#1
Sigh ... I'll need to post this in segments to discover which keyword is getting this post diverted. Here goes.
If we want to fight against capitalism, the working class needs to be united, and in order to be so intolerance cannot be tolerated. However, if we want to fight against intolerance we have to defeat capitalism as an extension of that struggle. Hence anti-fascism, feminism and the struggle against homophobia go hand in hand with the class struggle!
Does anyone else find it exceptionally ironic curious that feminism, homosexuality and anti-fascism thrive most luxuriantly in capitalistic societies? Everywhere else such elements are viciously suppressed or simply murdered outright. Especially so in the intolerant and totalitarian regimes that these sort of pseudo-idealistic idiots so eagerly envision.
In 1999, Aldebe proposed that sharia, Islamic law, be introduced in Sweden. In 2003 he involved himself in a heated debate regarding an incident of honor killing where a Kurdish girl was murdered by her two uncles. Aldebe forcefully defended the perpetrators and viewed the debate regarding honor-related murders as an attack against the Islamic religion.
Debate? DEBATE??? What sort of discussion can there possibly be about premeditated murder? Yes, the punishment of first-degree murderamong many other repulsive featuresis an attack against the Islamic religion and deservedly so. Were it not so dangerous, it would be hilarious in the extreme to see these totalitarian thugs ally themselves with this worlds uber-thugs. Little do they comprehend how theirs will be the first necks to be wrung once all other declared foes have been dispensed with. That these useful idiots servile tools cannot comprehend this is symptomatic of their overarching and stupendous shortsightedness.
#2
so we shouldnt be surprised to see calls for the use of sharia law in family matters by an otherwise officially feminist party.
[S]urprised? No. Appalled? Quite definitely. I can only suppose that Germaine Greers handiwork has not been for nothing. All that awaits us is for feminazis to march through the streets in defense of FGM (Female Genital Mutilation.)
The party is a threat to a Sweden that I believe many of us love an open, unprejudiced and tolerant Sweden.
And to further that premise these morons are allying themselves with the absolute most close-minded, prejudiced and intolerant cretins on earth. No irony there, nosiree Bob.
#3
He understood the infamous spiritual terror which this movement exerts, particularly on the bourgeoisie, which is neither morally nor mentally equal to such attacks; at a given sign it unleashes a veritable barrage of lies and slanders against whatever adversary seems most dangerous, until the nerves of the attacked persons break down and, just to have peace again, they sacrifice the hated individual Conversely, they praise every weakling on the opposing side, sometimes cautiously, sometimes loudly, depending on the real or supposed quality of his intelligence.
Yet, somehow liberals are entirely unable to detect this exact same methodology when it is utilized by a group of Hitlers most ardent admirers. This goes well beyond irony and into the realm of wholly catastrophic fatalism.
Ill also note how this is the exact same model used today by anti-American academics and other subversive forces within The United States. Decades of being toldThere is no right or wrong, Logic and reason are dependent upon circumstances, Truth is conditional, "There is no black and white, only shades of grayhave finally come home to roost in generations of youth who are totally disarmed and neither morally nor mentally equal to such attacks as Islam and liberalism now perpetrate against the West.
Serge Trifkovic in his book The Sword of the Prophet documents how al-Husayni recruited Bosnian and Albanian Muslims for Waffen SS units in the Balkans.
Nice to see Trifkovic get some notice. Please be sure to read his excellent disquisition about A Realist Strategy for fighting terrorism.
Winston Churchill wrote about Adolf Hitlers autobiography Mein Kampf: Here was the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message.
Winnie certainly had a way with words, didnt he?
a civilisation that does not clearly proclaim its values, or which leaves these proclaimed values high and dry, is stepping on the path to perdition and terminal debility. Then others will pronounce their values, and in the mouths of these others they will no longer be values but just so many pretexts for untrammelled power, untrammelled destruction.
Which harkens directly back to my indictment of modern academics and their wholesale undermining of moral and spiritual certainty. As a direct result of their irrational doctrine, liberals are left neither morally nor mentally equal to such attacks and thereby represent the ultimate in ideological cannon fodder.
In the old days this would be called treason. Now its called tolerance.
No better description can be had of Multiculturalisms covert agenda.
Two Fascist-inspired movements cooperate on exploiting and abusing the native population of a country, force them [to] fund and applaud their own colonization and denounce them as bigots, racists and Fascists if they resist. The strategy is as brilliant as it is evil.
And it is happening here in America as well. Do not be fooled.
The West didnt win the Cold War, at least not as decisively as we should have done.
This becomes all the more clear as Islam is given increasingly free rein by liberals and Multiculturalists. How is it that the most successful socioeconomic model in all earths historycapitalismhas had such difficulty in finding its rightful Stentorian voice. If you have any doubts, please read Ayn Rands Capitalism the Unknown Ideal. That the captains of industry do not more vocally defend capitalism bespeaks an extremely sinister agenda reeking of greater allegiance to multinationalism than any vestige of patriotic character. Our traitor eliteboth political and commercialare rapidly abandoning America to the ravages of forces that would like nothing more than to see all of us rebellious survivors who withstood and won two World Wars to vanish into historys dim recollection. We are the singular threat to totalitarianism and such an awkward and willful child cannot be tolerated by those who would rule the world.
#4
All that awaits us is for feminazis to march through the streets in defense of FGM (Female Genital Mutilation.)
Er.. I think that has already happened, indirectly.
Just ask around on any Inhumanities/ anthopology department about FGM, and then bring up the question of what is to be done. Some of the most amazing intelectual controtions will then ensue.
Posted by: N Guard ||
08/27/2007 18:05 Comments ||
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#5
Okay-y-y, so is Society so "tolerant" it can NOT even tolerate tolerance??? Tolerant to the point of pan-Societal super-passivity and in danger of becoming a danger to our own way of life and existence?
Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always someone in the audience just one whom I call the "raver".
A 'troofer'? Cindy Sheehan? Medea Benjamin? Oh, no, he's going elsewhere with this ...
Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions often quite humbling ones for me as a journalist and which show that they understand the Middle East tragedy a lot better than the journalists who report it.
And especially you, Bob, especially you.
But the "raver" is real. He has turned up in corporeal form in Stockholm and in Oxford, in Sao Paulo and in Yerevan, in Cairo, in Los Angeles and, in female form, in Barcelona. No matter the country, there will always be a "raver".
His or her question goes like this. Why, if you believe you're a free journalist, don't you report what you really know about 9/11? Why don't you tell the truth that the Bush administration (or the CIA or Mossad, you name it) blew up the twin towers? Why don't you reveal the secrets behind 9/11? The assumption in each case is that Fisk knows that Fisk has an absolute concrete, copper-bottomed fact-filled desk containing final proof of what "all the world knows" (that usually is the phrase) who destroyed the twin towers. Sometimes the "raver" is clearly distressed.
Fisk is so important that he refers to himself in the third person.
