Farm Report 07/19/06

Turandot wins Mother of the Year award

Little chickies, have no fear - your Mommy is here!


How many mothers do you know who would let their kids sleep on top of their back? At first I thought this was a fluke, but it's a nightly occurence.


You might think she was uncomfortable, or unable to sleep, but she seems to made for it; she's in her element. She's certainly filling a need.


It seems they just can't get enough of her. Turandot the "Mommy" bird is proving to be immensly popular with the bantam fledglings.


Our black singing chicken, Maria Callis-Von Trapp, still retains the admiration of the eight oldest fledglings. It's even been verified that she has taught two of them to sing. But the majority of the rest of the fledglings prefer Mama.


If only she had more room under those wings! No doubt she would have them all under there if she could.


As Momma-in-charge, she also acts as referee. When the little roosters get carried away in their play fighting, she will step in and smack them around till they stop. She seems to enjoy this role. It no doubt makes the littlest ones feel safe, as they follow her around, and hang our wherever she chooses to be.


Such photos as this might make you believe that life in the coop is domestic bliss, but it just isn't so. After all, these ARE chickens we are talking about.


Hen Pecking Party Gone Wild

There was a major altercation a few days ago, apparently a bitch-fight over a nesting box. It was three against one, the Gabor sisters vs Goldie Hawn. Goldie got the worst of it. I will spare you photos of the bloody mess. For the details of the sordid story, you can read the post on Pat's blog:

Goldie Hawn's comb ripped from her head.

Thank goodness it wasn't quite ripped of entirely, but it was a bloody mess.


The Duckie's New Digs

At last, the duck house has been completed:



It has a house with a window light, air vents near the roof, and two doors, one leading into an enclosed pen, and another larger door leading outside.


The larger door is for cleaning out the inside. We also leave it open durning the day so the ducks can go outside, into the open top pen we have built for them.


With the swimming pool in the yard, it's a Duckie dream home. O.K., I don't doubt that they would probably rather have a pond, but this isn't "Duckie Lifestyles of the Rich and Feathered".




Flower Power


I could do a whole report on just the plant life we have here on the farm. But here is a peak at a few of the more dramatic flowers that are blooming right now. This is a flower called "Tigridia". It's very dramatic, but can you believe it, it only blooms for ONE DAY.


I think it comes from Mexico. We have several of them, and it's a treat each time one blooms. You have to watch for them though, it's here today, gone tommorow.


More stable but still dramatic is one of my favorites, a South African Native whose common name is "Fairy Wand". I forget the botanical name. It's not only beautiful, but there is something very soothing about watching them gently sway and bob in the breeze, it's almost magical.




Promiscuous Tramp Aborts Five.

The last farm report reffered to our promiscuous tramp, our siamese cat "Smudgie".


She was knocked up by none other than our grey barnyard tabby, "Swanky". They are both quite youg, and his attempts at coupling with her were so clumsy, that we thought nothing would come of it, but we were wrong.

The litter was aborted about two weeks before it was due. It would have been 4 kittens that looked like her, and one that looked like him (The vet's assistant pickled the one that looked like Swanky, for a science project she was working on. You can be glad that I resisted the temptation to get a photo of it for the Farm Report! I think that's what's called "too much information").


It would have been tempting to let her have them, but she would have gone into heat again right after popping them out, and it just would have been too irresponsible; the local SPCA is full of unwanted kittens, even siamese ones, you see them at the local mall every time you visit. So while it would have been fun to have kittens around, what would have become of them?

So she had her wheels removed, and is adapting just fine. When she's not lounging around with Swanky, she is killing mice, sniffing flowers or teasing the dogs.



End of Farm Report.

Do we encourage our enemies?

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE. Here is one of their excerpts, from Robert Tracinski's The War Comes to Us:

If, in the face of repeated threats and provocation by an aggressive dictatorship, you refuse to go to war, the war will eventually come to you.

That's the meaning of Iran's de facto declaration of war against Israel--which is, ultimately, a new war Iran is waging against the US. Iran is so desperate for war with the West that it is bringing the war to us, openly and willfully initiating a regional conflict that may soon involve three of Iran's proxies--Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria--fighting against America's proxy, Israel.

The danger for us is that, in seeking to avoid an unavoidable war with Iran, we have allowed Iran to start the conflict on terms that it believes will be most favorable to it...

Bold emphasis mine. Does anyone still think this is just going to go away if we just use "restraint"? Restraint has gotten us nothing but repeated attacks for decades. Do we have to wait for Iran to get the bomb, and use it gainst us, before we even wake up to reality?

Is it even possible that someone like Russia has already sold them the bomb? Is this a trap, to start a nuclear war? Sure that sounds nutty, but so do the statements made by the Iranian President. If they have nukes, that might be cause for restraint, but there is no easy way out of that either; the situation is not likely to get better by ignoring it. That's how we got where we are today.



Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE. Here is one of their excerpts, from Yaron Brook: World Leaders Encourage Hezbollah and Hamas:

"The worldwide condemnation of Israel's retaliation against Lebanon is morally obscene," said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. "The calls effectively demand that the innocent victim be sacrificed to the aggressor."

"Instead of excoriating Hezbollah and helping Israel to annihilate it, President Bush and other leaders urged that the victim, Israel, not cause 'excessive' damage to the aggressor--and begged that no harm come to Lebanon's terrorist-supporting government. Were Israel to follow such calls, it would have to leave in place the terrorist leadership and infrastructure that works to abduct, blow up and slaughter Israelis.

"The obscene premise governing so many of the West's leaders is the belief that we have no moral right to defend ourselves against the forces of Islamist barbarism.

