Don't miss

Dr. Sanity's post: A PURE AND PERFECT POISON
A taste:

These cults of tyranny cannot hope to remain viable in a world where human thought is free; therefore, the goal is nothing less than to undermine mankind's perception of reality itself.
...
What matters is not truth or falsity--only the effectiveness of the language used. Lies, distortions, ad hominem attacks; attempts to silence opposing views--all are strategies that are perfectly satisfactory if they achieve the desired effect. Ideas and reason must make way for reification of feelings; and freedom is replaced by thought control.

The postmodern assault as it is used by the new totalitarians of the 21st century is a four-pronged attack to undermine
- Objective reality
- Reason and the rational debate of ideas
- Individual freedom and freedom of thought and speech
- Progress and capitalism

The strategies used are:
- The distortion of language and meaning to undermine the individual's perception of reality;
- The use of direct or threatened physical violence to suppress speech and individual freedom;
- Politically "correct" thought control and cultural relativism to undermine reason and rational debate;
- The promotion of environmental hysteria to undermine progress, industrialization and capitalism

These activities represent the most serious assault on reality, reason, and individual freedom since the twin beasts of communism and socialism rose up early in the 20th century. And, though seriously wounded, they are rising again in a new and more virulent form.

Five minutes of CNN is all I can take

I don't know why the tv channel was on CNN but it was. I watched it for maybe five minutes while ironing a shirt a few minutes ago. Cafferty was on and he had some guy named Dean Baker, an "economic policy expert" from, according to Cafferty, a Washington DC "thinktank." The point of the report was how awful our healthcare system is, how we're paying too much, etc. So this Baker guy blasts the revamped Medicare program and calls for a health care "overhaul." Basically, this "expert" was on CNN to promote socialized healthcare; he kept saying how much better things are in other countries. Baker said that people in other countries, like Canada (his example), countries with socialized medicine, "live longer than we do" here in the US. He repeated this "fact" at least five times in the short segment before I'd had enough, found the remote and changed the channel. You see, this guy was lying his ass off as anyone who bothers to check can plainly see.

And I can't stand being lied to. The fact is, people in countries with socialized medicine are not living longer than those in the U.S. Period. CNN put Dean Baker on so he would say what they wanted him to say. The question I have is, can CNN not afford better propaganda?

Toons toons everywhere toons

Click the pics for more.

Required Reading

From Armed and Dangerous: Gramscian damage.
From Tigerhawk: Standing up.
From Powerline's Scott Johnson: The story so far.
From Rev. Peter J. Akinola, President, Christian Association of Nigeria: Reaction to recent events in Nigeria. (Apparently, this is not an idle threat.)
From the Vatican: "Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It's our duty to protect ourselves"
From Mark Tapscott: Liberals, Muslim Activists Agree, Free Speech Really Isn't Free; OK to Stifle Dissent.

Does Reuters even read their own crap?

Check out this "news" item:

ZURICH (Reuters) - Employers are having difficulty finding the right people to fill jobs despite high unemployment in Europe and the United States...

I thought unemployment in the U.S. was at a five-year low? It's at 4.7% last I heard. Is 4.7% now considered "high unemployment"?

Take *that* Bryant Gumbel!

Davis became the first black athlete to claim an individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history winning the 1,000-meter speedskating race. This is a milestone! First black person to win gold at Winter Olympics ever - and he is American! Doesn't this deserve some attention from the likes of CNN and the NYT? Apparently not. Why aren't the MSM making a big deal of this? Could this have anything to do with it? Or this?

Osama + Saddam sitting in a tree...

As far as I can tell, the following is undisputed fact according to documents seized in Iraq in 2004:

On February 26th, 1993 the first world trade center was attacked by al-Qaeda and the EIJ (really two organizations that cooperated in 1993 and eventually merged).

A month later an official from EIJ was meeting with Saddam in Baghdad.

We have a document showing Saddam authorizing the IIS to “provide technical support” to the EIJ, and by extension, al-Qaeda.

And then al-Qaeda and the EIJ attacked the U.S. on September 11th, 2001 led by an Egyptian Jihadist, Mohammed Atta.

I know... plug your ears and sing "la la la la - I can't hear you!"

If rock-solid connections and actual *gasp* colaboration between Iraq under Saddam and al Qaeda were to ever come to light, those in power (i.e., the MSM) would be exposed as crooks and liars, so they'll do whatever they can to see that this information never sees the light of day. Unfortunately for them, if something is true it remains true regardless of how much one tries to hide it - sooner or later this will come out.

PREVIOUS:

Saddam - al Qaeda links
Famous quotes in history
Al Qaeda - Saddam Connections

Here's an Idea

Smantix writes:

***AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RECIPIENT OF THE $365 MILLION DOLLAR POWERBALL LOTTERY***

Dear Unannounced Winner of the $365 Million Powerball,

In light of a recent call by a Pakistani cleric to put out a bounty of $1 Million dollars on the cartoonists who accurately lampooned the mouthpiece of a minor deity, I would like to request that you put out a $1 Million and $1 dollar bounty on that particular cleric.

Tee Hee

Via DANEgerus:

Muhammad... (((:~{>

Muhammad playing Little Orphan Annie... (((8~{>

Muhammad as a pirate... (((P~{>

Muhammad on a bad turban day... ))):~{>

Muhammad with sand in his eye... (((;~{>

Muhammad wearing sunglasses... (((B~{>

Muhammad giving the raspberry... (((:~{P>

Giving Muhammad the raspberry... ;-P

to which I would just add this:

*-O((:~{>

Courage, speaking truth to power, etc.

From Kesher Talk contributor "Ben."

As the cartoon story fades away, I find myself thinking of the consequences. More than a few veils have been stripped away, and not all of them have to do with the West vs Islam civilization clash.

For instance, the concept of bravery as it pertains to the arts is now redefined.

Courage, when considered of an artist, can mean one of several things, but it is the sense of risk that defines it.

It can mean a willingness to try what has not been done before. A chef may display courage, and risks the possibility that diners may gag on some brave new creation.

It can mean a willingness to risk the sacrifice of one's own career, like a pop musician being drawn to some other genre of music.

But it can no longer mean merely being offensive, engaging in political or social mockery, save in the case of a few certain targets, because now we all know where the risk is.

There is no risk in mocking politicians, now matter how intensively the abuse is served. There is no risk in mocking any establishements of American or Western culture- no harm will ensue. Performing the "Vagina Monologues" isn't an act of bravery, unless one does it in Saudi Arabia, perhaps. Every artist alive today now knows the limits: you can do this, which is as brave as taunting a stuffed teddy bear, or you can do that, which amounts to taunting a very hungry very uncaged bear.

Bravery, to an artist, is now an all or nothing thing. Leave the repressive regimes alone, and all your efforts, no matter how avante garde, provocative, or just plain offensive your work is, and you are just pretending at courage. Cross the line and say something about Islam, and your life is one the line.

All the gray areas have vanished in a week. It's as if mountaineers were to suddenly be faced with only two choices: Everest, or the plastic rock climbing wall. Long after this dies in the news, its going to echo in the heads of every writer, poet, standup comedian and performance artist- go after any target but the big one, and you're only faking it, playing it safe. It doesn't matter whether they admit it or not, whether they rewrite their material or not, it will be there, in their minds, and it will affect things. Even Margaret Cho knows she can curse Bush all she wants, but she'd better keep her mouth shut about you-know-who if whe doesn't want to bleed to death in the street. Speaking Truth to Power is only a heroic act if Power chooses to make an issue of it.

Fundamentally, we're useful idiots

From Anthony Browne at the UK Times Online:

ELEMENTS WITHIN the British establishment were notoriously sympathetic to Hitler. Today the Islamists enjoy similar support. In the 1930s it was Edward VIII, aristocrats and the Daily Mail; this time it is left-wing activists, The Guardian and sections of the BBC. They may not want a global theocracy, but they are like the West’s apologists for the Soviet Union — useful idiots.

