CUANAS: 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

The Flight 93 Memorial Is Redesigned

Good news. We will not be assaulted by the "Crescent of Embrace":

Designers of a Flight 93 memorial have made a bowl-shaped piece of land its centerpiece, replacing a crescent-shape design that some critics had said was a symbol honoring terrorists, officials announced Wednesday.
The new design for the memorial, to be built on the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, crash near Shanksville, features most of the details of the original, which was unveiled in September after a worldwide design competition.

But a round, bowl-shaped area would replace a "Crescent of Embrace," a crescent-shaped cluster of maple trees.

In September, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., criticized the design in a letter to the National Park Service Director, saying many questioned the shape "because of the crescent's prominent use as a symbol in Islam and the fact that the hijackers were radical Islamists."

Paul Murdoch, president of Paul Murdoch Architects, which designed the memorial, had called the criticism of the crescent an "unfortunate diversion," but said they were sensitive to the concerns.

In both old and new versions of the design, a tower with 40 wind chimes welcomes visitors to the site, where they can then walk to a large circular field ringed by 40 groves of red and sugar maple trees, symbolizing the 40 passengers and crew who died. There will also be pedestrian trails, a plaza from which to view the crash site, and a white marble wall with the victims' names inscribed.

In the Flight 93 National Memorial's newsletter, Murdoch described the new design as an "evolution" of what was announced two months ago, reflecting input from the public, the competition's jury and others.

The circle enhances the earlier design by putting more emphasis on the crash site, officials said in the newsletter. A break in the trees will symbolize the path the plane took as it crashed.

Congratulations, everybody. Good work.

Who's Running Guantanamo? The ACLU?

The other day, my friend, Always On Watch put up a post on a shocking fact of life at Guantanamo.

Are you ready for this?

Well, as you probably already know, the United States Military sees to it that the Islamic Jihadis imprisoned at Guantanamo have a Koran, and a Prayer Rug, and whatever other paraphenalia they need to practice their religion.

And, you know what? That's fair enough.

However, you know what they are not allowed to have?

A Bible.

Why?

Because, it's considered a danger.

Go read the Always on Watch post:

http://alwaysonwatch.blogspot.com/2005/11/no-bibles-for-prisoners-at-gitmo.html

AP Editorial Masquerades as News

The following article appeared, verbatim, on the AP "News" Wire tonight:

Bush Attempts Hard Sell on Iraq Progress

WASHINGTON - President Bush's depiction of Iraqi security forces as "helping to turn the tide" is difficult to square with persistent setbacks in handing control of the country back to its own people.

His suggestion that Americans are solidly behind the mission also understates opposition at home, and his hard sell on the rising quality of Iraqi forces overlooks complexities on the ground.

Bush on Wednesday declared the Iraqi army and police forces are "increasingly taking the lead in the fight against the terrorists," even as recruits patrol Iraq's most violent cities barely three months after learning how to use weapons and police forces struggle to get officers to come to work.

The president, in a major speech on Iraq war aims and in an accompanying strategy paper, acknowledged all has not gone as planned, speaking several times of a need for "adjustments" along the way.

Still, the White House paper cited a number of positive statistics on the recovery of the Iraq economy, asserting "our restore, reform, build strategy is achieving results."

The International Monetary Fund, in its latest World Economic Outlook, in September, issued a more sobering view.

"The new government faces daunting medium-term challenges, including advancing the reconstruction of the country's infrastructure, reducing macroeconomic instability and developing the institutions that can support a market-based economy," the survey stated.

The IMF staff cited a "volatile security situation" as one of the biggest challenges and said only "slow progress" had been made in restoring Iraq oil production to prewar levels.

Bush, making his remarks at the U.S. Naval Academy, spoke as if the debate about Iraq were limited to Washington and only politicians were questioning the mission.

"When you're risking your life to accomplish a mission, the last thing you want to hear is that mission being questioned in our nation's capital," he told cadets. "I want you to know that, while there may be a lot of heated rhetoric in Washington, D.C., one thing is not in dispute: The American people stand behind you."

Bush's public standing and support for the war have declined. In an AP-Ipsos poll taken in November, 62 percent said they disapproved of his Iraq policy,and his overall job approval rating dropped to 37 percent, the lowest level of his presidency.

The president spoke of "an increased focus on leadership training" to build a core of midlevel and higher ranking officers needed to guide and lead an Iraqi force that can operate on its own.

It takes years to develop a strong officer core, and the process has been a particular struggle in Iraq. The deficiency was highlighted recently when Iraqis put out a call for more former officers from Saddam Hussein's army to rejoin the armed forces. Bush did caution it would take "time and patience" to train enough Iraqi forces to carry the fight.

"As the Iraqi forces grow in number, they're helping to keep a better hold on the cities taken from the enemy," he said.

Indeed, large Shiite cities in the south now are largely controlled by Iraqi forces. But throughout central and northern Iraq, cities that are either Sunni Arab or ethnically or religiously mixed have proved more difficult to stabilize.

In Samarra, only 100 of the 700 police on the city payroll are showing up for work most days, even as U.S. soldiers prepare this week to turn over control of the inner city to Iraqi forces. The Americans tried twice before to do that in the city of 200,000 but failed when insurgents moved against police.

As he did before the invasion, Bush tied Iraq to terrorism, to make the case that a stable Iraq would make for a safer America.

He declared, "The terrorists have made it clear that Iraq is the central front in their war against humanity. And so we must recognize Iraq as the central front in the war on terror."

Iraq was not, however, the terrorists' chosen battlefield until Saddam was defeated and extremists poured across unsecured borders.

I'm guessing that none of my readers need to be told that that is NOT a news article, but that it is, instead, an opinion piece.

However, I thought it was worth noting anyway.

Who The Hell Is AP/Ipsos Anyway

You're not going to believe this one. From No Pasaran:

The most recent AP-Ipsos poll, released on November 11, brought bad news for President Bush
writes John Rosenthal.

The headline told the story: "Poll: Most Americans Say Bush Not Honest". Coming just after the indictment of vice presidential aide "Scooter" Libby for perjury in the so-called CIA leak affair, the implication was clear: the majority of Americans were beginning to get what Democrats and Frenchmen had understood all along (or almost): "Bush lied!"

But this was not the first time that an AP-Ipsos poll had been the bringer of bad tidings for the President. … Why, if one were to judge by AP-Ipsos polling, one would have to conclude that American attitudes toward their President -- and indeed themselves! -- were beginning to seem positively… well, French. Americans were finally acknowledging that they were mistaken for re-electing the malevolent boob -- and that they were themselves uncivilized and fat to boot.

But, then again, if one were to judge by AP-Ipsos polling, George Bush would not have been re-elected in the first place. On October 22, 2004, just ten days before the presidential election and at a time when other polls almost all showed Bush in the lead with just a smattering of ties, the AP released an Ipsos poll showing John Kerry with a three-point lead. …

So, maybe Americans are not turning French, after all. Maybe the anomalous AP-Ipsos results have to do rather with the firm that is doing the polling.

What exactly is Ipsos?

Read the answer (the one neither the American nor the French MSM will tell you).

AP press releases identify Ipsos coyly as an "international polling firm". Ipsos's own releases on its AP work describe the company as "a leading global survey-based market research company" -- as well as "non-partisan" and "objective". One would hardly expect them to say otherwise. But here is what neither AP nor Ipsos want Americans to know and assiduously avoid saying: Ipsos is a French polling firm. Not that this should matter per se. But AP and Ipsos undoubtedly fear that to many Americans it might or that, in light of the current climate of Franco-American relations, it might at least raise some doubts about Ipsos's impartiality and objectivity.

And what is worse: about this particular French polling firm, these doubts would be highly justified. On its home market, Ipsos is well known precisely for the unreliability of its polls and for being especially tight with the French political establishment.

Here's how a November 2001 profile in the French economics weekly l'Expansion described the cozy relationship of Ipsos co-President Jean-Marc Lech to the occupant of the Elysée Palace:

During the two seven-year-terms of François Mitterrand, he was one of the advisors to the prince and he held open house at Copenhagen, the famous restaurant on the Champs Elysées not far from the "castle". Since he began working for Jacques Chirac, he has left the Champs and stays put in the XV arrondissement at lunchtime. Now, he merely delivers his confidential polls personally to the antechamber of the President.

According to the latest Ipsos financial report, a holding company controlled by Lech and his partner Didier Truchot controls 35 percent of Ipsos capital and nearly half of the voting rights in the firm. Ipsos's international expansion in the late 1990s was, incidentally, largely financed by the Artémis investment group of French businessman François Pinault. This is the same Artémis and the same Pinault that were heavily implicated in the Executive Life fraud and that only avoided being indicted in US courts presumably through the intercession of Pinault's close personal friend Jacques Chirac and by coughing up some $185 million. Artémis sold its stake in Ipsos when the firm went public in 1999.

There's more, and you can go read it at Tech Central Station:

http://www.techcentralstation.com/112905B.html

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Ahmadinejad Is Seeing Visions
And, Apparently Thinks He's Some Kind Of Messenger of God
Can We Start Bombing, Already?

From Radio Free Europe:

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad says that when he delivered his speech at the UN General Assembly in September, he felt there was a light around him and that the attention of the world leaders in the audience was unblinkingly focused upon him. The claim has caused a stir in Iran, as a transcript and video recording of Ahmadinejad's comments have been published on an Iranian website, baztab.com. There are also reports that a CD showing Ahmadinejad making the comments also has been widely distributed in Iran. Is the Iranian president claiming to be divinely inspired?

Prague, 29 November 2005 (RFE/RL) -- According the report by baztab.com, President Ahmadinejad made the comments in a meeting with one of Iran's leading clerics, Ayatollah Javadi Amoli.

Ahmadinejad said that someone present at the UN told him that a light surrounded him while he was delivering his speech to the General Assembly. The Iranian president added that he also sensed it.

"He said when you began with the words 'in the name of God,' I saw that you became surrounded by a light until the end [of the speech]," Ahmadinejad appears to say in the video. "I felt it myself, too. I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there, and for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink."

Ahmadinejad adds that he is not exaggerating.

"I am not exaggerating when I say they did not blink; it's not an exaggeration, because I was looking," he says. "They were astonished as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."

Baztab.com reported that during the meeting, Ayatollah Amoli said that "carrying out promises and restraining from fooling people" is the most important duty, presumably of officials . However, it is unclear whether that comment is made in reaction to the claim made by Ahmadinejad.

Critics And Skeptics

Iranian legislator Akbar Alami has questioned Ahmadinejad's apparent claims, saying that even Islam's holiest figures have never made such claims.

Alami told ILNA news agency that it is hard to imagine that someone who is delivering a speech can at the same time focus his attention on the eyelashes of all the people sitting at a distance from him and categorically tell a leading Qom cleric that they did not blink.

Alami said he hopes the film of Ahmadinejad’s comments has not been distributed by people close to the president to make criticizing him "taboo among ordinary people."

However, FardaNews.com, a conservative website, reported that the meeting between Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Javadi Amoli was private. [Editor's note: FardaNews.com has no relation to RFE/RL's Radio Farda.] The website accused unspecified Ahmadinejad opponents of distributing the CD of the meeting to insult him.

Hossein Bastani, an Iranian journalist based in France, told RFE/RL that Ahmadinejad's comments can be interpreted in two ways.

"One analysis is that this government believes that it came to power with the votes of the so-called lowest class of the Iranian society and these are classes that believe more in such supernatural tales," Bastani said. "Therefore, this government tries, by propagating such rumors, to gain a dogmatic, charismatic, and holy status among those whom they think support them. The second view is that despite the fact that they are trying to fool people, maybe they also believe in these things that are being repeatedly published about them and said by them. This is more dangerous.”

Growing Trend

Since the presidential elections in Iran, many bizarre stories and rumors have circulated about Ahmadinejad. Many of them are related to his devotion to the 12th Imam, also known as Imam Mahdi, who according to Muslims has disappeared and will return at the end of time to lead an era of Islamic justice.

During his September speech at the UN, Ahmadinejad called for the reappearance of the 12th Imam.

In mid-November, during a speech to Friday prayers leaders from across Iran, Ahmadinejad said that the main mission of the revolution is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam.

In recent weeks, the president's aides have denied a rumor that he ordered his cabinet to write a pact of loyalty with the 12th Imam and throw it down a well near the holy city of Qom, where some believe the Imam is hiding.

Ahmadinejad's supporters said such rumors are being circulated about the president by opponents in efforts to defame him.

Tacit Approval?

But journalist Bastani said that many of the reported stories are based on comments made by Ahmadinejad and his cabinet members.

"Inside Iran, no one in a news [organization] takes the risk of publishing incorrect information about the president, who also controls the Information Ministry, [so] spreading lies about him has serious consequences," Bastani said. "In recent weeks and months, there has been much news similar to the meeting between Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Amoli. These [reports] include the allocation in at least two cases of heavy budgets for the Jamkaran mosque [at the well where some believe that Imam Mahdi is hiding] or comments by the president that have been quoted by the Iranian media in which he had said in an official meeting that the Hidden Imam will appear in two years."

There has been no reaction from President Ahmadinejad to the distribution and publication of his claim that a light surrounded him while he was addressing world leaders at the UN.

Mohammad Ali Abtahi, an adviser to former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, has warned against the misuse of religious sanctities and written on his website that it is natural that, at a time when the world is expecting a plan to end the deadlock over Iran's nuclear issue, attention is paid to the comments by the country's president.

Ahmadinejad has been criticized inside the country for his seeming lack of tact and his confrontational style on the international stage. His comments about his mystical experience at the UN could well lead to further criticism.

You know, maybe liberals ought to take a long, hard look at Ahmadinejad. That's the face of a real religious madman. Liberals have been so set on calling Bush a Hitler, and insinuating that he takes orders from God, that they probably won't be able to see the real thing staring them in the face.

That's the problem with redefining things. Once you're redefined a word or an idea, then, when the real thing comes along, you no longer have a classification for it. When humans do not have a classification for a thing or idea, they tend to have a very hard time seeing it.

I say this having considered it carefully, Ahmadinejad is showing signs of being a having some sort of Paranoid Personality Disorder.

Check out the list of delusions that can go along with such a syndromd:

Delusions: One the cardinal symptoms of paranoia and other disorders, most notably schizophrenia. Delusions are faulty interpretation of reality that cannot be shaken despite clear evidence to the contrary. Delusions can be classified as:

Bizarre -- belief that others can hear your thoughts, others are inserting thoughts, or your thoughts, feelings, and impulses are controlled by an external force
Referential -- belief that certain gestures, comments, song lyrics, or passages in printed material are specifically intended for you or reference you in some way
Grandiose -- belief that you are an extremely important person, an invaluable member of society, and possess or make some special unrecognized talent or contribution
Persecution -- belief that others are out to get you, are plotting against you, foiling your every move, or making you feel guilty or ashamed
Bodily -- belief in some kind of undiagnosed deteriorative medical condition such as dissolving of spinal cord, rotting or deterioration of skin, organs, or brain
Religious -- belief that you are an important religious figure, in contact with dieties, or serving some special theological purpose in the world

Now, of course, we don't know that Ahamdinejad does suffer from delusions, but if he does, it could be very bad for the world. Why do I say that? Well, read (from al-Islam.org) about the mission of the Mahdi:

A figure more legendary than that of the Mahdi, the Awaited Saviour, has not been seen in the history of mankind. The threads of the world events have woven many a fine design in human life but the pattern of the Mahdi stands high above every other pattern. He has been the vision of the visionaries in history. He has been the dream of all the dreamers of the world. For the ultimate salvation of mankind he is the Pole Star of hope on which the gaze of humanity is fixed.
The Qur'anic prophecy of the inevitable victory of Islam will be realized following the advent of the Mahdi who will fight the wrong, remedy the evils and establish a world order based on the Islamic teachings of justice and virtue. Thereafter there will be only one religion and one government in the world.

Got that? Those evil ones? Them's us, methinks. And that stuff about there being only only religion, and on government? That would be Islam, and Sharia.

Now, should we take Ahmadinejad at his word? If we do, he must be taken out of power.

Here's the orginal link:

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/11/184cb9fb-887c-4696-8f54-0799df747a4a.html

News of Eurabia

A couple days ago I put a new blog on my blogroll, called News of Eurabia (Spanish). The proprieter of the blog, Blueslord, has started translating his posts into English, so I'm dumping the Spanish language blog - as I would imagine, most of my readers probably do not read Spanish. I, myself, can barely understand it - and adding the English version.

Anyway, go check it out, along with No Pasaran, Justify This and the Drunken Blogger. All these guys are blogging about the Jihad in Europe. And, they are all worthwhile reads.

Miami Police Adopt New Strategy Against Terror Threat

From Breitbart comes the news that the Miamim Police are gong to do surprise ID sweeps:

Miami police announced Monday they will stage random shows of force at hotels, banks and other public places to keep terrorists guessing and remind people to be vigilant.

Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats.

"This is an in-your-face type of strategy. It's letting the terrorists know we are out there," Fernandez said.

The operations will keep terrorists off guard, Fernandez said. He said al-Qaida and other terrorist groups plot attacks by putting places under surveillance and watching for flaws and patterns in security.

Police Chief John Timoney said there was no specific, credible threat of an imminent terror attack in Miami. But he said the city has repeatedly been mentioned in intelligence reports as a potential target.

Timoney also noted that 14 of the 19 hijackers who took part in the Sept. 11 attacks lived in South Florida at various times and that other alleged terror cells have operated in the area.

Both uniformed and plainclothes police will ride buses and trains, while others will conduct longer-term surveillance operations.

"People are definitely going to notice it," Fernandez said. "We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don't want people to feel their rights are being threatened. We need them to be our eyes and ears."

Howard Simon, executive director of ACLU of Florida, said the Miami initiative appears aimed at ensuring that people's rights are not violated.

"What we're dealing with is officers on street patrol, which is more effective and more consistent with the Constitution," Simon said. "We'll have to see how it is implemented."

Mary Ann Viverette, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said the Miami program is similar to those used for years during the holiday season to deter criminals at busy places such as shopping malls.

"You want to make your presence known and that's a great way to do it," said Viverette, police chief in Gaithersburg, Md. "We want people to feel they can go about their normal course of business, but we want them to be aware."

Well, jeez, even the ACLU approves.

Mysterious Email Problem

My email provider cut off my email account and told me to register for a new account. I did so. And, now neither account is working. I am not receiving email at all now, so, that will explain why I am not replying to any emails you may be sending.

I'll let you know when I have got the problem resolved. Until then, I guess we'll have to communicate via comments.

Sorry.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Travel Day and New Email Account

Today has been a travel day for me. I don't really like flying, so I was rather stressed out, and thus, I am very, very tired.

Another thing I need to note is, my email account was shut down. I started a new Yahoo email account, but it will take a few days for me to get my new email address out to all of you.

And yet another thing to note. I have to use a laptop which does not allow me to post photos, or bold headlines, or color, or anything. So, the blog is going to look pretty boring for a few days.

Bear with me.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

...

Europe Why Do You Direct The World's Fury
At the Only Country in the Middle East
Whose Civilisation Resembles Yours?

Charles Moore challenges European officials on their the odd vitriol they have for Israel, as compared to the diplomacy they reserve for the Arab World:

If you had followed the British media, particularly the BBC, with average attention over the past 25 years, you would have concluded that Sharon was an intransigent, murderous, semi-fascist. So you would have been perplexed by his sudden announcement this week that he is to leave the "Right-wing" (favoured Western terminology) Likud party and form a "centrist" party of his own. Suddenly, Sharon becomes visionary, peace-seeking. Little would have prepared you for it.
And that is the trouble. Little prepares the post-Christian European audience to understand Israel. By "understand", I partly mean sympathise with, and partly, just comprehend.

Sharon's career is a good place to start, because it spans the history of the Jewish state. He was 20 when it began in 1948, and had been serving in the Jewish Haganah militia since the age of 14. He fought in the War of Independence, and in 1956, and in the Six-Day War of 1967, and in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, when he crossed the Suez Canal and, effectively disobeying orders, advanced to cut the supply lines of the Egyptian Third Army. He became a popular hero.

Then Sharon entered full-time politics. As defence minister, he masterminded the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which succeeded in breaking up the PLO infrastructure there. On his watch, Lebanese Christian Falangists entered the Sabra and Chatila Palestinian refugee camps. There they massacred several hundred people: Sharon was officially condemned for this, and forced to resign.

He bounced back, however. As housing minister, he built settlements. Later he was foreign minister, then leader of Likud. In 2001, he became prime minister, swept to power by fear of the new intifada. He ordered the assassination of many Palestinian terrorists. He began the security wall that divides Israel from much of the West Bank. He also ordered Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza strip, the first unilateral withdrawal it has ever made. And soon he will contest elections as leader of a party he has just invented.

Israeli politics for the past dozen years has been the attempt to reconcile extrication from territory with security. That is what Sharon thinks about all the time, as did his Labour predecessors, Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak.

In the history of the West, such a narrative used to command fascination and respect. Many could apply it to their own people. British people whose convict cousins had built Australia out of their barren exile could understand; so could Americans, who had overcome hostile terrain and hostile inhabitants, and forged a mighty nation. So could any country formed in adversity, particularly, perhaps, a Protestant one - with its idea of divinely supported national destiny and its natural sympathy for the people first chosen by God. The sympathy was made stronger by the fact that the new state was robust in its legal and political institutions, free in its press and universities - a noisy democracy.

Anti-imperialists and the Left also found much to admire. They admired people whose pioneer spirit kept them equal, who often lived communally, who fled the persecution of old societies to build simpler, better ones. If you read Bernard Donoughue's diaries, just published, of his life as an adviser to Harold Wilson in the 1970s (a much better picture of what prime ministers are like than Sir Christopher Meyer's self-regarding effort), one difference between then and now that hits you hard is Donoughue's (and Wilson's) firm belief that the cause of Israel is the cause of people who wish to be free, and that its enemies are the old, repressive establishments.

As a boy, I loved this narrative. I cheered as Israeli courage swept away the outnumbering Arabs who tried to destroy it again and again. I bought books about the Six-Day War, many of which carried pictures of glamorous female Israeli soldiers.

But then a different narrative supervened. People called "the Palestinians" began to be mentioned. Once upon a time, the word "Palestinian" had no national meaning; it was simply the description on any passport of a person living in British-mandated Palestine. During the 19 years to 1967 when Jordan governed the West Bank, the people there had no self-rule, and no real name. UN Resolution 242, which calls for Israel to leave territories it occupied in 1967, does not mention Palestinians; it speaks only of "Arab refugees". Palestinian nationality came along, as it were, after the fact, a nationality largely based on grievance.

Since then, the story has grown and grown. Israel, which was attacked, has come to be seen as the aggressor. Israel, which has elections that throw governments out and independent commissions that investigate people like Sharon and condemn him, became regarded as the oppressive monster.

In a rhetoric that tried to play back upon Jews their own experience of suffering, supporters of the Palestinian cause began to call Israelis Nazis. Holocaust Memorial Day is disapproved of by many Muslims because it ignores the supposedly comparable "genocide" of the Palestinians.