"All of this can serve only to encourage Islamic totalitarian groups to intensify their war on Israel--and the West."

(bold emphasis mine) Duuh. We are far too good at encouraging the enemy. Shouldn't that be obvious? You can bet it's obvious to THEM.




Related Links:

From Nealz Nuze:

IS THIS GOING TO BE ENOUGH TO FINALLY WAKE US UP?

...It's been said that this World War, sometimes called the War On Terror, has an enemy that is difficult to define. Nothing could be further from the truth. We know who the enemy is in this world war: it is the savages who practice radical Islam. We know exactly who they are and we know exactly where to find them: Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza strip. Let's also be sure to mention the Wahabbis of Saudi Arabia and a good number of professors in American colleges and universities. This isn't rocket science...it's never been more clear exactly who the enemy is and where to find them.

So what should we do? It's time for the United States, Israel and whoever else values freedom and our way of life to eliminate radical Islam once and for all. The time to speak of toleration, negotiations and appeasement is past. Israel tried this route, and we clearly see what it bought them. Nothing but misery and death at the hands of the wonderful, peaceful religion of Islam...

...Inside Israel we have leftists marching and demanding an end to Israel's military moves. The appeasement left is pulling out the same mantras perfected by the left in this country. They're detailing the deaths of women and children, and calling for even more negotiations. Never mind that the negotiating has been going on for more than 50 years. Any rational observer can quickly see that the radical Islamist position on negotiations is that you negotiate to buy time, you kill to take the advantage...

From Tammy Bruce:

STRATFOR Lays Out the War's Current Big Picture

Courtesy of David Horowitz's blog, here is a link to a Strategic Forecasting comprehensive analysis of the situation in the Middle East. One of your Must Reads for the morning...

Annan & Blair on Protecting Hezbollah

...Why anyone would want to stop the crushing of an armed Islamist terrorist group is beyond me. The only time Israel should stop its attacks on Hez is when that enemy of civilized people everywhere has been destroyed.

And what planet is Kofi Annan on? He thinks there is going to be a "ceasing of hostilities?" Terrorists never cease and Israel has been under regular attack for over 50 years. What a plan like this means is that Israel, and only Israel, is stopped from defending herself.

And who, really, are we kidding? A UN force deployed at a border where there's actual shooting as opposed to just sex-for-food? Last time the UN experienced the horrors of an Islamist attack they ran away. Just ask the people of Iraq.

(bold emphasis mine) HA! Tammy does not mince words.

   
 

Double Trouble: has Bush abandoned "cowboy diplomacy" ?

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

We're hoping that Israel continues to vigorously defend herself and refuse negotiations with Hezbollah and Hamas for the kidnapped Israeli soldiers. In our cartoon "Non-negotiable" we celebrated such an aggressive response. But it should be remembered that the terrorists' tactics have worked for them in the past...

(bold emphasis mine) Read the rest, and you will understand why the terrorists are kidnapping Israeli soldiers. This should underscore why we don't negotiate with terrorists.


Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

...At the United Nations, there were differences over a Japanese-backed draft resolution to sanction North Korea. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the measure had "broad and deep support," but Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador told The Associated Press that Moscow would not back sanctions, as the resolution calls for.

Instead, Russia wants the council to pass a nonbinding presidential statement with the goal of getting North Korea back into six-party talks on its nuclear program.

Is it any wonder Japan is freaked? It's way too close. I read somewhere that the missiles were aimed at Hawaii.

It's easy for Russia to go lightly on North Korea, it's not close to them. You just have to hope Russia hasn't sold nukes or North Korea or Iran.

Iran has been preparing for battle in every other way possible...




Pat Santy at the Dr. Sanity blog has three good posts relating to these issues:

WHAT IRAN IS COUNTING ON

...It is no coincidence--as others have pointed out--that Iran has taken action on the eve of its nuclear deadline. The war it has initiated is designed to 1)deflect attention away from its nuclear program (not quite ready yet, are we?); and to force the U.S.'s hand in the region--i.e., forcing us to act before they think we were quite ready to act.

In all this, Iran is counting on the appeasement of both the UN and the EU ;and they haven't been disappointed, have they?

But in all this maneuvering, Iran betrays its fundamental ignorance of the psychology of both Israel and the U.S. ...

Be sure and read the whole post, with it's embedded links. Dr. Sanity does her homework. Her other posts:

THE MULLAHS' TERRIBLE VISION

...The time is rapidly approaching when we see if George Bush's fine rhetoric about bringing terrorists to justice, and freedom to all people has been halted at the borders of Iraq. We have flushed the real enemies of civilization out in the last 5 years since 9/11; and perhaps, we managed to flush them out before they were entirely ready--forced their hand so to speak--by our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is just possible that we have a slight, but definite advantage over the mullahs and the patient game of chess they have been playing.

Because now, it should be crystal clear to anyone who has been paying attention, who the puppet-masters of terror have been all along.

They have been planning for this scenario ever since Jimmy Carter failed to stand up to them when they brashly held Americans hostage without consequences some years back. Ahmadinejad, one of the ringleaders of that action, apparently was satisfied that he understood the cut of America's jib from that experience; and that in the decades since his first terrorist action, the physical impotence of Carter has spread into the body politic of America, resulting in the complete moral paralysis exhibited by a majority of Democrats and the MSM today.

In other words, Iran is confident that even George Bush will not dare stand against their plans for Middle Eastern Armageddon.

I think that Ahmadinejad is wrong about this...

