How do you say “Illegal Alien” in Newspeak?

*
Rather than combat the problem of illegal aliens, leftist would rather combat the phrase "Illegal Alien."

By shaping the language, they hope to shape peoples attitudes. They would like to remove the stigma that Illegal Alien puts on an Illegal Aliens by playing Orwellian word games.

Newspeak thinking at its finest.

~~~

TALLAHASSEE -- A state legislator whose district is home to thousands of Caribbean immigrants wants to ban the term "illegal alien" from the state's official documents.

"I personally find the word 'alien' offensive when applied to individuals, especially to children," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. "An alien to me is someone from out of space."

She has introduced a bill providing that: "A state agency or official may not use the term 'illegal alien' in an official document of the state." There would be no penalty for using the words.

In Miami-Dade County, Wilson said, "we don't say 'alien,' we say 'immigrant.'"
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070227/NEWS01/70227062/1075

Emphasis added

The Age of Narcissus

*

If you have ever suspected that young college age kids are too full of themselves, some researchers would say that you were right.

The idea that a person’s self esteem should be tied to virtue has been completely discounted in favor of con job based on nothing more then false praise.

The damage done to our culture and our nation is tremendous.

~~~

Today's college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than their predecessors, according to a comprehensive new study by five psychologists who worry that the trend could be harmful to personal relationships and American society.

"We need to stop endlessly repeating 'You're special' and having children repeat that back," said the study's lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. "Kids are self-centered enough already."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070227/ap_on_re_us/self_centered_students

Betrayals of Liberal and Leftish Thinking

*

The alliance that the left makes with the Islamist is offensive. They prove themselves to be craven and hateful liars every time they side with the advocates of a religion that makes plain its imperative to implement a global theocracy.

Now days, whenever I here some feminist yap on about woman’s rights, I wonder how she would look stuffed in a burqa bag. In an Islamist country like Saudi Arabia, woman that are not sufficiently bagged up in a burqa or abaya and hajib are thought to be better off burning alive in a fire then to be permitted on the street.

Then there is the issue of Honor Killings. The Feminist seem to have damned little to say about that. Is it any wonder that I have contempt for them?

~~~

There were plenty of leftish people in the 20th century who excused communism, but they could at least say that communism was a left-wing idea. Now overwhelmingly and everywhere you find people who scream their heads off about the smallest sexist or racist remark, yet refuse to confront ultra-reactionary movements that explicitly reject every principle they profess to hold.

Why is the world upside down? In part, it is a measure of President Bush's failure that anti-Americanism has swept out of the intelligentsia and become mainstream in Britain. A country that was once the most pro-American in Western Europe now derides Tony Blair for sticking with the Atlantic alliance. But if Iraq has pummeled Mr. Blair's reputation, it has also shone a very harsh light on the British and European left. No one noticed it when the Berlin Wall came down, but the death of socialism gave people who called themselves "left wing" a paradoxical advantage. They no longer had a practical program they needed to defend and could go along with ultra-right movements that would once have been taboo. In moments of crisis, otherwise sane liberals will turn to these movements and be reassured by the professed leftism of the protest organizers that they are not making a nonsense of their beliefs.

If, that is, they have strong beliefs to abandon. In Europe and North America extreme versions of multiculturalism and identity politics have left a poisonous legacy. Far too many liberal-minded people think that is somehow culturally imperialist to criticize reactionary movements and ideas--as long as they aren't European or American reactionary movements. This delusion is everywhere. Until very recently our Labour government was allowing its dealings with Britain's Muslim minority to be controlled by an unelected group, the Muslim Council of Britain, which stood for everything social democrats were against. In their desperate attempts to ingratiate themselves, ministers gave its leader a knighthood--even though he had said that "death was too good" for Salman Rushdie, who happens to be a British citizen as well as a great novelist.

Beyond the contortions and betrayals of liberal and leftish thinking lies a simple emotion that I don't believe Americans take account of: an insidious fear that has produced the ideal conditions for appeasement. Radical Islam does worry Europeans but we are trying to prevent an explosion by going along with Islamist victimhood. We blame ourselves for the Islamist rage, in the hope that our admission of guilt will pacify our enemies. We are scared, but not scared enough to take a stand.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009711

British-based Islamic terrorists plotting suicide attacks

*

It is a religious war. It is a civilizational war. It is a war.

It will result in blood and Death.

We must stop pretending that it is not a war.

We must not be afraid.


~~~

The terrorist threat facing Britain from home-grown al-Qaeda agents is higher than at any time since the September 11 attacks in 2001, secret intelligence documents reveal.

The number of British-based Islamic terrorists plotting suicide attacks against "soft" targets in this country is far greater than the Security Services had previously believed, the government paperwork discloses. It is thought the plotters could number more than 2,000.

Under the heading "International Terrorism in the UK", the document - seen by The Sunday Telegraph - states: "The scale of al-Qaeda's ambitions towards attacking the UK and the number of UK extremists prepared to participate in attacks are even greater than we had previously judged."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/25/nterr25.xml

(Hat tip to LGF)

Liberal Vs Leftist

*

Ben Duffy wrote an amusing little article at the Daily Collegian. He offers an explanation of what it is that separates a Liberal from a Leftist.

