horrible story?"

"Stay the hell away from Aunt Sue when she's drinking"





OK, here is a list of "facts" that has been going around the internet. I've had my doubts about some of these, and it appears that I had good reason. Here is the list, and at the end, I will provide a link to a site that debunks more than half of them.

SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING?

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.!

There are more chickens than people in the world.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

There are two words in the English language that have! all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on ly on one row of the keyboard.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer ! of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

..............There, now you know everything!


Well, no, not really! Here is a website where someone had done their homework. He provides links to prove that more than half the claims in the above email are false: A Fact Chain-Mail Debunked on MartinsQuest.com

It's fun to read; the true facts are often interesting in their own right. It just goes to show how you can't assume something is true just because it's circulated on the internet. Yet this link also demonstrates that, with a bit of searching, you can find out what the truth really is. And if you are really interested, check out Martin's "Google Answer's" link at the bottom of his page.

Note: a few of the questions are different! It would seem there have been a couple of variations of this email circulating around.

****

Inspiration


True Story of Courage and Love
Walking down a path through some woods in Georgia in 1977, 1 saw a water puddle ahead on the path. I angled my direction to go around it on the part of the path that wasn’t covered by water and mud. As I reached the puddle, I was suddenly attacked!

Yet I did nothing for the attack was so unpredictable and from a source so totally unexpected. I was startled as well as unhurt, despite having been struck four or five times already. I backed up a foot and my attacker stopped attacking me. Instead of attacking more, he hovered in the air on graceful butterfly wings in front of me. Had I been hurt I wouldn’t have found it amusing, but I was unhurt, it was funny, and I was laughing. After all, I was being attacked by a butterfly!

Having stopped laughing, I took a step forward. My attacker rushed me again. He rammed me in the chest with his head and body, striking me over and over again with all his might, still to no avail. For a second time, I retreated a step while my attacker relented in his attack.

Yet again, I tried moving forward. My attacker charged me again. I was rammed in the chest over and over again. I wasn’t sure what to do, other than to retreat a third time, after all, it’s just not everyday that one is attacked by a butterfly. This time, though, I stepped back several paces to look the situation over. My attacker moved back as well to land on the ground. That’s when I discovered why my attacker was charging me only moments earlier.

He had a mate and she was dying. She was beside the puddle where he landed. Sitting close beside her, he opened and closed his wings as if to fan her. I could only admire the love and courage of that butterfly in his concern for his mate. He had taken it upon himself to attack me for his mate’s sake, even though she was clearly dying and I was so large. He did so just to give her those extra few precious moments of life, should I have been careless enough to step on her.

Now I knew why and what he was fighting for. There was really only one option left for me. I carefully made my way around the puddle to the other side of the path, though it was only inches wide and extremely muddy. His courage in attacking something thousands of times larger and heavier than himself just for his mate’s safety justified it. I couldn’t do anything other than reward him by walking on the more difficult side of the puddle. He had truly earned those moments to be with her, undisturbed. I left them in peace for those last few moments, cleaning the mud from my boots when I later reached my car.

Since then, I’ve always tried to remember the courage of that butterfly whenever I see huge obstacles facing me. I use that butterfly’s courage as an inspiration and to remind myself that good things are worth fighting for.


Copyright 1997 Dave Kuzminski

Persian refugee refuses to leave

So I guess we may have to keep it (I still don't know if it's a she or a he, all that hair...) The dogs had cornered it on our back porch the day before yesterday. It looks like it was once very beautiful, but has seen better days. It seems to have been on it's own for some time now.

At first I thought I saw an owners tag under the neck, but it turned out to be a lump of matted, dirty fur. It had several lumps of matted fur on it, so I cut them off with scissors. It let me do this without fussing; it's a very gentle animal; it purrs easily and is quite affectionate. It had once been somebody's baby.

It is a small cat, and so thin and light it felt like picking up a ghost. It wouldn't leave our back porch, so we have put it in the shed, which has it's own cat door. It sleeps a lot, it seems to be recovering from nearly starving to death.

Our other two cats hate it, but they don't actively fight with it. So we are going to let it regain it's health and strength, and see how it goes from there. For now, I'm calling it "Fluffy".

Is Islam compatible with a free society?

Photo from an Ashoura "Festival", where participants deliberately cut themselves on the scalp and bleed for all to see (Hat Tip to the blog of Princess Kimberly).

The compatibility of Islam with a modern and free society has to be one of the most important questions of our times. Our attitude, the way we approach and deal with the Middle East, depends on it. The more I learn about Islam, the more likely the answer would seem to be "no"; at least not without some degree of reformation.

Many other people have been asking this very question, and their thoughts and conclusions about it have made for informative reading. Here are some of the more interesting ones I've come across:

INCHING TOWARD "NO"
Dr. Sanity has a look at the question "Is Islam compatible with a free society?" Here is an excerpt of her thorough reasoning on the subject:

...President Bush has bet everything on the hope that Islam can be changed if it is infused with some democratic opportunities and freed from some of the political and religious tyranny that has dominated the Middle East. If such a democratizing process had been started--and carried through-- a decade or two earlier, well who knows how much the situation might have changed by now? But it only began after a devastating attack within our borders finally spurred us to mobilize our resources and fight back both militarily and strategically.

And, as I said in an earlier piece, contrary to the infantile imaginings of the antiwar and so-called "peace" movements, Bush's strategy actually represents the best possible hope for peace; even if it is slight.

It is a strategy that faces the grim reality of Islamic contradictions and historical brutality; yet has enough optimism and goodwill in it to be genuinely worth the price we are paying in Afghanistan and Iraq. If it works--and I haven't entirely given up hope yet-- millions of deaths might still be prevented. And if the peace crowd really cares about peace, then they would do well to reconsider their own perverse antics; and the Democrats their knee-jerk opposition.

Because, if they succeed in their determination to undermine American policy as it is now formulated; or if the extremists succeed in eliminating any voices for moderation and tolerance; then there will be only one strategic option open...

This is a very thoughtful look at what we are facing. I would like to also print here the Three Conjectures she mentions, but instead I'll recommend that you read the whole thing HERE.

Unity at Last! Democrats and Republicans Both Dis Arabs
Posted by Vanderleun at The American Digest. An excerpt:

...Neither side will point to the obvious cause of the slip-sliding away of the ports deal: Muslim and Arab behavior over the last six decades peaking at 9/11 and rolling on since then quite nicely, thank you.