One man in Cork screamed his question at me, and then the moment I suggested that his version of the plot was a bit odd left the hall, shouting abuse and kicking over chairs.
Usually, I have tried to tell the "truth"; that while there are unanswered questions about 9/11, ...
What questions are those Bob? Any question about who did it? Any question as to why?
... I am the Middle East correspondent of The Independent, not the conspiracy correspondent; that I have quite enough real plots on my hands in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Iran, the Gulf, etc, to worry about imaginary ones in Manhattan.
Does this mean we'll get an article from you about Syrian plots in Lebanon?
My final argument a clincher, in my view is that the Bush administration has screwed up everything militarily, politically diplomatically it has tried to do in the Middle East; so how on earth could it successfully bring off the international crimes against humanity in the United States on 11 September 2001?
There's a back-handed compliment. Does anyone think the Clinton or Reagan administration could be more 'competent', or is it just that no sane American political official of either party would do such a thing?
Well, I still hold to that view. Any military which can claim as the Americans did two days ago that al-Qa'ida is on the run is not capable of carrying out anything on the scale of 9/11. "We disrupted al-Qa'ida, causing them to run," Colonel David Sutherland said of the preposterously code-named "Operation Lightning Hammer" in Iraq's Diyala province. "Their fear of facing our forces proves the terrorists know there is no safe haven for them." And more of the same, all of it untrue.
In what way, Bob? al-Q has a battalion of shock troops? al-Q is standing tall and tough in Fallujah? Anbar? Baghdad? About the only place we know of where al-Q is supreme is Wazoo. Care to venture why?
Within hours, al-Qa'ida attacked Baquba in battalion strength and slaughtered all the local sheikhs who had thrown in their hand with the Americans.
No word from Bob whether that's a good thing, assuming it happened.
It reminds me of Vietnam, the war which George Bush watched from the skies over Texas which may account for why he this week mixed up the end of the Vietnam war with the genocide in a different country called Cambodia, whose population was eventually rescued by the same Vietnamese whom Mr Bush's more courageous colleagues had been fighting all along.
Perhaps if we'd just delivered the ammo we promised the South Vietnamese it wouldn't have happened.
But here we go. I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11.
Oh dear, Bob is, deep down inside, a troofer allright. He just knows better than to admit it.
It's not just the obvious non sequiturs: where are the aircraft parts (engines, etc) from the attack on the Pentagon?
Because you don't punch a neat, airplane-outline hole in a stone and steel structure, Bob. Per the Popular Mechanics review, the hole was 75 feet wide at impact on ring E (the plane, with wings, was 124 feet wide). The wings were sheared off and didn't punch through. You've been watching too many cartoons.
Why have the officials involved in the United 93 flight (which crashed in Pennsylvania) been muzzled?
Who exactly has been muzzled? How about a name, Bob?
Why did flight 93's debris spread over miles when it was supposed to have crashed in one piece in a field?
Because that's what airplanes do when they hit the ground violently, Bob. Slam a plane into the ground at 500 mph and parts fly everywhere.
Again, I'm not talking about the crazed "research" of David Icke's Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster which should send any sane man back to reading the telephone directory.
Perhaps you could generate random names for our visitors?
I am talking about scientific issues. If it is true, for example, that kerosene burns at 820C under optimum conditions, how come the steel beams of the twin towers whose melting point is supposed to be about 1,480C would snap through at the same time?
Because the steel weakened from the heat causing a loss of tensile strength. Once the weight of the building above them was greater than the weight the weakened beams could bear, they failed, and all it took was the beams from a single floor to fail for the whole structure to pancake down. Steel heated to ~ 900C loses a considerable amount of tensile strength according to the experts quoted by Popular Mechanics: at 1100F, about 50%. And it wasn't just jet fuel burning, it was also the contents of the WTC floors hit by the plane, including lots of paper, furniture, rugs, etc. You might want to try a little research, Bob.
(They collapsed in 8.1 and 10 seconds.) What about the third tower the so-called World Trade Centre Building 7 (or the Salmon Brothers Building) which collapsed in 6.6 seconds in its own footprint at 5.20pm on 11 September? Why did it so neatly fall to the ground when no aircraft had hit it?
Because it had taken substantial damage, especially to its south face, along with a long-burning fire that wasn't put out, according to the experts quoted in PM, Bob.
The American National Institute of Standards and Technology was instructed to analyse the cause of the destruction of all three buildings. They have not yet reported on WTC 7. Two prominent American professors of mechanical engineering very definitely not in the "raver" bracket are now legally challenging the terms of reference of this final report on the grounds that it could be "fraudulent or deceptive".
Actually they have reported, Bob. Care to guess in how many ways they disagree with you and the troofers?
Journalistically, there were many odd things about 9/11.
For example, just how many journalists put up with all the troofer nonsense.
Initial reports of reporters that they heard "explosions" in the towers which could well have been the beams cracking are easy to dismiss. Less so the report that the body of a female air crew member was found in a Manhattan street with her hands bound.
Guess we all missed that one, since the bodies were all incinerated in the initial collision with the jet fuel.
OK, so let's claim that was just hearsay reporting at the time, just as the CIA's list of Arab suicide-hijackers, which included three men who were and still are very much alive and living in the Middle East, was an initial intelligence error.
Or a press error, or a dim-witted troofer error.
But what about the weird letter allegedly written by Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian hijacker-murderer with the spooky face, whose "Islamic" advice to his gruesome comrades released by the CIA mystified every Muslim friend I know in the Middle East? Atta mentioned his family which no Muslim, however ill-taught, would be likely to include in such a prayer. He reminds his comrades-in-murder to say the first Muslim prayer of the day and then goes on to quote from it. But no Muslim would need such a reminder let alone expect the text of the "Fajr" prayer to be included in Atta's letter.
Atta was a little nuts. Diabolical genius to figure out how to make 9/11 work, but also nuts. Does his letter have to make sense?
Let me repeat. I am not a conspiracy theorist.
You just like shoving a sharp stick at us Americans whenever you get the chance.
Spare me the ravers. Spare me the plots. But like everyone else, I would like to know the full story of 9/11, not least because it was the trigger for the whole lunatic, meretricious "war on terror" which has led us to disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan and in much of the Middle East.
Afghanistan is and has been no disaster -- we rid ourselves of an evil regime and a base of operations for al-Qaeda. Iraq is and has been no disaster -- with all the faults one could point out, we rid the world of an evil, genocidal thug and his evil spawn, and we've given the Iraqis a chance to grad hold of their own country. And we either make war on terrorists or we suffer the consequences, amply demonstrated by 9/11. And 7/7. And 3/11. And Bali ...
Bush's happily departed adviser Karl Rove once said that "we're an empire now we create our own reality". True? At least tell us. It would stop people kicking over chairs.
You might do well to let Karl create a reality for you, Bob. Beats the one you have.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/27/2007 00:09 ||
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#1
Usually, I have tried to tell the "truth"; that while there are unanswered questions about 9/11, ...