Western children of the Sixties like this sort of talk. They look for a narrative based on the American civil rights movement or the struggle against apartheid. They care little for economic achievement or political pluralism. They are suspicious of any society with a Western appearance, and in any contest between people with differing skin colours, they prefer the darker. They buy into the idea, now promoted by all Arab regimes and by Muslim firebrands with a permanent interest in deflecting attention from their own societies' problems, that Israel is the greatest problem of all.

Well, some will say, that is the way it is: Israel has abused power, and is reaping the whirlwind. I don't want to argue today about the rights and wrongs of Israel's actions, though I think, given its difficulties, it stands up better than most before the bar of history.

All I want to ask my fellow Europeans is this: are you happy to help direct the world's fury at the only country in the Middle East whose civilisation even remotely resembles yours? And are you sure that the fate of Israel has no bearing on your own? In Iran, the new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes the link. The battle over Palestine, he says, is "the prelude of the battle of Islam with the world of arrogance", the world of the West. He is busy building his country's nuclear bomb.

A Mosque
For
The
Future
Of
The
British
Landscape

A Muslim group plans to build a mega-Mosque in the heart of London, next to the Olympic Complex:

A MASSIVE mosque that will hold 40,000 worshippers is being proposed beside the Olympic complex in London to be opened in time for the 2012 Games. The project’s backers hope the mosque and its surrounding buildings would hold a total of 70,000 people, only 10,000 fewer than the Olympic stadium.

Its futuristic design features wind turbines instead of the traditional minarets, while a translucent latticed roof would replace the domes seen on most mosques. The complex is designed to become the “Muslim quarter” for the Games, acting as a hub for Islamic competitors and spectators.

“It will be something never seen before in this country. It is a mosque for the future as part of the British landscape,” said Abdul Khalique, a senior member of Tablighi Jamaat, a worldwide Islamic missionary group that is proposing the mosque as its new UK headquarters.

Tablighi Jamaat has come under scrutiny from western security agencies since 9/11. Two years ago, according to The New York Times, a senior FBI anti-terrorism official claimed it was a recruiting ground for Al-Qaeda. British police investigated a report that Mohammad Sidique Khan, leader of the July 7 London bombers, had attended its present headquarters in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

In August, Bavaria expelled three members of the organisation on the grounds that it promoted Islamic extremism.

The east London complex would have by far the largest capacity of any religious building in Britain. The biggest at present is the Baitul Futuh in Morden, Surrey, which holds about 10,000 worshippers. Liverpool’s Anglican cathedral, the largest Christian place of worship, has a capacity of 3,000.

Mangera (the architectural firm) and Tablighi Jamaat are in negotiations with Newham council, the Greater London Authority and the Thames Gateway Development Corporation for planning permission.Sunil Sahadevan, a planning officer at Newham council, said:

“We are working towards the mosque application with the organisers and discussions are ongoing. The application will be finalised over the next year.”It is estimated that the project would cost more than £100m and donations are being sought from Britain and abroad.

Poll Shows 70% Of Americans Think Dems
"Cut and Run" Strategy Hurts Troops

The Democrats have really screwed themselves up this time, haven't they?

Democrats fumed last week at Vice President Cheney’s suggestion that criticism of the administration’s war policies was itself becoming a hindrance to the war effort. But a new poll indicates most Americans are sympathetic to Cheney’s point.

Seventy percent of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale — with 44 percent saying morale is hurt “a lot,” according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale.

The results surely will rankle many Democrats, who argue that it is patriotic and supportive of the troops to call attention to what they believe are deep flaws in President Bush’s Iraq strategy. But the survey itself cannot be dismissed as a partisan attack. The RTs in RT Strategies are Thomas Riehle, a Democrat, and Lance Tarrance, a veteran GOP pollster.

Their poll also indicates many Americans are skeptical of Democratic complaints about the war. Just three of 10 adults accept that Democrats are leveling criticism because they believe this will help U.S. efforts in Iraq. A majority believes the motive is really to “gain a partisan political advantage.”

The Democrats have exposed themselves, and it hasn't been an impressive sight, to say the least.

Ben Stein asks the appropriate question; "Do the Democrats really want Al Qaeda to win?"

I see a frightening pattern here: the Democrats wanted us out of Vietnam, and never mind the genocide that followed. The Democrats want us out of Iraq and never mind that the Baathists will fill the vacuum and all Iraq will be screaming in pain except the murderers, who will exult — especially Osama bin Laden.

Can it be that the Democrats really want to surrender to the same man who killed 3,000 civilians on 9/11 and laughed about it? Are we so weak that in only four years, after a war smaller in casualties than many unknown battles of the Civil War, we are already eager to surrender to the man who murdered women and children and made terrified couples hold hands and leap to their deaths from the World Trade Center? If so, there really is little hope for us as a people.

My prayer is that careful reflection will convince the Democrats that while we are all unhappy about the war, war is hell, and surrender is far worse. Maybe the Copperheads in the Democrat party, like those who wanted appeasement of the slave owners one hundred and forty years ago, will be a minority, and those who want to keep up the fight for human decency will prevail even as the Neville Chamberlains speak of peace at any price.

God
Bless
Bruce
Willis

Bruce Willis is mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore:

ANGERED by negative portrayals of the conflict in Iraq, Bruce Willis, the Hollywood star, is to make a pro-war film in which American soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy.

It will be based on the exploits of the heavily decorated members of Deuce Four, the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, which has spent the past year battling insurgents in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.

Willis attended Deuce Four’s homecoming ball this month in Seattle, Washington, where the soldiers are on leave, along with Stephen Eads, the producer of Armageddon and The Sixth Sense.

The 50-year-old actor said that he was in talks about a film of “these guys who do what they are asked to for very little money to defend and fight for what they consider to be freedom”.

Unlike many Hollywood stars Willis supports the war and recently offered a $1m (about £583,000) bounty for the capture of any of Al-Qaeda’s most wanted leaders such as Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri or Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, its commander in Iraq. Willis visited the war zone with his rock and blues band, the Accelerators, in 2003.

“I am baffled to understand why the things I saw happening in Iraq are not being reported,” he told MSNBC, the American news channel.

He is expected to base the film on the writings of the independent blogger Michael Yon, a former special forces green beret who was embedded with Deuce Four and sent regular dispatches about their heroics.

Yon was at the soldiers’ ball with Willis, who got to know him through his internet war reports on www.michaelyon.blogspot.com. “What he is doing is something the American media and maybe the world media isn’t doing,” the actor said, “and that’s telling the truth about what’s happening in the war in Iraq.”

I predict a HUGE box office success.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

The
Bridal
Procession

Crying
Tears
Of
Blood?

A statue of the Virgin Mary appears to have begun crying tears of blood, and believers are flocking from far and wide:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Carrying rosary beads and cameras, the faithful have been coming in a steady stream to a church on the outskirts of Sacramento for a glimpse of what some are calling a miracle: A statue of the Virgin Mary they say has begun crying a substance that looks like blood.

It was first noticed more than a week ago, when a priest at the Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church spotted a stain on the statue's face and wiped it away. Before Mass on Nov. 20, people again noticed a reddish substance near the eyes of the white concrete statue outside the small church, said Ky Truong, 56, a parishioner.

Since then, Truong said he has been at the church day and night, so emotional he can't even work. He believes the tears are a sign.

"There's a big event in the future — earthquake, flood, a disease," Truong said. "We're very sad."

The Rev. James Murphy, deacon of the diocese's mother church, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, said church leaders are always skeptical at first.

"For people individually seeing things through the eyes of faith, something like this can be meaningful. As for whether it is supernatural or a miracle, normally these incidences are not. Miracles are possible, of course," Murphy said. "The bishop is just waiting and seeing what happens. They will be moving very slowly."

But seeing the statue in person left no doubt for Martin Operario, 60, who drove about 100 miles from Hayward. He took photos to show to family and friends.

"I don't know how to express what I'm feeling," Operario said. "Since religion is the mother of believing, then I believe."

Nuns Anna Bui and Rosa Hoang, members of the Salesian Sisters of San Francisco, also made the trek Saturday. Whether the weeping statue is declared a miracle or not, they said, it is already doing good by awakening people to the faith and reminding them to pray.

"It's a call for us to change ourselves, to love one another," Hoang said.

Ain't much wrong with superstitious, or fundamentalist, belief, when it's message is, "Love one another."

Funny how in the Islamic world, the messages from Allah always seem to tell people to kill the infidel, while in the Christian world, the messages from God always seem to tell people to love one another.

Go Ahead
Make My Day

An Iranian government-run body, allied with Iranian President Ahmadinejad, have called for him to attack U.S. forces in Iraq:

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 25 – Radical Islamists allied with hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called this week for Iran to confront United States forces in Iraq.

Ansar-e Hezbollah, an ultra-conservative government-run body fiercely loyal to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote in the latest edition of its weekly paper Yatharat al-Hossein that Iran had a religious duty to defend the “occupied lands of Iraq”.

“Our strategy in the occupied lands of Iraq, taking into consideration the efforts by America to take complete control of the country with the second largest oil reserves of the world, make our duties for the region clear in the present circumstances”, the group wrote in its weekly publication.

The group said that the U.S. was introducing “American Islam” in Iraq in place of theocratic Islam, citing recent remarks by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani who visited Iran earlier this week, as a “negative example” of the effects of moderate Islam.

“Based on the teachings of pure Islam and without any moderate posturing, we must oppose deviant currents in this arena and fight off the aggressors in Islamic lands following the teachings of the Quran. Of course, we are ready to carry out the orders of the Supreme Leader as a priority”.

Do it, please. Pretty please, with sugar on top.

Infidel Blog Alliance
New Blogventure for Pastorius

I have started a new blog called the Infidel Blog Alliance, with No Dhimmitude, Justify This, and the Drunken Blogger. The idea is to build this site into a hub for blogging which seeks to defend Western Civilization in our War against Islamofascism.

I would like to involve more bloggers who think of this defense as their mission. The goal is to put up posts everyday that will include short teasers and links to the 10 to 15 most important stories of the day. Ultimately, I would like to have seven to ten other people involved, so that we can trade off duties.

I don't want to do this everyday. It takes time. But, I think it could be an important way to draw attention to various articles, in a concise easy read. Kind of like Instapundit, but focused entirely on the defense of Western Civilization.

I got a little wordy in my first post. I couldn't help myself.

If any other bloggers are interested in joining, please leave a comment. J, at Justify This, is in charge of the blog, so it will be up to him who we involve.

Our House Is Being Shelled
Quick, Balance The Checkbook

I love Baron and Dymphna at the Gates of Vienna, but I must say, I think they are way, way off in the new discussion they are enabling over at their blog.

The question put forth is, how do we push the Bush Administration, and the Republican Party to advance a more conservative agenda. Some of the issues they would like to see dealt with include:

Making the Bush tax cuts permanent
Death tax repeal
Cutting and limiting government spending
Social Security reform with personal retirement accounts
Expanding free trade
Legal reform to end abusive lawsuits
Replacing the current tax code
School choice
Regulatory reform and deregulation

Baron wrote:

Contemplating the craven and profligate behavior of Republicans in Congress, the ordinary grassroots conservative is disgusted ... there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties. I have argued previously that the only way to effect change in the national GOP is to hit them where it hurts: create a hemorrhage in their beloved supply of cash.

One commenter offered the following:

Baron, you nailed this one. Thanks for posting this. Can we get an honest to goodness 3rd party going next time up? I don't think the two parties of choice can give us any choices that would be any different that what's going on presently.

Ah, lemmings over the cliff.

My comment?:

A third party will be the death of conservatism.I think you guys need to figure out what is most important to you right now. We are in the middle of a war, guys.

... if you think you are going to turn "The Gates of Vienna" into a metaphor meaning the defense of conservatism itself, then you are, simply, amusing yourselves to death. We can not afford the luxury of metaphor in time of war.

That I was one of only two dissenting voice shows what the problem is with Bush's second term. Bush is being assailed from the right, as well as the left. He is under fierce, almost treasonous attack from the MSM. It has become hard enough, if not downright impossible for him to push his agenda.

Baron commented:

What the poll numbers for President Bush don’t tell you is how much of the decline in his approval ratings comes from people to his right. Those of us who thought that Mr. Bush might really change the political culture of Washington D.C., who thought he might rein in spending, who thought he might limit the intrusiveness of government in ordinary peoples’ lives — well, we had another think coming.

Yes, exactly. And, that's exactly why this discussion is so off.

You know, it's almost as if Republicans think we have the war in the bag. Are people so deluded as to think Iraq is the end of it? We have to end the regimes of Syria and Iran as well. If we don't, then the war will be for nought.

That a blog called Gates of Vienna would lose sight of these simple facts is frightening. The lack of support Bush is receiving from the right is a large part of the reason this war is grinding on at such a glacial and dangerous pace.

Take a lesson from the great Charles Johnson, who on September 13th, 2001, in a post entitled "Patriotism," wrote the following:

I preface this by saying that I may be the least patriotic person I know.
But I am going to refrain from posting any more criticism of our President for the duration of whatever is about to happen. (Unless he does something really dumb.) Some visitors have apparently been seeing my criticism of President Bush as an invitation to post comments implying... no, saying outright that America deserves what happened on September 11th.
Don't tell me the children in those planes deserved what happened to them. Don't tell me America deserved this. If you're able to say that with such disgusting and self-important glibness, you are putting yourself on the same moral level with the monsters who did this crime, and we don't want you here.
Make no mistake. I never thought I would say this, but the President has my full support now, in whatever he chooses to do. I pray he somehow finds the correct course through this labyrinth of hate and darkness.

I pray that we all find our way through this labyrinth. And, the way to do so is fierce resolve.

UPDATE: To be fair, Baron has articulated his reasoning in believing this is the right course of action vis a vis, the War on Terror. But, I don't agree. Go read his thoughts. He is a very intelligent man. Probably one that I am a fool to go up against. But, never let it be said that I am not willing to make a fool of myself.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Next Year,
In Syria

Yesterday, I posted a Debka report that the United States were locked in battle with Syrian forces. I noted that one needs to take Debka with a grain of salt. But, somehow, I believed the report.

Apparently, it is true:

Syria has accused the United States of launching lethal military raids into its territory from Iraq, escalating the diplomatic crisis between the two countries as the Bush administration seeks to step up pressure on President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Major General Amid Suleiman, a Syrian officer, said that American cross-border attacks into Syria had killed at least two border guards, wounded several more and prompted an official complaint to the American embassy in Damascus.

He made the allegations during an official press tour of Syrian security forces on the Iraqi border, which the US claims is a barely guarded passage into Iraq for hardcore foreign jihadis.

While showing off what he said were beefed-up Syrian border measures designed to blunt those criticisms, including new police stations and checkpoints, Maj Gen Suleiman alleged that his own border forces had come under repeated American attack.

“Incidents have taken place with casualties on my surveillance troops,” he said, near the Euphrates river border crossing between Syria and Iraq. “Many US projectiles have landed here. In this area alone, two soldiers and two civilians have been killed by the American attacks.”

Let's hope we are deposing the Syrian regime in early 2006. And then ... And then ... Onward to Iran.

Interview
With
French
"Youths"

Thanks to Axis of Islam, over at the excellent blog, Pedestrian Infidel:

Arson attacks in the Paris region spread across France The wave of arson attacks against cars and schools in impoverished areas of France has subsided for the most part. But the anger among young people of ethnic minority backgrounds has not died down.

On a rundown housing estate in Aulnay-sous-Bois, on the outskirts of Paris, six or seven youths hang around the entrance to a towering block of flats, apparently oblivious to the cold. About 300 metres away is a burned-out garage. A little further is a nursery school building gutted by fire.

The youths are suspicious, but they agree to talk to me. I ask them who is behind the arson attacks.

"It's everyone, all of us together," says one youth, who declines to give his name. "We talk, we talk and if we agree, we do what we have to do." I ask if anyone's organising the violence.

"I live in Sevrans, he lives in Aulnay," he explains, gesturing to a third youth. "Others live in Blanc Mesnil, La Courneuve, Clichy. We have a little meeting. We talk about what we have to do. Afterwards we each go our separate ways."

The immediate reason they give for the violence is the tough policing policy of France's Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. Many teenagers here have already spent time in jail. They say the police are always harassing them, particularly if they leave their neighbourhood.

They say it has got worse under Mr Sarkozy. His name is scrawled on the walls of the suburbs, with insults and obscenities. He called youths like these "rabble" and they want him forced from office. But that's not their only demand.

He brings out a tattered photograph. It shows him holding a gun - not a revolver but a 12-bore shotgun. "We're armed," says Mohamed. "We're well armed and in 2007, if Sarkozy becomes president, we'll have a real war. That's why they didn't want to attack Iraq, because they know if they attack Iraq, there'll be big trouble in France."

"We're going to screw France, and England after that. You know the London attacks? There's one that failed.

"We're with al-Qaeda, you know," says Mohamed.

Thanks for telling us, Mohamed. You just gotta love your enemy when he tells you the truth.

Baqilah Badr
And The
Burqa Boogie
Blues Band

Hirsi Ali
And Denmark
Stand Up
For
Western
Civilization

The Danish Film Institute says they are not afraid to produce Hirsi Ali's film about Mohammed:

Neither The Danish Film Institute nor the film producer Zentropa [which is behind many notable films such as the ones directed by Lars von Trier] would have any problems supporting or producing a controversial film about the prophet Muhammed based on a manuscript by the Dutch politician and author Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

The Somalian-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali has told the Internet magazine Sappho that she is prepared to produce an Islamic version of the famous Monty Python film "The Life of Brian" -- with Muhammed as the main character instead of Jesus -- in Denmark, and that she could finish a script very quickly.....

The Director of The Danish Film Institute, Henning Camre, does not anticipate any problems allocating public money for a film with this content."I have only read about it in Jyllands-Posten, but if she writes a manuscript and finds a Danish producer, we will treat her application just like any other. We have no limitations on freedom of speech in Denmark. ...

So far, however, it appears to be rather offhand and unspecified. For example, what language would be used? And would it be interesting from a Danish perspective if it was not made in Danish? This raises some questions, but as a starting point we would have no problems investing money in it from a free speech point of view," says Henning Camre.

Nor is Peter Aalbæk Jensen, CEO of Zentropa, frightened by the thought of producing a critical film about the prophet Muhammed."We make all kinds of films from the far left to the far right. It is our film directors who decide the contents, and we have no other position than that there is room for everything. If a director wants to make a film that praises Osama bin Laden, we will make that too," says Peter Aalbæk Jensen.--

If Hirsi Ali comes to you with a manuscript for a controversial Muhammed film, would you make it?

"Yes, if we could find a willing director. ..."

Screen writer and teacher at The Danish Film School, Mogens Rukov [the man behind many internationally successful Danish films], thinks that the film ought to be made."...

My position is that there is nothing that cannot be done because some people feel offended. The entire middle class is obsessed with fear and polite deference to all kinds of fascism, but we should not let ourselves be influenced by that. ..."

Multicultural
Britain

From British writer, Carol Gould:

The poppy is a symbol of the terrible loss of life in World War I in the fields of Flanders, where these blood-red flowers sprouted above the acres of corpses of fallen soldiers. As the decades have passed, the poppy has been worn to show one’s respect for the millions who have died in successive conflicts as recent as Iraq and Afghanistan. On British television, every presenter and anchor wears a poppy. In keeping with the motto of the British Legion—“Wear your poppy with pride”—every shopkeeper, publican, hotel manager and cabbie wears a poppy. This year I proudly bought mine at my local doctor’s office.

It was therefore all the more astonishing last week when I took a long walk along Edgware Road, the most densely Muslim section of London, and discovered that not one person was wearing a poppy. This all started because I was accosted on my corner, a few yards form where I have lived for twenty-eight years, by a young Arab man who began to get very aggressive with me. Was I, he demanded to know, “from the Jewish”?

He also wanted to know why I was wearing a poppy. I tried to explain the concept of the Cenotaph and Armistice Day. But he seemed determined to establish that I was a Jewess above all else. No matter how hard I tried, I could not shake him off. I began to get very alarmed.

I hailed a taxi and, thankfully, my pursuer, who was by this time shouting, did not get into the taxi. The driver was enormously sympathetic but told me that I had been “asking for it” by walking in what he called “Little Beirut.” He then told me that we were in World War III. His white, working class anger at what he perceived as “the Islamic takeover” of Britain was palpable. He was not the first London cabbie who has told me he would gladly join the far-right British National Party if pushed.

The driver dropped me at Marble Arch. I decided to walk back slowly should my scary have made his way in my direction. As I walked, I realized that not one of the hundreds of Middle Eastern and British-born Muslims who run all of the establishments along Edgware Road was wearing a poppy. Before shouting “Racist!” the reader must understand the nationwide atmosphere of devotion every November to the memory of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who died—often agonizing circumstances and with some in their teens—so that we might live out our lives in splendor. The fact is that most everyone wears a poppy across a grateful nation.

As I walked along Edgware Road, crossing over from side to side of the long thoroughfare I began to get angry. If one lived in Damascus and there was an annual tradition of some sort similar to Poppy Day, one would show respect for the day and join in.

I went in to a greengrocer and asked the young man at the cash register why he was not wearing a poppy. His accent indicated he was English-born. He said, “I have no idea what you are talking about.” He turned to an older man sitting with him -- perhaps his father -- and asked him my question in Urdu. The man looked cross and I repeated, “Why do you British Asians (those from Pakistan) not wear a poppy?” he shrugged. “Are you not taught about the World Wars?” I asked.

I walked and walked that evening, stopping in to every hookah café, every electrical shop and every hijab boutique. Not one person was wearing a poppy.

The British government has brought in a new questionnaire for new citizens. It is full of obscure and at times outlandish questions about British culture. Frankly, I would fail on most of them. What immigrants and their kin need to be taught is that basic pride in being British with which immigrants to the United States glow with such radiance. If a whole portion of the British population does not care a toss about participating in one of the nation’s most sacred traditions, how can we ever “integrate”?

Yes, I am angry and offended that along the miles of pavement I trawled I saw not one poppy on the apparel of any Middle Eastern resident and merchant of Edgware Road.

When I attended the mobbed Cenotaph ceremony the next day I did not see one Middle Eastern person in the throng.

When I told my local grocer, a Muslim born in the UK, where I had been that day, he looked at me with a blank stare. I said “Cenotaph” and he changed the subject.

Why is wearing a poppy such a big deal to me? It is a tradition started in Canada and the United States that spread to Britain and to the Commonwealth nations, who had also suffered great losses in the Wars. As a Briton born in the USA I feel honored to be a citizen of two great democracies. Another point Madeleine Bunting made in her article was that the young Muslims in a studio audience had endless complaints about life in Britain. They want to change foreign policy. Perhaps learning about how we got here, with our concert halls and opera houses and theatre and art galleries -- not to mention war memorials -- might be a start.

Now think of this: I am mortally afraid to wear my American flag pin in London. What does this say about the direction Europe is going? Bat Ye’or’s “Eurabia” is already erupting in France. Politically correct Britons scream at me if I defend the right of a cabbie to have the Union Jack on his London taxi. Others lament the “appalling custom” of Americans hanging flags outside their houses.

But all I want right now is to see British Muslims wearing their poppy with pride.

Not one? Well, you can't participate, if you don't know what's going on. But, you would think they would have at least a little bit of curiosity about why their fellow citizens are going around wearing poppies, woudn't you?