The question is not "Do Americans distrust Arabs and Muslims?" They do. They distrust them all across the political spectrum -- with the exception of the Left side of what now passes for the Democratic Party, and the members of the Republican Party and assorted plutocrats that have profit in their plans.

The question is "Should Americans distrust Arabs and Muslims?"

Well, when you have a rag-tag collection of cultures and a global religion that regularly turns out to burn down embassies, drive Airplanes into skyscrapers, plants bombs along roadsides on a daily basis, has its "representatives" run into crowds, buses, and subway tunnels and self-detonate, beheads random innocent individuals, and promises to conquer the world and put all unbelievers to the sword or into slavery, you don't exactly feel good about those folks. While it is true that their actions get a lot of ink and air-time, you can't say that their PR creates a lot of mellow, positive feelings. What it creates is fear, suspicion and distrust...

You can read the whole post HERE.

How dhimmi are we?
An excerpt:

...as I know from inside, the media both here and in Europe go to extraordinary lengths to suppress the sort of material that could incite ill feeling [against Muslims] that way. This began the morning of 9/11/01, with the non-coverage of street celebrations in Arab ethnic neighbourhoods of Brooklyn and Detroit. As recently as last month, mainstream media were editing out London cartoon protesters carrying signs reading, "Behead Those Who Insult Islam," "Europe You Will Pay," and so forth.

On the other hand, there is patient, exhaustive coverage of anything that might incite anti-Western hysteria in the Islamic world. For even while the largest media outlets were refusing to show those bland Danish cartoons -- and doing so out of a pretended "respect for Islam" -- they were dredging up additional sordid photos from the Abu Ghraib outrage in 2004, and running those prominently...

There is an interesting comment about "western post-hippie self-loathing" being very compatible with dihimmitude. You can read the whole thing HERE.

Organized apoplexy
An article by David Warren. The author exposes why the "cartoon riots" were not really about the Danish cartoons at all; they were the result of a deliberate propaganda campaign to stir up riots, with lies and deceptions. An excerpt:

...The cartoons were nearly ignored when they first appeared: there was one death threat from a Muslim immigrant, but police determined the man was mentally ill. Trouble began stirring when imams called attention to the cartoons, with incendiary sermons in Danish mosques. An imam in Aarhus publicly reminded the editor of Jyllands-Posten of what had happened to the Dutch filmmaker, Theo Van Gogh. But even that could have blown over.

From several sources, we now know that word of the cartoons was then carried systematically through the Muslim world -- to principal mosques, madrasahs, and government offices starting in Egypt. This was done by delegations sent by Ahmed Abu-Laban, the Saudi-supported Imam of Copenhagen. And in addition to the dozen cartoons that had actually appeared in that obscure provincial newspaper -- most fairly innocent, and one actually satirizing opposition to Islam -- the delegations' "media kits" included as many as 30 graphics that had never appeared, and by their nature would never appear, in a Western mainstream newspaper. For instance, a photo of a man dressed as a pig, over the caption, “This is the real Mohammad.”

The fake pictures not only outnumbered the real ones, they were much nastier. Many were in the style of anti-Semitic cartoons that appear frequently in Arab papers, but turned around to target Muslims instead of Jews. And the covering letter, which I have read in translation, was full of outrageous lies about events in Denmark, and misrepresentations of what had been said by Danish journalists and politicians.

It is this document, and not any copy of Jyllands-Posten from Sept. 30th, 2005, that is at the root of the Muslim riots, the Saudi-sponsored pan-Arab boycott of Danish goods, and various fatwas and other acts that put Danes and other Europeans, who had never previously heard of Jyllands-Posten, in peril for their lives.

That the first violent acts were performed in Gaza and Damascus, under the oversight of Hamas and the Syrian Baath party, respectively, speaks volumes. That the Danish embassy in Beirut was torched just after the one in Damascus, says more. Lebanese police arrested nearly 200 provocateurs, most of them Palestinians and Syrian nationals. These people also tried to start a rampage through the whole upscale Maronite (Levantine Catholic) neighbourhood that is also Beirut's embassy quarter, by pitching rocks into random windows, and leading anti-Christian chants...

(bold emphasis mine) On the one hand, it would seen that there is a radical element in Islam that is determined to advance Jihad with the west; who are using all means available to provoke it. If we take the bait, we are then playing their game on their terms.

On the other hand... what other hand? You don't always get to chose who you fight; if you are being attacked, you sometimes have to defend yourself, or perish. The only question is, HOW to best fight this adversary? I say, preferably on OUR terms, not theirs.

You can read the complete article HERE.

For those curious about "Ashoura", here is a repeat of a post I did about it a while back:

The Muslim holiday of "Ashoura": a bloody celebration of intolerance

...The observance of Ashoura is one of the most important events in the Shia calender. Ashoura marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of Husayn, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, in what is now Kerbala, Iraq. The death of Husayn was the beginning of the Sunni/Shia split, which persists in Islam to this day.

In the past, many Shia men have demonstrated their devotion to Husayn by letting their blood flow freely from self-inflicted wounds. Today, however, many governments have tried to ban this practice, with varying degrees of success. In Lebanon, the practice is permitted, and a bloody commemoration of Ashoura takes place in Nabatieh every year.

Most participants make a small cut on their head, and then beat the wound with their palm--or in this case a sword--to keep the wound open and bleeding.

Participants then march in groups around the town, yelling chants to express their devotion to Husayn and the Prophet...

WARNING: link contains barbaric pictures of people cut and bleeding, including babies and children. It seems they mix politics and religion at this ... "festival", too. If you dare, you can see the whole thing HERE. I hope this isn't the sort of thing we are expected to be "tolerant" of. It's far more offensive than the Danish Cartoons could ever be, IMO.

Related Links:

From The American Thinker:
Top ten reasons why sharia is bad for all societies

Islamic Stoning under Sharia law, as described at Wikipedia:

...The person to be killed is wrapped in a sheet and buried; male convicts are buried from the waist down, female convicts are buried deeper to prevent the breasts from becoming exposed. The crowd then pelts the victim with stones small enough so that one cannot cause death by itself. In some places, if the criminal manages to struggle free and escape, further punishment is cancelled...

