"17After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18"Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")

20He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' 21For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' ""

"Sorel's belief in the need for a deliberately-conceived "myth" to sway crowds into concerted action was put into practice by mass fascist movements in the 1920s. [ From today's "The Mystery of Fascism" file... -ed. ] "

"And in rendering this message, and conducting this war, “brave” is the necessary foundation for “smart”. We can't fight a war without fighting a war. The smarts should be applied to winning it, not to finding a way to pretend it's not happening."

AP treachery watch:

"We were informed from one of our sources (the degree of trust in him is good) who works in the American Associated Press Agency... [ Of course, if you looked at the video linked on my last post (GO. SEE. NOW.), you might ask why I call them EneMedia when W himself gives a visa to Khatami? Finally we *do* have credible evidence emerging that Bush is evil. Or at least a closet Democrat... -ed. ] "

"MURDERER IN THE CATHEDRAL: Andrew Marcus and Richard Miniter are reporting on Khatami at the National Cathedral. It's some useful background you're unlikely to see elsewhere. Plus, hot Iranian protest babes. [ Must see TV! Katie ain't gonna show ya this folks... -ed. ] "

"“He said he didn’t know where the knife came from,” Ayad told the Detroit Free Press. [ Uh huh. And absolutely non-profile-able to boot... -ed. ] "

"A woman in a bikini is enough to create an international diplomatic kerfuffle for the Pakistanis. They're going to deny her access to her country of origin for posing in swimwear. That tells you all you need to know about women's rights and the level of reason in that country."

"I don't think this is necessarily a sell-out or a sign of cowardice. But it is, however, a relevant circumstance that materially affects news coverage whether the journalists like it or not. Whoever isn't convinced that intimidation doesn't affect speech should try the following experiment. Stand in front of the White House and ask the passers by whether George W. Bush is good for nothing so-and-so. Observe the result. Then stand in front of Nasrallah's entourage and do the same [tell them Nasrallah is no good -ed.]. Observe the result. So once, again, why was Steven Vincent the only foreign journalist to die in 2005? And why did the NYT leave him off the books? Beneath them or not one of them? Which?"

The 9/11 Prequel ... and its Intentions

Will "The Path to 9/11" cover this?

"Six Islamist extremist conspirators were convicted of the crime in 1997 and 1998 and given prison sentences of life in prison each. According to a presiding judge, the conspirators' chief aim at the time of the attack was to de-stabilize the north tower and send it crashing into the south tower, toppling both landmarks. [ I'll be greatly surprised if it does. The plan for WTC I was domino skyscraper destruction all over lower Manhattan and 250,000 dead. And Ramzi Yousef was KSM's nephew and travelling on an Iraqi passport. And when captured he said they would try again. And Yasin was inexplicably let go, fled back to Iraq, and was only later indicted by the U.S. in the plot as the bomb maker. But -- as with absolutely all terrorism -- there were absolutely no links to Iraq. And Leslie Stahl was absolutely right that Yasin was held by Saddam as a prisoner the whole time after arriving. It was absolutely not a show for Leslie -- she was too smart to let anything like that get by her. Why, she's nearly as smart as Bob Simon and everyone knows that he's sharper than a tack. After all, Saddam has said the U.S. is not his enemy -- why should anyone ever disbelieve that? -ed. ] "

Pardon my contempt for this utter stinking Gramscian apologist garbage. Or not.

Their first try was 6 of ~250K. Their second try was ~3,000 -- plus huge economic damage -- of at least tens of thousands. What do you suppose the third set of results will be?

And do you suppose it might be a wee bit of a mistake to react in proportion to our enemy's results rather than their intentions?

Imagine this scenario: A man walks into the middle of a packed shopping center and pulls a submachine gun out of a guitar case. The gun fires a few shots before jamming and only a few people are lightly grazed. Basically a miracle -- clearly the intention was to kill tens or hundreds of people. Hugely more than the damage that was actually done.

If we treated this case like we treat incidents of terrorism, this man -- who common sense would clearly tag as incredibly dangerous -- would be sentenced to a few months of community service instead of immediately executed as a mass murderer. He gets a free pass since he forgot to clean his gun. So we assume he's too stupid to take seriously as an enemy.

Worse yet, I'm not sure that one of today's "judges" might not sentence the machine gunner just as I described if this scenario had really happened.

One can look back at history and see clear principles and pivot points in hindsight. The problem is that the lessons are never learned. As McQ said, we are like "geese" waking up to a new world every day.