Democrats
Do
"The Work
of Allah"

Saddam Hussein reveals his defense strategy:

The honorable Senate Democrats in the United States are doing an honorable investigation to find out exactly what happened to cause me to lose my country, and until these honorable Senate Democrats in the United States get every one of their questions answered about the manipulation and the distortion of the intelligence — and of course all of the lies about my having weapons of mass destruction, I can’t get a fair trial….

I never had any weapons of mass destruction, and whatever bad intelligence was generated by a cowboy, fratboy president and his indicted staff, who have poisoned world opinion about me…

I, Saddam Hussein….say that the Senate Democrats are on the way to proving that President Bush has led a false war… My country is Muslim. We are very different from western countries, and that scares stupid, evangelical cowboys like George Bush….

[W]hat does this cowboy Bush do when his oil baron buddies can’t have my oil for themselves? Well, they start a war on false pretenses because everybody knows that this war was about nothing but oil and that’s why all the intelligence was trumped up….You may not like me; I am Saddam Hussein. You may not agree with the ways of Muslim leaders in the Middle East, but does that give you the right to invade my country? No!

The United States Senate Democrats obviously agree with me. They are honorable people. The world should align behind the Democrats of the United States Senate who are trying to wrong one of the most terrible injustices in the history of the world.

It is George W. Bush who must be brought to justice by the brave and honorable members of the Democratic Party in the United States Senate. Because leaders of the world and people of the world, I, Saddam Hussein, say to you that it is the senators, the Democrat senators in the United States Senate are all that stand between peace and bloodthirsty imperialism by the United States. May Allah bless the good and decent truth-tellers in the Senate…..

I want to further point out that if my trial is not postponed — if I can’t get a postponement and if I can’t get a dismissal of the charges, and if I don’t get my country back — if there is a trial, I demand that I be brought to the US for trial, in a United States civilian court. I can’t get a fair trial in Iraq because it’s Bush cronies. I can only get a fair trial in the United States where liberal Democrats run the court system. They’re the ones doing the great work, the work of Allah….

He said it, not me.

The
Canadian
National
Defense

Concerned with America's superior firepower, it looks like Canada is preparing to advance a military buildup:

(PRWEB) - OTTAWA, CANADA (PRWEB) November 24, 2005 — A former Canadian Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau has joined forces with three Non-governmental organizations to ask the Parliament of Canada to hold public hearings on Exopolitics — relations with “ETs.”

By “ETs,” Mr. Hellyer and these organizations mean ethical, advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that may now be visiting Earth.

On September 25, 2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream newspapers and magazines, Paul Hellyer, Canada’s Defence Minister from 1963-67 under Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prime Minister Lester Pearson, publicly stated: “UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head.”

Mr. Hellyer went on to say, “I’m so concerned about what the consequences might be of starting an intergalactic war, that I just think I had to say something.”

Hellyer warned, “The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning.”

He stated, “The Bush administration has finally agreed to let the military build a forward base on the moon, which will put them in a better position to keep track of the goings and comings of the visitors from space, and to shoot at them, if they so decide.”

Charles, at Little Green Footballs, asks:

"The audience laughed, and booed, and walked out, right? Right?

Wrong."

Hellyer’s speech ended with a standing ovation.

Ack, ack! Ack, ack, ack!

The
Iranian
Burqa
Battalion

Click here for video.

And don't laugh. It's not funny.

King Of Jordan
Declares War
On Islamofascism

King Abdullah declare "all-out war":

AMMAN (AFP) - King Abdullah II named his security chief as prime minister to launch "all-out war" on Islamist militants while bringing in reforms, two weeks after the deadly hotel bombings that rocked Jordan.

Maaruf Bakhit, 58, a former ambassador to Israel who was appointed just last week as national security chief, has been named to replace Adnan Badran, prime minister for only seven months.

The revamp, announced by a high-ranking official, comes after the triple bombings in Amman on November 9 that killed 60 people and were followed by a number of changes in top security and palace staff.

King Abdullah said the new cabinet's mission would be "to wage all-out war against extremist groups and their ideology," in a message to Bakhit. "This requires the urgent introduction of an anti-terrorist law."

Twelve "Brave Troops"
Make the National News
On Thanksgiving

From Little Green Footballs (verbatim):

Twelve people show up in Crawford, Texas, and the Associated Press considers it national news:

Protesters Arrested Near Bush’s Ranch. CRAWFORD, Texas - A dozen war protesters including Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, were arrested Wednesday for setting up camp near President Bush’s ranch in defiance of new local bans on roadside camping and parking.

About four hours after the group pitched six tents and huddled in sleeping bags and blankets, McLennan County sheriff’s deputies arrested them for criminal trespassing. Many in the group held up signs, including one that said “Give me liberty or give me a ditch.”

Imagine, if the Republican Party announced they were going to set up a Pro-War Event and only twelve people showed up.

Would it be national news?

Twelve frickin' people?

More, from The Astute Blogger:

According to this report from nearby WACO media, the Leftie anti-Bush protestors have demonstrated "resolve" and "bravery" and will continue "combat":

"War protesters' resolve firm after arrests -- Braving a chilly predawn breeze, protesters began gathering before 6 a.m. along the roadside... Through the day, war protesters vowed to keep up efforts to combat continued U.S. involvement in Iraq. At one point, Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers helped erode public support for the Vietnam War, said the fight against war in Iraq may take a long time to win. "(Vietnam) was a hard war to end and this is going to be harder," he said. "Nothing worked very quickly then and this is going to be a long road ahead."

Sheesh, let's look at that again: These folks have the resolve to protest a war which has liberated 27 MILLION people - a liberation which means that the nation which has SO FAR discovered 400 mass graves which contain 1000 bodies or more, will not suffer any more genocide at the hands of theire own government. They're brave enough to face cold weather, and have taken solemn oaths to combat the foreign polcies of their own duly elected government.

Well, gee, if we are in the middle of a war, and they are "troops" "combatting" the war policy of the duly elected government, maybe we should unload some unranium-tipped projectiles on dey ass.

:)

(That is a joke, for anyone who attempts to construe it as something other.)

But seriously folks, those "troops" sure are brave to stand up against Democracy and Freedom like that, aren't they? We ought to call them the Pacifist Minutemen.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

On To Syria?

Could it be? Could it be that on the same day we learn that the insurgents are asking for terms of surrender, that we are at this moment locked in battle with Syrian troops?:

November 25, 2005, 12:27 AM (GMT 02:00)

Both sides have suffered casualties. US soldiers crossed over after Damascus was given an ultimatum Thursday, Nov. 24, to hand over a group of senior commanders belonging to Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s al Qaeda force. According to US intelligence, the group had fled to Syria to escape an American attack in Mosul. Syrian border guards opened fire on the American force.

That's from Debka, so take it with a grain of salt. But, on the other hand, it is the logical next step. In fact, oddly enough, I was just about to write that in a post this morning, "On to Syria by Christmas," but I didn't want to bum anyone's trip on Thanksgiving.

Well, well, well.

Thanksgiving Day:
Terror Groups
In Iraq
Seek To
Lay Down Arms

From the San Francisco Chronicle, via YARGB:

Several insurgents groups have contacted President Jalal Talabani's office in the past few days, with some saying they are ready to lay down their arms and join the political process, the presidential security adviser said Thursday.

Lt. Gen. Wafiq al-Samaraei told The Associated Press that "the calls we received were different. The calls were also from different groups."

"Many groups have called and some of them clearly expressed the readiness to join the political process," al-Samaraei said. This shows that "the initiative was welcomed by Iraqis."

In the western province of Anbar, members of some militant groups told the AP that they had been in talks with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi for about two weeks but would not say how they were going.

On Monday, al-Samaraei told Al-Jazeera television that he received a call from a person who claimed to be a senior official of the resistance who was interested in talks. He would not elaborate.

During remarks last Sunday in Cairo, Talabani said his offer to talk with insurgents did not extend to members of Saddam's Baath Party unless they agreed to lay down their weapons.

The Iraq War is winding to a close. What a great Thanksgiving Day.

Have A
Beautiful
Thanksgiving

The Jihad
Is Worldwide
And Coordinated,
Part V

Terrorist Group
Hizb 'ut Tahrir
Was Behind
Riots In France

Apparently, I was right.

As usual, The Astute Blogger brings the best info:

All indicators point to the involvement of some Pakistani, Algerian and Moroccan members of the London-based Hizbut Tehrir (HT) in the violence by sections of angry Muslim youth, which has rocked the suburbs of Paris and some other towns of France since October 27,2005.

The outbreak initially was spontaneous following the electrocution of two Muslim youth as they were fleeing away from a random identity papers check by the Police. The violence continued to be spontaneous, with no external instigation, for three days.

In the meanwhile, it is reported by reliable sources, the headquarters of the HT in London saw the agitprop potential of the developments in Paris and sent some of their experts, who had participated in instigating the violence earlier this year in Afghanistan over the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran by the US guards at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba and in Uzbekistan over the allegedly autocratic ways of the local Government, to Paris to stoke the anger of the youth and exploit it for their purpose. ...

With the help of the sleeper cells, which the HT has already established in Paris and other parts of France for some months, they drew up plans for keeping the violence sustained in order to further radicalise and mobilise the youth against the French Government. ...

While there is no evidence of its involvement so far in any act of jihadi terrorism anywhere in the world, it has been involved in many instances of political agitation in the streets in some countries and in attempts at subverting the armed forces and the intelligence agencies in Pakistan and other Islamic countries. ...

It is reported by reliable sources in Pakistan that the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) in Pakistan has instructed its cells in France to assist the HT clandestinely as best as they can. Similarly, the Jamat-ul-Furqa (JUF), which has some followers in the community of Caribbean origin in France, has also asked its followers to assist the HT. Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, was suspected to be a member of the JUF.

Of course, I don't believe even the initial violence was "spontaneous," and I've been saying that since the very beginning. The reason I don't is because there were four almost simultaneous Muslim riots, which all began right after Ramadan ended.

(As it says in the Koran, Sura 9:5, "And when the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods with God wherever you shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush.")

The "spokesmen for the riots in Denmark admitted to a reporter that the riot had been planned "three weeks" before.

Now, of course, this article is not final confirmation that my hunch is correct, but I'm taking it as a small dose of vindication.

The Astute Blogger says:

I feel that this connection is likely and that the intel analysis is also likely accurate. It seems reasonable to me to assume that HT would seek to exploit any chance they could to destabilize any and all USA allies, and at least exacerbate pre-conditions for further islamization in nations that seem ripe for dhimmitude.

France is both an ally of the USA (in Afghanistan) and ripe for dhimmitude. France should get the NATO nations to (attack) ... HT and their allies.

Yes, they should. This must be taken VERY seriously.

Riots are among the most dangerous weapons the Islamists have. It was a human presence in the streets of Eastern Europe which brought down the Wall, and collapsed Soviet Communism in countries like Poland and Hungary. It was a human presence in the streets (along with the close proximity of the U.S. military in neighboring Iraq) which caused Assad to pull his troops out of Lebanon.

When that human presence doubles up their power by rioting, they can be even more effective. Governments can end, folks. France can go bye bye. I'm not saying it's going to happen tomorrow, or next year. But, it can happen, and it will, eventually, happen, if we don't take these riots seriously.

If the EU allows Turkey to become a member nation, the gates will be thrown open for Islamofascists to migrate to France, to Germany, to Holland, Denmark, and England. Should this happen, such Muslim riots will have lethal consequences. Europe itself could topple.

Am I an alarmist? Well, hell yeah, I am.

Osama Bin Laden's goal is to establish a worldwide Islamic Caliphate (nation). He is a very intelligent man. We do ourselves an extreme disservice if we do not take him seriously. We know that Bin Laden's Al Qaeda training manual includes Psy-ops and Special Operations of all forms. So, why would we not believe that he would be smart enough to have added crowd control and riot instigation to his arsenal?

Since we live in a Western media-dominated culture, I will reference something we are all familiar with. Do you think Bono, or Zack de la Rocha (of Rage Against the Machine) could not start a riot, given the right circumstances?

The answer is, they could, and they know it.

Crowd control is a technique for which they both have natural gifts. However, it is a technique. Many black American Christian ministers also have the technique of crowd control down to a science. As I have mentioned here before, there was a man who went around the United States back in the 80's-90's who was able to induce people to believe they could walk across burning coals.

And they did.

That is crowd control. And, it can be learned. And, if it can be learned, then we need to consider the possibility that Al Qaeda will use it. And, that they do. And, when riots occur, we need to understand that they could very well have been instigated, and that they very likely are being controlled and prolonged by Islaic Jihadi special forces.

When riots occur, we need to put all government resources (internet and wire-tapping, spying in Mosques and in the homes of known Islamic Jihadis, etc.) into finding these special forces. And, we need to remove them from the population.

So, there's the CUANAS sermon of the day. Pass the hat around, Fu2rman.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Who Gave Us
The Sponge
To Wipe Away
The Entire Horizon?

--- Friedrich Nietzsche

Photograph
Joe Citizen

"God is dead ... and we have killed him, you and I! We are all his murderers!'

"But how have we done it? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the whole horizon? What did we do when we loosened this earth from its sun? Whither does it now move? Whither do we move? Away from all suns?

Do we not dash on unceasingly? Backwards, sideways, forwards, in all directions? Is there still an above and below? Do we not stray, as through infinite nothingness? Does not empty space breathe upon us? Has it not become colder? Does not night come on continually, darker and darker? Shall we not have to light lanterns in the morning? God is dead! And we have killed him! "

Of course, God beat us. He resurrected Himself. He destroyed death. For that we can all be very Thankful.

But, Nietzsche was speaking of what we have done to God's place in our culture. He wasn't speaking of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If we do not resurrect our Judeo-Christian Heritage to it's rightful place within our culture, we will spin out of control, through the infinite nothingness of our minds, while the Islamofascists stick the sword in our throats.

If Selma Hayek Is
In The News
For Anything
Even Remotely
Political ...

... you just have to post about it. Why? Just look at the picture. Lord have mercy. Can I get an Amen?

Anyway, so why is Selma in the news? It seems she will be presenting Mohammed El-Baradei with his Nobel Peace Prize.

I don't know whether to say that's quite a Peace, or quite a Prize.

Ok, since this is CUANAS, I guess I have to say one serious thing in this post. So, here goes. Guys, think. Would you want to see this babe wrapped in a Burqa? Hell no. So, support the War On Islamofascist Terror. In America, we are free to look at Selma Hayek dressed like that. In most of the Islamic World, they are not.

'Nuff said.

A Muslim Life Of Brian?

In a recent interview with the Danish publication, Sappho, Ayaan Hirsi Ali revealed that it is her goal to make the Muslim Life of Brian:

Disturbing questions about the massive muslim presence in Europe are becoming more urgent by the day: It it possible to integrate muslims to become part of Europe? Will we have a liberal version of islam? And if not, what is there to look forward to? Civil war? Dissolution? An islamic take-over?

If your head is full of such nagging thoughts, it is a solace to meet Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the liberal Dutch politician and originally muslim immigrant from Somalia. Since the murder of Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh, for whose strongly islam-critical film "Submission I" Ms. Ali wrote the script, Hirsi Ali has been under constant police protection. That was also the case when Sappho.dk interviewed her during her recent visit to Copenhagen.

But in spite of death threats and constant vilification the slender woman has by no means lost heart. She still waxes eloquent when she talks about the issue that concerns her the most: The defence of European civil rights and particularly freedom of expression.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali comes across as a genuinely European intellectual of the kind that is becoming increasingly rare as our home-grown cultural personalities and opinion leaders are buzily discarding our intellectual heritage.-

You have said that you would like to make a muslim "Life of Brian".

"Yes, Muhammed is a much more colourful personality than Jesus. Such a film could be a learning instrument for muslims. There are some islamic films but they don't show the image of Muhammed and they are not really about him. They are more about how islam was established.

I would really like to make a critical film about him. I could write a script very quickly."-

Would you make it in Denmark? We have a Film Institute financed by the state which would probably be prepared to fund an exciting and controversial film.

"All they have to do is to give me ring, and I'll come."

(Hat tip; Fjordman.)

The Failure of England
To Rediscover
Its Culture Afresh
Would Lead
Only to
Greater Political
Extremism

From the Australian, via YARGB:

BRITAIN'S first black Archbishop has made a powerful attack on multiculturalism, urging English people to reclaim their national identity.The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, said that too many people were embarrassed about being English.

"Multiculturalism has seemed to imply, wrongly for me, let other cultures be allowed to express themselves but do not let the majority culture at all tell us its glories, its struggles, its joys, its pains," he said.

The failure of England to rediscover its culture afresh would lead only to greater political extremism, he said.

Dr Sentamu, a former judge in Uganda, called for the English to rediscover their cultural identity by properly marking celebrations such as St George's Day on April 23.

"I speak as a foreigner, really. The English are somehow embarrassed about some of the good things they have done," he said. "They have done some terrible things but not all the empire was a bad idea.

"Because the empire has gone there is almost the sense in which there is not a big idea that drives this nation."

The archbishop, who fled Idi Amin's regime in 1974, said he would not be where he was today were it not for the British Empire and the English teachers and missionaries who worked in Africa.

Dr Sentamu was speaking to The Times before his enthronement as the church's No2 at York Minster on November 30.

"What is it to be English? It is a very serious question," he said. "I think we have not engaged with English culture as it has developed. It is a culture that whether we like it or not, has given us parliamentary democracy. It is the mother of it. It is the mother of arguing that if you want a change of government, you vote them in or you vote them out," he said.

"It is a place that has allowed reason to be at the heart of all these things, that has allowed genuine dissent without resort to violence."

He disliked the word "tolerance" when used in reference to different cultures. "It seems to be the word tolerance is bad because it just means putting up with it," he said.

"I was raised in the spirit of magnanimity. That is a better word than tolerance.

"If you are magnanimous in your judgments on other people, there is a chance that I will recognise that you will help me in my struggle."

I know that my wife and her family, who are also from a "third world" country whom the West has subjugated, feel the same way. They recognize that there have been abuses, but at the same time, they realize that greater opportunities for success and happiness lie within the Western System, than do within the system built by their respective culture.

Multiculturalism may have destroyed our pride in the Western Tradition here in the West, but that does not mean that those who have been saved by the Western Tradition do not recognize the power, and goodness, of the culture they have been saved by.

Witness Hirsi Ali; hero of Western Civilization.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Presbyterian Church
Salutes Hizbollah:
Dealing With You
A Lot Easier
Than Dealing
With Jews

The Presbyterian Church is rotting out from the inside:

On October 20, 2005, the Lebanese press reported that a delegation from the Presbyterian Church USA, headed by Father Nihad Tu'meh and with Robert Worley as its spokesman, visited southern Lebanon at the invitation of Hizbullah, and met there with the terrorist organization's commander in southern Lebanon Nabil Qawuq...

A year previously, on October 17, 2004, a Presbyterian Church USA delegation visiting Lebanon also met with Qawuq. MEMRI TV translated excerpts from a report on the meeting that was aired by Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV. During the meeting, church elder Ronald Stone said, "We treasure the precious words of Hizbullah and your expression of goodwill towards the American people. Also, we praise your initiative for dialogue and mutual understanding. We cherish these statements that bring us closer to you. As an elder of our church, I'd like to say that according to my recent experience, relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders."...

It should also be noted that shortly after the October 20, 2005 meeting, a delegation of families of U.S. victims of 9/11 went to Lebanon met with Hizbullah Deputy Leader Sheikh Naim Qassem. The following are excerpts from reports in the Lebanese press on the October 20, 2005 meeting.

Hizbullah commander in south Lebanon Nabil Qawuq told the delegation: "Lebanon, like the other countries in the region, suffers from the [political] American storms that have hit the region and are threatening its stability. Any foreign patronage is a bad thing, and the American patronage over Lebanon is the worst, because it is pushing the region towards sectarian segregation. All Lebanese fear the chaos created by the American policy."...

Delegation spokesman Robert Worley said: "We do not wish to defend the U.S. administration. We all elected the Democratic Party against the Republican Party. Rest assured that we will return to the U.S. in order to continue our activity for peace, and we want to hear about the charity activities and the cultural and social activities organized by Hizbullah in south [Lebanon]. The Americans hear in the Western media that Hizbullah is a terrorist organization, and they do not hear any other opinion. They know nothing about the party's concern for the people of the south. We have suffered much pressure on the part of Jewish organizations in the U.S. because [of our help in] divesting corporations working with Israel. We want Jerusalem to be a united city, just as we encouraged the Palestinians and the Jews to work for peace, and we demanded that our administration adheres to this position."

Now, keep in mind, Hizbullah is the organization which owns the Al Manar Television Network which produced and ran a miniseries based upon the Protocols Of The Learned Elders of Zion. They are a totalitarian fascist organization whose beliefs with regard to Jews are the same as the Nazis. When their military forces march they do the Heil Hitler salute (that's them, pictured above).

And, these are people the Presbyterian Church finds easy to deal with. Nice friends you've got there, Presbyters.

Did Bush Want To Bomb Al Jazeera?
Al Jazeera Demands Answers

Honestly, I don't think they ought to do anything that gets us thinking about it again. If it was put to a vote, I believe the American people would be all for it.

Al Jazeera is the media mouthpiece of terrorists. Whenever Bin Laden or Zarqawi want to make an announcement, or show off their latest cranial trophy, they can be sure that Al Jazeera will be more than happy to oblige them. Therefore, Al Jazeera functions as a part of the Jihadi military, and they are fair game.

Multiculturalism and The Herd Instinct

Dag trains his laser mind on Multiculturalism and disintegrates the Collectivist ideology:

Multi-culturalism is the politics of group identity. It is a collectivist politic that defines the person as part of a group rather than the group as a collection of individual people.

In the realm of identity politic ideology, the worst thing one can do is devalue the group, such as when one devalues the person by claiming he is "x," which reflects from him and onto the group identity: for example, if a man riots in the streets of Paris he is not a rioter but an expressive agent of Islamic rage; and if he is arrested he is not a criminal but a victim of racism inherent in the system that attacks him and his whole religious community by singling out the rioter and thereby imprisoning the entire group by proxy.

If one were to claim that one man is a vandal, then by extension, one is a racist, blaming all members of the man's group for vandalism. One for all and all for all within the group.

The origins of this collectivist and tribalist nonsense lie in the origins of Humanity, and it is we in the modern West - who are the minority in our approach to man as a private individual, free to make his own decisions, and accept his own consequences, good or bad, therefrom. But it is only since the late 18th century that this idea is intellectualized for the masses. It is only in the past short span of years that multi-culturalism has gained credence in the modern West as coeternal with democracy and individualism; and yet the two cannot co-exist.

The time is come for us as residents of the West to determine whether we are individualists or collectivists. We are free men and women with the inherent right to privacy that Life demands or we are members of our groups and beholden to the group for our identity and being as free men and women. It cannot be both ways at once.

If we are victims whose actions are only further evidence of our victimhood, then we do not have free will. Herds do not have free will. Collectivism is the polical expression of the herd instinct. Thus, as a political ideology, it asserts that man does not have free will.

This is in antipathy to the tradition of Western Civilization which is built on a Judeo-Chrisitan foundation, asserting that man was created in the Image of God, and is thus a free and creative being.

Go read the rest over at No Dhimmitude.

