#1
At the rate multiple health threats are converging on sub-Saharan Africa, along with the various endemic warfare problems, overpopulation may soon cease to be an issue.
So what does His Majesty think about Kim Ding-Dong Ills plans to set off a test nuke?
Were sure youre dying to know.
We think that its bloody hilarious. The poor little dysfunctional twit is getting so desperate for attention that hes willing to pop off 50% or so of his nuclear arsenal in order to get the adults to at least look in his direction, much like a particularly ill-tempered three-year-old will smear feces on his teddy bear to get mommy and daddy to give a good damn.
But who can blame him? Hes a sad little piece of shit, a midget with a gay haircut in command of a country with the GDP of Podunk, Missouri, who somehow managed to get a hold of a big fire cracker, presumably by pimping out his sister to one of his cousins. Well, actually he got it by pimping out Madeline not-so-bright to the dumbest load of horse crap to ever occupy the White House, but we repeat ourself.
And hes been viciously ignored. Nobody wants to come to his birthday parties, all of the cool kids at school are busying themselves sticking KICK ME! signs to his back and even the pig at the local petting zoo is refusing his amorous advances.
He is truly a sad little excuse for a human being.
But let him set off his baby nuke. Let him, by all means, decimate his arsenal just to get our attention and let us all hope and pray that his latest stunt is met with the same success as his recent launch of his Limp Dong missile, a dick that only managed to stay up for less than 40 seconds. Obviously Cialis and Viagra arent easy to come by in Pyong Gyang.
Then, after were all done laughing at this latest premature miscalculation and admiring the warm glow from what used to be a North Korean test site, lets really fuck up his day by wiping an unpopulated, desert island in the Pacific off the map with a single Trident just because we can, making sure to let him know that we wont even have to call the sub back for resupply.
Then lets place a Geiger Counter embargo on his pathetic little excuse for a nation.
So Kimchee? By all means go ahead. Weve already witnessed the technical expertise of your little insignificant swamp of a nation, and we just cant wait to watch the fallout of your latest attempt. Pun very much intended.
Maybe the radiation will turn you into a mutant with the ability to maintain an erection for more than 30 seconds.
Free speech is under attack in Belgium. Over the last five months, the Brussels Journal, a conservative blog, and its editor, journalist Paul Belien, have been falsely accused of posting racist comments, prompting condemnation from politicians and calls for prosecution. Complaints filed anonymously with the Belgian government's watchdog for racism in cyberspace led to an official investigation, including police visits to the Belien residence.
In the wake of racially motivated shootings that left two dead in May, the Brussels Journal was blamed for fomenting racial hostility. What stories sparked official ire? Not surprisingly, the answer seems to be the blog's stark assessment of the problems that large, unassimilated Muslim communities have created, as well as Mr. Belien's attacks on the politically correct mindset that allowed Europe to slip into its current predicament.
Attempts to blame Mr. Belien for racial tension show how unwilling Belgian officials are to confront the real problems created by the communities of unassimilated Muslims -- not to mention the possible homegrown Islamist threat that reared its head yet again this month in Britain.
Mr. Belien offered a valuable perspective of the Paris riots and the concocted outrage over the Mohammed cartoons, and he has established himself as a journalist willing to ruffle feathers with stories that the traditional media overlook. An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that criticized the Belgian press for ignoring the king's opposition to legislation legalizing abortion, which had just passed both houses of parliament, cost him his newspaper job in 1990.
Racism has no place in the much-needed discussion on the increasing number of Muslim immigrants in Europe, but neither do hypersensitivity or politically motivated allegations of racism -- both of which are tactics to curtail the debate before it begins. And censorship has no place in a free society.
From what we've seen of the English version of the Brussels Journal, the accusations of racism are utterly baseless. Mr. Belien is guilty only of vigorously expressing his opinion, and in many cases it would benefit Belgium -- and Europe as a whole -- to heed the advice from the Brussels Journal rather than to criminalize it.
Remember Jimmy Carter's buffoonish brother Billy, known for "Billy Beer" and dealing with Libyan dictator Gadhafi? Well, Hillary Clinton has a brother, too, and, as reported in the Washington Times, Anthony D. "Tony" Rodham was named recently in an Alexandria, Virginia bankruptcy court filing that could boomerang on Hillary herself as she prepares her presidential run. The Tony Rodham story, in which he is accused of being paid and loaned hundreds of thousand of dollars to lobby for presidential pardons, could resurrect numerous Clinton scandals.
The media's blackout of this story demonstrates how Senator Clinton is once again benefiting from the protection provided by the mainstream media. At the very least, she ought to be asked what she thinks of her brother's legal predicament. And if she won't answer, they should ask Bill Clinton about it.
The story takes us back to the end of husband Clinton's second term in office, when he made a number of very dubious pardons, some for significant amounts of cash. Hillary's brother Tony had received $244,769 in salary, and loans totaling over $100,000 from people who were granted presidential pardons. According to the suit, he didn't pay them back.
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#1
Is this comedy central? Monks beating peace protestors and now Hillary's brother getting paid thousands for lobbying his sister to get evil carnies out of jail.BWAAA!!!! We need a new section here at RB, we could call it the coffee alert section.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/18/2006 8:43 Comments ||
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#2
Raise this during her campaign and you'll be accused of Swiftboating her. The truth of the facts noted will never be addressed
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/18/2006 8:44 Comments ||
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Gee, I wonder why Bill Clinton would give a pardon to Marc Rich?
#4
I am NOT in favor of dragging family members into the political fray. If her brothers started campaigning for her then they are fair game but to simply drag out dirt to hopefully dirty Hillary is out of bounds IMHO. There is plenty of dirt and lack of expertise to hang on Hillary without dragging her wierdo family through the ringer as well.
#6
I'm for using the same tactics the Donks use to attack Trunks, on the Donks. They need a serious taste of their own medicine, until they can't stand it.
#9
I'm with Sarge. There are plenty of things to attack Hillary over without even impugning her character, let alone her familys. Like what shes said, done, and stands for.
New York City on Wednesday released more audiotapes from September 11, the day whose realities won't go away no matter how corrosive and divided our national politics become.
What are the realities of 9/11? . . . The more enduring reality is the one manifest last week when British authorities stopped a plot to destroy perhaps 10 passenger planes over the Atlantic Ocean: Five years after September 11, radical Islam remains an ideology whose active intention is to annihilate civilians around the world on a massive scale, and to do so repeatedly.
On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff put before us the reality that should, but doesn't, transcend all the others now. "We've got to have a legal system that lets us . . . prevent things from happening rather than . . . reacting after the fact." But we don't. . . .
Over the past year the Democrats have built a political case that President Bush's conduct of the war on terror is trampling civil liberties and the rule of law. There is a list for the Bush assault on "our values": the NSA's warrantless wiretaps, Guantanamo, phone-call data mining and of course his Supreme Court nominations.
