Suicide Again

"To put it another way, we have used art as a means to break down our own narcissism; and over time, repeatedly, we have found the enemies of art to be fanatics.

Yet recently, from our society at large, we have been stripping the symbolism, the public imagery that recreates what we are and believe -- mostly to achieve the lowest common denominator of “multiculturalism”. And now, even our churches are becoming bare and "unwestern".

This is another aspect of the suicide of the West."

The many streams of Nazism...

ISRAEL: Yearning for normalcy...

Did I mention Bruce Bawer? Oh, yes. I did.

Benedict knows that Billy Graham is no Crusading fool...

Squaring The Circle

"Any way you look at it, the “democratization” project asks Muslims to cease to think as Muslims, and think as post-Christian “seculars” instead. This was the project Kemal Ataturk embarked upon, in trying to modernize Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In Turkey, it involved the suppression of nearly every visible manifestation of Islam in public life -- and it worked, for a while. Turkey became modern. But now, nearly a century later, Islam is visibly resurgent even there.

The Bush administration does not know how to square this circle. Does anyone?"

"At least now we know why the CIA and John Negroponte wanted these documents to remain sealed."

UPDATE: W has had enough of Pooty-Poot. "... Make no mistake about it, this goes far beyond just a little friendly coaching and the protection of Russian assets. ..."

How Do You Say "Hypocrite" In French?

"Kerry was an expert on the war because he was a soldier. It was what he based his presidential campaign on. But the Swifties were partisan scum.

Jack Murtha has credibility because....wait for it. He was a Marine! And those potential Democrat candidates that the party so wanted to run in 2006 against Republicans had credibility precisely because, they were soldiers!

But these men & women presently engaged and on the ground in harm's way, what the hell do they know? They're losers, idiots and worse. Until that is, one of them speaks out against his brothers and sisters in arms, then he'll be a hero."

Without comment.

Today's Cuckoo Team

"And in any case, if the kidnappers were according to the CPT itself composed of "criminals, rather than insurgents", whose "motive was believed to be money", and who for that money tortured and killed Tom Fox, how does the CPT's 'principled' refusal to cooperate differ in any way from a conscious decision to shield an ordinary murderer from the police? How is that different from being an accomplice after the fact? How different from covering up for the Mafia or the Crips?

Though CPT liberally uses the words "illegal" and "Christian" to justify its actions one wonders whether they have the slightest conception of the words. Or the slightest regard for Tom Fox."

UPDATE: "Vanity, not love is their watchword. Fortune and men's eyes and not God is who they worship."

"Cut off his head!"

NO. Iraq is definitively not a distraction. And, no, the Russians have not suddenly become our friends. In fact, with friends like these, we most definitively don't need any more enemies.

UPDATE: More here.

Proof of innocence? Ummmm... I would say ... not. Period.

"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? "

There's something about those Infidels...

Civil war? Ummmm ....... Scratch that. Time to work on the next puerile story line...

"It is amazing how many innocent young lives have been sacrificed for a half-baked phrase."

Ummm... I think I have located the real quagmire! (HT Glenn)

Is This The Quagmire?

He also sent me a letter which has been circulating among soldiers for a month, from the mayor of Tal 'Afar, near the Syrian border, praising the "lion hearts" of the US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment who have changed the city from "ghost town in which terrorists spread death and destruction to a secure city flourishing with life".

The violence of revenge attacks on Sunnis across Iraq, after last month's bombing of the Shiite Golden Mosque in Samarra, led many commentators to declare the civil war they have been predicting for three years had arrived. But others point to signs the crisis has spurred Iraq's political leaders to sort out their differences and work to form a national unity government, three months after their third successful election. And as Sunni politicians engage in the process, there are encouraging reports of infighting among Sunni insurgents.

Time To Rehabilitate The Crusades...

How about them Crusades? Who knows? Maybe this Lutheran will "go the wrong way" and become a Catholic yet given a Pope who understands the sweep of history anyway...

"So far, nothing."

It's hard to be moderate...