The Death Throes of Al Qaeda

Mark Steyn points out that when Zarqawi decided to blow up Muslims in hotels in Jordan, he sent one of his top-ranking lieutenants:

... look at who Zarqawi dispatched to blow up his brother Muslims: why would he send Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari, one of his most trusted lieutenants, to die in an operation requiring practically no skill?

Well, by definition it's hard to get suicide bombers with experience. But Mr Shamari's presence suggests at the very least that the "insurgency" is having a hard time meeting its recruitment targets.

Sending a surviving member of your rapidly dwindling inner circle to blow up a Palestinian wedding is not a sign of strength.

True, he did manage to kill a couple of dozen Muslims. But what's the strategic value of that? Presumably, it's an old-fashioned mob heavy's way of keeping the locals in line. And that worked out well, didn't it? Hundreds of thousands of Zarqawi's fellow Jordanians fill the streets to demand his death.

Yes, it looks like the war against Al Qaeda is coming to an end. And, that is very good news. The Astute Blogger points out that President Talabani, Deputy PM Chalabi and the Interior Minister have now all gone on record saying that they do not believe they will require America's help past the end of 2006.

Considering that just recently, Talabani was lecturing the appeasement crowd that for America to abandon Iraq now would be to hand it over to the insurgency, we can see that the confidence of the Iraqi government is surging as the Presidential elections near, and the Sunnis increasinly participate in the burgeoning democracy.

The thing is, as we draw to a close in Iraq, two things will happen:

1) The Left (who have been calling for a pull-out) will attempt to deny credit to the Bush Admininistration. - Indeed, they will likely attempt to credit themselves.

2) The Left will claim the War on Islamic Terror is over, when in fact it is only beginning.

Iran and Syria must be dealt with. Both regimes must be deposed. If they are not, we are only putting off the inevitable clash, and Iran will only become more and more dangerous with time.

Unless the Bush Administration greatly increases the forward motion of this war, I expect the Left will win the debate on whether to move on to Iran. If they do win that debate, then we can expect a very ugly wakeup call in the next few years.

Radical Islam's
Final Solution

From Front Page Magazine:

Even by the Middle East's usual hyperactive standard, these have been turbulent times. Just reading a list of the latest horrific, shameful, and amazing developments is pretty awesome.Ready?

Iran's president calls for Israel's extinction. The confident assertions of "Never again," a few years ago--regarding another round of anti-Jewish genocide--might now be better rephrased, "Here we go again." It is encouraging that many Western countries denounced the speech. But actually, the story of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement is even worse than you think. See below for the facts most of the world's media left out.

Speaking of Iran, at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, perhaps the world's most prestigious, Iran's official exhibition sold such works as the discredited Protocols of the Elders of Zion and anti-Semitic works some of which were reprints of volumes published originally under Nazi auspices.
So Tehran is now the reincarnation, at least in matters concerning Jews, of the Third Reich. Even added to Iran's avid pursuit of nuclear weapons, is the world actually going to do anything about this?

A UN report concluded that high-ranking Syrian officials, including relatives of President Bashar al-Asad, assassinated former Lebanese President Rafiq Hariri.
Another UN report finds that huge numbers of companies, current or former government officials, and public personalities were bribed by Saddam Hussein for supporting his regime or paid kickbacks for doing business with it. There is evidence that some of this money, paid to a leading French parliamentarian, went to subsidize President Jacques Chirac's political party.
In a number of interviews in both the Arab and Western media, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar made clear that if Hamas wins a future election it will establish a radical Islamist state which will fight on until Israel is destroyed. At home, this regime would impose a radical Islamist state more extreme than what exists in Iran and refuse to disarm. On the contrary, it would use the Palestinian Authority's military assets--largely financed and supplied by the West--to attack Israel. The Islamist government would also cut off all ties with the West and reject any negotiations with Israel.
The leader of the Iraqi insurgency called for a "jihad" to kill the maximum number of Iraqi Shia, who comprise about 55 percent of the country's population. There was an overwhelming lack of criticism in the Arab world, which largely supports the insurgency, about this threat against fellow Arabs and Muslims.

Naturally, given the above list of events, one would assume that Iran, Syria, and Hamas are now seen as outlaws which the world will fight, boycott, and sanction. It might further be taken for granted that the apologists for Saddam Hussein, and now for the Iraqi insurgency, would be completely discredited. No way.

Sooner Or Later
One Side Will Have To Give Ground
A Lot Of Ground

Rob Liddle discusses the controversy over the publishing of Mohammed cartoons in Denmark. From the Spectator, via Fjordman:

Why bother to draw Mohammed at all if it offends people and doesn’t really reveal very much? The Danes are mulling this over at the moment. Their largest circulation daily newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, invited a bunch of cartoonists to depict Mohammed and went ahead and published their efforts.

The paper insists that it did not want to cause trouble. Its journalistic editor, Joern Mikkelson, told me that he was ‘sad’ that people were offended. They decided to commission the cartoons when it was revealed that a book critical of Islam and due to be published in Denmark had trouble finding a translator, and even more trouble finding an illustrator: people were too scared to do it. ‘We felt the need to bring this to public discussion,’ said Mr Mikkelson ...

Far more than in France, the controversy in Denmark epitomises the problem of Western, liberal countries that have a growing and increasingly confident and, you might argue, vociferous, conservative Muslim population. There is no easy consensus between the two sides, no matter how loudly government ministers and (largely) self-appointed Muslim community leaders insist otherwise.

We believe in profoundly different things and you can paper over the cracks only for so long; there is a gulf, and it is widening. Sooner or later one side will have to give ground, a lot of ground.

The recent government proposals for a law against blasphemy, an edict against ridiculing the beliefs of other people, leads me to suspect that over here, at least, it will be the secular democrats who cede territory.

Monday, November 21, 2005

Tree With Birds

In France,
Police Are
More Likely
To Provoke
Rather
Than Prevent,
Violence

Writing in Le Figaro, one of France's leading dailies, Pierre-Yves Dugua, in light of the French Intifada, muses on America and it's inferior treatment of immigrants:

It’s true that the U.S.’s purely capitalistic economy has created more jobs for immigrants, and that the big cities have some racial integration. But at what cost? Because the American system “places such a high value on protecting private property,” U.S. cities have a shockingly large and visible police presence, with minority neighborhoods looking like an occupied nation.

In France, where civil liberties are seen as more valuable than mere property, the sight of uniformed police patrolling the streets would be likely to provoke, rather than prevent, violence.

The idea that we, in America, consider property to be more important than "civil liberties" is a joke. Property is one of our rights. I believe I speak for most Americans in saying that our first right is Freedom of Speech. And, there are a whole host of rights that many of us would be willing to die for.

In France, apparently, well, at least according to Pierre-Yves here (he must be married), they consider policemen patrolling the streets an infringement of their "civil liberties." Honestly, I would consider police not patrolling my streets evidence of taxation without representation, since security is about all government should really be involved in.

The French idea of Libertie is so different from the American idea of Freedom that, it would seem there could almost be no rational discussion between our cultures on these issues.

Prophetic Proclivities

The American Crusader on Mohammed and his marriages and proclivities:

Of the many wives luckily enough to be married to such a great man, Sahih Bukhari Aisha was his personal favorite. At the age of 50, Mohammed fell in love with the then four-year-old girl. The Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated the marriage at the ripe old age of nine. She remained with him the last nine years of his life...lucky girl.

One must really admire his restraint those first three years... of course he had other underaged wives to keep him busy. Remember the great Ayatollah Khomeini? This quote is from one of his books...

From Khomeini's book, "Tahrirolvasyleh", fourth volume, Darol Elm, Gom, Iran,1990 :

A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby. However he should not penetrate, but sodomising the child is OK. If the man penetrates and damages the child then he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life. What does that mean...he can orally copulate with her?

Yes, that's what it means.

The American Crusader also provides the Koranic verses which enable, even encourage such, as I said, proclivities:

The relevant verses from the Koran are:

Koran 52:24
Round about them will serve, to them, boys (handsome) as pearls well-guarded.

Koran 56:17
Round about them will serve boys of perpetual freshness.

Koran 76:19
And round about them will serve boys of perpetual freshness: if thou seest them, thou wouldst think them scattered pearls.

Don't believe it? LOOK IT UP!

Teen People Magazine To Feature Article on
The Mary-Kate and Ashley of Anti-Semitism

People Magazine (owned by Time Inc.) has a publication for teens called Teen People. An upcoming issue of Teen People will be featuring an interview with, and story on, a pair of white supremacist twin girl singers. Why would Teen People do this, besides the obvious fact that they are souless? Well, because the twins bear a resemblance to the Olson twins; Mary-Kate and Ashley:

THE teenage white supremacist twins, Lynx and Lamb Gaede, have gone into hiding after their controversial ABC special on Oct. 20 portrayed the blue-eyed Olsen lookalikes as racist ranters.
But Teen People, edited by Lori Majewski, has apparently scored an exclusive interview with the controversial duet.

The twins have a band called Prussian Blue, are popular at neo-Nazi events and have been praised by one-time Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. Lamb has been quoted as saying: "Men like Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess are our heroes."

It was a battle between the teen magazines, and at least one rival is claiming Teen People is bending some journalistic rules to reel in the 13-year-old twins. It seems Elle Girl, which is edited by Christina Kelly, was originally going to do the story.

But at the last minute the girls backed out. Insiders there said they were informed by the twins' mom, April, that the girls were going with Teen People because the Time Inc.-owned monthly had agreed to let them vet the article before it ran.

That would be a no-no at Time Inc., which owns Teen People. Objective reporters on mainstream magazines don't surrender editorial control to the subjects they are covering. Teen People's big sister, People, has been in a slugfest on just that topic with the new import OK!, which promises to give celebrities editorial control.

"We must secure the existence of our people and our future for white children," Lamb Gaede told ABC's Cynthia McFadden on "Primetime."

In their recordings, the California-based twins urge: "Aryan man awake, how much more will you take, turn that fear to hate, Aryan man awake."

Their appearance on the ABC special triggered widespread criticism. Their Q & A is expected to hit in the February issue of Teen People.

Teen People insists they have not promised the twins the right to vet the article, but Elle Girl maintains the twins are clearly under that impression.

By the way, I didn't see the Primetime special, but you can bet it featured cutesy footage of the girls, which only goes to help them, since in our society, image trumps message all the time.

I've run a story on these girls before, and I refuse to feature a photograph of them, even though I know it would increase my traffic.

Screw Time Inc. Screw Teen People. Screw Primetime Live and Cynthia McFadden and all the producers and editors who use the image of these girls to sell commercial time, even though the message is one of pure hate and, yes, evil.

Zarqawi:
Not Dead Yet?

Apparently, we just missed killing Zarqawi, although, final confirmation is not in yet:

A Pentagon source said that the military did have intelligence that indicated al-Zarqawi was meeting in a Mosul home with high-level Iraq in al-Qaida lieutenants.

As soldiers closed in on the site, there was an exchange of small arms fire, then it appears that three al-Qaida suspects blew themselves up to avoid capture.

The military is conducting DNA tests on flesh and blood recovered from the scene, but a Pentagon official said indications are that al-Zarqawi is not among those killed. "The information was solid. We just missed him," said one Pentagon source.

Damn it.

The Grand Vision Of The War On Terror Part III

Pastorius' Greatest Hits here. I wrote this post for the Internet Journal of Public Policy several months back. However, in light of current events, I think it deserves revisiting.

Today Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, called on the American people to please stick with the Iraqi people as they formed their constitutional democracy and fight off the enemies of Human Rights who do not want to see them succeed:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urged the United States on Friday not to withdraw hastily from Iraq and said U.S. forces should be reduced gradually over the next two years.

“For those who call for an immediate pull-out of American troops, we say that we honor the sacrifices the United States has made,” Talabani said in a speech at a Washington hotel. “A withdrawal of American and multinational forces in the near future could lead to the victory of the terrorists in Iraq and create grave threats to the region,” he added.

Talabani pleaded for the American people to stick with it for two more years, and indicated that he has as much to fear from his neighbors as he does from the Jihadis within his borders:

“Not only would we need American forces to fight against terrorism, we need some of them to frighten our neighbors and prevent them from interfering in our internal affairs,” he said.

Talabani complained of interference from Syria and “terrorists” infiltrating Iraq. He also blamed the Arab media “without exception” for supporting terrorism.

It would seem that Talabani understands American society better than many of it's citizens. The idea that anyone, in a PC society such as ours has to defend helping brown-skinned Islamic people gain freedom from their oppressors shows how paradoxical, strange, and hollow many of our values are.

The other day, Jeff Wheeler was interviewed by Jamie Glazov of Front Page Magazine, and he shed a little light on the strange working of the American psyche which bring us to such a paradoxical value system:

... the liberal left is motivated by the fear of being envied. It is a very ancient and primitive fear, exactly the same as a primitive tribesman’s fear of envious Black Magic or a peasant villager’s fear of the envious Evil Eye. People in our society who are susceptible to this fear – such as heirs who inherited rather than earning their wealth and Hollywood celebrities who do so little to earn their millions – become liberals as a psychological strategy to avoid being envied.

Liberalism is a not a political philosophy. It is the politicalization of envy-appeasement. Thus liberals are masochists as well – for the more one fears being envied, the more one is driven to masochistic self-humiliation in attempts at envy appeasement. Liberals have a compulsion to apologize to those that envy them, apologize for being white, for being male, for being successful, for the success of their country, their culture, their civilization. This renders liberals incapable of passionately defending America.

Wheeler's thoughts have the ring of truth. However, I think it is deeper than that. Many on the Left may be afraid of the evil eye of envy, but that doesn't explain why they would then turn against the brown people who envy them.

A simple answer would be to say the Left don't really care about brown-skinned people, that when it comes right down to it, they believe brown-skinned people are primitives, who want nothing more than to live under the boot of a radical Islamist government which controls every portion of their lives. But alas, I don't think it's that simple.

Certainly, we've heard arguments from the Left which seem to go in that direction. We are sometimes lectured by peaceful people who tell us that we can't force Democracy down people's throats. We can't force people to be free. That, if Iraqis, and Arabs in general want to live in strict Islamist societies they have the right.

But, these are the same people who had been lecturing that America was propping up oppressive Middle Eastern dictatorships, in the years leading up to 9/11. So, what is it? Were we propping up dictatorships which the people of the Middle East did not want, or are we now making war against dictatorships which the people of the Middle East did want after all?

The answer is not complicated. It is not a little of both. The answer is that the Left has quite a bit in common with those Middle Eastern dictatorships.

Let's return to the Jeff Wheeler interview:

FP: Who are the jihadists and what do they really want? Do you see Islamism as being a cousin of Fascism and Communism?

Wheeler: We should call this The War on Jihadism. The crux understanding of Jihadism, or Moslem Terrorism, is that it is a form of envious rage. All three of the great barbarisms of modern times have been pathologies of envy. Nazism, preaching race-envy toward “rich exploitative Jews”; Communism preaching class-envy toward “rich exploitative capitalists”; Jihadism preaching culture-envy toward “rich exploitative America/Israel/the West.”

A clear example is the Nazi-type hatred Arabs have for Israel. The root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict is envy. The Jews created a civilization out of the wilderness and a garden out of the desert, while the Arabs – even with their centibillions of petrodollars -- continued to mire themselves in medieval tyranny and poverty.

Israel is a fount of creativity and achievement, a bastion of Western Civilization built by scratch out of a desiccated wasteland, sparsely populated by Arab nomads herding sheep, goats, and camels. And that is why the descendants of those nomads hate and envy it so much. It is also why they hate America so much.

Jihadis do not hate America for its vices but for its virtues, for its freedom, its prosperity, for its cultural success. Just as Nazis hate Jews for their success, just as Marxists hate capitalists for their success, so Jihadis hate America, Western Civilization, Judaism and Christianity for their success.

Jihadism, Nazism, and Communism are all totalitarian ideologies masochistically obsessed with destroying what they are envious of. Jihadists may claim their goal is a Salafist Caliphate, just as the Nazis claimed about a 1,000 year Reich, and the Communists a New Socialist Man. These are utopian pretexts to hide the fundamental goal of annihilating the object of their hate.

That’s always the pathology of envy: the willingness to destroy yourself as long as who you are envious of is destroyed as well. The suicide bomber is an ultimate expression of envy.

Jeff Wheeler reduces it to envy. But envy, like it's twin, anger, is a two-step emotion which only finds meaning in following through, in shooting it's load, so to speak. Envy may be motivated by feelings of inferiority, but once inculcated - locked and loaded - envy must discharge itself by taking away that which it is envious of.

It would be easy to look at the contrast between the average American and the average person from the Middle East and say they are envious of our material wealth. Yes, they are envious that we always have food on our plates. They are envious that we have the latest in technology, the shiny, new cars, the fashions, the fragrances, the fantasms of capitalism.

But, what are all these things?

Baubles.

These baubles are truly weightless. They are nothing more than what they represent to us, the feeling the give us.

In fact, the Jihadis and the Left will both tell us that they have very low regard for our baubles. They don't like our materialism, our erotic fashions, the technology we create which only serves to spread our influence across the planet. No, the Left and the Jihadis hate these things equally.

So, as I say, I don't wholly agree with Jeff Wheeler. Instead, I think both the Left and the Jihadis hate what these things represent. And what is that? All our fashions, fragrances, fun and frolic, all the baubles, bangles and beads, represnt one thing:

That we think we can do whatever we damn well please.

They represent Freedom. And the Jihadis and the Left have one thing in common which overrides all that they do not share, and that is, they both loathe the idea that people ought to be able to do whatever they please.

Model Takes Ecstacy
And "Converts" To Islam ...
Could Lose Her Head

Australian underwear model Michelle Leslie went to Indonesia for a little fun in the sun, and ended up in jail for three months for possession of Ecstacy. During the course of her incarceration, she had a "conversion" to Islam, which seems to have helped her in court. Oh, the hijinks that are beginning to ensue:

Australian model Michelle Leslie has used Islam to obtain a favourable outcome from the Indonesian courts and cannot continue to parade the catwalk in her underwear, an Islamic leader says.

Leslie, 24, is expected to return to Australia this week after serving three months in Bali's Kerobokan jail for possessing two ecstasy tablets.

The underwear model, who says she is a convert to Islam, wore Muslim dress during her trial but after her release switched to skintight jeans and a singlet top which exposed her stomach.

Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ameer Ali today accused Leslie of engaging in a "stunt" by wearing Islamic dress.

"It looks as though ... she used Islam as a stunt to get a judgment in her favour," he told AAP.

"If the judgment was skewed by her appearance in Muslim dress, it leaves a lot to be desired of the Indonesian justice system."

Dr Ali said Islam prohibited women from behaving in an immodest fashion, and Leslie could not continue to work as an underwear model.

There were no specific hard-and-fast rules about the extent to which Leslie had to cover her body, but Islamic beliefs prohibited her from being "semi-naked".

"There's an Islamic code of dressing which says women must be modest," he said.

"You can't go cat-walking with a semi-naked body.

"Michelle Leslie cannot do what she was doing before as a model for lingerie and underwear. That's not allowed in Islam."

Muslim models existed in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia but they dressed modestly, Dr Ali said.
"She can do modelling, but it's a fine line and she has to be modest," he said.

Interestingly, I got this from Eric at Jihad Watch, whose comment is, "Quit your whining, Dr. Ali. It appears that Ms. Leslie WILL do what she pleases."

Methinks Eric doth miss the point. In my opinion, Dr.Ali isn't disputing the idea that, in Western Countries, Ms. Lestlie has the right to dress any way she pleases. He is saying that according to Islam, she is not allowed to.

Think on this quote from Dr. Ali:

"It looks as though ... she used Islam as a stunt to get a judgment in her favour," he told AAP.

You see, Islam doesn't have anything against conversion by threat of death. Therefore, the fact that Ms. Leslie pulled this "stunt", and that her conversion was apparently insincere, doesn't make it any less a true Islamic conversion.

And, do you know what the penalty for apostacy is, according to the Koran?

I'll give you a hint; If Dr. Ali has his way, Ms. Leslie won't be modeling underwear any longer. Instead, she will be modeling coffins.

Iran Continues to Play The West

From AP:

VIENNA, Austria - Washington and its European allies will forgo pushing for Iran's referral to the U.N. Security Council later this week, giving Russia more time in persuading Tehran to give up technology that could make nuclear arms, diplomats and officials told The Associated Press on Monday.

For the Americans and the European Union, the plan holds the promise of success even if Iran continues to reject the proposal that would move its uranium enrichment program to Russia.

The acceptance of that plan, in theory, would deprive the Iranians of the chance to enrich uranium to weapons grade, suitable for use in the core of nuclear warheads.

But if the Russians fail to win over the Iranians, Washington and the Europeans hope Moscow and other key board members of the International Atomic Energy Agency now opposed to Security Council referral will moderate their opposition.

Iran is playing this perfectly. But, the thing is, so is the Bush Administration, who are, more than likely, simply biding their time, until things are finished in Iraq, at which point, Iran is in trouble.

Meanwhile, the IAEA now admits that Iran obtained plans to build nuclear weapons on the black market. Wow, Mohammed El-Baradei, and his fellow sleuths at the IAEA are regular Inspector Clouseau's, aren't they?

Anti-Semitism
Is Inevitable
In Pacifism

This post, from Michael Phillips, is one of the great posts in blog history:

... anti-Semitism is a disease that destroys the brain of the anti-Semite or the culture of anti-Semitic peoples. As I’ve churned this idea around in my head I now find it more appropriate to think of anti-Semitism as a poison. When people accept anti-Semitism they are drinking a poison that leaves their brains dysfunctional.

For Arabs and Hitler era Germans, blaming the Jews for all their problems and accepting no responsibility for anything creates a dysfunctional society. You can hardly consider yourself a true Arab if you don’t blame the Mossad and the CIA for all your problems.

I’ve seen it happen to one of my old friends, Fran Peavey, who became increasingly anti-Semitic as her lefty pacifism became more anti-Israel. The rest of her work became confused and ineffective in parallel.

Of course, some anti-Semitism is to be expected with a pacifist. The Holocaust is the towering granite mountain of evidence that pacifism is nonsense. The Jews surviving in Israel, in the middle of 100 million hate filled Arabs, by building a great military, is a second Himalayan mountain of evidence against pacifism. The Jews are living and dead proof that pacifism is fantasy. Ipso: pacificists readily become anti-Semities.

The other day, I was discussing the War with a Jewish Pacifist. Between spitting insults at George Bush, and accusing him of all manner of crimes against humanity, she also called the Orthodox Jews of Israel "evil." Now, mind you, this is a woman who refuses to "judge" anything. But, the word evil did slip from her tongue when it came to her fellow Jews.

In the course of the conversation, I told her that we need to fundamentally alter the Islamic religion, eliminating the twin doctrines of Jihad, and strict Sharia. She thought this was an apalling idea, that I would propose that we Westerners dictate to Arabs what beliefs they can and can't put into practice.

I pointed out that we had done precisely that in Germany and Japan, after WWII. Now, get this. She acknowledged the truth of what I was saying, and that it worked, but then, she turned right around and said, "I don't think we should be telling others what they can and can't believe."

(The photo was taken by Zombie, as a anti-War demonstration in San Francisco.)