As short-hands go, I think he is close to the mark.

~~~

If you believe that all military actions must be explicitly sanctioned by the almighty United Nations, you'd have to conclude that the Kosovo War was illegal under international law. So if the war in Kosovo was illegal, does that make Clinton and his administration "war criminals?" If you ask a liberal that question, he will say no. Ask a leftist, and he will say yes.

Therein lays the difference between a liberal and a leftist. Liberals are constantly contradicting themselves, and it's quite easy to prove that they lack any true principles. Their appraisal of any particular action hinges on who's doing it. The good guys (Democrats) are always right, and the bad guys (Republicans) are always wrong. Simply change the party in power, and liberals will change their minds on just about everything.

Leftists on the other hand, are a lot more consistent. They're consistently wrong, venomous, anti-American and misguided, but at least they're consistent. No matter who is in power, you can expect the leftists to take to the streets denouncing this guy or that guy as a "war criminal."
http://media.www.dailycollegian.com/media/storage/paper874/news/2007/02/15/EditorialOpinion/Making.The.Right.Decision-2720383.shtml

Islam will Rule in Britain

*

The push is on in Britain to make the British submit to the religious dictates of a hostile alien population in their midst.

Islam will Rule Britain if the British do not have the courage to rule themselves.

~~~

DEMANDS for a ban on “un-Islamic” activities in schools will be set out by the Muslim Council of Britain today.

Targets include playground games, swimming lessons, school plays, parents’ evenings and even vaccinations.

And the calls for all children to be taught in Taliban-style conditions will be launched with the help of a senior Government education adviser.

Professor Tim Brighouse, chief adviser to London schools, was due to attend the event at the capital’s biggest mosque.

His presence there was seen as “deeply worrying”, and a sign that the report was backed by the Government.

Tory MP Greg Hands said: “The MCB needs to realise it has to move closer to the rest of the community, not away from it.

“The presence of Tim Brighouse implies Government back­ing of this report. This is very worrying.”

Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society said the report was a “recipe for disaster”.

He added: “Schools with even just a handful of Muslim kids will find they have to follow these guidelines because there aren’t the staff to have one set of classes for Muslims and another for the rest.

“The MCB shouldn’t try to force its religious agenda on children who may not want it. The Government needs to send the MCB packing. Schools should be about teaching, not preaching.”

The report, Towards Greater Understanding – Meeting The Needs of Muslim Pupils In State Schools, says all schools should bring in effective bans for all pupils on “un-Islamic activities” like dance classes.

It also wants to limit certain activities during Ramadan. They include science lessons dealing with sex, parents’ evenings, exams and immunisation programmes.

The holy month – when eating and drinking is not allowed in daylight hours – should also see a ban on swimming lessons in case pupils swallow water in
the pool.

When swimming is allowed, boys should wear clothing covering their bodies “from the navel to the neck”, even during single-sex pool sessions, while girls must be covered up completely at all times, apart from the face and hands.

The MCB adds that schools should ensure contact sports, including football and basketball, “are always in single-gender groups”.

Even school trips are targeted in the report, which wants them all to be made single-sex “to encourage greater participation from Muslim pupils”.

It wants Arabic language classes for Muslim pupils, and says the Koran should be recited in music classes. And all schools should ensure they have prayer rooms with washing facilities attached, it says.
http://www.express.co.uk/news_detail.html?sku=1264

Thai Delusions

*

The Religion of Peace is murdering people left and right in Thailand.

Thai appeasement in the face of Islamic terrorism will not make things better for the Thais. Appeasement only begets more aggression.

~~~

Islamic separatists could stage more "terrorist" attacks, Thailand has warned, after nine people were killed in overnight strikes as many Thais began celebrating the Lunar New Year.

Thailand's army chief of staff said the insurgents, who have battled the government for three years in Muslim-majority provinces of southern Thailand, could try to stage new attacks during upcoming Buddhist holidays.

"The violence may increase, and it will be the same kind of terrorist tactics," General Montri Sangkasap told reporters Monday after an emergency security meeting in Bangkok.

Thailand's junta chief, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, and Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont had summoned military and security chiefs over the attacks that killed nine and wounded 44.

Surayud insisted that no more troops were needed in the region, and said that instead he would pursue his "hearts and minds" campaign to win over the area's residents to the government side.

"Our work now needs to focus on building cooperation between government officials and the people, to get rid of their apprehension of authorities," Surayud said.

The insurgents staged some 49 bombings, shootings and arson attacks late Sunday and early Monday, targeting mainly homes and businesses owned by Buddhists or ethnic Chinese, army officials said.

Three people were killed in shootings and six others in bombings in the 12 hours of violence, the officials told AFP. A total of 44 people were injured, they added.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070219/wl_asia_afp/thailandsouthunrest_070219121446

A New International Force For Jihad

*

The Religion of Peace is on the move in North Africa. The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (G.S.P.C.) was once just an Algerian group dedicated to being a pain in France's ass, even going so far as to declare that "France is our enemy number one, the enemy of our religion, the enemy of our community, . . ."

It is no longer content with pissing on just France's shoes.

The following article describes how the G.S.P.C. is broadening its activities to include other targets in other countries.

~~~

TUNIS: The plan, hatched for months in the arid mountains of North Africa, was to attack the American and British Embassies here. It ended in a series of gun battles in January that killed a dozen militants and left two Tunisian security officers dead.

But the most disturbing aspect of the violence in this normally placid, tourist-friendly nation is that it came from across the border in Algeria, where an Islamic terrorist organization has vowed to unite radical Islamic groups across North Africa.

Counterterrorism officials on three continents say the trouble in Tunisia is the latest evidence that a brutal Algerian group with a long history of violence is acting on its promise: to organize extremists across North Africa and join the remnants of Al Qaeda into a new international force for jihad.

