A Warren Interlude

Warren is giving an extra grace period to the government that doesn't deserve it, eh?

But he rewards us for our patience with this from Davila's "Annotations on an Implicit Text":

-- Democratic parliaments are not places where debate occurs but where popular absolutism registers its edicts.

-- Love of the people is an aristocratic calling. The democrat only loves the people at election time.

-- The individual shrinks in proportion as the state grows.

-- The one who renounces seems weak to the one incapable of renunciation.

-- Violence is not necessary to destroy a civilization. Each civilization dies from indifference towards the unique values which created it.

-- To have opinions is the best way to escape the obligation of thinking.

-- Nothing multiplies the number of fools so much as the example of celebrities.

-- The importance of an event is inversely proportional to the space which the newspapers devote to it.

-- An individual declares himself a member of some group with the goal of demanding in its name what he is ashamed to claim in his own name.

-- The anger of imbeciles is less frightening than their benevolence.

-- "To be useful to society" is the ambition, or excuse, of a prostitute.

Works for me...

Whoops!

You won't read this on the MSM:

May 27, 2005: What do Arabs really think about the problems that afflict them, and how is this related to the issues Islamic terrorists are fighting and dying (and killing) for? A recent "Opinion Survey of the Arab Street 2005" by Al Arabiya news network provides some interesting answers. The survey sought to see what Arabs thought about the relative lack of economic progress in the Arab world. In answer to the question, “What is stalling development in the Arab world?,” 81 percent chose "Governments are unwilling to implement change and reform.". Eight percent cited "The ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict," while seven percent selected "Civil society is failing to convince governments", and 4 percent chose "Terrorism".

Another question, "What is the fastest way to achieve development in the Arab world?", had 67 percent choosing "Ensuring the rule of law through justice and law enforcement", 23 percent chose "Enhancing freedom of speech", and 10 percent chose "Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict".

Islamic terrorists represent a small minority of Arab thinking, and interests. But most Arab media and governments, for obvious reasons, avoid the “bad government” issues and instead concentrate on the Arab-Israeli conflict as the cause of all that is bad in the Arab world. While few Arab governments support all Islamic terrorists, many support some (like the Palestinian terrorists, or Hizbollah in Lebanon). An Arab government will support terrorists as long as there is no terrorist attacks against themselves, and the terrorists are working against the government’s enemies. Syria has played this game enthusiastically, perhaps too much so, for decades. By getting behind terrorism and hostility towards Israel, Arab dictatorships believe this will distract their people from problems closer to home. But this ploy is working less well of late. The invasion of Iraq in 2003, the forcible removal of an Arab dictator and enthusiastic participation in democratic elections has terrified Arab despots throughout the Middle East. The Islamic terrorists are generally hostile to Arab dictators, but have made deals with the devil in order to survive. Increasingly, Arab people are fed up with the tyrants and terrorists, and are willing to do something about it.

Well was I right or what?

In Iran

"stoning someone to death is not against the law. Using the wrong stone is."



This is what our "liberals" have come defend. If you don't believe me, take a look at the commenters savagery against Danielle Crittenden's post about how risible the claims are that "women's rights" in the Muslim world are comparable to the West.

Oh, and about those stones:



Moral equivalence my *ss.

Smartland vs Heartland

LGF points out a stunning article by Orson Scott Card that ends thusly:

How long did it take for the people to be utterly disenchanted by government-by-fanatics, who see every opponent as evil and make every political decision an article of faith? Afghanistan longed to be free of the Taliban; the people of Iran hunger for freedom now. And when the Puritans were toppled in England, the people rejoiced.

Just so the fanatics who now rule the Democratic Party, serving the cause of Smartland at the expense of the Heartland, will find that if they ever really get control of government, they will quickly be the most hated rulers our country ever had.

Already large numbers of Americans seethe over the puritanical laws imposed on us by anti-democratic judges, who cannot wait for compromise and the political process to "purify" us. Already we are outraged by the propaganda they foist on our children in the schools, without reference to the values of the community or the roots of the American culture.

The Taliban of Smartland will be just as repugnant to the people of America as the Islamist Taliban was to most of the people of Afghanistan.

So as we watch the Democratic Party flush away democratic processes in order to get correct outcomes, it's worth remembering that we're not so different from "those wacky Muslims."

People who are so sure they're right that they are willing to eliminate democratic processes in order to get and keep power are the enemies of freedom for everyone. We may be slow to recognize the danger, but one thing is certain: Once the Puritans have power, everyone else will finally see the cost of their utopia.

And as the Iranians and North Koreans have learned, it's very very hard to get rid of a dictatorship with a puritan ideology. Sometimes you're lucky and a big country comes along and liberates you. But sometimes there's no country big enough to do it, and you just have to hunker down and pretend to think correct thoughts and live some kind of life below the radar.

You know, the way believing Christians do right now at American universities.

[Emphasis mine.]

WOW.

Needless to say, this one gets the RTWT rating -- AND gets added to the Classics links over right.

Kudos to OSC.

Cuckoo In The Dear Darkness

Did I mention that the (literal) King of surreal butchery wanted you to vote for John Kerry. Not that you would've been nuttier than a pecan plantation if you did. Absolutely not.

Lights out.



All the time.

In case you were wondering who the title of third member of the Axis had passed to...

In Support Of Fallaci Against FGM

Let me join Oriana by repeating number 15:

15) infibulation is “the mutilation that the Muslims force on little girls to prevent them, once they are grown . . . from enjoying the sexual act. It is a female castration that the Muslims practice in twenty-eight countries of Islamic Africa and because of which two million persons die each year from sepsis or loss of blood . . .”

I guess I can't travel to Eurabia now without being thrown in their soon to be burgeoning gulags -- along with W and Rummy of course...

Unfortunately, Oriana is probably too ill to travel to Eurabia now -- how she'd love to go gesture at them in person if she could!

Today's Fascifism Update

Michael has it nailed today by first drawing on Hitch:

For whatever it's worth, I know and admire both John Barry and Michael Isikoff, and I can quite imagine that—based on what they had already learned about the gruesome and illegal goings-on at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Abu Ghraib—they found it more than plausible that the toilet incident, or something like it, had actually occurred. A second allegation, that a whole pile of Qurans had been stepped upon at Guantanamo, is equally credible. But mere objectivity requires us to note that this is partly because every prisoner is given a Quran, and that thus there are a lot of them lying around, and that none of this "scandal" would ever have occurred if the prison authorities were not at least attempting to respect Islamic codes.

And then lowering the boom:

For one thing, if Guantanamo were the new gulag, Irene Khan would be languishing in it herself right about now – and so would her family.

And then there's this little bit of perspective for the close:

Anyway, the gulag of our times is in North Korea.

To which a commenter correctly takes him to task:

The Gulag IS North Korea, not in North Korea. Its the world's largest prison.