Not
All Muslims
Want To
Integrate

The Christian Science Monitor notices the sky is blue:

OSLO – The recent rioting in Paris suburbs and elsewhere in Europe should not have surprised anyone. Europe's Muslim communities are powder kegs, brimming with an alienation born of both an assiduously inculcated antagonism toward infidel society and an infidel society whose integration policies - which should actually be called segregation policies - have perversely encouraged this ire.

I first noticed the problem when I lived in Amsterdam in 1999. A visitor to that city might imagine that not one Muslim lived there. But to venture just a few blocks beyond the tourist-crowded streets was to learn otherwise. In my neighborhood, the sidewalks were crowded with hijab-clad women pushing baby carriages. There were as many signs in Arabic as in Dutch. Outside the "neighborhood center" waved a large Turkish flag.

Such districts, I learned, could be found across Europe. Muslims were a huge, rapidly growing - and highly segregated - minority. In city after city, downtown areas were almost 100 percent European, the outskirts increasingly Muslim.

Americans know about ghettos. For many of our families, they've been a stage in the transition from immigrant to native. Many ghetto residents are still, essentially, foreigners; integration takes place largely in the next generation, as the children of immigrants go to school, find jobs, and leave the ghetto behind.

Not in Europe. Officially, to be sure, France is less multicultural than most European countries - witness its rejection of religious labels in public documents and its ban on hijabs in schools. But enduring segregation is a fact of life in France as it is elsewhere on the continent. Millions of "French Muslims" don't consider themselves French.

A government report leaked last March depicted an increasingly two-track educational system: More and more Muslim students refuse to sing, dance, participate in sports, sketch a face, or play an instrument. They won't draw a right angle (it looks like part of the Christian cross). They won't read Voltaire and Rousseau (too antireligion), Cyrano de Bergerac (too racy), Madame Bovary (too pro-women), or Chrétien de Troyes (too chrétien).

One school has separate toilets for "Muslims" and "Frenchmen"; another obeyed a Muslim leader's call for separate locker rooms because "the circumcised should not have to undress alongside the impure."

Many Muslims, wanting to enjoy Western prosperity but repelled by Western ways, travel regularly back to their homelands. From Oslo, where I live, there are more direct flights every week to Islamabad than to the US. A recent Norwegian report noted that among young Norwegians of Pakistani descent, family honor depends largely on "not being perceived as Norwegian - as integrated."

Muslim Fanatics Terrorize A Nation

At first, when I read the headline, I thought it was supposed to be ironic. Muslim fanatics are currently terrorizing the populations of nations across the Middle East, into Africa, and Southeast Asia. But, in this case, they are talking about a European country. And, it's not France (who honestly, would be peeing all over themselves whether it was Muslims or Pygmies - very politically incorrect statement there, huh?).

Sadly, it's the Netherlands:

A FILM about gay rights should hardly raise an eyebrow in The Netherlands, which for centuries has prided itself as a beacon of freedom of expression and was the first country to legalise gay marriage.

But when Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee turned Dutch MP, started making a new film about the oppression of homosexuals under Islam, the threat to everyone taking part was deemed so great that she decided there would be no faces shown on screen and no end credits and that the entire production team would remain anonymous.

Ali, a “lapsed Muslim” who revealed this week that she had finished the script, lives in a safe house under 24-hour protection.

The precaution is as wise as the courage is extraordinary: Theo van Gogh, the director of Ali’s previous film, about domestic violence under Islam, was killed — repeatedly shot and almost decapitated in broad daylight in the streets of Amsterdam by an Islamic extremist.

Impaled on a knife in van Gogh’s chest was a five-page note declaring holy war on The Netherlands and threatening death to other public figures deemed “enemies of Islam”.

A year after his murder, The Netherlands is a country transformed. Previously, only the Queen and Prime Minister had police protection, and ministers cycled to their ministries.

Now, many politicians, writers and artists are considered to be in such danger that they have permanent armed guards and are driven around in bomb-proof armoured cars. The Interior Ministry has set up a special unit assessing death threats from Islamic extremists and providing protection squads.

As I always note, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a hero of Western Civilization.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Ding-Dong
The Witch Is Dead!

Apparently, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed:

At least one Arab television media outlet reported that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed in Iraq on Sunday afternoon when eight terrorists blew themselves up in the in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The unconfirmed report claimed that the explosions occurred after coalition forces surrounded the house in which al-Zarqawi was hiding.

That's all the information available now, as far as I know. And, maybe I shouldn't get too excited by this, but this could be big, big, big.

Why do I say that? Because Al-Zarqawi is, or, uh, was, actually, more powerful than Bin Laden:

Al-Zarqawi commands more people, has access to greater funds and enjoys growing support among young Muslims drawn to his slick internet websites, which give lurid details of his latest attacks on “infidels”.

A recent study about Iraq’s insurgency by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington estimated that 3,000 foreign fighters had gone to Iraq to join the insurgency.

Now, battle-hardened, they form the vanguard of a “foreign legion” ready to take the jihad to their homelands in what US intelligence officials refer to as “bleed-out”.

The National Counterterrorism Centre in America believes that al-Zarqawi’s network extends to 40 countries and that he has developed links with 24 militant groups worldwide.

Now, of course, a more dangerous and evil leader could bubble up from the cauldron of the Middle East, and take al-Zarqawi's place. But, it also could be that this will be the beginning of the end of the insurgency in Iraq. In just a few weeks, Iraq will have elect their President. Then, it's on to Syria and Iran.

The next few months are going to be interesting, to say the least.

UPDATE - From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaida members died in a gunfight — some by their own hand to avoid capture. A U.S. official said Sunday that efforts were under way to determine if terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was among the dead.

In Washington, a U.S. official said the identities of the terror suspects killed was unknown. Asked if they could include al-Zarqawi, the official replied: "There are efforts under way to determine if he was killed."

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
American soldiers maintained control of the site, imposing extraordinary security measures, a day after a fierce gunbattle that broke out when Iraqi police and U.S. soldiers surrounded a house after reports that al-Qaida in Iraq members were inside.

Three insurgents detonated explosives and killed themselves to avoid capture, Iraqi officials said.

"Jews Get Out"

The Jews of France are feeling barricaded, and many are fleeing to Israel, and America. From the National Post of Canada, via Fjordman:

PARIS - Romain Barthel greets me at the gates of the Lycee Diane Benvenuti, a private secondary school in the leafy 16th arrondissement of Paris. It's the day after Yom Kippur and the school, a Jewish one, is closed. Mr. Barthel is the Benvenuti school's principal; a diminutive, soft-spoken, 32-year-old observant Jew, who wears a skullcap but no sidelocks, and fashionable sneakers with narrow trousers. The gates by which we meet are not the kind you open with a latch, but rather ones you pass through with the permission of a security guard provided by Service de la protection de la communaute Juif -- a security firm created and funded by France's Jewish community -- who is installed in a booth in the school's vestibule. These gates close off both the sidewalk and the street in front of the school to cars and pedestrians -- they are a barricade.

Mr. Barthel walks me through the school, which was built three years ago to what he calls "new specifications for a new reality."

"All of our windows are made with glass both bomb- and bullet-proof; there are security cameras in all the common rooms," he says. "You will also notice there is no sign outside of the school that could single it out as a Jewish place."

In the past few years, Jews in Canada may have become familiar with some security measures in synagogues, notably around the high holidays, but nothing approaching this level of stringency.

Mr. Barthel explains the buddy system instituted at the Benvenuti school for children both arriving and leaving the premises. The students must travel in a pack and are not allowed to wear visible skullcaps or Stars of David anywhere but inside the school. They are also discouraged from dressing in a manner that Mr. Barthel calls "Shalala," meaning that they asked to refrain from dressing in a style which in North American parlance might be termed "Jappy."
"The Diesel jeans, the tight bomber jackets, these things can also make them look like Jews," he says. "They must look more quiet now, for safety."

Mr. Barthel is the father of two young children. Last year, his children's school bus, belonging to a Jewish school in Epinay-sur-seine, a northern suburb of Paris, was set on fire. "The bus was empty when it was attacked, but still, nobody did anything about it, not the police, not the government."

He says the Jews of France have increasingly felt as if they have had to take safety into their own hands. "For us now, this means one of two things: bunker in with bomb-proof glass, or leave."

Mr. Barthel and his family have chosen the latter, becoming part of what could easily qualify as an exodus of Jews. In the past four years, French-Jewish immigration to Israel has more than doubled. The United States has received an influx of thousands as well, notably to the Miami area, where, as in Israel, entirely French-Jewish communities have cropped up, bringing with them everything from kosher patisseries to synagogues both French in language and culture.

But between these twin pillars of Israel and Miami, another column is building, a column pointing toward Canada. Romain Barthel's family is just one among the thousands of French Jewish families who are seeking a new home in Quebec. "For us it was the most obvious choice," he says.

That the French -- Jews included -- can hold an ingrained aversion to the United States is well-known. That, for a French Jew, moving to Israel now is substituting one unease for another is an incontrovertible truth. That Quebec contains the largest French-speaking city outside of France is a fact, and that the city of Montreal has one of the oldest Jewish communities in North America is an idea spreading by word of mouth.

Since 2001, French Jewish immigration to Montreal has increased by more than 700%, an influx of European-born Jews from a single country in numbers not seen since the middle of the past century.

Paris was burning for two weeks this month. But Jewish Paris has been burning for five years -- a steady, fiery precursor that went largely ignored by the French authorities. The rise of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 sparked a wave of mainly Muslim-led, anti-Jewish violence in France that has since brought forth thousands of hateful acts aimed at French Jews and their places of business, study, recreation, prayer and burial.

There have been dozens of synagogues and community centres firebombed, Jewish schools covered with anti-Semitic graffiti and set on fire, kosher shops peppered with bullets, and tombstones toppled and desecrated, a domino effect of nauseating proportions. In Paris, on the statue of Alfred Dreyfus, the words "sal juif" -- "dirty Jew" -- were painted in 2002, an epithet that has made a comeback in parts of France, although perhaps not spray-painted on brick or stone as often as "Jews Get Out."

Romain Barthel's brother moved to Montreal three years ago. Mr. Barthel, along with his wife and children, will be making the journey next September. "We are emigrating to Quebec for our children. You will find that this is the case with many of the Jews leaving. Even with all the aggressions, we are in many ways comfortable here. We have nice homes, jobs, family and a rich cultural life. We just can't see a Jewish future in France. There are the attacks [by extremists], but almost worse, we feel there is lethargy in this country to help us against the abuses."

In 2002, the same year Jean-Marie Le Pen's extreme right Front National party came second in the general election, the same year hundreds of anti-Semitic crimes were recorded, the same year Le Monde published an article so searing in its anti-Jewish sentiment that a French court has since found its writers and editor guilty of "racial defamation," French President Jacques Chirac admonished a Jewish editor to "stop saying there is anti-Semitism in France. There is no anti-Semitism in France."

Author Salomon Malka, a Jewish community leader and director of one of the Jewish radio stations in Paris, says a president who says "no anti-Semitism" when synagogues are being bombed is a president saying "not France's problem" when it comes to its Jews.

"There is a tendency in thought here that much of what happens between a Jew and a Muslim is a Middle Eastern problem -- not a European one," he says.

"This is impossible for a French Jew. Many of us consider ourselves equally French and Jewish -- this balanced, mixed identity, for many centuries, has been our description, our key to success and ease in this country."

Mr. Malka, who is not planning on leaving France, but whose son is now considering a university in Quebec, agrees with Mr. Barthel that the exodus has to do more with what might become than what is.

"Today is tolerable," he says, noting there has been an earnest, if rather ineffectual, clampdown on anti-Semitic violence on the part of French authorities this year.

"But our future here is hard to envision, even if [we are] just looking at demographics." There are 500,000 to 600,000 Jews living in France, and the population is dwindling. "There are six million Muslims," he says, "and their population is growing." Mr. Malka says even though most Muslims in France are moderate, "for Jews this is still not a comfortable situation, even from the standpoint of politics. For politicians, it's plain where the votes are."

"Sometimes it's best," says Mr. Barthel, "to just look clearly and say, 'OK, it's been nice in the past, but now it's time to move on.'

"In the span of history," he adds, "this is a not an altogether unfamiliar situation for us."

It's interesting how, repeatedly, throughout history, Jews come to feel at home in various countries, thinking, as the person quoted in this article, that they are equally French and Jewish, or German and Jewish. But, unfortunately, their host countries always seem to eventually tell them otherwise.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

May God Bless
The Christians
Of China

George Bush, as President of the United States, is on a diplomatic mission to China. As such, he can't go into their country and visit a real underground Christian church and shake hands with the real evangelists of China. But, he has done what he can do. And, he has made his message very, very clear:

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- President Bush attended a legally sanctioned church Sunday in Beijing before scheduled talks on religious freedom with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

Bush also planned to discuss trade, intellectual property rights and support for the U.S. push to spread democracy in nations such as Iraq.

During his visit to the Gangwashi Church -- one of five Protestant churches sanctioned by the government -- Bush signed a guest book with the words: "May God bless the Christians of China."

That is the leader of the free world telling the persecuted Christian Church of China, "We are with you."

In China, people are arrested and tortured for distributing Bibles, for evangelizing, and for holding prayer services in their homes.

Democracy grew out of Protestant Christianity, where everyone has direct access to the ear of God, through prayer, therefore, everyone has a rightful voice in governing the affairs of men. So, even if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you have a vested interest in promoting evangelism in the Communist state of China.

The Gospel will destroy Communism in China, just as surely as it did in Poland, and much of Eastern Europe.

To Know
Good And Evil

The Romance
Of Fascism

For some strange reason, intellectuals the world over are siding with Islamic radicals rather than Western Civilization. After having carped about the oppressiveness, and enforced conformity of Western Capitalist Democracies, for the past several decades, it is truly eery to see them lining up with those who can not even tolerate that a homosexual should live, that a woman should emerge from her home without being shrouded from head to foot. But such is what we are confronted with from intellectuals today.

Why?

From University of Wisconsin Professor, Steven Dutch, via No Dhimmitude:

Islamic Fascism

But a new magnet for intellectuals is emerging: radical Islam. It's not that intellectuals are likely to embrace radical Islam themselves anytime soon - for one thing, the requirement of believing in God would deter many of them. But what they can do is obstruct efforts to combat radical Islam and terrorism, undermine support for Israel, stress the "legitimate grievances" of radical Islamists, and lend moral support to the "legitimacy" of radical Islamic movements.

This is a phenomenon at first glance so baffling it cries out for analysis.

Our mental picture of fascism is now mostly colored by images of Nazi book burnings and bad art, but before World War II fascism was quite successful at passing itself off as a blend of socialism and nationalism.

Marxism in particular offered an intellectual framework that many intellectuals bought into. Marxism presented a facade of support for culture and science, paid intellectuals highly and created huge academic institutions.

True, intellectuals in the Soviet Union were well paid mostly in comparison to the general poverty of everyone else rather than in real terms, the economy was so decrepit that the money couldn't purchase much of value, and a lot of the academic institutions were second-rate in comparison to any American community college, but at least the Soviet Union could put forth an illusion of fostering intellectual inquiry.

But radical Islam is openly hostile to intellectual inquiry. Iran under the Ayatollahs banned music. In the United States, the work Piss Christ ignited a fierce debate - not over whether such work should be allowed, but whether it should be publicly supported. In parts of the Islamic world, dissident works invite not debate over public funding, but death sentences.

Fascism and Marxism at least offered the illusion that they supported intellectual inquiry. Radical Islam offers intellectuals nothing. So why aren't Western intellectuals whole-heartedly behind any and all diplomatic and military attempts to combat radical Islam?

Hatred of Democracy

When we try to discover what fascism, Marxism, and radical Islam have in common, the field shrinks to a single common theme: hatred of democracy. Despite all the calls for "Power to the People" from radical intellectuals, the reality is that no societies have ever empowered so many people to such a degree as Western democracies.

The problem is that people in democratic societies usually end up using that empowerment to make choices that intellectuals hate. How can we reconcile the fact that the masses, whom intellectuals profess to support, keep making wrong choices? I've got it - they've been duped somehow. Those aren't their real values; they've been brainwashed into a "false consciousness" by society. If they were completely free to choose, they'd make the "right" choices.

But of course we have to eliminate all the distractions that interfere with the process: no moral or religious indoctrination, no advertising or superficial amusements, no status symbols, no politically incorrect humor.

"False consciousness" is a perfect way of professing support for the masses while simultaneously depriving them of any power to choose; a device for being an elitist while pretending not to be.
The post-Soviet version of "false consciousness" is "internalized oppression." If you're a woman who opposes abortion, a black with middle class values, or a person with a lousy job who nevertheless believes in hard work, those aren't your real values. You've internalized the values of the white male power elite and allowed yourself to become their tool. You don't really know what you believe. When the enlightened elite want your opinion, they'll tell you what it is.

Go read the rest over at No Dhimmitude. It's worth it.

Hussein Regime Correspondence:
How To Hide The Weapons

Documents found in Iraq may reveal that the Hussein regime did indeed have WMD's, as well as ties to Al Qaeda. Stephen Hayes, a reporter for the Weekly Standard has been trying to get his hands on them, with no success so far. However, we do know a little bit about them:

Many of the documents from Doha had been entered into a database known as HARMONY. HARMONY is a thick stew of reports and findings from a variety of intelligence agencies and military units, and alongside the Iraqi documents were reports from contributing U.S. agencies.

Here are some of the titles:

1. Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) Correspondence to Iraq Embassy in the Philippines and Iraq MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
2. Possible al Qaeda Terror Members in Iraq
3. IIS report on Taliban-Iraq Connections Claims
4. Money Transfers from Iraq to Afghanistan
5. IIS Agent in Bulgaria
6. Iraqi Intel report on Kurdish Activities: Mention of Kurdish Report on al Qaeda--reference to al Qaeda presence in Salman Pak
7. IIS report about the relationship between IIS and the Kurdish Group Jalal Talibani [sic]
8. Iraqi Mukhabarat Structure
9. Locations of Weapons/Ammunition Storage (with map)
10. Iraqi Effort to Cooperate with Saudi Opposition Groups and Individuals
11. Order from Saddam to present $25,000 to Palestinian Suicide Bombers Families
12. IIS reports from Embassy in Paris: Plan to Influence French Stance on U.N. Security Council
13. IIS Importing and Hiding High Tech Computers in Violation of UN
14. IIS request to move persons, documents to private residences
15. Formulas and information about Iraq's Chemical Weapons Agents
16. Denial and Deception of WMD and Killing of POWs
17. 1987 orders by Hussein to use chemical weapons in the Ealisan Basin
18. Ricin research and improvement
19. Personnel file of Saad Mohammad Abd Hammadi al Deliemi
20. Memo from the Arab Liaison Committee: With a list of personnel in need of official documents
21. Fedayeen Saddam Responds to IIS regarding rumors of citizens aiding Afghanistan
22. Document from Uday Hussein regarding Taliban activity
23. Improvised Explosive Devices Plan
24. IIS reports on How French Campaigns are Financed
25. French and German relationships with Iraq
26. IIS reports about Russian Companies--News articles and potential IIS agents
27. IIS plan for 2000 of Europe's Influence of Iraq Strategy
28. IIS plans to infiltrate countries and collect information to help remove sanctions
29. Correspondence from IIS and the stations in Europe
30. Contract for satellite pictures between Russia, France and Iraq: Pictures of Neighboring Countries (Dec. 2002)
31. Chemical Gear for Fedayeen Saddam
32. Memo from the IIS to Hide Information from a U.N. Inspection team (1997)
33. Chemical Agent Purchase Orders (Dec. 2001)
34. Iraq Ministry of Defense Calls for Investigation into why documents related to WMD were found by UN inspection team
35. Correspondence between various Iraq organizations giving instructions to hide chemicals and equipment
36. Correspondence from IIS to MIC regarding information gathered by foreign intelligence satellites on WMD (Dec. 2002)
37. Correspondence from IIS to Iraqi Embassy in Malaysia
38. Cleaning chemical suits and how to hide chemicals
39. IIS plan of what to do during UNSCOM inspections (1996)
40. Secret Meeting with Taliban Group Member and Iraqi Government (Nov. 2000)

What's that saying about walking, talking, and quaking?

Read the rest at Generation Why?

Johnny Depp:
No Longer
Wants To Live
In France
Because of Riots

This is just too funny. Not important, but funny.

Johnny Depp, who at one time said he couldn't live in America, "until the political climate" changes, now, no longer wants to live in France, because of the riots:

Hollywood star JOHNNY DEPP is so shocked by the riots raging through France, he's considering abandoning his home in the country.

The FINDING NEVERLAND heart-throb moved to Europe when life in Los Angeles became too violent.

He has since divided time between the two continents - but he fears France will be scarred permanently by the current troubles.

He says, "It's insane, that setting cars on fire is the new strike.

"I went there (to France) to live because it seemed so simple.

"Now it's anything but. I don't know how they'll recover from this."

Maybe he should try Sweden, or Germany, or Holland. Those seem like nice quiet places.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Emerald

Isaac
and
Ishmael

From AFP:

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Large sections of the 16th century walls surrounding Jerusalem's Old City are in danger of collapse unless they undergo immediate restoration.

According to an engineering survey conducted by the Israeli Antiquities Authority, 380 metres (yards), or one-tenth, of the walls' extension are in immediate danger of collapse, Israeli newspaper Maariv reported on Friday.

The survey showed 11 sections of the stone wall needing attention, most of them located along the northern stretch, which flanks the Muslim quarter, and the southern stretch, which skirts the Jewish quarter.

The area in most need of work is the section which flanks the southern supporting wall of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam.

The site also houses the ruins of the ancient Jewish temple, the most sacred spot in Judaism, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Israeli authorities have repeatedly called attention to a bulge in the southern supporting wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, provoking tensions between the Jewish and Muslim communities.

"The examination shows that the signs of cracking and crumbling, which are evidence of structural problems, have increased and become more widespread," the report said. "New cracks were also revealed in the southern wall (of the mosque compound), which shows evidence of movement in the entire wall."

Another 29 sections of the wall, extending a total of 1,280 metres, are also in danger of collapse, but the threat is not quite so imminent, the report said.

The Old City is divided culturally and historically into four parts -- the Jewish, Armenian, Christian and Muslim quarters.

Built by Suleiman the Magnificent between 1536-1541, the Old City walls stretch a total length of 3.8 kilometres (2.3 miles).

Seven gates in the wall lead into the Old City -- Jaffa, Damascus, Herod's, Zion, Dung, Lion's and New gates. An eighth, the Golden Gate, is sealed off.

Think about this. Israeli Engineers do a survey which determines that there are serious structural problems in the Old Jerusalem Wall, particularly in the area of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

They warn Muslim officials of the problem, and this provokes "tensions" between Muslims and Jews.

Here's my prediction. Despite repeated attempts by Israeli scientists to warn Muslims of the problem, they will ignore it, because they don't believe in science. Instead, they believe Allah will protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

However, when the wall falls, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque is thus damaged, the Muslims will not blame Allah, but instead, they will blame the Jews.

Further, I predict this will lead to a big, big altercation between Muslims and Jews, and possibly into a full-scale war. And it will all be over an old wall, and a couple of old religious structures, in a very old city.

What do you know?

Republicans Call Democrats
On Their Political Stunt

Yesterday, Murtha called for the United States to immediately withdraw it's troops from Iraq. This Viet Nam redux drumbeat has been increasing in intensity in recent weeks, with Democratic lawmakers falling all over each other to see who can sound more anti-War than the rest.

