Friday, February 29, 2008

Next time you hear a feminist whine....

tell them how things are done in Saudi Arabia. Saudis Continue Steaming Toward the 7th Century
"This weekend the Saudi TV network Al Arabia reported the arrests of 57 men in Mecca’s shopping malls by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice on charges of “flirting with Saudi girls.” Among other things, the young Saudi males were accused by the religious police of “wearing indecent clothes, playing loud music, and dancing.”

Just before Valentine’s Day, dubbed by the Commission as “a pagan Christian holiday,” the government issued an edict banning the sale of anything red: no red roses, no red ribbons, no red greeting cards, no red paint. The penalty as always was arrests and lashes of the cane."

[snip]

"This politico-religious repression has suited the royal family for over 60 years. To most of us it was their business. After 9/11 it spilled over when fulminating Islamofascists of the Osama bin Laden variety visited their obsessions upon infidels in New York, London, Paris, and Madrid. It then became “our” problem."

Speaking of Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Hirsi Ali to receive protection across Europe

Hallelujah!! It's about damned time. Hopefully, Holland is having a good "Nose - meet shit" experience. This courageous woman deserves the protection of every government and police force in the free world. And I hope Avi Lewis swallows some of that steaming pile of shit, too.

Thou Shalt Fund My Stupid Films Because I'm Entitled. Period!!

HEHEHEHEHE!! Lefties are whining and crying wolf because the teat may be drying up.

What makes these spoiled children believe that it's government's duty to support the arts with no strings attached? Hell, it's not even government's duty to support the arts, if it chooses not to. Do they think it's in some universal declaration of human rights somewhere that the government must pay them to produce something that might offend? Is it in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? The Ten Commandments? Where is it?

Look, dingbats, no one is stopping film makers from raising money to produce a film. It's not censorship to impose rules on the giving of grants or tax breaks. Try getting a grant from any philanthropic organization without meeting the criteria they set. Ditto for corporate sponsorship. If your idea is good, someone should be willing to fund it. If it sucks, don't blame anyone but yourself. There was a time when someone had to be very, very good in order to attact moneybags patronage. You know. Talent. Merit. Salability. As in Beethovan. Picasso. Hemingway. Bergman. Callas. These people and many, many others achieved distinction in the arts without government help. Grow up!!!

Daimnation agrees.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Au Revoir Avi Lewis

You will all remember the slimebucket performance by Avi Lewis on his CBC program On the Map interviewing Ayaan Hirsi Ali. You may have heard he's taken a position with the Arabic television network Al Jazeera, one of the sleaziest propaganda mouth pieces for Arab Jew-America-hating dictators. Well here's a great piece by Jonathan Kay in honour of the occassion. Good riddance to that POS. Too bad there are still so many of them left at Mother Corp.

Neck and Neck

Here's two entries in the stupidest people contest. How would you decide who gets the prize?

Number one:
"On the radio today Medved and Hewitt both asked Obama supporters to call and say why they were supporting their man. Specifics, please. The replies were rather indistinct."
Now I know why the blogs and political satirists are referring to Obama as a Messiah. Can people really be this stupid when it comes to choosing the President of the most powerful nation on the planet??!!! Guess so. (By the way, gotta love that line by the author - "If he (Obama) wins, I do look forward to dissenting; since it’s been established as the highest form of patriotism...")

Number two: "Prince Harry serving on 'secret' mission in Afghanistan."

Apparently the news was published by an Australian women's magazine. New Idea slammed over leak. The editor and his/her staff must all have a vacant space where the brain should be. Talk about giving the Taleban a prize bit of news while at the same time endangering Harry, his comrades-in-arms, and the British government. I would say it's time for our Aussie cousins to cancel their subscriptions while the rest of us write nasty letters.

Good to know the editor of this Aussie publication has more brains. I'm going to see if I can find an email address for New Idea and we can all send them a bit of advice.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Just Who do they Expect Will Lap This Up?

Islamist Forum Member Suggests Stirring Up Racial Tension in U.S.

"A message posted January 20, 2008 on the Islamist forum Al-Hesbah (hosted by NOC4Hosts Inc. in Florida, USA), by a member calling himself Al-Jawfi, suggests stirring up racial tension between African-Americans and whites in the U.S. by spreading inflammatory materials on the Internet. In the discussion thread, other members proposed posting racist materials against African-Americans (such as insulting jokes and pictures) on sites frequented by African-Americans, in order to arouse anger and bitterness in their community. Another suggestion was to post, on white supremacist sites, materials that present African-Americans as a threat to American society."
One thing that can't be said about Islamofascists is that they are stupid. They can come up with some brilliant strategies that are guaranteed to be lapped up without a clue by the leftards throughout the West. When they are not outright siding with this new breed of fascism, they are too blinded by their dreams of Nirvana to recognize they are being played for the useful fools they have always been.

A Reformation?

Turks undertake radical revisions to the Hadiths!!!

So. I am now, more than ever, convinced we are at the beginning of a Reformation movement in Islam. Questions. Questions. Questions. Are we at the Avignon Papacy stage? The John Wycliffe stage? The Martin Luther Stage? Or what? And how long will it take? In Europe the Reformation and Counter Reformation lasted centuries.

Who will history judge as the Islamic Reformation's most heroic champions? My theory has always been that they will come from within Western civilization, where freedom of expression is guaranteed (well almost). And I think we already know some of them, but that's a subject for a future blog series.

How viscious and protracted the counter reformation? We have already seen how viscious they can be, but it seems they haven't figured out yet just how strong and determined the West can be - if it has the will. Funny how a presidential election in the US can have consequences that may take generations, if not centuries, to unfold. Why does this feel like walking on the sharp edge of a razor?

