Suicide by compassion

We can all be poor.

Cleverness

For a camera

Quote: Cleverness is not wisdom.
Author: Euripides BC 480-406, Greek Tragic Poet

Quote: A cul-de-sac to which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.
Author: John A. Lincoln

Quote: Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.
Author: Henri Frederic Amiel 1821-1881, Swiss Philosopher, Poet, Critic

"To be clever enough to get all the money, one must be stupid enough to want it."
Chesterton, Gilbert K. ·

"How clever you are, my dear! You never mean a single word you say."
Wilde, Oscar

"Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness."
Huxley, Thomas H.

"Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness and much learning, if they be accompanied by a bad training, are a much greater misfortune."
Plato

"Civilization rests on a set of promises; if the promises are broken too often, the civilization dies, no matter how rich it may be, or how mechanically clever. Hope and faith depend on the promises; if hope and faith go, everything goes."
Agar, Herbert

"There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest."
Confucius ·

This last is the one that I learned at the feet of Yogi Bhajan in '71-'73, which he insisted was not to be referred to as wisdom, but rather as knowledge.

Paraphrasing for brevity and clarity--"wisdom being derived from thinking; knowledge derived from understanding experience".

Lastly, there is this--the very definition of the populist leader's power:

"There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People."
Wilde, Oscar

Now, I'm not as pessimistic as Wilde over the influence of the Pope in the early 21st century. I'm quite sure it was quite different 100 years ago in Ireland.

Pure democracy can easily become an enemy of freedom. People may easily vote their own doom.

There used to be a saying widely regarded as being axiomatic:

People vote their pocketbooks.

That meant that they were looking out for their wallets.

Now it means having their grasping hands out or having their hands over their wallets.

Are you wanting more from the government or more for yourself?

Who do you trust?

Press three for

HEADLINE
John Edwards is correct about the Two Americas theme.

But the rich, white guy that went to Narlins (that's New Orleans) to proclaim it simply doesn't have a clue. So...enough about him.

A similar division can be observed in Belgium where most of the power resides in the French-speaking Walloons in the south (roughly 32%) and the Dutch speaking Flemings (58%) in the north. The other 10% are bilingual in the Capitol Region around Brussels. Whereas there is a geographic and cultural divide between these groups, by far their single biggest separator is language.

America is fond of its separations, as well. We, too, have a North and South; but also an East, West, and Fly-over middle; rich and poor; White, Black, Hispanic, and I could go on and on. The contention I wish to hold forth here is the same as tiny Belgium. Language. Or to be more specific, those that care to speak the unofficial but accepted language and those that can't, don't, and most specifically those that won't--those that make a choice to speak something else.

As a representative of a publicly-traded major corporation which services every element of our populace except rural, I speak with everyone from new African immigrants to working class whites to professional people of all sorts.. My company had to outsource a Spanish call center for our Hispanic...ahem...guests. At what cost? Obviously we wouldn't make the expenditure if it didn't increase profits by serving a significant number of customers but it still boils down to the fact that it's an expense we eat because people won't learn this indisputable fact--English is the language of American business, and will remain so until we allow it to not be.

Think about that last bit: until we allow it to not be.

Immigrants from non-English speaking countries have always had challenges to assimilate--the first of which is to learn the language. Providing services in their native languages has never aided in assimilation; only hindered that goal.

Press one for English

Nobody reading this has not let out the exasperated sigh when hearing those words. We know that we're to spend extra time getting to the business for which we're making a call.

para toca dos por Español

At which point the English-challenged Spanish-speaker breathes a sigh of relief that he doesn't have to struggle in the gringo tongue.

Just for fun, imagine this:

Press two for other

Now the caller would hear a list of all languages. Spanish is number 70 in the 'S' list of all listed at Wiki. Oh, and the letter 'S' is the 19th in our alphabet.

Suddenly our Spanish-speaker would immerse himself in English or head for the border.

And now I've come to the real point of this post. This is what the top of this post would look like:

Press three fo' Ghetto

Heezeeline

Jiznohn Edwards be right `bout tha Two Americas thing.

But tha rizzay white mofo thizzay went ta Narlins ta proclaim it simply don't has no clue. So...'nough `bout him . Bow wow wow yippee yo yipee yay.

Call me a Racist Relic^© but the truth would bely that and I don't need to provide bona fides.