Well, tonight the Republicans called their bluff. Oh yeah? You guys want to talk like that? Well, let's just see if you're willing to put your vote where your words are.

No, they're not:

WASHINGTON - The House on Friday overwhelmingly rejected calls for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq, a vote engineered by the Republicans that was intended to fail. Democrats derided the vote as a political stunt.

"Our troops have become the enemy. We need to change direction in Iraq," said Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, a Democratic hawk whose call a day earlier for pulling out troops sparked a nasty, personal debate over the war.

The House voted 403-3 to reject a nonbinding resolution calling for an immediate troop withdrawal.

If Democrats thought that was a political stunt, then what is all their dovish talk. Their talk serves to weaken troop morale, and embolden our enemies. If they aren't willing to put their vote where their mouths are, then clearly, they are the ones who are pulling a political stunt.

Another reason I will probably never vote Democrat again in my life.

On
Civilizational
Nationalism

Neo-Nationalist Parties are joining forces across Europe:

Nationalist parties from seven European countries convened in Vienna last weekend to join forces. The “patriotic and nationalist parties and movements” signed a so-called “Vienna Declaration” calling for a stop to immigration in the entire European Union and the defence of Europe against “terrorism, aggressive islamism, superpower imperialism and economic aggression by low-wage countries.”

The parties also reject the European Constitution and demand that “geographically, culturally, religiously and ethnically non-European territories in Asia and Africa” will be excluded from joining the European Union.

Thomas the Wraith comments that it's an odd phenomena to see Nationalists join forces. What would you call that, International Nationalism?

But, commenter Cosmophant comes up with an even better phrase, and some very intelligent thoughts on this emerging trend:

International nationalism is perhaps an odd concept, but this here is civilizational nationalism.

As Samuel Huntington says, a civilization is "the highest ranking of cultural identity".The parties in the coalition are somewhat odd in themselves, though. It is notable that the Danish People's Party choose to stand outside of this effort.

The problem is the Western self image. Westerners percieved image of the dialectics of the situation, makes them see the brownish abyss as the anti-thesis of multiculturalist fantasies. (Thus, the problem of Front National etc, in my view is that they have too much in common with the establishment; they share the same world view).

Denmark manages to produce a sensible anti-establishment party (DPP) since it is a truly liberal country (in the best sense of the word), so there is a long tradtion of open and constructive debate.

Anti-establisment parties in other countries is more of an expression of hampered emotions expressed in a still immature way. But nevertheless, the dynamics of change has to start somewhere, I suppose.

Still, for me, anti-semitism is always the litmus test. The parties of this joint effort are generally anti-semitic, so in it's current form it is nothing I can support. Compare again with Danish People's Party, which, in contrast, is the most Israel friendly party of it's country.

Vatican
Astronomer:
Intelligent
Design
Not Science

The Vatican's chief astronomer has weighed in on Intelligent Design Theory:

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States.

The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.

"Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."

His comments were in line with his previous statements on "intelligent design" — whose supporters hold that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power.

In a June article in the British Catholic magazine The Tablet, Coyne reaffirmed God's role in creation, but said science explains the history of the universe.

"If they respect the results of modern science, and indeed the best of modern biblical research, religious believers must move away from the notion of a dictator God or a designer God, a Newtonian God who made the universe as a watch that ticks along regularly."

Rather, he argued, God should be seen more as an encouraging parent.

"God in his infinite freedom continuously creates a world that reflects that freedom at all levels of the evolutionary process to greater and greater complexity," he wrote. "He is not continually intervening, but rather allows, participates, loves."

The Vatican Observatory, which Coyne heads, is one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world. It is based in the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.

Last week, Pope Benedict XVI waded indirectly into the evolution debate by saying the universe was made by an "intelligent project" and criticizing those who in the name of science say its creation was without direction or order.

Questions about the Vatican's position on evolution were raised in July by Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn.

In a New York Times column, Schoenborn seemed to back intelligent design and dismissed a 1996 statement by

Pope John Paul II said that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis." Schoenborn said the late pope's statement was "rather vague and unimportant."

In science, it doesn't much matter if God created the universe or not. Scientists still have to use the scientific method to figure out how things work. If, instead, a scientist looks at an organic process, and simply says, "It's works that way, because God created it," then that's the end of science.

What
They
Knew
And
When
They
Knew
It

Click here.

Muslim
Leaders
Reject
Blame
For Riots

It has nothing to do with Islam:

PARIS (Reuters) - French Muslim leaders denounced on Thursday efforts to blame Muslims and Islam for recent riots in the country's rundown suburbs and said they saw worrying signs of growing prejudice against their faith here.

Many young rioters may have been from Muslim backgrounds, but their violent outburst was a protest against unemployment, poor housing and other bias they faced because of their foreign origins, they told journalists.

"They didn't act like that because they're Muslims, but because of the misery they're living in," said Kamel Kabtane, rector of the Grand Mosque of Lyon in eastern France.

When the riots broke out after the accidental deaths of two youths apparently fleeing police in a poor Paris suburb, some conservative politicians publicly suggested radical Islamists were either behind the unrest or exploiting it to win new supporters.

Mohammad Bechari, head of the National Federation of French Muslims (FNMF), said Muslim leaders were concerned about the rioting but disagreed with the way many local officials turned to religious leaders to try to calm the youths down.

"We refuse to be sub-contractors," he said.

"When French farmers go out on protest, they don't turn to the Catholic Bishops' Conference to intervene," Kabtane added.

Yes, yes, then why did Muslim leaders act as negotiators. And, why were 12 churches burnt in the riots, but not a single Mosque:

One dozen Christian churches were defiled, ransacked and/or torched by rioters in France during the intifada. That's one every other day over the last two weeks. Quite a clip. And during the same period, not a single mosque was torched by the rioters, (whose Muslim-ness has nothing to do with the riots - according to the MSM. And nothing about these targeted attacks against churches has appeared in the MSM, either).

In the old days, when the KKK - (who were like today's islamofascists: a group committed to tyranny and willing to use terror to impose it) - were torching BLACK churches, liberals did not hesitate to join the fight against the KKK. WHY DO THEY STAND AT THE SIDELINES NOW!? WORSE: why do actively work to make it tougher to defeat today's "GLOBAL KKK" the jihadoterrorists!? Sheesh.

ANSWER: Today's Lefties are like yesteryear's reactionaries. Yesteryear's liberals are today's neo-cons. IOW: FDR and JFK would be neo-cons today. And the And the brave volunteers joing the US military to fight islamofascisim in Iraq today, are like the Freedom-riders of the 1960's.

There were also several Synagogues firebombed, but once again, no Mosques.

It had nothing to do with Islam. It had nothing to do with Islam. It had nothing to do with Islam.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Not Yet
Remembered

Hirsi Ali:
Hero of
Western
Civilization

Hirsi Ali, whose movie Submission, made in conjunction with Theo Van Gogh, about the ill-treatment of women in Islamic countries, cost Van Gogh his life, and made her Muslim Public Enemy No. 1, has declared that she refuses to back down against the Jihadis who would have her dead.

Instead, she will make a film which depicts how gay people are treated under Islamic rule:

A Somali-born Dutch MP who collaborated on the film that led to the murder of director Theo van Gogh has written a sequel, about Islam’s attitude to gays.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali received death threats after her work on Submission, a film about Islam’s treatment of women.

Van Gogh was shot and stabbed by a Muslim radical, Mohammed Bouyeri, as he cycled through Amsterdam in 2004.

The film will use anonymous actors and carry no credits in an effort to protect those involved in the project.

Ms Ali told Dutch media that she had co-written the script with Van Gogh in the summer of 2004, months before he was killed last November.

“I examine the position of homosexuals in Islam in the film Submission II,” she told the De Volkskrant newspaper. “In the movie, they are called Allah’s creatures,” she added.

The MP is an outspoken critic of Islamic values and describes herself as a “lapsed” Muslim.

Hirsi Ali is my hero.

She is an incredibly brave woman, who fights for the values of Western Civilization with a religious fervor, though she is not a native of Europe. She has had to live with 24-hour protection for the past 18 months because she is under constant threat of death. Many nights she has literally had to sleep in military barracks, and jail cells.

How many of us would sacrifice so much for the values that we believe in?

Bush's Strategy Revealed

From Scrappleface, via YARGB:

The Bush administration sent the following message to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-TN, with a request that it be distributed to all members of Congress.

United States Iraq Strategy

1. Kill terrorists.
2. Train Iraqi forces to kill terrorists.
3. Help Iraqis build schools and infrastructure.
4. Leave behind first democracy in Arab world.

The White House spokesman said an ‘executive summary’ of the strategy would be available later today for Senators who don’t have time to read the full document.

One can see why the Senators are confused. It couldn't be that simple, could it?

Biggest Story of The Year

What would you do if I told you the UN had filed a report in June, 2004, on how Saddam had "smuggled" his WMD's out of Iraq?

Well, they did. Yes, that's right. The UN did indeed file such a report. And, as extraordinary as that it. It's even more shocking to ponder to totalitarian effectiveness of the Monlithich Mainstream Media in hiding this from the public. Check it out:

In a report which might alternately be termed “stunning” or “terrifying”, United Nations weapons inspectors confirmed last week not merely that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but that he smuggled them out of his country, before, during and after the war.

Late last week, the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) briefed the Security Council on Saddam's lightning-fast dismantling of missile and WMD sites before and during the war.

UNMOVIC executive chairman Demetrius Perricos detailed not only the export of thousands of tons of missile components, nuclear reactor vessels and fermenters for chemical and biological warheads, but also the discovery of many (but not most) of these items - with UN inspection tags still on them -- as far afield as Jordan, Turkey and even Holland.

Notably absent from that list is Iraq's western neighbor Syria, ruled by its own Baath Party just like Saddam's and closed to even the thought of an UNMOVIC inspection. Israeli intelligence has been reporting the large-scale smuggling of Saddam's WMD program across the Syrian border since at least two months before the war. Syria has long been the world's foremost state-sponsor of terrorism.

Perricos highlighted the proliferation danger to the Security Council, as well he should: UNMOVIC has no idea where most of the WMD material is today, just that it exists and it's gone; and anything in Syria is likely to be in Jerusalem or New York tomorrow.

This is the biggest news story of 2004 so far. Yet you haven't heard about it, have you?

You probably haven't heard about Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin either -- a socialist and no friend of America. Addressing a group of 700 university researchers and business leaders in Montreal last month, Martin stated bluntly that terrorists have acquired WMDs from Saddam. “The fact is that there is now, we know well, a proliferation of nuclear weapons, and that many weapons that Saddam Huseein had, we don't know where they are…. [T]errorists have access to all of them,” the Canadian premier warned.

The tip of this terrorist sword was scarcely deflected on April 26th, when Jordanian intelligence broke up an al Qaeda conspiracy to detonate a large chemical device in the capital city of Amman. Directed by al Qaeda terrorist leader Abu al-Zarqawi -- the same man who personally beheaded American Nicholas Berg in Iraq last month -- the plotters sought to use a massive explosion to spread a “toxic cloud”, meant to wipe out the U.S. embassy, the Jordanian prime minister's office, the Jordanian intelligence headquarters, and at least 20,000 civilians (by contrast, only 3,000 died on 9/11).

Over twenty tons of chemical weapons were seized from the conspirators, who were just days away from carrying out their plot.

One wonders where CNN and USA Today think twenty tons of nerve gas and sarin came from: Chemical Weapons-Mart?

Yet their coverage, like most major media outlets, mentioned not a word about Saddam's smuggled WMDs, which -- according to liberal dogma -- “don't exist.”

Even though the UN says they do exist, now spread around the world.

Why was this not brought out in The Weekly Standard? Front Page Magazine? Or, any of the other conservative journals? If UNMOVIC briefed the Security Council as to these facts, then why has the Bush Administration not bothered to tell the public?

The Bush Administration seems to be stuck on the high-road, unable to find an offramp. Within the last week, of course, they have begun to fight back. I suggest they fight even harder, and release the notes to this briefing.

23rd Night
French Riot
Is At
Normal Level

The riot in France has gone down to only 98 cars burned in a night. That is a "normal" level, so it is acceptable. Stories over:

PARIS (Reuters) - Urban violence in France fell to normal levels on Thursday after three weeks of rioting in run-down suburbs, allowing the government to begin mapping out plans to tackle the problems that sparked the unrest.

Ninety-eight vehicles were set ablaze during the night, a sharp drop from the peak of the violence when 1,400 vehicles were torched in one night on November 6.

"The situation has returned to normal because about 100 vehicles are set on fire each night in France," a police spokesman said.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Whither
Goest Thou,
Eurabia?

Will love's first kiss intervene to save her?

Let Them Eat America's Cake

Dag, at No Dhimmitude, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite bloggers, has an important post up today, about the UN grab for control of the internet. Here's an excerpt:

A group of the world's most repressive regimes, including China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Cuba, wants the UN to take over from ICANN. Disgracefully, the EU recently threw its weight behind this initiative. Canada appears -- thank heavens -- firmly, or at least provisionally, behind the current arrangement.

The United States has been utterly opposed to this attempted power grab. The notion that the Internet would be more safely administered by the kind of guys who hijacked the UN Human Rights Commission is little less than ludicrous. Just how ludicrous has become obvious from the actions of the summit's host.

Tunisia is reckoned to be one of the more "enlightened" North African regimes, but it severely restricts media freedom, spies on cyber-cafes and blocks Web sites. This week in Tunis a French journalist who had been reporting on Tunisian government repression was beaten up and stabbed, allegedly by state goons. Although one must sympathize with his plight, there is a certain rich irony in his nationality.

When French President Jacques Chirac visited Tunis two years ago, he congratulated the country's astonishingly popular President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali (who regularly pulls in 99% of the vote) and declared,

"The most important human rights are to eat, receive medical care and education and have a place to live."

As Dag notes, in his fine commentary, Europe backs this power grab because Europe has strong totalitarian tendencies of it's own, as is evidenced by Chirac obnoxiously condescending remark.

But, it isn't really condescension, if he really believes it, is it? And, the sad thing is, all evidence says he does.

Let Them Eat Cake.

The Coming
Eurabian
Civil War

As anyone who has been reading CUANAS for awhile would know, one of my biggest fears is that Islamofascism in Europe will bring a resurgence of European Fascism. Here, in this excellent post Thomas the Wraith predicts that it will:

The Eurabian Civil War is currently one sided. The Islamofascists are fighting against a vapor with the illusion of substance, a mist enveloping a somnambulant society. Sooner, far sooner than many believe, Europe will awaken and show itself for what it has always been: an aggressive, xenophobic, ethnarchy, jealous of its traditions, proud of its homogeneity, subject to enthusiastic waves of mass violence and enthralled by its angry gods (whether it’s Christ the Crusader King, Siegfried, Santiago Matamoros or some mutant deity as yet unborn).

Elsewhere I have described this as neo-nationalism. The blinkered and stunned media will describe it as a backlash but it will only be the assertion of Europe’s true nature.

The strengths that allow Islamofascism to succeed in its struggle with brittle, liberal democracies will prove of little use against a resurgent European nationalism. (Just imagine how a modern day Richelieu or Bismarck or Franco would have responded to the Madrid bombing. Reconquista indeed.)

This is, of course, bad news for those of us who grew up in and care for liberal democracy and enjoy the freedom and prosperity it provides. European neo-nationalism will most likely be hostile to US interests and downright anti-Semitic. But European civilization existed long before the dawn of liberal democracy and will exist after its sunset. We currently languish in the twilight.

The Islamists delude themselves that it is the dawn of the Muslim Age of the Restored Caliphate rather than the darkness into which they will be cast.

None of this will be pretty. The violence will be up-close and quite personal. Europe’s neo-nationalist future will be one filled with paranoia and fanaticism and blind, desperate struggle. Much of value will be lost.

You may say that I am naïve; that Europeans have already submitted in the minds; that they are proto-dhimmis waiting, however reluctantly, to convert. But I say that thousands of years of ethnic fervor, cultural pride, fierce localism and passionate Faith are not erased in two or three generations. Civilization is more durable than that.

However the civilization that endures is not the faithless, hedonistic, pre-packaged multicultural slop that we have known for 60 years. It is something else entirely.

The ADL:
Picking The Wrong Enemies
Again and Again

The Anti-Defamation League puts out reports on the dangers of skinheads, and anti-Semitism from groups on the right. All the while, missing the story that the fount of murderous anti-Semitism and toleration of Jew-hatred springs forth on the Left these days.

And now, they have declared war on Evangelicals.

Oh, for God's sake. This is an organization which has outlived it's usefulness. Die already.

I have a dream, that one day blogs like this, and all the others who do work similar to CUANAS, will replace the ADL in national discourse. And I pray that we never get old and senile like the ADL.

UPDATE: Some more thoughts.

I'm just a small blogger, but if you add my audience to the audience of all the other like-minded small bloggers, and add to them LGF, and Atlas Shrugs, and Roger Simon, etc., I think we've already outdone the ADL.

Not only do we get out more important/relevant info, but more people pay attention, and they spend much more time reading all of us than they have ever spent digesting ADL press releases and newsletters.

One has to wonder how much longer an organization will retain any relevancy at all, considering the fact that there are others doing what they do, and better. The only thing the ADL is good for is that when they do put out a press release, the MSM will talk about it. The blogosphere isn't there in influence, yet. However, with the advent of Open Source Media, things may change soon.

Think about this. The ADL takes in tens of millions of dollars a year. I, and most of the other bloggers do this for FREE. Why? Because it's that important.

Whither
Eurabia?

There is a very important post, and comments thread going on over at Fjordman's site.

Congratulations to Charles and Roger
On The Pajamas/Open Source Media Launch

Charles and Roger have contributed a tremendous amount to our political and social discourse, and they, and the rest of my friends in the blog world, have made it easier to be someone like me (former leftie, converted by 9/11) over the past few years. Thanks to them, and to all.

Atlas has pics.

22nd Night
The Dance

Things are winding, uh ... the same in France. Around and around in circles. Kind of like a grand, nationwide dance.

Yeah, that's it. A dance:

The State of Emergency is prolonged for 3 months. Last night, 160 vehicles were torched, 40 arrests were made, and a church was partially destroyed by fire in Romans (Drome). The French are settling into a comfort zone of 150+ cars burned per night just to be able to say that this thing is over.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Yeah,
I'm Taking A Break

The Jihad Is Worldwide
And Coordinated, Part VI

A liberal gets it right. Here, in this article from the Nation, Abigail Esman discusses how Dyab Abou Jahjah, leader of the Arab European League, foments hatred of Western Civilization while living on European soil:

"This is the beginning of the war!" a French Muslim boy called out in the middle of the recent riots in Le Blanc Mesnil, just north of Paris.

But is it? Or was the war really going on already?

Few Americans have heard of him, but in Europe, more and more are becoming familiar with the name--and the ideas--of Dyab Abou Jahjah, founder of the now-international Arab European League (AEL) and the Muslim Democratic Party. Handsome, charismatic, well-educated and multilingual, he has the perfect makings of a political leader, or perhaps better said, a man poised to lead a revolution. And he knows it.

More to the point: As the fury of Muslim youth explodes across the landscape of Western Europe, it's time that others know it, too.

The AEL, founded in Belgium in 2000--in other words, before September 2001--now has branches in the Netherlands and France, and intends to spread across the EU, with plans to participate in future European Parliamentary elections as the Muslim Democratic Party. With battle cries like "Whatever Means Necessary" and frequent condemnations of America, Jahjah--who called the 9/11 attacks "sweet revenge"-- recruits Muslim youth to spread his ideology, a vague series of ideas that occasionally appear moderate but, when added together, call for violent resistance, the destruction of Israel and the introduction of Sharia (Islamic) law in Europe.

Most recently, Jahjah issued a public statement supporting Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declaration calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. "The foundation of Najad's reasoning is intellectually defendable," he writes in English (the statement in its entirety can be found here), "and despite the fact that his regime is no perfect example of political morality, I argue that his position on this matter is the only possible moral one." (Ironically, the man slain filmmaker Theo van Gogh once called "a pimp for Allah" continues his rant with mention of a "mythical racial-religious holy promise by some god in some religious book"--by which, of course, he means the Old Testament. Despite such statements, Jahjah repeatedly insists he has "nothing against the Jews.")

I've thought a lot about Jahjah in the past few days: Jahjah who never condemned the killing of van Gogh by a Dutch Muslim fundamentalist; Jahjah who finds the destruction of Israel "the only possible moral" option; Jahjah who has on several occasions incited riots on the streets of Antwerp and now defends the ongoing rioting of Muslim youth outside of Paris. I've thought of Jahjah as Muslim youths riot, too, in Arhus, Denmark, presumably in protest against the publication in a national newspaper of a cartoon drawing of Mohammed.

I've thought of Jahjah in all of this because his influence on European Muslim youth--men and women ages 18 to 30, mostly--has been significant enough that the Dutch intelligence service traces the rise of Muslim anti-Semitism and extremism in the Netherlands in no small measure straight back to the AEL.

And I think of this fact every day lately as I walk the streets of my mostly Muslim neighborhood: Suddenly, now, as an American Jew, if I normally wore a star of David or a chai around my neck, after Jahjah's declaration I would be too frightened to be seen with it on the street.

And the thing is, I have friends in my neighborhood--good people, kind people, women with headscarves and without them, men in Western dress or djellabas. They, too, are the victims of the Mohammad Attas, the Ahadi Nahjads, the Abou Jahjahs of the world. In some ways, they suffer most of all.

So Dyab Abou Jahjah scares me, and not just because when I wrote an article about him a year or so ago, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, herself under protective guard, called me after it was published to be sure I was OK.

Jahjah scares me because as one man he can--and does-- destroy the individuality of so many. While we remind ourselves repeatedly that the Mohamed Bouyeris and Mohammed Attas of the world are only individuals--and that's true--the danger is that the number of those individuals is increasing like brushfire, in large part through the encouragement and cheering of Abou Jahjah and others like him--those who pretend to be "moderate" enough to gain legitimacy, and then ignite the anger of others, many of whom were moderate when they first came to the AEL but don't stay that way for long.

And so we start to see them as a mass: We look at the rioters in Paris and become afraid of Muslims. Not just these Muslims but all the Muslims in the Paris environs, and by extension, all the Muslims in French-speaking Belgium and all the Muslims in the north and all the Muslims in the Netherlands and so on. And we go back again to "us" and "them"--"the Muslims," as if they were all one entity, and the rest of us.

This is what is going on outside of Paris and in Arhus, in Brussels and Berlin, even as I write. This is what goes on when the AEL holds meetings--closed to non-Muslims--in Rotterdam or Brussels, stirring whatever vulnerability, whatever latent anger (and what adolescent boy hasn't some of that? Then multiply it by poverty and alienation and see what happens) he can touch in the hearts of his audiences. Individual by individual, they become a group: They find the identity, the unity, the belonging that they crave, within that group. They become an "us," and the rest of us, of course, are "them."

This, too, is how it worked in Clichy: There was nothing spontaneous about these eruptions, officials announced after a week of ongoing chaos, a week of arson and shattered windows and a woman set on fire.