[Last week, the group claimed responsibility for seven nearly simultaneous bombings that destroyed police stations in towns east of Algiers, the Algerian capital, killing six people.]
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/20/africa/web-0220tunisia.php

Islam Vs. Islam

*

The following is from article recently written by Christopher Hitchens

~~~

I have met a few very hard-line right-wingers who say: So what? If one lot of Islamists wants to slaughter another, who cares? It's very important to repudiate this kind of "thinking." Religious warfare is the worst thing that can happen to any society, and it now has the potential to spread to societies that are not directly involved. For the most part, official U.S. policy in Iraq has been sound in this respect, always working for a compromise and recently losing American lives to rescue the moderate Shiite leadership from a murder plot hatched by a messianic Shiite militia. Even where this policy fell short—as in the appalling execution of Saddam Hussein—the American Embassy urged the Maliki government not to conduct the hanging on the day of the Eid ul-Adha holiday that would most humiliate the Sunnis. We cannot flirt, either morally or politically, with divide and rule.
http://www.slate.com/id/2159936/

Of course, there is very little that we can do about it.

While the Islamist of different sects may make common cause against the Jews the Crusaders and the Pagans in one moment, they will also make war amongst themselves along sectarian lines in the next. When they are not busy killing us, they are busy killing each other.

Islam cannot tolerate disagreements over the interpretation of the Qur’an and the Sunnah any more then it can tolerate Pagans, Christians and Jews.

Blood and Death are the sacraments of Islam. Blood and more blood. Death and more death.

It is what Islam is all about.

How "Negligible" is 12% of 700,000 People?

*

I found the following referenced over at JihadWatch.

Even if the number is only 7%, that is a lot of people that a Jihadist can rely on as friendlies in the field.

Canada will not escape the Jihad.


~~~

Fully 12% of Muslim Canadians polled by Environics said the alleged terrorist plot -- that included kidnapping and beheading the prime minister and blowing up Parliament and the CBC -- was justified.

Predictably, the CBC managed to find a talking head -- in this case York University sociology professor Haideh Moghissi -- who dismissed this disturbing revelation.

"It's really negligible that 12 percent feel that the attacks would be justified," said Moghissi. "I don't think it even warrants attention."

Clearly, other news agencies and those who put the poll results on the CBC website agree with Moghissi.

But just how "negligible" is 12% of 700,000 people.

Well, if Moghissi knew arithmetic like she knows denial, she'd know if this poll is accurate, 84,000 Canadian Muslims think it's justifiable to behead our democratically elected prime minister and blow up the very symbol and centre of our democracy!

The Environics poll interviewed 500 Canadian Muslims and 2,045 members of the general population between Nov. 30 and Jan. 5 and is said to be accurate within 4.4 percentage points with regard to the Muslim respondents and 2.2 points with the larger sample group 19 times out of 20.

So, let's err on the side of caution here. Let's subtract the margin of error -- 4.4% -- from 12%. That comes to 7.6%, so let's say, just to be really non-alarmist, we round that down to 7%. That still means 49,000 Canadian Muslims believe conducting a terrorist attack on their own country -- Canada -- is justified.

Is it just me, or does this not strike anyone else as the opposite of "negligible?"

Isn't this significant news?
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Corbella_Licia/2007/02/18/3642930-sun.html

Weird Bad Shit in Russia

*

I found this referenced over at No-Pasaran.

If this is true, Russia is in deeper and bigger trouble then I thought.

~~~

An activist with the group in St. Petersburg, Lyubov Yezheleva, told The Associated Press it learned about the alleged abuse from a 20-year-old conscript.

“He said he was forced into male prostitution by fellow soldiers who beat him and demanded that he earn money for them,” Yezheleva said. She said the conscript was serving with the interior troops unit No. 3727, in the center of St. Petersburg near the renowned Hermitage art museum.

She refused to name him out of fear for his safety.

“Regrettably, it's not the only case of soldiers being forced into male prostitution that we are aware of,” Yezheleva said. She said another soldier who served in St. Petersburg made a similar claim in 2005.

Soldiers' Mothers head Valentina Melnikova said the claims were “not at all unusual.”
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070212-1524-russia-militaryabuse.html

Emphasis added

Who Is Aiding Al-Qaeda?

*

The enemies of the West are unrelenting.

Murtha and the "Slow-Bleed Democrats" are doing the West no favors.

~~~

MIDDLE EASTERN countries secretly armed and supported suspected Al-Qaeda recruits in the failed state of Somalia in a direct challenge to western interests in east Africa, according to a United Nations report.

Hundreds of Islamist fighters were flown, with Eritrean assistance, from Somalia to Syria and Libya for military training. Others were taken to Lebanon to fight with Hezbollah, the report to the UN security council has revealed.

UN investigators also detailed military aid given to the Islamists by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Arab states friendly to the West. Iran also supplied 125 shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, 80 of which arrived by sea in dhows and the rest by air.

A clandestine operation to smuggle the fighters out of Somalia began in July last year.

In an interview, Evgueny Zakharov, the owner of Aerolift, an airline with a fleet of ageing Antonov and Ilyushin transport aircraft, based in Johannesburg but registered in the British Virgin Islands, said: “We transported lots of men in uniform — Arabian men with masks.

“They were disciplined men and although none of them had rank badges there were obviously people in charge. They got on the aircraft as if they had done it many times before.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1400655.ece

Emphasis added

Slow-Bleed Democrats

*
The Democrats are doing to Iraq what they did to Vietnam.