We live in interesting times.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

A Minor Omission, the Pope and Obama

What the Islamic Scholars Forgot to Tell the Pope

Remember that letter from Islamic scholars to the Pope that so many people celebrated. Well, not so fast, according to this Pajamas Media contributor.
"The Institute [which wrote the letter], which operates a website, AlTafsir.com, which it calls “the largest and greatest online collection of Qur’anic commentary, translation, recitation, and essential resources in the world,” includes in an “Ask the Mufti” section a number of fatwas on apostasy issued by the Institute’s chief scholar, Sheikh Hijjawi, that call for the death of Christian reverts (Christians converting to Islam and then returning to the Christian faith) and Muslim apostates. Further they state that if the Christian reverts and Muslim apostates are not killed, they should be deprived of all rights and accorded the status of non-persons."
The article goes on giving in irrefutable detail a complete picture of why Muslim "Scholars" are not to be confused with theologians, but rather, should be identified for what they really are - the most vilest and virulent form of brutal totalitarian nutcases on the planet today.

Obama should beware. He was born a Muslim but is now a Christian. In other words, he is an apostate. I'm sure some fatwa somewhere has been issued calling for his death.

PBS Nearly Dead

My, my, my. No sooner had I commented about my hate on for the CBC in the previous thread than what should appear but this: PBS is no longer necessary. Nor was it ever a good idea.
"Viewers have tuned out. The average PBS primetime show is now more than 20 years old and gets the same Nielsen ratings as wrestling’s “Friday Night Smackdown.” Even politicians have tuned out, finding it’s no longer worth fighting for. The fact that it was once a partisan plaything of Democrats was proven by their outrage when Bush appointed a Republican chairman to balance its lefty excesses. But with those excesses now tamed, and viewers now bombarded with a meteor shower of better New Media alternatives, this dinosaur seems bound for extinction, save the eternal life support given to every federal agency."


Are you listening Ottawa?

Monday, February 25, 2008

Ezra Levant: Beating Back the PC Machine

Anyone who hasn't yet heard about the good fight that Ezra Levant has decided to take on should visit his website: Ezra Levant and bring themselves up to date on the subject. Numerous groups and individuals of all political persuasions have offered support - both moral and intellectual.

Ezra now has a fire in his belly and he intends to take matters into the real legal system rather than the kangaroo courts known as human rights commissions. He has made a plea for donations to help with the fight ahead. I've made a hefty (relatively speaking) contribution, and although I would dearly love to contribute more, I simply can't afford to. Our freedom of expression, a right that we should all cherish and be willing to defend, no matter what our political views, is at stake. Please consider making a contribution via paypal. It is entirely safe.

If a donation is out of the question, please at least spread the word and direct the people you know to his website in order to learn what is at stake.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

More Media Malaise

The New York Slimes isn't the only liberal mouthpiece that is slowing sinking into the ooze. Sun-Times Media Group Inc. is inching closer to oblivion. I wonder how much tricks like this have to do with it:
"Both incidents involved motorcycle officers. The Bush incident took place in Albuquerque. Today’s incident happened in Dallas. In short, these are very similar stories. Why such dramatically different headlines? Perhaps someone from Time would care to explain."
Don't hold your breath.

UPDATE: Totally by chance (/sarcasm off), the CBC posts this about an incident of racism in Edmonton today. But as Kathy Shaidle points out, buried deep at the bottom of the article is this:
"Gill, 33, came to Canada from India in 1993 and said she has never encountered racism during elections or during everyday life."
When the good constable in charge of investigating the crime says: "Hopefully this is just an isolated incident. I thought we were above this type of behaviour.", I think the seventeen year experience of Ms Gill speaks well to that issue. Perfection will always be out of reach, but I can hardly call the work of a small pea brained misanthrope and his fellow gangsters (the Mill Creek area of Edmonton does have a gang problem, by the way), a major problem. Mind you, I'm betting Ms Gill's positive outlook on life rules out the possibility that she would wallow in any of the customary exaggerated whining that is so commonplace when such isolated incidents take place, egged on of course, by media hype. Stupid teenage hoodlums do not speak for Canadians any more than do stupid leftwing whiners, no matter what the CBC chooses to emphasize in their headlines or through the structure of their articles.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Ode to Christopher Hitchens

Here's a great multi-part YouTube video of Christopher Hitchens in a debate about Iraq. It dates from before the war, but Hitch, as always, states so clearly what the war against Islamofascism is all about. Warning: the audio is badly out of sync with the video.



The entire debate is broken into several clips. You can find them all here. Somewhere in the midst of the debate Hitchens mentions the withdrawal of East Timor from Indonesia. I learned some new facts today, from watching that video.

Here's a great article by Hitch, which fleshes out the East Timor-Bali bombing-bin Laden connection. This was also written before the Iraq war. But the Bali boming and the East Timor business is something of which I had not been aware. He has lots to say on related matters as well, some of which I quote below, with my emphasis added in bold.

Fighting Saddam makes our Osama problem better

"Let me cite two of Bin Laden's recent pronouncements. After the slaughter of Australian holiday-makers in Bali a few months ago, a statement was issued by al-Qaida that justified the mass murder on the grounds that Australian troops had assisted in East Timor's transition to independence. Bin Laden had many times venomously criticized this Australian involvement before Sept. 11, so whether he is dead or alive the point is made: The Aussies brought this on themselves by helping a mainly Christian minority regain its independence from a mainly Muslim state. "
[snip]
"In a sermon to his troops before Sept. 11, and on many other occasions that we have on tape, Bin Laden told them that beating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan had been the hard part. The destruction of the other superpower, he asserted, would be easy. America was soft and corrupt and sunk in luxury, controlled by venal Jews. It was so weak and decadent that it had run away from Somalia. It would not risk its own forces and could not face the idea of taking casualties. If you care for the evidence then, you might note that Bin Laden recruits on the basis that the United States will not fight."
[snip]
"It seems obvious that there are those in the Muslim world who dislike or suspect the United States for what it does or does not do, and those who hate it for its very existence. The task of statecraft is to make this distinction and also to work hard and intelligently to make it wider. But to argue that nothing can be done lest it incur the displeasure of the second group is to surrender without a fight, and then to get a fight anyway. American support for elections and for women's rights would infuriate the second group just as much as American action against Saddam. There is, to put it very mildly, no pleasing some people. Nor should there be. Self-respect as well as sound strategy demands that we make the enemy worry what we will do, and not waste away worrying what he may think of us."