Sharia law... something that needs to be defended by liberals everywhere?

The truth about Sharia based societies

The western MSM seems to fall all over itself, to offer excuses for shocking Islamic behaviour that most civilized people find repulsive. They leave out bits of information in order to "spin" events in a way more favorable to agendas they wish to promote. We only get the version of Islam the MSM thinks we need to know, and it's often incomplete and innacurate. The blog Dinocrat.com has an honest look at Sharia based societies, and the people in the west who cover for their failings:

Despising the Western apologists for the Islamic world’s self-imposed problems

Sharia societies are inferior in art, science, innovation, business and the standard of living of their peoples — not to mention their appalling lack of humor about these matters. They really do not have too much to offer in these areas, and the foundational cause is their bizarre idea that a seventh century book, properly interpreted, is a sufficient guide to not only spiritual, but worldly and governmental affairs.

We have catalogued just a tiny few of the problems of sharia in the Islamic world; take your pick:
– the Arab world, minus oil, has a combined lower GDP than tiny Finland
– Utah had more patents last year than the Islamic world in all of recorded history
– with a couple of exceptions, human portraiture and statuary do not exist in the Islamic world
– metaphors that art and science give us about the possibilities of life are missing from sharia societies
– sharia law on apostasy amounts to psychological torture

Today we happen to be particularly struck by the the world of Islamic banking. Sharia forbids banks to charge interest, but the world runs on leverage. Instead of interpreting such a ridiculous and impractical prohibition in metaphorical terms, we note that the Islamic world chooses to create odd financial devices (sukkuk) and engage in convoluted, and truly sad, debates, about how to get around the problem while passing muster with sharia law courts. This is a perfect miniature of why a modern country and sharia are incompatible...

You can read the whole thing, with embedded links, HERE.

Did the Cartoon Riots Kill the Ports Deal?

This is an idea I expressed earlier, and I'm starting to see articles that express this same thought. Below are some excerpts from an article on Dinocrat.com that makes a strong case for this idea:


The Cartoon Riots changed the American people’s understanding of the war; the ports deal is the proof

We have said that the Cartoon Riots were as important in their way as 9-11 and that they were responsible for killing the ports deal. The overwhelming unpopularity of the ports deal — 70% of all Americans — was likely not, however, an emotional spasm by the American people, but a turning point. The fundamental nature of the war has changed in the minds of many Americans. This is no longer is Global War on Terror, but World War IV: the War against Radical Islam. The political class would do well to figure this out.

If the ports deal had come up six months ago, it probably would have gone through. There was no opposition to the deal for the first two months after its annoucement in November 2005. If the Cartoon Riots had not occured during the approval process, the deal likely could have concluded quietly...

I think Dinocrat has a good understanding of what the "turning point" for the American people was:

...“the Islamists have contrived to make themselves and their religion look repugnant…mobs with primitive bloodlust killing people over drawings, like something out of anthropology class. These riots, making Islamist rioters look like savages, and making the mute among their co-religionists look even worse in their silence, have also brought renewed focus to the atavistic and revolting beliefs of the Islamists about art, the status of women, and their real plans for the Infidels. Many Americans have begun to ask: who would want to have anything whatsoever to do with Islam after watching such violent, threatening, irreligious behavior?” People who riot over drawings are either evil, primitive or mentally unstable; people who riot over drawings for “religious reasons” are all that and deadly dangerous too.

(Meanwhile, the MSM took one look at the violent Brownshirts of our time and their neo Nazi book burnings, and couldn’t begin to bow and scrape fast enough before them, making every kind of excuse for the mobs and their violence and threats; but the people are not as craven or obtuse as the elites.) ...

There's lots more, with links too, you can read the rest HERE.

The Mulsims who deliberately stage and organize protests and and incite riots want to provoke a reaction of revulsion by westerners, to divide the west from their Muslim allys, and weaken or drown out any truely moderate Muslim voices. This is why I'm not ready to give up on the idea of cultivating and promoting moderate Muslims; to give up on moderates is to declare war on Islam, which is what the Jihadists want. I think we are at war with a dangerous mental pathology IN the Islamic world, rather than the whole of Islam itself. It's only to the benefit of the Jihadists if we fail to make that distinction.

Related article:

No More Excuses for Muslim Violence
Here is another excellent article by Jack Kelly. An excerpt:

...The ludicrous lengths to which many in the Establishment go to avoid drawing any connection between Islamic terror and Islam itself is causing a backlash among Americans, one which is causing otherwise sensible people to overlook critically important distinctions.

The backlash was evident in the debate over the attempted acquisition by Dubai Ports World of the British firm which operates commercial terminals in some U.S. ports -- if Democratic demagoguery and Republican cowardice in the face of xenophobia can be characterized as "debate."

The rejection of the ports deal is a self-inflicted wound, one based on the assumption that all Muslims are untrustworthy.

I said in my column March 5 there are genuinely moderate Muslims who support liberty and democracy. I received a distressing number of erudite emails -- many quoting from the Koran -- from people who said no, the problem is Islam itself.

People like Mr. Taheri-azar fuel this assumption. He was, according to classmates, a friendly guy who drank and smoked pot. His murderous radicalism seemed to appear out of the blue.

"This is what I have dubbed the 'Sudden Jihad Syndrome,'" wrote Daniel Pipes. "It has the awful but legitimate consequence of casting suspicion on all Muslims. Denouncing these views as 'Islamophobia' is as baseless as accusing anti-Nazis of 'Germanophobia.'

"Instead of presenting themselves as victims, Muslims should address this fear by developing a moderate, modern and good neighborly version of Islam that rejects radical Islam, jihad, and the subordination of 'infidels,'" he said...

(bold emphasis mine) I think truely moderate PEOPLE the world over are really getting fed up. Barbarians seem to understand nothing but brute force, which is why they are so quick to use it themselves, even over silly things like innocuous Danish cartoons. The prospect of such savages being allowed to possess nuclear weapons is unacceptable.

We can argue forever about wether Islam is reformable or not. But we must also deal with the facts. If a RELIGION is being used to cultivate terrorism, why should we tolerate it, anymore than we would tolerate a country that harbors terrorists?

If Islam can reform and join the civilized world, so be it. If it can't reform, then it doesn't deserve to survive. Let it's adherents choose, and take the consequences.

You can read the whole of Jack Kelly's article HERE.