In Arhus, demonstrators said they'd been planning their uprising for weeks--possibly, that is, even before the paper published the cartoons. (That a group of suspected Danish-Muslim terrorists were arrested in Denmark at around that time may or may not be relevant.) And though Jahjah does not appear to be a part of the French or Danish fury as he was three years ago in Antwerp, he supports it.

While America has been looking elsewhere, the "war on terror" has rapidly been shifting its direction. No longer are the dangers restricted to the caves of Bora Bora; they have filled the streets of European capitals. Only if we start paying closer attention to what happens there--on those very streets of those same European cities--can the war, and peace, be won.

Saudi Arabia:
Judenrein

J, at Justify This, has a post up today about Saudi Arabia's sentencing of a teacher for the crime of talking about the Bible, and speaking positively of Jews. A horrific crime, indeed:

Roads Of Tolerance In Saudi Arabia, Where Only Muslims Can Be Citizens

A court in Saudi Arabia has condemned a teacher to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes in 15 weeks for having “mocked Islam”.

The teacher, denounced by colleagues and students a year and half ago, had discussed the Bible in class and spoken highly of Jews. The victim said the charges were made against him by fundamentalist colleagues who were against his moderate positions.

The sentence, handed down on 12 November, was published the following day by a Saudi daily. Al-Madina reported that the crime of the chemistry teacher, Mohammad Al-Harbi, was that he had promoted a “dubious ideology and declared that Jews are in the right”.

The teacher is also charged with having “discussed the Gospel and not allowing students to leave class to wash before prayer”. At the time, the man was teaching in the Al-Fwailiq high school in the town of Ein Al-Juwa.

Interviewed by the Arab press, Al-Harbi described the sentence as “cruel”. He said the students who levelled charges against him were angry because they had not passed a monthly chemistry test. “They asked me if they could repeat it and I refused.”

The teacher said the students had been manipulated into taking legal action by some teachers of Islamic studies, who did not look well upon Al-Harbi’s views. The latter had often said he was against terrorism and fundamentalism, trying to sensitize youth in the school.

In Saudi Arabia, freedom of worship is prohibited to all religions except Wahhabi Islam. Any public manifestation (like having a Bible or wearing a cross) is banned. According to the latest annual report compiled by the US State Department on international religious freedom, “freedom of worship does not exist” in Saudi Arabia.

It's true. Christians are not allowed to live in Saudi Arabia. They may travel there for a visit, or on business, or most commonly, to serve as maids, and nurses, but no one of any faith other than the official Wahabbi faith may live in Saudi Arabia on a permanent basis.

As egregious as that may sound to our Western sensibilities, it is nothing compared to the information which, until about a year ago, was freely available on the official website of the state of Saudi Arabia. (See screenshot above, or click this link.)

On a page of information on Visa requirements, there was a section which said the following:

Visas will not be issued to the following groups of people:

An Israeli passport holder, or a passport that has an Israeli arrival/departure stamp.
Jewish people.

We should never forget this.

Someone Drugged and Date-Raped Her

Fjordman posted an excellent and visionary essay today on the future of Europe. Or should I say, Eurabia? Here's an excerpt:

... can Eurabia still be reversed and Europe salvaged?

I must admit there are certain parts of Europe that do seem to be beyond hope, or very close to it. ALL of the largest Dutch cities are projected to have a Muslim majority within a generation, as will several English, French, Belgian, Scandinavian and Spanish cities.

I forsee several possible scenarios:

1. Eurabia.

The EU continues its transformation into a continent-wide organization with clear totalitarian leanings, and a very pro-Islamic stance. Europe's fate is sealed when Turkey is allowed into the Union, and becomes its largest member. Freedom of speech will be shut down, and any criticism of Islam banned.

Eurabia will become a global center for Jihad activities, as the dhimmi taxpayers and infidel Western technology give a boost to the Ummah. For this reason, the Americans, the Israelis, the Indians, the Russians and maybe even the Chinese will have to crush Eurabia by brute force, as it will represent a grave security threat for them.

Muslims will be heavily concentrated in the major cities, and the dhimmi native population will retreat into the countryside. I believe something similar took place in the Balkans during Ottoman Turkish rule. The old nation states will thus slowly die, as their major cities, which constitute the brain and "head" of its culture, are cut off from the rest of the body.

Europe's decline into Eurabia will be speeded up by the fact that millions of educated natives with the means to it will move to the USA or other nations. This trickle of Eurabian refugees wil eventually be slowed down by the authorities in the now totalitarian Europe, as it will erode the tax base. Native Europeans will simply be banned from leaving.

There will be no war in Western Europe, as its civilization is already dead and very few will bother fighting for it. The only violence will be sporadic Islamic terror attacks to induce fear, and occasional Muslim mob assaults in European streets to remind the dhimmis who is boss.

2. War.

Personally, I think this alternative is at least as likely as the above. It also contains several sub-scenarios, partly depending upon when the eventual war starts, and partly on whether there is still some Western pride and resistance left in Europe underneath the self-loathing and Multiculturalism:

The Pakistanization of Europe.

Muslims aren't numerous enough to control the entire continent. In the event of war, there will be mutual ethnic cleansing and Muslims will seize parts of Western Europe. For instance, a belt stretching from parts of Germany via Belgium and Holland to France, but maybe even regions within certain nation states.

All of Europe will not be lost, but some parts will, and many others will de deeply damaged by the fighting. Much of our cultural treasures will burn. How things will go from there is difficult to predict. Perhaps this new "Pakistan" in the heart of Europe will be the source of constant instability and the staging ground for Jihad incursions into infidel areas, just as Pakistan is to India now.

How does that sound, Europe? And, what is the scenario by which one of these ugly possibilites may not come true?

21st Night:
Boiling
A Frog
In Water

Today, we enter into day 22, the third week of rioting in France. Things do seem to be slowing down, but, there's still a hell of a lot of black smoke billowing over France:

162 vehicles burned, 42 arrests, and one injured policeman by 4AM. This is what the French call an acceptable level of violence for a Saturday night in the summer. Now that they are getting it during a winter weekday, they are trying very hard to convince themselves that everything is back to normal.

At this point, the Islamic Jihadis have learned what they need to know; that the French will not do anything. All they will need to do is organize more riot cells, and instigate larger riots next time, and larger the time after that. That way, they can take over France without the French even noticing, like boiling a frog in water.

Border Deal Sealed

Israel, and the Peaceful Nation of Palestine, have reached a border deal at last:

JERUSALEM - Prodded by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israel and the Palestinians agreed Tuesday on details for opening the borders of the Gaza Strip and allowing freer movement for Palestinians elsewhere, a significant step toward an eventual peace deal between historic enemies.

The agreement, which gives the Palestinians control over a border for the first time, took all-night negotiations and a strong diplomatic shove from Rice. The basic elements of the deal had been in the works for weeks.

"I have to say as a football fan, sometimes the last yard is the hardest, and I think we experienced that today," Rice told a news conference where she announced the agreement.

She praised the deal at a news conference as a "big step forward" in Israeli-Palestinian relations, bruised by nearly five years of bloody fighting.

"This agreement is intended to give Palestinian people the freedom to move, to trade, to live ordinary lives," Rice said.

While important in and of itself, the broader significance of the deal to free up Palestinian movement while satisfying Israeli concerns about terrorism is that it makes a statement of progress that goes beyond the technical details.

"Underneath what may seem like very small details there are hard issues," Rice told reporter.
She said she had about two hours of sleep.

Donor countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, but they money was held up by the lack of a border deal.

Under the agreement, the Gaza-Egypt border would tentatively open Nov. 25. It will be operated by Palestinian and Egypt border officials, under the supervision of European monitors. Israel had demanded veto powers, but in the ended conceded on the issue, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. Israel will receive live transmissions via closed circuit TV from the crossing there, and can raise objections concerning travelers, but the Palestinians have the final say.

The government of the Peaceful State of Palestine is dominated by two political parties (Fatah and Hamas), both of whose charters call for the destruction of the state of Israel. So, I would imagine that if Almadinejad wheeled an atomic bomb that looked like the one dropped on Hiroshima up to the border of Israel, the Palestinians would say, "Ok, let him through."

Yeah, this agreement is going to work.

Victory:
The Cat
Is Out
Of The Bag

There is such a thing as freedom, and the Iraqis are learning about it en masse:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A few years ago, Ammar Adnan knew almost nothing about what was going on in the world of karate. But now Adnan, who heads Iraq's karate federation, is in contact with groups across the world, closely following events and championships wherever they occur.

It's all because of the Internet cafes — scarce during Saddam Hussein's rule — now spreading throughout Iraq.

Before Saddam's fall in spring 2003, many Iraqis had heard about the Internet, but very few had used it. Internet cafes were not common, security restrictions were tight and having a home connection was very costly.

Now that many are enjoying a higher income than under Saddam, thousands of Iraqis regularly pack shops throughout the country to check their e-mail, chat and surf — despite fears that any public place can be attacked.

"I do much of my work on the Internet," said the well-built Adnan, after checking his e-mail Friday at a cafe in eastern Baghdad.

"I contact the International Karate Organization from here. It is very simple, unlike before when it was extremely difficult to get in touch," he said referring to bad telephone lines and slow mail service during Saddam's rule.

Three months after the fall of Saddam, al-Rubei Internet Cafe became one of Baghdad's first private companies, and ever since business has been doing well, said manager Jarir Majid.

"The idea came when we thought that we wanted to do something with this shop, something that people needed," said Majid, speaking as most of the 50 computers in his shop were occupied. "The Internet is great. It is sad that Iraqis were deprived of this technology."

His business did fall off last year when a car bomb exploded nearby, causing damage to his shop, but it has since bounced back.

Before Saddam's ouster, from the 10th floor of what used to be the Ministry of Information building in central Baghdad, members of Saddam's intelligence agency worked around the clock blocking Web sites, e-mails and chat rooms.

The last thing the former regime wanted in this tightly controlled police state was people chatting with outsiders or entering anti-Saddam Web sites operated exiled Iraqis.

"Intelligence officers used to monitor sites and whenever they found a suspicious domain they used to block it," said Atheer Hassan, who used to work as a part-time technician with the Ministry of Information. Now, he runs his own Internet business, selling connections to people in their homes.

Under Saddam, at a time when most people made only a few dollars a month because of inflation and economic sanctions, few people could afford the annual Internet fee from the government of about $500. E-mails were only available through the ministry, meaning they were read by intelligence agents.

Now, restrictions are of a different sort — some Internet Cafe owners ban their clients from visiting pornographic sites. A sign decorating the Twin Tower Cafe reads: "To the brothers and dear Internet users. Please don't enter sites that contradict our religion and traditions."

Internet cafes aren't the only outlet: Distributors sell wireless connections to private homes for about $50 a month. Many complain that state-run land phone lines are still slow and unreliable.
Such prices are out of range still for many Iraqis, but the cafes fill the need. An hour costs about a $1.

Ibrahim Mahamoud, 24, now goes twice a week to an Internet cafe near his house to chat with friends and relatives living abroad.

"I used to speak with my relatives who live abroad once every few months," said Mahamoud, looking back and forth to the screen as he spoke. "Now I can chat with them anytime I want."

It looks as if we are winning the war in Iraq. Quick, someone, alert the media.

:)

Monday, November 14, 2005

Paris Riots,
Or How Nazi Germany
Managed to Sneak Up On Us All

An excellent piece by Pierre LeGrand, over at the PapaDoc Blog:

In some ways it is tragically funny that the French have responded to the burning of their country with censorship. They have asked the Jews to keep quiet about attacks on their persons and their institutions. They have simply not extensively covered the churches that were burnt. All in an attempt to hide the one fact that is irrevocably true, the instigators and rioters are Muslims. This does not have to be an attack by Al Queda to be an attack by Muslims, this is simply Islam following its primary calling to spread itself by the sword if need be.

But the story of a Mosque attacked is being pushed around like it is some sort of vindication that this isn’t about Islam. Perhaps hoping that all of us have forgotten how easily Islamic thugs forget about the sanctity of their mosques.

Islam’s apologists have failed to explain the incredible history of violence that has followed Islam around the Globe. It is not fair to say explanations have not been given, but its very difficult to swallow it’s all a Zionist Plot when they have managed to murder, Hindus, Buddhists, Animalists, Christians and yes a smattering of Jews.

At one point they managed to murder thousands of all of those groups including the most hated, secularists, in less than two hours by running Jets into buildings filled with innocents. Impressively while the perpetrators declared the action was in the name of Islam, our own elite were busy like the little cowards they are, making excuses. Ooh it’s only a radical fringe group, never wondering why it was that Imams around the world were not immediately denouncing the attacks in the strongest words.

Then when they do denounce terrorism by those supposedly radical Islamists or call for peace it is done in a way that can be defended against both the radicals and the west. The Imams are playing both sides instead of choosing the side of peace. Religion of Peace indeed, our cowardice in the face of their stated goal of spreading Islam around the world by sword if need be will cause this war to go on forever. For example the famous Fatwa issued by the moderate Union of French Islamic Organisations:

“it is formally forbidden to any Muslim seeking divine grace andsatisfaction to participate in any action that blindly hits private or public property or could constitute an attack on someone's life. Contributing to such exactions is an illicit act.”

So if you have a clear view of the reasons for your attacks against the infidels do we assume then that the Moderate Union of French Islamic Organisations is ok with you.

Occurred to me a week or so that we are seeing exactly the same mechanism that allowed the Nazis to basically sneak into power at work again. Its always been a wonder to me that so many Jews got caught in the net the Nazis wrapped them in, but now I understand. We all simply refused to believe that the threat existed, they were harmless, not worth worrying about, until they moved to being too big a threat to cover in the news. Where are we now in that line from laughing to death?

Go read the rest.

France:
The State
Of
Emergency

France has specially trained a force of 15,000 riot police, called the CRS, to go into the neighborhoods most hard hit by rioting, and reestablish order:

The announcement came yesterday as the regular police threatened action over the detention of an officer after a young man appeared to have been hit and kicked by two policemen in a Paris suburb.

A third of France's 15,000 riot police, whose brutal reputation comes from its violent repression of student-worker protests in May 1968, will remain in the country's 17 neighbourhoods hardest hit by the rioting of the past two weeks.

The CRS's new chief, Christian Lambert, who took over only three days before the riots began on Oct 27 said the force would spearhead a new form of neighbourhood policing in the toughest suburbs.

He insisted that the CRS had received training to perform their new role: "We will go to the most difficult neighbourhoods. Without stirring things up but by imposing ourselves, we will win back these territories.

It sounds like they plan to reoccupy their own land. That's a good thing.

What is extraordinary is France has also extended the State of Emergency for three months:

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac's government decided on Monday to ask parliament to extend emergency powers for 3 months to quell unrest.

Wow, that's a long time for a state of emergency to go on, isn't it? Isn't an emergency something that requires immediate attention, and/or treatment? Doesn't the word imply speed?

At what point does it cease to be called a state of emergency, and, instead, begin to be called something else? And, what word would be more appropriate?

Well, Chirac has found another word he likes to describe the situation:

PARIS - President Jacques Chirac said Monday in his first televised address to the nation since rioting erupted more than two weeks ago that the violence reflected a "profound malaise" in France.

A "malaise" huh, Jaques? Good choice of words. Remember how well it went over when Jimmy Carter used that one back in the 70's?

Night night, Jaques. It's time to go to sleep.

CUANAS Announcement

A big opportunity has presented itself, which means I am going to have to cut back on blogging for awhile. For the next few months posting will be light; usually, just one or two posts per day.

Jihadis Arrested Next To
Australian Nuclear Power Plant

Three Jihadis were arrested in Australia recently, after they were caught near a nuclear power plant. From the Guardian, via the Drunken Blogger:

Three of the 18 terror suspects arrested in Sydney and Melbourne last week were stopped and questioned by police near Australia's only nuclear power station, it was claimed today.

A document released to the court where the eight people arrested in Sydney had their first hearing alleged that three of the suspects had been stopped in their car near the city's nuclear facility in December 2004.

The men also had an off-road motorbike and claimed they were there to ride, the document said. It added that all three had given different versions of the day's events to police.

Police inquiries revealed the lock of a gate to a reactor reservoir had recently been cut.

The three - Mazen Touma, Mohammed Elomar and Abdul Rakib Hasan - along with five other Sydney men, have been charged with conspiring to manufacture explosives in preparation for a terrorist act.

The Melbourne suspects are charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation. The group includes Abu Bakr, an extremist cleric who made headlines last year when he described Osama bin Laden as a "great man".

The document on the Sydney suspects said some of the men had "obtained extremist advice and guidance" from the cleric at a terrorist training camp in New South Wales. It said members of the group sought materials to produce explosives, ordering dozens of gallons of chemicals.

During a search of Mr Elomar's home on June 27, police said they found a computer memory stick containing instructions in Arabic for making TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, a highly unstable explosive made from commercially available chemicals.

The suspects' lawyer has said prosecutors have produced no evidence of an imminent terror attack in the country.

Australia has never suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil, but has been on medium security alert since shortly after the September 11 2001 attacks on the US.

When these guys were arrested, they were not in possession of explosives, so this was a test run to see if they could get near the nuclear plant. And you know what they found out? They can. They were arrested after they penetrated the property, and had already left the area.

Let's hope Australia got all of these guys, because it isn't that hard to pull off what they were trying to pull off.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Five Questions Non-Muslims Would Like Answered

From Dennis Prager, in the LA Times:

(1) Why are you so quiet?

Since the first Israelis were targeted for death by Muslim terrorists blowing themselves up in the name of your religion and Palestinian nationalism, I have been praying to see Muslim demonstrations against these atrocities. Last week's protests in Jordan against the bombings, while welcome, were a rarity.

What I have seen more often is mainstream Muslim spokesmen implicitly defending this terror on the grounds that Israel occupies Palestinian lands. We see torture and murder in the name of Allah, but we see no anti-torture and anti-murder demonstrations in the name of Allah.

There are a billion Muslims in the world. How is it possible that essentially none have demonstrated against evils perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam? This is true even of the millions of Muslims living in free Western societies. What are non-Muslims of goodwill supposed to conclude?

When the Israeli government did not stop a Lebanese massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982, great crowds of Israeli Jews gathered to protest their country's moral failing. Why has there been no comparable public demonstration by Palestinians or other Muslims to morally condemn Palestinian or other Muslim-committed terror?

(2) Why are none of the Palestinian terrorists Christian?

If Israeli occupation is the reason for Muslim terror in Israel, why do no Christian Palestinians engage in terror? They are just as nationalistic and just as occupied as Muslim Palestinians.

(3) Why is only one of the 47 Muslim-majority countries a free country?

According to Freedom House, a Washington-based group that promotes democracy, of the world's 47 Muslim countries, only Mali is free. Sixty percent are not free, and 38% are partly free. Muslim-majority states account for a majority of the world's "not free" states. And of the 10 "worst of the worst," seven are Islamic states. Why is this?

(4) Why are so many atrocities committed and threatened by Muslims in the name of Islam?

Young girls in Indonesia were recently beheaded by Muslim murderers. Last year, Muslims — in the name of Islam — murdered hundreds of schoolchildren in Russia. While reciting Muslim prayers, Islamic terrorists take foreigners working to make Iraq free and slaughter them. Muslim daughters are murdered by their own families in the thousands in "honor killings." And the Muslim government in Iran has publicly called for the extermination of Israel.

(5) Why do countries governed by religious Muslims persecute other religions?

No church or synagogue is allowed in Saudi Arabia. The Taliban destroyed some of the greatest sculptures of the ancient world because they were Buddhist. Sudan's Islamic regime has murdered great numbers of Christians.

Instead of confronting these problems, too many of you deny them. Muslims call my radio show to tell me that even speaking of Muslim or Islamic terrorists is wrong. After all, they argue, Timothy McVeigh is never labeled a "Christian terrorist." As if McVeigh committed his terror as a churchgoing Christian and in the name of Christ, and as if there were Christian-based terror groups around the world.

Hundreds of millions of non-Muslims want honest answers to these questions, even if the only answer you offer is, "Yes, we have real problems in Islam." Such an acknowledgment is infinitely better — for you and for the world — than dismissing us as anti-Muslim.

We await your response.

18th Night

The rioting has spread across the border into Belgium. From the Astute Blogger:

In Belgium, too, the ministry of the Interior said that it has been “a relatively calm night.” Relative calmness means that in Brussels six cars and a school bus were torched, that there was an attempt to set a school on fire and that molotov cocktails were thrown at a hotel. There were also car fires and acts of vandalism in Mechelen, Liège, Frameries and Seneffe.

“These were all isolated incidents that have been dealt with in an adequate way by the police and the fire brigade,” the ministry stressed in a press release. In short, it is not really worth mentioning in the media.

Yesterday Patrick Dewael, the Belgian minister of the Interior, criticised the newspaper La Dernière Heure for reporting that an extremist weblog is calling upon Muslim radicals to start large-scale rioting in Brussels on Saturday. The newspaper did not make the story up, but it should not have told the public about it.

The Astute Blogger links to multiple stories to show that the MSM is dissembling about the breadth and strength of the rioting. Dissembling is, of course, a fancy word for lying.

The Astute Blogger's analysis of just why the MSM is lying, is priceless. Go read it. Now.

17th Night

In terms of sheer number, things got a little better last night in Paris, apparently:

374 vehicles burned, 212 arrets, 2 police injured (1 in the hospital after getting hit with a metal bocce ball in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve in the Seine Saint Denis area where police are on minimum duty), riots in the city center of Lyon, public demonstrations banned in the Paris which is cordoned off to prevent rioting youths to gain access to the capital, and continual government bleating that everything is getting calmer.

Car burnings continued in the suburbs of Toulouse and Lyon. In Carpentras, a pre-school was burned down, a car was torched in front of a retirement home, and a school was rammed into by a vehicle.

Meanwhile, the Astute Blogger is predicting that Chiraq will resign shortly.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Hijab Chic

I saw something that I thought was a little humorous today. I was at the mall, walking by the makeup counter in one of the big department stores, when I saw two Muslim women in long dresses, and hijab -veils, like the one pictured, except the ones these gals were wearing were black).

They were standing at the makeup counter discussing makeup, and it's application with the girl behind the counter.

Even chicks in veils want to feel pretty, I guess.

UPDATE: Alright, you learn something new every day, and if you don't then you're trying not to. And, this one should have been obvious.

A nice Muslim women, named Aminah, commented on this post, saying the following:

Hi,
I just wanted to comment on your post.

I am a Muslim woman and i wear hijab, which is the headscarf, but i do not wear the whole abaya, thats the long dress thingy. Many Muslim women wear makeup and are very into fashion. It is not uncommon at all to see this, it all depends on where you live I guess.

Also, we do not dress like this at home and with our other female friends, we wear all the same clothes and makeup and do hair all the same...It is just when going out in public we choose to cover more as to not attarct a lot attention to our bodies and be objectified, its just a modesty thing that some Muslim women choose.

Just wanted to explain this... (all emphases were mine)

Thanks, Aminah. I am chastened. I can understand your not wanting to attract the attention of guys, the way many of us behave. That is, actually, admirable. And, heck, some Hollywood stars do the same thing at times. Even my wife does stuff like that. I remember being really irritated at her one time, when we went to this black-tie dinner and she wore this black sweater over her beautiful dress the whole evening. The dress was strapless, and she said she didn't like the way the men at the party were looking at her.