Well said, Hitch!

"If you are not with us...": Contrast and Compare

One of these things is not like the other. How would you describe the difference? (500 words maximum)

1) "If you are not with us, you are against us."

2) "If you are not with us, you are with the terrorists."

Who said: "If you are not with us, you are against us."?

Who said: "If you are not with us, you are with the terrorists."?

Thursday, February 21, 2008

RIOTERS, ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY: BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS

UPDATE: Update as peace conference ends.
-------------------------------------------------------------

More on Pakistan's elections. And a little known reason for the riots in Denmark. And believe it or not, a meeting of Iraqis attempting to work out a path for reconcilliation.
"One underlying theme speaks volumes about the current state of affairs inside Iraq: without exception, participants feel much better about their country. They are breathing easier about security, they all denounced al Qaeda and other “regional parties” (privately they will tell you they put Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia in the front rank) who have conducted or sponsored the mass killing, they do not want “religious extremists” included in their Reconciliation, and they even believe that Iraq may set an example for the rest of the region."
A must read.

The New York Slimes..

...is slowly sinking into oblivion. Good riddance.

Pakistan: A Smashing Electoral Defeat

An excellent article by Amir Taheri at the Wall Street Journal "Islam at the Ballot Box" is worth a read.

And who said Islam is not compatible with democracy! I don't know how well the MSM covered the recent election there, but like some other more astute observers, Amir Taheri shows that the biggest victory in that election was the smashing defeat of the Islamist parties.

You can't tell me that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and sowing of the seeds of democracy in Iraq had nothing to do with this. Dictators beware. The whole world (moonbat leftists exempted, of course) has awakened to the true nature of the beast that is Islamofascism. And speaking of moonbat leftists, don't some of those percentages garnered by Islamofascists mentioned by Taheri remind you a bit of the percentages of the popular vote normally garnered in federal elections by a certain leftwing political party in Canada currently headed by Taliban Jack. Hmmmmm.

Also, thank you to the Internet and the blogosphere for making freedom a cause for which all peoples can aspire. Now, if we can just inspire the Cuban people and their new leader to follow suit.

h/t Valerie, long time calm, rational "vast right wing conspirator commentor" at Iraq the Model.

Great News on the Levant/Maclean's Case

From Canada's literati no less!!!

Check out Kathy Shaidle's entry for today as well.

Yeah, Canada!!!

Is Canada's Liberal Party Coming to Its Senses?

Good Reads/Listens

Start your day off right and give Mark Steyn's new piece in Macleans a read: So what would it take to alarm you? Then listen to Shire Network's interview with Ezra Levant.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

The Farce that is the United Nations

I could go on and on about that organization but this just about sums it up.

Princess Diana's Death

I presume you have been hearing all about Mr. Fayed's conspiracy theory. What do y'all think? Is this just another Arab conspiracy theory? The Arabs are renowned conspiracy theorists. That's what it looks like to me. Perhaps Mr. Fayed lives in the A.P.U.

The Arab Parallel Universe was first described by the Egyptian Sandmonkey, although his original post seems to be inaccessible now. Good thing Jeffrey at Iraqi Bloggers Central copied it a posted it in his January 6, 2005 post.

I'll repost it here:

"Professor Sandmonkey announced today that within two weeks there will be an IPO for shares of his new company, MonkeyVision. MonkeyVision Goggles allow its user to see into and through the Arab Parallel Universe!

So, in summary and conclusion, the 7 political rules of the APU are:

1) Arabs never make mistakes, and they rarely lose wars.
2) The Zionists and the Americans are always to blame for everything that is wrong in the APU.
3) If there is any credit at all that can be contributed to Arabs in any way, they will take it.
4) Good leadership is inversely related to how US-friendly a leader is!
5) Any media that is not the official state-owned media is filled with Zionist, Jewish, American, Christian, imperialist, anti-arab influences and they LIE ALL THE TIME!
6) There is really no need for elections in the APU, because Presidents and rulers are presidents and rulers for life.
7) The only viable alternative candidate to the current leader or president is this current leader or president’s son.

Hope that helped explain some of the confusing discrepancies that you may encounter from having those 2 parallel universes existing in the same reality. Mind you, those are only the political rules. There are other rules concerning economics , social traditions and norms, but those will be covered in future posts.

This is the Sandmonkey, from the APU, signing off! "

Sunday, February 17, 2008

When the Media is Silent..

...you know there are good things happening in Iraq.

On the anniversary of the "Surge":

1) The rebuilding of the Shrine in Samara has started.
2) Baghdad newspapers on Thursday focused on the Iraqi parliament's passage of three contentious legislative items on the 2008 budget, general amnesty, and provinces not affiliated with a province.
3) Iraq's parliament passed three crucial laws that set legislations for provincial elections
4) The Iraqi executive branch is in the midst of a major ministerial (cabinet) restructure, with a focus on technocrat ministers rather than sectarian and ethnic favors.
5) Overall violence has been reduced by almost 90 percent. 75 percent of Baghdad is now secure.
6) ...editorials in the Iraqi papers are a modern occurrence unheard of just over four short years ago.

"Iraqis can think, discuss, engage, debate and criticize their government freely now."
And Nazi Pelosi still calls Iraq a failure.

What a blithering idiot this woman is!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Hitchens, again.

Seems I have a knack for stumbling upon essays by Christopher Hitchens. This time I had googled "America post-war Germany". I wanted to find some good material about how long the US and others stayed in Germany after the war and saw to it that the breath of democracy was restored to the German people. From there I was going to look at other instances in the past sixty years, such as South Korea , where the US presence helped to nurture stability and the flowering of democracy. However, a good opinion piece from Hitch always stops me in my tracks.