That would look like this:



Of course, the Fascifists would argue that I'm all wrong. That NK is merely the vanguard of what implementing the Kyoto treaty would look like. And we are evil bastards for not following their enlightened lead. And the NorKorComs must be right since they were helping to campaign for John Kerry.

What more evidence could possibly be needed that they're right?

Right over on the other side that is.

And doing their best to generate funds for the enemy propaganda machine of course:

I'm sure that the real agenda here is that Amnesty donors really open their wallets for work like this. It's all about what message sparks your donors.

Did I mention that the enemy is just getting warmed up?

Bush, Other Top Officials Should Face Torture Probes, Says Amnesty; Urges Arrests if Warranted
Abid Aslam
OneWorld US
Thu., May. 26, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 26 (OneWorld) - Rights watchdog Amnesty International urged foreign governments Wednesday to investigate and prosecute President George W. Bush much as they once did former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

''If the United States permits the architects of torture policy to get off scot-free, then other nations should step into the breach,'' William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a statement launching Amnesty's annual report.

Bush is among a dozen former or current U.S. officials who should be probed by foreign governments because Washington has failed to conduct ''a genuinely independent and comprehensive investigation'' of torture allegations against U.S. troops, commanders, and their civilian overseers, Schulz said.

Others on the Amnesty list of potential targets for investigation and prosecution include Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief George Tenet.

''If the U.S. government continues to shirk its responsibility, Amnesty International calls on foreign governments to uphold their obligations under international law by investigating all senior U.S. officials involved in the torture scandal,'' Schulz said.

''If those investigations support prosecution, the governments should arrest any official who enters their territory and begin legal proceedings against them,'' he added. ''The apparent high-level architects of torture should think twice before planning their next vacation to places like Acapulco or the French Riviera because they may find themselves under arrest as Augusto Pinochet famously did in London in 1998.''

Remember the race between sanity and technology?

If A.I.'s leadership were given the red button, do you think they'd push it?

I do too.

"Because the left is exactly like the Muslims!"

Zimbabwefication, Eh?

"I give him until Saturday." You go David, you go!

A.I. ... should simply be renamed F.I. -- Fascifism International.

CAN. I. MAKE. A. CALL?

... A WHAT?

Eurabian Sharia Watch

"Tom Wolfe once said that Fascism is forever descending on the United States, but that somehow it always lands on Europe. Perhaps the same is true with theocracy?"

I think the countdown clock just burped forward measurably.

Sometimes Slate is worth reading beyond Hitch. But corellated by Michael of course. (HT Glenn)

"This we'll defend."

Yon be there. MSM not.

On Gorgeous George Galloway's lilly white Saddam. Oh bother.

WHOOPS!

Nazi Israeli Watch: "Were we going to deny a victim of terror an ITU bed because that bed already had a terrorist in it?"

It's Not That Newsweek...

Has never written anything I agreed with. (Or Howeiaaarrggghhh! for that matter but I foreshadow too much.) For instance, there's this:

Trippi was planning on retiring to his farm in Maryland after the New Hampshire primary. Still, he wanted to take one last shot, to "bet it all" on Iowa and New Hampshire, knowing that in a protracted fight Dean's candor would kill him. "It's probably a f---ing miracle we're even sitting where we're at," he said, utterly despondent. He fell silent for a while. "The guy," Trippi said suddenly, referring to Dean, "is not ready for prime time. I mean, he's just f---ing not ready for prime time, and he never will be." There were 11 days left before the Iowa caucuses.

Well, actually Joe Trippi said it but Newsweek somehow managed not to edit out a rational assessment of the man who can't quite figure out who his enemies really are...

... unlike the edit job Newsweek's doing on their retraction!

How many different ways can you say Cuckoo?

But James points out that with a little editing it turns out that maybe it's Trippi that's wrong and ol' Howie isn't so crazy after all:

Russert: Republicans will say that the Democrats are speaking a different tune now than they did when they were in control. Robert Byrd, when he was a majority leader in '79, said, "Now, we are at the beginning of Congress. This Congress is not obliged to be bound by the dead hand of the past." And the filibuster used to need 67 votes. They changed it to 60.

Dean: Mm-hmm. . . .

Dean: When the Republicans were in power, they kept a much larger percentage of President Clinton's nominees to the bench. They didn't do it with the filibuster, they did it by bottling them up in committee and not allowing them to move forward.

Russert: The numbers are pretty similar actually.

Dean: OK. They're similar. . . .

Russert: Well, you said there were weapons of mass destruction.

Dean: Some of the things that the president said on our way into Iraq, they just weren't true, and I don't think that's right. So--

Russert: Such as?

Dean: Such as the weapons of mass destruction, which we have all known about, but the--

Russert: Well, you said there were weapons of mass destruction.

Dean: I said I wasn't sure, but I said I thought there probably were. . . .

Russert: When did the president ever suggest that Saddam Hussein was responsible for September 11?

Dean: He didn't. . . .

Russert: Let me stay on your rhetoric. January, I mentioned that [you said] "I hate the Republicans, what they stand for, good and evil, we are the good." In March, you said, "Republicans are brain dead." You mentioned you're a physician--and this is April. "[Dean] did draw howls of laughter by mimicking a drug-snorting Rush Limbaugh. 'I'm not very dignified,' Dean said."

Dean: Well, that's true. A lot of people have accused me of not being dignified.

Yup. Not dignified. And can't tell the difference between Saddam and Obama or Osama or whatever.

But otherwise he seems reasonable to me.

I Remember Beslan

And so does Wretchard.



Do you?

On sleeping with worms. Eh?

Bush Country.

Canada: The coldest banana republic on earth.

"Leftists can remember that they're right about things; some of them just have a hard time remembering why." Actually, it's gotten to be pretty much all of them...

Let's go the other way...

It Could Be True!

Hitch has today's apocalypse update: Time to stop inventing mysteries where none exist... (HT Glenn)

Canuck corruption continues...

I'll take a pass on that Pepsi please...

All You Need To Know About Newsweek ...

Is covered in this post about why Blackfive blogs:

The one part that I left out of this post is that Major Schram's convoy was followed by a car with a Newsweek reporter in it. Once the action began, the reporter and his driver turned and got the hell out of there. If it wasn't for Mat's charge up into the ambushers, they never would have made it out of there alive.

Newsweek never ran a story about my good friend, Mat.

It took a few weeks for me to decide what to do.

I had been reading Stephen Den Beste, Bill Whittle, Frank J.'s IMAO, and Misha for awhile at that point.

I started Blackfive and decided to write about Mat and other Americans like him - people that Newsweek would never tell you about.

It's Mat Schram's blog as much as it is mine.

So, today, on the anniversary of the sacrifice of my friend, please take a moment to pray for the families who have lost their loved ones in our fight against terror. Mat would have liked that.