(bold emphasis mine) Near the end of the article, Dr. Sanity quotes Michael Ledeen:

"You cannot escape the mullahs. You must either defeat them or submit to their terrible vision. There is no other way."

The Democrats and the MSM are completly blind to this; we would all be dead before they even begin to understand.




It's worth reading the whole article, which also has some good embedded links, and some more excerpts from Ledeen about Iran and Syria, their roll in the current conflict, and their motivation for these actions. And finally:

JUST A THEORY, BUT A VERY GOOD ONE

In my last post I suggested that with the current crisis developing in the middle east, it was time to see if President Bush really meant what he said back in 2001.

I happen to think that he did mean it; and that despite the wishful thinking we have been reading about in the press-- that he has abandoned "cowboy diplomacy" and given in to the "realists" at the State Department--George Bush is pretty much the same man he has always been...

Dr. Sanity presents a good case for this opinion, with embedded links that support her theory. Let's hope she's right.



On another matter entirely: The Palestinians claim to need financial aid just to survive from day to day. Yet even as they plead poverty, it seems they have money to buy (and make and sell?) things like these:

 


Here are some items that were for sale in Gaza, to commemorate the 911 attacks. The 2nd item is a cigarette lighter. Nice.

These folks have WAY too much time on their hands, thanks to hand-outs from western governments. It leaves them a lot of free time for... other pursuits.


 
Related Links:


PALESTINIAN DEATH CULT

Anybody remember Vietnam War protestor "Country Joe" McDonald's song lyric: "Be the first one on your block to have your son come home in a box"? (McDonald, by the way, is still running around hitting the same note; lately he's been seen with Cindy Sheehan.) Well, when Country Joe sang, he meant his words as parody, because he comes out of a culture that doesn't believe in child sacrifice. But when the Palestinians say it, they're deadly serious. Palestinian TV is now (once again) running a call to the children to die in war. "How pleasant is the smell of the earth whose thirst is quenched by blood pouring out of young bodies," the children are told.

...Anybody who has ever been a kid will remember the nasty ideas that pop into your head. If you're born into a decent society, you'll be exposed to influences that press you to follow your better nature while controlling your savage impulses. The Palestinian culture does the opposite, nurturing and validating the most evil desires. The result is ultimately a culture that has been "weaponized", ready and willing and anxious to choose violence as the first and only answer to any situation.

This, and not carbon dioxide, is the real "inconvenient truth" that the world wishes to deny...

(bold emphasis mine) Maynard at the Tammy Bruce blog got this right. The Palestinians are only a part of a larger death cult that is gripping the Muslim world. That grip must be broken, not appeased. Our very survival may depend on it.


WORLD ON FIRE
Michelle Malkin offers a list of blog links that are covering many of the events talked about here.

 
 

Syria, Iran and Hezbollah terror

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon, originally published in February 2005, it's just as timely today. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

U.S. Blames Syria, Iran For Israeli Soldiers' Kidnapping

..."The United States condemns in the strongest terms this unprovoked act of terrorism, which was timed to exacerbate already high tensions in the region and sow further violence. We also hold Syria and Iran, which have provided long-standing support for Hezbollah, responsible for today's violence. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of the Israeli soldiers," reads a statement released by the White House press secretary...

(bold emphasis mine) This has been comming for a while now. The seeds were planted long ago. You don't always get to pick and choose the battles you want to fight.


Related links:

Iran, Hezbollah and Terror

Iran, Syria and the Hamas government -- sowing the seeds of the first world war of the 21st century?
   
 

Children as human shields

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for today's cartoon, titled "Palestinian Body Armor". You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

I also did a post about this subject last April. The Cox and Forkum site has some good excerpts from articles and many links, including some photos at the Little Green Footballs blog.

One of the articles linked to is Robert Tracinski's examination of
The Suicide Bomb Morality. Tracinski put's it succinctly:

The West's conflict with Islamic terrorism is more than a "clash of civilizations." It is, at root, a clash between two world views and two moral models, a clash much wider and more important than any political conflict...

The Palestinians show us a society based on sacrifice in its purest, most fanatical form. It is a society built around a single moral model: the suicide bomber, who is lionized on billboards, on television, in popular songs. And this is not just the propaganda of the corrupt Palestinian rulers...

...For the great mass of Palestinians this worship of sacrifice is sincere. By rejecting every chance at peace and coexistence with Israel--breaking every truce and turning down every peace offer--they have lost everything and gained nothing. Taking the suicide bomber as their moral model, the Palestinians seek to emulate his fate: in their lust to destroy Israel, they are willing to accept the utter destruction and collapse of their own society.

Look to the other side of the security barrier and you see a very different society. While the Palestinians raise their children on visions of blood and murder, the Israelis are largely preoccupied by the business of producing, creating, making a living. Consider, for example, the vast Gaza greenhouses handed over from the departing Israelis to the Palestinians. In the hands of the society that "made the desert bloom," these greenhouses produced millions of dollars worth of produce. Under Palestinian control, they were looted and their products have literally been left to rot. As with the Cold War examples of East and West Berlin, Gaza and Israel offer side-by-side laboratories for opposing moralities.

The contrast to America--a nation founded on the right to "the pursuit of happiness"--is even more vivid...

The distinctive model for American culture is not the suicide bomber but the "self-made man": the entrepreneur who achieves prosperity by hard work and ingenuity. Implicitly, we recognize that the proper business of life is not sacrifice but achievement. This is the actual code by which most Americans live.

The tragedy is that we don't recognize it.

We are still too morally intimidated by unquestioned traditions, or by the confused invocation of the "sacrifice" of our courageous soldiers--which fails to recognize that it is an act of the most profound self-interest to resist the rule of tyranny and terror. And so we pay lip service to the nobility of sacrifice.