The United States of Islam

Looks like someone's got some big plans. Note the map in the lower right corner that says "After 100 Years". You can find out more about the map and the people behind it at Little Green Footballs.

Oh, and how about this:

A Sleeping Giant Awakens

Filled With Rage Against Islam

By Anonymous

Seems like the last week or so has witnessed a new willingness, in parts of the mainstream media, to speak of a problem with Islam itself, not just with "extremists." Especially in the conservative media, but not only them. The crushing of Western free press by cartoon rage seems to have been an important turning point.

It Followed so quickly on the intifada in France a few months ago. Then there was the recent gruesome 3-week torture by Muslims of a French Jew, who finally died. And the increasing awareness that Europe is rapidly turning Muslim by immigration and reproduction. There is also the wave of rapes by Muslims in Europe, who say they deem unveiled European women to be asking for it. And of course a while back there was the murder, on behalf of Muslims, of the gay Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn when he proposed shutting down further immigration to Holland, because he didn't appreciate Muslim attitudes toward gays ("gays should be killed") and he objected to Muslim supremacist goals in general. The tolerant Dutch hadn't seen a political assassination for centuries. Then there was...

There is quite a bit MORE. And by more I don't just mean the list of atrocities, but some real contemplation, about what we are facing and who we are. You can read the whole thing at The Freedom Fighter's Journal.

Which stage are you in?

So many of my postings about Islam, Muslims and "Radiacal Islam" or "Islamism", have been my own way of trying to come to terms with what it is we are REALLY dealing with.

I've been even questioning if there really is such a thing as "moderate" Muslims; questioning if Islam can ever be compatible with civilized, modern society. I know there are "modern" Muslims, who have been educated in the west, and seem to embrace aspects of our culture. But some of them actually become terrorists, and use there knowlege to kill us. And even if some Muslims are truely modern AND peaceful... how many of them are like that? And what about all the ones in between, who might teeter either way, depending on what propaganda they hear and what Imam manipulates their passions and hatereds?

There are two posts on the blog PBS Watch, which address these thoughts and more.

The first post, "Awareness", looks at general trends in thinking about the Islamic problem, in terms of stages of awareness, that for many have changed with events:

Stage One. Pre-1990s. All cultures, societies, races, and religions are equally valid and are to be welcomed and embraced. Any friction with any other group is a result of inadequate knowledge, flexibility, and sensitivity on our part. In particular, Islam is one of the world's great religions and should be admired as such. Its adherents should be encouraged and welcomed in our society as their presence adds to the diversity of thought and experience in our country.

Stage Two. September 10. Stage One views continue but it is recognized that their is a problem with a small group of "fanatical" and "extremist" Islamic "radicals." The problem is addressed in a manner similar to that of organized international crime. Better cooperation among international authorities and better law enforcement will stem the tide. In addition to our insensivities, our economic exploitation of the Muslim world is a "root cause" of the strife.

Stage Three. September 12. We are at war with "fanatical, extremist, radical" elements of Islam. As we prosecute that war, we must be careful to isolate the radicals and gain the support of the moderate Muslim majority.

Stage Four. Post-cartoons. We are at war with Islam. This is a clash of civilizations, Islam against the west. There is no moderate Islamic faction with sufficient voice or desire to influence events. Islam is functionally incompatible with democracy.

Stage Four is a tough one. I'm not ready to conceed that yet, but I also want to look at it honesty and realistically. The rest of the post goes on to discuss this, and asks such interesting questions such as what constitutes a "moderate" Mulsim; is a moderate Muslim just a "good cop" to a jihadist's "bad cop"? There's more, with some good links too, it's worth reading.

The second post I read is titled "The Heart of the Matter". It starts of by refering to an article by David Warren, who admits his fear of Stage Four thinking.

Then there is a reference to a comment made by somebody on the Volohk Conspiracy blog:

You only have 3 choices:

1. Convince these people that they are misunderstanding what God has said on this subject. You obviously don't try to do that.

2. Acquiesce in their interpretation and obey God's command (as, e.g., the editorial departments of various newspapers here have done).

3. Say, in words or substance, screw you, and go on talking about free speech and the need for 'balance' and the 'fact' that some cartoons may not be particularly offensive compared to, say, the average cartoon on the editorial pages of the Washington Post or any newspaper in Iran.

Then "P-BS-Watcher" comments:

I have proposed a muscular version of choice 3 here, here, and here,[3 hyperlinks] essentially a cold war against the Islamic world. Such a policy would allow for the emergence of moderates along the lines of those that emerged in Eastern Europe during the cold war against communism. When intervention becomes necessary to eliminate a threat, as it was in Iraq, it is worthwhile to test the current state of moderate Islamic thinking by attempting to institute democratic reforms. The corollary to such a cold war policy has to be the willingness to proceed to a large scale hot war when circumstances, such as a terrorist WMD attack, warrant.

(bold emphasis mine) I see some sense in this. It allows for moderates, but does not tolerate enemies who are bend on destroying us. So much of what we are seeing in the Middle East is a dangersous mental pathology of suicide-murder, not unlike the Japanese Kamakazi bombers of WWII. Such a pathology should not be encouraged, excused or tolerated in any way (the way the political Left and the MSM has been doing).

Of course, there would be differences in this cold war, to the one with the Soviet Union. Would the threat of MAD (Mutually Assured Destructon) even matter to crazed religious fanatics? There is a lot to consider; and if you read these two posts, you will find lots to chew on.

CAIRing too much?

CAIR's Growing Litigiousness

CAIR at UPenn: "The Right to Free Speech is Not Absolute"

Stalinism at CAIR: photo doctored for Islamic correctness

(Hat tip to CoxandForkum.com)


Media shockingly ignorant of Muslims among us
BY MARK STEYN

(Hat tip to Nealz Nuze)

Why we should care about C.A.I.R.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) needs closer scrutiny.

In the Spring issue of Middle East Quarterly, is an very detailed article (with extensive footnotes) elaborating on the activities of CAIR, it's history and it's members. The Power Line blog has listed some of the main points of the article. Consider this:

*Perhaps the most obvious problem with CAIR is the fact that at least five of its employees and board members have been arrested, convicted, deported, or otherwise linked to terrorism-related charges and activities.

*CAIR has a number of links to Hamas.