Educational variances aside, a portion of our urban society and a growing portion of suburban youth have made a choice regarding their cultural identity in rejecting the common tongue. This choice is reinforced to everyone's detriment by peer pressure to not be white. Let me lay this out--speaking English, the language of business, is not about being white. At least the people of India, Kenya, and Nigeria don't believe it to be. It's also the language of air traffic control worldwide.

Above all,

Language is an agreement.

I have good ears. I can recognize by tone and accent that Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell are black when I hear them on the radio. I have no problem with their 'blackness' and I'd be very surprised if they had a problem with my race. My problem, such as it is, is that I have to work much harder to accommodate people who equate the proper conjugation of the verb to be with their need to represent that they reject 'whiteness' by disagreeing with the use of the language they learned in school.

I reject the notion that, by habit or otherwise, people can't bring to bear what they learned through at least nine years of formal education when doing business.

So long as people refuse to learn or purposely reject our common language there will be the two Americas of those that choose to speak it and those that don't.

Darkness is falling

If not here in the US (2008 will be the year that decides such), most certainly in the refineries of Western civilization--Greece, Rome and England.

Bright but fitful steps forward followed by periods of dark are the history which led Europe and the Anglosphere to a point where freedom and the inherent value of individual rights were the hallmark of what we most value and share. We have also shared this with others that are willing--India comes to mind.

Sixty years of unprecedented peace (in our homelands) and prosperity have softened us--even lulled whole nations into the idea that soft collectivism is superior to self sufficiency--and so the very notion of borders and national sovereignty are disappearing. This is the established fact of the European Union and the wink and a nod fact of our borders. The plans of the internationalists have reached fruition.

Tens of thousands of unelected and mostly unaccountable bureaucrats--an entire class of Brahmins--now administer Europe. First individuals ceded their rights and now entire nations. As their prosperity grew and family size reduced, with five week vacations and nothing for which to struggle, the average European has submitted to nothing less than social castration.

All the while insidious plans have been made to invade and subdue. And Europe, under the oppressive mantle of enforced multiculturalism, proceeds with eyes wide open in its cultural suicide.

This week, Madrid will host a forum with the lofty title of The Alliance of Civilizations. The English version of the schedule can be read in .pdf format here. Two of the planned events are of particular note:

Working Session 4: Innovative Uses of Mass Media to
Promote Cross-Cultural Understanding
This session will explore new media approaches to addressing the
challenge of building bridges across cultures and religions. The session will focus on identifying possibilities and innovations underway in mass media’s contribution to cross-cultural understanding, and mechanisms by which such media can be broadly shared and distributed.
Participants: Senior media executives, publishers, producers and
editors.

...

Working Session 7 - Rapid Response Media Mechanism
The aim of this session will be to discuss the development of a Rapid Response Media Mechanism to provide a platform for voices that can help reduce tensions in times of cross-cultural crises. To bring this initiative to life, the Alliance intends to develop a broad network of personalities and experts who are strongly involved in cross-cultural issues and can be mobilized as soon as a crisis emerges. Working closely with media editors and producers, the Alliance will seek to maximize the impact of their perspectives on public opinion with a view to help framing the debate in less polarizing terms.
Participants: Editors and producers of media outlets from
diverse regions, representatives of public relations firms,
prominent personalities and experts interested in contributing
media content during times of heightened cross-cultural tensions.

This is most assuredly not about a resurgence of the Irish troubles. This is about smoothing the way for the conquest of Europe by Islam and most definitely anticipating that there will be...pockets of resistance.

The taqqiya money quote has to be

While religious traditions have often historically functioned as a moral source for order, they have also sometimes lead [sik] to the misguided perception that religion itself is the root cause of intercultural conflict.

If it is stated enough and you're under penalty of law to disagree then you must surely accept that Islam is the Religion of Peace.

Today in the Telegraph:

...

A priest ministering in the Manchester district of Rusholme said he knew of "dozens of cases" in which Muslim converts to Christianity had been attacked.

Another church leader said that Asian Christians in Leicester feared being identified when leaving churches.

"They are scared of being stopped and beaten up if they are found carrying Bibles," he said.

None of the church leaders we spoke to wished to be identified for fear of retaliation, but Don Horrocks, of the Evangelical Alliance, said: "It's increasingly difficult for non-Muslims to live in areas of high Muslim density, especially if they are practising Christians."

Some commentators fear that the aim of Islamist groups such as Tablighi Jamaat, Hizb-ut-Tahir and the Deobandi sect is to drive non-Muslims out of areas such as Dewsbury, in West Yorkshire, and Oldham along with neighbourhoods in Luton, Leicester, Birmingham and Leyton, in east London.