I might as well admit it, I like him because his views on the subject of Iraq are a perfect reflection of mine, because he is a leftie who gets it, and I was once a leftie who finally got it, and lastly, because with so much of his writing, he expresses those beliefs imminently better than I ever could. This one is a case in point, and these few paragraphs sum it up.

"The United States has not claimed territory in Iraq, as the French did in Algeria: it is not the inheritor of a bankrupt French colonialism, as Eisenhower and Kennedy were in Vietnam; and it is not pursuing a vendetta, as was Sharon in Lebanon.

"It is, instead, in a situation where no superpower has ever been before. The ostensible pretext for American intervention — the disarmament of a WMD-capable rogue state and the overthrow of a government aligned with international jihadist gangsterism — was in my opinion based on an important element of truth rather than on a fabrication or exaggeration. But the deeper rationale — that of altering the regional balance of power and introducing democracy into the picture— is the one that must now preoccupy us more. The United States is in Iraq for its own interests, to ensure that a major state with a chokehold on a main waterway of the global economy is not run by a barbaric crime family or by its fundamentalist former allies and would-be successors. But it is also there to release, and not repress, the numberless latent grievances of Iraqi society. And—something surprisingly forgotten by many who fetishize the United Nations—it is there under a UN mandate for the democratization and reconstruction of the country."

[...]

"It is not without significance that when sectarians are found operating private or semi-official squads and prisons, the victims take their complaints to the Green Zone.

[...]

If our calculations become unduly inflected by considerations of American domestic opinion, then both Iraqis and foreign intruders (and their state backers in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia) have only to set their watches and begin making their respectively pessimistic and gloating dispositions."

[...]

"...we could remind people again that Iraq is the only country in the region, apart from Lebanon, where citizens are regularly called to the polling-booth. This was part of the point to begin with."



Good on you, Hitch!!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Meaningless Fluff

From the Australian ICJS Research website, a "German's Point of View on Islam".
"'Very few people were true Nazis 'he said,' but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen."
[snip]
"'We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam."
I agree with him completely. The real comparison we need to make is with Communist Russia (20 million dead), Communist China (70 million dead), Imperial Japan (12 million dead), Rwanda, Serbia and, of course, Nazi Germany.
"As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts: the fanatics who threaten our way of life."

Hitchens: "diamond in a dunghill"

"...as the great Lord Mansfield once ruled that, wherever someone might have been born, and whatever he had been through, he could not be subject to slavery once he had set foot on English soil. Simple enough? For the women who are the principal prey of the sharia system, it is often only when they are shipped or flown to Britain that their true miseries begin."
Up to his usual standards, Christopher Hitchens has written a brilliant piece demolishing the position taken by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Read it here.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Rule Britannia Daneland!!

UPDATE: Newspapers throughout Europe (Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands) follow suit!! Europe finally fights back. Let's see a wave, please. One that will wash over North America as well.
----------------------------------------------------------
Danish Papers Reprint Prophet Mohammed cartoon

"Newspapers in Denmark Wednesday reprinted the controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked worldwide protests two years ago.The cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed provoked widespread outrage in the Muslim world two years ago.The move came one day after Danish authorities arrested three people who allegedly were plotting a "terror-related assassination" of Kurt Westergaard, one of the cartoonist behind the drawings."

Berlingske Tidende, one of the newspapers involved in the republication, said: "We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper always will defend..."


HOW ABOUT THEM DANES!!!

This was done in response to the arrest of two Islamists plotting to murder the publisher of the cartoons. Can we see papers all over the Western world stand up and unite behind these lions among men?

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

A Heartfelt Overdue Apology

How 'bout them Danes!!

Never ones to waffle in a "to be or not to be" conundrum, the Danes, who made exceptionally heroic efforts during WWII, when they:
"helped smuggle 7,300 of the country's 7,800 Jews into Sweden. Many more helped by not betraying the operation. Only 116 Danish Jews, or 1.5 per cent of the total, died in the Holocaust".
Despite the fact that:
"In many places, providing shelter to Jews was a crime punishable by death."
Where, in spite of the risks,
"a small number of individuals refused to stand by and watch...[and]...had the courage to help by providing hiding places, underground escape routes, false papers, food, clothing, money, and sometimes even weapons."
The Danes, who stood up against the hypocrisy of violent mobs killing their fellow Muslims because a cartoon of Mohammed had suggested there was a violent stream within Islam - have done it again:

Fuck You!

I say we should give them Hans Island, and a helluvalot more. These people know not just how to think, but also how to act.

Big Oil Has Its Way, Again!

Now we all know that Exxon is raping Venezuela for the oil, don't we. Yes. And we all know that Bush and Cheney invaded Iraq for the oil, right? But geeze, who would have guessed that mother Russia would get into the act?
"Russia has agreed to write off $12bn (£6bn) of Iraqi debt built up by the regime of former leader Saddam Hussein to buy military supplies.

In return, Russian companies, including oil giant Lukoil, will be given access to invest up to $4bn in Iraq.

Lukoil is expected to develop oilfields including West Qurna, one of the country's largest."
How could Bush/Cheney have allowed this???

And, and, and, ... what's that about Russia arming the former regime of Saddam Hussein? Say it ain't so!!!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

What Boredom Leads To.

I'm dressed in double layers and I'm still cold. I was going to go out today to get a few things done, but this windchill has pretty much convinced me to stay put. I've been surfing blogs, reading Google News, listening to talk radio over the net, etc.

One of the blogs I visit is run by a fellow Saskatchewanian, who happens to be at the other end of the ideological spectrum. Occasionally he posts something that interests me enough that I'll weigh in, which invariably means I will disagree with his position. Well almost, anyway. Sean in Saskatchewan, who is actually an import from Ontario where it's always warmer (why did he come here?? Is he nuts?), put up a new post today about global warming. My response to it is as follows. I think this response is worthy of its own posting and I sure would like to hear other people's views on these questions. Here goes:

An exercise in futility?
====================
Not at all. It's an exercise in boredom.