*CAIR's founding personnel were closely linked to the Islamic Association of Palestine; the Islamic Association of Palestine functions as Hamas's public relations and recruitment arm in the United States.

*CAIR encourages law enforcement in its work -- so long as it does not involve counterterrorism.

*CAIR discourages Americans from improving their counterterrorism skills.

*CAIR has consistently shown itself to be on the wrong side of the war on terrorism, protecting, defending, and supporting both accused and even convicted radical Islamic terrorists.

*CAIR has a key role in the "Wahhabi lobby" -- the network of organizations, usually supported by donations from Saudi Arabia, whose aim is to propagate the especially extreme version of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia.

*CAIR affiliates regularly speak at events sponsored by the Islamic Society of North America, an umbrella organization of the Wahhabi lobby.

*CAIR attempts to close down public debate about itself and Islam in several ways, starting with a string of lawsuits against public and private individuals and several publications.

*CAIR has a long record of unreliability and deceit even in relatively minor matters.

(bold emphasis mine) I find especially disturbing the relationship CAIR has with the Wahhabi Lobby. The Saudi money that they pump into CAIR buys it tremendous power to influence our culture and censure debate and examination of CAIR's activities and agendas. They need to be publicly challenged and discredited, not sucked-up to and promoted, like our government and the MSM have been doing.


Related Links:

CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment
This is the detailed article by Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha, in the Middle East Quarterly. A wealth of information, with extensive links to sources, it is a MUST READ.

On the Homefront
This is the article at the Power Line blog, which is a good summary and also has many links to other relevant sources and articles.

An Arab Muslim Challenges CAIR
Here is an "in-your-face" challenge to CAIR by Dr. Tawfik Hamid, an Arab Muslim and a Reformer of Islam. We need to be promoting and giving voice to genuinely moderate Muslims like Dr. Hamid, NOT cult funded groups like CAIR.

Sunday Funnies 03/12/06

Here is a photo from the Chinese Ice Festival. To see more beautiful photos, Click Here.


Annual Neologism Contest

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.) the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted (adj.) appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3. Abdicate (v.) to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade (v.) to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly (adj.) impotent.

6. Negligent (adj.) describes a condition in which you absent-mindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

7. Lymph (v.) to walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle (n.) olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash (n.) a rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle (n.) a humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude (n.) the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon (n) a Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster (n.) a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Circumvent (n.) an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.


(H.T. to The Chatterbox Chronicles)


PONDERISMS
>
I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
>
Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
>
The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.
>
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
>
There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.
>
Life is sexually transmitted.
>
Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
>
The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
>
Some people are like Slinkies. Not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
>
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
>
Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?
>
Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
>
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
>
In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
>
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
>
How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
>
Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?"
>
Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there? I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its butt."
>
Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
>
If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?
>
Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don't point to their crotch when they ask where the bathroom is?
>
Why does your OB-GYN leave the room when you get undressed if they are going to look up there anyway?
>
Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!
>
If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that Acme crap, why didn't he just buy dinner?
>
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
>
If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?
>
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
>
Why do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
>
Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
>
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?
>
Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?
>
Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
>
Do you ever wonder why you gave me your email address?

****

BUSH HAS TO GO

I am a senior citizen.

During the Clinton Administration I had an extremely good and well paying job.

I took numerous vacations and had several vacation homes.

Since President Bush took office, I have watched my entire life change for the worse.

I lost my job.

I lost my two sons in that terrible Iraqi War.

I lost my homes.

I lost my health insurance.

As a matter of fact I lost virtually everything and became homeless.

Adding insult to injury, when the authorities found me living like an animal, instead of helping me, they arrested me.

I will do anything that Senator Kerry wants to insure that a Democrat is back in the White House come next year.

Bush has to go.

Sincerely,

Saddam Hussein



****

A Good Explanation

The wife comes home early & finds her husband in their master bedroom making love to a beautiful, young lady!

"You unfaithful, disrespectful pig! What are you doing? How dare you do this to me the faithful wife, the mother of your children! I'm leaving this house, I want divorce!"

The husband, replies "Wait, Wait a minute! Before you leave, at least listen to what happened. You can't say I'm dishonest."

"Hmm, I don't know, well, it'll be the last thing I will hear from you. But make it fast, you unfaithful pig, you!"

The husband begins to tell his story . . . "While driving home this young lady asked for a ride. I saw her so defenseless that I went ahead and allowed her in my car. I noticed that she was very thin, not well dressed and very dirty. She mentioned that at she had not eaten for 3 days.

With great compassion I brought her home and warmed up the enchiladas that I made for you last night that you wouldn't eat because you're afraid you'll gain weight; the poor thing practically devoured them."

"Since she was very dirty I asked if she wanted to take a shower.

While she was showering, I noticed her clothes were dirty and full of holes so I threw her clothes away. Since she needed clothes, I gave her the pair of jeans that you have had for a few years, that you can no longer wear because they are too tight on you, I also gave her the blouse that I gave you on our anniversary and you don't wear because I don't have good taste."

"I gave her the pullover that my sister gave you for Christmas that you will not wear just to bother my sister and I also gave her the boots that you bought at the expensive boutique that you never wore again after you saw your co-worker wearing the same pair."

The husband continues his story . . . . .

"The young woman was very grateful to me and I walked her to the door. When we got to the door she turned around and with tears coming out of her eyes, she asks me:

"Sir, do you have anything else that your wife does not use?"

- Author Unknown



Amazing 3-D sidewalk art. See more HERE.

****

The Ted Kennedy Children's Book Cover of the week:


Hat tip to the Kennedy forum thread at FARK.COM.

****

INSPIRATION:

To Track Down My Dream

It was the district track meet - the one we had been training for all season. My foot still hadn't healed from an earlier injury. As a matter of fact, I had debated whether or not I should attend the meet. But there I was, preparing for the 3,200-meter run.

"Ready...set..." The gun popped and we were off. The other girls darted ahead of me. I realized I was limping and felt humiliated as I fell farther and farther behind.

The first-place runner was two laps ahead of me when she crossed the finish line. "Hooray!" shouted the crowd. It was the loudest cheer I had ever heard at a meet.

"Maybe I should quit," I thought as I limped on.

"Those people don't want to wait for me to finish this race." Somehow, though, I decided to keep going. During the last two laps, I ran in pain and decided not to compete in track next year. It wouldn't be worth it, even if my foot did heal. I could never beat the girl who lapped me twice.