Islamic radicals, like Hitler, cultivate support by nurturing grievances against others. Islamists, like Hitler, scapegoat Jews for their problems and want to destroy them. Islamists, like Hitler, decree that the punishment for homosexuality is death. Hitler divided the world into Aryans and subhuman non-Aryans, while Islamists divide the world into Muslims and sub-human infidels. Nazis aimed for their Thousand-Year Reich, while Islamists aim for their eternal Caliphate. The Nazi party used terror to achieve power, and from London to Amsterdam, Bali to New York, Egypt to Turkey, Islamists are trying to do the same.

The two fascisms, one racial and one religious, one beaten and the other resurgent, are evil in both their ideology and their methodology, in their supremacism, intolerance, belief in violence and threat to democracy.

But your liberal friends in the media think President Bush is the real criminal and danger to civilization.

Snort

From bec:

Muslims, I hope you're listening. The whole world is beginning to hate you. And I'm willing to bet that your armies are flickable. You know, like when you flick your fingers. I don't think many folks have sympathy for you anymore.

Good luck, Muslims.

May your nose run so quickly that while you race to catch it, you trip and break your legs, and then fall into a crusty pickle barrel.

Snicker

Now this is exercising one's right to freedom of speech!

Heh

Click the picture for more.

"Public's right to know" my foot

Thomas Sowell looks at the antics of the White House Press Corps:

The media love to wrap themselves in the mantle of "the public's right to know" but there is no such dedication to that right when it goes against the journalists' own prejudices.

The public's right to know what a "partial birth abortion" is has been consistently disregarded for years by whole networks, even when they have given wide coverage to abortion controversies. Whatever your position on abortions, you need to know what you are talking about but the media recognize no such "right to know."

If you knew, you might not agree with them.

The same journalists who used phony documents to attack President Bush's military service recognize no "right to know" why Senator John Kerry's honorable discharge is dated long after his service was over and during the Carter administration, when less than honorable discharges were allowed to be upgraded to honorable.

The "public's right to know" apparently extends only to such things as will not cause the public to reach conclusions different from those of the liberal media.

Shari'a in Norway?

Looks like it:

On February 10, in Oslo, came a dramatic capitulation that seemed a classic case of sharia in action. For days, Velbjorn Selbekk, editor of the tiny Christian periodical Magazinet – the first publication to reprint the now-famous Muhammed cartoons from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten – had firmly resisted pressure by Muslim extremists (who made death threats) and by the Norwegian establishment (which urged him to give in). But then, on that morning – the day before a planned mass demonstration against the cartoons – Norway’s Minister of Labor and Social Inclusion, Bjarne Hakon Hanssen, hastily called a press conference at a major government office building in Oslo.

There, to the astonishment of his supporters, Selbekk issued an abject apology for reprinting the cartoons. At his side, accepting his act of contrition on behalf of 46 Muslim organizations and asking that all threats now be withdrawn, was Mohammed Hamdan, head of Norway’s Islamic Council. In attendance were members of the Norwegian cabinet and the largest assemblage of imams in Norway’s history. It was a picture right out of a sharia courtroom: the dhimmi prostrating himself before the Muslim leader, and the leader pardoning him – and, for good measure, declaring Selbekk to be henceforth under his protection, as if it were he, Hamdan, and not the Norwegian police, that held in his hands the security of citizens in Norway.

Selbekk, in his prepared remarks, leaned heavily on the usual soothing multicultural language, including the word “understanding.” It was clear that Selbekk had indeed come to an understanding: he understood that if he didn’t relent, he risked physical harm. He also spoke of “respect” – a word that in this context must surely have been understood by the imams to refer not to a volitional regard for a social equal but to the obligatory deference of a repentant infidel. As for Handam, he noted that “Selbekk has children the same age as my own. I want my children and his children to grow up together, live together in peace, and be friends.” This was rather chilling, given that Selbekk’s family, too, had been under threat.

I guess we've been doing it all wrong, writing letters and emails to our representatives - all we have to do to get what we want is threaten the lives of politicians' children. That is the lesson learned. Goodbye freedom. Goodbye civilization. It was nice while it lasted. Say hello to the seventh century, dhimmi.

PREVIOUS:

The Betrayal of Denmark (and of Us All)
Morons on Parade
I'm with Stupid
Finally some Journalists who Stand By their Convictions!
Oh d-d-d-dear dear
Denmark Solidarity
Buy Danish!

LMAO

From imao.us:

"...Don't you feel bad you shot your friend in the face?"

"Yes, I do," Cheney answered. "I would have had that quail if it weren't for his stupid face getting in the way!"

"But he had a heart attack; aren't you worried about him?"

Cheney laughed. "I've had plenty of heart attacks, and that one was hardly worth mentioning. If Harry plays it up, I'll shoot him in the face with a shotgun again."

Bush shook his head. "Cheney, you have to act nicer."

"Why? Rumsfeld burns down orphanages for fun and has contests on the White House lawn for how far he can kick puppies and you don't complain!"

"Well, we expect that from the Secretary of Defense," Bush replied, "but, if I got my head stuck in the banister again, you have to take over as President. That means people need to like you."

Senator John Kerry served in Vietnam for 120 days and promised 380 days ago to release his military records.

More on Censorship from Google

They'll censor web searches in China, they'll censor US blogs for political content, and now they censor videos with political or religious content - but they still won't help us catch pedophiles and child pornographers. And they wonder why their stock is in a nosedive?

UPDATE: These people get it:

Eagle Bridge, NY — February 16, 2006 — W Ketchup announced today that it has cancelled all advertising with Google, including both search engine ads and content network ads. The company took this step to protest Google’s agreement to help the Communist regime in China suppress liberty and free expression in that country.

Summing up the situation, Frida Ghitis in the Boston Globe wrote: “Google knows more about us than the FBI or the CIA or the NSA or any spy agency of any government. When a company that holds digital dossiers on millions of people decides profits are more important than principles, we are all at risk.”

I'm gonna go buy me some ketchup.

Why is this so hard to understand? Freedom of speech is IMPORTANT. Google may have some wonderful products, but it is not the only game in town.

At about the time Google's stock price started falling, Google changed their censorship policy and tried to hide that fact.

Just for fun, try typing in “tienneman square” in regular google - you get this with 1,620,000 results - which is about 200,000 less than a couple weeks ago by the way - then go to http://www.google.cn/ and try the same thing. You get this - with about 10,000 results. Funny. I thought Tienneman square was in China. What was I thinking?

Google censors the content of their searches for the government of China, but won’t help catch pedophiles, though Yahoo and Microsoft are helping. Why? Are they trying to build up their pedophile customer base?

I came across the video linked here at Google Video and watched it with no problem a couple weeks ago. Offensive? Maybe to a Muslim, but all it is is Muslim extremists' words put to music really. Did they remove the video because it offends Muslims or because it is persuasive? I can find tons of Google videos that are offensive to Christians, like this one. So it does not appear that Google is being sensitive to religion in general, just to Islam. Since when does Google care about religion, anyway? (To be fair, it should be noted that Google Video hosts anti-Palestinian videos as well as anti-Israeli. Check out the new Michael Jackson tune in that last link. (Yes, I know the numbers are bogus.))

Anyway, I went to see that "It's In the Koran" video again and it was censored. It was no longer there. It was here, and now it is not.

This blog, hosted by Google (as is the one you are looking at now), has a content warning. Why? There are many pornographic blogs hosted by Google with no such content warning. Why does google censor political content but not pornography? There are thousands of blogs far more offensive or hateful than this one that have no such content warning.

Google Inc. no longer believes in free speech apparently. Why would they want to be thought police? That's just bad business, especially for a company at the center of worldwide information aggregation, storage and distribution. I don’t think the recent nosedive in Google’s stock price is just a coincidence.

Dude! Where's my News?