How the hell can you explain that except to merely note that they're on the other side? (HT Michelle)

“Ya, you betcha!” came the chant of her enraged coreligionist.

I Think We're Past That Point, Actually

"At some point, if I were running the administration, I would re-think whether it makes any sense to continue being polite and cooperative toward reporters."

My Take On Powerline's Take On Hugh's Take On Bennet's Take On ... The Apocalypse

This is just beautiful:

Several readers have pointed out James Bennet's article in today's New York Times on "The Mystery of the Insurgency." We'll turn the floor over to Dafydd ab Hugh for an extended analysis of why Bennet's myopic approach, which is typical of most mainstream commentary on the "insurgency," is so wrong-headed:

Probably harder to figure out than Freud's plaintive cry. At least, the New York Times is completely befuddled in "the Mystery of the Insurgency."

The insurgents in Iraq are showing little interest in winning hearts and minds among the majority of Iraqis, in building international legitimacy, or in articulating a governing program or even a unified ideology or cause beyond expelling the Americans. They have put forward no single charismatic leader, developed no alternative government or political wing, displayed no intention of amassing territory to govern now.

Rather than employing the classic rebel tactic of provoking the foreign forces to use clumsy and excessive force and kill civilians, they are cutting out the middleman and killing civilians indiscriminately themselves, in addition to more predictable targets like officials of the new government. Bombings have escalated in the last two weeks, and on Thursday a bomb went off in heavy traffic in Baghdad, killing 21 people.

This surge in the killing of civilians reflects how mysterious the long-term strategy remains - and how the rebels' seeming indifference to the past patterns of insurgency is not necessarily good news for anyone.

The Times should have given me a call; I know exactly what the "insurgents" want... and the Times's befuddlement is to a large extent because of how they frame the question -- the mystery of the insurgency.

The Times assumes that the killers in Iraq are, in fact, "insurgents." But insurgents have a political plan; no matter how brutal they may be, they see their violence as leading to a political change -- the government will be cast out to be replaced by a new government, typically themselves. Thus, they tend to create shadow directorates that mimic the functions of a government; they have spokespeople who explain their political goals; they try to seize territory to prove they can run it better than the current regime, solving for the people there whatever burning issue is driving the insurgency (land distribution, famine, whatever).

But this is to assume what the Times purportedly wants to discover. If you begin by assuming the killers are "insurgents," then you have limited your conclusions to some Vietnam-style political revolution. Put another way, if you start by assuming that they are insurgents -- then you must wind up concluding that they are insurgents.

But if you look with a more open mind, the closest-fit historical model is not that of the followers of Uncle Ho in Vietnam from the 50s through the mid-70s, or the Algerian insurgency against the French in the 1950s, or the attempts at independence by the Kosovars against the Serbs in the late 90s.

Rather, the best historical precedents are the Aztecs, who turned mere human sacrifice into an art form by killing more and more and more people until they literally may have slaughtered an end to their own empire. Their intent was not to achieve some political goal; they already ruled. Rather, they developed the theological notion that the more people they butchered, the more pleased their bloody gods would be.

With that gloss, the Iraq "insurgency" comes suddenly into crystal-clear focus, like the beginning of the TV show the Outer Limits: the killers in Iraq have no political goal. That is not the point.

The point is to kill. They have invented a whole new kind of murder... they are serial spree killers.

The distinction between a serial killer and a spree killer is that the first kills methodically over time, trying to evade capture so he can continue his murderous pastime; while the second has one violent incident in which he kills a bunch of people, then often kills himself or expects to be slain by the police. What we see today in Iraq is a combination of the two: terror bosses who methodically, over time, set up mass killing events, usually carried out by others who will die in the attempt, but sometimes remotely by themselves (sending a chained driver cruising the streets, then detonating the driver's car when he nears a target of opportunity).

But like serial and spree killers, like those who commit human sacrifice, the motivation is found not in the external world but in his own internal hell, in the voice that only he can hear, from his bloody, eldritch gods, who demand blood and souls, blood and souls in the name of Moloch, or Arioch, or Cthulhu, or Huitzilopochtli, who demand mass sacrifices in the Grand Pyramid (or the Great Mosque -- and it is significant that one of the favorite targets for the killers are mosques full of worshippers, as if they saw their red-dripping thunderclap as an explosive "amen" to the service).

This has significance in strategy. If this were a political insurgency, we would expect it to respond to changes in the political weather, even disbanding when it becomes clear that they have failed to win the hearts and minds of the people. But if the point is a holocaust of human sacrifice -- if instead of winning the people's hearts, they want to cut them out and display them to the cheering crowd, not particularly caring who the victims may be -- then they are like the Terminators of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie: they cannot be bargained with, or reasoned with; they will show no pity or remorse; and they absolutely will not stop until all in Iraq are dead... or until they are destroyed themselves, every last one of them.

Widen your mind. Let's not try to shoehorn every "mysterious" event into the gloss of twentieth-century liberal ideas about political revolution and leftist insurgency. In Iraq, we are not fighting Ho Chi Minh; we are fighting modern-day Aztec priests who want to kill their victims for no reason other than to cut their hearts out and offer their bleeding, still beating hearts to Huitzilopochtli... so let us set our strategy accordingly.

I think we have, actually.

Serial spree killers? Just a new term for out and out nihilism of course.

So what's my take? Zarqawi and the Islamists are all nuttier than Cuckoo Clocks of course. This is what they see ...



or attempt to create ...



every day. And in the few hours they get to sleep now between the Abrams rumbles and F-18 screetches on their tails, this is what they dream of doing to their "enemies"...



Just like their mentor Hitler. (See the tenth paragraph through the end of the "THEORY VERSUS HISTORY" section.)

And the libs and Eurabians see no problem placing a "red button" in front of these people...



I'm sorry, but this is the ultimate case of projection. The libs accuse right-wing Christians of having wet dreams about Revelations.

But they are doing everything in their power to enable the real nuts of Revelations with the technologies to make it happen. In short, they think it makes perfect sense to put a "red button" in front of complete wackos. (What else if not projection?)

This is not to say that the West is without fault in this hellish mess. In a "nutshell", our thirst for oil caused us to recklessly violate the Prime Directive:

As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes the introduction of superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. Star Fleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral obligation.

We are now in a race to right our earlier violations in the only way open to us. We must try to "kickstart" them into the 21st Century while trying to reimpose some level of quarantine on the worst recalcitrants that -- we pray only temporarily -- remain.

Is this risky? Of course. But wild screetches about the beauty of the alternatives are just that. How I wish it weren't so.

It's a race between sanity and technology. And as is well evidenced above, sanity is in a fight for its life.

I would argue with ease that the hell on earth touched on in this post -- and the hellish future that can be easily extrapolated from it -- make Revelations look like child's play.

No?

But at least there are some budding signs that the kickstart may work ...