This lip service undercuts our certainty and moral clarity, not only in dealing with terrorism, but also at home...

...Ayn Rand remains a controversial figure, scoffed at by both left and right. But this phrase, "perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing"--could there be a better description of the Palestinians' suicide bomb society?

Look at the horrific plight the Palestinians have chosen, and you can observe the real meaning of a culture of self-sacrifice. Look at America, by comparison, and you can see the life-affirming benevolence of a culture of rational self-interest...

(bold emphasis mine) This is an excellent article, not very long and well worth reading the whole thing.





Related links:

Children raised in a murder-suicide culture

Palestinian Human Shield Watch

Those Poor, Victimized Palestinian Civilians

 

Ann Coulter is a Grateful Dead Fan!

I found this link in Nealz Nuze, to an interview with Ann Coulter:

"Deadheads Are What Liberals Claim to Be But Aren't"

This interview by Taylor Hill for Jambands.com is full of fun suprises. A few excerpts, starting with the introduction:

When I called the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute, whose chairwoman gives speeches on topics with titles like "The Failures of Feminism", and told the gatekeeper there that I wanted to do an interview with Ann Coulter solely about the Grateful Dead, there was a small pause. Then she recovered and politely told me to send her an e-mail, which she would forward to Ann. That, I expected, would be the end of it.

When I got home that night, and saw an e-mail in my box from Ann Coulter, I thought "how polite of her to send a rejection letter rather than simply ignoring my proposal." Instead, I found that she had somehow written "I'd love to! Good website!" While she was delayed by a round of speeches to make up due to strep throat, and other events life throws out, we kept shooting e-mails back and forth and I discovered a secret that I will reveal despite the damage to her reputation that it may cause: Ann is really cool and really funny. The few friends I talked with about this said "What? You of all people are getting along with Ann Coulter?!" It was easy and simple to do: we never talked policy. It was a joy talking with her, even if we don't agree on everything (most politics, and "Alabama Getaway" sucks).

What followed was the most surreal interview I have ever done in my life. It involves smearing oneself with purple Crisco, Kanye (Ann's a fan), slews of Reagan and Bush appointees leaving the Justice Department to go to Dead shows, lamentation for the neglected "Pride of Cucamonga," getting inside info on the Monica Lewinsky scandal by being a Deadhead, and saying goodbye to Jerry in Golden Gate Park. Some of her answers WILL piss people off, but there's no doubting her tie-dyed credentials – even if the dye is much more red than blue. Her latest book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, was published earlier this month...

Now just a few excerpts from the interview (bold emphasis mine):

TH: What exactly do you love about the Grateful Dead?

AC: The tie-dye of course. Truth be told I hated tie-dye, though I finally broke down and would wear tie-dyed Dead shirts to concerts solely as a tribute to my fellow Deadheads.

Oddly enough, I like the music. No one believes that I never took drugs at Dead shows (except for the massive clouds of passive marijuana smoke) but I went because I really liked the music. There are various groups I get enthusiastic about for awhile, but of all the music I've listened to over the years, the Grateful Dead is the one band I never grow tired of. Apparently, the same is true of me for ski-lift operators.

Moreover, I really like Deadheads and the whole Dead concert scene: the tailgating, the tie-dye uniforms, the camaraderie – it was like NASCAR for potheads. You always felt like you were with family at a Dead show – a rather odd, psychedelic family that sometimes lived in a VW bus and sold frightening looking “veggie burritos.” But whatever their myriad interests, clothing choices, and interest in illicit drugs, true Deadheads are what liberals claim to be but aren't: unique, free-thinking, open, kind, and interested in different ideas. Also, excellent dancers! Watching a Deadhead dance is truly something to behold.

Somewhat contrary to the image of Deadheads as hippies, the Dead were huge in my hometown of New Canaan, CT, which is a pretty preppie town... We toyed with the idea of making "Truckin'" our prom song with a "Long Strange Trip" theme, but we ended up with some dorky rainbow theme instead. I tend to associate the Dead with lacrosse players and my favorite fraternities, Fiji and Theta Delt.

The one time I missed not being able to go to Dead shows more than any other since Jerry died was during the Clinton impeachment. There was so much viciousness - killed cats, punctured tires, threats, investigations and slander against those of us favoring impeachment. (Anthony Pellicano, you'll recall – the Hollywood private investigator now accused of criminal conspiracy, attempted murder, and making criminal threats – was working for the Clintons during the Monica Lewinsky investigation.) I don't really care what people say about me – I'm a Christian so there's nothing anyone can ever do to me – but I kept thinking: “Boy, would I like to go to a Dead show and dance with happy, friendly deadheads for just one night!”

"Deadheads believe in freedom – not a government telling people how much water they can have in their toilets or where they can smoke or whether they should be allowed to own a gun."

TH: It's time to name names. Who are the other Deadheads who have infiltrated the conservative movement?

AC: As a Deadhead and a freedom-lover, I am wounded to the bone that you think the two do not naturally go hand in hand. The Deadheads I just met casually and not through conservative politics were almost always right-thinking, whatever they called themselves. Deadheads believe in freedom – not a government telling people how much water they can have in their toilets or where they can smoke or whether they should be allowed to own a gun. (Remember the photos of Jerry testifying before some Congressional committee while chain smoking? Yeah, he'd really bond with Henry Waxman.)

One of my Dead friends I met at Vail made candles for Grateful Dead merchandizing. His daily routine consisted of waking up, smoking a bowl, and turning on the Rush Limbaugh radio show while he made his candles. (It's true. He's so far out there he practices this weird, freaky ritual known as “commerce.” Don't try telling me pot is harmless!)