Could a godless socialist with nothing to do on Sunday morning come up with something else? I'm curious to know what science says caused the Big Bang? What created all that matter that went kaboom with such force that it created a still ever expanding universe? If the Big Bang was the beginning of time, does a godless socialist have an explanation for what processes went on before the beginning of time, to cause the Big Bang. Could there have been a creative force, or, (excuse me godless socialist, for I am about to sin), in otherwords, could there have been a some sort of God?

Do you care?

As a godless free market capitalist with only a peabrain to work with, I have a really hard time conceptualizing the "beginning of time". In fact, it's just as hard on my poor old gray matter trying to figure out the only alternative, namely how infinity could run in both directions, endlessly into the depths of the past as well as into the future. Now, a debate about that sort of stuff could be interesting.

The windchill is getting pretty close to -40C which has caused me to postpone what I was planning to do today, so I'm not too interested in global warming hype. That, plus I'm bored.

A Muslim Snarkaholic

Now I like this. Ali Eteraz writes a piece of brilliant snark (click on Ali Eteraz in the sidebar) in response to the furor over the Archbishop of Canterbury's ill-fated statement about Sharia law in Britain.

Snark is a well developed genre in the blogosphere. Jeffrey, my old blogger friend from New York, once wrote a piece about joining snarkaholics anonymous. As you can see, neither the SA group nor the confessional worked in Jeffrey's case, even though he had admitted to having a problem. Like me, I suppose, admitting is only part of the first step. I'm rather fond of my snarkaholism, as was Jeffrey, and I'm not ready to give it up. I suspect Ali Eteraz isn't, either.

Flirting with Ibn Warraq's title, "Why I am Not a Muslim", Eteraz calls his piece "Why I am no Longer a Muslim". Here's some of Eteraz's best shots:
"Its [sic] not fair to other citizens to have their taxes be used to fund the religious practice of a few select people."
"The purpose of the law is to reflect and respond to social realities. Many parts of Islamic family law — as it stands today — don’t do that."
"Coercion won’t be by people putting a gun to the heads of women. Instead, women will be gently “reminded” (with a nice hard grasp on their arm) that if they don’t go to Sharia judge they will be seen as impious and not-devout."
"Muslims in the US are polled to be more socially conservative than Evangelical Christians (and Muslims in the UK are more conservative than American ones)."
"Then, there is the beating issue. Let’s say that a woman consents to going to the arbitration court, but once there, she wants to bring up domestic violence. What’s the Sharia judge going to say? “Was it with a stick the width of my thumb?”"
"Muslims talk a lot about parts of the world where there is one law for Muslims and one law for Jews — ahem, Israel-Palestine — but when they themselves initiate distinctions between themselves and other people, its all gravy."
"Christian fathers long considered law — specifically Jewish law — to be shifty and conniving. Then the Christians slaughtered six million Jews. {being a bit facetious}."
"Getting halal meat standardization is not the same thing as Sharia arbitration because the issue here is of equality before the law and duties of citizenship, not digestion."
"If you’d like to live in a state where you can resolve your marital, custodial, and divorce disputes under the aegis of classical Islamic law, might I recommend the Gulf? It looks like America and tastes like the 7th century, perfect for a retrogressive Muslim. Cheaper gas for your very Islamic gas guzzler, too."

Now, I have to ask. How is it a Muslim can get away with saying these things, but a non-Muslim white guy (or gal) can't?

Anyway, well said, Mr. Eteraz.

PS: Someone should call John Murney's attention to that comparative bit about Muslims and Evangelical Christians.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Eye on Turkey

Tens of thousands of Turks protested the Islamic-rooted government for lifting the headscarf ban at universities today.

Seems for secular Turks, the hajib holds a powerful and negative political symbolism. Of course, anyone who dares to whisper a negative thought against the hijab in the West is branded a bigot, so I guess it's pretty powerful here, too. Just kinda the flip side.

Afghanistan and the Euston Manifesto

Given the recent release of the report from the Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan and ongoing shenanigans in Ottawa about it, I think a revisit to the Euston Manifesto is highly apropos.

The original Euston Manifesto has been around for nearly two years. When it was released, it felt like a breath of fresh air blowing in from the left. There were those on the left who actually took issue with the tacit support of Islamofascism and regimes like Ba'athist Iraq from those in their own political camp and, more astoundingly, took the courage to go public with their disaffection.

Although as a whole, this group of lefties were no different than most, in that they tended to project of themselves as an uptight, overtly judgmental, ideologically closed bunch, it was good to see them breaking ranks, rather than sticking to the left's untenable position of blaming America and/or Bush for everything wrong with the world. Not surprisingly, then, I found the response from the American left especially heartening.

American Liberalism and the Euston Manifesto
"Now we confront the issue of how to respond to radical Islamism. Some of us view this ideology and its political results as the third major form of totalitarian ideology of the last century, after fascism and Nazism, on the one hand, and Communism, on the other. Others regard it as having a history in the Arab and Islamic world that eludes the label of totalitarianism. We all agree however that it fosters dictatorship, terror, anti-Semitism and the oppression of women. We reject its subordination of politics to the dictates of religious fundamentalists as well as its contempt for the role of individual autonomy and rationality in politics, a rejection not seen on this scale in world politics since the 1940s. We understand that the United States must continue to take the lead with our allies in confronting this danger." (emphasis added)
[snip]

"We reject the now ossified and unproductive political polarization of American politics rooted as it is in the conflicts of the 1960s, not the first decade of this century. We are frustrated in the choice between conservative governance that thwarts much needed reforms at home, on the one hand, and a liberalism which has great difficulty accepting the projection of American power abroad, on the other. The long era of Republican ascendancy may very well be coming to an end. If and when it does, we seek a renewed and reinvigorated American liberalism, one that is up to the task of fighting and winning the struggle of free and democratic societies against Islamic extremism and the terror it produces." (emphasis added)
Equally refreshing, the Canadian chapter also took a principled stand on Afghanistan, rather than pandering to the hate-anyone-further-to-the-right meme that fills the speaking notes customarily used by the Canadian left:

"We recognize the conflict in Afghanistan as a liberation struggle, waged by the Afghan people and their allies, against oppression, against obscurantism, illiteracy, and the most brutal forms of misogyny. It is a fight for democracy, and for peace, order, and good government. It is also a struggle waged by the sovereign Government of Afghanistan, a member state of the United Nations, against illegal armed groups that seek to overturn the democratic will of the Afghan people." (emphasis added)
This little gem from the Euston Manifesto Canada's blog speaks volumes:


"On April 13th, 2006 at CAW Local 636, in Woodstock, Ontario, I attended a speech in given by Allan Slater, a Christian Brother who had spent some time in Iraq, which included the period that four of his compatriots were being held hostage. One aspect of his stay there impressed me greatly: The Christian Brothers would meet with leaders from different communities and help them work out their differences and avoid conflict.