Whatever the merits of all this, Congress's Democrats are publicly committed to making this version of the Bush civil-liberties record a voting issue for their party in November and beyond. So presumably they will remain deaf to Secretary Chertoff's plea for a legal system tailored to fight Islamic terror, at least until after 2008. . . .
Even allowing for election needs, why is it not possible for the congressional Democratic Party and its Amen corner in the punditocracy and blogosphere to overcome their George Bush phobia here? They should allow the creation of a civil-liberties regime that will genuinely (not hopefully) reduce our exposure to the risks now being rolled up by the surveillance and arrests in London.
The foiling of the plot in Britain was a kind of public-policy miracle, a rare chance to rethink. The U.S. could have spent the past week with 4,000 funerals. We would have had calls for measures so stringent and draconian they would make the Bush program look like pattycake. We have none of that. But unless our politics changes, we will.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/18/2006 07:12 ||
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Any intelligent person knows we must make changes. Failure to make changes is failure. The failure is the democrap party and it's method of operation. The solution is to declare all opposition to the future security of the USA and it's citizens as the enemy, and commence to attack and destroy all such opposition.
There comes a time when your next door neighbor is attempting to kill you by allowing himself to be misled by liers in the democrap party.
At that time, kill your neighbor to same your family. I shit you not.
The Washington Times' columnist says we should abandon the Middle East Democratic Initiative and make war on Shariah aggressors. Actually, democraticization worked in Central America. But it mixes like oil to water with Islam. By the way, why does West need to put words in the President's mouth? As Joe Pyne used to say: that's unsanitary.
...With their devotion to Islamic tradition, then, these new democracies have, in effect, peacefully voted themselves into the same doctrinal camp as the many terror groups that violently strike at the non-Muslim world in the name of jihad for the sake of a caliphate -- a Muslim world government ruled according to Shariah.
So be it. What I mean by that is, it is neither in the national interest nor in the national will for the United States of America to attempt to reshape such a culture to conform to our notions of liberty and justice for all. It is neither in the national interest nor in the national will to attempt to reform the belief system that animates this culture to conform to our notions of freedom of worship.
It is, however, in our national interest, and must become a part of our national will, to ensure that Islamic law does not come to our own shores, whether by means of violent jihad terrorism as practiced by the likes of al Qaeda or Hezbollah, or through peaceful patterns of migration, such as those that have already Islamized large parts of Europe.
The shift I am describing-from a pro-democracy offensive to an anti-Shariah defensive -- means a national course correction. Rather than continuing to emphasize the democratization of the Muslim Middle East as our key tool in the war on terror, I will henceforth emphasize the prevention of Shariah from reaching the West as our key tool in the war on terror.
#1
Rather than continuing to emphasize the democratization of the Muslim Middle East as our key tool in the war on terror, I will henceforth emphasize the prevention of Shariah from reaching the West as our key tool in the war on terror.
#2
Democratization only works after you have denazifized/de-imperialized/de-islamized a country.
When the allies occupied Germany they didn't allow Nazi educational system, Hitlerjugends and Goebbels propaganda apparatus free to continue to mold Germans minds into believing that they were a master race allowed to endalve and exterminate who they wanted. Instead Germans were forced to vists the extermination camps (solme committed suicide afterwards) to take full measure of their depravity.
To a lesser degree the Americans did the same in Japan where the cult of the emperor, bushido and Japanese imperuialism were dismantled and where Mac Arthur nor the Japanese dictated the constitution.
In Irak it was imperative to dismantle as much of Islam's nad Arab nationalism's (two faces of the same coin) propaganda apparatus as possible, supress any preach/speech/teaching telling about Jihad, conquest of infidel lands, Arabs seen as master race. In fact we should have strived for Irakis seeing themselves as the descdents wsho first solved the sencond degree equation and look at Arabs with contempt (no more: before Islam it was darkness).
Of course wen should have made Irakis conscients of the crimes perpetrated by Arab nationalism and Islamism (broadcasts about Arab atrocities in Sudan, telling the truth about Palestinians or about the Arab conquests) so they prefer to be a another thing than Arabs and Muslims.
Also democracy is not just when there are elections, it is when people vote as individuals. If you allow husbands tell wives who they have to vote or tribal leaders to dictate the vote of an entire tribe you don't have democracy.
Finally, real democracy is when politicians respond to the people: most euopean electoral systems are deigned in a such way that the real power to demote a politician is in the hands of the party not of the people (except in the unlikely case where the party loses 90% of his voters)
For those reasons the Americans should have done what they did in Germany and Japan: take charge of the civilian administration and dictate the Constitution. A secular Constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion and, very important, freedom to change religion.
Problem is that OIF was presented as a war to liberate Irak from Saddam instead of a war against Irak or Arab imperialism. and liberators don't have the same free hands as occupiers.
#3
JFM:
You have to agree that democraticization is a noble idea. I have to agree with you that Muslims aren't noble.
Remember Carter's placement of human rights as central to US foreign policy? We should invert that 180 degrees. If that sounds imperialistic, then I am an imperialist.
Is Islam more like Nazism and western slavery than Aztec religion? That is, are there enough noble Muslims who are willing to leave Islam behind them to join the modern world or are there so few that we will have to utterly destory the society to expunge its culture?
#6
#4 :Islam is not noble but I have met noble Muslims. Not islamists, just people who were born Muslims and haven't thouyght much about what is in Coran.
This is absolutely true. Islam does not understand the Universal Golden Rule but simply wants to dominate the world. It's a cult dressed up as a (plagiarized)monotheistic religion. Were it really a persuasion, as all other religion, the anti-apostasy law would have been long abolished over time.
#7
I agree JFM. Islam needs to go or get beaten into submission. (no pun intended) If there was a way to beat islam out of puberty and make it actually act more "adult" like I'd be all for it but I don't have a good plan for that one. The other problem is we do not have a leader or a national will (yet) that will call this for what it is - it is a war on the true nature of islam. 7th Century fanatics wielding 21st century technology cannot be allowed to run rampant on the globe nowadays. Our planet is just too small for that shit.
We have had a clash of civilizations (I use that term loosely w/ref to the muzzies) since 1979 w/the hostage crisis. We were preoccupied w/the commies until about 1989. Now are focus is getting more clear on islam as a parasite on the earth body that needs to be forcibly removed. I see no real solution other than going wetworks on selected individuals and eventually trouncing Iran & Syria. I'm starting to think Ann Coulter was dead on - kill their leaders and convert them to christianity (not that I'm a christian fundamentalist but you get the point). It would probably be the only thing the islamoclowns understand.
International Terrorism Monitor-Paper No.105. By B.Raman
As the British and American authorities downgrade the security level at airports and as the fear and excitement caused by the British Police disclosure of the discovery of a plot of catastrophic dimension to blow up 10 US-bound planes with liquid explosives die down, it is apparent that neither the British nor the Americans have so far been able to find any smoking gun ----in the form of chemicals procured for making explosives, purchase of air tickets etc. The British are yet to release the recorded cassettes containing the farewell statements of one or two of the would-be suicide bombers, which they had claimed to have seized from the arrested persons.