For the Democrats, nothing is too low or ignoble.

~~~

"Democratic leaders have rallied around a strategy that would fully fund the president's $100 billion request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but would limit his ability to use the money. . . . The plan is aimed at tamping down calls from the Democrats' liberal wing for Congress to simply end funding for the war.

"The Murtha plan, based on existing military guidelines, includes a stipulation that Army troops who have already served in Iraq must be granted two years at home before an additional deployment. . . . The idea is to slowly choke off the war by stopping the deployment of troops from units that have been badly degraded by four years of combat."

So "the Murtha plan" is to deny the president the possibility of victory while making sure Democrats don't have to share the blame for the defeat. But of course he's a great American! He's a patriot! He supports the troops! He doesn't support them in the mission, but he'd like them to continue failing at it for a couple more years. As John Kerry wondered during Vietnam, how do you ask a soldier to be the last man to die for a mistake? By nominally "fully funding" a war you don't believe in but "limiting his ability to use the money." Or as the endearingly honest anti-war group MoveCongress.org put it, in an e-mail preview of an exclusive interview with the wise old Murtha:

"Chairman Murtha will describe his strategy for not only limiting the deployment of troops to Iraq but undermining other aspects of the president's foreign and national security policy."

"Undermining"? Why not? To the Slow-Bleed Democrats, it's the Republicans' war. To an increasing number of what my radio pal Hugh Hewitt calls the White-Flag Republicans, it's Bush's war. To everyone else on the planet, it's America's war. And it will be America's defeat.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/steyn/260810,CST-EDT-steyn18.article

Emphasis added

Mme Royal was booed by schoolchildren

*
Well than again, Ségolène Royal may not be finding France to be very accommodating to her message.

Maybe Sarkozy has this thing in the bag.

~~~

The struggling presidential campaign of Ségolène Royal drifted further into confusion and internal party bickering yesterday.

One of the Socialist candidate's chief economic advisers has resigned amid accusations of "amateurism" and "disorganisation" in her campaign.

New opinion polls suggested that a landmark speech by Mme Royal at the weekend - including a 100-point "pact" with the French people - had failed to revive her floundering attempt to become France's first female president.

The Socialist Party's chief economic strategist, Eric Besson, stormed out of a party meeting on Wednesday after quarrelling with François Hollande, the party leader and Mme Royal's partner. M. Besson is reported to have protested against "zig-zags in strategy" and "idiocies" by her other advisers, who wanted to ban public discussion of the cost of new and expanded social programmes announced by Mme Royal on Sunday.

To add further insult, Mme Royal was booed by schoolchildren when she visited the training ground of the France rugby team south of Paris. Some aides suggested that the children were not anti-Royal; they were simply annoyed that rain had prevented them from joining the players on the pitch. Others said the children had been encouraged by far-left teachers.

All in all, it has been a disastrous couple of days for Mme Royal in a week that was supposed to mark a new and more aggressive phase in her unconventional run for the presidency.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2274478.ece

Emphasis added

A Fatwa on all UN employees

*

JihadWatch highlighted the following article.

Where ever Islam is dominant, whether it is in the backwaters of Pakistan today or in the suburbs of Paris tomorrow, their will be clerics like the one called Mufti Khalid Shah in their midst. Islam is more accommodating to the thoughts of Mufti Khalid Shah then it is with Ségolène Royal.

~~~

But some brave women were uncowed by the extortion or demagoguery. Up to 200 babies a day are vaccinated at the Khyber teaching hospital in Peshawar, where burka-clad women arrive with children in their arms. Some arrive in secret, slipping into the clinic in defiance of male relatives who oppose vaccination. "One woman told me, 'My husband is illiterate. He has no idea how important this vaccine is,'" said Muhammad Islam, a male nurse.

Aid workers fear they are being pushed into the frontline of the struggle between the government and tribal militants, some linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida. Last weekend a grenade was lobbed into a Red Crescent compound in Peshawar, damaging vehicles but killing nobody.

Some linked the attack to a fatwa issued in Dara Adam Khel, a lawless town famous for its gunsmiths, just before Christmas. A cleric named Mufti Khalid Shah declared a fatwa on employees of the UN, WHO and all other foreign organisations. "Killing their employees is in line with the teachings of jihad in Islam," said a notice.

"We are very worried," said Mr Khan, of the Human Rights Commission. "You have to be very careful about admitting to working for an NGO these days."

Recently aid workers in Bannu, near North Waziristan, were sent a letter and a 500 rupee (£4.50) note, he said. "The letter said they had a choice. They could either stop work or buy their own coffin."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2013336,00.html

Emphasis added

Pulled from her car and hit in the face

*

The fires of revolution are alight in France. They are still small fires, but burn they do.

The following article cites a string of events that give light to the coming revolution in France.

The politicians are trying to pass this stuff off as rivalry between gangs. What is interesting here to note is that the IHT article does not describe altercations between gangs, just altercations that look like well organized ambushes against the French police.

~~~

PARIS: Youths, some wearing masks and armed with Molotov cocktails, clashed with police in two low-income Paris suburbs, burning a bus in one and setting cars on fire in the other in the third consecutive night of confrontations, local authorities said Saturday.

A police officer trapped in a stalled car was slightly injured in one of the incidents on Friday night, the prefecture of the Yvelines region said. The female officer, reportedly pulled from her car and hit in the face in Chanteloup-les-Vignes, was hospitalized overnight and released, the prefecture said.

The clashes in Chanteloup-les-Vignes and nearby Mureaux, both in the Yvelines region west of Paris, recalled rioting in housing projects in 2005 that spread through the country. Bus burnings broke a general calm on the first anniversary of the riots last fall.

On Friday night, youths forced a bus driver out of his empty bus in the Noe housing project in Chanteloup-les Vignes before setting it afire, officials said. When police arrived, clashes with the youths began.

Some 15 youths masked and armed with Molotov cocktails also went after several police officers as they headed home. Thierry Couture, head of public safety for Yvelines, said they retreated after they realized they were outnumbered. However, the female officer's car stalled and they went after her. She called in reinforcements but not before being injured in the face and wrist.