What questions are those Bob? Any question about who did it? Any question as to why?
I was in Yerevan just a few short weeks after the 9-11 atrocity.
NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON I ENCOUNTERED DURING MY TWO-WEEK STAY IN ARMENIA'S CAPITAL EVER QUESTIONED ME AS TO ANY FALSIFICATION OF MUSLIM INVOLVEMENT IN THE 9-11 ATROCITY.
In fact, I have had to spend time attempting to persuade my Central Asian and Middle Eastern Christian friends that they should notcontrary to everything they have told memilitate towards complete and total annihilation of all Muslims on earth.
Imagine my own humiliation in having to eventually admit that I was wrong in opposing their unanimous advocacy of wiping out all Muslims on earth.
I still cling to the hope that a Muslim genocide will not be necessary. Little evidence presents itself towards proving that such an event will not occur.
#3
NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON I ENCOUNTERED DURING MY TWO-WEEK STAY IN ARMENIA'S CAPITAL EVER QUESTIONED ME AS TO ANY FALSIFICATION OF MUSLIM INVOLVEMENT IN THE 9-11 ATROCITY.
That was reported only by one newspaper (as noted by JF Revel in his book on anti-americanism), but there were lots and lots of grassroots reports of everyday Moderate Muslims noisily and publically manifesting their joy and contentment here in France right after 9/11; W from MIF reported how he personally saw a young muslim kids celebrating in the street. And there were similar reports out of the UK and Belgium IIRC, so it was not an isolated, fren ch phenomenon, not all.
So, from the very, very beginning, even in muslims living in the West's mind, there was NO doubt whatsoever than muslims did it. They took it as a great muslim achievement, with pride and celebration, and already saw the USA as an ennemy to be hurt and defeated, before the WOT that has supposely alienated them even started.
That's why muslim conspiracy theories are so funny, because they can both be proud of the "magnificent 19"'s achievement and victory against the Great Satan, and simultaneously pose as victims and claim they were framed by the jooooooooos/neocons and are the ones to be pitied here. That's what non cartesian, non western mindsets can do.
As for western conspiracy theorists, basically, they follow the old soviet propaganda warfare's strategic aim, demoralizing the West by claiming its real ennemies are its leader. I don't know if they're just willing participants doing that for fun and profit (think alex jones' DVDs) because they've been programmed that way, or if there is an hidden hand behind it; here in Rb, and elsewhere, there were exposes of the orgs behind the european 2003 "antiwar" demonstrations, and all over Europe, it was the usual suspects; commies may be dead in Europe from an electoral point of view, but their networks and levers in society are still intact, and they still hates and plot.
#7
Zenster: It is worth repeating that islam is not a race and consequently no genocide can be perpetuated against it. A public hygiene measure against a meme-plague is another matter.
And I question whether there is a lower bound to the idiocy of these chumps. When Popular Mechanics brutally debunks your conspiracy theories, you know you suck. (no slur on PM. they did a most expert job)
#10
I have a thought experiemtn for those who swallow the "jet fuel doesn't melt steel" story. I've not tested it, myself, but am pretty sure it'd work.
Get a piece of steel piano wire, and hold it comfortably in a pair of pliers ('cuz it's about to get hot). With your second hand, hold a cigarette lighter under the wire until it gets red hot. Does it melt? No. Bt I'll bet you a dollar it will bend under its own weight, right where you got it red hot.
Second thought experiment: Does charcoal melt steel? No? Not in your barbaque, anyway. But coal/coke/charcoal was used to make (molten) steel throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and to make other metals (bronze, silver, gold, et al) for centuries prior to that.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/27/2007 10:42 Comments ||
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#11
Victor Davis Hanson, after quoting Ben Laden and then Fisk, comments:
Two observations come to mind.
First, we know why there is now a colloquial verb in English "to fisk."
Second, The "Even I" of Fisk's title should read "Especially I."
These are sad times in the West, but the inevitable wages of a quarter-century of elite postmodern thought.
#12
"I still cling to the hope that a Muslim genocide will not be necessary."
Instead of talking about future potential genocides, why not talk about the three genocides against Muslims that have already occured (or are still occuring) in recent decades?
- Bosnian Muslims by the Serbs
- the Chechen genocide by the Russians
- the Darfur genocide by other Muslims.
And as for genocide against Christians... I guess we have to go all the way back to the Armenian genocide by the Turks? Anything more recent than 80 years ago?
Two of these were committed by Eastern Orthodox, so at this point I'm much more likely to consider a genocide of the Eastern Orthodox to be "necessary", than I am to consider a genocide of Muslims. Sorry, mom, sorry dad, you need to be genocided to ensure Orthodox fanaticism won't cause murder and mayhem in the Balkans or Caucasus anymore; the hundreds thousands of deaths that it caused against a different religion -- dozens times more deaths than Muslims have caused against Christians through all their suicide bombings and hijackings put together.
Since muslim crimes and murders primarily occur against fellow muslims (i.e. Darfur) I wonder what the "necessity" you speak of is actually about. Is this a "We must kill them all quickly, or they will kill themselves and deprive us of the pleasure?"
Or if Muslim-on-Muslim crimes are also to be counted as part of the supposedly unique barbarism of Islam, why not also count the Christian-on-Christian killings in Rwanda? Very few muslims in Rwanda I believe, didn't stop them from butchering each other though.
Given all the above pesky little facts, I doubt that the "necessity" you speak of represents anything by a desire fed by an extremely selective view of world affairs.
PS -- Armenia was supported by Iran in her was against the muslims of Azerbaijan. So when Armenian fanatics speak about their desire to kill muslims it's not the actual Islamofascist regimes that support terrorism they have in mind -- they are the *allies* of those regimes.
The ones they have in mind are the secular pro-West muslims of Azerbaijan.
#13
"but there were lots and lots of grassroots reports of everyday Moderate Muslims noisily and publically manifesting their joy and contentment here in France right after 9/11;"
Lots of manifestations of joy from anti-American Christians here in Greece as well, I suggest you genocide us.
#15
Hey, Aris. Aren't you supposed to be fighting those fires you set?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/27/2007 12:30 Comments ||
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#16
Poor Fiskie - gotta live up to his name which will long be synonymous writing so incoherent that there really isn't one point that can debated by rational minded folks. As a result, it's not possible to debate the argument at hand, but rather you have to disect his random, unrelated thoughts, line by line.
And of course the incoherent thinking that the story behind your graphic photo tells so well.
Seriously, I think the way Fisk writes is that he gets drunk and then comes up with an outrageous title. Then he writes an intro, randomly hits a bunch of his talking points macro keys and then writes a conclusion which he claims makes his point.
#17
I have a thought experiemtn for those who swallow the "jet fuel doesn't melt steel" story. I've not tested it, myself, but am pretty sure it'd work.