The ultra-conservative Deobandi movement, which produced the Taliban in Afghanistan and some of whose British followers preach hatred of Christians, Hindus and Jews, is thought to be in control of almost half of Britain's 1,350 mosques, reports claim.

...

However, a spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said that research showed that 81 per cent of people say that they feel that people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local areas.

I suspect this spokeman's boss will be on a flight to Madrid tomorrow.

The UK has hate crimes law but its application may be off (as in "that milk has gone off"). From the government site:

Facts & figures
Nationally, in 2006-07, police reported 5,619 hate crimes in which someone was injured, 4,350 hate crimes without injury, and 28,485 cases of racially or religiously motivated harassment.
There were also 3,565 cases of criminal damage related to hate crimes.
The typical hate offender is a young white male (most homophobic offenders are aged 16-20, and most race hate offenders under 30).
The majority of hate crimes happen near to the victim's home while they are going about their daily business, and an offence is most likely to be committed between 3pm and midnight.
Most hate criminals live in the same neighbourhood as their victims.
(source Crime in England and Wales 2006-07)

Maybe there's a problem with the reports.

And now we know that if someone stands up to fight back, he will not only be targeted by the law but by a well prepared media.

The Professional Standard

Few enlisted men (or draftees) have ever thought that, as a class, officers were uniformly brilliant.

This is apparently still true for the desk commanders in the five-sided monstrosity where we keep them from really mucking things up on the pointy side of the fight.

This is not to say that no one useful sits at a desk--it's just to state clearly and beyond any doubt that some decision makers better pull their heads from their rectal cavities or retire and get out of the way of grownups.

We need people like Stephen Coughlin where they can do the most good, not tossed on the ash heap by the PC in Pentagon power.

Fired For the Truth
By Andrew G. Bostom
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, January 10, 2008

Bill Gertz, Washington Times national security columnist, reports (1/4/08) that the Pentagon has fired Stephen Coughlin, its most knowledgeable specialist on Islamic Law, and jihad terrorism. As Gertz observed aptly, the Pentagon thus ended the career of its most effective analyst attempting to prepare the military to wage ideological war against jihadism.

This past September, 2007, I lectured with Mr. Coughlin, a US Army Reserves Major, at The Naval War College, and witnessed his brilliant, tour de force presentation which elucidated the reliance of contemporary jihadism on Islamic Law. Coughlin demonstrated meticulously that “Jihad fi Sabil Allah”—“Jihad in the cause of Allah,” is the animating principle which underlies the threat of global jihad terrorism, and how this understanding should form the basis for rational, effective threat development assessment, and war planning.

That Coughlin’s analyses would even be considered “controversial,” or worse still lead eventually to his firing—perhaps, as Gertz strongly suggests, at the behest of a Muslim aide, Hesham Islam, within the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England—is pathognomonic of the intellectual and moral rot plaguing our efforts to combat global jihadism.

There is no evidence that Mr. Islam—distinctly unlike Mr. Coughlin—has any specific expertise on the theory or historical practice of jihad; indeed Gordon England’s Egyptian Muslim aide is touted for his public relations skills—a sort of English-speaking Muslim Dragoman to the global Islamic umma. According to Deputy Secretary England,

Hesham [Islam] helps me understand people’s different perspectives and how they see things. He has a cultural background that’s very helpful, but he also works at it very hard to get a better understanding of people and how they think.

Coughlin’s reasoned conclusions simply update and complement, exquisitely, what serious scholars of jihad have long argued about revivalist movements throughout Islamic history. For example, forty years ago (in 1967), John Ralph Willis observed regarding the 19th century jihadist movements in West Africa, specifically, and such historical movements in general,

The jihad…is essentially an instrument of revival, employed for the purpose of extending the frontiers of Islam and leading the faithful back to roots. And it is not insignificant that the faithful, being in essence conservative, have been as susceptible to the summons of revivalists as they have been insensitive to the activity of reformists.

Stephen Coughlin’s modern predicament is eerily similar to what befell another courageous, unabashed American patriot, William Eaton, two hundred years ago, during our nation’s first encounter with jihad terrorism. “Victory in Tripoli,” Joshua London's compelling narrative of America’s initial conflict with jihadists—the Barbary wars—highlights, appositely, William Eaton’s experiences. Eaton's triumphs and travails during his tenure as consul to Tunis (1799-1803), and later U.S. naval agent to the Barbary states, mirrored those of the young American nation he served.