2. There has been only one more arrest in the UK after the initial detention of 24 of whom one was released on the ground that he was detained by mistake.There has been speculation in well-informed circles in the US that the British Police may have to release some of the 24 already arrested for want of evidence against them. The CNN reported on August 14,2006: "The British security sources suggested that some of the suspects being held may be released without charge. The sources said there may not be sufficient evidence to justify holding them."
3. If after their expected release, the number of people still detained by the British Police comes to below 20, it would be doubtful whether such a small number would have been able to carry out a catastrophic plot of such dimension. The only possible conclusion would be that either there was unwarranted hype in the initial announcement or many, who were actually involved in the plot, have managed to give the slip to the police.
Update 10:05 CDT: added link from original comment #1 (now deleted), added continuation of story from original comment #2 (now deleted). AoS.
Posted by: john ||
08/18/2006 08:11 ||
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Looks like the Paks are trying to point the investigation away from the LeT and the ISI.
Posted by: john ||
08/18/2006 8:15 Comments ||
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Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (Arabic: ???? ??? ???? ???) (also known as Sheikh Omar, Sheik Syed; Syed being a wrong transliteration of ????) (b. December 23, 1973- ) is a British-born terrorist of Pakistani descent with alleged links to various Islamic-based terrorist organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed, Al-Qaeda, and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
He was arrested and served time in prison for the 1994 abduction of several British nationals in Pakistan, an act which he acknowledges, but is most well-known for his alleged role in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Sheikh Omar Saeed was arrested by Pakistani police on February 12, 2002, in Lahore, in conjunction with the Pearl kidnapping,[1] and was sentenced to death on July 15, 2002,[2] for killing Pearl.
His complicity in the execution and the reasons behind it are in dispute.[citation needed] While in his initial court appearance, he stated, "I don't want to defend this case. I did this...Right or wrong, I had my reasons. I think that our country shouldn't be catering to America's needs."[3], he subsequently appealed his conviction and is awaiting further progress while in prison.
In his youth he attended Forest School Snaresbrook, a public school in North-East London, whose alumni include English cricket captain Nasser Hussain and Peter Greenaway, the filmmaker. Between the ages of 14 and 16 he attended school in Pakistan, where his family had relocated, before returning to the United Kingdom to continue at the Forest School.[1] Later, he attended the London School of Economics.
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Kidnaps British nationals, 1994
He served five years in prison in New Delhi in the 1990s in conjunction with the 1994 abduction of three British travellers, Myles Croston, 28, Paul Rideout, 26 and Rhys Partridge, 27.[2] In 1999, Indian Airlines Flight 814 was hijacked and hostages were traded for his release, along with other leaders of Harakat-ul-Mujahideen to Islamic Republic of Pakistan.[2].
A real peice of work.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/18/2006 23:16 Comments ||
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Catherine Mayo, 59, is charged with interfering with a flight crew after being forcibly restrained as she flew from London to Washington on Wednesday.
The woman, from Vermont, urinated on the cabin floor and made comments believed to be references to al-Qaeda and 11 September while on board United Airlines Flight 923.
Mayo's son says the Vermont resident is a peace activist who'd been in Pakistan since March and often went there to visit a pen-pal who's not allowed into the U.S. A Pakistani newspaper has published columns she wrote, including one critical of President Bush.
By Catherine Mayo
The folksongs of the 1960s will never be written again because of President George Bush. He has hampered the liberties of my country in the name of September 11. Songs now can only talk of patriotism they cannot mention peace.
"Nobuddy knows the trouble I've seen...!"
"Oh, shuddup. The times, they are a changin'!"
My friend in England sent me three CDs. One she had designed herself, including the album cover inside the case. She is a brilliant and thoughtful woman. One of the CDs that she sent was Cat Stevens, and I listened to it over and over.
"It was so groooovy!"
The first time I listened to the album without having looked at the list of songs, I knew what the last song on the album would be. Peace Train. The last song in every collection by Cat Stevens is always Peace Train.
Music is so un-Islamic...
I am an American child of the 1960s.
"That was why I peed on the airplane floor."
We defied the standards of our parents and declared that a war was unjust.
"And just look at how much better we made the world!"
And we were heard. We changed the way humans think.
"Until we showed up, coherence was a valued quality in discourse."
We dared to say that the human race does not have to fight wars. Ever. All conflicts can be settled by peaceful means.
"Just ask that nice Mr. Hitler!"
Don't forget Pol Pot. But children like her ignored that.
The folksongs of the 1960s are still sung, by my children and their children, but they will never be written again.
Just as well. They've already been written once...
No one will ever again wail as Cat Stevens did, to compel his country to ride on the peace train.
Maybe because we all went for a ride and got carsick?
There is no logical reason for our bravery of thought in the 1960s.
You weren't brave, honey, our parents were brave; that's why we're here. If we're not brave now our children will have a tough time in the future ...
We faced the threat of nuclear war from the Soviet Union, which was real enough at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. There were problems of desegregation as well as the disaster of the Vietnam War. We had to come to terms with the assassination of a beloved president. The world was as complicated as ever, but we never doubted the ideologies of Freedom and Democracy.
Though the McGovernites took a big run at it ...
The democracy of the United States is such a radical idea because it has a sense of humour as far as human beings are concerned.
"That's why some of us act so funny..."
It says that if people are given the freedom to do what they want they will make mistakes, learn from their mistakes, change their minds, try something else.
Unless they're children of the 60s, in which case they fall in love with their mistakes and keep making them over and over again until they end up peeing on the floor at 30,000 feet...
If people are given freedom they will, over time, choose to do the right thing because it gives them peace of mind.
"Either that, or they'll chose to do the wrong thing, either because that's what gives them peace of mind or because they like wrong stuff. I'm so profound. Is there any of that hash left?"
When people ask me about my favourite US president, I name Abraham Lincoln.
I can't recall anyone ever asking me which was my favorite president. I don't think my conversations have ever been that depthless. Or maybe people can take one look at me and know I'll answer "Silent Cal."
I think they are surprised by this there have been a lot of presidents since Lincoln who have done important things.
A lady once told Silent Cal: "I bet my friend I could make you say more than two words!" Silent Cal replied: "You lose."
The reason why he is my favourite is because he delayed as long as possible the decision to enter into a just war.
"Not that any war is just, mind you..."
And when he decided, he did all sorts of things, like suspend laws and prosecute the war to its fullest.
The Civil War was the worst conflict in US history.
"It was almost as bad as Vietnam!"
Part of the country was determined to secede. The reasons for secession included economics, religion, culture, but the main reason was the existence of the institution of slavery in the South. It was the only war ever fought over a moral principle that had nothing to do with religion.