Also there was aluminum fire from the planes. Aluminum fires get much hotter than fuel ones and they decompose water so shedding water (like from the automatic sprinklers in the twowers) over them actually increases the fire (and in addition you get hydrogen fire)
#18
Mr Katsaris has conveniently forgotten the genocide against Chritisn Timorese, the failed one against Jews, the silent genocide against pakistanese Hindus, the genocide in South Sudan (Muslim vesrsus Christain).
That is just from the top my head.
Also his mom would be highly displeased iif she heard he has forgotten about the genocide against the Pontus Greeks (around 1995).
Not to rain on your experiment, 'cause I love sciece, but you are assuming as given what you are trying to prove. Usually a thought experiment is to show a consequence or contradiction in what we know.
Luckily, in this case, we have actual numeric data: steel loses strength as it is heated and rapidly becomes quite weak long before it reaches its melting point. Blacksmiths have known this for a long time. Metallurgists have published numbers and curves. Yeah, I'm too lazy to look one up. Besides, Popular Mechanics and others have been over this before.
#22
"Genocide" has become another buzzword, like calling any opinion you dislike "fascist" or "racist." When I read or hear "genocide," I can smell something, and it ain't coffee brewing. "Mass murder" is more accurate, and needs to be distinguished from lawful killing. I kind of admire the old Texas proverb, "Some people need killing."
"Anything more recent than 80 years ago?" Who have you killed for us lately, Aris? Your extremely selective view of world affairs is just another one of many.
#23
How do we know Afghans beat Fiskie's ass? How do we know he didn't beat his own ass with an empty bottle of Hennesey's or something for an easy story? How do we know some Afghan dominatrix didn't put the hurt on him? How do we know that Cheney didn't fly in, personally beat his ass, and then get whisked out to that secure location they were always talking about?
How do we know, Fiskie? How do we know?
#24
Also there was aluminum fire from the planes. Aluminum fires get much hotter than fuel ones and they decompose water so shedding water (like from the automatic sprinklers in the towers) over them actually increases the fire (and in addition you get hydrogen fire)
Jeebus! Having lit off substantial amounts of aluminum powder in my lifetime, I don't know why that fact didn't occur to me. Great insight, JFM.
#25
"Genocide" has become another buzzword, like calling any opinion you dislike "fascist" or "racist."
For example: The deaths of "dozens" (no one really knows) of Mexican students in the late '60s/early '70s was ruled genocide.
Although the article doesn't say so, the classification of the murder of an unknown (but comparitively small) number of people of unknown ethnic background as "genocide" was due to the fact that murder has a statute of limitations in Mexico, whereas genocide does not.
Of course, that only applies to genocide committed after 2002, but the Mexican government is determined to prosecute Echeverría, law or no law.
Very interesting debunking of a "genocide" claim made by the BP taken ad verbatim and given credence by the press of the time, long but well worth the read.
#30
Less so the report that the body of a female air crew member was found in a Manhattan street with her hands bound.
I'm not sure that even PM stooped to disprove this "theory", but didn't we hear from other flight attendants (maybe on Flight 93) that they (the Islamonazis) had tied up (and actually slit the throat of one of them) the flight attendants? So, why not the same treatment for the WTC planes? Jeebus, is this guy really that dense (don't answer that one)?
Posted by: BA ||
08/27/2007 22:26 Comments ||
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#31
Aris, I would think that by recent definitions of Genocide the treatement of Christians on many Islands in Indonesia would qualify.
Fisk is a liberal, to come to a conclusion he uses emotion and not reason.
A primer on how not to get duped in the Middle East. Nancy Pelosi should read it sometime. Hat tip Gateway Pundit.
by Barry Rubin
Engage, moderate, and splitthats the mantra for Middle East policy of the wrong-headed in many foreign ministries, newspaper editorial offices, universities, and other places where the rapidly growing international bad-ideas industry is centered.
Yet nothing could seem more self-evident than these propositions. What could possibly be wrong with engaging radical forces, persuading them to change their ways, and breaking up their alliances?
Im glad you asked. Here is how these apparently obviously correct ideas are dangerous and even disastrous:
Khaled Ahmed The theocratic stage is the terminal stage after which the state is either undone or finds refuge in reverting to the identity of the modern nation-state, with economic imperatives overriding religious passions
The state of Pakistan is founded on the consensus that it has to be Islamic. As a religious state, it seeks Islamic Sharia Law as an ideal. All states must seek an ideal as their foundational teleology. There is muted disagreement between ideologues and pragmatists over this ideal. It is muted because of intimidation, but it is definitely there, especially after the Talibanisation of the country through illegal action by the Islamists. It is the threat of religion as an extra-legal force that is causing many Pakistanis to consider if the state can move forward into the future with Islam as its credo.
Najam Sethi's
E d i t o r i a l
President General Pervez Musharrafs strategy to get re-elected president for the next five years and, if possible, to remain army chief for as long as possible is failing. The Chief Justice of Pakistan has got stuck in General Musharrafs throat and refuses to be coughed up. Consequently, the regime is desperately flapping for a way out. Nothing has come of Mr Zafarullah Jamalis attempts to neutralize the CJP and rumours of General (retd) Hamid Javeds meeting with the CJP have been hotly denied by CJP sources. Meanwhile, the good judge is going full throttle. He has forced the government to release alleged terrorists and insurgents held incommunicado without trial for years by military intelligence. He has opened hearings on a Jamaat-e-Islami petition challenging General Musharrafs bid to be re-elected president in uniform from the current assemblies. He is in a hurry to decide Nawaz Sharifs petition to be allowed to return to Pakistan. And he is leaning on the Election Commission to create a level playing field for the next general elections. Any anti-government decision would cut the ground from under General Musharrafs feet. Already, the ruling PMLQ is reeling with loss of faith and urging all manner of emergency responses to save its skin.
General Musharraf has been wooing the PPP and JUI, partly to divide and rule the opposition and partly to shore up his regime with some additional junior partners. But this is easier said than done. Indeed, the secret deals with both parties are beginning to unravel because General Musharraf and the PMLQ dont see eye-to-eye on strategy. General Musharraf and his American benefactors want a deal with the moderate PPP in 2007 but the PMLQ wants one with the radical MMA as in 2002. The irony is that an exclusive deal with the PPP would weaken the PMLQ, which is General Musharrafs current base, while one with the MMA would castrate General Musharrafs enlightened moderation agenda, polarize the country and alienate the international community. The failure to resolve this question of strategic and tactical power-sharing allies for the future has led the Musharraf regime to consider an imposition of Emergency to prolong the life of the current parliament and government and also clip the wings of the Supreme Court. In the hazy background dangles the sword of martial law if all else fails.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2007 00:00 ||
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This is a long article that describes how the "surge" in Iraq was planned and how it is working. Much detail -- especially, the geography of Iraq, and how the forces are placed and what and how they are doing what they are. Well worth the read. A snippet
Lay of the land
To understand why, it is necessary to know something of the human geography of Iraq. Baghdad sits at the confluence of the Tigris River and its main tributary, the Diyala; these both flow from the north. The Euphrates River travels across Iraq from west to east, curving sharply south in the southwest suburbs of Baghdad. From there, the Euphrates and the Tigris converge gently, finally issuing, far to the south, into the Persian Gulf. Because Iraq's populated areas hug its great rivers, the human geography of the country lies along five corridors all connected to a central hub--Baghdad.