Also there was a big Deadhead Christian group that handed out terrific pamphlets at Dead shows. Admittedly, many of them found God staring into a puddle while high on LSD, but whatever the path, they were very serious Christians – they made Jerry Falwell sound like a secularist.

Either Bobby or Jerry was asked by a Rolling Stone interviewer to denounce all the Young Reaganites attending their concerts in the 80's, and whichever one it was not only refused to attack the young Republicans, but said he liked some of those “rightist” ideas. Consider that when the Dead decided to do something to save the Rain Forest, they didn't harangue poverty-stricken Third Worlders to give up washing machines and electricity. They did it the free market way: buying up parts of the Rain Forest, parcel by parcel.

And they provided the Lithuanian basketball team – recently liberated from the Soviet yoke – with totally cool uniforms so they could play in the 1992 Olympics.

After Jerry died, U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) gave an incredibly touching tribute to Jerry Garcia and the good work the Dead's Rex Foundation had done promoting the arts privately – in contradistinction to millionaire actresses standing up in $50,000 gowns at the Oscars and demanding that hardworking waitresses and truck drivers be forced to support the arts through government taxation. You can look it up in the Congressional Record.

But to answer your question, Senator, I personally have loads and loads of friends who are right-wingers and Deadheads. I couldn't possibly name them all. For starters, obviously, there's Angela Lansbury. She gave me my first psychedelic tie-dyed tube top at a Dead show just outside Tucson. Just kidding. There are: ...

Now, I can't give the whole thing away! You'll just have to read the whole article. Regardless of wether or not you are a Grateful Dead fan, I think it's pretty interesting, and reveals a side of Ann Coulter I haven't seen before. It makes for a facinating and fun read.

Just how dhimmi is England?

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon, "Perils before Swine". You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

A British town council bans pig toys and images, because they are offensive to Muslims. The Church of England is considering getting rid of St. George as the Patron Saint of England because he is too offensive to modern day Muslims. One might well ask how dhimmi is England.

British Author Melanie Phillips, in her blogpost State of denial, gives us some shocking revealations about the state of dhimmitude in Britain today.

Today marks one year since the 7/7 terrorist bombings in London. What have the British learned in that time? Melanie tells us:

...We learn from the head of the Metropolitan Police’s Anti-Terrorism Branch, Peter Clarke, that no fewer than 70 further such terrorist plots are currently under investigation. That is a simply astounding number. This is not terrorism as conventionally understood, but a war.

Meanwhile an opinion poll reveals that, while the vast majority of British Muslims do not support terror, a horrifying number do so; while even more harbour the kind of extremist views which create the sea in which terrorism swims.

Many thousands of British Muslims are patriotic, law-abiding citizens. Indeed, last weekend saw the death in action of a British Muslim soldier, Jabron Hashmi, who was killed fighting for his country against the Taleban in Afghanistan.

Yet according to the Populus poll, 13 per cent of Britain’s 1.6 million Muslims believe the 7/7 bombers should be regarded as martyrs; between seven and 16 per cent per cent think suicide attacks on British targets can be justified; and two per cent would be proud if a family member joined al Qaeda, with a further 16 per cent who would be indifferent.

That represents hundreds of thousands of British Muslims who either justify or support the murder of their fellow citizens. These numbers are utterly appalling.

Moreover, they are consistent with many other similar findings. Only last week, a Pew opinion poll across Europe revealed that, while Britain was more sympathetic to its Muslim minority than was any other country, British Muslims hated their own country, the west and the Jews more than Muslims anywhere else...

Britain bends over backwards to accomodate Muslims, and yet they have the angriest Mulsim population? Could it be that British multi-culturalism encourages and feeds that anger, causing radical Muslims to believe they have the RIGHT to be angry and to strike back at the enemy with impunity?

13 percent of 1.6 British Muslims is 208,000 people who approved of the London subway terrorist attacks. Sounds to me like 208,000 people need to be deported.

...The essence of the problem is that it is not enough — necessary as it is — to detect and thwart terrorist plots. Just as crucial is to address the hatred and lies that are driving this murderous violence.

In particular, what needs to be combated with the utmost vigour is the Muslim culture of grievance, the paranoid belief that the west is engaged in a conspiracy to aggressively attack and destroy the Islamic world.

This delusion has meant that many Muslims misrepresent Islamist aggression as self-defence, and the west’s attempt to defend itself as aggression. This double-think means that Britain is itself blamed for the attacks mounted upon it...

And where do these ideas come from? How are they perpetuated, and why are they not opposed? Here are some clues:

...Saudi Arabia has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into promoting this agenda of holy war against the west throughout the world. This money funds extremism in many British Muslim institutions, and has helped produce a climate of such irrationality that many British Muslims actually believe that 9/11 was an American or Zionist plot.

But instead of fighting these warped ideas, many in the British establishment are appeasing them...

...the establishment — which, in the name of multiculturalism, has a long record of appeasing minorities — is terrified to identify the cause of this terrorism as religious fanaticism, because it fears this might tar all Muslims with the same brush...

The government has created committees on extremism to advise them on how to deal with extremists, but the committees themselves are packed with Islamic extremists. Quite naturally, all the solutions they offer are appeasment at any cost. It's insane. Multi-culturalism gone wild.

Melanie has some sensible ideas for how to deal with the extremists:

...Instead of appeasing extremism, the government should be seeking out, promoting and protecting the growing number of truly moderate Muslims — many of them young professionals — who are wholly opposed to their radicalised institutions and desperate to rid their community of the extremism that so disfigures it.