Apparently the US and British forces had no problem with the activities of the Christian Brothers, Allan commented that they were only concerned for their safety. But the foreign mecenaries who came to fight in the name of Islam had a big problem with them. The Christian Brothers were presented with the choice: flee or die.

Allan did not offer any solutions to the conflicts in the Balkans, Iraq, Darfur, Haiti, Afganistan or Zimbabwe. As soon as bullets start flying towards them, the Christian Brothers have only one solution: leave. Their tactics may help to promote democracy and human rights but they are incapable of assisting the democratically elected government of Iraq defeat the Fascists currently terrorizing the people." (emphasis added)
Those of you who remember the Christian Brothers episode in Iraq may have a variety of views about that group, of course. But for me, I thought then and I maintain now that like all pacifists, they are incorrigible idiots whose behavior plays directly into the hands of the most egregious hate-mongering zealots on the planet. Their foolish antics are responsible for the death of many, many innocents in Iraq and elsewhere.

I fail, also, to see much difference between them and folks like Taliban Jack and his minions across this country who think all we have to do is negotiate. These folks are the first to point an accusing finger at previous American administrations' friendly dealings with various despots, afterall, but now that the winds have changed, it is they who want to shake hands with villany.

As the airways fill with the usual pre-election-obsessive-hype-disorder, both in the United States and here in Canada, we would do well to reflect on the wording of the original Manifesto, for it seems the left never really took its "Statement of Principles" #2 to heart, vis:

"No apology for tyranny:

"We decline to make excuses for, to indulgently "understand", reactionary regimes and movements for which democracy is a hated enemy — regimes that oppress their own peoples and movements that aspire to do so. We draw a firm line between ourselves and those left-liberal voices today quick to offer an apologetic explanation for such political forces". (emphasis added)
Thankfully, neither Taliban Jack, nor his party, will ever achieve anything close even to minority government status in Ottawa. All they will ever be able to do is annoy us and provide a legitimate avenue for the expression of naive ideologies. Elsewhere in the world these ideologies would leave them languishing in jails or worse, or, with the reins of power in their hands, ordering others to dig the mass graves in order to make more room in the existing jails.

Choices from Hell

Jonathan Kay on Marcus Luttrell's Noble Christian Soul

How many times, every day, are soldiers from Western nations faced with these kinds of choices? Damned if they do. Damned if they don't. In how many Western nations do ordinary civilians and their elected representatives have the balls to make these kinds of choices? And what are the consequences when we shirk our responsibilities to make difficult choices? In both the United States and Canada, citizens are being treated to media speculation about up-coming elections. We, who inhabit Western democracies, who are given the opportunity to select who will govern us, need to remember people like Marus Luttrell.

God bless Marcus Luttrell and his comrades in Hindu-Kush on that fateful day.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Two Cools!!

Leatherback turtle swims from Indonesia to Oregon in epic journey.

A 20,000-kilometre journey. What a trooper!

One-Eyed Hook-Handed Jihadi-Puking Cleric To Be Extradited To U.S.
"Al-Masri, a one-eyed, hook-handed preacher, already is imprisoned in Britain for inciting racial hatred at his North London mosque."
[snip]
"The Egyptian-born cleric began serving a seven-year prison sentence in 2006 after being convicted in a British court of soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred.

But he is also facing 11 terrorism-related charges in the United States, which has promised to press for his extradition when British law allows.

The U.S. charges include conspiracy in connection with a 1998 kidnapping in Yemen and conspiring with others to establish an Islamic jihad, or holy war, training camp in rural Oregon in 1999.

If al-Masri is given a prison sentence following a U.S. trial, he would return to England to complete the rest of his sentence there before flying back to be imprisoned in the United States.

A British judge last year sentenced al-Masri to seven years for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred. The court convicted the cleric of possessing items including a 10-volume “encyclopedia” of Afghani jihad, which the prosecutor described as “a manual for terrorism;” the texts discussed how to make explosives, explained assassination methods, and detailed the best means of attack."
Yeah!! Keep him in jail or in the courts for the rest of his miserable life.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Ibn Warraq Rips 'Em a New One!!

Why the West Is Best

Take that, lefties!!!

Rule Britannia!!

Britannia rule the wa.....blub, blub, blub, gurgle....bloop..

Sigh. The Archbishop of Canterbury has caved.

Will there really "Always be an England"? Where or where is our generation's Winston Churchill? Even Henry VIII would be better than this.

Seems the colonies may have to come to Mother England's rescue, if this keeps up.

Won't be Canada, though, if CBC has its way.

Not a peep out of them, so far.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

The UN Turns Out to Be Useful - Sometimes

Iraq would seek extended U.N. mandate if necessary


"The United States now has 158,000 troops in Iraq, formally operating under the authority of a U.N. Security Council resolution enacted after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The U.N. Security Council voted on Dec. 18 to extend the mandate for one year. At the time, the Iraqi government said this would be the last extension after which it would address the presence of foreign forces through bilateral agreements.

The United States and Iraqi officials plan to begin talks on an agreement charting their long-term strategic relationship, including political, economic and security matters, by the end of this month.