We can only pray we are not too late...

"If the Qur'an don't fit, you must acquit!"

A Berg In The MSMemory Hole

In many ways:

Some things are unforgivable. What Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his many accomplices did to my brother Nick is unforgivable. It was not an act of war; it was a cold-blooded, premeditated heinous crime. To call it anything else suggests that it is an acceptable act of war, an acceptable response to America’s military action. It is not.

The world would be a better place if al-Zarqawi was no longer in it. He is pure evil. I don’t think someone like him is capable of any human feeling anymore. The only way to keep people like him from harming thousands of other people is to eliminate them.

Before this happened, I did not comprehend the magnitude of his evil and of people like him. But to experience the heinousness of what he did to someone as good and as innocent as my brother has totally changed my perspective. I don’t know how to respond in a humane way to such inhumane acts. I don’t think a humane response is necessary.

What the media did to my family is also unforgivable. They made the worst week of my life infinitely worse. Decision-makers in the media need to make more humane decisions about what is a story and how they get it. Someone should have thought of a shocked, astounded and grieving family when they made those decisions. They spoke of their sympathy for us, but not once did they think the sympathetic thing to do would be to stop harassing us and allow us to grieve in peace.

Sara Berg
Virginia Beach, Va.

I'll probably come up with more to blog about today but that kind of puts things in perspective for a while doesn't it?

On The MSMemory Hole Math Of Terror

Let's see. Alan Colmes tonight was apoplectic about how the new Iraqi government was going to toast because of the terrible upsurge in violence: "400 [Iraqi] lives claimed since the new government was formed about two weeks ago, and we keep hearing about increasing insurgency."

Well sure enough, one is too many.

But let's just stoop to do the math shall we?

The libs aren't going to like the rational analysis though so let me provide a starting point. Or two.

And even the wildly lib Amnesty International points out that Saddam had "the world’s worst record for numbers of persons who have disappeared or remain unaccounted for."

And another estimate from AI:

Amnesty International, an organization known for its seriousness and attention to fact, states that, "since the 1980s, hundreds of thousands of people have ''disappeared'' in Iraq, and their fate and whereabouts remain unknown."

So let's just throw out the more complete estimates ranging from 1 - 7 million dead including wars featuring the documented use of WMD -- even on the Kurds. (Oh -- I forgot -- he got better. So it was perfectly fine to give him the benefit of the doubt about not having WMD.)

So let's throttle back and go with the grave site excavations of the disappeared.

OOPS. Sorry for that inconvenient link suggesting 182,000 Kurd disappeared in 1988 alone. D*mn that Google. Sorry.

So against all evidence I will make the wildly conservative estimate Saddam only disappeared 10,000 people a year for 30 or so years.

Now let's do some math. If Alan Colmes "sky is falling" current death rate holds for the whole year in Iraq there will be 400 people / 2 weeks x 52 weeks killed in Iraq.

For all you mathematically illiterate, I can only feel with my head libs that would be 10,400 people.

So at this disastrous rate of carnage it would approximately be no different -- or more likely quite a bit lower -- than Saddam's "disappeared" rate alone. In other words it would take 30 years of this to get into Saddam's league!

And if you include the various Saddam-initiated wars and add it up into the millions like anyone who would actually qualify as a rational human being then in a mere 3-700 years W's "disastrous folly" will catch up to Saddam's 30 year reign.

Actually, I'm quite surprised that the MSM rags are only reporting 3-7% per year circulation declines for their fine work publicizing such obvious conclusions.

I love the integrity and rationality of the MSM.

Can't you tell?

UPDATE: Ah, yes. Good old neo-Bob forgot to mention that I was high on that 3-700 years by a year or maybe two. My deepest apologies. (And the mathematically literate among you know how to characterize this update -- and it wouldn't be in the serious column ;)

Uhm, I think we are able to identify the real fraud after reading this Fisk. And they would be Congress-critters of you-know-what denomination. (HT Michelle.)

QotD

"People may forget what you said. People may forget what you did. But people will never forget how they felt when they were with you."

UPDATE: Yes, believe it or not, that's a quote from Maya Angelou. But you really need to consider this book instead.

Don't be a whiner, Dave...

Glenn has an update on the Church of the Left. Of which, Stanley's latest update is here.

Today's Quote -- And An Update From Bernard Lewis

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." -- Einstein

The West vs. the Islamists in a nutshell. Though he was probably referring to Hitler of course.

And now the leftists that haven't yet will be consigning Bernard Lewis to the memory hole as he has broken the code of silence about the relationship between Haj Mohammad Amin Al-Husseini, Rashid Ali al-Gailani, and Hitler.

After you've RTWT you need to go brush up on the "Previous Jaw Dropper" over right...

Bernard Lewis? The fascifists will be calling him a fascist in no time, eh?

UPDATE: I forgot to mention Bernard is now in the Classics over right...

UPDATE: Egregious typo rule invoked!

Projection Reprise

Part 2,735,643,463,797. To the 374^th.

And that would be Blogger (sadly still), not MS Word...

That's a third world country to our north, eh?

UPDATE: And we will need the Queen to save them? Brother!

"I just hope that there is enough of the "Old Europe" left to justify our saving it.

Again."

Signs It Won't Quite Work Out ...

The way these people Cuckoo Clocks expect:



Chalk up another one for the there is justice in the world files...

The NYeT Staffing Pipeline

"Long winded writing and dodgy facts." Yes, just what we need is more Jayson Blairs to go along with 17th.

Oh brother...

Perfectly Puerile Projection

Projection is back big time.

Gelernter strikes hard on the Dhimmi-crats and their Infantile American Principle:

Now some readers will say, hold on, be fair! Democrats only oppose vouchers because the teachers unions ordered them to. Agreed, teachers unions are a big factor in every major decision a good Democrat makes, starting with what cereal to have for breakfast. But Democrats also oppose vouchers out of honest conviction. They are honestly convinced that ordinary Americans don't have the brains to choose a school for their own kids.

The way I normally think of them is as puerile fascifists. But that's just because I tend toward thinking the best of folks rather than taking the avalanche of evidence at face value that they're on the other side.

Control complexes result in puerile projection. My IQ -- not to mention EQ -- is Oh so much lower than theirs.

NOT.

And go read the hat tip from Armed Liberal while you're in the neighborhood...

"In truth, in a free society, income is earned through pleasing and serving one’s fellow man. I mow your lawn, repair your roof or teach your kid economics. In turn you give me dollars. We can think of dollars as certificates of performance."

Hitch Is Back

With an overdue obit for the "Arab street":

Other Muslim streets are even more problematic for those who lazily assume that the jihadists are the voice of the unheard. The populations of Bosnia and Kosovo—populations that actually did have to confront anti-Muslim violence on a large scale—are generally hostile to Bin-Ladenism. Nobody has ever used the term "Iranian street," at least in print or on broadcast news, if only because everyone knows that Iranian opinion, as registered during the mock elections or voiced to visiting hacks, is strongly against the reigning theocracy.