Outside those fertile corridors lies a scorching, lifeless desert--in many places no further than three miles from the nearest river. Because the desert has no water, it favors the army that can most easily maneuver over long distances with its own water. The Americans are thus masters of the desert in Iraq.
The insurgents, by contrast, don't do so well there. Even when they disguise themselves as Bedouins, their patterns of congregation and movement are easily detected by the scores of unmanned aerial vehicles constantly on the prowl overhead. And they can't move around readily, because the desert is largely impassable and in any case totally exposed, its few roads easily monitored. This means both the insurgency and the counter-insurgency center on Iraq's five river corridors.
Of these, the one where al Qaeda has suffered its clearest and most humiliating defeat is along the western Euphrates--the corridor stretching from Baghdad to Falluja, Ramadi, Haditha, and on to Al Qaim near the Syrian border. Not too long ago the heart of the Sunni insurgency, the entire corridor has fallen to coalition forces. Insurgents are finding that they can't get past the outer checkpoints far enough to approach any of the main cities, and even crossing from one side of the Euphrates to the other has become extremely difficult. Indeed the situation in Anbar has advanced to the point where the Marine Expeditionary Force has hit all of its major "intel targets" and had virtually none to nominate for the Phantom Strike campaign.
Moving counterclockwise, the corridors formed by the southern Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and the irrigated land between them, are mainly Iraq's Shiite heartland. But this twin corridor is dominated at its northern end by a belt of Sunni settlements, running along the outer perimeter of southern Baghdad. Saddam Hussein contrived this as a defense-in-depth of his precious capital. In this Baghdad belt, Lynch's division has been conducting a series of enormous CCR operations. Insurgents are fleeing south, but will soon start running into the Shiite wall, where (after years--indeed decades--of abusing the Shiites) they are likely to suffer a fate far worse than getting captured by coalition forces.
The next river corridor to the north is the Diyala valley, which leads from Baghdad to Baquba, Muqtadiya, and Mansuriyah, finally hitting the Kurdish region where the terrain becomes mountainous. Starting in mid-June with Operation Arrowhead Ripper, which focused on Baquba, this area has seen the heaviest fighting in Iraq since the start of the surge last February. It is also the site of the most complex and interesting of the Phantom Strike operations--Lightning Hammer--which focuses on the upper Diyala River valley from Baquba to the Kurdish region.
These four corridors, which only a year ago were wide open to the insurgents, have become increasingly nettlesome and dangerous for them since the start of the surge. The large areas shown on intel maps as "safe" for the insurgents only last year have been whittled down to small pockets here and there. Al Qaeda and its affiliates are increasingly desperate for safe havens from which to operate and lines of communication they can rely on.
Increasingly the insurgents' only option is the fifth corridor, the northern Tigris River valley stretching from Baghdad to Samarrah, Tikrit, and Mosul in the far north. This is why the location of al Qaeda's August 16 attack, 75 miles west of Mosul, was so telling. The car-bombs were likely assembled near Mosul because of the increased risk of trying to assemble them anywhere else in Iraq. And they were "delivered" locally because al Qaeda probably decided that the long journey down the Tikrit-Samarrah-Baghdad highway was too dangerous.
Al Qaeda understands how to manipulate western media well enough to know that they don't always need to attack in Baghdad. Indeed, the bombing dominated the headlines in the United States in the dramatic opening days of Operation Phantom Strike. But because of where it occurred, it told the coalition's planners that they have been effective, too.
In the words of one soft-spoken coalition planner in Baghdad, "We are demolishing them." After four long years, the coalition has finally grasped the keys to victory. Al Qaeda has begun to lose the staging areas it needs for attacks in Baghdad. Just staying alive and avoiding capture is becoming a full-time occupation for them. As security envelops Baghdad, and calm spreads along the river corridors that extend out from the capital to the furthest reaches of the country, what is already clear to many people here in Iraq will become increasingly impossible for the rest of the world to ignore.
Because they have finally learned how to protect the people of Iraq--and help them to protect themselves--the United States and its allies are winning this war.
Mario Loyola, a fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, is embedded with the Marine Expeditionary Force in western Iraq
#1
Excellent analysis and reporting, which only begs the question - how does the British withdrawal from Basra set up phase two: Shiite militia pacification?
#2
That's something they are going to have to take care of themselves. We can't say anything about their precious little militias without upsetting them.
#1
Consider WORLD-SCIENCE > THE INVISIBLE VICTIMS OF 9-11 - THE UNBORN. Stresses from 9-11 led to 000's of abortions. No word yet on effect on elderly.
Time/CNN, so it's automatically opinion and not news.
On Sunday Washington once again kicked Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki while he's down. Ayad Allawi, Iraq's interim leader in 2004, announced that he plans to return to Baghdad and do what the current Prime Minister has not: rid the government of sectarian bias and bring violence under control.
Visions of a triumphant return for Allawi are far-fetched. Allawi, who now spends most of his time outside Iraq, has hired the D.C.-based Republican lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers to put the best face on things. Some of his new advisers are former members of the Bush Administration including Robert Blackwill, a former deputy national security adviser who was involved in putting together the interim government that Allawi headed in 2004.
But the notion of Allawi's return isn't a doomed gambit by President Bush. It's symptomatic of the bipartisan consensus in the U.S. that Iraq's problems could be solved if the Iraqis would simply do as they're told.
More likely I'd say it's a bit of pressure added to what Maliki's already dealing with.
Last Wednesday Hillary Clinton offered unsolicited advice to Iraq's democratically elected parliament, saying it should get rid of Prime Minister Maliki and pick a "less divisive and more unifying figure." (That echoed remarks made earlier in the week by Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.) Republican Senator John Warner chimed in to say Maliki had "totally failed,"and was unable "to deliver greater security and reconciliation."
Much like Jaafari before him.
Such lectures don't sit well with Maliki, who lashed out on Sunday at Clinton and Levin. He said they seem to "consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages," and told them to "come to their senses."
Much has already been written about Maliki's shortcomings and failures. But the job of Iraqi prime minister at least as outlined by American officials is probably impossible. There is no one who can reconcile with Sunni nationalists while simultaneously disarming militias tied to Shi'ite Iran. There is no one who can assert control over militia-dominated government ministries while simultaneously asserting control over Sunni communities that remain antagonistic towards the central government.
As a senior Western diplomat observed earlier this month, there is no knight in shining armor waiting in the wings to solve the country's problems if and when Maliki finally succumbs.