When I finished, I heard a cheer - just as enthusiastic as the one I'd heard when the first girl passed the finish line. "What was that all about?" I asked myself. I turned around and sure enough, the boys were preparing for their race. "That must be it; they're cheering for the boys."

I went straight to the bathroom where a girl bumped into me. "Wow, you've got courage!" she told me.

I thought, "Courage? She must be mistaking me for someone else. I just lost a race!"

"I would have never been able to finish those two miles if I were you. I would have quit on the first lap. What happened to your foot? We were cheering for you. Did you hear us?"

I couldn't believe it. A complete stranger had been cheering for me - not because she wanted me to win, but because she wanted me to keep going and not give up. Suddenly I regained hope. I decided to stick with track next year. One girl saved my dream.

That day I learned two things:

First, a little kindness and confidence in people can make a great difference to them.

And second, strength and courage aren't always measured in medals and victories. They are measured in the struggles we overcome. The strongest people are not always the people who win, but the people who don't give up when they lose.

I only dream that someday - perhaps as a senior - I will be able to win the race with a cheer as big as the one I got when I lost the race as a freshman.

By Ashley Hodgeson

from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul
Copyright 1997 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger



(H.T. to The Chatterbox Chronicles)

Arabs, Ports and Oscars

The Ports Deal
I didn't want to post about the Ports Deal initially; now it's dead, so I don't have to. But the killing of the deal and the ways it was handled, will have affects of it's own. And the backlash in public opinion is something the Arab world needs to hear.

I would have listened to Bush and considered his stance, if he had bothered to explain his position on the ports matter, but he often fails to realise he needs to explain. Sure, we have to trust him up to a point, but he can't ever assume we trust everything he does unconditionally.

The backlash of public opinion on the ports deal may have been influenced in part by the cartoon riots. People are sick of fanatical Mulsims demanding we change our culture to suit them; that we respect their religion on their terms, even though we don't believe in it. I'm sure many Americans are begining to wonder if Islam is even at all compatible with an open and free society; if it will ever demonstrate that it is civilized; that it's adherents can be trusted.

The Bushes have such strong business connections in the oil industry, and are actually good FRIENDS with many influential Arabs. I think it blinds them to the things many of us see. These wealthy Arabs aren't OUR personal friends; we see the sheiks saying one thing to us on our media in English, then they say something completely different in arabic on Al Jezeera to their own people.

The Sheiks enjoy all the benefits of our open and free society, while crushing their own people at home, giving money to religious extremists and causes, and encouraging their citizens to blame the West for all their economic and societal ills. They have been doing this for many, many decades, and as long as we tolerate it, we are the enablers in the situation.

I admire Bush for many things, but he is not above criticism. I think he needs to practice some "tough love" with his Arab friends. If they don't make some real changes, they should expect diminishing support from us as a consequence. I think many Americans realise this, and the ports deal objection is just one manifestation of it. If the Arab world wants more respect, if they want to be trusted, they have to demonstrate they are worthy of trust, and EARN it. For too long they have believed they can just buy anything they want. It's time they learn otherwise.

The Oscars
Ben Stein, Peggy Noonan and Ann Coulter all had great and pertinent things to say about the Oscars. Ann's cutting commentary on George Clooney's idiotic remarks was to the point and richly deserved. I'm tempted to reprint it here, but you can find links to all these and more at The Chatterbox Chronicles, as well as Miss Chatterbox's own commentary. Highly recommended!

Related Links:

Red, White and Blue Dawn:
How Hollywood needs to stop worrying and love the flag

Conservatives in Hollywood?!

BILLY ZANE AND GARY BUSEY
CO-STAR IN AN ANTI-AMERICAN
TURKISH PROPAGANDA MOVIE

War Films, Hollywood and Popular Culture by Michael Medved. It explains a lot about hollywood and their attitude towards the military these days.

"Copenhagen syndrome" and the Left

Remember the "Stockholm syndrome"? That phrase used to describe the psychological phenomenon where hostages begin to sympathise and work with their terrorist captors? It's a concept I've thought about a lot in the last two years since I moved away from San Francisco. Many of the leftists there would bend over backwards to support and defend Islamism, despite it's track record of crushing feminists, gays and free speech.

These same leftists would often embrace totalitarians of every description, with equally bad records of crushing the very things the left claims to embrace. Simultaneously, these leftist "liberals" also attacked vigorously the liberal western traditions that allow the Left to florish like they can do nowhere else. A city full of people, acting like a fool who frantically saws away at the branch he is sitting on. It's one thing to disagree or dissent about an issue, but quite another to actively attack and reject your own culture that supports your right to dissent, while rushing to embrace one that loathes it.

I recently read an article from the LA Times by Cathy Seipp called "The fascists of free speech". It describes perfectly the new "Copenhagen syndrome" afflicting a large portion of the left in this country and in Europe. It starts off with a visit to the famous City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, a store that prides itself on supporting banned authors and selling controversial books that other stores won't. Here is an excerpt:

... he asked a clerk if the new Fallaci book was in yet.

"No," snapped the clerk. "We don't carry books by fascists."

Now let's just savor the absurd details of this for a minute. City Lights has a long and proud history of supporting banned authors — owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti was indicted (and acquitted) for obscenity in 1957 for selling Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," and a photo at the bookstore showed Ferlinghetti proudly posing next to a sign reading "banned books."

Yet his store won't carry, of all people, Fallaci, who is not only being sued in Italy for insulting religion because of her latest book but continues to fight the good fight against those who think that the appropriate response to offensive books and cartoons is violent riots. It's particularly repugnant that someone who fought against actual fascism in World War II should be deemed a fascist by a snotty San Francisco clerk.

Strangest of all is the scenario of such a person disliking an author for defending Western civilization against radical Islam — when one of the first things those poor, persecuted Islamists would do, if they ever (Allah forbid) came to power in the United States, is crush suspected homosexuals like him beneath walls.

Yet those most oppressed by political Islam continue to defend it, even (perhaps especially) in the wake of the Danish cartoon furor. I've heard that in Europe this phenomenon is now called the Copenhagen syndrome, and some of its arguments really are amazing...

The article goes on to give us some disturbing examples of those arguments. It's well worth reading, you can read the entire piece HERE.