Based on Hitler's rhetoric and aggressive actions, Germany should have been re-invaded at least by early 1937 when he renounced the Treaty of Versailles and had reoccupied the Rhineland. There could have been tens or even hundreds of thousands of casualties in the resulting war. But by waiting we nearly racked up 9 digits dead. For the mathematically inclined, that's a meaningful difference.

Likewise, any -- even circumstantial -- evidence of an Iraqi connection to WTC I with an intended death toll of hundreds of thousands together with continued hate propaganda from Saddam toward the U.S. should have prompted the immediate "finishing" of Gulf War I.

W finally learned that lesson. But by then Saddam and the Islamofascists had lots of time to prepare.

The problem is that W's leading "geese". And too many among them are wolves in geese feathers.

"(2006-09-09) — Just a day after the Senate Intelligence committee released a report [PDF] finding no pre-war connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, aides said unpublished findings of the committee’s probe also indicate no verfiable link between the senate and intelligence."

"A cursory examination of Zarqawi's cell in Iraq reveals that many of his top operatives were once Saddam's military and intelligence officers. It appears, therefore, al-Masari's testimony should be taken seriously.

Yet, neither Abu Zubaydah's nor Al-Masari's statements are given any weight by the committee. Nor did they bother to examine who it was, exactly, that Zarqawi was working with in Iraq. Not that any of this matters, of course. This reports was never really about investigating the relationship between Saddam's regime and al Qaeda.

It was about giving certain senators more ammunition against the president. [ The shock just never ends... -ed. ] "

"Beggar you than me..."

"... but the core problem IMHO [in my omniscient opinion] is that OIF [WWII] was undertaken by a single nation with a few [eight] allies tagging along and the 'natives' [fascists and imperialists] would never accept whatever was imposed [were thrashed so soundly that they are now some of our best -- and still few -- allies]. [ Thanks for that Ash. I'm truly not fit to wash your feet. Your historical perspective is so compelling... -ed. ] "

"Jones, also known for his cold fusion research, provided academic clout to the 9/11 truth movement. [ If "cold fusion research" is thought by lefties to provide "academic clout" then that's pretty much all we need to know. Case closed. -ed. ] "

"But even more interesting is a bit of information that Western media hasn’t mentioned. Seems the 9/11 mass murderers were motivated by a desire to avenge Muslims ... in Bosnia, where the US went to war to protect Muslims.

I’m getting a headache. [ "Headache" simply doesn't even begin to describe it. -ed. ] "

"(2006-09-08) — Top Senate Democrats, outraged over inaccuracies in the upcoming ABC mini-series The Path to 9/11, today said that in addition to yanking the network’s broadcast license, if the show airs Democrats might also withhold from ABC News the daily distribution of Democrat talking points.

A spokesman for Disney-owned ABC News said that while the network could weather the revocation of its broadcast license, thanks to the proliferation of cable and satellite TV, the loss of the Democrat talking points would force the news division to hire dozens of new reporters to fill the void in its newscasts.

Meanwhile, Scholastic Inc. recalled a Path to 9/11 study guide which it had offered to 25,000 high school teachers nationwide, and replaced it with “a more balanced, traditional teaching tool” prepared by MoveOn.org with help from Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore.

In related news, a spokesman for former President Bill Clinton demanded significant cuts to an upcoming DVD release of Snow White to “eliminate factual errors and scenes of dwarf behavior clearly intended to smear the former president’s administration.” [ I can't top this so here's all of Scrappleface today. -ed. ] "

"“Jeff ” thought the decision had been made at the cabinet level. Pavitt thought that it was Berger’s doing, though perhaps on Tenet’s advice. Tenet told us that given the recommendation of his chief operations officers, he alone had decided to “turn off ” the operation. He had simply informed Berger, who had not pushed back. Berger’s recollection was similar. He said the plan was never presented to the White House for a decision."

""The only time France wants us to go to war is when the German Army is sitting in Paris sipping coffee."--Regis Philbin"

"What does the sign say above the nursery in a Palestinian maternity ward?

"Live ammunition." [ Gagdad already has this covered of course. -ed. ] "

"It's certainly easy to imagine it now -- the Democrats have delivered it. Welcome to the Enforced Perspective Party. It's a staggeringly dumb political mistake, and if it's not withdrawn quickly, will do real damage to the Democrats for years. [ Like I said: Gramscian neo-Syndicalists. -ed. ] "

"In any event, as a matter of assessing how well the administration has done, which is what the Reid-"Third Way" exercise is all about, it's odd to focus on the number of terrorists. The administration cannot, in the short run, control the number of people who elect to embrace, and die for, Islamofascism. The number of people who believed fanatically in fascism probably grew during FDR's first two terms."