From Dr. Sanity:

Historic events are happening every day, and yet the MSM chooses to ignore them.

... In my entire adult life, I have never witnessed such an unbelievable smear job of unrelenting and unadulterated bias and ideological bullshit that passes itself off as some kind adherence to "higher" journalistic standards. The same kind of "higher" standards that preclude publishing banal cartoon drawings of Mohammed; or showing the ruthless inhuman behavior of our enemy--out of "sensitivity"; but which eagerly makes front page news of fake Koran flushings and Abu Ghraib photos.

There is nothing about the left and its media pets that enrages me more than the double-dealing, hypocritical, and obscene moral relativity that has taken the place of critical judgment and honesty.

And as they all sit around congratulating themselves on speaking "truth" to power; history continues to go unreported.

What set her off? This time it was the February 10th, 2006 press conference announcing the final verification of Iraq's December election results - nobody from the western press showed up. If it doesn't support the 'quagmire' template that the MSM has been pushing for three years now, if it doesn't support the template that says American soldiers in Iraq are either evil oppresors or simple-minded victims, they won't cover it. Period.

The Betrayal of Denmark (and of Us All)

This puts the whole 'cartoon wars' kerfuffle in perspective, so much so that I am pasting most of it here. (I'm getting tired of linking to an article only to have it disappear later.):

From the desk of Paul Belien on Sun, 2006-02-12 21:14

A local newspaper in Jutland (ever heard of Jutland before?), a rural area of Denmark (one of Europe’s smallest nations, with a language spoken by barely 5 million people) published twelve drawings. Some were simple portraits of a man with Arab features, some poked fun at the newspaper itself, and barely a handful were caricatures of Muhammad, the prophet of the Muslims – hardly offensive by Western standards.

It is true that the Western press has been grossly offensive to religious people in the past, mocking their beliefs and morals, hurting their feelings, insulting them. From the BBC to CNN, from The Guardian to The New York Times, the dominant media have never been squeamish about giving offense.

Anyone who sees the twelve Danish pictures [see them here, halfway down the page] wonders what all the fuss is about. However, most people do not get to see them as they have been censored in the major information sources, from the BBC to CNN, from The Guardian to The New York Times. The drawings were so inoffensive that when they were originally published last September there was no outcry, not even in Egypt where they were republished in October. Only when fanatical imams travelled from Denmark to Arabia, with suitcases containing three grossly offensive bogus cartoons which they had added to the original twelve – and only when these imams told people that these were the offensive Danish cartoons, so offensive that no-one was allowed to see them – only then Islamic mobs went on a rampage. Four months after the original drawings had been published in Jutland.

Guess who immediately appeared on the scene, adding fuel to the fire by explicitly confirming that the three bogus cartoons were the original ones? The BBC! And guess who is still refusing to show the world the twelve, hardly offensive original drawings? The BBC! Meanwhile courageous local journalists and publishers who had reprinted the cartoons to show that they were hardly offensive are lingering in jail in countries such as Jordania and Yemen.

This weekend the cartoons returned from Arabia to Europe. Muslim immigrants staged protests in various European towns, from Berlin to London, to Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris [where two brave men “trod on 1.5 billion Muslims”], protesting against cartoons which over four months ago they had failed to notice. Last Saturday five hundred Muslims gathered on Antwerp’s main square, in the shadow of the Cathedral of Our Lady and below the statue of Peter Paul Rubens, to turn to Mecca and pray. It was a peaceful gathering that had been called by the imams. After the meeting angry “youths” left the prayer meeting to terrorize the city with shouts of “Allah is great!” The imams said that the youths’ behaviour was not their responsibility, as they had called for “respect.”

We do not recall any prayer meetings called by the imams on Antwerp’s main square after 9/11, after the Madrid bombings, after the London bombings. However, the Antwerp imams felt compelled to pray in public on Antwerp’s central square because... more than four months ago a paper in Jutland had published twelve drawings. What is the point of all this? None other, surely, than to show the citizens of Antwerp that they are the boss now in Europe, while we are the intimidated natives, the dhimmis, the slaves.

Last Friday Jyllands-Posten [The Jutland Post], the paper that published the original drawings, ran a remarkable article “Man pisser på os” by Per Nyholm, one of its journalists. Here it is, translated for you into English by one of our Danish readers. This is how the Danes feel today:

We are being pissed upon

I think it was the long departed H.C. Hansen, one of the great Danish statesmen of the last century, who – as the communists were demonstrating in front of Christiansborg [the Danish Parliament] – cast his gaze across the palace square and remarked: “I will not be pissed upon.”

Then he did what was necessary.

I feel that currently my beloved country is being pissed upon rather too much. Denmark has not been neglecting its duties on the international stage. We have supported poor people with acts and advice, we have worked for peace, we have sent soldiers, policemen and experts to all the far flung corners of the world. We have democracy, a rule of law and a welfare state. Not all is perfect, but we harbor no malice towards our fellow men.

And yet Denmark is being pissed upon. The spokesman of the US State Department is pissing on Denmark, the British Secretary of Foreign Affairs is pissing on Denmark, the President of Afghanistan is pissing on Denmark, the Government of Iraq is pissing on Denmark, other Muslim regimes are pissing on Denmark. In Gaza, where Danes for years have provided humanitarian aid, crazed Imams encourage people to cut off the hands and heads of the cartoonists who made the drawings of Mohammed for the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

Excuse my choice of words, but all this pissing is pissing me off.

What is going on? I am not referring so much to the threats against Danish citizens and Danish commerce. Nor to the burnt down Embassies. I am thinking of a word that keeps popping up whenever the Mohammed cartoons are mentioned.

That word is BUT. A sneaky word. It is used to deny or qualify what one has just said.

How many times lately have we not heard people of power, the Opinion Makers and others say that of course we have freedom of speech, BUT.

They have said it, all of them, from Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, to our own Bendt Bendtsen [a Danish Politician]. Once we had to be sensitive to the easily hurt feelings of the Nazis, then came the Communists, now it is the Islamists. The reason I say ‘Islamists’ is that I do not for a moment believe all the world’s Muslims are pissing on us. I think we are dealing with thugs, fools and misled people. Those are the ones we have to deal with, and then the chickenshit politicians.

The cartoons are no longer something Jyllands-Posten can control. They have already been manipulated and misrepresented to the point that few know what is going on and fewer know how to stop it. This affair is artifically being kept buoyant in a sea of lies, suppressions of the truth, misconceptions, lunacy and hypocrisy, for which this newspaper bears no blame. The only thing Jyllands-Posten did was provide a pin-prick which has made a boil of nastiness erupt. This would have happened sooner or later. That it happened more than four months after the publication of the cartoons, raises a question of its own. Are we dealing with random events or with a staged clash of civilizations? One might hope for the former yet be prepared to expect the latter.

That is why I say: Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Speech. There is no but.

Initially I was doubtful of the timeliness of publishing the cartoons. Later events have convinced me that it was both just and useful to do so. That they are consistent with Danish law and Danish custom seem to me less important than this: that we now know that remote, primitive countries deem themselves justified in telling us what to do. Unfortunately we must also note that governments close to us are agreeing with them in the name of expedience.

It was right and just for this newspaper to launch an offensive for Freedom of Speech, and useful, as we have now acquired new knowledge. Welcome to a brave new world where even our Prime Minister – in spite of his laudable firmness – must gaze out upon a scorched political landscape. True, his friend in Washington, George Bush, has uttered the customary condemnation of the torching of our embassies, but his State Department alludes to us as being the guilty ones in this case. The suggestion that Danish troops might contribute to democratization is buried under the charred remains of our diplomatic representations in Beirut and Damascus.

Perhaps it is time we started mopping up this mess. Perhaps Editor-in-Chief Carsten Juste ought to remove his apology which has gone stale sitting so long on the front page of our internet edition and which does not seem to interest the madmen. Perhaps our government ought to announce to Mona Omar Attia, the strange Ambassador of Egypt, that she is persona non grata.