The Government should send Muslims the message that they are welcome and respected members of the community who are free to practise their faith — but that the abuse of that faith to incite violence or hatred will not be tolerated.

That means finding out what is being taught and preached in mosques and madrassahs, on campus and in prisons, and where this is inciting violence or hatred ensuring that those responsible will be prosecuted or thrown out of the country.

And at the same time, it must also end the cultural cringe of multiculturalism and reassert British national identity rooted in the particulars of this island’s history, laws religion and culture...

(bold emphasis mine) It was hard to choose excerpts, breaking it up into excerpts just doesn't do it justice. There's a lot of good stuff in this article, I recommend reading the whole thing.

Melanie is currently on tour, promoting her latest book:



"Londonistan"


Related links:

7/7: REMEMBRANCE & DHIMMITUDE

“I am still incensed that the Muslim community spends more time whingeing about “islamophobia” than they do trying to route out extremism. I am incensed that whenever question about terrorist attacks by young British Muslims is posed Muslim representatives seem to be far more keen to blame Pres. Bush, Blair, Sharon or anyone else than the evil in their midst.”

Remember the 7/7 Victims

Did these people deserve to die?


UPDATE 07/14/06

Steven Emerson interviews Melanie Phillips

 

"Honor" killings of Muslim women in Europe

Another good article from the Brussels Journal blog, is about "honor" killings of Muslim women in Europe, and a recent case in Denmark:

Danes Sentence Entire Clan for Honour Killing    

An excerpt:

This week, for the very first time, a court in Europe sentenced nine members of the same family for the honour killing of a female relative. Honour killings, where a woman is murdered for the shame that she is said to have brought on her family, are a growing phenomenon in Western Europe...

...Last Tuesday in Denmark, however, a jury of the Østre Landsret ruled that not only the man who pulled the trigger was guilty, but every family member who collaborated in “punishing” Ghazala Khan, an 18-year old Danish-born woman of Pakistani origin, who was shot by her brother, 30-year old Akhtar Abbas, on 23 September 2005, two days after her marriage.

Ghazala had married an Afghan man, 27-year old Emal Khan, against the wishes of her father. An aunt, the youngest sister of Ghazala’s mother, who had told the young couple that she would try to reconcile them with her family, asked them to come to Slagelse train station. Her brother Akhtar shot her dead in front of the station and wounded Emal Khan, who survived the murder attempt.

On Wednesday a Danish judge sentenced Akhtar Abbas to 16 years in gaol, and the father, 57-year old Ghulam Abbas, to life imprisonment (which, if one behaves well in gaol, is reduced to 16 years). The aunt and two uncles were given 16 years as well. Other members of the family and friends who had helped to track down Ghazala received sentences of between 8 and 16 years. Two Pakistanis who do not have the Danish nationality will be expelled from Denmark after serving their prison term.

The Danish verdict is historic, not only because the entire clan was punished but also because the head of the family, who ordered the killing, was given a heavier sentence than the actual murderer...

(bold emphasis mine) The full article has many embedded links. One of those links is to a case in Germany, of a murdered Turkish women named Hatin Surucu. Here is her photo, and a link to the article from Der Spiegel:



THE DEATH OF A MUSLIM WOMAN
"The Whore Lived Like a German"   An excerpt:

...The shots came from nowhere and within minutes the young Turkish mother standing at the Berlin bus stop was dead. A telephone call from a relative had brought her to this cold, unforgiving place. She thought she would only be gone for a few minutes and wore a light jacket in the freezing February wind. She had left her five-year-old son asleep in his bed. He awoke looking for his mother, who, like many Turkish women in Germany, harbored a secret life of fear, courage and, ultimately, grief. Now her little boy has his own tragedy to bear: His mother, Hatin Surucu, was not the victim of random violence, but likely died at the hands of her own family in what is known as an "honor killing."

Hatin's crime, it appears, was the desire to lead a normal life in her family's adopted land. The vivacious 23-year-old beauty, who was raised in Berlin, divorced the Turkish cousin she was forced to marry at age 16. She also discarded her Islamic head scarf, enrolled in a technical school where she was training to become an electrician and began dating German men. For her family, such behavior represented the ultimate shame -- the embrace of "corrupt" Western ways. Days after the crime, police arrested her three brothers, ages 25, 24 and 18. The youngest of the three allegedly bragged to his girlfriend about the Feb. 7 killing. At her funeral, Hakin's Turkish-Kurdish parents draped their only daughter's casket in verses from the Koran and buried her according to Muslim tradition. Absent of course, were the brothers, who were in jail.

The crime might be easier to digest if it had been an archaic anomaly, but five other Muslim women have been murdered in Berlin during the past four months by their husbands or partners for besmirching the family's Muslim honor. Two of them were stabbed to death in front of their young children, one was shot, one strangled and a fifth drowned. It seems hard to fathom, but in the middle of democratic Western Europe -- in Germany, a nation where pacifism is almost a universal mantra -- murderous macho patriotism not only exists but also appears to be thriving. It may even be Germany's liberalism -- and its post World War II fear of criticizing minority cultures -- that has encouraged ultra-religious families to settle here...

(bold emphasis mine) The story is just tragic... and all too common. Other links in the Brussels Journal article show that in Great Britian, as many as 100 cases of suspected Honor Killings are under investigation.

A religion that can survive only by killing people who leave it, needs to be reformed or destroyed. The last thing we need is a lot of Multi-Culti clap-trap and moral-relativism about how all cultures are equal and need to be respected. How much respect did these murdered women get?