No arrests were reported in Chanteloup-les-Vignes.

In Mureaux, clashes erupted for a third night Friday after police moved in on youths throwing objects. Despite heavy security, including riot police, five cars were reported burned, the prefecture said. Three people were detained for questioning following the incidents.

Less serious confrontations were reported in Mureaux on Wednesday and Thursday nights, French media reported.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/03/europe/EU-GEN-France-Suburbs-Violence.php

Free and not so free speech

*

We in the West and specifically we in the US too easily take for granted rights to do what in other parts of the world often results in imprisonment and death.

~~~

Many of the blogs are just personal musings. But many others strive to tackle political and social issues, and their authors are increasingly getting into trouble, with governments blocking their sites and throwing them in jail.

"I firmly believe that blogs now with normal people using them have become the fifth estate. They watch the watchers, especially in this area of the world, because there are no controls over them," said Mahmood al-Yousif, a Bahraini blogger.

Al-Yousif said his blog was blocked by authorities briefly last year after he published articles about an election-related scandal on the Persian Gulf island kingdom.

Reporters Without Borders has five Mideast countries — Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Syria — on its list of the globe's 13 worst Internet freedom enemies that block Web sites and detain bloggers.

Governments defend their Web regulations, saying they are protecting citizens from "immoral" and "defamatory" content. But rights groups and bloggers say officials are really trying to retain their media control.

"Five years ago, authorities didn't care about bloggers because the Internet's reach was less," said Julien Pain, head of Reporters Without Borders' Internet Freedom Desk. "Now, what is most interesting is the Weblogs in the local languages. You look at what the authorities censor — they censor content in local languages."

Rights groups have been especially critical of Iran, where there have been some arrests of bloggers. Iran has also blocked some Web sites critical of the government — even shutting down access to the video-sharing forum YouTube.com, where Iranian opposition groups abroad have posted videos.

Hamed Mottaghi, an Iranian freelance journalist, blogs in Farsi about human rights from the Iranian holy city of Qom. But Iranians can't view his Web site inside the country — authorities blocked it last year.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070209/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_blogging;_ylt=Au2yljQdQ2t5JjHKZle1joELewgF

What the Islamist fear most

*

Christian Evangelism is what the Islamist fear most.

The Qur’an reads like the shallow fraud that it is when it is compared to the Tanakh and the Gospels.

In order to defeat Islam, we will need faith.

We will need the courage to witness.

~~~

Comedian Siad Oujibou used to pray five times a day but found his questions about death and his desire for a God closer to him than Allah moved him to convert. He is now a Christian pastor.

But he has faced many reprisals and humiliations from his family and was even under a sentence of death.

Said Oujibou, Protestant Pastor, comedian and convert, said "We are under this law if we change our faith. In certain countries would be condemned to death because we have converted. But I haven't changed my religion. I don't believe in religion, I believe in God. And God and religion are two very different things."

Many Muslims in France hide their conversion but the trend is continuing. World wide around six million Muslims a year convert to Christianity.
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=352375&sid=ZNS

24 Terrorist

*

Is it a reflection of reality or an incitement to bigotry?


~~~

And this is what makes "24" a compelling drama every week. Instead of pretending Islamic terrorists don't exist, the show presents frighteningly real worst-case scenarios perpetrated by Osama bin Laden's followers. So CAIR thinks it's over the top for the terrorists in "24" to blow up Los Angeles with a nuke? Please, if bin Laden and his crew had nukes, most of us would be way too dead to argue over such points.

There is a dangerous trend in the U.S. today that involves skirting the truth at the risk of offending any individual or group. When Bill Cosby talks to African-Americans about self-respect and responsibility, and says publicly what many have been saying privately for years, he's branded a "reactionary," "misinformed," "judgmental," and so on. When "24" confronts America's worst fears about al Qaeda--whose goal remains to kill as many Americans as possible whenever possible--the show is said to be guilty of fueling anti-Muslim and anti-Arab prejudice.

Well, here's the hard, cold truth: When Islamic terrorists stop being a threat to America's survival, viewers will lose interest in "24," because it will have lost its relevancy. Until such time, I will continue to watch "24"--because, believe it or not, the idea that there are Jack Bauers out there in real life risking their lives to save ours does mean something to me.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009633

Shut up and toe the line!

*

Challenge the herd, and they will try to destroy you.

There is too much at stake for them to allow honest debate. There are too many proposed new regulations and taxes that depend on a perceived consensus for man made global warming.

If someone points out that all of the global warming hype is nothing but pure bullshit, those new taxes and regulations may not get passed.

We're talking about money and power here people.

Shut up and toe the line!

~~~

"In an exclusive interview with KGW-TV, Governor Ted Kulongoski confirmed he wants to take that title from Taylor. The governor said Taylor's contradictions interfere with the state's stated goals to reduce greenhouse gases, the accepted cause of global warming in the eyes of a vast majority of scientists."

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_020607_news_taylor_title.59f5d04a.html#

Europe Setting the Groundwork for its New Identity

*

An article in the Christian Science Monitor rationalizes European anti-Americanism by arguing that it is part of Europe seeking its “own” identity.

~~~

"There is a deep gap between government policy and public opinion in Europe, and that opinion may be shaping the direction here right now," says Frederic Bozo, professor of European Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. "Europe doesn't want to upset the careful balance with the US. I don't think there is a united opposition against the US at all. But Europe is setting the groundwork for its own identity."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0205/p01s04-woeu.html?s=u

Emphasis added

Pfffft!

What bilge.

If Europe really wants a new Identity, it needn't do anything different than what it is doing now. Demographics are the most powerful determinant of identity.

The old Europe of Judeo-Christian culture is being supplanted by an Islamic culture that is intransigent.

Old Europe will submit to the new Europe of their making. Europe has abandoned its God and it has abandoned its progeny. European churches are empty and declining in number while their mosques are full and growing in number.

Skin color means nothing. Religion means everything.