And yet, that's just how Allawi would like to be considered. He follows in the tradition of pre-war Iraqi exiles like Ahmad Chalabi whose outlook and politicking play better in Washington than in Baghdad. Allawi is admirable in some respects. In 2004 he supported offensives against both Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militia the kind of even-handed approach that impresses Washington and, in a perfect world, would unify Iraqis. But Iraq is far from perfect, and so is Allawi. He was not popular, and even before elections in early 2005, no one thought he had a chance of maintaining his influence.
Even in 2004, as Allawi offered support to U.S. forces fighting in Fallujah, Baghdad, and southern Iraq, that support was mostly rhetorical. Very few Iraqis actually showed up to fight and die alongside American soldiers and Marines; more were inspired to take up arms and fight as insurgents and militiamen. In many important respects that dynamic has not changed. Any politician seeking to break the power of Shi'ite militias is faced with a dilemma: you cannot survive in Iraqi politics, much less take on the militias, unless you have armed men of your own.
So if Allawi was being literal when he promised on Sunday to "fight for [his] country," chances are he'll eventually want to outsource the actual combat to Americans. Allawi's bid for renewed influence, while far-fetched, raises an important question: does America want to leave Iraq, or does it want Iraqis to do what America tells them to do? As long as American politicians insist that Iraqis do things the American way, American soldiers will have to remain in Iraq and provide the muscle.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/27/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Very few Iraqis actually showed up to fight and die alongside American soldiers and Marines.
That was 2004 -- I'm not sure that, three years later, this "fact" is now a "fact."
Just scan the headlines of Rantburg each day, and the Iraqi forces are not only showing up, they are fightn' hard.
Come on guys, get with the program. You are so '04. Get over it.
#2
Not only are the Iraqis getting into the fight as police and soldiers, people in the neighborhoods are ratting out the jihadis in their midst. If you don't understand this phenomenon, go watch a Clint Eastwood movie - the townsfolk don't fight against the baddies until they think they can win.
And speaking of movies, "Jihadis in the Midst" would make a great title!
Ht/excerpt from Hugh Hewitt
The new comfort zone for many politicians and leader-writers appears to be the notion that if Britain withdraws its troops from Iraq and sends all the freed-up forces to Afghanistan, then all will be well. Siren voices are insisting that honour would be satisfied by such a move and we would still be pulling our weight in what Gordon Brown refuses to call the war on terror or the war against Islamist extremism. Afghanistan, say those voices, is the crucial place to be engaging al-Qaeda. Iraq is a sideshow.
This is no comfort zone at all. The war against Islamist extremism is indivisible. The thought that Afghanistan is somehow a more righteous war is absurd, General Jack Keane told me this week. Keane is the soldier who helped devise present US policy in Iraq and has been critical of the British performance in southern Iraq.
Al-Qaeda is an international criminal organisation that declared war on the West in the 1990s, and is determined to subjugate us. If we cut and run from one crucial battleground, it will be a betrayal of our allies in both America and Iraq and a victory for all Islamist extremism, Shia as well as Sunni. Moqtada al Sadr, the Shiite leader in southern Iraq, was crowing in the Independent only this week that his militia had driven the British out.
The choices are not easy. We are in the midst of a world-wide war and British forces are overstretched and underresourced, fighting as they are in both Basra and Afghanistan. With only 100,000 men and women our armed forces are fewer in number than at any time since the Victorian era. Its a disgrace and it is the responsibility of both Conservative and Labour governments. The present crisis, however, is the result of the thoughtless cuts imposed over the past decade by the man who is now Prime Minister. ...
The sirens who call for us to abandon Iraq would do well to turn an eye to history. In the careless partition of India in 1947 around a million people died. When America was defeated in Vietnam in 1975 the bloodbath theory proved true horror engulfed all of Indochina.
In Iraq the bestial zealotry of the Muslim terrorists warns us of even greater horrors. Hundreds of thousands of people could die or be uprooted in the full-scale civil war that followed Western capitulation. Huge numbers who hoped that we really would help them create a decent Iraq are terrified that we will capitulate. And with reason. As Petraeus said recently of the aftermath of withdrawal, If you didnt like Darfur, youre going to hate Baghdad.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/27/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The only benefit I can see from Britain's shameful retreat from Basra is the lie that will be put to the notion that it is only our presence in Iraq which is causing the troubles there. I fully expect riot and mayhem to follow the withdrawal; and an object lesson for the rest of the country should the Dhimmicrats have their way.
From the blog of 'an Army Officer in Iraq commanding an Engineer Company.' Hat tip Instapundit.
Road trip from Camp Ramadi to Camp Falluja. Again. But this trip is different. Down Michigan, through Ar Ramadi, through Habbinyah, and through Al Falluja - in HUMVEES. Pathfinder 6 and I are escorting journalist Bill Schaefer to the Camp to meet with Team Badger Soldiers so he can give you his version of their story.
Out the South gate we turn left and head for the bridge that will take us into Ar Ramadi. Past the glass factory on our left that had only recently been cleared of snipers when we arrived last October, it now has people moving about it trying to get in back into operation.
On my right the urban area becomes more apparent, the HESCOs and concrete barriers removed to open the area up. An IP station built. The IP's going about their business and wave at us.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/27/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
...and there is no waiting for the insurance adjuster first. They are doing this on their own ticket. The biggest metric will be when the skyline of all the major towns and cities are peppered with tower cranes.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/27/2007 12:38 Comments ||
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#2
One can only hope thatas Iraqis invest in their futurethey begin to obtain a stronger sense of how very little their fellow Islamic terrorists want for them. Only when they discover how everything, everything that they are striving for is cheerfully put at risk by al Qaeda and their lot will Iraq's citizens finally understand the price of tolerating such vermin.
"New Glass"? Wonderful. I can only hope that "New Life" takes root as well. So far, much too much of Iraq has centered upon death and destruction, be it the West's, the Sunnis', the Christians' or whichever poor unlucky bastard of the moment happens to slip into the crosshairs of typical Muslim mayhem. If there is one thing Americans have gifted the Iraqis with, it is that they now have something to lose.
Whether or not they possess the wisdom to treasure their newfound prosperity remains to be seen. Gauged by the outside Muslim world's response to progress and increasing quality of life, the prospects are grim at best.
#4
Whether or not they possess the wisdom to treasure their newfound prosperity remains to be seen. Gauged by the outside Muslim world's response to progress and increasing quality of life, the prospects are grim at best.
I agree, Zenster. Problem is the outside muslim world considers "progress" and "increasing quality of life" to be the abolition of secular life, more Bourkas, and more slaves to the Sharia. They are all for "progress", but their definition is insane.
#3
Whenever my Flemish wife and I are back in Antwerp, we attend RC church with my in-laws. You do not see many young faces at mass. You do attend a number of first communions and confirmations in the summer for the nephews and nieces but at Sunday church it is different. And this is the most conservative, Christian part of old Europe. I wonder what it is like in Poland?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/27/2007 12:42 Comments ||
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#4
the 'al' in allah is the definite article.