Born on February 23, 1764 in Woodstock, Connecticut, the highly intelligent and strong-willed Eaton, when 16 years old, ran away from home, subsequently lying about his age to join Washington's Continental Army. He rose to the rank of sergeant in the Continental Army, which he served until 1783. Eaton graduated Dartmouth in 1790, and in 1791 was chosen clerk of the Massachusetts House of Delegates, where he remained until 1797, while he also served (beginning in 1792) the U.S. Army as both a fighter and negotiator during the frontier campaigns against the American Indians. Later, Eaton assisted then Secretary of War Timothy Pickering's espionage/treason investigations. When Pickering became Secretary of State, he chose Eaton to serve as U.S. consul to Tunis, initially under President John Adams.

Eaton’s consular journal recorded these brutally honest and comical impressions of his first diplomatic encounter (on February 22, 1799) with Dey Bobba Mustafa of Algiers, which would make the craven State Department mandarins of today, wince:

…we took off our shoes and entering the cave (for so it seemed), with small apertures of light with iron gates, we were shown to a huge, shaggy beast, sitting on his rump upon a low bench covered with a cushion of embroidered velvet, with his hind legs gathered up like a tailor, or a bear. On our approach to him, he reached out his forepaw as if to receive something to eat. Our guide exclaimed, “Kiss the Dey’s hand!” The consul general bowed very elegantly, and kissed it, and we followed his example in succession. The animal seemed at that moment to be in a harmless mode; he grinned several times, but made very little noise. Having performed this ceremony, and standing a few moments in silent agony, we had leave to take our shoes and other property, and leave the den without any other injury than the humility of being obliged in this involuntary manner, to violate the second commandment of God and offend common decency. Can any man believe that this elevated brute has seven kings of Europe, two republics, and a continent tributary to him when his whole naval force is not equal to two line-of-battle ships? It is so.

Despite such inauspicious beginnings, and the institutionalized Barbary corruption Eaton found so repugnant to his person, and nation, his negotiations eventually secured U.S. commercial interests (at least a temporary) immunity from the attacks of Tunisian corsairs.

Eaton agonized over the gulf between the enormous potential and depressing reality of the Barbary states. He admired the Mediterranean coast of Tunis, “…naturally luxuriant and beautiful beyond description…I know not why it might not vie with the opposite continent in every thing useful, rich, and elegant”, yet despaired of the stultifying religio-political institutions which arrested the regions progress. Ultimately, Eaton concluded that Islam itself, certainly as practiced in Barbary, was the source of this backwardness:

Considered as a nation, they are deplorably wretched, because they have no property in the soil to inspire an ambition to cultivate it. They are abject slaves to the despotism of their government, and they are humiliated by tyranny, the worst of all tyrannies, the despotism of priestcraft. They live in more solemn fear of the frowns of a bigot who has been dead and rotten above a thousand years, than of the living despot whose frown would cost them their lives…The ignorance, superstitious tradition and civil and religious tyranny, which depress the human mind here, exclude improvement of every kind…

Appointed Naval Agent for the Barbary Regencies in 1804, Eaton then organized and led an expedition to unseat the predatory Barbary ruler Yusuf Qaramanli. Eaton’s army arrived outside Derna. on April 25, 1805. When the bey of Derna refused his generous ultimatum, at 2 p.m. April 28, Eaton led a successful attack on the city, supported by U.S. naval gunfire. During the fighting Eaton—who had led his outnumbered force in a gallant bayonet charge—was wounded in the left wrist. As London recounts:

He simply wrapped his arm in a makeshift bandage and sling, grabbed a pistol with his right hand, and continued to charge ahead. With the American Marines in the lead, Eaton’s forces stormed the ramparts and advanced straight to the harbor.

Subsequent diplomatic efforts stalled the expedition. Tobias Lear, the Consul General, reached an accomodation with Yusuf Qaramanli, which included ransom money for all American prisoners, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Derna, and the betrayal of Eaton’s key Arab ally, Ahmad Qaramanli. Eaton commented upon this treaty with predictable bitterness in a letter to Commodore John Rodgers:

Could I have apprehended this result of my exertions, certainly no consideration would have prevailed on me to have taken an agency in a tragedy so manifestly fraught with intrigue, so wounding to human feelings, and, as I must view it, so degrading to our national honor.