The Spiegel article has a lot more information, photos and stories about other Mulsim women, it's a great resource on this topic.


Related links:


Islamic Terror and Sexual Rage?

...Rushdie told German weekly magazine Stern that his latest novel, "Shalimar the Clown," dealt with the deep anxiety felt among many Islamic men about female sexual freedom and lost honor.

When asked if the book drew a link between "Islamic terror and damaged male honor," Rushdie said he saw it as a crucial, and often overlooked, point. "The Western- Christian world view deals with the issues of guilt and salvation, a concept that is completely unimportant in the East because there is no original sin and no savior," the author said, in comments printed in German.

"Instead, great importance is given to 'honor.' I consider that to be problematic. But of course it is underestimated how many Islamists consciously or unconsciously attempt to restore lost honor."

(bold emphais mine) This is a topic I have seen come up again and again. I think that in the West, we fail to understand just how important this is.

Murder-Suicide, Islamic Terror and Women



Look at this woman's eyes, then read her story. Did she WANT to die as a martyr, or was she entrapped, manipulated and coerced?

Palestinian Rheim Al-Riyashia, a mother with young children, blew herself up in a suicide bomber attack. When you look at the details of her situation, I think it's quite possible she was facing death by "honor killing" for committing adultery, and was given a choice; death with shame (honor killing), or death with glory (martyr), and a large financial payment to her husband and children. Some excerpts:

...Al-Riyashi was not poor and, before her marriage, not particularly religious. She came from a prosperous family and lived comfortably with her husband and two children. There had been some sort of quarrel among her family before the attack, and rumors have circulated that she was actually moved to murder-suicide because she had committed adultery...

...IDF sources said that the investigation has already revealed that Al-Riyashi's husband, an activist in the HAMAS organization, not only knew about his wife's plans in advance, but even encouraged her to carry out the homicide attack. And that the person who recruited Rheim to carry out the homicide attack and equipped her with the explosive belt was none other than the lover with whom she cheated on her husband. The Sunday Times (London) reported that the husband drove his wife to Erez Crossing...

...Sources said Riyashi was forced into such a terrible act because she had brought shame on her family by cheating on her husband. So-called honor killings are common among the more conservative elements of Arab societies. In the event of rape, adultery, or other serious indiscretion, the woman's male relatives will kill her to restore the family honor. Some jails in Jordan are full of women, who having committed no crime, hiding from the probability of being killed for a slight, real or imagined, to the family honor.

In the present situation becoming a suicide bomber allows family honor to be restored and supplies recruits for politically and psychologically effective actions...

Was she "set up" by her husband and the Hamas recruiter? Her parents and siblings did not approve of her death and the way she was used.

The notion of honor among Muslims is an important factor in our dealings with Islam that should be further scrutinized.

Can Europe save itself by re-discovering it's own roots in America?

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for this cartoon, published December 2003. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

Regarding the subject of Europe saving itself, I just read an excellent article at the Brussels Journal blog, called Europe Must Find its Roots in America. Some excerpts:

...American society is a society whose culture and view of mankind resembles that of the old mediaeval Europe from which it organically evolved. It puts man before the state because it accepts that man should come to God as a free being. Europe, having lived through the perversions of the Modern Age, has absorbed much of the absolutist and totalitarian spirit. Though the state was rendered democratic in the second half of the 20th century – an event, moreover, that would not have been possible without American assistance – it has in fact developed into a totalitarian democracy. Europeans still tend to put the state before man, still see the government as a god (a benefactor who feeds and supports his people), while the real God – He who wants people to come to Him freely because otherwise their “choice” for Him is no choice at all – has almost totally disappeared from present-day European society.

Americans have never lost the vital understanding that freedom has to be indivisible in order that man may lead a virtuous life. Democracy and freedom of expression represent only the political and moral-cultural fields of life. There is a third important field of social life: economics. In this field the Americans have adopted a system that allows citizens the greatest possible economic freedom and severely restricts the power of the government. It is called capitalism, which to most Americans is something positive, while to most Europeans it appears deeply repulsive...

...Western Europe's economy stagnates while America’s keeps growing. This causes jealousy, which reinforces the political frustration Western Europe already has towards its Atlantic partner. Many Europeans compensate for their frustration by feeling culturally and morally superior to the Americans, whom they regard as backward. Though the Americans live in the so-called new continent, they represent the old, pre-modern Europe: They believe in God, they refuse to realise that the state can be a benevolent institution and subsequently distrust it. Large parts of the West European population consider Americans to be naive, simple, unsophisticated, even dumb – a nation without any real culture or significant history. Such views are held not only by ordinary West Europeans (who get their political education in state run schools and from state run and/or state controlled media), but also by many intellectuals who ought to know better.

Europe, however, is being overrun by barbarians. Its populations are dwindling, its welfare systems are collapsing and its old religion, Christianity, which the Europeans had cast aside, is being replaced by another one: Islam. If Europe is to be saved it must return to its old heritage which has survived in the land across the Ocean. We need to bring America’s values to Europe. These values are our own lost heritage. To survive as Europeans we have to become Americans. It is time to save ourselves by establishing a Society for American Values in Europe.

(bold emphasis mine) The rest of the article goes into an very good explanation of what Europe and America's common roots are, and where, how and why they diverged, to the point we are at now. It's not a long article and one very much worth reading, I enjoyed it for it's clarity.

God Bless America

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. You can read their related commentary and links HERE.

I've heard leftists complain about the statement "God Bless America". They like to say "Why SHOULD god bless America?" They believe America is evil, and that anyone who is patriotic is a brainwashed fool.