One theory about the 'lah' in allah, is that about 12 centuries before Mohammud, this was 'yah' (a word used often in the psalms as a short name for what is translated in the KJBible as "Lord"). About the 2nd century B.C., the script of the 'y' and the 'l' were fairly similar and there was a transposition.
Not everybody buys this theory, partly because the vocalization of the 'y' and the 'l' require much different tongue positions (if I had an editor this would be out because it sounds gross - yuck).
#5
he wants Christians to start calling God Allah because he believes such a gesture would promote rapprochement between Christianity and Islam
Which demonstrates just how little appreciation this blithering idiot has for the ways of Islam.
Inquiring minds want to know: If the bishop really thinks the names God and Allah are interchangeable, why doesnt he ask Muslims to start calling Allah Yahweh, the biblical name for God? But he wont, because he knows they wont.
Not only will they not, they would also kill him and anyone else who suggested something so foolish.
thousands of inscriptions which prove beyond any doubt that the dominant religion of Arabia during Mohammeds day was the cult of the moon-god.
So, they really are all a bunch of lunatics. Who knew?
The Koran also portrays Allah as a vindictive deity who hates sinners and desires to afflict them. But the Bible says God is love.
This shall remain Christianitys central and most redeeming feature. Were hatred paramount to proper religious worship it is just as likely that mankind would be extinct today. Only something as gentle, enduring and dignifying as love could possibly sustain civilization. Islams doctrinal core of hatred and intolerance is what will guarantee its erasure from this earth. Reason cannot abide such an assault upon the human condition without failing to act against it. All that remains uncertain is how long it will take for this to happen.
Its not that Europeans havent been forewarned. Its that they couldnt care less.
In part this is becauseat days endEurope can and most likely will revert to its favored solution for all such unpleasantness such that once again the charnelhouse doors will swing wide to admit its forelorn victims.
#6
Not everybody buys this theory, partly because the vocalization of the 'y' and the 'l' require much different tongue positions
mhw, think of the Spanish versus the Hispano-American pronunciation of the ll: l-y vs y. this is a perfect example of the morphing from y to l, as the various Hispanic countries have mostly retained the pronunciation used at the time they were cut off from their mother country (and grammar -- I had a Mexican girlfriend who used to mock the simplified grammatical forms used by her Spanish acquaintances, just as my Taiwanese friends mock the simplified writing and grammar used on the Mainland nowadays).
#7
archaeology provides irrefutable evidence that Allah, far from being the biblical God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was actually the pre-Islamic pagan moon-god. Indeed, it is an established archaeological fact that worship of the moon-god was the main religion of the ancient Middle East
Anyone with any sense has been saying this for years. But the inevitable problem is, since when did scientific proof ever change the mind of ignorant fanatics?
No, rather than try to "prove" the basis of their faith to be ridiculous, it's much more effective to FIGHT it. Murderous fanatics understand FORCE, and little else.
#9
Allah is a fiction, concocted by Muhammed while he was at a cave retreat in 610 AD. Context: he had married an older woman for her money, and lost interest in her when she turned 55, and he suffered man-toy taunts. After claiming "prophet" status he received: 13 wives, and a concocted (koran 4:84) power to beat them at will; 20% cut of all plunder booty; free accomodation; power to make laws in order to exhonerate all his many crimes; power to force followers to divorce wives so he could marry them, and the privilege of marrying a 6 year old girl; right to invade any country and abolish their national cultures; absolute power over life and death, and corporal integrity (viz retention of limbs); ersatz right to exclude non Moslems from Mecca/Medina; ersatz right to control human conscience, and impose Arab perversities against any captive; ersatz right to murder prisoners of war; ersatz right to bequeath unindicted co-conspirators like CAIR and ISNA on Americans; etc.
From Counterterrorism blog with a hat tip to both Instapundit and LGF. This is an excellent primer on how CAIR came about and how it's involved in the Holy Land Foundation trial. Must read and many useful links.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/27/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
WORLDTRIBUNE > DAILY KOS > MARXISM STILL IN MAINSTREAM AFTER ALL THESE YEARS.
Some much needed straight talk from a Black columnist, especially in an atmosphere where everyone is playing the race card.....
We've been here before. It was November 7, 1991, Magic Johnson stood before hundreds of cameras and told the world that he was HIV positive.
His announcement rocked the sports world. Allegedly Magic's johnson taught us all a lesson about irresponsible sex, groupies and the pitfalls of a celebrity lifestyle. We vowed to do better.
Nothing changed.
Last week we learned that 28-year-old Travis Henry, a decent NFL running back, has fathered nine children by nine different women in four different states. In America, especially among superstar athletes, sex is still mostly thoughtless and unprotected.
Worse, 16 years after Magic's announcement, there are far more average Americans chasing the lifestyle that nearly killed Magic, incarcerated Paris and drugged Lindsey Lohan.
So, forgive me, I'm not all that hopeful that we will implement anything we've gleaned from Michael Vick's reality TV show.
As I watched Monday as Vick contritely apologized for the actions that will seemingly land him in jail and cost him more than $100 million, I thought of Earvin Johnson, who, like Vick, performed magic with a ball.
Vick's comeuppance and remorseful, four-minute, post-guilty-plea mea culpa shook the sports world to the same degree as Magic's tear-provoking press conference. Obviously, there were few tears shed for Vick. Unlike Magic's misdeeds, many of us cannot see ourselves making the same mistakes as Vick.
But the bottom-line reaction is the same: We hope that young people, particularly young athletes and, in the Vick case, most particularly young black athletes will choose a different course of action based on lessons learned from Vick's fall.
"I'm more disappointed in myself, if anything, it's because of all the young people, young kids, I've let down, who look at Michael Vick as a role model," Vick said. "To have to go though this, and put myself in this situation, I hope that every young kid out in the world watching this interview right now or who has been following the case will use me as an example to use better judgment and make better decisions."
Vick is singing the right tune. Unfortunately my hope of a cultural awakening is tempered by the knowledge that too many young black boys will have the Vick story defined to them through the prism of white racism.
White racism is our kryptonite. It's our excuse for nearly every malady. It's our excuse to deflect and remain in denial. Within minutes of Vick's guilty plea, ESPN's Doug Stewart could be seen and heard shouting on TV that because the police walked in the Rodney King beating, black people believe Vick is being dealt with too harshly.
I'm not making this up.
Never mind that Jayson Williams killed a limo driver and is free like O.J. Never mind that O.J. walked, and we were spotted on TV wildly cheering the release of a man who wouldn't stop to tinkle if we were all piled in a blaze of fire.
Vick will not serve as a lesson unless we reject the myth that racism is always the main lesson. We never go to math or social studies or science or English because we want to take the class we know we can ace, the class that is still extremely relevant, but it's a subject that needs context and an understanding of the big picture.
The big picture here is that we have a youth culture in crisis.