Although the Senate ratified the Tripoli treaty in April 1806 by a vote of 21 to 8, as London notes,

Jefferson declared ‘victory,’ but the ‘peace’ proved rather political…The Federalists did not manage to derail the treaty, but they did embarrass and, at junctures, discredit President Thomas Jefferson and forever tarnish the career of Tobias Lear.

Just over five years later, in Brimfield, Massachusetts, June 1, 1811, an alcoholic forty-seven year old William Eaton died in near anonymity.

The signing of the Treaty of Ghent (Christmas eve, 1814)—subsequently ratified in the U.S. (February, 1815)—ended the so-called War of 1812 with Great Britain, and allowed President James Madison to address the problem of renewed Barbary jihad terrorism. Shortly afterward, President Madison commissioned two naval squadrons led by Commodores William Bainbridge and Stephen Decatur, and dispatched them to the Barbary States in May, 1815. By June/July 1815 the ably commanded U.S. naval forces had dealt their Barbary jihadist adversaries a quick series of crushing defeats. These U.S. victories were solidified by what London terms “unprecedented” treaty agreements forced upon the Barbary states, which “..made practically no concessions and stood very firm on every point”—the abolition of all tribute; release of all American prisoners currently held, and acknowledgement that no future American prisoners of war could be enslaved; the payment of indemnities; and the restoration of American properties held by the dey.

Joshua London concludes his engrossing, carefully researched account of the Barbary wars with this insightful analysis:

During the war with Tripoli, the United States began to test William Eaton’s hypothesis that fighting back and protecting the national honor and national interest with force was the best way to end Barbary piracy. Just at the moment of triumph, however, President Thomas Jefferson wavered and settled on the side of expediency. Jefferson’s lack of resolve left American interests unguarded, and once again American maritime trade felt the Barbary terror. By 1816, however, the United States finally provided that William Eaton was right. This success ignited the imagination of the Old World powers to rise up against the Barbary pirates.

Thirty years earlier, in 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, then serving as American ambassadors to France and Britain, respectively, met in London with the Tripolitan Ambassador to Britain, Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja. These future American presidents were attempting to negotiate a peace treaty which would spare the United States the ravages of jihad piracy—murder, enslavement (with ransoming for redemption), and expropriation of valuable commercial assets—emanating from the Barbary states (modern Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya). During their discussions, they questioned Ambassador Adja as to the source of the unprovoked animus directed at the nascent United States republic. Jefferson and Adams, in their subsequent report to the Continental Congress, recorded the Tripolitan Ambassador’s justification:

… that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.

Stephen Coughlin understands and enunciates what was stated openly to then Ambassadors John Adams and Thomas Jefferson—and what they apparently understood—by the Tripolitan Ambassador Adja. During his September. 2007 presentation which I witnessed at The US Naval War College, Coughlin updated this timeless Islamic formulation into its modern context:

If the Enemy in the War on Terror (WOT) states that he fights jihad in furtherance of Islamic causes that includes the imposition of Shari’a law and the re-establishment of the Caliphate; And Islamic law on jihad exists and is available in English; Then Professionals with WOT responsibilities have an affirmative, personal, professional duty to know the enemy that includes ALL the knowable facts associated with the law of jihad.

And Coughlin, a well-trained lawyer, further argued that such understanding by our military leaders is obligatory if they are to uphold their essential commission:

This is the Professional Standard.

Stephen Coughlin has been fired for reminding his peers of this basic obligation.

Two hundred years after William Eaton’s bitter, tragic experiences, and ultimate posthumous vindication, let us fervently hope that our contemporary military and political elites muster the intellectual courage to heed Major Stephen Coughlin’s advice in a much more timely, and responsible manner.

Now why in tarnation, in a era where politicians need to stay out of military decision making, is an aide to a foreign power (albeit an ally) political appointee able to influence the separation of a grown up from a position he earned and for which he was eminently qualified?

I would like to have the whole story but I already know the bottom line--Muslims do not want us to understand what their goal is.

Sunday morning gleanings

01.06.08

Politics

The populist meme seems to be important to many in the early stages of this political year. Most championed by John Edwards' Two Americas^TM; Huckabee's Iowa victory can also be credited to class envy (soon to be warfare).

Economist Stephen Rose, defining the middle class as households with annual incomes between $30,000 and $100,000, says a smaller percentage of Americans are in that category than in 1979--because the percentage of Americans earning more than $100,000 has doubled from 12 to 24, while the percentage earning less than $30,000 is unchanged. "So," Rose says, "the entire 'decline' of the middle class came from people moving up the income ladder."