"A distinction is worth calling attention to, here. President Musharraf was negotiating with Waziri tribal elders. He did not reduce himself to formally negotiating with Taliban and Al Qaeda directly. NDP leader Jack Layton, and Liberal opposition critic Ujjal Dosanjh to the contrary, one does not negotiate with terrorist forces that, among many other routine atrocities, shoot little girls for the crime of going to school. [ Or hack off human heads. Or make children drink their own piss. Or shoot fleeing children in the back. Or abuse dead children for the propaganda value. ... They seem to have rather a problem with children don't they? It's become difficult to speculate how much lower they can sink, hasn't it? Perhaps hacking off dead children's heads that have been shot in the back while fleeing for the propaganda value that our witless EneMedia labors to provide them??? -ed. ] "

"Tehran, Iran, Sep. 06 – The Supreme Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps accused the Bush Administration and the Israeli security service Mossad of ordering the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, DC. [ Let's see. Well aligned with Dem talking points. Check. Well aligned with what Dems think. 51% of them. And by the way 30+% of independents and even 20% of elephants. Now you know why you need to pray extra hard. And the time to pray will have expired if they get nukes... Did I forget to mention that they're crazier than Cuckoo-clocks? All of them? -ed. ] "

"The President just pulled one of the best maneuvers of his entire presidency. By transferring most major Al Qaeda terrorists to Guantanamo, and simultaneously sending Congress a bill to rescue the Military Commissions from the Supreme Court's ruling Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the President spectacularly ambushed the Democrats on terrain they fondly thought their own. Now Democrats who oppose (and who have vociferously opposed) the Military Commissions will in effect be opposing the prosecution of the terrorists who planned and launched the attacks of September 11 for war crimes."

"There is lots more, but you get the drift. President Bush delivered a ringing and powerfully effective endorsement of the CIA's handling of high-ranking al Qaeda operatives.

That's not the way you're going to read it in the newspapers, though. "

"Is that what you really want? Does the prospect of your wives and children becoming martyrs of Jihad fill you with joy? If so, then I suppose I have nothing more to say. But if you are expecting the U.S. to continue to exercise Judeo-Christian restraint and compassion in response to your attacks, then according your own accusations, you are wrong. If what you have been saying about our degeneracy is true; then we are no longer a morally restrained Judeo-Christian nation. If most of us are, as you claim, hedonistic materialists, then we are just as capable of vengeance and cruelty as you are. [ The Catch 22 is glimpsed. Just as it was not quite 70 years ago. More on this to come... -ed. ] "

"Blair came to power back in 1997 by effectively signalling to the nation that he would govern the country over the heads of his Labour party, which everyone knew was an unelectable rabble. What is now clear is that, over the past nine years, that situation has not altered one iota. Blair has not changed his party. It has not become any more mature or less ideological. Just as he did in 1997, Blair continues to float above it as a disembodied political presence who was only ever tolerated because of his awesome gift in winning elections."

"“Our reservations are regarding the German demand to search boats as they enter Lebanon,” Hezbollah member of parliament Hussein Haj Hassan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Tuesday. “Such a demand stands against the sovereignty of Lebanon.”

Hezbollah “is not against the German government and has great respect for the German people,” Haj Hassan stressed, “but they want the German government to review its stand towards Lebanon.” Haj Hassan additionally accused Berlin of bias towards Israel’s policies in the region. [ Well that's rich. You might want to consider the likely central role for Germany in the latest Solution before you laugh out loud... -ed. ] "

"The clerics in charge have the support of only about a quarter of the population, and use the "conflict" with the UN to keep their base supporters enraged, and ready to use violence against the majority, if the majority should ever get restless. But most Iranians, no matter how unhappy they are with their current government, are not willing to fight a civil war to change it. The government takes advantage of that, by allowing most Iranians to do whatever they want, as long as they do not oppose the government, or make the government look bad (so no racy clothing on the women, no public consumption of alcohol and so on). President Ahmadinejad is partiicularly good at this, enacting "reforms" like allowing women to attend sporting events, while locking up more opposition journalists. This has gone on for nearly two decades, and the clerics hope it will go on indefinitely. But it won't. Most Iranians are unhappy with their religious dictatorship, and the anger grows daily. There are more and more violent incidents, usually with the governments organized thugs battling unhappy Iranians in the streets. [ I pray that W is doing a lot more than he appears to be behind the scenes to support the Iranian opposition. -ed. ] "