This doesn't entitle those of us in the regime-change camp to claim the "street" either. It simply means that those who once annexed the term have been forced to drop it, and for a good reason. The struggle for public opinion in the region is a continuing one and cannot be determined in advance, least of all by pseudo-populists who grant the violent Islamists their first premise.

The same will hold true, one hopes, for the cheap propagandists who have lately been flourishing the term "Islamophobia." This word, or slogan, has been gaining ground among soft defenders of Islamism in Europe. It is used to put a stop to discussion about the political aims of Islamists in non-Islamic societies, and it has most recently generated great nervousness in Britain—sufficient nervousness to decide the Blair government to introduce legislation to make criticism of Islam into a prohibited hate crime.

Here again, the most persuasive evidence is the evidence that looks us in the face. In Iraq, Muslim militants place bombs in the mosques of those Muslims they regard as heretics. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, too, the Salafi and Wahhabi extremists commit murder against Muslims they deem unclean or unorthodox. And in the West, there are non-Muslims who excuse such atrocities as "resistance." These are often the same as those who hailed what they thought of as the "street." I don't think they should be indicted for hate crimes, but they should be made to understand that what they say is hateful and criminal, as well as sectarian. The battle for clarity of language is a part of this larger contest, and it is time for the opponents of terror and bigotry to become very much less apologetic and defensive on this score.

And so they would if not for being so risibly puerile...

Canuck corruption continues cheekily...

This Is What *NOT* NYeT

Reads like:

May 2, 2005: There are increasing signs that a rift has developed in the Baath Party leadership. It appears that two camps are emerging. The more moderate group – who might be termed “Accomodationists” – seems to have decided that continuing armed resistance to the Interim Government and its American and Coalition supports is likely to get nowhere, and merely alienate Iraq’s Sunni Arabs, who are the backbone of Baath support. In recent weeks representatives of the Accomodationists reportedly have been in contact with the Iraqi government, US officials, moderate Sunni leaders, and UN personnel. The Iraqi Transitional Government has UN support. The Accomodationists are seeking to discuss terms under which an amnesty might be offered and formal legitimacy accorded the Baath as one of the country’s political parties. Presumably some complex negotiations will result from this. How the more radical Baath Party supporters – call them the “Rejectionists” – will react to this is not clear. Even before Saddam, factions in the Baath movement were wont to settle their differences with bloodshed, so a Baath purge or even civil war is not out of the question.

The Syrian pullout from Lebanon may have some interesting effects on the Iraqi violence. The Syrians have indicated that they will be using the troops released by the pull-out to bolster the security of their frontier with Iraq. This will impede the movement of personnel and materiel from Syria into Iraq in support of the anti-government forces, while, not incidentally, improving Syria’s image with the US and other Western Powers.

Perhaps of equal importance, however, is that the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, leaves Iraqi-sympathizing groups in Lebanon – such as Hezbollah and other Islamist and pro-Palestinian militias – without the moderating influence that the Syrian presence provided. The Syrians more or less protected these groups from any threats by the Lebanese government to bring them to heel, provided some security against Israeli intervention, and kept the sometimes mutually-hostile groups from attacking each other. With the Syrians gone, these groups, which have been supplying men, money, and equipment to the Iraqi terrorists, are likely to reduce their level of support for the Iraqi terrorism in order to strengthen themselves in Lebanon.

In April, the level of car bomb were the highest in about six months. While it's not always easy to determine what the objectives of car bombs attacks are, it seems that only about a quarter of the attacks actually have been successful, in the sense that they hit the planned target. About a third more were partial successes, in that they did some damage to the intended target but detonated prematurely. About another third seem to have been intercepted by security forces or detonated so prematurely that they caused no damage to their intended targets. Naturally, even the premature detonations have killed or injured people. Most of the casualties have been Iraqi civilians, although most of the attacks seem to have actually been aimed at Iraqi, American, or Coalition forces. On the other hand, the assassination rate in April was about average for the past six months, running about 10-15 a week (though the rate for January was very high due to the terrorists attempt to disrupt the elections). Although a mid-level member of the interim government was killed this past week, most of the victims have been relatively low level political, police, and military officials.

The "De-Baathification" Process is a big issue. Accomodationist Baath leaders have been quietly negotiating with Iraqi Interim Government authorities about integration into the political process. The question of "de-Baathification" seems to be a stumbling block. The Baathists would like a halt to further investigations and persecutions. Many Shias and Kurds in the government, and even a few American politicians, seem to want a total purge of all Baath influence, which would mean the complete exclusion of anyone with Baath connections from any role in a new Iraqi government. While parallel's with the "de-Nazification" of Germany have been drawn, most of those drawing the parallels have missed the point. In fact, the Allied de-Nazification of Germany did not actually go very deep. The focus of de-Nazification was primarily on decapitating the Nazi movement. Of the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Nazi Party members, only about 6,000 were actually ever charged by Allied officials during the occupation of Germany. And only about 600 were actually sent to jail (this excludes people charged with specific war crimes). Most former Nazi Party members were quickly reintegrated into civil and political life. Even among those sent to jail, almost all were out within a decade.

One major difference between Iraq and Nazi Germany is that in Iraq, Baath diehards continue to fight to regain power. There was no such Nazi terror campaign after World War II. Also, the German Nazis came from every region and religion in the country, while nearly all of the Iraqi Baath and al Qaeda terrorists are Sunni Arabs, which are less than twenty percent of the population. Recently, the Iraqi terrorists have made another major effort to break the morale, and effectiveness, of the government, and particularly the police. In the last four days, terrorist attacks have killed some 120 people, mostly civilians. In the last two months, over 400 Iraqi security troops (police, army, security guards) have been killed, out of a force of over 150,000. An equal number of Coalition troops only lost 87 dead in the same period. This has become a war of Iraqi versus Iraqi. More precisely, it's Sunni Arab terrorists killing Iraqi civilians (including Sunni Arabs.) The Shia and Kurd hard liners are calling for harsh policies against the Sunni population that harbors and supports the terrorists. The government is using this very real threat to get Sunni leaders to negotiate a peace deal. This includes the tribal and religious leaders providing information on where the terrorists are. The terrorists have threatened to kill any Sunni Arabs who do this, and have carried out attacks on Sunni leaders to prove their threat. But more and more Sunni Arabs are ratting out the terrorists, and in the last two months, dozens of raids, often carried out by Iraqi police, have shut down bomb factories and terrorist safe houses. But many of the terrorists are determined to fight to the death. In this respect, they are more like the Japanese soldiers of World War II, not the Nazi German troops. Alas, the Japanese troops, at least most of them, obeyed their emperor's command to surrender in August, 1945. There is no emperor of the Islamic terrorists, and many of the terrorists will fight to the death, the others will become disillusioned and go home. The Iraqi Sunni Arabs have declared Iraq to be the battlefield for a war between Islamic radicals and the rest of the world. The Sunni Arabs have to decide whose side they are on, before the rest of Iraq declares war on them.