This is from George Will's editorial today here.

I'm just green with envy that so many of my fellow Americans are doing well (above $100K per year) and I'm equally maddened that 30% are doing poorly (comparatively). We need equality... we need social justice... we need...

Oh, crap... I'm not 16 years old anymore. Jesus said that the poor would always be with us. Lenin said we should all embrace our poverty. The Clintons and Larry Flint believe we should all embrace our moral poverty.

I'm not shocked or outraged at the entitlement crowd. Neither am I sympathetic. My feelings towards them are more akin to embarrassment. For them.


Culture (the future of)

I hear the train a-comin'

Europe started 2008 with a raft of new laws against smoking, air pollution and even junk food adverts, but some grumbled that the New Year's resolutions from the "nanny state" cramped their style.

This is in store for us in less than five years.


The Jihad

Overheard on American campuses:

It's like all about the Palestinians being kicked off their land and the Jooos taking it and making like a Zionist Entity and really like mistreating the Arabs and killing their kids and I even heard somewhere like that the Jooos drink actually drink babies' blood when they're not like making some kind of dumpling called a mah jong with babies' blood and I just like know in my heart that everything will be OK when there's like social justice over there...

All right, all right, you caught me exaggerating. I know most college kids can't like express themselves that clearly ;>)

Too damn many people believe that it is an Arab/Israeli problem when the truth is that the problem for the Arabs is that the Israelis won't roll over for them. Fourteen million Jews and ~1.4 billion Muslims--talk about David and Goliath.

The people of Europe are bloody well finding out what it feels like to be an Israeli. Watch this from a Swede who can't even take credit for it by name because of his country's hate speech laws.



And in Spain.

REMEMBER AS YOU READ -- THIS WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER Date: Tue, 22 May
2007 14:30:20 -0500


ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ



By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez

I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a
terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz We killed six million Jews and
replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture,
thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen,
because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade,

and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to
ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million

Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance,

crime and poverty, due to an un willingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities
into the third world, drowning in filth and crime

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government,

they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for
fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for
backwardness and superstition

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their
talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined
clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people
consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children
and theirs.


What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.

To the east of The Islamic Republic of Pakistan lies Kashmir and India where Muslims have killed countless Hindus.

January 03, 2008
The Other Jihad: Islam's War on the Hindus
By Janet Levy

Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal catastrophically may fall into the hands of jihadists. But the South Asian version of jihad is a less familiar but no less fearsome variant of the war directed at the Great Satan America, and the Little Satan, Israel.

At one billion people, Hindus, the majority of whom live in the Indian sub-continent, constitute the third largest religion in the world after two billion Christians and 1.5 billion Muslims. Yet, their numbers have not spared Hindus from ongoing, systematic Muslim attacks in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Indeed, the jihad against India's non-Muslims has accelerated within the last few decades. The Indian government and international human rights organizations have done little to address human rights violations and have stood idle despite constant attacks on Hindus. Meanwhile, the media rarely mentions the desecration of Hindu religious sites and the constant intimidation of Hindus.

Further east:

Thailand Islamic Insurgency


A wave of attacks in southern Thailand forced the government to stop blaming "bandits" and acknowledge, for the first time in decades, that separatist militants were operating in the country. On 05 January 2004 Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared martial law in most of the affected region, the provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala. Defence Minister Thamarak Isarangura authorised Fourth Army Region commander Lt-General Phongsak Aekbansingha to place six districts in Narathiwat, three districts in Yala and four districts in Pattani under martial law. This followed a deadly arms raid and arson attack which re-ignited security concerns in the majority Muslim provinces of Southern Thailand.

Latin America

Indeed, with Islamic "charities" under increasing international pressure and scrutiny to cut ties with terrorists, al-Qaida and other allied organizations are expanding operations throughout Latin America, establishing both legitimate and criminal enterprises to fund future operations.

According to U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela Charles Shapiro, almost every extremist terror group is now represented in Latin America.

...

Hezbollah and the terrorist Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) are operating in the tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. The suspected activities of these groups include counterfeiting U.S. currency and drug smuggling, with the area in which they function described as a "haven for Islamic extremists" by the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Asa Hutchinson, in testimony before the House International Relations Committee.

...

More recently, al-Qaida has become deeply involved in cocaine and heroine trafficking, arms and uranium smuggling, counterfeiting CDs and DVDs and money-laundering activities in the tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The tri-border region is known as the heart of Islamic activity in Latin America.