Perhaps the ambassadors that have been called home to fictitious consultations in the Middle East should be told that they may spare themselves the cost of the return ticket.

In so far as possible The Lying Imams probably ought to be expelled. And then we ought to make an effort to support those Muslims who in a difficult situation have proven themselves to be true Citizens.

We, for our part, have no wish to be a burden to the Arab governments. We will happily withdraw our soldiers, policemen and diplomats. If they think our money smells, we will retract our aid. Our trade must make do as well as it can. We promise to not bear a grudge and, in time, we will be glad to return, but we are through with the hypocrisy. We have better things to do than being pissed upon at our own expense.

Cut down our activities in the Middle East. The world holds plenty of other opportunities.

The Danes are pissed-off, and so are we. “Freedom of Expression is Western Terrorism” proclaimed a banner that Muslim fanatics were carrying in one of their protest demonstrations this weekend. The behaviour of the dominant media last week, from the BBC to CNN, from The Guardian to The New York Times, indicates that there may be some truth in this. They only defend freedom of speech when they can abuse free speech to piss on us, Westerners, on our religion, on our traditions, on our values. When it is time to defend freedom of speech against those that want to enslave us they are not to be heard.

Not to be heard, either, were the Western governments that went to war to liberate Iraq from the tyrant Saddam. Is it easier to send American and British soldiers to their deaths to liberate Iraq than to speak a few simple words in defense of freedom at home? Is this the kind of “solidarity” Washington and London exhibit towards their Danish ally, whose soldiers are also dying in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Last Friday Srdja Trifkovic, the foreign editor of the American paleo-conservative magazine Chronicles, wrote:

Denmark’s government, her media and the public at large, continue to defy the prevalent spirit of Western decrepitude by refusing to eat humble pie over some half-dozen mildly satirical cartoons of Muhammad, the inventor of Islam. Every American by now has heard about those cartoons, but very few have actually seen, thanks to our mainstream media’s strange view of what actually constitutes “all the news fit to print.” […] It looks like there will be no apology coming from Copenhagen, however, no matter how many Danish consulates burn in Dar al Islam, or how resolutely Iranians and others pursue their announced boycott of Danish products […] The U.S. State Department, by contrast, has effectively sided with Jihad by condemning the newspapers in Denmark, Norway, and elsewhere in Europe that have published those cartoons. […] We are witnessing the ongoing delusion at Foggy Bottom about the effect U.S. appeasement will have on the Muslim world. If the State Department believes that it will earn some brownie points for America in the streets of Cairo or Peshawar by betraying the Danes, it is merely repeating Clinton’s Balkan folly of the 1990s and Brzezinski’s Afghan blowback a decade earlier; and “not to learn from history is to be a child for ever” (Cicero).
...
In an article about the cartoon affair [Bill Kristol] writes:

"The response of Western leaders hasn’t been particularly encouraging – with the notable exception of Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark. Robert Frost said of liberals that they’re incapable of taking their own side in a fight."

This is not only true of Western leaders, but even more so of its dominant media, from the BBC to CNN, from The Guardian to The New York Times...

Gore'd again

It looks like Al Gore will say anything for (Saudi) money. While speaking in Jeddah, Osama bin Laden's hometown no less, the man who was a couple hundred votes shy of being POTUS argues against enforcing immigration laws in the U.S. What a hero.

Contract with al Qaeda

Now this is fake but accurate:

This year’s election offers the chance, after 4 years of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the Nation’s policies towards Al Qaeda. That historic change would be the end of government that is too focused in Iraq, too intrusive, and too obsessed with possible terrorist attacks. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the privacy of all peoples, including members of Al Qaeda here in the US.
On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Democrat majority will immediately pass the following major legislation, aimed at restoring the pre 9-11 mirage of security and world harmony and ending this Administration’s policies for National Security:

FIRST, we will finally kill the Patriot Act so that no member of Al Qaeda will fear using our libraries to access international websites, access their email, or do basic research on major US installations and population centers. We will guarantee full privacy due anyone who makes it to our shores without question. In addition, we will roll back all provisions that put terrorism on an equal footing with Drug Traffickers and Organized Crime, which we understand greatly insults members of Al Qaeda who consider themselves above drug lords.

SECOND, We will enact legislation to release all Al Qaeda members now held in custody in the GITMO Gulag, while providing legal counsel to all who have been unfairly detained during this unfortunate international misunderstanding between Al Qaeda and America. We will ensure all detainees have options for bail and parole so they can continue with their life’s efforts while the legal issues surrounding their detention are worked out. Every ex-detainee will be provided the services of an ACLU lawyer.

THIRD, we will pass legislation ensuring that all Al Qaeda members will be free from government monitoring of their phone calls and emails with comrades back home monitored without probable cause. Probable cause will not include the normal desire to call home to friends and family. We see this act as protecting US citizens and Al Qaeda alike from warrantless surveillance.

FOURTH, as part of our revamping of immigration laws, we will ensure Al Qaeda members are treated the same as any other illegal immigrant now in America. We will provide you amnesty, a driver’s license, health care and education support once you are able to sneak past our borders.

FIFTH, as with warrantless electronic surveillance and in anticipation of pending civil lawsuits, we plan to pass legislation that bans warrantless searches of person and luggage at airports and other major transportation centers. It makes no sense to allow random searches of travelers if we are going to end targeted surveillance of communications. And we find both actions to be religious profiling and against the common sense norms of all liberal Americans.

SIXTH, Also, in line with the unfair targeting of Al Qaeda communications and persons travelling, we plan to submit legislation ending the practice of no-fly lists. This practice is biased towards people with common names and has limited the rights to travel of nuns and babies in the past.

SEVENTH, in an effort to demonstrate our sincere apologies for the actions of President Bush towards Al Qaeda, we plan to return the State of Iraq to the despot dictator of Al Qaeda’s choice by calling for the immediate withdrawal of our military forces to the safety of European soil. We encourage Al Qaeda to do what they please with the Iraqi people.

EIGHTH, we will submit and pass legislation that will mandate any questioning by US agents of Al Qaeda members to (a) be done in the presence of an ACLU lawyer, (b) never last more than 30 minutes, (c) be done indoors, in climate controlled conditions, (d) include an offering of proper food and beverage and (e) require every question to use the word ‘please’.

NINE, we promise to immediately begin impeachment of Al Qaeda’s most dangerous enemy, the Imperial President W Bush, and we will promise to not stop our efforts until we have removed this thorn in Al Qaeda’s side - even if we have to make up scandals to get it done.

We the undersigned candidates of the Democrat National Party do swear that if elected, and given control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, we will enact the above Contract With Al Qaeda.

The 2005 'spike' list

I don't know if I agree with the ranking, but I definately agree with the list.
This is a must read. And yes, all of it is factual, and proven. If you look back through my archives, you'll see that I've written about most of these incredibly important news items - news that has received little or no attention in traditional media.

Morons on Parade

From protests against free speech accross the world today - the first is from South Africa, the second comes from Bangledesh and the third picture was taken today in Kenya. This woman (?) seriously needs a brain. How would one negotiate or compromise with such people?
More absurdity here.

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
- Patrick Henry, before the Virginia Convention of Delegates, March 20, 1775

Fatwa Me

It's not quite a petition, but it soon will be. The following was shamelessly copied and pasted from Fatwa Me, and I totally agree with it:

We, the undersigned, agree that:

Liberty to express and discuss any issue including religion is a basic principle of a free society and human dignity.

Accepting free speech is an essential quality of free people.

Fear of free speech is the mark of one whose beliefs are weak or based on force.

We further desire to express:

Our solidarity with those who suffer for expressing opinion.

Our contempt for those in office who fail to stand up for freedom of speech.

Our contempt for those whose support for free speech is determined by self interest.

Our contempt for those whose beliefs must be supported by silencing others.

