Glenn: I think that Allah captures both sides of this story best, with two passages. First: "Have we actually reached the point where Senate seats now turn on the sex scandals of fictional characters?"

But also: "If George Allen had written this book, not only would the left be going berserk, they’d be circulating lists of characters in his other books whom they suspect of being gay."

Yes, it's that bad.

"In politics and advertising, the term astroturfing describes formal public relations (PR) campaigns which seek to create the impression of being a spontaneous, grassroots behavior. Hence the reference to the "AstroTurf" (artificial grass) is a metaphor to indicate "fake grassroots" support. [ Duped again... -ed. ] "

"These three incidents, coming over a space of a few days, have torn wide open a fissure which became visible for the first time, when Member of Parliament Jack Straw, until last month a stout devotee of multiculturalism suddenly wrote an article in his local paper. Jaws dropped all over Britain when Straw wrote his defense of the reasons he has begun asking Pakistani women constituents who visit his office to discuss problems to remove their veils. His point, of course, is that it is difficult to talk to someone whose facial expressions one cannot judge. Tony Blair has also now admitted that the veil makes him uneasy. With the bandwagon gathering pace, London mayor and keen adherent of multiculturalism "Red" Ken Livingstone, knocked the population of London over with a feather when he said on BBC's Radio 4 that he would like to see Muslims giving up the veil, although he didn't think this should be imposed "from the outside".

Wearing the veil accords the wearer what British columnist Melanie Phillips refers to as a "radical imbalance of power" in that it gives the veil-wearer the advantage of reading the facial expressions of others, while keeping her own reactions hidden. It is beginning to be viewed in Britain not as a symbol of female subjugation, but as a weapon of aggression and radical Islam. The British-born mothers of these young Pakistani-heritage veil-wearing women did not wear the veil. [ The veil is BOTH a symbol of female subjugation AND a weapon of aggression. Never mind that recent abductees in the Gaza report being shuttled around concealed under hijab. What a surprise. It's a religious "obligation" that's only obligatory for their enemies to treat as one -- not for the "believers". That's the beauty of it for the Islamofascists of course... -ed. ] "

"If only."

"It so happens that everything that is stupid is not unconstitutional."

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

- C.S. Lewis"

Qutb and Greeley Again

Wretchard swings for the rafters and connects:

"After Sayyid Qutb was scandalized by Harry Truman's America [ That would be the church ladies just down the road from here in Greeley, CO; my aunt Audora missed being one of them by about 60 miles in actuality but of course she was one in spirit. It's a good thing that he never heard Mom, Audora and Luther sing on the radio or we'd all be dead already... -ed. ] he was later brutalized by Gamal Abdel Nasser's prisons. It may have been the low cut dresses of American women that first planted the seed which was to grow into al-Qaeda's ideology but it was the blood shed by Marxist torturers that watered it. Qutb and later Osama bin Laden saw Marxism and secularism as agencies of the Devil; but to destroy them it was first necessary to destroy the world's system administrator: the USA. One of the real ironies of the War on Terror is that the most hated targets of al-Qaeda, the culturally liberal — the gays, feminists, entertainers, civil libertarians, artists and novelists — are its most vocal critics. It is only slowly dawning on al-Qaeda's pet hates that the Global Jihad is exactly about them and their whole belief system. Salman Rushdie knows it; Sayyid Qutb knew it. Some parts of Europe are beginning to know it; most will never admit it even to the second the blade is drawn across their throats. But the second greatest irony that the surviving non-Muslim believers in Europe — the Christians, Buddhists and Jews — have not only had to bear the intellectual brunt of defending liberalism up to now, but are now being asked to give up the public profession of their own faith in order to preserve it."

And there you have it.

"If the West hopes to live it must find a shelter within its own heart from which to resist an Islamism that has outlasted the centuries. “The thing that has changed over the past month is that they now want to kill us,” said French police spokesman Bruno Beschizza. For that reason the thing that must change for everyone in the face of this challenge is that they be determined to survive. Only then can job programs, education or police crackdowns have any effect. Or maybe they will never have any effect; but simply give us something to do until the plague goes away."

"However, Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said "This is a good quality study but I don’t think it tackles the issue.

"If you’re using your phone for four hours a day, presumably it is out of your pocket for longer. That raises a big question: how is it that testicular damage is supposed to occur?"

He said mobile phone use may be a marker for other lifestyle factors known to affect sperm quality.

"Maybe people who use a phone for four hours a day spend more time sitting in cars, which could mean there’s a heat issue. It could be they are more stressed, or more sedentary and sit about eating junk food getting fat. Those seem to be better explanations than a phone causing the damage at such a great distance" he added."