"What I am more concerned about is the possibility that Sunni and Shi`i views of the dire straits of the ummah, and the need for the Mahdi/UnHidden Imam to appear, will increasingly converge such that sizable factions of each branch of Islam would be willing to accept a charismatic leader as the Mahdi. And since I'm convinced that Usama bin Ladin, the most charismatic leader in the Islamic world (still outshining Nasrallah), is in Iran being protected by the ayatollahs, there is a very real possibility that UBL could emerge in the near future as the "ecumenical" leader of the jihadist world, both Sunni and Shi`i. And if Tehran has nuclear weapons by then... [ Speaking of the "nuclear umbrella"... -ed. ] "

"Osama bin Laden, America's most wanted man, will not face capture in Pakistan if he agrees to lead a "peaceful life," Pakistani officials tell ABC News.

The surprising announcement comes as Pakistani army officials announced they were pulling their troops out of the North Waziristan region as part of a "peace deal" with the Taliban. [ What happens when you violate the Prime Directive and let the enemy have nukes: Osama is now under the Pakistani nuclear umbrella. But the neo-Syndicalists love to argue we ought to pull out of Iraq -- intolerable casualties and all that -- and invade Pakistan. I'm sure that would go well ... other than a few tens of millions dead anyway... -ed. ] "

"The U.S. State Department listed Khatami’s Iran as the number one state sponsor of terrorism. Within his own country, Khatami oversaw the torture and murder of dissidents who spoke out for freedom and democracy. For him to lecture Americans about tolerance and violence is propaganda, pure and simple."

"John Aravosis is a talented blogger and a pretty good guy, but he's not just barking up the wrong tree, he's in an entirely different forest. His post shows that the Democrats used terrorism as a hobby horse to attack gun owners. The Republicans delivered a better bill months earlier, but nothing they did could overcome the insistence of Janet Reno and Jamie Gorelick to separate law enforcement and intelligence operations. If John wants to use this episode to highlight the differences between Republicans and Democrats, I'm happy to oblige."

"PSS--I am reminded that one of the pivotal differences between Islam and the Judeo-Christian tradition is that in the latter case, God is thought to have created the world just once "in the beginning," in accord with fully rational principles that may be comprehended by human beings. Allah, on the other hand, rules by whim, creating the world moment by moment, so that it is futile--not to say blasphemous and grandiose--to try to fathom his ways. Allah's radical freedom results in tyranny, obscurantism and fatalism on the ground."

Comment of the day:

"Yoni’s post immediately preceding the one you linked to points out that the brave new EU is preparing a wide range of criminal charges against Israelis for allegations of "War Crimes"

Really. That's one Solution, I guess. Are the Europeans going to send the Israeli defendents to the gas chamber or just keep them in camps?"

"Iraq illustrates that it simply gives one the chance to lose, as well as win in two dimensions. Yet losing any particular hand doesn't mean it is the wrong game to play; it simply means one has to learn to play it better. The WSJ article unconsciously raises a different and more disturbing criticism of American strategy. The military's prosecution of a politico/military campaign can be viewed as an attempt to compensate for the failure of other aspects of American power (diplomatic, development and informational) to project themselves into the field. It's a Band-Aid to compensate for the absence of institutions which America, if it were truly an imperial power, would have had. [ Did I forget to mention that Wretchard rocks? RTWT -ed. ] "

Rousseau's Hydra

Mark Brittingham is a name to watch. You need to drop everything and go read "The Cold War is Not Over: Europe and the Post-Modern Left". It's up in the same league as David Ramsay Steele's "The Mystery of Fascism". I'm adding it to the Classics links. Anyone capable of striking a crescendo hammer blow in a survey of modern political philosophy with a devastating Czeslaw Milosz quote stands head and shoulders above the crowd:

"Chomsky, like nearly all of Rousseau's intellectual descendents and Rousseau himself, is enamored of propaganda. Should their ideological assumptions fail to rationally describe the real world it is easily enough dismissed as a limitation of rationality itself (pace Feyerabend). A nihilistic focus on the Will to Power - on power itself - marks all living descendents of Rousseau's experiment even as some among them, like Rorty, struggle with the legacy of violence found in their tradition. Among the initiated; the assorted leftists, anarchists, "queer theorists" and feminists, the pressure for ideological conformity is enormous. Indeed, the pressure to remain on the "right side" of the anti-Capitalist debate is so strong that groups such as "Queers for Palestine" openly support Islamic thugs under whose rule their own members would surely be brutally harassed or even murdered.

