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?