And finally, because we so despise those who would use violence to silence others, and because we laugh at the thought that their voices speak for any power beyond their own weakness and fear of open talk, we hereby:

Request, invite, and laugh at the issue of a FATWA, CURSE, SPELL, HEX, or any other fancied ignominy that any enemy of human liberty may choose to place upon us.

1,000% Inflation in Zimbabwe

I didn't think I'd see it in my lifetime, but hyperinflation does exist, right now, in Mugabe's socialist paradise. I guess bulldozing all those villages didn't boost the economy as much as thought.

PREVIOUS: So, you think all we need to do to eliminate starvation in the world is give more aid? Think again.

Stick a fork in her - she's done

In Iran, the penalty for being raped (if you're a woman) is death, and the penalty for successfully fighting back against your attacker is also death. It is not so different from things in this country (the U.S.) for dogs. If a human attacks a dog and the dog bites the human, the dog is typically killed. So in Iran, woman have roughly the same legal protections that dogs have in America - but you already knew that. You didn't know that? I'm shocked! Funny how this aspect of Iranian culture is never mentioned by our trusted sources for news, nor do we hear any complaints from the National Organization for Women or other liberal groups - you know, those groups who care so much for women and minorities and the human rights of the oppressed. Apparently, maintaining the constitutionally protected right to stick a fork in the head of a half-born baby is more important.

Quoting Betsy's Page verbatim:

These are some sweet people running Iran.

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 – An Iranian court has sentenced a teenage rape victim to death by hanging after she weepingly confessed that she had unintentionally killed a man who had tried to rape both her and her niece.

The state-run daily Etemaad reported on Saturday that 18-year-old Nazanin confessed to stabbing one of three men who had attacked the pair along with their boyfriends while they were spending some time in a park west of the Iranian capital in March 2005.

Nazanin, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, said that after the three men started to throw stones at them, the two girls’ boyfriends quickly escaped on their motorbikes leaving the pair helpless.

She described how the three men pushed her and her 16-year-old niece Somayeh onto the ground and tried to rape them, and said that she took out a knife from her pocket and stabbed one of the men in the hand.

As the girls tried to escape, the men once again attacked them, and at this point, Nazanin said, she stabbed one of the men in the chest. The teenage girl, however, broke down in tears in court as she explained that she had no intention of killing the man but was merely defending herself and her younger niece from rape, the report said.

The court, however, issued on Tuesday a sentence for Nazanin to be hanged to death.

Last week, a court in the city of Rasht, northern Iran, sentenced Delara Darabi to death by hanging charged with murder when she was 17 years old. Darabi has denied the charges.

In August 2004, Iran’s Islamic penal system sentenced a 16-year-old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, to death after a sham trial, in which she was accused of committing “acts incompatible with chastity”.

The teenage victim had no access to a lawyer at any stage and efforts by her family to retain one were to no avail. Atefeh personally defended herself and told the religious judge that he should punish those who force women into adultery, not the victims. She was eventually hanged in public in the northern town of Neka.

So, let me see if I have this straight. If a woman or a girl is raped, she is sentenced to death for committing "acts incompatible with chastity". And if she fights back, and escapes rape by killing her attacker, she is also to be sentenced to death. There's no information about what happens to the rapists, but I suspect that they're not getting the death penalty. So waht incentive is there for men not to rape women if the penalty will fall on the victim? What a travesty of a government.

Amnesty USA is upset because these are minors who are going to be put to death. How about being upset because rape victims are being put to death? Being over 18 wouldn't make this penalty any less heinous.

"I'm with Stupid"

Briefly touring the MSM, it seems all the Cartoon War focus is on this one cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turbin. This is the only one of the original twelve Danish cartoons that could be considered insulting in my humble opinion (well, there is that one with the horns, and the one with Mohammed in heaven saying, "Stop! We ran out of virgins!" but that one is genuinely funny and I cannot see how it could be offensive to anyone but an aspiring suicide bomber), but the violent reaction towards Europeans from the Muslim world just proves the point of the cartoon, that Islam's reaction to everything it doesn't like is violence - to kill it or bomb it. There is a bomb where Islam's brain should be.


PREVIOUS:

Finally some Journalists who Stand By their Convictions!
Oh d-d-d-dear dear
Denmark Solidarity
Buy Danish!

Re: Blog Censorship

Warning! If you post something that offends a Muslim and/or their liberal enablers, your blog gets a "content warning!" This site has a content warning and, for now, is my new favorite site. I would strongly encourage you to go take a look at the Study of Revenge. As I find more blogs that are censored by Google - that bastion of free speech and tolerance googliness - for political reasons, I will direct traffic towards them from the web sites I contribute to. Hope all y'all don't mind. Don't worry though - I'm only one person, my day-job keeps me pretty busy, and there are literally millions of blogs now.

Finally some Journalists who Stand By their Convictions!

The editorial staff of the alternative weekly New York Press walked out today, en masse, after the paper's publishers backed down from printing the Danish cartoons that have become the center of a global free-speech fight. (The New York Press has no problem running R-rated ads for sex-toys though.)

Editor-in-Chief Harry Siegel emails, on behalf of the editorial staff:

New York Press, like so many other publications, has suborned its own professed principles. For all the talk of freedom of speech, only the New York Sun locally and two other papers nationally have mustered the
minimal courage needed to print simple and not especially offensive editorial cartoons that have been used as a pretext for great and greatly menacing violence directed against journalists, cartoonists, humanitarian aid workers, diplomats and others who represent the basic values and obligations of Western civilization. Having been ordered at the 11th hour to pull the now-infamous Danish cartoons from an issue dedicated to them, the editorial group—consisting of myself, managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editorJonathan Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah, chose instead to resign our positions.

We have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running, cartoons that however absurdly have inspired arson, kidnapping and murder and forced cartoonists in at least two continents to go into hiding. Editors have already been forced to leave papers in Jordan and France for having run these cartoons. We have no illusions about the power of the Press (NY Press, we mean), but even on the far margins of the world-historical stage, we are not willing to side with the enemies of the values we hold dear, a free press not least among them...

Full story here.

PREVIOUS:

Oh d-d-d-dear dear
Denmark Solidarity
Buy Danish!

Let's review, shall we?

Armenian Genocide - Muslims
Ambon Massacre - Muslims
Beslan School attack- Muslims
World Trade Center attacks (Twice) - Muslims
Pentagon attack - Muslims
Malcolm Kerr, Pres. American University, kidnapped & murdered - Muslims
Paul Johnson, kidnapped and beheaded - Muslims
Pan Am Flight 109 bombing - Muslims
Orly Airport attack - Muslims
Istanbul Airport attack - Muslims
Assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II - Muslim
Skyjack Sunday, 3 planes hijacked and blown up - Muslims
Planet Hollywood bombing in Cape Town - Muslims
La Belle nightclub bombing in Berlin - Muslims
AK-47 attack on CIA employees in Virginia - Muslim
Metro bombings in Paris (Twice) - Muslims
US Embassy bombing in Peru - Muslims
Russian Apartment Complex bombings - Muslims
Tunisian Synoqogue bombing - Muslim
Dagestan bombings - Muslims
US Consulate attack in Karachi - Muslims
North Ossetia Hospital attack - Muslims
Bombing of Mariott Hotel in Jakarta - Muslims
Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta - Muslims
British Consulate and HSBC bombings - Istanbul - Muslims
Sudan Genocide - Muslims
US Embassies in Kenya & Tanzania attacks - Muslims
USS Cole attack - Muslims
Nicholas Berg, kidnapped and beheaded - Muslims
Bali nightclub bombings - Muslims
Moscow subway bombings - Muslims
Twin bombings of Russian airliners - Muslims
Murder of Theo van Gogh - Muslims
Kidnapping of hundreds of civilians & beheadings of scores in the Philippines -
Muslims
Luxor Attacks - Muslims
Attempted attack on Egyptian President Mubarak - Muslims
Lt. Col. W. Higgins, kidnapped & murdered - Muslims
US Embassy in Beirut attacks (Twice) - Muslims
French Embassy in Beirut attack - Muslims
Hijack of TWA Flight 847 - Muslims
Bombing of Jewish Cultural Center in Buenos Aires - Muslims
Moscow Opera House attack and hostage taking - Muslims
Bombings & Suicide attacks in Tashkent and Boukhara - Muslims
Marine Barracks attacks Beirut - Muslims
Egyptian Embassy attack in Pakistan - Muslims
Dhahran Housing Attack - Muslims
Thousands of beheadings in Algeria - Muslims
Madrid Train Bombing - Muslims
Suicide Bombers in Iraq and Israel - Muslims
Margaret Hussan, kidnapped and murdered - Muslims
Daniel Pearl, kidnapped and beheaded - Muslims
Beheading of bound and defenseless noncombatants - Muslims
Sarajevo Market Massacre - Muslims
Modern Slave Trade in Africa - Muslims
Somnath Slaughter - Muslims
Taliban - executions of thousands and destruction of Afghan culture - Muslims
Enslavement and trade of Africans into Western Europe and Americas - Muslims
Honor rapes and killings - Muslims
Oppression of women - Muslims
Oppression and suppression of other religions - Muslims
Jihad - Muslims
Fatwa - Muslims
Countless bombings and murders of civilians in Israel - Muslims