...

The terrorists even get some official support in Latin America, according to sources. As WorldNetDaily reported, a Venezuelan military defector claims President Hugo Chavez developed ties to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida – even providing it with $1 million in cash after Sept. 11, 2001.

My question is:

Are the 'slammis going to act out big time this year or play it cool and hope we elect weak leadership?

What do you think?

Humor in the Jihad War

Jeff Dunham with Achmed the Dead Terrorist


"A...C...Phlegm ..."

Funny, creative, and to the point. Achmed blew himself up and Jeff Dunham deserves proper comedic credit for creating (and voicing) a character worthy of hilarious derision.

ON THE OTHER HAND, Brooklyn-born Joseph Cohen (like Adam Ghadan) converts to Islam and renames himself Yusuf [sp] al Khaddam and is apparently motivated by Dunham's 'Achmed' routine to reply in kind with what he must (in his demented fashion) imagine as a spirited rejoinder.

Try as I might, I couldn't find Yusef's original video. This, from My Pet Jawa is edited with commentary. The commentary is much more pithy than the original, I'm sure.

Version featuring Yusuf and Justin


Comedy done well by a pro always looks easy. It's not. And people that aren't really prepared to present it usually fall on their asses.

One Friday night in January, 1989, after a couple nights (in which we killed) at a club in Georgia, the management of that club booked a young Kathy Griffin wannabe to open for my partner and me. She was bombing (just as devastating as Achmed), and, as it was Georgia, decided to go with the LCD (lowest common denominator) and resorted to the tried and true 'dick' jokes.

Sitting in the middle distance and not having a clue who I was, she directed the spot around to the well-dressed moi, and asked me, "Do you remember your first blow job?"

I hemmed and hawed. Not really appropriate to answer with the QoS next to me.

So then she asked, "How did it taste?"

She received a few laughs.

But I'll never forget the look on her face--the absolute terror of what was to come--when she saw me take the stage as the headliner.

I'm a pro and, yes, I know what it is to bomb. I felt no burning need to excoriate her.

I just did it anyway.

"Be careful who you step on on your way up..."

Less humor here

and

Atheist vs Yusuf

TEN

Months to Ground Zero

D

Obama
Edwards
Clinton

R

Huckabee
Romney
Thompson
McCain

The Iowa Caucuses have never been the be all/end all of presidential election politics but they have served to ring the death knell to the weaker contenders.



Less important are those that drop out for now the great game begins in earnest. We can well expect that the major players will have somewhat different showings in New Hampshire primaries four days hence.

Lazy^TM candidate Fred Thompson edged out John McCain for third place on the Republican side although statistically tied at 13 %. He's still viable. My prediction for NH is Romney, McCain, Giuliani, Thompson with Huckabee virtually falling off the radar.

Whadaya call the guy that hangs out wit' musicians?

The bass player. (rim shot)

What sends an audience streaming to the exits?

A bass solo.

So...

The good news: Hillary comes in behind Obama and Edwards; Fred is not out of it.

Lordy! This isn't the 'left' against the 'right'--it's the grownups against the... those that refuse to grow up.

Whittle in the New Year

Media in frenzy over Iowa Caucuses

(yawn)

Scotland Yard to investigate Bhutto assassination
(ho hum)

Wait...



WAIT...

WAIT

OMG!!!


A new essay from Bill Whittle.

FORTY SECOND BOYD AND THE BIG PICTURE (Part 1)

There are a few writers of which I am an unabashed fan.

Mark Steyn is one. He's prolific, insightful, sometimes ironic and often hilarious. His roots are Belgian, he was educated in the UK (his humor strikes me as being of the English variety) and he became a naturalized US citizen because he loves America. Steyn's scope and interests are far-ranging--from politics to culture--and his keen insights are of high value. Here is his home page from which you can link to his many publishers.

This is not the first time Bill Whittle has been featured here (see Diversidarity). For any that think Americans are intellectual lightweights I recommend his musings highly. Plainly put, he's a different kind of thinker, both in originality and his ability to synthesize and present new and intriguing ideas. You'll never regret the downhill run of a Bill Whittle essay.

Clarity

It seems to be against the very nature of Americans to grasp the concept of a religious war; after all, we've never been in one. We are raised to be tolerant, to accept that religion is just a part of our lives not to be imposed on others. We believe that a person whose religion is the totality of their life is a fanatic--and thus must be in a minority because what society could exist that is solely composed of fanatics?