~~~

According to a recent report by the Rand Corporation, "Across Europe, birth rates are falling and family sizes are shrinking. The total fertility rate is now less than two children per woman in every member nation in the European Union."

Needless to say, demographers consider a birthrate of 2.1 children per family to be the replacement level at which a society's population size remains stable. Barring large-scale immigration, anything less means decline and dissolution.

A research study published last year in the International Journal of Andrology found a similar trend, concluding that, "Fertility rates have fallen and are now below replacement level in all European Union (EU) Member States. In the 20-year period since 1982," it noted, "most EU Member State countries have had total fertility rates continuously below replacement level."

At the bottom of the list are Spain, Italy and Greece, where birthrates hover around just 1.3 per couple, leading some forecasters to suggest, for example, that Italy's population could shrink by one-third by the middle of the century.

Others, such as Germany's 1.37, the UK's 1.74 and Sweden's 1.75, aren't all much better.

The figures are so bad that in many European countries, the total number of deaths each year has actually begun to exceed the number of births.

Indeed, the Council of Europe's 2004 Demographic Yearbook warned that, "for Europe as a whole, more people died in 2003 than were born." In 1990, said the yearbook, "three countries - Germany, Bulgaria and Hungary - had negative natural growth for the first time. By 2002, it was negative in fifteen countries."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467696394&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The Moderates Fail

*

Ayaan Hirsi Ali explains why the Moderates of Islam fail to have any influence.

~~~

Q. Have you seen any ideology coming from within Islam that gives young Muslims a sense of purpose without the overlay of militancy?

A. They have no alternative message. There is no active missionary work among the youth telling them, do not become jihadis. They do not use media means as much as the jihadis. They simply — they’re reactive and they don’t seem to be able to compete with the jihadis. And every time there is a debate between a real jihadi and, say, what we have decided to call moderate Muslims, the jihadis win. Because they come with the Koran and quotes from the Koran. The come with quotes from the Hadith and the Sunnah, and the traditions of the prophet. And every assertion they make, whether it is that women should be veiled, or Jews should be killed, or Americans are our enemies, or any of that, they win. Because what they have to say is so consistent with what is written in the Koran and the Hadith. And what the moderates fail to do is to say, listen, that’s all in there, but that wasn’t meant for this context. And we have moved on. We can change the Koran, we can change the Hadith. That’s what’s missing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/weekinreview/04goodstein.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

The Koran can not be changed, nor can the Hadith and the Sunnah.

Islam is not salvageable.

Nasr'Allah is an Iranian Puppet

*

Hizb'Allah may well be a non-state actor, but that does not mean that it is not influenced and aided by nation states.

Iran and Syria are its two mains sponsors.

They should be held to account for Hizb'Allah's actions.

~~~

Moving to the issue of Iran and Syria, Nasrallah emphasized the integral role which both states have played in strengthening and assisting the guerilla organization.

"Iran assists the organization with money, weapons, and training, motivated by a religious fraternity and ethnic solidarity," Nasrallah said. "And the help is funneled through Syria, and everybody knows it."

The Hizbullah leader added that his organization is ready to accept assistance from any Arab or Islamic party, like Egypt or Saudi Arabia.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1170359771711&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

An Inducement, not a Deterrent

*

Chirac is an ass. Some days ago Chirac mocked the notion that Iran would actually want to use a Nuclear weapon.

~~~

Mr. Chirac said it would be an act of self-destruction for Iran to use a nuclear weapon against another country.

“Where will it drop it, this bomb? On Israel?” Mr. Chirac asked. “It would not have gone 200 meters into the atmosphere before Tehran would be razed.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world/europe/01france.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Clearly Chirac understands nothing about Islam.


~~~

Lewis said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 'really believes ... (in) the apocalyptic message that he is bringing.' (Israeli experts noted that Ahmadinejad prepared a wide boulevard in Tehran for the return of the Mahdi who disappeared some 1,000 years ago.)

'Islam has a scenario for the end of time, a final global struggle between the forces of good, God, and his anointed, and the forces of evil,' Lewis argued.

With such beliefs, the strategy that prevented a nuclear war between the West and the Communist blocs, during the Cold War era, may not apply.

'Mutually assured destruction, which kept the peace during the Cold War, though both sides had nuclear weapons ... doesn`t work. It is not a deterrent. It is an inducement,' Lewis said.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/features/article_1255025.php/From_Muslim_hordes_to_atom_bomb

“A carbon tax is inevitable”

*

Never mind that the Global Warming Hysteria is bullshit. It is an opportunity to tax something.

There is nothing so greedy in this world as a socialist.

~~~

But he warned that if the United States did not sign the agreements, a carbon tax across Europe on imports from nations that have not signed the Kyoto treaty could be imposed to try to force compliance. The European Union is the largest export market for American goods.

“A carbon tax is inevitable,” Mr. Chirac said. “If it is European, and I believe it will be European, then it will all the same have a certain influence because it means that all the countries that do not accept the minimum obligations will be obliged to pay.”

Trade lawyers have been divided over the legality of a carbon tax, with some saying it would run counter to international trade rules. But Mr. Chirac said other European countries would back it. “I believe we will have all of the European Union,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world/europe/01climate.html?ei=5090&en=718095d16a7c2e7f&ex=1327986000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
Emphasis added

The Global Warming Con Job

*

Global climate change is real. Global climate has never been static.

The current global warming hysteria is a con job.