It's no contest. Christians, Jews, Mormons, Scientologists, Sikhs, Hindus and Buddhists combined don't even come close. I'm not saying all Muslims are bad people, but their religion appears to be playing the lead role in most of the death and conflict in this world.

What does one have to do to get a fatwa around here.

Be Serious!

From Thomas Sowell:

The way the question is posed by many in the media and in politics, you would think our intelligence agencies were listening in on you talking on the phone to your aunt Mabel.

Be serious! There are more than a quarter of a billion people in the United States. Intelligence agencies have neither the manpower, the time, the money, nor the interest to listen in on you and your aunt Mabel.

Lawyers may differ on fine legal points about the Constitutional powers of the commander in chief during wartime versus the oversight powers of the courts. But, a Supreme Court Justice once pointed out that the Constitution of the United States is not a suicide pact.

The Constitution was meant for us to live under, not be paralyzed by, in the face of death.

When some honcho in the international terrorist network is captured in Afghanistan or Iraq, and the phone numbers in his computer are found by his American captors, it is only a matter of time before his capture becomes news broadcast around the world.

In the hour or two before that happens, his contacts within the United States may continue to use the phones they have been using. Listening in on their conversations during that brief window of opportunity can provide valuable information on enemies within our midst who are dedicated to our destruction.

Precious time can be wasted filing legalistic documents to get some judge's permission to tap the domestic terrorists' phones before CBS or CNN broadcasts the news of the captured terrorist leader overseas and the domestic terrorists stop using the phones that they had used before to talk with him.

What happens when, instead of hurling firebombs at our embassies to protest some cartoon somebody drew, they hurl nuclear bombs at our cities instead?

Finally some Quality Alternative on-the-scene Reporting

Pajamas Media goes to Washington DC and turns in some quality video complete with original, insightful interviews and some interesting question/answer time with Ted (Splash) Kennnedy and Dick (Pol Pot) Durbin.

CNN - your days are numbered.

Hamas Translated

The leader of Hamas, Khaled Mash'al, says:

"We say to this West, which does not act [un]reasonably, and does not [un]learn its lessons: By Allah, you will be [victorious] defeated. You will be [victorious] defeated in Palestine, and your [victory] defeat there has already begun. True, it is Israel that is [winning] being defeated there, but when Israel is [victorious] defeated, its path is [victorious] defeated, those who call to support it are [victorious] defeated, and the [heroes] cowards who [defend] hide behind it and support it are [victorious] defeated. Israel will be [victorious] defeated, and so will whoever supported or supports it.

"America will be [victorious] defeated in Iraq. Wherever the (Islamic) nation is targeted, its enemies will be [victorious] defeated, Allah willing. The nation of [Israel] Muhammad is gaining victory in [Jerusalem] Palestine. The nation of [the U.S.] Muhammad is gaining victory in Iraq, and it will be victorious in all Arab and Muslim lands. 'Their [Our Islamofascist] multitudes will be defeated and turn their backs (and flee).' These fools [are] will be defeated, the wheel of time will turn, and times of victory and glory will be upon our nation [the U.S.], and the West [Hamas/Iran, etc.] will be full of remorse, when it is too late.

"[We] They think that history has ended with [us] them [around 600 a.d.] They do not know that the law of Allah cannot be changed or replaced. 'You shall not find a substitute for the law of Allah. You shall not find any change to the law of Allah.' Today, the Arab and Islamic nation is [lying and dying] rising and awakening, and it will reach [end] its peak, Allah willing. It will be [defeated] victorious. It will link the present to the past. It will open up the horizons of the future. It will regain the [revulsion] leadership of the world. Allah willing, the day is not far off.

"Don't you see that every act of deceit [we] they contrive is being turned against [us] them by Allah? Don't you see that they make every effort to defeat us militarily, but [succeed] fail to do so? Israel and the occupation forces in Iraq are supplied with [10% of the U.S.] the entire Western military arsenal, yet they [succeed] fail and are [triumphant] defeated.

"Don't you see that they believe they are capable of using democracy to [liberate] deceive the people, but then democracy is [not controlled] turned against them? Don't you see that they [we] are spending their [our] money in efforts to block the way of Allah, to thwart Hamas, to defeat it, and to help those whom they [we] want, but that (this plot) is turned against them [us]? They are not acting [un]reasonably.

"They do not understand the Arab or Muslim mentality, which [is insane] rejects the foreigner. Our Arab forefathers, before the advent of Islam [i.e., Arab=Islam], rejected the aggressors and the foreigners.

[...]

"I bring good tidings to our beloved Prophet Muhammad: Allah's [curse] promise and the Prophet's prophecy of our [defeat] victory in [Israel] Palestine over [to] the Jews and over [to] the [compassionate] oppressive [peacemakers] Zionists has begun to come true."

"I Say to Europe: Hurry Up and [Celebrate] Apologize"

Mash'al: "I say to the (European countries): Hurry up and [prosecute] apologize to our nation, because if you do not, you will regret it. This is because our nation is progressing [backwards] and is victorious [vicious]. Do not leave a black mark in the collective memory of the nation, because our nation will [collapse] not forgive you.

"Tomorrow, our nation will sit on the [electric chair] throne of the world. This is not a figment of the imagination, but a fact. Tomorrow we will lead the world [Gerwargerwaggle!], Allah willing. Apologize today, before [we burn yer flag] remorse will do you no good. Our nation is moving forwards [backwards], and it is in your interest to [stamp out] respect a [morally bankrupt] victorious [death cult] nation.

[...]

"Our nation will be victorious [defeated]. When it reaches [Hell] the leadership of the world, and controls [nothing] its own decisions, then it will [beg for handouts] prevent this overt interference (in our affairs), and its pillaging of natural resources, and will [cease to exist] prevent these recurring offenses against our land, against our nation, and against our [un]holy places - then you [we] will regret it.

"The Western countries must stop the fools. Are these reasonable people? They [We] allow offenses against Allah and the prophets. They [We] are offending not only Muhammad, but all the prophets. But when an historian among them talks about the Holocaust, it is the [truth] sin of all sins. If anybody [demonizes] criticizes the Jews, this constitutes anti-Semitism. By law, they hold their own people accountable (for that). The [French] West, which waved the slogans of liberty after the French Revolution, three centuries ago, does not respect its own principles or slogans today. It violates them."

"You Have No Way of [Rehabilitating] Overcoming Us"

Mash'al: "This victory, which was clearly evident in the [U.S.] elections, conveys a message to Israel, to America, and to all the oppressors around the world: You have no way of overcoming us. If you want war, we are ready. If you want democracy, we are ready. Whatever you want - we are ready. You will not defeat us [the U.S.]. The time of defeat is over. Defeat within six days, defeat within hours, the defeat of armies - all this is over.