I used to work near City Lights Books when I lived in San Francisco. They have lots of communist and socialist books, and take great pride in publishing and selling books that nobody else will. I don't like most of what they have to offer. So be it.

I'm not criticizing their right to sell communist books. I'm criticizing them for labeling Oriana Fallaci a fascist. She, who at the tender age of 14, joined the Italian resistance against Mussolini, a genuine fascist. She, who is now being attacked and threatened by fascist Muslims, who have no respect for free speech at all. She, who is literally fighting against those who want to suppress books, who is facing death threats and calls for her head. For Fallaci to be called a fascist by a bookstore supposedly committed to selling suppressed books and supporting free speech, is ironic to say the least. What is wrong here?

The truth is, Fallaci is an anti-totalitarian, who has equal disdain for fascists AND communists, and I suspect that it's her anti-communism that bothers the folks at City Lights. They couldn't care less about HER rights to free speech, so they just label her a fascist so they don't have to deal with her. It's dishonest, but when you believe that the end justifies the means, that's no big deal.

Is that a sawing noise I hear...

Related Links:

City Lights redefines fascism

Why the Left doesn't blame Muslims for Muslim violence

The Left's Guiding Principle And Where It Goes Wrong

CATHERINE SEIPP writes a weekly column for National Review Online and blogs at www.cathyseipp.net.

"THE FORCE OF REASON" is here

The english language version of Oriana Fallaci's latest book, The Force of Reason, has recently been released. I haven't read it yet, so I can't say a lot about it, but the TigerHawk blog has an interesting post about it, including five pages of text from the book.

I remember being taught at school, being told that the crusades were an evil CHRISTIAN aggression against the poor Muslims, who were ever-so tolerant of Jews and Christians. Fallaci calmly disabuses us of those notions, with a politically incorrect but historically accurate accounting of the gory details of Muslim invasions, and the horrors of their occupations. I won't repeat them here, but will repeat this paragraph about how the Crusades were a RESPONSE to an ongoing invasion:

... Today it's fashionable to beat our breast over the Crusades. To blame the West for the Crusades. To see the Crusades as an injustice committed to the detriment of the poor-innocent-Muslims. But before being a series of expeditions to regain possession of the Holy Sepulchure that is of Jerusalem (which had been taken by the Muslims, remember, not by my aunt), the Crusades were the response to four centuries of invasions and occupations. They were a counter-offensive to stem Islamic expansionism in Europe. To deflect it, mors tua vita mea, towards the Orient (meaning India and Indonesia and China) then towards the whole African continent and towards Russia and Siberia where the Tartars converted to Islam were already crushing the followers of Christ. At the conclusion of the Crusades, in fact, the sons of Allah resumed their persecutions as before and more than before...

(bold emphasis mine) She goes on to describe how the Turks went on to build an army using methodes that even the Nazi's wouldn't use... in just the five pages that TigerHawk has printed, Fallaci packs a lot of information, it's worth visiting his site to read it, along with his comments.

Tammy Bruce has also written a post about the new book, and also endorses Fallaci's previous book, "The Rage and The Pride", which she read and found inspiring. Tammy says about Fallaci: "I have a special place for her because she, too, emerged from the Left and saw the light."

The Solid Surfer has a post where he talks about how City Lights bookstore in San Francisco refuses to sell Fallaci's book, because it is critical of Muslims. "We don't carry books by fascists." the store clerk says. That's incredibly ironic, considering that at the age of 14, Fallaci joined the Italian resistance to fight the fascist Mussolini regime. She has fought against fascism and totalitarianism her whole life.

I lived in San Francisco for 23 years, and the office I worked in was not far from City Lights Books. They had every kind of communist and leftist book you could imagine; they prided themselves on carrying books nobody else would sell.

They are just so, like, open-minded and liberal, like, you know? They are currently selling the books of the fake Indian - discredited professor Ward Churchill, famous for calling the 9/11 victims "little Eichmanns". No problem there, they LIKE his books, probably because they think just like him. But Fallaci is a "fascist" because she's criticising Muslims. Musn't allow that!

This suicidal aspect of liberals amazes me. Islamists in power would completely destroy everything the left suposedly values, like free speech, gay rights and feminism, but that doesn't concern San Francisco leftists like the ones at City Lights Books.

It sounds just like the San Francisco I knew and grew to hate. When I moved away, I not only didn't leave my heart there, I also took care to shake the dust from my feet as I left. My only regret was not leaving sooner.

The Solid Surfer has an excellent post about that self-destructive attitude of the far left, that is worth a read, too.

Psychologist Wafa Sultan tells it like it is on Al-Jazeera TV

I first read about this at Michelle Malkin's blog, about an interview with Arab-American psychologist Wafa Sultan on Al-Jazeera TV. During the interview, Dr.Ibrahim Al-Khouli accuses Sultan of being a "heretic" for criticising current aspects of Islamic society.


I had read the transcript before, but if you look at the video clip, in which they are speaking in Arabic (there is english subtitles), it's a wonder to behold. This smart and brave lady holds her own ground with this creep Dr. Al-Poisen Koolaid. The whole transcipt is packed full of good stuff, but here are just a few exerpts from this remarkable woman:

Wafa Sultan: "When the Muslims divided the people into Muslims and non-Muslims, and called to fight the others until they believe in what they themselves believe, they started this clash, and began this war. In order to start this war, they must reexamine their Islamic books and curricula, which are full of calls for takfir and fighting the infidels...

"My colleague has said that he never offends other people's beliefs. What civilization on the face of this earth allows him to call other people by names that they did not choose for themselves? Once, he calls them Ahl Al-Dhimma; another time he calls them the 'People of the Book'; and yet another time he compares them to apes and pigs, or he calls the Christians 'those who incur Allah's wrath.' Who told you that they are 'People of the Book?' They are not the People of the Book, they are people of many books. All the useful scientific books that you have today are theirs, the fruit of their free and creative thinking. What gives you the right to call them 'those who incur Allah's wrath,' or 'those who have gone astray,' and then come here and say that your religion commands you to refrain from offending the beliefs of others?" ...