"Here is the uncomfortable truth facing Islam’s Western apologists: Politically correct concessions to the Islamic community, instead of encouraging moderates, have only empowered the extremists."

"This is the way our secretary of state chooses to characterize the nation that has been our steadfast friend for 60 years (brutal occupying power), to demonstrate her devotion for a people who celebrated the slaughter of 3,000 Americans on 9/11 by dancing in the streets of Ramallah."

"The left constantly repeats the slogan that "the Bush tax cuts benefited the rich" when in actuality the Bush tax cuts have soaked the rich. Revenues to the Treasury have increased every year since the tax cuts went into effect in 2003 and have reduced the deficit- the exact opposite of what liberal politicians originally predicted."

"What would Ernie Pyle or any other great war correspondent of the past think of CNN’s decision to air video showing snipers targeting U.S. troops in Iraq?"

"Panic will peak between now and November 7, and then subside when it no longer serves an immediate political interest. Remember al Qaqa? In the meantime, it's no surprise if the Iraqis have come to doubt the reliability of their chief allies."

"The owl acknowledges unreservedly Europe's aging populations, its decreasing population growth and its need for migrants — but also sees that selection of migrants is not always based on who is useful for the economy.

The owl sees that Islam is not Christianity and that not all Muslims understand or want to share in any European future based on European values of freedom, tolerance and an attitude of live and let live.

The owl sadly looks on as poor kids are taught to view themselves as victims, and the society in which they live as the enemy. He can't help but notice that Muslim migrants are receptive to the seduction of the Islamist movement. Even worse, there are now natives converting to this brand of totalitarianism.

Nor can the owl ignore the growth of the extreme right-wing movements and parties. He fears that the debate on pluralism in Europe will be hijacked by two uncompromising extremes: whites' power fascism and Islamic fascism.

The owl thinks that the ostrich is right: We should always look on the bright side of life. But he also thinks we should be careful not to get delusional."

"Everywhere else, for the most part, they've taken the advice of Myers and that think tank in Vermont. In America, there are 2.1 live births per woman. In 17 European countries, it's 1.3 or below -- that's what demographers call "lowest-low" fertility, a rate from which no society has ever recovered. Spain's population is halving with every generation. These nations are doing what Myers and the Vermont "sustainability" junkies would regard as the socially responsible thing, and having fewer babies. And as a result their countries are dying demographically and (more immediately) economically: They don't have enough young people to pay for the generous social programs the ever more geriatric Europeans have come to expect."

"Surveillance of communications is often used as a means of gathering. How this is done is not talked about often. This is because the information that is acquired is often very good. Surveillance of enemy communications was one of the biggest factors in the American victory at Midway in 1942, and many other operations since. In 1943 Ten months later, a similar surveillance led to the mission in which Tom Lanphier shot down the plane carrying Isoroku Yamamoto. Communications intelligence also played a major part in defeating the U-boats in the Atlantic as well.

A lot of the methods used to gather intelligence in World War II (particularly codebreaking) were kept classified for decades after the Japanese surrender ended the war in 1945. Similarly, the Venona project stayed secret in the 1950s, even when information from that project could have defused controversies over the prosecution of the Rosenbergs or Alger Hiss.

In the war on terror, this is equally important. Not just for breaking up attacks, but also for mapping out the networks through a process known as traffic analysis. This can be done with just phone records (the leak of the NSA's request to various phone companies managed to tell terrorist which companies cooperated, and who company didn't). This is vital in terms of building an organizational chart of any enemy capabilities, but only if the enemy doesn't think that others are listening."

""This is an especially telling admission from the Times 'ombudsman,' who, in theory at least, is supposed to be the most objective journalist in the Times organization. But a 'vicious criticism' (what? did GWB forget to call you the world's greatest newspaper?) is enough to warp your objectivity enough to print a story that did major damage to the safety and security of the United States?""

"New York Times ombudsman Barney Calame, often referred to as “The Empty Suit,” finally gets around to admitting that the Times was wrong to reveal the SWIFT program that monitored terrorist banking.

He also admits that no person’s private data was misused, and that the program was not illegal. [ He's always been Bendict Lichtblau to me... -ed. ] "

""You do sometimes wonder what goes on in their little minds, don't you?" said Private Al Hartley. "You'll just see, like, one bloke pop up and start shooting at you, and you'll go like that. Ph!" He shrugged. "There's, like, 30 of us and he's standing in the middle of a field, not trying to get into cover, just actually shooting at us, because, in his mind, all he wants to do is kill English soldiers.""