"Today, you [we] are fighting the army of Allah. You [We] are fighting against peoples for whom death for the sake of [liberty] Allah, and for the sake of honor and glory, is preferable to [slavery] life. You [We] are fighting a nation that does not tire, even after 1,000 years of fighting. Today, you [we] are facing peoples filled with faith, with the love of Allah, with the love of [freedom] Allah's Prophet, with bravery, glory, and pride - a nation that knows its way, a nation that knows what it is, a nation that respects itself. How can you possibly defeat [the] us[a]?

"There is a chasm between you and [y]our defeat. You will be the ones to be [victorious] defeated, Allah willing. The time of defeat is gone, and the day of victory has come, Allah willing. Wherever you turn, [we] you will fail."

Crowd: "Death to Israel. Death to Israel. Death to America." ["Ditty Ditty DooWop!"]

"Before [Islam] Israel Dies, it Must Be Humiliated and Degraded"

Mash'al: "Before [Islam] Israel dies, it must be humiliated and degraded. Allah willing, before [we] they die, [we] they will experience humiliation and degradation every day. America will be of no avail to [us] them. [Our] Their generals will be of no avail to [us] them. The last of [our] their generals has been forgotten. Allah has made him disappear. He's over. Gone is that [Arafat] Sharon behind whose back [we] they would hide and find shelter, and with whom [we] they would feel relatively secure. Today [we] they have frail leaders, who don't even know where our Lord placed them.

"Allah willing, [they] we will make [us] them lose [our] their eyesight, [they] we will make [us] them lose [our] their brains.

[...]

"[Our] Their weapons will be of no avail to [us] them. Their nuclear weapons will be [our death] of no use to them. [We] They thought that [we] they had hegemony over the region with [our] their [bomb-belts] nuclear weapons, but suddenly [France] Pakistan popped up with [a backbone] Islamic nuclear weapons, and [we] they are afraid of [Denmark] Iran and several [small Scandinavian] Arab countries have some chemical weapons.

"Israel has begun to sense that its [hazard] superiority has come to an end. Its army, which has superior conventional weapons - the air force, the armored corps, and the missiles - there are no longer wars in which these are used [because we are so impotent we cannot even cut through a fence and having bitten off the hand that fed us nobody wants anything to do with us anymore and we will surely die a miserable death].

"The Arabs have said: We don't want (conventional) wars [since we'd get our asses kicked], thank you very much. Leave the war to the peoples. Today, the Israeli weapons are of no use against the peoples [because Israelis don't murder innocent children like we do]. We have imposed a new equation in the war. In this equation, our tools are stronger. That is why we will defeat them, Allah willing [unless they wear jock straps].

[...]

"If you fight them, they will turn their backs on you [because you're impotent], and will not be [bothered by your constant blather] victorious." But the problem is that we need to [give up] fight them first. If we sleep at home, how are we to beat [off] them?! 'If you fight them...' - that is a divine promise... 'If' - It is conditional: 'If you fight them, they will [kick your ass] turn their backs on you and will not be [the least bit sympathetic] victorious.' And indeed, when we began to fight, and we [dressed as women] armed ourselves with a will to fight, we [creamed our burkas] defeated them.

[...]

"That is why Allah akbar (Allah is greater). We say that every day - Allah akbar. Yes, Allah is greater than America. Allah is greater than the [universe] oppressors. Allah is [so very very big and huge] greater than the superpowers. Allah is greater than the tyranny of the [Islamic] oppressing world, and Allah is greater than Israel. Since Allah is greater, and He supports [the] us[a], we will be [dead soon] victorious."

"I Know That All Arab Leaders... Want Palestine to Be Liberated"

Mash'al:"By Allah, I know that all Arab leaders - and I have met many of them - deep inside want the resistance in Palestine to be victorious, and want Palestine to be liberated. Perhaps the need for flattery and for diplomacy, and the American hegemony, force other things on them, but in their hearts they are happy when we are victorious.

[...]

"If, prior to the Hamas victory, there were several military wings, each with a few hundred or a few thousand fighters, under the rule of Hamas - if you continue to besiege us, to starve our people, to ignore our rights, and if you continue your occupation, your aggression, and your assassinations - we, the Hamas, will declare a general call to arms. We will place the entire Palestinian people at the [garbage] disposal of the resistance and its weapons [like we've been doing for the past five years]."

Crowd: "Allah akbar, Allah be praised. Allah akbar, Allah be praised. Allah akbar, Allah be praised. Allah akbar, Allah be praised. Allah akbar, Allah be praised. Allah akbar, Allah be praised."

Mash'al: "Be careful not to drive our people into a corner - Occupation, aggression, assassinations, 9,000 male and female prisoners, preventing aid [gimme more money], imposing a siege [daring to stop our suicide bombers/martyrs], causing [preventing] starvation - and on top of all this, you don't want to recognize democracy and its results."

"Hamas has a Vision… Hamas Can Manage the Political Battle, Just Like it Managed the Military Battle" [Quoting John Kerry.]

Mash'al: "The German (Chancellor Angela) Merkel pops up and says: Democracy and success in the elections are not sufficient for Hamas to gain legitimacy." To hell with you all. [I'm taking my ball and going home!] How are we supposed to gain legitimacy? [Gimme a brain.] When you said we had the legitimacy of [suicide bombing] resistance, you called it terrorism. Now, we say we have the legitimacy of democracy [having illiterate zombies choose between Freddie and Jason], but you [laugh at] deny it. In that case, you yourself are [rolling on the floor laughing] not legitimate, because you emerged through democracy [and freedom of speech and religion and individual rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness]. This is the logic of a [strong] frail and [transcendent] defeatist [people] person.

"Brothers and sister, there is confusion in the [Muslim] Western world, and in the [Hamas/Iranian] American administration. Allah has come to them from where they did not expect him. That is the grace of Allah. That is why we do not fear them. We do not fear their threats.

"Today they give us an ultimatum: Recognize Israel. Wonderful! The murderer [i.e., Hamas] is not required by anyone to recognize the rights of his victim, but the victim is required to recognize the rights of his murderer, and to sing his praises.

[...]

"Hamas has a vision. [Channelling Kerry] Hamas has a plan. Hamas can manage the political battle, just like it managed the military battle [by blowing up old ladies and little babies], but in a different language [Pig-Latin], with different tools, and recognizing Israel is not one of them. Nor is giving up the rights, giving up the right to [murder innocents] resistance, and nor is giving up the [bomb-belts] weapons of the resistance.

"Nevertheless, we want to deal with politics, but there is a difference between the politics of the weak and defeatists, which we will constantly repeat - the kind of politics that does not impress the enemy and so it does nothing - because, like in the [media] marketplace, products praised too much become cheap. If we continue to praise our products, constantly [lying] saying: 'We love peace,' 'We have given up the option of war,' 'Peace is our strategic option,' 'For God's sake, Israel, give us a few scraps of land' - By Allah, we will be degraded in the eyes of our enemies."

"We Will Conduct our Politics in the Language of [animals] Victory"

Mash'al: "We will conduct our politics in the language of [animals] victory. We will conduct our policy in [grunting] a confident language. We will conduct our politics in the language of those who are steadfast and sure of themselves [hyenas]. Besides, by Allah, after the [sheep] people has elected us, and has bestowed upon us all this [accountability] power, we will disrespect [their] its rights?

(...)

"The people [having to choose between slow death and quick death] has given us a deposit, and has empowered us to [melt] liberate its land, to restore Jerusalem and its holy places [to the Jooooos]. It has empowered us to release 9,000 male and [chattel] female prisoners. It has empowered us to [make killing Joooos state policy] stop the aggression, to [pillage] liberate the land, and to restore [sharia law and eliminate] its rights. The people has empowered us to bring back 5.5 million Palestinian [second and third generation] refugees and [unthinking] displaced people to their [loot] homeland. After all this, Hamas - in order to please America and the European Union, and in order for the pressure on us to stop, and in order for their highnesses to allow us to establish a government... We are not trying to please them."