The truth is, of course, that there is no society anywhere that is solely composed of fanatics. The truth is also that there are fanatics present in any society.

The Third Reich is an example of the death and destruction that can ensue when fanatics are running the show. What many people don't know about are the religious tones behind the Nazis. Elements were borrowed from the Old Religion--what we remember today as Norse mythology--and synthesized into a rationale that supported the party and its goals. Today's European and American Neo-nazis use the same symbols.

In the last quarter of the 20th Century we saw the rise of Pol Pot. In four short years between 750,000 and 1.7 million were dead due to his rule. His particular vision of communism may also be viewed through a lens of religiosity. He advocated the complete destruction of society and a forced rebirth at Year Zero. He attended a Catholic school in Phnom Penh where he surely learned of the Biblical Flood.

After over fourteen years in exile Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran. He and the mullahs instigated the revolution creating the Islamic Republic, killing thousands along the way.

Backing up a little to the 1960s, the KGB and Soviets find willing partners with those who would become known as Palestinians to counter the only friend of the US in the region, Israel. (At the same time, America enjoyed a positive relationship with Iran so the Soviets threw in with Iraq.) After the 1972 Munich Olympics almost everyone knew of Black September, the terror group responsible for murdering Israeli athletes.

The Muslim Brotherhood, organized in Egypt after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, began to spread to other Muslim countries. From its inception in 1928, the credo of the MB is

Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.

A prominent member by the name of Sayyid Qutb traveled the US between 1948 and 1950. He was overwhelmed by what he saw as the godlessness of post-war American society and he published his 'take' on the US and the West to millions of readers. He has been described as "the man whose ideas would shape al Qaeda".

His ideas shaped many religious Sunnis in The Saudi Kingdom. On 20 November 1979 (early days of the revolution and hostage crisis in Iran) 200 armed men seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca claiming that the rulers of the Kingdom did not possess the purity of faith (read compliance to Sharia) to continue to rule. This event prompted the House of Saud to divest itself of the Islamists and fund Madrassas elsewhere (primarily Pakistan).

A little over a month after the siege of the Grand Mosque, on Christmas Eve, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with a 100,000 man army. Earlier that same year Jimmy Carter began funding the Mujahideen through the Pakistani version of our CIA--the ISI. (The ISI is riddled with Islamists and may be behind assassinations and attempts at assassination.) Foreign fighters (just as in modern Iraq) showed up to fight the Soviets--kill the infidels--and bin Laden was among them. Ayman Zawahiri met Usama bin Laden in Peshawar, Pakistan while UBL was running a base for mujahideen fighting in Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda was formed in the early 1990s and the Taliban came to power in 1996 controlling 95% of Afghanistan with an iron fisted application of Sharia.

Islam means submission and Sharia means somewhat more than what we understand as law--it is to live in strict accordance to law that is inextricable to Islam. One cannot be an observant Muslim and not adhere to Sharia.

Most Muslims are not fanatics but there is something inherent in Islam that seems to generate more fanaticism than one can find amongst any other group. And although only a small percentage find the will to carry out a mission, it is telling that Muslims worldwide took to celebrating in the streets after the September 11 attacks. The celebratory funeral parades for suicide bombers indicate the one fact you must understand to come to grips with this religious war:

No kuffir (infidel) life has value unless it can somehow be used to extend the dar al Islam (the world if Islam). That which is not in the world of Islam is in the dar al Harb (the world of war).

Most Muslims are content to wait, supporting 'charities' that fund the Jihad in other places with the belief that eventually the world will be of one faith--the one true faith. The charitable giving (Zakah) is the third of the Five Pillars of Islam.

This is not unique to Islam. From the late 1960s to the early 1990s millions of dollars were funneled to the IRA from Irish-Americans.

So there it is. It truly is a religious war waged against all that do not wish to submit.

There are fourteen centuries of history. Do you believe (as I do) that history remains the best predictor of the future?

We have the statements of their leaders. Do you not believe they mean what they say?

Like it our not; it does no good to deny the kind of war in which we find ourselves.

Accept it. Understand it. Do your best to help others come to grips with it. Our civilization depends on it.

Fred's Message

This is not a sound bite.

It's not a bit of face time.

Listen carefully. Unlike all others since Reagan this truly is WYSIWYG.



Now share this.

Everyone you know at your churches.

Everyone you know that pays taxes.

Everyone you know that has a loved one in uniform.

Pass this on.