More pertinent to the Vick case, we have a black youth culture hip hop that is in crisis, self-destructive, filled with self-hatred and celebratory of criminality. We, black folks, must stand up and object to this culture, redirect this culture, or there will be more Michael Vicks.
Now all of that is indisputable, and reliving Rodney King won't do a damn thing to solve the problem. We have to take control of our culture and our destiny. We have to spell out reasonable and appropriate expectations for our young people and our athletes. We can no longer sit back, accept whatever behavior they offer up and blame racism when we don't like the results.
Too many of our athletes are being reared in a culture that does not prepare them for the fame, fortune and scrutiny that is handed to them. Vick is a prime example.
Here's what Michael Vick didn't figure out until Monday: All the actions he took on his way to a $130 million NFL contract were not appropriate.
That seems rather simple. But most of you have never experienced receiving a million-dollar contract at age 21 or 22. It warps your brain. It can reinforce negative values. An outsider can recognize that Michael Vick became an NFL star because God blessed him with uncanny athletic ability, not because Vick's work ethic was better than, say, Chris Leak's, not because Vick surrounded himself with better people than did his brother, Marcus.
Until all of this, Vick likely thought he had taken most of the proper steps. Why else would he be so blessed?
Talent, like beauty, can be a horrible curse. It can hide so many shortcomings, limit your intellectual evolution, compromise the way your friends, family members and co-workers interact with you, prevent you from dealing with problems that are frighteningly obvious to objective observers.
Michael Vick will now have time to ponder all of this. Let's hope his rational thoughts are not drowned out by the idiots who will enthusiastically tell him that racism put him in this jam.
#4
"We have to take control of our culture and our destiny. We have to spell out reasonable and appropriate expectations for our young people and our athletes. We can no longer sit back, accept whatever behavior they offer up and blame racism when we don't like the results."
GFL on that one.
Sounds nice, but get back to me when Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, et at., the race hustlers start saying - and meaning - this....
Posted by: Harry R. & Nancy P. ||
08/27/2007 22:28 Comments ||
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#5
Crap - #4 was me.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/27/2007 22:29 Comments ||
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#6
Worse, 16 years after Magic's announcement, there are far more average Americans chasing the lifestyle that nearly killed Magic, incarcerated Paris and drugged Lindsey Lohan But the bottom-line reaction is the same: We hope that young people, particularly young athletes and, in the Vick case, most particularly young black athletes will choose a different course of action based on lessons learned from Vick's fall.
Except that Johnsons lesson is of far more importance to black Americans. Sexual irresponsibility remains the single most poisonous factor that they face. It manifests in a host of exceptionally deleterious ways. Single parent families that are overwhelmingly headed by poorly educated and low income women. Criminal gangs that act as surrogate families for these attention starved youth. A culture that celebrates gansta rap and thinks ebonics has even a shred of merit. An almost institutionalized mistreatment of women in the forms of spousal abuse and prostitution. Hideously conspicuous consumptionin the form of bling and grillesand nearly endemic drug abuse, be it alcohol or the death knell of black America, crack cocaine.
White racism is our kryptonite. It's our excuse for nearly every malady. It's our excuse to deflect and remain in denial. Within minutes of Vick's guilty plea, ESPN's Doug Stewart could be seen and heard shouting on TV that because the police walked in the Rodney King beating, black people believe Vick is being dealt with too harshly.
The author deserves a Pulitzer Prize for having enough courage to elucidate and take responsibility for airing this long overdue load of very dirty laundry. One of the only other individuals of note to be so bold has been Bill Cosby. Worst of all is how the black community seems so disinclined to entertain any such messages. Their unwillingness to take responsibility and constant resort to denial is excelled only by this worlds Muslims. Small wonder that so many blacks find such solace in Islam.
Too many of our athletes are being reared in a culture that does not prepare them for the fame, fortune and scrutiny that is handed to them.
This could easily be a pivotal point. It is not fame and fortune that proves to be so damaging butin factsomething so many black Americans are entirely unused to; namely, scrutiny. It is lack of introspection, self-inspection, community censure or whatever you may wish to call it that has permitted black America to slide over a moral and ethical event horizon. I do not envy the steps required to salvage the real worth that lays dormant in this part of Americas citizenry. Even worse is how so much this applies to the global black community and goes far less addressed within those domains. None of this bodes at all well.
#7
#6. You say Johnson's lesson is vitally important.
The writer seems to be saying that it may be true, but that the people who need to pay attention are NOT PAYING ATTENTION
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/27/2007 23:41 Comments ||
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If you feel as strongly as I do, please consider sending Jason Whitlock and email at his address: jwhitlock@kcstar.com.
This worthy man needs all the support he can get. Goodness knows that he will be lambasted by Sharptonesque and Jessie Jacksonian race war pimps to no end.
#9
Sarkozy is the most interesting individual on the world stage today. Hungarian immigrant parents, but was mayor of part of Paris for 19 years. Hated by the rabble -- always a good sign.
"France is back," Sarkozy said recently. It does look way, I'm happy to say.
Posted by: Vancouver ||
08/27/2007 23:43 Comments ||
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#10
the people who need to pay attention are NOT PAYING ATTENTION
Yup, it is why black America faces such an unnecessary yet deservedly grim and self-imposed challenge. I do not relish considering what will be required to overcome such self-imposed obstacles. The situation is much like with Islam: Persistent denial. An abject refusal to accept responsibility. Unhesitating blame of all others save themselves and a cheerful resort to violence at every turn.
Again, and very sadly, none of this bodes well at all.
There are two views of America right now. The official view is that America is a liberal democratic entity that can be filled with any people with any traditions and any views and that our government exists to provide services to those citizens. This is the strongly held view of the USG. So strongly held, in fact, that it doesn't even realize there is an alternative view.
The unofficial view, and the view of a small but growing minority, is that the American people are a specific people, with a specific history, culture and tradition, and that our government is legitimate only to the extent it exists to protect and preserve that people and their rights and liberties. And if it does not, it is incumbent upon the American people to abolish it or change it.
#3
press censorship is now so far-reaching that you can't even expose a legal, effective, and top-secret plan to trace terrorists without getting a Pulitzer Prize
Bwahahahahaha!
"There is strong evidence that Kerry won the popular vote [in the 2004 election]," Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Progressive before the 2006 midterms. "There were easily three million votes that were shifted ... There were 80,000 Democratic voters in twelve western Ohio rural counties who cast a vote for Kerry and had their votes shifted ... In six other counties there were tens of thousands of Kerry voters who had their votes shifted to Bush."
If only this sort of taurine fecal matter were merely tiresome instead of being the quasi-treasonous irrational spewing that it is. The Left continues to whore itself to those who are utterly incapable of logical deduction or simple reasoned thought. Were this not so incredibly dangerous it would be laughable.
To Perot, the high-tech populist, the Bushes were upper-class parasites enriching themselves through the exploitation of riches that should have benefited all Texans.
Anyone else notice the stench of zero-sum equation thinking?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