There is little surprise here. In all previous incarnations of anti-Capitalist power, ideological conformity was the centerpiece of political control. In the former Soviet Union and its satellites, the crushing of dissent was so total as to inspire Czeslaw Milosz to write:

"OFFICIALLY, contradictions do not exist in the minds of the citizens in the people's democracies [the former Soviet empire]. Nobody dares to reveal them publicly. And yet, the question of how to deal with them is posed in real life. More than others, the members of the intellectual elite are aware of this problem. They solve it by becoming actors. ...A constant and universal masquerade creates an aura that is hard to bear, yet it grants the performers certain not inconsiderable satisfactions. To say something is white when one thinks it is black, to smile inwardly when one is outwardly solemn, to hate when one manifests love...- these actions lead one to prize one's own cunning above all else...Acting on a comparable scale has not occurred often in the history of the human race." [Milosz, The Captive Mind, pp 54-57]."

Of course, I would lean toward "Gramscian neo-Syndicalists" over "PoMo Left", but when you go digest the scope of what Brittingham has achieved with this moderate length piece it's really no more than nit-picking...

"Labor for its part laments the state of the US economy -- again -- and points in its new study to how great things are in Europe. This is almost comical, considering the per capita US Gross Domestic Product (also known as the standard of living) is almost 50% higher than Europe's. The 3.5% GDP growth noted above is 35% faster than the EU's. The current 4.6% unemployment rate is half Europe's rate. US workers unemployed for over a year account for just 12% of the total, while in Europe, some 43% of all unemployed have been so for over a year. Finally, the percent of people starting new businesses is five times higher in the US than in France. Ask yourself this question: If you open the borders, which way will people flow -- toward Europe or toward the good ol' US of A? We think we know the answer. [ Objective evidence of the fruits of worshipping the "black point" gods of Sorel and Rousseau... -ed. ] "

"“Ironically, the secular left in America regard their fellow religious citizens as an incipient Taliban that wishes to enforce a black-point unity, when the opposite is true. That is, to the secular left, there is no white point above or black point below. Rather, there is only the equator, where we all live in our beautiful, diverse cultures and subcultures, none better than any other: multiculturalism, moral relativism, no objective or ‘privileged’ truth. And yet, multiculturalism and diversity are enforced from on high despite the fact that the left supposedly does not recognize the existence of morally superior cultural perspectives. What’s going on?

“In reality, the left is enforcing their absolute black point god, but simply denying it. They don't really care what culture you're from, so long as you are committed to diversity itself, and intolerant of any other view. This is nothing less than the unholy god of the black point flexing its muscle while pretending to be just another beautiful color in the reignbelow. [ Ah yes, the wonders of absolute relativism... -ed. ] "

"It's one thing to defy the US and the UK, and even the UN Security Council. Making a fool out of a reliably pacifist world leader of Annan's significance is quite another. Either Iran no longer sees the need to appear cooperative, or they see Annan's usefulness as a shill at an end. Given Annan's still-considerable influence among the Third World, I'd have to conclude that Ahmadinejad has something up his sleeve that allows him enough confidence to be openly defiant of all. [ Like I said before, August 22nd may have suffered schedule slip -- or in the case of the British plane bombing plot been partially intercepted -- but virtual August 22nd is on its way... -ed. ] "

"Everywhere I went -- from the traffic-choked streets of Tehran in the north to the dusty desert town of Yazd in central Iran, to the elegant cultural centers of Isfahan and Shiraz -- I was overwhelmed by the warmth and, dare I say it, pro-Americanism of the people I met. [ The Iranians -- people, not mullahs -- were also one of the few people to hold candle-light vigils in sympathy with us after 9/11. But you'll never hear that from the EneMedia political commissars either. -ed. ] "

"What the hell good is Brown if nobody wants it? [ Game. Set. Match. -ed. ] "

"A further interesting historical parallel is to compare this to the way Franklin Roosevelt handled similar issues a few years earlier. While campaigning in 1944, Republicans were acting pretty much like Democrats are acting today: whiny, spoiled, caterwauling brats, preaching gloom and doom and defeat and failure, some even shrieking "it's Roosevelt's war!" In response, Roosevelt hit the campaign trail and fought back, and Republicans were (rightly) spanked by voters for their juvenile behavior. [ From today's Deja Vu all over again file. -ed. ] "

"What was FDR's reaction? The news account of his post-election press conference reported FDR "laughs." Why? Said the headline: "Assumes New Congress is for Winning, So Why Should Poll Make Any Difference?"