~~~

Dr. Shariv's digging led him to the surprising discovery that there is no concrete evidence -- only speculation -- that man-made greenhouse gases cause global warming. Even research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-- the United Nations agency that heads the worldwide effort to combat global warming -- is bereft of anything here inspiring confidence. In fact, according to the IPCC's own findings, man's role is so uncertain that there is a strong possibility that we have been cooling, not warming, the Earth. Unfortunately, our tools are too crude to reveal what man's effect has been in the past, let alone predict how much warming or cooling we might cause in the future.

All we have on which to pin the blame on greenhouse gases, says Dr. Shaviv, is "incriminating circumstantial evidence," which explains why climate scientists speak in terms of finding "evidence of fingerprints." Circumstantial evidence might be a fine basis on which to justify reducing greenhouse gases, he adds, "without other 'suspects.' " However, Dr. Shaviv not only believes there are credible "other suspects," he believes that at least one provides a superior explanation for the 20th century's warming.

"Solar activity can explain a large part of the 20th-century global warming," he states, particularly because of the evidence that has been accumulating over the past decade of the strong relationship that cosmic- ray flux has on our atmosphere. So much evidence has by now been amassed, in fact, that "it is unlikely that [the solar climate link] does not exist."

The sun's strong role indicates that greenhouse gases can't have much of an influence on the climate -- that C02 et al. don't dominate through some kind of leveraging effect that makes them especially potent drivers of climate change. The upshot of the Earth not being unduly sensitive to greenhouse gases is that neither increases nor cutbacks in future C02 emissions will matter much in terms of the climate.

Even doubling the amount of CO2 by 2100, for example, "will not dramatically increase the global temperature," Dr. Shaviv states. Put another way: "Even if we halved the CO2 output, and the CO2 increase by 2100 would be, say, a 50% increase relative to today instead of a doubled amount, the expected reduction in the rise of global temperature would be less than 0.5C. This is not significant."
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=156df7e6-d490-41c9-8b1f-106fef8763c6&k=0
Emphasis added.

"The accusation of cultural insensitivity is a weapon"

*

I followed a link in a Fjordman article.

~~~

SPIEGEL: You are trying to say that critics of Islam are systematically silenced in Germany?

Tibi: Yes. Even the comparatively moderate Turkish organization DITIB says there are no Islamists, only Islam and Muslims -- anything else is racism. That means that you can no longer criticize the religion. Accusing somebody of racism is a very effective weapon in Germany. Islamists know this: As soon as you accuse someone of demonizing Islam, then the European side backs down. I have also been accused of such nonsense, even though my family can trace its roots right back to Muhammad and I myself know the Koran by heart.

SPIEGEL: You have said numerous times that the conflict between the Western world and Muslim groups here is an "ideological war."

Tibi: The result of a conflict between two sides is that people politicize their cultural backgrounds. In Germany representatives of the Islamic communities try to hijack children who are born here, along with the entire Islamic community, to prevent them from being influenced by the society which has taken them in. Children born here are like blank sheets on which you can write European or Islamic texts. Muslim representatives want to raise their children as if they don't even live in Europe.

SPIEGEL: Many Germans believe that communities should live together peacefully without any parallel societies. Is it therefore right to compromise in order to avoid antagonizing Muslims unnecessarily?

Tibi: Quite the opposite. The Islamic officials who live here are very intelligent and view this as weakness. Muslims stand by their religion entirely. It is a sort of religious absolutism. While Europeans have stopped defending the values of their civilization. They confuse tolerance with relativism.

SPIEGEL: When something insults Muslims, we often tend to just back off -- doesn't this help defuse the conflict?

Tibi: No. That is simply giving up. And the weaker the partner is viewed by the Muslims, then the greater the anger which they express. And this anger is often carefully staged. The argument over the cartoons for example was completely orchestrated. Nothing was spontaneous. A lot of people don't know if Denmark is a country or a cheese. Where did they get the Danish flags? Protests like these are weapons in this war of ideas. Or take another example: The president of the Iranian parliament was visiting Belgium where he had an appointment with a female Belgian colleague. He refused to shake her hand, so she didn't meet with him. He left Belgium and accused her of racism. The accusation of cultural insensitivity is a weapon. And we have to neutralize it.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,440340,00.html

Hat tip to Dhimmi Watch

"The duplicity of the Germans will come through"

*

Here is an interesting exchange between Bill O'Reilly and Michael Scheuer from the January 31st edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor.

They are discussing Germany's indictment of 13 CIA officers by Germany.

~~~

O'REILLY: People are going to be rounded up, and they shouldn't be. This is what happens in a war.

But Angela Merkel's supposed to be a friend -- the chancellor of Germany -- is supposed to be a friend of the USA. Do you think this was some overzealous left-wing prosecutor doing this?

SCHEUER: Well, that's what it turned out to be in Italy. I'm not sure what the game plan is in Germany, sir. I don't -- I really don't know that much about German politics.

But I think, at the end of the day, the duplicity of the Germans will come through. Most of the Europeans are rather duplicitous. They're more than willing to take the information the CIA has gathered from these people to protect their countries, but they're not willing to avoid playing politics with the career of CIA officers who risk their lives.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200702010002
MeidaMatters has more of this exchange. Take a look at it.

Hat tip to No-Pasaran

Bill O'Reilly grates on my nerves. I think he is an idiot.

I still think this is an interesting exchange.

Michael Scheuer was a former CIA analyst. He was the head of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit during the Clinton administration. He authored Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror

What if they really do hate us?