"That was why it took Lincoln so long to emancipate the slaves. First he had to work through the economics, then the religion part of it, then the culture part of it, and finally, there he was! See? It's all really simple when you think real hard about it."
I dunno. A lot of abolitionists considered themselves religious.
Abraham Lincoln had the moral obligation to end the slavery of human beings. He knew this. And yet he suffered greatly because he was also aware of the terrible consequences of war. He agonised over this until the South announced its secession. Then he went to war in self-defence.
Even when there is a choice between two evils, time is on the side of just action.
Unless explosives are involved, of course...
I hope that when I wear out this Cat Stevens album it wont be too difficult to get another one.
I'm sure the asylum will let you have another, but you'll have to check it out from the head nurse.
The folksongs of the 1960s will never be written again because of President George Bush.
You said that. You never said why.
He has hampered the liberties of my country in the name of September 11. Songs now can only talk of patriotism, they cannot mention peace.
You said that, too. You never mentioned why, never gave any examples. You never explained the contemporary music that contradicts your statement. You peed on the floor again.
Americans are supposed to believe that they have to do what they want. Now. They have to go with the impulse of the moment.
Gee, what generation came up with that?
Morality is determined by a state of mind, not the other way around. Dissent has no value, and neither does time.
"And, like, this is reallllly good hash!"
Cathy Mayo is an American journalist based in Pakistan
She was dressed in a Rolling Stones T-shirt, black pants and socks without shoes for the hearing and was ordered held pending a detention and probable cause hearing next Thursday.
Her attorney, federal public defender Page Kelley, said Mayo was "just barely lucid" when they spoke. "She's got some very serious mental health problems."
U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said he hoped to learn more about Mayo's mental state before the next court appearance. "We believe it's important during that time period to have a doctor examine her," he said.
Mayo's son, Josh, 31, described his mother as a peace activist and said she had been in Pakistan since March. She traveled there often since making a pen pal prior to Sept. 11, 2001, he said. The pen pal hasn't been allowed to visit the U.S., he added.
"I guess she just had a bit of a bad time on the plane, and everybody's a little paranoid," the son said.
Posted by: john ||
08/18/2006 00:00 ||
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Words fail.
Good inline tho...
Posted by: N guard ||
08/18/2006 0:30 Comments ||
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What summarized the whole thing for me was - I hope that when I wear out this Cat Stevens album.
The woman has no idea how a CD works and probably has no clue how pretty much everything else in the world works either. Left to her own devices she would be dead in a week.
#3
She needs a good D-9 wake up call.
While we're waiting for that, perhaps she should be told that Cat Stevens really good songs are on the 'B' side of that CD....
Oh yeah, she's ugly too. reminds me of that thing that got shot in Maine earlier this week.
Come now my brothers and sisters, Climb Aboard the Mu Tea Peace Train and Peace Out. Everyone remember to Resist the Draft and have the Courage to Recycle.
The ice cream man pedals his cart along the street. His calliope is playing "It's A Small World After All." I can see the blue umbrella of his cart above the security fence.
My room is on the ground floor, in the corner of the hotel near the security guard hut. There are two security guards on duty all the time, day and night. There are also two in the back of the hotel. They wear automatic rifles over their shoulders.
A man singing Islamic prayers is being broadcast over the loud speaker. This is the modern world here in Pakistan. Instead of the call to prayers from the turret of a mosque, loud speakers are installed on every corner like public phone booths in the states. Prayers are offered five times a day. I have a prayer rug in my hotel room, and an arrow on the desk showing me the compass direction toward Mecca.
I have come here by a long strange road. I met Junaid, a Pakistani man, on line before September 11. He is talking about marriage, so I need to get to know him better before I bring him into the US on a fiancé visa. He was refused a visitor visa to the US, so I have come here.
I have already lived through Ramadan, and Eid. I know a lot about his culture, for sure! But now I need to get to know the man. Instant Messenger works well for awhile, but we got to know each other so well that we were arguing all the time.
We are still arguing. I have the entire staff of the hotel helping me out with this. My phone calls to Junaid have to go through the front desk. When he comes to the hotel, the receptionist calls my room and announces, "Mr. Junaid is here." I have to give my permission before he is sent down the hall. Every day, when I need to talk to someone, I tell the front desk what Junaid and I are arguing about. They give me good advice.
There is a general rule about the relationship between men and women here. The man is supposed to tell the woman what to do. The woman is supposed to say that she is trying very hard to do what he says, but she is always making mistakes.
There is real equality between the sexes here. Equality, with a sense of humor.
This is not a vacation atmosphere. It is very dangerous for a US citizen to be in Pakistan. This hotel has guests who work at the U.S. Consulate, so safety is a high priority. The hotel has special drivers to take people to their destination, stay with them, and then bring them back to the hotel.
Junaid is worried constantly about my safety. I feel bad about this, because it means that there are a lot of things we cant do together. But we have no other choice. Because he is from Pakistan, he can get visitor visas only to other Islamic countries. Security for me would be worse in Yemen or Iran.
Ramadan was quite a test. I came here on purpose for that. I wanted a heavy dose of the Muslim tradition, and I certainly got it! It is a federal crime to eat or drink in public during daylight hours in Pakistan during Ramadan. Whenever I had a bottle of water, I had to drink it by myself behind a closed door.
Ramadan was a test for Junaid, too. I didnt tell him I was coming. I wanted to surprise him, to see if he was true blue.
Pakistani men dont like surprises. I called him from the hotel when I got in. He had already figured out that I was in Pakistan, because it takes two days to get here and I hadnt been on line. He came right over to the hotel, bringing a bouquet of roses. I will never forget my first sight of him, walking towards me down the hotel hallway, carrying so many roses that I was never able to count them all.
He passed the test.
The author, Cathy Mayo, lives in the Battles Schoolhouse out on Battles Brook Road. A writer and photographer, she is 55 years old, graduated with a BS in forestry, and has three children and three grandchildren. She has lived in Vermont most of her life.
Posted by: john ||
08/18/2006 7:52 Comments ||
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#11
There is a general rule about the relationship between men and women here. The man is supposed to tell the woman what to do. The woman is supposed to say that she is trying very hard to do what he says, but she is always making mistakes.
There is real equality between the sexes here.
Pakistani men dont like surprises.
I met Junaid, a Pakistani man, on line before September 11. He is talking about marriage, so I need to get to know him better before I bring him into the US on a fiancé visa. He was refused a visitor visa to the US, so I have come here.
#14
Is this the same Cat Stevens who changed his name to Jusef Islam and advocated for the murder of Salman Rushdie?
Yes. And he's the same Cat Stevens/Jusef Islam who is not allowed in the US because of his continued flow of funds to terror-supporting Islamic groups.
"There is real equality between the sexes here. Equality, with a sense of humor."
Yeah, it'll be real frickin' funny when you disagree with him and he gives you the back of his hand. If you make it back to the US with the hubby in tow, I'm sure I'll see ya in domestic violence court (if you're lucky).