Asked if Iraq would consider an extension if such a deal were not in place when the U.N. mandate expires, Sumaida'ie said: "If we cannot have an agreement by that time, we would have no choice but to go back to the Security Council.

"Basically, we need to have some legal cover for foreign forces," he added."

Democracy is the Best Revenge...

..especially if it's Pakistani style. Husband says Bhutto's will names him party leader

"Asif Zardari attempted yesterday to end a whispering campaign against him by making public the will left by his wife, Benazir Bhutto, which bequeathed the leadership of the Pakistan People's Party to him."
[snip]
"His political enemies accused him of inventing the document.

"The "will" provided yesterday is not a formal style of document: It is scribbled down on a single sheet of lined paper. In it, Ms. Bhutto named Mr. Zardari as her immediate political heir but left the longer-term fate of the party undecided. According to a former aide, the handwriting seemed authentic."
[snip]
"The couple's 19-year-old son Bilawal is not mentioned in the will, which was read out to the party's executive leadership three days after Ms. Bhutto's death. Mr. Zardari told them that he had asked Bilawal to be co-chairman of the party. The arrangement was endorsed at that meeting."


(Note: For those of you who don't remember or never knew in the first place, following Benazir Bhutto's assassination her son, Biliwal, made the statement, which he attributed to his mother, that "Democracy is the best revenge." In the video clip of him saying that which I saw he came across as being very frightened and unsure of himself. I actually felt sorry for the kid. He is only 19 years old.)

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Middle East Update

Are the Mullah's unmoved by the student protests or do the student protests lead to more of this? This is nothing new, of course, but at least we can assume the students are undetered.

And then there's this:

Iranian-Backed Terror Cells Still Active in Iraq

This is so Middle Eastern of them. Starve and oppress your own people while footing the bill and meddling in someone else's affairs.

Kinda reminds me of what The Sandmonkey had to say this morning regarding Egypt's recent guests from Gaza.

Iraq Stats

Jan. 2007................Jan. 2008
958 dead....................19 dead
50 car bombs.............7 car bombs
2200 wounded...........50 wounded

Hold fast, Iraq. Hold fast.

h/t Hameed Abid

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Godspeed to Iran!!

I'm a frequent visitor to Winston's blog The Spirit of Man. Regretably, I don't visit as often as I'd like to, cause there are soooo many good blogs out there that deal with subjects and causes that interest me. Iran is one of those subjects, so I really should visit more often.

Anyway, you can't find a better place to get up to date news about what is really happening inside Iran, that which the media doesn't or can't report due to the suppression of the press and freedom of speech in that country. Winston (a pseudonym) frequently reports the news he gets via his own personal network. Being an Iranian by birth and living in a free country (knock on wood), he has a gift to offer the world, and that is, an channel through which Iranians can tell the world what is actually happening. I strongly recommend his blog.

For the past several days he has been describing yet another student protest in that country. There have been so many in the last few years I can't imagine that the theocracy will last much longer. There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not Bush will take some final decisive action against Iran before he leaves office. With any luck, he may not have to. Iranians may yet topple the regime themselves.

In the meantime, I can't help but relishing the delicious irony. When the Mad Mullahs took over they banished women out of the workplace and into the home. Nature took its course and the country experienced a baby boom. Those boomers are now in their 20s and they want democracy. Serves ya right Mad Mullahs. Godspeed to the students. May your future be bright. May you shake off the yoke of Islamofascism and may you be the driving force behind the reawakening of the great Perian civilization.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Let's make this very clear..

The following is a series of MUST READS, especially for those who still harbour the notion that there is no threat.

First is The Candidate Who Can See the Enemy, Can Defeat It, by Walid Phares, who should know of which he speaks (emphasis added):
"Al Qaeda got beaten badly in the Sunni Triangle and in Somalia but a younger generation of Jihadists is being put into battle across the region. Not one single Sunni country will escape the rise of Salafi Terror in the next US Presidential term. Iran’s regime is speeding up its strategic armament, testing American resolve when possible; Syria is surviving its isolation and bleeding our allies in Iraq and Lebanon; Hezbollah is about to seize Lebanon; Hamas has seized Gaza; Turkey’s Islamists are reversing secularism; and Pakistan’s Jihadists are eying the nuclear missiles. But worse, three generations of Jihadists have penetrated the social and defense layers of Western Europe and the United States. In few years from now, the next President may have to witness European cities burned by urban warfare in his (or her) first term, and could be forced to arm the doom day devices for the first time in this century by the following Presidential term. These images from a not so distant future may become the reality to face the leaders we will select in the primaries and the one who will be sitting in the oval office next January."
[snip]

"President Bush was elected before 9/11 neither on the grounds of avoiding the Jihadi wars nor winning them. Very few even knew that we were already at war. He was reelected on the ground of being a better choice than the defeatist political alternative. This year I suggest that Americans deserve a more daring choice. They need to see and certify that the next occupant of the White House lives on this Planet, at this age, knows that we are at war and above all knows which war we are fighting. The margin of error is too slim to allow hesitations."
But don't stop there. Read First they came for the gays, by Bruce Bawer.

"Sharia law may still be an alien concept to some Westerners"
"But it’s staring gay Europeans right in the face — and pointing toward a chilling future for all free people."

Then try this: I saw the suicide bomber and she was begging

"She", of course, was one of the adult Downs Syndrome women who had suicide vests strapped to them and were sent into a crowded pet market in Baghdad, where one could expect there to be many innocent children shopping with their families.

"It appears the suicide bombers were not willing martyrs, they were used by al-Qaida for these horrific attacks,” he said. “These two women were likely used because they didn’t understand what was happening and they were less likely to be searched".
And in case you are still in denial, let me point out that this is not the first time Islamofascist have used innocent mentally handicapped or otherwise helpless and needy persons as carriers for their weapons against innocent Muslim women and children.

And finally, this: Female Muslim medics 'disobey hygiene rules'
"Muslim medical students are refusing to obey hygiene rules brought in to stop the spread of deadly superbugs, because they say it is against their religion.