And the Nazis and the Japanese? The so-called Axis Powers? What was their response? The New York Times editorial page trumpeted "an admission from Berlin that it would be 'harboring an illusion' to expect the Republican victory to bring any change whatever in the policy of the United States." Focusing on the silence of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, the paper concluded: "His silence is proof of the fact that we have made the unity of our purpose apparent to our enemies."

We're a long way from 1942. [ Not yet NYeT. But don't forget that they had already brought us Duranty by then... -ed. ] "

Chestlessness Again

Steyn's latest deserves a reprise:

"In other words, if Faust becomes so enthralled by "the moment" that he wants to live in it forever, the devil will have him for all eternity. In the Muslim world, they watch the Centanni/Wiig video and see men so in love with the present, the now, that they will do or say anything to live in the moment. And they draw their own conclusions -- that these men are easier to force into the car than that 16-year-old girl in Sydney was. It doesn't matter how "understandable" Centanni and Wiig's actions are to us, what the target audience understands is quite different: that there is nothing we're willing to die for. And, to the Islamist mind, a society with nothing to die for is already dead."

And don't miss the Arthur Conan Doyle part my dear Watson... And the ending of Warren's "Chestlessness" -- as I rightly focused on -- looks a bit more salient than many such as Ed had suggested by taking the middle out of context. (Also see Warren's follow-up here.)

"THE publication of caricatures depicting the Prophet Mohammed was the trigger for a failed attempt to bomb passenger trains in Germany, police have concluded. [ Trust me. If it isn't Iraq it will be something else. -ed. ] "

"Thank you for the invitation, Adam, and for your thoughtfulness in extending to me in particular a personal call. But I'm afraid I must decline. While I appreciate that I would be your "brother in Islam" if I became a Muslim and turned my "sword against the enemies" of Allah, I cannot and will not give in to violent intimidation, come what may, and I do not want to live in a society that bows to such intimidation.

I believe that societies that respect the equality of rights before the law of all people, including women and religious minorities, as well as the freedom of conscience, are superior to those that do not. I hope that such societies will be able to summon the will to resist you and your "invitation" in all its implications before it is too late.

Meanwhile, Adam, I have a preliminary invitation of my own for you: I invite you to accept the Bill of Rights, and enter into the brotherhood of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. My invitation does not focus on my religion, although I invite you to that also, but rather on a framework within which people of differing faiths can live in peace, harmony, and mutual respect -- provided that none of the groups involved cherishes supremacist ambitions to subjugate the others."

"This is a great example of how appallingly corrupt the wire services have become in their reporting from Palestinian areas, relying on Palestinian journalists and editors who are doing the bidding of terrorist groups and covering up atrocities.

Associated Press writer Ali Daraghmeh’s story is about a gang of masked terrorists who fired on a crowd of schoolchildren to enforce a “teacher’s strike,” wounding a 12-year old boy.

Think about that. They used live fire against a crowd of children."

"Perhaps the most disturbing fact in this report comes from recent polling, which shows the American public to be almost as susceptible to conspiracy theories as the Arabs. Scripps Survey Research Center reported that over a third of us believe that the US government either participated in the 9/11 attacks or deliberately allowed them to happen. [ That's fully half of the Dems and sadly even 20% of Repubs that are Cuckoo-clock nuts. -ed. ] Sixteen percent said that the towers came down because government agents had secretly planted explosives in them prior to 9/11. That means one in every six adults believe that the government conspired to kill 3,000 Americans -- and potentially as many as 25,000, given the normal occupancy of the towers. [ Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo. So it turns out that there are good arguments why we shouldn't spend so much blood and treasure trying to reform the M.E. with so many nut-cases at home to work on. But the Dems can't make it because it would reflect rather badly on them. So they fall back to the next set of conspiracy theories that they can "more plausibly" hang on W. Rather interesting, no? And yet consistently loony... -ed. ] "

"MARK STEYN: "What's stunning is not that almost all Western media organizations reporting from the Middle East are reliant on local staff overwhelmingly sympathetic to one side in the conflict -- that's been known for some time -- but the amateurish level of fakery that head office is willing to go along with.""