Nobody said the obvious; Perhaps her visit didn't go so well.... (I'm so mean.)
Posted by: Mark E. ||
08/18/2006 11:33 Comments ||
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#22
man, I feel for her kids & grandkids. Thanksgiving dinner must be a real event for the Mayo clan.
Considering the linked article was from Dec. 2002, and the fact she's now done this, I'm surprised SHE was allowed back in the States, much less her boyfriend dominator. A freakin' forestry major goes through the 60's and never comes out. I just feel for her kids & grandkids. And, I totally thought that Cindy Sheehan would mentally crack first and do something/get tied in to the jihadis like this one. Yesterday's Opinion Journal had FIVE articles she had written for the lovely Paki-Waki newspaper. A case of a "wronged" relationship splashed across an int'l newspaper to make Dubya look bad.
Posted by: BA ||
08/18/2006 13:38 Comments ||
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#24
Ya know what? Mayo strikes me as the perfect mule for a bomb plot.
Me too ! And from her behavior it must have beenm some brainwash session foor which she has clearly been prinmed by a lifetime of proud ignorance.
You weren't brave, honey, our parents were brave; that's why we're here. If we're not brave now our children will have a tough time in the future ...
Can't say that enough.
Oh yeah, Fuck CAt stevens.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/18/2006 13:38 Comments ||
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#25
Also it is apparent that she doesn't listen to modern music.
Maybe she never heard of Green Day.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
08/18/2006 13:39 Comments ||
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#27
I meant to ask the same, A5089. Except that on my screen, it's as black as black can be (no shade of gray, I tell ya). There are also gray inline comments too.
Posted by: BA ||
08/18/2006 13:56 Comments ||
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#28
Isn't that Pappy?
BA, have you set your screen to display 32 bit color?
Posted by: ed ||
08/18/2006 14:01 Comments ||
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#31
Yes, I do have it set to 32-bit, ed. Here at work though, so it's a crappy vid card.
I see only 1 inline comment as black (the one about root #/tear duct overflow). The rest are yellow and gray, with a few in that lovely salmon (not it's not pink) color. I'd just never seen jet-black mods before.
Posted by: BA ||
08/18/2006 14:21 Comments ||
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#32
That comment is black w/ light green text.
Posted by: ed ||
08/18/2006 14:32 Comments ||
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#33
Jet black is Fred, desperately trying to pretend he's really on holiday. LOL.
#34
I'd always assumed Fred was yellow (the color, not his manliness, lol). It's not fair that he gets a "vacation posting color" too, except that he's the boss.
(channeling LLL moonbat) THAT'S IT! I've had it with Fred trampling all over my Constitutional Right(tm) to have the black inline commentary. I'm gonna sue and be backed up financially by Soros. (/end channeling)
Posted by: BA ||
08/18/2006 14:47 Comments ||
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#35
Grey is Pappy. Yellow is Fred. Salmon (not pink, dammit!) is me. Black is the fish that got away. It wasn't a salmon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/18/2006 14:59 Comments ||
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Abu Bakr's assumption of power is an extremely controversial matter, and the source of the first schism in Islam, between Sunni and Shia Islam. Shi'a believe that Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abu Talib, was his designated successor, while Sunnis believe that Muhammad deliberately declined to designate a successor. They argue that Muhammad endorsed the traditional Arabian method of shura or consultation, as the way for the community to choose leaders. Designating one's successor was the sign of kingship, or mulk, which the independence-minded tribesmen disliked. Whatever the truth of the matter, Ali gave his formal bay'ah, or submission, to Abu Bakr and to Abu Bakr's two successors. (The Sunni depict this bay'ah as enthusiastic, and Ali as a supporter of Abu Bakr and Umar; the Shi'a argue that Ali's support was only pro forma, and that he effectively withdrew from public life in protest). The Sunni/Shi'a schism did not erupt into open warfare until much later. Many volumes have been written on the affair of the succession.
One way to respond to the United Nations and the critics of the Iranian nuclear program would be to test a device. Or use one.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad is said to be a believer that the end of the world is coming soon and that the Hidden Imam will reveal himself.
The Hidden Imam, however, will eventually leave his Greater Occultation and appear (zuhur ) to the world of humanity. This return is the most significant event in the future for the Shi'ite faithful and has thunderous eschatological consequences. This return will occur shortly before the Final Judgment and the end of history. Imam Mahdi will return at the head of the forces of righteousness and do battle with the forces of evil in one, final, apocalyptic battle.
It is believed that Ahmadi-Nejad is, in particular, a member of a sect of Shi'a that believes that they can hasten the return of the Hidden Imam.
Given the date, the Saudis are certainly a target. As the Sunni superpower, and Gulf rival, their destruction would be a great victory for the Shi'a, who have very little in the way of victories to celebrate. Their holidays generally commemorate losses and martyrdoms. The House of Saud has funded the spread of Sunni Islam worldwide and has funded those who have committed acts of violence against the Shi'a.
However, I cannot rule out an action against the United States or Israel. The United States has a great many facilities in the region within reach of Iran's military. An attack against the United States would certainly generate the turmoil that Ahmadi-Nejad needs to hasten the return.
Israel may a target, as well. The recent war in Lebanon can be seen by the Iranians as weakening the Israelis and making them vulnerable.
The Iranians are going to respond to the offers and demands concerning their nuclear program on August 22. They are not going to give up their program. They are not going to submit to international controls of any sort. Their response could be merely another delaying tactic.
Or, their response could be the detonation of a nuclear device.
#2
I bet on Nork. Despite their best efforts, I agree that Iran probably doesn't have a nuke of their own manufacture yet.
Kimmie, however, is getting old and has never had his "big event", though he has tried a bunch of times. Things like digging enormous tunnels under the DMZ, and hair-brained schemes like that.
Already, his sucessors are struggling for who gets the job next, and Kimmie figures he isn't going to last much longer.
The charm of any U.N. Security Council resolution lies in the preamble, which invariably begins by "recalling'' all previous resolutions on the same subject that have been entirely ignored, therefore necessitating the current resolution. Hence newly minted Resolution 1701: Before mandating the return of south Lebanon to Lebanese government control, it lists the seven Security Council resolutions going back 28 years that have demanded the same thing.
We are to believe, however, that this time the U.N. means it. Yet, the fact that responsibility for implementation is given to Kofi Annan's office -- not known for integrity, competence or neutrality -- betrays a certain unseriousness about the enterprise from the very beginning.
Now, it is true that had Israel succeeded militarily in its strategic objectives, there would have been no need for any resolution. Israel would unilaterally have cleaned out south Lebanon and would be dictating terms.
But that did not happen. The first Israel-Hezbollah war ended in a tie, and in this kind of warfare, tie goes to the terrorist. Yet there is no doubt that had Israel been permitted to proceed with the expanded offensive it began two days before the cease-fire, Israel would eventually have destroyed Hezbollah in the south, albeit at great cost to itself, Lebanon and Israel's patron, the United States. Which is why the war was called off.