A great deal of this is learned in our public schools, where not only do they not teach American history anymore, they teach disrespect for our country. Many of our teachers consider patriotism to be an outdated idea at best, a dangerous one at worst. They prefer to think of themselves as "citizens of the World", with no allegience to any specific country. They believe nationality and patriotism are evil concepts, and that citizenship and the vote should be granted to anyone within our borders, regardless of how they got here or why they came, and they teach these ideas to their students.

Thomas Sowell's article Is patriotism obsolete? touches on this. An excerpt:

...Patriotism is not chic in the circles of those who assume the role of citizens of the world, whether they are discussing immigration or giving aid and comfort to the enemy in wartime.

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was as much due to the internal disintegration of the ties that bind a society together as to the assaults of the Romans' external enemies.

The pride of being a Roman citizen was destroyed by cheapening that citizenship by giving it to too many other people. The sense of duty and loyalty eroded among both the elites and the masses.

Without such things, there could be no Roman Empire. Ultimately, without such things, there can be no United States of America. In neither case have tangible wealth and power been enough to save a country or a civilization, for the tangibles do not work without the intangibles.

(bold emphasis mine) Any American who says "Why SHOULD god bless America?" clearly has no appreciation for what America is about. It isn't about geography or ethnicity, as much as it is about an idea. Individual liberty, as expressed by John Locke and the Continental philosophers; the Scottish Enlightenment.

There are those in our country who wish to disintigrate the ties that bind our own society together, so that they can replace it with their own ideas, like socialism and communism, which are the antithesis of the American idea. Socialism is the stepping stone to Communism, which has no use whatsoever for individual liberty.

So I say God Bless America indeed. May it's idea live on and prosper, here and throughout the world.




Related links:

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2006

CELEBRATING THE FOURTH OF JULY

And I saw this on TammyBruce.com:

If The NYT Had A Time Machine



God Bless America: The Song
Did you know it was written by Irving Berlin in 1918, and revised in 1938? Here are the Lyrics:

"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer. "

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

The first part, the first four lines, I don't recall having heard before; don't think they taught us that in school. Yet those storm clouds seem to be there now as much as ever. According to Wikipedia, it was originally written as a victory song, but ended up evolving into a peace song.

You can read about the history of the song by Wikipedia Here.

How much longer?

Hat tip to Cox and Forkum for the cartoon. This cartoon is called "Unrequited War". You can read their related commentary and links about it HERE. A brief excerpt from the Washington Times:

The top U.S. commander in Iraq said yesterday [June 22] that covert Iranian troops are training brethren Iraqi Shi'ites on how to attack U.S. and coalition troops.

The disclosure by Army Gen. George Casey is the most pointed Pentagon criticism of Iran's militant regime, which is embroiled in a debate with the United States because Washington demands an end to Tehran's uranium enrichment.

This is hardly new, this sort of thing has been going on for quite some time. For more links to damning evidence, visit the link above.

Farm Report 07/01/06

Maria the singing chicken
Pat named her "Maria" after the opera diva Maria Callas, but I'm starting to wonder if she isn't really...



... Maria Von Trapp? The eight oldest fledglings adore her. The little ones have even started to make some trilling noises, similar to what Maria does. Is she teaching them to sing? Am I one day going to hear the chicken version of "Doe a deer" when I go into the coop? And it seems she's not content to stop with just eight. I think she is actively recruiting:



Like that song from the Sound of Music says, "What do you do with a chicken like Maria?" I guess you just let her do her thing. The Coop is Alive, with the Sound of Music.

Not all the fledglings are ready to join. Some are still quite young, and still growing their feathers in, like this scruffy group:



Some of them still want "Mommy". Fortunately for them, Turandot the Chinese Coachen-Bantam is no longer sitting on eggs. She was down to eight, but we candled them and they were all stale, so we took them away. Since then, she has been offering herself as Mommy to the smallest ones:



None of the chicks are her biological offspring. She is the only Bantam that lays brown eggs. There were only two brown eggs in the clutch, and neither hatched. Bertie had attempted to mate with her, but she is much bigger than him, and I suspect their plumbing fixtures never matched up right. But she is very maternal, and she hatched out most of the chicks, even thought they weren't her eggs.



Turandot likes looking after chicks, which is a good thing, because we have plenty more still in the incubator that will be put into the coop soon. Nights and mornings along Oregon's coast can be quite cold even in summer, so having a Mommy for the littlest ones to snuggle with is a good thing.

On the other side of the partition, the pecking order has sorted itself out:



No more Roosters terrorizing the hens! Well, there is still little Bertie the Bantam Rooster, but being only 8 inches tall, he doesn't inspire much terror. The Bantams and the Pullets seem to get along just fine, despite the size differential.

It was big Roosters like Cecil that were creating difficutlies. Cecil made his last appearence at dinner last Sunday, with gravy and roast potatoes:



He was a one tough bird when he was alive, and unfortunately, he continued to be the same on the dinner table too. He was practically inedible:



Pat said that when he was a kid, and his mother would butcher and serve an old hen or rooster, that his father would make jokes, comparing it to that Charlie Chaplin movie where he "dines" on an old shoe. Well I can see why. The skin was as tough as shoe leather. The meat, while tasty, was extremely chewy.



The French, who regard chicken as a favorite food, have special ways of dealing with mature roosters. I suspect we should have used one of their recipies, such as Coq au Vin (Rooster in Wine). We shall have to try that next time.

That wraps up the Farm Report for this week. The next Farm Report will feature the new Duck House. There will also be a special feline report, called:

Catz:



The Lady is a TRAMP