Surely you've become a regular Strategy Page reader by now?

And surely you've cancelled your subscription by now to any retarded [That would be pretty much all of them -ed. Can't argue with that.] MSM rags you still retain...

Warren takes on arrant nonsense.

And errant nonsense too. (See the last post.)

Did I Mention That W Is Actually A Septenthian?

Mary Madigan rocks with this post:

Unfortunately, also last week our President exploded another myth. He just killed the belief that America has been fighting a war against terrorism by publicly begging the financier and the source of most Islamist terrorism for a favor.

Appeasing the Saudi government and helping the Royals in any way they can has been a long-standing policy of our Government. It’s doubtful that the Democrats could criticize Bush for his actions when Clinton accepted millions in Saudi donation towards the building of his library, or when Jimmy Carter accepts many millions in Saudi donations for ‘peace’ in Africa.

But like many Democrats, the Bush administration still seems to be living in a 9/10 universe. According to this article, Pump Dreams, published in the New Yorker and in the Energy Bulletin, Dick Cheney stated that the war in Iraq was necessary to protect America’s friends in the region:

.. in August, 2002, seven months before the war started, Cheney warned that Saddam would be able to seize control of the world’s economic lifeline if he acquired weapons of mass destruction: “Armed with an arsenal of these weapons of terror, and seated atop ten per cent of the world’s oil reserves, Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek domination of the entire Middle East, take control of a great portion of the world’s energy supplies, directly threaten America’s friends throughout the region, and subject the United States or any other nation to nuclear blackmail.”

America's friends as in Saudi Arabia. Saudi oil wealth pays Osama bin Laden’s salary, and the salaries of most Islamist terror organizations around the world. They are responsible for 9/11. As our president held Abdullah’s hand, Abdullah’s employee and friend, chief justice of Saudi Arabia's Supreme Judicial Council Sheik Saleh Al Luhaidan encouraged young Saudis to go to Iraq to kill American soldiers.

"This statement shows the real face of the Saudi government," says Saudi dissident Ali Al-Ahmed of the Saudi Institute, based in Washington.

Al-Ahmed says that while Saudi officials — including Sheik Luhaidan — publicly oppose jihad in Iraq, privately some send a different message.

"He is telling Saudis it's OK to go to Iraq and kill Americans and Iraqis and they won’t be punished for doing that," says Al-Ahmed.

Young Saudis don’t need Al Luhaidan to tell them to kill Americans. They were happy to do that on 9/11, and they’ve been killing, maiming American soldiers and destroying the Iraqi oil fields since the ‘end’ of the Iraq war. As we can see from oil prices, terrorism has been very profitable for the KSA.

These are our friends?

Of course, in WWII FDR had to make common cause with Stalin to defeat Hitler. I sincerely hope that's what W is doing. What's going on with Musharraf in Pakistan comes to mind along that vein.

Or W may still be a Septenthian.

And some of us actually understand that another key player in this battle is either nuttier than a Cuckoo clock or a step from Lucifer himself.

Or BOTH.

Ummmm -- Yes, Mr. Khamenei

That would be correct:

Tehran, 27 April (AKI) - The Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said that “human rights, are a weapon in the hands of our enemies to fight Islam.”

Speaking at the Conference for the Unity of Islam which opened in Tehran yesterday, Khamenei said: “The awakening of Muslims, had weakened the plot by America, by international Zionism and by other hidden forces on the planet implicated in a universal strategy which has the objective of fighting Islamic nations, which are a force of one and a half billion believers and with the large natural reserves.”

To a mixed audience of Iranians, Arabs and other foreigners at the conference, Ayatollah Khamenei said that it was “only through the unity of all Muslims, can they confront these diabolical attempts.”

Khamenei also explained how Iran is viewed globally in the role that it plays within the context of Islam. As the supreme leader of the Islamic republic, he said, that the “country has contributed to the awakening of Muslims and our enemies are trying to compensate for their poverty of thought, and so they have raised the banner of terrorism and are armed with human rights in order to defeat Islam and Muslims.”

Yes. That would be all that "poverty of thought" contained in the Magna Carta, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution and modern science. You know, all that stuff that the Islamists are too busy chopping off heads to read up on.

Anyone who can't understand the Iranian Islamists as the brutal paranoid thugs that they are from comments like this -- not to mention their actions -- is quite simply insensate.

Or worse...

BINGO.

First go read "The Last Jaw Dropper" over right. Then read these few paragraphs. Then ponder them together...

"They sit there with blank expressions, mouths hanging open like a brook trout, staring off into the distance."

Majority Vote Wins

Ann strikes again:

If the details helped liberals, I promise you we'd be hearing the details. Most important, if liberals could win in the court of public opinion, they wouldn't need the federal courts to hand them their victories in the first place. The reason liberals refuse to elaborate on "extremist right-wing ideologue" is that they need liberal courts to give them gay marriage, a godless Pledge of Allegiance, abortion on demand, nude dancing, rights for pederasts, and everything else they could never win in America if it were put to a vote.

Umm -- yeah.

Who turned my world upside down?

Quoting: The Ultimate Cruelty

MSMemory Hole Update: Pot. Kettle. Nuts?

Here's nice encapsulation of the state of the loony left -- which now seems truly indistinguishable to me from the corpus of the Dhimmi party -- in it's conspiracy unified effort to repeal majority voting for judicial nominations.

You really can't understand this sort of stuff anymore without the help of Dr. Sanity I'm afraid... (And here's the series you missed...)

Our Moderate Salazar

Salazar and the Dhimmi-crats told the people of Colorado that they were electing a moderate. Yes, that's right -- moderates have a habit labeling people they don't like as the "anti-Christ". And then his "apology" is to back off and call a Christian preacher "un-Christian". So his idea of a safe retreat to a moderate position when (inevitably) exposed as a hateful radical is a moderated position of ad hominem attack.

One word: Horsepucky.

Sowell Rocks On Redneck Culture

This just got added to my classics:

For most of the history of this country, differences between the black and the white population--whether in income, IQ, crime rates, or whatever--have been attributed to either race or racism. For much of the first half of the 20th century, these differences were attributed to race--that is, to an assumption that blacks just did not have it in their genes to do as well as white people. The tide began to turn in the second half of the 20th century, when the assumption developed that black-white differences were due to racism on the part of whites.

Three decades of my own research lead me to believe that neither of those explanations will stand up under scrutiny of the facts. As one small example, a study published last year indicated that most of the black alumni of Harvard were from either the West Indies or Africa, or were the children of West Indian or African immigrants. These people are the same race as American blacks, who greatly outnumber either or both.