Having obviated that possibility with the cease-fire, the U.S. is left with certain responsibilities. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave assurances that this resolution would not be a dead letter; that it had enough Chapter 7 (i.e., legally enforceable) language to give it teeth; that there would indeed be a buffer zone below the Litani River; that there would be a robust international force with robust rules of engagement.
Yet within days, these assurances are already fraying. Hezbollah has declared that it will not disarm. The Siniora government in Beirut has acquiesced to a don't ask-don't tell deal in which Hezbollah retains its entire south-of-the-Litani infrastructure -- bunkers, weapons, fighters -- with the cosmetic proviso that none will be displayed very openly. No strutting, but everything remains in place awaiting the order to restart the war when the time is right.
That arrangement is essentially a return to the status quo ante -- precisely what the U.S. had said it would not permit because that would represent a strategic disaster for the forces of democracy and moderation in the region.
We are headed for a complete repudiation of the bottom-line American position. The stakes are high. Not so much for Israel, which in the end will take care of itself. By the now-inevitable Round Two, Israel will have rejected the failed Olmert-led exercise in hesitancy and will have new leadership, new tactics and new equipment (for example, expensive new plating for its tanks, which were so vulnerable to advanced Iranian antitank weaponry).
What is most at stake, from the American perspective, is Lebanon. Lebanon was the most encouraging achievement of the democratization project launched with great risk with the invasion of Iraq. The Beirut Spring, the liberation from Syrian rule and the election of a pro-Western government marked the high point (together with the first Iraqi election that inspired the events in Lebanon) of the Bush doctrine.
Syria, Iran and Hezbollah have been working assiduously to reverse that great advance. Hezbollah insinuated itself into the government. The investigation of Syria for the murder of Rafiq Hariri has stalled. And now with the psychological success of the war with Israel, Hezbollah may soon become the dominant force in all of Lebanon. In the south, the Lebanese army will be taking orders from Hezbollah. Hezbollah is not just returning to being a "state within a state." It is becoming the state, with the Siniora government reduced to acting as its front.
That is why ensuring that Hezbollah is cut down to size by a robust international force with very strict enforcement of its disarmament is so critical. For all its boasts, Hezbollah has suffered grievously militarily, with enormous losses of fighters, materiel and infrastructure. Now is its moment of maximum weakness. That moment will not last long. Resupply and rebuilding have already begun.
This is no time for the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. to be saying, when asked about the creation of an international force, that "this really is a responsibility of the Secretariat.'' Maybe officially, but if we are not working frantically behind the scenes to make sure that this preposterously inappropriate body actually gets real troops in quickly, armed with the right equipment and the right mandate, the moment will be lost. And with it, Lebanon.
War always has advances and retreats. The Hezbo War is not a victory for civilized nations. but Is it a defeat? Not much of one. But human beings can make a mental defeat out of anything.
The psychologist Albert Ellis was one of the first to discover an effective talking treatment for depression, now called cognitive therapy. Ellis realized that depressed people have a habit of awfulizing- interpreting small setbacks as catastrophes. Ellis demonstrated that depressed people could learn to re-think their tendency to awfulize. He taught them to tell themselves, This is a pain in the A**, not a catastrophe. Ellis made up the word awfulizing or catastrophizing to talk about this self-destructive mental habit.
The outcome of the Hezbo War is a pain in the anatomy but not a catastrophe. It is vital for Israel and the United States to understand the difference. Yes, it is a pain to watch Mullah Strangelove Ahmadinejad celebrating in Tehran. Watching Reuters, AP and BBC secretly delighted with the outcome is just as annoying. But it is very, very revealing.
Is the Hezbo War a permanent set-back? Only thinking can make it so. Some Israeli citizens have a tendency to awfulize, in part because they are on the front lines, with loved ones in danger, and in part because of psychological exhaustion from sixty years of war. With all due respect for those who have their lives and loved ones on the line, drawing a clear line between disaster and a pain in the anatomy is essential. The IDF is still by far the strongest armed force in the Middle East, barring only the United States. Perfection is not possible in human affairs, and never in war. The Hezbo War can be a healthy shock of realism, if it is used properly.
The IDF and the US military are professionals. They are already drawing appropriate lessons. It is the political systems that must respond appropriately. We know that the radical Left has a de facto alliance with Islamic fascists. The Hezbos dont have to do their own propaganda; all the usual news agencies will do it for them, actively aided by the Labour Party in the UK and the Democrats in the US.
The first lesson for conservatives in the United States is to Remember the Alamo- a great defeat. Remember 9/11. Remember Dunkirk. Remember Pearl Harbor. Those defeats were much worse than the Hezbo War. Our ancestors turned them into slogans to rile up the homefront. So, if we must, lets remember the Hezbo War, but only to renew our resolve that Islamic fascism must go the way of all the tyrannies of the 20th century.
Awfulizing only helps the enemy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/18/2006 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Pearl Harbor a defeat? I thought it was a Jap sneak attack against a country with which it was not at war. Anyone who gets close to Mike Tyson, could throw a sucker punch. But anyone who wants to call that a victory, had better talk fast.
#4
It's a wild guess, I know, but... I believe I might not be one of them... still, who knows, in a few years, if he sadly suffers from some sort of debilitating neurological disease and is left wheelchair-bound and feeble and totally disabled... then I might sucker punch him, if there's no one to come to his rescue. Him being blind would be a plus, safety-wise.
What ya think Mr. Ambassador, that Walmart bunch of yers runnin off them Kireans and Muzzies?
"Well, I think they should; they ran the `mom and pop' stores out of my neighborhood," "But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores."
#2
Loyalty to union money party dogma unity is more important than providing cheaper costs and employment for the Proletariat working class. All power to the soviets party.
#3
Mebbe he should work at "Sambos"....forget it, there ain't no Sambos Restaurants no more...damned they served good hotcakes...and had their walls plastered with that litter feller being chased around by a tiger...
The writer is not a moonbat. I'm leaving the title as is, but repeat, the writer is not a moonbat.
IN THE WAKE of last week's London terrorist-plot arrests, some Americans are calling on the U.S. government to apply racial profiling to airport screening. Their argument goes something like this: Why should the federal Transportation Security Authority search little old white ladies when young Arab and Muslim men were behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and other terrorist plots?
The answer is: The feds should avoid racial profiling because it breeds discontent without enhancing security. Tell that to the Brits ...I think they might differ with you
I actually agree to an extent: strict profiling, particularly when done by martinets with an eye towards deliberating casting suspicion and demeaning an entire population of people, does indeed breed resentment. Profiling can and should be done: it should be done as quietly as possible. When brought out into the open it should be handled with regret and an apology, and then it should continue as quietly as possible.