*

There is a terrible temptation to think that strangers in far away places are just like us, think like us, and are otherwise nearly indistinguishable from us save in language, dress, diet, and location.

Confronting a culture and belief system that is not like us at all is difficult. The first obstacle that we have to overcome is recognizing that the other culture and belief system is indeed different. We then must decide whether or not our two systems are compatible. And worse yet, when we are clearly convinced that our two systems are not compatible, we must decide if it is we or they that must be made to accommodate where agreement is not possible.

There was a time when the West confronted evil barbarisms and opposed them with confidence.

Hernán Cortés was able to look at the Aztec practice of human sacrifice to the moon and the sun and know for certain and with out any self doubt or angst, that the Aztecs civil and religious system had to be overthrown and utterly destroyed. Cortés knew that no accommodation could be made with the Aztecs, and he never doubted the superiority of his culture over theirs. Cortés may not have been a saint by any stretch, but he was at least a man of the West.

The British who conquered and colonized India also were certain of the superiority of their culture and were willing to assert that in a few areas of Indian practice. The tradition of Satī was in their eyes an abomination. To the Hindu natives of India, it was merely a long treasured cultural and religious practice. The British did not convulse in angst ridden self doubt about whether or not they should accommodate the practice of Satī. They outlawed it. The clarity with which they perceived their right to do so is made plain in General Napier's famous quote: "You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

If the West is going to survive, it will have to think and act as if it thinks it should.


~~~

On the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a survey conducted by Al-Jazeera asked respondents, "Do you support Osama Bin-Laden?" A whopping 49.9% answered: yes.
And the July 2006 global Pew survey found that among Muslims, a quarter of Jordanians, a third of Indonesians, 38% of Pakistanis and 61% of Nigerians all expressed confidence in the mass murderer who founded al-Qaida.

In Lebanon six months ago, the Beirut Center for Research and Information found that over 80% of the Lebanese population said they supported Hizbullah.

And do I need also to mention that a majority of Palestinians backed Hamas in parliamentary elections last year? Sure, there are also places where support for violent jihad is not as high. As Reuters reported on October 15, just 10 percent of Indonesian Muslims said they backed jihad and supported bomb attacks on the island of Bali aimed at foreign tourists.

But Indonesia is home to more than 200 million Muslims, so while 10 percent may sound like a small number percentage-wise, it is actually quite large in absolute terms. It means there are some 20 million Muslims in Indonesia alone who are willing to say out loud that they support the use of violence and terror against innocent human beings.

Since when is that a "marginal few"? The question of whether a "tiny" or "sizable" minority backs the global jihad is far more than just one of semantics. It goes to the very nature of the struggle that Israel and the West now find ourselves in.

The figures above, taken from a variety of nations, continents and contexts, all point in one very ominous direction. They demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that the global jihadist movement enjoys a wide and broad base of support that extends far beyond just a minuscule number of supporters.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467849587&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Hat tip to LGF

Some Gratuitous French Bashing

*

The following is a YouTube clip of the French version of "Who wants to be a Millionaire."

I want to believe that the contestant failed and the majority of the audience failed to answer the question because of some ambiguity in the way the question was asked.

The question seems clear enough though.

The question is "Qu'est-ce Qui gravite autour de la Terre?" which translates to "What revolves around the Earth." The choices are the Moon, the Sun, Mars or Venus. Click on the YouTube screen and see for yourself how they responded.

The game show host was stunned by what transpired.

So was I.

You might be too.

And before you get up too high on your high horse laughing at the French, ask yourself how confident you are that a randomly selected group of Americans would respond better.

~~~

France, about as useless as an accordion on the battlefield

*

Aside from spinelessness exhibited by the French elite, we have here an interesting thing to note. Note who it is that Chirac thinks the Iranians would most likely launch a Nuclear tipped missile at?

Does France think that the Islamist would overlook them in their quest for global Jihad? When France's rampaging youths torched nearly ten thousand cars during Ramadan of 2005, they were shouting "Allahu Ackbar!" and they meant it.

France has yet to come to grips with that.

~~~

“I would say that what is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of having a nuclear bomb,” he said. “Having one or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that’s not very dangerous.

“But what is very dangerous is proliferation. This means that if Iran continues in the direction it has taken and totally masters nuclear-generated electricity, the danger does not lie in the bomb it will have, and which will be of no use to it.”

Mr. Chirac said it would be an act of self-destruction for Iran to use a nuclear weapon against another country.

“Where will it drop it, this bomb? On Israel?” Mr. Chirac asked. “It would not have gone 200 meters into the atmosphere before Tehran would be razed.”

It was unclear whether Mr. Chirac’s initial remarks reflected what he truly believes. If so, it suggests a growing divide with American policy, which places the highest priority on stopping Iran from gaining the capacity to produce nuclear weapons.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world/europe/01france.html
(registration required)

Russia allied with Iran

*

Gazprom is a huge source of income for the Russian government.

Russia is benefited best financially if oil prices are high.

Much of what passes for Russia’s foreign policy is based on that.

A tense middle east on the brink of war and conflict, if not smack dab in the middle of it, is good for the Russian pocketbook.

The problem for Russia is that Riding the Tiger results in only one outcome. The Tiger always wins.

~~~

Russia and Iran are close commercial allies and Tehran's Bushehr nuclear power plant is being built with Russian technology despite the staunch opposition of the US which fears Iran is trying to build atomic weapons.

"Our two countries can forge a tie able to influence the political and economic choices of the region and halt America's ambition to rule the world," Khamenei said, also suggesting the creation of a joint gas exporting group like Opec based on their command of the world's largest natural gas reserves.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.381211987&par=0#