"The Jews have come from the tragedy [of the Holocaust], and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror; with their work, not with their crying and yelling. Humanity owes most of the discoveries and science of the 19th and 20th centuries to Jewish scientists. Fifteen million people, scattered throughout the world, united and won their rights through work and knowledge. We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people. The Muslims turned three Buddha statues into rubble. We have not seen a single Buddhist burn down a mosque, kill a Muslim, or burn down an embassy. Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people, and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them." ...

(bold emphasis mine) There is lots more, you can read more of it here, but if you are able to, have a look at the video too; it captures the vibes in a way a mere transcript can't. If she is a Heretic and an Infidel for saying what she says, for speaking up and saying what NEEDS to be said, then what the heck does that make HIM? A small minded, backward, primative, superstitious little hitler in a nice suit?

THANK YOU, Wafa Sultan, for speaking up.

America's toughest sheriff

The following is from an email that has been going around the internet:

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO,
HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF
AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER.

THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona) who created the "tent city jail":

He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights. Cut off all but "G" movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.

Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again only let in the Disney channel and the weather channel.

When asked why the weather channel he replied, so they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.

He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value.

When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."

He bought Newt Gingrich' lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails.

When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

I checked it out at Snopes.com, to see if any of it was true. I was suprised to find out that except for some minor details (mostly explanations of WHY he did certain things), it seems most of it is true.

Related links:

BIOGRAPHY - Sheriff Joe Arpaio

From www.truthorfiction.com
... Arpaio has also instituted what he calls "Hard Knocks High", the only accredited high school in an American jail.

That, along with an anti-drug program, says Arpaio, has resulted in a high percentage of his inmates leaving jail without their addictions and few of them returning...

But not everyone is thrilled with him: urbanlegends.about.com

Sheriff Arpaio fights for bestiality law.
(H.T. to Nealz Nuze.)

THE CLASH THAT CAN'T BE

Islam is compatible with a free society if we support the genuine moderate Muslims

(Title from Jack Kelly's article) Is the MSM advancing it's own agenda by promoting the views of offended Mulsims over those of moderate ones? We continually hear the views of extremist groups like CAIR (which is funded by the fanatical Wahabbi sect) presented to us as moderate voices, while true moderates are ignored. Is this deception deliberate?


Could it be that the "Ports" controversy is partly fueled by Americans being fed up with offended, rioting Muslims; that Americans are starting to demand proof that Islam is, actually, compatible with a free society?

Jack Kelly examins these questions and more in his most recent article. An exerpt:

...Americans know instinctively that the "Islam is a religion of peace" mantra is bunk. Islam was spread by the sword. There are no Christian, Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist suicide bombers.

And Americans know it is idiotic to search grandmas at airports while young Muslim males stroll through checkpoints. We were not attacked on 9/11 by the Swedish bobsled team.

It is true that up to about 400 years ago, Christianity was no friend of democracy or religious pluralism. But that was 400 years ago. The key question, which political correctness obscures, is whether Islam can become (in, we hope, rather less than 400 years) as benign a faith as Christianity is today.

I think the answer is yes, because I know of many Muslims who are devoted to liberty, democracy and social equality. I wrote about "the trainer" (who infiltrated a terror cell in Toledo) in last week's column. Our ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, is an example. So is businessman and terror fighter Mansoor Ijaz.

You don't hear much about genuine Muslim moderates because if you did, it would expose the cravenness of a news media that largely has capitulated to the demands of Islamic radicals. That capitulation can be portrayed as something other than cowardice only if the vast majority of Muslims are depicted as being offended by the exercise of free speech.

So journalists describe as "moderate" those -- like the smarmy creeps at the Council on American-Islamic Relations -- who largely share the goals of the Islamists, but who eschew their methods. Ordinary Americans see through this, and wonder if there are any moderate Muslims at all.

Fewer would think that way if they knew, for instance, that most Danish Muslims are shunning the four radical clerics who brought on the Cartoon War, or if they read the recent declaration of 12 mostly Muslim or Muslim apostate intellectuals who distinguish sharply between Islamism ("a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism") and the basic tenets of the Muslim faith.

It is easier to find moderate Muslims who are willing to speak out than to find journalists who will pay much attention to what they have to say. Afghans, Iraqis and Lebanese struggling for liberty and democracy are given short shrift because to give them proper credit would be to give indirect credit to George W. Bush...

(bold emphasis mine) Jack Kelly tells it like it is. You can read the whole article HERE.

Some related links:

The Left's Guiding Principle And Where It Goes Wrong

Many prominent leftist actions often seem puzzling to the rest of us. When leftwingers ally, for example, with Islamists against America, their position is so recklessly shortsighted that we wonder just how they can act so blatantly against themselves. Islamists in power would completely destroy everything the left holds dear, from freedom of speech to gay rights to feminism, but that doesn't stop groups like the employees of San Francisco's City Lights Books (as mentioned in my previous post) who have openly sided with the jihadists by refusing to sell Oriana Fallaci's pro-Western text The Force Of Reason. That this stance contradicts the leftists' own interests is quite obvious. But why can't they seem to see it? How blinded by ideology can one possibly be?...

you can read the rest HERE

No Sympathy For Offended Muslims

...I will learn about Islam only if I find it interesting, and I will not be behaving according to its tenets because I am not a Muslim. Muslim law has no jurisdiction in my life, that is a Western lesson for Muslims to learn. And if you don't like our approach to freedom of belief, then, don't go west Iman! If I decide to create or display an image of the Prophet, tough, get over it. Because, even if the Koran does forbid such depiction, a principle which may not be true, the prohibition does not apply to me; I am a non-believer. And in the same way that I am not concerned with avoiding consumption of meat on Friday, because I am not Catholic, do not expect me to adhere to the rules of YOUR religion either. Won't happen pal. Tell that to your people; don't try to tell the rest of us how to be Muslim. Who cares what motivates Muslims to be hateful, just stop it already. That act is tiring...

You can read the whole thing HERE. And H.T. to The Black Republican blog for the photo, too.


Some American-Muslims Learning Tolerance
An excerpt:

...But, then once again I am disappointed when he continues.

"All that we are expecting is that they don't insult a personality that's made such a historical contribution. This is more a responsibility of living in a pluralistic society than a question of legal restrictions."

The intolerable word is, "expecting", which connotes a demand. A single concept which belies that Dr. Syeed wants others to be responsible for obeying his religion. The antithesis of the autonomy of religious thought characteristic of a pluralistic society...

You can read the whole piece HERE.