Strict profiling can't work as it will prompt terrorist cells to recruit outside the profile. They already are. The London suspects include the English son of a conservative politician, a convert to Islam, as well as a young mother and father whom authorities believe planned to bring their six-month-old baby on their target plane. Oh my God...talk about Cognative Dissonance!
The lack of cognition by the writer isn't about profiling, it's about why a son of a conservative Brit politican converts to Islam in the first place. Britain has become, like many Euro countries, a cultural and moral abyss. It doesn't stand for very much anymore. The Anglican Church has become a Druid coven, its religious leaders have forgotten the Bible, its political leaders have become completely tranzi and socialist, and society in general has become, in a number of ways, despairing and living only for the moment. We've seen that in a number of ways.
Now along comes a strong, virile religion that makes no excuses -- do it our way and you'll end up in paradise. See the attraction? That lad did, and others are also converting. That's where the need for understanding and cognition comes. Why isn't this happening in the U.S.? Because, at least for now, we still stand for something.
In 1986, British authorities stopped a pregnant Irish woman whose Palestinian boyfriend packed her off with a bomb as he flew her to Tel Aviv, ostensibly to meet his family. Don't forget the very white Timothy McVeigh, of Oklahoma City bombing fame. Follow the profile at your own risk. OK..so since a few don't fit the profile it's stupid? Obviously never took a statistics and probability course
Young Irish Mary was basically a little slow and naïve in trusting men, specifically a Paleo man. The writer is confusing young, stoopid love with profiling.
Nico Melendez of the Department of Homeland Security told me that his agency is "100 percent" opposed to racial profiling because behavior is a better indicator of a threat than race or religion. What kind of behavior? The twitching of the eyes was an example. One advantage, according to Melendez: "The more a person tries to stop that, the more it happens." Dear God..let's look at the race and religion of all the boomers caught...umm...see a pattern?
Race and religion alone don't help. Race/religion + behavior -- now you're getting somewhere. Screening all passengers on an airplane, whether by 'behavior' or with wands and X-ray machines, has a very low hit rate. That and a high hassle factor causes resentment and laxity. Sharpen the tool by quiet, discrete profiling + behavior + screening, and now you've got something you can use.
As to complaints that seniors and children are searched needlessly, Melendez cited the 67-year-old man who hid a 9-inch knife in his prosthetic leg and the 10-year-old boy who unwittingly brought a teddy bear with a loaded gun -- a gift -- to the airport. Although, I should note, Melendez failed to establish that these weapons would have been used in an attack.
Do you want to fly in an airplane where that gun might have been used?
Of course, I think some security practices are overkill. I miss metal knives with airline meals, although Melendez tells me the government only bans serrated metal knives. Still, I don't complain -- much anyway -- because if a plane plot ever succeeds, I know that the same people who have been grousing about niggling security regulations will stomp all over the TSA for not doing everything possible to prevent an attack.
When people complain about the granny searches, I want to say to them: Get over it. Learn the difference between a nuisance and a hardship.
A ray of sanity, but the author then throws it all away ...
Law professor John Banzhaf of George Washington University Law School sent out an e-mail Tuesday that argued that racial profiling was constitutional because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that colleges could consider race for admissions because there was a "compelling state interest."
That doesn't mean that racial profiling is constitutional, it means that for the purposes of remedying past discrimination, colleges could use race as one factor in admissions. If you're going to quote the law, know the law.
Then again, many conservatives -- I'm one -- oppose racial profiling for college admissions because it practices invidious discrimination. Or as Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, a Christian Lebanese American, noted, "The national interest is in treating people like human beings and not differentiating them unless absolutely positively necessary."
Like me, Issa sees times when authorities might focus on an ethnic group or other profile -- such as, soon after intelligence points to a certain group. But Issa added, "The difference between a lead and racial profiling is the difference between police work and group punishment." Profiling could poison an entire generation of American Arabs and Muslims. or kill an entire generation of Americans if you don't
And: "Why take millions of people who would be described as Arabs or Muslims for purposes of profiling and suddenly cause them to have a reason to doubt what's special about America?"
Because they, like the rest of us, like to live -- most of them anyways. That's why profiling has to be done quietly -- we don't want to alienate these citizens, we want them on our side. We want them to call the police and tip us when cousin Mahmoud starts gibbering foolishly about blowing stuff up. We want them to tell us when someone at the mosque starts collecting for the Paleostinian Widows Ammunition Fund.
In short, we want them to behave like Americans. That means we have to treat them like Americans. Profiling must be done quietly -- oh, sorry, didn't mean to imply you're disloyal, thank you for your understanding, have a nice flight. And make it clear to all that if tall, pear-shaped Scots-Irish male Catholic Americans were setting off bombs and crashing planes into office towers, people like me would be profiled.
Unlike the United Kingdom, the United States has not had a terrorist attack since Sept. 11, 2001. This country must be doing something right. Why go down the road of racial profiling when it likely will create new enemies without stopping old enemies? Idiot....
No, not an idiot, just not quite there in her thinking.
#1
Now that the pre-WWII Japanese coded diplomatic traffic has been declassified, we know that their Consulates were reporting that they had recruited individuals to act as agents. Which is why the relocation of thousands of Japanese from the west coast and specifically the two centers of 80%+ of aircraft production [Seattle and LA] was done by the government - you know the one headed by a Democrat in 41-42. They didnt have the time to sort it all out and play nice games with the Pacific fleet smoldering at Pearl. One big bang here today and all the hand wringing is going to stop, cause the backlash is going to be a tsunami of biblical proportions. And it will bury the guilt trip laid on by the lefty screed of America as well concerning the relocation action.
#2
Oh woe is me. I guess the only thing to do is deport every muslim ... for now.
Posted by: ed ||
08/18/2006 13:27 Comments ||
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#3
And I hate to break the news to Ms. Saunders, but just about everyone profiles. Even other muslims ask themselves if Habib is gonna go apeshit on the flight.
Posted by: ed ||
08/18/2006 13:31 Comments ||
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#4
I wish they could just have Halal flights. No infidels allowed.
#5
That doesn't mean that racial profiling is constitutional, it means that for the purposes of remedying past discrimination, colleges could use race as one factor in admissions.
It means you can use race as an arbitrary reason to treat people differently whenever we can justify it to a court.
#6
Race and religion alone don't help. Race/religion + behavior -- now you're getting somewhere.
Actually, in this case, Race + religion does help (to narrow the "pool" of potential jihadis). But, I do agree with you, that Race+Religion+Behavior is the best bet. Actually, I've now come around to "profiling" based upon race+religion+behavior, but continuing in a lesser fashion to do "random" searches. That way, you've put them on notice you're still doing it randomly (and may catch one if they change "profiles", like females, or white converts (like John Walker Lindh), etc.). Nip the changing tactics in the bud too.
Posted by: BA ||
08/18/2006 14:17 Comments ||
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#7
It's like Vegas. Do you play the odds or hit when 20 is showing?
Posted by: ed ||
08/18/2006 15:01 Comments ||
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#8
"...but just about everyone profiles."