"It is in Your Interests to Change Your Relations and Policies Regarding the Arab and Islamic Nation and the Palestinian Cause" [Nuke the moon.]

Mash'al: "I say to America, Europe, and the West: It is in your interests to change your relations and policies regarding the Arab and Islamic nation and the Palestinian cause. Because we are [retards] winning, it is in your interests to deal with the victors, not the losers.

"Israel will be [secure] defeated and will be [prosperous] of no use to you. The Arabs will be [defeated, destitute, depraved but demoralized] victorious. The [West] Muslims will be victorious. [Israel] Palestine will be victorious. Change your policy soon, if you want to protect your interests, and maintain healthy relations with the [world's armpit] East."

[What does a person have to do to get a fatwa around here?]

Ironic photo of the day

This guy doesn't want freedom. It oppresses and offends him. I think we should give him what he wants - remove his freedom. Is that so much to ask? Lock him up. Chain him to the wall. This man is suffering - can't somebody do something to take that accursed freedom away from him? He shouldn't be forced to be free, against his will - and we call ourselves civilized? How dare we impose freedom where it isn't wanted. Lock this guy up quick!

Sensitivity vs. Brutality

From Mark Steyn:

NBC is celebrating Easter this year with a special edition of the gay sitcom "Will & Grace," in which a Christian conservative cooking-show host, played by the popular singing slattern Britney Spears, offers seasonal recipes -- "Cruci-fixin's." On the other hand, the same network, in its coverage of the global riots over the Danish cartoons, has declined to show any of the offending artwork out of "respect" for the Muslim faith.

Which means out of respect for their ability to locate the executive vice president's home in the suburbs and firebomb his garage.

Jyllands-Posten wasn't being offensive for the sake of it. They had a serious point -- or, at any rate, a more serious one than Britney Spears or Terence McNally. The cartoons accompanied a piece about the dangers of "self-censorship" -- i.e., a climate in which there's no explicit law forbidding you from addressing the more, er, lively aspects of Islam but nonetheless everyone feels it's better not to.

That's the question the Danish newspaper was testing: the weakness of free societies in the face of intimidation by militant Islam.

CNN, the AP, and their *spit* fact-checkers *spit*

According to this headline and article, "Grandpa 'Munster' dies at age 82." That would put him in his early forties when he played Grampa in the 'Munsters' which I find hard to believe. Two minutes of internet research would tell you that Grampa Munster is 95 not 82, or at least he was yesterday.

Most trusted source my ass.

"Above all else, the devil cannot stand to be mocked."
-C.S. Lewis

Saturday morning videos

Michelle Malkin produces a short film.

Ted Rall has no soul.

Hey - my birthday is coming up soon. I want one of these!

On this day in history

February 3, 1870: After passing in the House of Representatives with 98% Republicans voting 'aye' and 97% Democrats voting 'nay' the 15th Amendment is ratified granting vote to all American men regardless of race.

Oh d-d-d-dear dear

PREVIOUS:

Denmark Solidarity
Buy Danish!

Three Cheers for the Netherlands

After much fuss, the Dutch parliament approves the

...dispatch of an additional 1200-1400 troops to southern Afghanistan.
...
The Dutch defence ministry has assigned heavily armed units for the new mission in Uruzgan , including a reinforced 'Air Manoeuvre' battalion; a 100-man strong Special Forces detachment; Apache attack helicopters and F-16 fighter aircraft.

PREVIOUS: Dutch Soldiers in Biloxi?

Three Cheers for the President of Latvia

At the "Sound of Europe" summit, German newspaper editor, Roger de Weck, chose the wrong target to bully as he invited the president of Latvia, Vaika Vike-Freiberga, to agree that new EU members from east and central Europe posed a danger because they are too pro-American. Her from-the-hip response can be found here. An excerpt:

"Throughout the years, in parts of Europe, intellectuals and even politicians were enamoured with the idea of Marxism and even some thought the Soviet Union was an embodiment of what Socialism and the protection of the worker was all about. America was more realistic. America looked on us as captive nations. We were captive nations, and we are now free."

After this statement, the old-European newspaper editor cut-off the President of Latvia - something we have become accustomed to here in the States. When did journalists' interrupting presidents become acceptable? I wonder if President Ahmageddondinnerjacket of Iran ever gets interrupted and/or bullied by a newspaper man.

Brilliant!

From BOTW reader John Hockert:

In all the discussion about journalist casualties in Iraq, I have heard no one comment on the fact that the media's behavior increases the risk to its reporters. The goal of the terrorists in Iraq, like that of terrorists everywhere, is not to inflict casualties, but rather to frighten people by creating the impression of lawlessness and illustrate the inability of legally constituted authorities to maintain order and provide protection. The media are a vital tool in achieving this goal. If the terrorists can get more media coverage by killing or seriously injuring one reporter than by killing a division of Iraqi soldiers, guess whom they are going to target.

If the networks really wanted to protect their reporters, they would do the following: First, issue large press decals to put on helmets, vehicles, etc. so that reporters were readily identifiable. Second, establish a well-publicized policy that any terrorist injury or killing of a reporter would cause a one-week blackout of any coverage of terrorist acts in Iraq. All coverage from Iraq for that week would focus on progress in rebuilding the nation and "good" news. Such a policy would reduce the deaths of, and injuries to, reporters in Iraq by at least a factor of 10. After all, how many al-Jeezera reporters have been killed by the Iraqi terrorists? The Iraqi terrorists are bloodthirsty and evil, but within their warped view of the world, they are not stupid.

Sadly, the media seem willing to risk the lives of their reporters in order to focus on the bad news in Iraq.

I think Hockert may be on to something.

For those who say that "both sides do it"

PREVIOUS:

Lou Dobbs and Paul Krugman don't really give a crap about unemployment, or the US economy - it's all about hating Bush

Tax Revenue is Up, Unemployment is down, and the Economy is Expanding, so Why aren't we Hearing about it?

Denmark Solidarity

Why are the Islamofascists picking on Denmark, anyway? Everybody does it. Even the U.S. Supreme Court. Zombietime has an extensive archive of Mohammed images.

UPDATE: Feb 2, 9:14 AM EST: (Associated Press) - Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank city of Nablus said they were searching apartments for foreigners from several European countries to try to kidnap them to protest the drawings.
It figures: A western newspaper prints cartoons and in response the Palestinians kill people. Reminds me of Theo.

PREVIOUS: Buy Danish!

The Washington Post sinks to a New Low

I can't bring myself to actually post it, but the January 29 edition of the Washington Post contains the most foul cartoon I've ever seen. What kind of drugs are these people on? I'm prescribing that the managing editor of the Post be deported.

Another 16-year-old buys a GTO

The school board is scheduled to vote Wednesday on settling the part of the lawsuit Frazier filed against board members, his teacher and assistant principal for $32,500. But Frazier, a Boynton Beach High junior who said he was berated in class when he refused to stand during the pledge [i.e., pledge of allegiance], wants more than that.

Well of course he does. I expect every kid in Florida will be pulling the same stunt now. (Via Stop the ACLU.)

Kerry lied, kids died

Why does Sen. Kerry feel the need to lie all the time?
Do you remember when he said that there were more black men in jail than college? Now he says that most Americans do not graduate from high school. BTW, it has now been more than one year since he stated on national television that he would release his military records to the public. He hasn't. Because Kerry likes to lie. It's fun! Say whatever it takes to get in a position of power - even if that means hurling baseless accusations at your comrades in arms. Say whatever it takes to snag that billionaire heiress' fortune. Say whatever it takes to make yourself feel good. Don't let little details like facts get in your way, Johnny.