If this disparity is not due to race, it is equally hard to explain by racism. To a racist, one black is pretty much the same as another. But, even if a racist somehow let his racism stop at the water's edge, how could he tell which student was the son or daughter of someone born in the West Indies or in Africa, especially since their American-born offspring probably do not even have a foreign accent?

What then could explain such large disparities in demographic "representation" among these three groups of blacks? Perhaps they have different patterns of behavior and different cultures and values behind their behavior.

...

Disparities between Southern whites and Northern whites extended across the board from rates of violence to rates of illegitimacy. American writers from both the antebellum South and the North commented on the great differences between the white people in the two regions. So did famed French visitor Alexis de Tocqueville.

RTWT -- it's not long...

Borking pure and simple...

Another Crucial Milestone

In Egypt is pointed out by Glenn:



Yup. No burkas and ropes for her!

"The Democratic tent has shrunk to the size of a dunce cap."

Democracy NYeT!
Sad, but the NYeT norm I'm afraid...

If it's real, now you know who to blame.

The lighter side of evil. And you absolutely must read Wretchard's take if you can't take the time to RTWT...

What Hateful Idiot Leftists Will Never, Ever, Never Ever

Get:

Let nobody mislead you, the Iraq that we inherited in April 2003, following the British and American-led liberation, was a tragedy.

The Ba’athist criminals had starved the country of an infrastructure and the people of their freedom.

Apart from the Kurdish safe haven, Iraq was a playground for thugs and a prison for the innocent.

Saddam’s war against the Iraqi people was on-going; we have evidence which demonstrates that the regime was executing its challengers until the last days of its rule.

It was that war, lasting almost forty years, which was the true war of Iraq.

(HT: Roger again)

"Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment" (HT: Roger)

"It follows that President Bush should be inviting Muslims like that to his ranch, not Muslims like Crown Prince Abdullah."

Gandering And Guffawing At Galloway's Gallows

Sometimes you may think there's no justice in the world. But once in while a story comes along that just warms your heart like this one about British Saddam sycophant George Galloway:

Given Galloway's high profile anti-war record, his richly deserved reputation as a Muslim sycophant and his frequent visitor status with Saddam, plus the fact that Muslims may be reluctant to vote for a black Jewish woman and even less likely to vote Conservative, George had reason on his side in thinking he could have been a natural shoo-in.

Alas, last Wednesday night's public meeting ended in a knock-down drag-out between just about everyone. At a dinner in the nearby Bangladeshi curry restaurant (sit down and take-out) Zeera, at a $50-a-head fundraising for King, a surprise celebrity had been announced.

Meanwhile, before King's fundraiser, Galloway and King met on the hustings for some electioneering before a crowd made up mainly of young Muslim men. The sitting MP, King, who holds the Labour seat with a 10,000 vote majority, many of them middle class whites, told the crowd that a vote for Respect would split the Labour vote and hand a victory to the Conservatives. Galloway accused Tony Blair of "waging war on Muslims" and accused Oona King of being "soft on drugs".

Vituperative accusations flew back and forth between the two candidates. Meanwhile, the crowd of young Muslim men pelted King with eggs and slashed her tires. The Independent's Johann Hari wrote of the Muslim men (no women): "They are intelligent and furious young conservatives, driven by hatred of Western liberalism in all its forms, and absolutely convinced they are being viciously persecuted by the 'infidel' state. It is very hard to engage them in a political dialogue that makes sense -- you talk tax credits and they talk Caliphate, you talk a higher minimum wage and they talk about Mohammed's third wife."

Sure enough, if the Muslim crowd didn't like King, neither did they like Galloway -- who has adopted almost every conservative Islamic position on almost everything, and, like Rod Stewart in his golden oldie Maggie Mae, "couldn't have tried any more" -- accusing him of being "a false prophet".

As the crowd was turning ugly, back at the Bangladeshi Zeera, which had had the honor of preparing a take-out for the IOC when they visited London, the surprise celebrity had entered and turned out to be none other than the prime minister's wife Cherie, a High Court judge. Ms. Booth (as she prefers to be called when it suits her), no lightweight, hove onto the little platform and began attacking George Galloway and Respect with a level of petty invective and vulgarity surprising from a British High Court judge.

"I'm sure his mother loves him," she sneered, inexplicably. "But," she revved up the crowd, "give George Galloway a bloody nose!"

The crowd at the hustings had more than a bloody nose in mind for George, informing him that they were "setting up a gallows" for him. It seems that, among the many other things about the West that offend him, Allah doesn't like voting, either. According to these angry young Muslims, the revealed truth is, voting is "un-Islamic". Live and learn. Any young Muslims contemplating voting for Galloway and Respect were warned that they would attract a sentence of death. One of them went so far as to issue a fatwa on Galloway, although as a non-cleric his word carries no weight other than intimidation.

As the level of invective and violence rose, and the two groups of Muslims turned to punching, pulling offensive weapons and kicking each other, Galloway's daughter, who had been waiting for him in his car, called the police.

The bad news is that these people psychopaths want to kill us too...

Move along now. The U.N. is perfect. Perfect I tell ya...

ACLU hypocrisy watch.

A NEW BENCHMARK IN MSM INSANITY? "Last night, the BBC claimed that the exercise was part of a "completely legitimate programme about the history and art of political heckling" and said that other parties' meetings were being "observed". However, The Telegraph has established that none of Tony Blair's meetings was infiltrated or disrupted in similar fashion." Brother.

Well at least we can breathe easy that he won't be an ambassador -- until the next Dhimmi-crat administration...

The Roots Of Modern Jihad

Bat Yeor puts the Armenian genocide in context in a quote embedded in an article by Dr. Bostom:

The genocide of the Armenians was the natural outcome of a policy inherent in the politico-religious structure of dhimmitude. This process of physically eliminating a rebel nation had already been used against the rebel Slav and Greek Christians, rescued from collective extermination by European intervention, although sometimes reluctantly.

The genocide of the Armenians was a jihad. No rayas took part in it. Despite the disapproval of many Muslim Turks and Arabs, and their refusal to collaborate in the crime, these masssacres were perpetrated solely by Muslims and they alone profited from the booty: the victims' property, houses, and lands granted to the muhajirun, and the allocation to them of women and child slaves. The elimination of male children over the age of twelve was in accordance with the commandments of the jihad and conformed to the age fixed for the payment of the jizya. The four stages of the liquidation- deportation, enslavement, forced conversion, and massacre- reproduced the historic conditions of the jihad carried out in the dar-al-harb from the seventh century on. Chronicles from a variety of sources, by Muslim authors in particular, give detailed descriptions of the organized massacres or deportation of captives, whose sufferings in forced marches behind the armies paralleled the Armenian experience in the twentieth century.