Indeed ed, just as everyone with good sense does not go down a notorious dark alley to be mugged. And are we prejudiced against dark alleys therefore? PC idiots are wilfully dismissive of islamic bigotry and the evil it has demonstrably spawned. What's learnt "prejudice" compared with such indoctrinated bigotry?
#10
Last week in Denver saw 3 mennonite sisters getting extra screening, even though the threat level from "radical mennonitism" is historically low.
I believe the answer lies in planned randomness, prescreeening of the ticketing transactions and and healthy dose of stuff going on "behind the curtain". Focus on getting people through security in acceptable amounts of time will keep the clamor down.
Are we safer since 9/11? At least the TSA folks in Boston aren't outsourced Nigerians with english being their 4th or 5th language.
#11
Debra Saunders is the token conservative on the SFChronic. Disagree with her (I do) but don't label her as a moonbat without checking out her archives. There's been shrieking and rending of garments in the Bay Area over quite a few of her columns - Townhall carries her too, along with David Limbaugh, Buckley, and other "moonbats"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/18/2006 19:11 Comments ||
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#12
The backlash from stuff like this is going to be huge.
How long is it going to be before something like a 'no-Muslim' airline starts up?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/18/2006 19:11 Comments ||
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At Middlebury College's Arabic Summer School, where I recently taught Arabic, students were exposed to more than intensive language instruction. Inside the classroom and across campus, administrators and language teachers adhered to a restrictive Arab-nationalist view of what is generically referred to as the "Arab world." In practice, this meant that the Middle East was presented as a mono-cultural, exclusively Arab region. The time-honored presence and deep-rooted histories of tens of millions of Kurds, Assyrians, Copts, Jews, Maronites, and Armenians--all of whom are indigenous Middle Easterners who object to an imputed "supra-Arab" identity--were dismissed in favor of a reductionist, ahistorical Arabist narrative. Those who didn't share this closed view of the Middle East were made to feel like dhimmi--the non-Muslim citizens of some Muslim-ruled lands whose rights are restricted because of their religious beliefs.
In maps, textbooks, lectures, and other teaching materials used in the instruction of Arabic, Israel didn't exist, and the overarching watan 'Arabi (Arab fatherland) was substituted for the otherwise diverse and multi-faceted "Middle East." Curious and misleading geographical appellations, such as the "Arabian Gulf" in lieu of the time-honored "Persian Gulf," abounded. Syria's borders with its neighbors were marked "provisional," and Lebanon was referred to as a qutr (or "province") of an imagined Arab supra-state.
Nor was the Arabic school's narrow definition of Middle Eastern culture restricted to the classroom. Alcohol was prohibited during school events and student parties, and although a school official claimed the ban reflected Middlebury's campus policy, beer and wine flowed freely during cookouts and gatherings organized by the German, French, and Spanish schools. Banning alcohol is a matter of Islamic practice and personal interpretation--not accepted behavior throughout the Middle East--and reflected the Arabic school's conflation of Arabic with Islamic.
Similarly, the Arabic school's dining services conformed to the halal dietary restrictions of Islam, an act implying that all Arabic speakers are Muslims, and that all Muslims are observant; yet less that 20 percent of the Arabic school community was Muslim. No such accommodations were made for Jewish students who kept kosher, even though they outnumbered the Muslims.
Arab nationalism was also evident in the school's official posture toward America's national holidays. The Arabic school was alone among Middlebury programs to ignore Fourth of July festivities. Worse, visiting faculty from the Middle East cold-shouldered older students sporting the closely cropped hair, courteous manners, and discipline suggesting membership in the U.S. armed forces. Most students and faculty avoided contact altogether with those dubbed hukuma (government) or jaysh (army).
Such attitudes and practices aren't confined to Middlebury. A former student of mine who recently took a summer Arabic course at Georgetown University relates that one of her professors, an otherwise excellent language instructor, refused to allow the word "Israel" to be uttered in class. And his bigotry wasn't confined to the Jewish state: during a class discussion on nationalism, my former student argued that "many Lebanese did not think of themselves as Arabs." The instructor's response: "while they might say that, it's just politics, because all Lebanese people know on the inside that they are indeed Arabs."
Arabism flies in the face of historical fact. Ethnic minorities in Lebanon, as throughout the Middle East, have suffered at the hands of Arabs since the Arab-Islamic invasions in the early Muslim period. Of the efforts of Arab regimes and their ideological supporters in the West to de-legitimize regional identities other than Arab, Walid Phares, a well-known professor of Middle East studies, has written: "[The] denial of identity of millions of indigenous non-Arab nations can be equated to an organized ethnic cleansing on a politico-cultural level." This tradition of culturally suppressing minorities is the wellspring of the linguistic imperialism regnant at Middlebury's Arabic Summer School.
Yet healthier models for language instruction are easy to find. In the Anglophone world, Americans, Irish, Scots, New Zealanders, Australians, Nigerians, Kenyans, and others are native English-speakers, but not English. Can anyone imagine an English language class in which students are assumed to be Anglican cricket fans who sing "Rule Britannia," post maps showing Her Majesty's empire at its pre-war height, and prefer shepherd's pie and mushy peas? Yet according to the hyper-nationalists who run Middlebury's Arabic language programs, all speakers of Arabic are Arabs--case closed.
A leading Arabic language program shouldn't imbue language instruction with political philosophy. It should instead concentrate on teaching a difficult language well--on promoting linguistic ability, not ideological conformity. Academics should never intellectualize their politics and then peddle them to students under the guise of scholarship. Those who do may force a temporary dhimmitude on their student subjects, but in the end they only marginalize their field and themselves.
This marginalization has never been clearer than it is today, when Middle East studies scholars are depressingly consistent in their condemnation of American policy in the region, including its support for the democracies in Israel and Turkey. The same Arabist orthodoxy that seeks to indoctrinate summer language students in Vermont is at work every day in classrooms across the country, where professors whose vision is limited by ideological blinders ill serve their students and the nation. Set against this backdrop, Middlebury's Arabic Summer School is a window into an academic field in crisis.
Mr. Salameh teaches Arabic studies at Boston College. He writes for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
#1
One of the summer interns in my office is a student at Middlebury (in Vermont). He is the scion of a wealthy extremely blue-blood WASP family in one of the old money enclaves just outside DC. His dad sailed with Ted Turner pre-CNN and the kid has spent his life going to the best schools and knowing the best people.
He's not in the Arabic school at MB, but he did lecture the office once on the glories of Robert McNamara's (!) documentary, The Fog of War. I'm afraid he's lost. :(
#2
Most of the Lebanese-Americans I know will barely tolerate being called Arab because they see themselves as Phoenecians and differentiate themselves from Arabs. Frankly, they don't seem to like Lebanese Arabs (e.g. Moslems).
New Hampshire has two very prominent Lebanese politicians (Sununu and Shaheen) and neither are truly Arab or Muslim.
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