Women training in several hospitals in England have raised objections to removing their arm coverings in theatre and to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands, because it is regarded as immodest in Islam."
And just how much further are we expected to go to accommodate the Religion of Peace. No one is forcing these women to become doctors. Will they refuse to perform pelvic examinations or examinations for prostate or testicular cancer, too? Will they cry foul if a Brit refuses to be treated by them for fear of picking up some contagion carried forward from the last patient these doctors treated? Will the legions of fools on the left come to their defense, if that happens?

The women in question have a choice. There are plenty of honorable professions they can enter that do not require baring the forearms and thoroughly washing them, but thank you very much, I want my physicians to be well acquainted and fully compliant with hygenic procedures, not only for my own sake but for the sake of every citizen who may be within reach of whatever epidemic may ensue should health care professionals wantonly abandon these essential public health measures.

The deniers believe that we cannot differentiate between Muslims in order to point out those among them that are posing a life and death danger to our way of life, as if all Muslims are of one mind and none are worthy of protection against their own miscreants.

This blind belief that there is a Muslim monolith is the flip side of the same coin about which Walid Phares speaks. There is an enemy encroaching and those in their ranks who would deign to use poor Downs Syndrome women for their nepharious purposes have their counterpart in the West. Those of you whose sensibilities have been anethesized by political correctness, who have deified multi-culturalism are, shall we say, akin to the mentally challenged (my apologies to persons with Downs Syndrome, as it is they who should be insulted by this slur against their character).

If you persistenly rant and rail against the treatment of gay people in the West, yet ignore their brutal oppression at the hands of Islamic extremists; if you suggest that public health and safety measures be abandoned so as not to offend some supposedly pious Muslim women, then there is only one other thing to call you and that is - complicit. The disease is already spreading. May it mow you down before it becomes a pandemic.

Western Civilization and Christianity

For most of my life, that is since I achieved the age where youngsters can normally begin thinking at that deeper and more abstract level that separates childhood from adulthood, I have not professed to be a Christian. I still do not profess to be a Christian.

My mother was a devout Anglican whose faith in Christian fairytales was unshakable, a problem which pitted us against one another on more than one occasion. She hauled my siblings and I off to church nearly every Sunday and during those interminable services I was always grateful that we youngsters in the congregation got to traipse downstairs about half way through.

There, in the church basement, we attended Sunday school and had biblical stories told to us as though they were the literal truth, but at least in interesting and fun ways. At least it was better than listening to rote repetion of mindless litergy, annoying or boring sermons which were occasionally so intolerant of other Christian sects that the whole point was lost in a deluge of hypocrisy. Better too than feeling the inevitable twinge of guilt whenever I had to repeat various prayers and creeds affirming my belief in the fairytales. Afterall, I had taken to heart the teachings about lieing, the wellspring of which, ironically, was the very same creed.

But I can look back at those days now, and at my mother, and say that these experiences did teach me values that have stayed with me all my life. Thanks to being exposed to writings of people like Scott Peck and others, I now understand that there are stages of spiritual growth and many people get stuck at the lower levels and never go beyond.

My mother, in some ways, was stuck at the literalist level. Many a youth who reject the literalist strain of Christian teaching will triumphantly declare themselves to be athiests as soon as they begin to understand the deeper more nuanced complexities of belief and creed. But, years later, if they are still arrogantly athiest, I submit they too are stuck on a lower level of belief, just as Scott Peck has decribed. I spent many years as an avowed athiest myself. But now I've mellowed and I know that just because the biblical version of things seems proposterous to me, as a mere human, I cannot know for sure that there is no Creator. In fact, there are some questions for which a creative force or being, or whatever you choose to call it, seems the only logical answer.

Some very learned and erudite individuals can be included in this class of folks who have not transcended into the higher levels of spiritual understanding. Richard Dawkins comes to mind as one of these and at least one man whom I consider a personal hero, namely Christopher Hitchens. I'm a grown up. I can admire the man and not denounce him because of one, albeit significant, difference in our world views. Both of us are products of Western Civilization, which in turn has been greatly influenced and shaped by Christian values, even if it is true that it was the struggle against the church and its various permutations that was the driving force behind much of Europe's history.

For more than a millenium, Europe, for all its internal bickering and petty warring, conceived of itself as Christendom and on several occasions has been united when at war with Islam, not the least of which was the war, otherwise known as the Crusades, to reclaim the birthplace of Christ from its Muslim usurpers.

All of this is to say that I find it strangely exotic that in the past decade or so, I have found myself drawn more and more to the support of Christians, even evangelicals for whom I would formerly, in my athiest days, have held nothing but arrogant contempt. I believe many of them are on the right side when it comes to understanding the nature and threat of Islamofascism. The fact that many on the left have chosen to vilify Christians and pump themselves up with all sorts of bogus beliefs about Christians, tacitly, though they will not admit it, taking sides with Islamofascism, has also driven me into the "Christian camp", if you can call it that.

These folks, the Christians, seem to have a much better understanding of the peril we are in than any leftie does, and it's very likely because they have been at the brunt of the liberal-left assault on Western values. "Christians are evil fascists." "Christians are bigots." "Christians are dangerous." What rot!!! Especially when compared to the seemy underside of Islamism. Even the most annoying Evangelical, and there are plenty, is not a crazed murderer, drawing upon his Christian teachings to justify blowing up market places and airplanes.

Perhaps this is why I admire Michael Coren so much. Michael Coren has the balls to speak out and the left simply hurls their usual, now bland and meaningless epithets against him.

Strange bedfellows, those, Michael Coren and Christopher Hitchens, a devout Christian and an avowed athiest. But I suspect they would, like the legions of Christendom of old, be of one mind when it comes to defending our civilization. T'is a shame that the left is no longer made of the right stuff, since so many of our most cherished values have come from their fight against oppressions of European origin. Pity they choose to focus on petty superficialities and cannot stand up for that which they once championed, simply because Christians now champion it, too.

Reminds me of Bob Dylan's old song from my youth:
"The Times, They are a Changing"