Didn't realize how historically ignorant we are of the Jihad, did you?

Did I mention Annie's back?

And you're not going to believe what you will learn about James Woods...

Move along now. No pattern here...

Tinfoil Apocalypse Watch

Here comes our next failure of imagination.

They won't get the subs though. And after a few million dead we will use them.

UPDATE: Wretchard foreshadows an update to the Three Conjectures...

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: An actual examination of the Constitution and a review of the historical context of the Fortas filibuster. But let's not have facts get in the way...

Do what I say...

Thanks Bangor!

The part they leave out...

The concise critique...

Today's Air Safety Announcement

Things you didn't know that will prepare you for things you may find yourself needing to do:

Hey guys, there's a way to open those lavatory doors on an airplane. There's usually a small metal plate underneath the "locked" sign. You can lift it up, and there is a latch underneath. Slide it over. Then open the door. Have a cup of hot coffee in your hand, that you just got from the galley. If he's doing nothing bad, say "excuse me". If he IS up to no good, throw the hot coffee in his face, and scream TERRORIST! HELP!

Do this if some of these middle east goons are on your flight making synchronistic hand-signals and going to the lavs together and staying in there a long time.

No one else is going to save your lives. There's not air marshalls on every flight.

THAT will teach THEM a lesson.

Good practical advice...

Hoot! Hil's hot!

On The Lamm

Glenn has it right on the recent Richard Lamm row. What DU admin is saying by not publishing it is that they have (or believe they have) largely left wing donors -- and they're too stupid and easily offended to read Dick's piece.

Of course, that's true of leftists in general so we're really not plowing any new ground but rather rehashing leftist projection.

Anyway, here's "Two Wands" (reproduced here in its entirety since it's not getting enough exposure):

Two Wands
Richard D. Lamm
Center for Public Policy and Contemporary Issues

Let me offer you, metaphorically, two magic wands that have sweeping powers to change society. With one wand you could wipe out all racism and discrimination from the hearts and minds of white America. The other wand you could wave across the ghettoes and barrios of America and infuse the inhabitants with Japanese or Jewish values, respect for learning, and ambition. But, alas, you can t wave both wands. Only one.

Which would you choose? I understand that many would love to wave both wands; no one can easily refuse the chance to erase racism and discrimination. But I suggest that the best wand for the society and for those who live in the ghettoes and barrios would be the second wand.

This metaphor is important in correctly diagnosing one of the most significant problems facing contemporary America: the large economic, education and employment gap between Black/Hispanic America and White/Asian America. The problems of crime, educational failure, drugs, gangs, teenage pregnancy, and unemployment that burden certain groups threaten our collective future. They form a nation-threatening social pathology that must be addressed in broader terms than we have done to date.

Most discussion of minority failure blames racism and discrimination. I m an old civil rights lawyer and such racism and discrimination clearly still exists. But the problem is, I fear, deeper than the current dialogue. We need to think honestly about these problems with new sophistication. One of these new areas is to recognize that increasingly scholars are saying culture matters.

I m impressed, for instance, that minorities that have been discriminated against earn the highest family incomes in America. Japanese Americans, Jews, Chinese Americans, and Korean Americans all out-earn white Americans by substantial margins and all have faced discrimination and racism. We put Japanese Americans in camps 60 years ago and confiscated much of their property. Yet today they out-earn all other demographic groups. Discrimination and racism are social cancers and can never be justified but it is enlightening that, for these groups, they were a hurdle, not a barrier to success.

The Italians, the Irish, the people from the Balkans America has viewed all these groups and many more with hostility and suspicion, yet all have integrated and succeeded. Hispanic organizations excuse their failure rates solely in terms of discrimination by white America and object vociferously when former Education Secretary Lauro Cavazos observes that Hispanic parents don t take enough interest in education. But Cuban Americans have come to America and succeeded brilliantly. Do we discriminate against Hispanics from Mexico but not Hispanics from Cuba?

I suggest that those groups whose culture and values stress delayed gratification, education, hard work, success and ambition are those groups that succeed in America regardless of discrimination. I further suggest that, even if discrimination was removed, other groups would still have massive problems until they develop the traits that lead to success. Asian and Jewish children do twice as much homework as Black and Hispanic students, and get twice as good grades. Why should we be surprised?

A problem well defined is a problem half-solved. We must recognize that all the civil rights laws in the world are not going to solve the problem of minority failure. Ultimately Blacks and Hispanics are going to have to see that the solution is largely in their own hands. Lionel Sosa, one of America s leading Hispanic businessmen, in his book The Americano Dream, titles his first chapter Escaping the Cultural Shackles.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan has insightfully observed, the central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

Thus, morally, I would want badly to wave both wands; if I had to choose, I would wave the second wand. A Confucian or Jewish love of learning would gain minorities far more than any affirmative action laws we might pass.

[Emphasis mine.]

Biology AND culture. Or should I say CULTURE (with a hint of biology)?

“Can I just sit here and read?”

DON'T. MISS. THIS!

Vacuuming Out The MSMemory Hole

Freedom for Lebanon? Vanished down the MSMemory Hole of course. This one is a real eye-opener including stats on AP newswire content!

And of course, demonstrations in Iraq are not what the MSM wants you to believe...

UPDATE: In case you missed it, the entirety of the Steyn "Bish" column is worthy of redux on this topic as well...

"Unable to prosper in the medium, liberals have taken to denouncing talk radio as a threat to democracy."

Yes, OF COURSE astroturf is fake!

Unbalanced Redux

I bet you missed my post on "What the h*ll are they thinking?"



It's short. I'm patient. Come back when you're done.

Now read this series by Dr. Sanity. (Kudos Roger and a tip from the comments as well)

Narcisism is pretty scary huh? When you're not balanced then you're, well, unbalanced! Why didn't YOU think of that?

And you never thought evil might seem almost understandable did you?

Yikes! A completely new imperative for the virtue of moderation.

Something Is Finally Missing!

Can you believe it?



I can't.

I never thought I'd be glad to see Old Glory taken down...

Accurate but fake.

On Hating Lincoln Today

In case you were wondering how much the libs would hate Lincoln if he were alive today:

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
-- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th President of the United States

The venom shown to Bush and Reagan would be a pittance compared to what he'd be dealing with today.

And it was plenty bad back then...

On The Gaming Of Near Martyrdom

As if my last post regarding the Palis didn't open your eyes. The child victims of Hamas et al are figuring out how to game their captors!

And yes, that would be Hamas.

You see, the Palestinian children have now figured out that they can escape Hamas brutality via "near martyrdom" with its positive rep in the PA and still safely end up with a better education than they could get in Yassar's burnt-out shell -- in Israeli prison!

There is justice in the world! Leave it to the children to show us the way.

The last laugh may be on the neanderthal thugs after all -- even in the land of al-Husseini...

Apparently, the Japanese think it's finally robot time...