I understood, but it still pissed me off, because I think my wife is very beautiful, and I like to look at her.

The thing many of us are concerned with is whether you have a choice in wearing the veil. If you choose to wear a veil of your own free will, then that's a fine, and possibly even, an admirable thing. But, if there is no choice, then you are on your way to allowing a Taliban/Saudi Arabia atmosphere to creep into your life.

No one wants that to happen, except perhaps, some core of powerful men whose will to subjugate everyone around them must be resisted at all costs.

UPDATE II: Dag also has left some very worthy comments. He doesn't believe Amina, as far as he can throw her. Check it out.

I think it is likely Amina is telling the truth. I have had some very nice, normal Muslim friends. However, I have never had any friends who wore Hijab. Not too many Muslim wear Hijab where I'm from, although, recently, the number has been increasing.

Get On
The Bus,
Spike

His little day trip has gone on long enough. It's time for Spike Lee to go back to the loony bin.

Check out this video of Spike Lee accusing the American Government of blowing up the levees in New Orleans to kill black people.

Uh, wow.

Huge
Crackdown -
Riots
Increase

From BBC News, via Little Green Footballs:

Riot erupts in French city centre

Police in the French city of Lyon have fired tear gas to break up groups of youths who hurled stones and bins hours before a curfew was due to begin.

Police on the city's famous Place Bellecour square made two arrests in what state news agency AFP says is the first rioting in a major city centre.

Lyon has imposed a curfew for the first time in two weeks of nationwide unrest.

Thousands of police are patrolling Paris to enforce a ban on all public meetings likely to provoke rioting.

Trouble began at about 1700 (1600 GMT) on Place Bellecour where a large number of riot police were on duty as a preventative measure.

Around 50 youths attacked stalls and damaged vehicles, witnesses were quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

Shoppers hurried away from the area and most local shopkeepers closed their doors.

Officials in Lyon and 10 other towns to the east of the city earlier announced a curfew to bar unaccompanied minors from the streets over the weekend between 2200 and 0600 local time.

The worst suburban unrest on Friday night was reported in Lyon and the city of Toulouse in the south-west.

More than 500 cars were set on fire, two police officers were wounded and 206 people were detained across the country.

This was an increase on the previous night, when about 400 vehicles were torched and 168 people were arrested.

Paris curbs

The Paris ban on meetings, imposed under new emergency measures, started at 0900 GMT on Saturday and will remain in force until Sunday morning.

Police say they have intercepted e-mails and text messages calling for "violent acts" in the city on Saturday.

The ban prohibits "all meetings likely to start or fuel disorder".

National police chief Michel Gaudin warned the threat of violence in the capital was "not a rumour".

The Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysees avenue were among sites that could be potential targets, he said.

The BBC's David Chazan in the French capital says the police have been highly visible on the streets and in the metro, the city's rail transport system, stopping people and checking identities.

Mosque attacked

In the southern town of Carpentras, petrol bombs were thrown at a mosque during prayers on Friday, causing minor damage.

The nightly protests have gripped deprived areas where unemployment is rife and residents complain of racism and discrimination.

On Thursday, President Jacques Chirac acknowledged that France had "undeniable problems" in poor city areas and must respond effectively.

Maybe if the French just crawl under a rock, and pretend they're dead, the Muslims will leave them alone.

A Kind
Word
And A Gun

I believe the riots were purposefully instigated by Jihadi cells who were sent into Europe, specifically, to foment riots, in order to destablize governments. However, it is very possible that I am completely wrong in my analysis.

Oliver Guitta, over at the Counterterrorism Blog, seems to have some sort of information which would indicate that I am wrong. So, here it is:

I just finished an article re the real implications of the French Islamists in the latest wave of violence in French suburbs.

Here is an excerpt:

In fact, the French suburbs where radical Islam is most entrenched have been quiet. As terrorism expert Alain Bauer wisely observed:

"The radical Islamists would rather see the return of calm so they can act quietly."

Most radical Islamist Web sites I've browsed are calling on rioters to put down their rocks and molotov cocktails. One exhorts Muslims "not to give ammunition to the Zionist Nicolas Sarkozy scum who has now shown his real face as an Israeli terrorist" -- a reference to the country's hardline Interior Minister.

Obviously, Islamists are not calling for calm out of sheer kindness. Their true motive is that they wish to become indispensable actors on the national political stage. They want to be viewed as an intermediary between the French state and the young Muslims of the banlieues or, ideally, all Muslims.

This is the same strategy that has long been embraced by the Union des Organisations Islamiques de France (UOIF), an offshoot of the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, and the second largest Muslim organization in France. Like other Islamist groups, the UOIF has been hard at work in France's Arab suburbs since the mid-1990's, radicalizing young Muslims and spreading the message that Islamic values are incompatible with a secular, multicultural society.

Yes, and they've been very successful at it. So, one could understand that certain Islamists would want to continue that strategy.

However, one of the wisest things I have ever heard anyone say, on the subject of politics, was uttered by the character Don Vito Corleone, in Mario Puzo's book The Godfather:

"You can get far with a kind word, but you can get a lot further with a kind word and a gun."

The truth is, the Islamists will have more success if they divide themselves into a political wing (of power brokers and negotiators), and a military wing (of terrorists). The terrorists can periodically commit acts of barbarity which will scare the citizenry, and government of France. These acts of barbarity can then be used by the political wing to gain further concessions.

The reality is, this is precisely what has occurred as a result of these riots. The French government has agreed to give the neighborhoods where the Muslims live, a huge infusion of cash, and government programs.

Not bad for a few nights work.

Friday, November 11, 2005

16th Night

From The Bad Hair Blog, via Little Green Footballs:

Fausta asks:

Now ponder that map, and ask yourselves what kind of European (and American) media noise would we be hearing if we’ve had fifteen continuous days of rioting and arson not only in every major city in the country, but coast-to-coast?

Would the press be clamoring 24/7 for the Président de la République’s head on a platter, or at least for his ousting? Can you think of one, just one, of the 3 networks and cable TV stations that wouldn’t be on this all the time?

Jordanian Suicide Bombings
Draw Very Strange Reactions

The New York Times was actually moved to call terrorism evil:

As investigators searched for the identities of the three attackers - and for evidence that they hope will lead to those who helped plan the terrorist strike - Jordanians, especially those who survived the explosions, were struggling to deal with the sheer evil of what happened.

Well, imagine that. Suicide bombing is evil?!? See, I thought it was activism.

Anyway, the Palestinians are upset too. They can't believe anyone would have the nerve to target civilians:

SILET AL-THAHER, West Bank - In this Palestinian village, the Akhras clan mourned 17 relatives killed by a suicide bomber in Jordan — the first time Palestinians have been a target in a suicide attack.

“Oh my God, oh my God. Is it possible that Arabs are killing Arabs, Muslims killing Muslims?” asked a weeping Najah Akhras, 35, who lost two nieces.

Similar thoughts were heard over and over in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Thursday, as Palestinians expressed outrage over suicide attacks aimed at civilians.

Once again, I am a bit perplexed, because I thought murdering civilians was called, "being a martyr?!? "

Can anyone help me out here?

A Steaming Splatter of Postmodern Refuse

Warning: Really bad language alert. Very bad language coming. If you are easily offended, click past this post.

I don't think I have ever read a steamier pile of shit than this article by Sherherezade Faramarzi:

CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, Paris - Night after night of rioting across France in which children as young as 10 have hurled firebombs and torched cars has prompted many people to ask: Where were the parents?

The rampaging in the impoverished, mainly immigrant neighborhoods underscores not only tensions in French society but also troubles in the homes where many of the rioters have grown up.

Many parents are struggling to make ends meet, leaving them little time for their children. They often can hardly communicate with their sons and daughters: Many parents are not French citizens and never learn to speak French, while their children don't learn the language of their ancestors.

Some parents even blame the recent riots on a French law that prohibits them from hitting their kids, which they say renders them powerless to assert control.

The government wants parents to be more responsible. But aid groups wonder if parents even know what their children are up to.

Fatna, an Algerian immigrant who agreed to speak on condition her last name not be used, insists on the innocence of her 21-year-old son, who was sentenced to two months in jail for a role in the riots.

Most of the people interviewed would only allow their first names to be used, and even then only reluctantly. They appeared worried about drawing the attention of their neighbors.

"Life is very difficult here," Fatna said in Arabic. She, like her husband, is illiterate and doesn't speak French despite having lived here for more than 25 years.

Fatna said her son, Khaled, was at home when the first riots broke out in their home town, Clichy-Sous-Bois, on Oct. 27. But at 10 p.m. the next day he went to the local teahouse as he did every night during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

She didn't think much of it when he failed to return home, because it wasn't unusual. Sometimes, she said, he stayed with his sister.

Instead, Khalad had been arrested with other youths for participating in the riots. She pleaded with the magistrate that her son was innocent. "They said that's what all parents say," said Fatna. Still, she is convinced her son was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Khaled, who dropped out of school after failing his high school exams, is unemployed. He worked for eight months and then stopped, but his mother said she didn't know what kind of job he had.
"I don't read, I don't write," she said. "I don't know anything.

"They don't give work to the young. The young are not treated well by the police," said Fatna, who has never worked outside the home.

Parents complain their children don't listen to them, often lie and sometimes threaten to report the parents to police for abusing them if they can't have their way.

Many children express frustration at having to comply with values they don't share.

"France is a democratic country. It gives rights to women and children," said Abderrahman Bouhout, director of the Bilal Mosque in Clichy-Sous-Bois. "Now parents cannot do anything — if they hit their 12-year-old, police will come to their door. There's a hot line the kids can call to report parental abuse."

Children have "too much freedom," complained Abdelhalim Salah, 68, arguing that government policy has undermined parents.

Sabrine, a 41-year-old mother of four who came from Tunisia 20 years ago, said police shouldn't blame parents for failing to stop the violence.

"We cannot bring up our kids the way we want, to teach them Islam," said Sabrine, adding that France encourages children to choose how they want to practice religion.

"They say religion is not obligatory or that parents are not allowed to make their children wear the hijab (veil) or to pray," she said. "They want to give our children the same freedoms they give to the French."

Yeah, no shit, Sherezade. If you don't like it, and if any of the racaille interviewed in this article don't like it, then LEAVE!

For God's sake, when the writer squatted and emitted this article from his cranial anus, it's no wonder he had trouble keeping a sense of balance, because clearly this article came gushing out with the full-force of botulism-inspired diarrhea. The high-pressure rush must have damn near lifted him off his feet like a rocket

That AP decided that such a puslating splatter of disease-ridden feces was worth publishing just goes to prove that they are scat-lovers of the highest order.

Listen, I'm sorry to all my regular readers. I'm sure you don't want to have to read my description, and you didn't have any idea what you were getting yourself into when you came over here today, but sometimes a guy has just got to say what's on his mind.

The name of the writer who wrote this is SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI.

Remember that name. I'm sure this won't be the last time we are forced to observe this person's strange BDSM antics.

Screw you, Sherherezade.

UPDATE:

I did not read the whole article, because honestly, I thought I was going to be sick. But, Charles, over at LGF did, indeed read the whole thing. And, look what he found towards the end:

Parallels may be drawn between the immigrant children of France and Palestinian youth revolting against Israeli occupation.

Yes, that's right. Sherezade is saying that France is occupying the Muslims ...

in France.

Is this article not a call to war against France, then? Sherezade ought to be arrested, tried for treason, and put to death.

You think I'm kidding?

Then, take a look at what the Muslim response to the occupation of the "Palestinian territories" is. The response is to kill as many Israelis as possible.

That is what Sherezade is calling for here. Make no mistake about it. This is no touchy-feely liberal, Sunday LA Times piece. This is an incitement to overthrow the French government.

Great Moments In The History Of Neutrality

How neutral were they? They were so, so neutral:

Sweden’s neutral role during World War Two is the subject of a new museum exhibition which displays documentary evidence of war-time medical experiments, commerce with the Nazis and indifference to the plight of Jews.

Despite it’s official neutrality, Sweden delivered railway tracks and ball-bearings to Germany and was paid for the deliveries in gold. It also helped transport German soldiers on its railroads up to the north to the border of occupied Norway.

Helene Loeoew, head of the Living History Forum, which set up the exhibit said. ”Our main aim is to reveal the problematic nature of Sweden’s role during the war and raise questions about it. There is a lot of forgotten history ... I think it’s important to remember, especially when it comes to our own history,” Loeoew said, acknowledging that some might find the exhibit controversial.

”Some might think that some parts are too graphic ... This is not an exhibit for children,” she said, adding that others might think it gives to much of a negative picture of Sweden’s role in the war.

Heaven forbid that we be negative about people who aided Nazis, and gladly took the money they stole from Jews. Heaven forbid.

Neutrality is an economic niche for Sweden.

Is The French Government
Censoring Anti-Jihad Internet Sites?

From No Pasaran:

It may also be that the opportunity was taken to perform a field test to cut off traffic in an even worse case scenario. The only way this seems possible is to redirect internet traffic through military servers with filters and interception used as a crisis measure. After all there were at least two days where one some users who routed through proxies could see sites that others couldn’t.Said one observer who wrote to ¡No Pasaràn!:

« Note that French "moderate" Muslim sites (complete with hidden jihad call, anti-French, anti-western/anti-US and anti-Semite prejudice,...), islamoleftist (such as the infamous Radio-Islam), and leftists websites still are freely accessible.

The blocked sites are NOT neonazi, they are conservative and "Islamophobic", but the french government has been very afraid of the internet, especially after the "Radikal Web" affair, a rightwing webring of anti-islam and anti-Chirac websites, which was hounded by the "thought police" ("antiracist" & plain leftist hackers and organizations with contacts in the French police), and were later busted when there was a totally unrelated "attempted attempted" assassination against Our Dear Leader.

Since then, the gvt has been pressuring Islamophobic webmasters by suing them one after the other.This is only minor, but this needs to be known in the USA that these are the people who wish to control the internet.»

If it is true that the French government is censoring these "Islamophobic" sites, then it is evidence that the reason for the censorship is not concern over Islamophobia, but instead that the French government simply does not want the French people to learn the truth about the Muslim community in France.

Why do I say that? Because while the "Islamophobic" web sites are having trouble, the outright racist politician Le Pen's site is going strong, as is noted in this article. That would be because Le Pen is not a threat to the mainstream French media burqa, because, as he is a known racist, no one takes him seriously.

And there are people who want the United States to give up control of the internet.

Is The Jihad Is Worldwide And Coordinated?
Ed Morrisey, Apparently, Believes So

Quite a few people in the blogosphere whose intelligence I respect have expressed their doubts and disagreements with my assertion that the French riots are most likely centrally organized. So, it is good to see that a "major blogger," whose intelligence I respect, agrees with me:

The French authorities have heard Internet and instant-message chatter that a big demonstration designed to recharge the uprising will be held in the next couple of days. CQ received an e-mail from an anonymous source that contains a rather specific plan and date for a demonstration, although I'd prefer not to pass it along and assist in getting the word out.

Clearly, though, the measures taken by the French have had mixed results at best. Curfews have convinced the joyriders to stay home, but hardcore rioters remain out in the street. An overnight arrest total of 201 across the country has dampened but not put down the uprising, and the police expect more, not less, this weekend.

Does the American media suffer from ADHD and find themselves incapable of following an important story for longer than ten days? Or do they find themselves increasingly unable to explain the serious and continued violence despite the bribery and politically-correct strategies employed by French security forces?

It seems to me that the media cannot bring themselves to admit that the uprising has more behind it than bored youths looking to blow off some steam and acting spontaneously and unilaterally. The riots have a purpose, and they have a central control structure -- and that means someone wants to make specific gains from attacking France.

Morrisey here makes the assertion that the riots are centrally organized. I don't believe I have ever asserted that in such a categorical way. If so, it would have been because of emotion.

Instead, it is my opinion that the riots are centrally organized. I don't know it to be true. I come to this opinion simply because I don't believe the electrocution deaths of two boys were flashpoint enough to have started these riots.

Put these riots together with the other three (England, Denmark, Egypt) which have started suspiciously in the past few weeks, and the fact that Danish rioters admitted their riots were "planned," and you will see how I come to the belief I have .

I have a very hard time understanding how intelligent people, who would otherwise have no trouble believing that Al Qaeda was behind the 7/7 London bombings, would categorically refute the idea of Al Qaeda involvement in the riots.

If you were Osama Bin Laden, or some other international terrorist mastermind, and your goal was to establish a worldwide Islamic Caliphate, including Europe, would you not think to use riots as one of your methods for destablizing governments? Wouldn't such a weapon be an obvious choice?

Could it be that many intelligent people simply are not aware of the methodology of crowd control? That they have not ever taken note of the fact that there are people who are gifted at inspiring large crowds of people to do things they would not otherwise do? That these gifted people use specific techniques to accomplish the things they do with crowds?

Go to a rock concert, an African-American church, a motivational seminar, and you will see masses of people induced to orgasmic frenzies. There was a man who travelled around the United States a few years back motivating normal everyday business people to walk on burning coals. And they did it, without hurting themselves.

If motivational speakers can accomplish such things, it is entirely conceivable that our enemies would take note, and learn the techniques themselves.

I think it is important that we consider this possibility, because, it is my belief that it is likely that there are, currently, crowd control cells in various countries around the world, just waiting for the slightest advantage, to create the same kinds of riots in streets everywhere.

It would help us to find out who these people are, if they do in fact exist.

15th Night
Are Things
Calming?
Or,
Getting Worse?

Reuters says the rioting in France is truly calming down, but don't believe it:

PARIS (Reuters) - France started a long holiday weekend on Friday as two weeks of civil disturbances appeared to die down but a police chief said he feared rioters might be planning protests in central Paris.

Police said that 207 vehicles were burned and 101 people arrested by 1 a.m. on Friday morning, the 15th consecutive night of disturbances that have shocked France and shaken the conservative government.

"The trend continues downwards," a police spokesman told Reuters, referring to a steady drop in the figures and adding there were no major incidents to report.

Paris police chief Pierre Mutz banned the transport and purchase of petrol in jerry cans on Thursday, citing a string of arrests in the capital of people carrying firebombs.

"Calls have been launched over the past few days on Internet sites and by SMS messages urging meetings within Paris and calling for 'violent actions', in the words of the authors of these messages," Mutz's office said in a statement.

Riots in Paris have been largely confined to the suburbs, mostly in housing estates about an hour away from the city center.

The urban violence peaked last weekend but fell as emergency powers announced by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Tuesday allowed local officials to impose night curfews.

President Jacques Chirac said on Thursday the government had to address problems in the suburbs where many complain of racism, poverty, unemployment and lack of opportunities.

"We need to respond in a strong and quick way to the unquestionable problems that many inhabitants of the deprived neighborhoods surrounding our cities are facing," said Chirac, who has come under fire for saying too little during the crisis.

Finance Minister Thierry Breton said he had prepared a series of proposals to create more jobs.

"We have put a lot of money into the suburbs over the past 20 years," he told Britain's Financial Times newspaper. "But obviously it wasn't enough."

With solutions like the ones Chiraq is proposing, they will be back and bigger. Basically, he's encouraging a program of, "You riot, we give you money." And besides, the root cause is not poverty, it is Islamofascism.

The solution is, elect Nicolas Sarkozy.

And besides, according to No Pasaran/France 1, the rioting actually got worse last night:

463 vehicles burned, 201 arrests, 7 police injured, and 8 police suspended for doing their job.

In Lyon, 4 police were hurt by thrown rocks. Violence in the greater Paris area ticked up a bit.

12,000 police are being kept on duty through the weekend (including the holiday of 11 November). Calls to riot continue to circulate via SMS, blogs, and Internet bulletin boards.

Where's George Orwell when we need him?

Thursday, November 10, 2005

It's A World
Gone Crazy
Woman
In Chains

Lyrics from Tears For Fears:

Woman in chains
I feel hopelessly weighed down by your eyes of steel
It’s a world gone crazy
Keeps woman in chains

Trades her soul as skin and bones
Sells the only thing she owns
Woman in chains
Woman in chains

Men of stone
Men of stone
Well I feel deep in your heart
There are wounds time can’t heal
And I feel somebody somewhere is trying to breathe

It’s a world gone crazy
Keeps woman in chains

It’s under my skin
But out of my hands
I’ll tear it apart
But I won’t understand
I will not accept the greatness of man

It’s a world gone crazy
Keeps woman in chains
So free her
So free her

New Documentary
Explores
Anti-Semitic
"Protocols Of Zion"

The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion was a libelous tract purporting to be the minutes of a meeting of powerful Jews, for the purpose of plotting how to control the entire political and economic world. The book was a bestseller in Nazi Germany, and it is a bestseller across the Arab world today.

Producer Mark Levin has just released a documentary film dealing with the place The Protocols occupies in the modern world. From Reuters:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Did you know that Pepsi stands for Pay Every Penny Support Israel? Or that Rupert Murdoch is Jewish?

Those are just two of the more outlandish declarations uttered by political extremists and ordinary citizens in a new documentary that charts the mother of all conspiracy theories, "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion."

"The Protocols" was a faked document that purported to recount details of a late 19th century conference of Jews at which they discussed plans to overthrow Christianity. The fabrication appeared first in Russia in 1905 and quickly became a classic defense of anti-Semitism.

It reaches its centennial this year with every sign of gaining new believers, thanks to 21st century advances in electronic dissemination.

"At one point, I thought that maybe humor was the best way to deal with it," says Marc Levin, Manhattan-based director of the new film who has more than 25 documentaries and feature films to his credit. "I figured maybe I should get 12 old Jewish comedians, you know, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, to sit around a table and have them riff off 'The Protocols."'

But Levin became unnerved when he learned that 'The Protocols' had been dramatized for Egyptian television and published by an Arab-American newspaper in New Jersey.

Just last year, U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Inc. removed 'The Protocols' from its Web site, where it was offered for sale with a blurb suggesting that the notorious tract might be genuine.

Determined, then, to make a serious documentary, the filmmaker found that many Jews he spoke to about the project warned him he would only foment more hate.

"Their initial reaction was, 'You should burn that book. You should bury it. The last thing you want to do is a documentary about it,"' Levin said.

EXPOSING A FRAUD
Instead, Levin went out of his way to expose many of the anti-Semitic canards that are rooted in 'The Protocols' and have found a receptive audience across a broad spectrum, ranging from white supremacists to black nationalists.

The feature-length film, titled "Protocols of Zion," opened last month in art-house theaters in New York and Los Angeles and will be shown on cable television's HBO in the spring.

Film critics have praised the director for confronting talk-radio callers, angry young Palestinian-Americans and street-corner agitators, including an African-American in Manhattan who asked, "Don't you know that 33 cents of every bottle of Pepsi you buy go to Israel?"

The filmmaker traveled to the West Virginia compound of the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi organization whose leader, Shaun Walker, declared that Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch is a Jew.

"What?" Levin responds in disbelief.

"We've got all the articles that they're publishing in Australian newspapers going through his Jewish bloodline," Walker replies.

Murdoch, of course, is not Jewish, and some observers suggest that Levin is only helping to amplify such audacious claims by giving voice to them in his movie.

Go read the rest.

Strange
Happenings
In Eurabia

The other day, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan blamed the riots in France on the fact that they had banned girls from wearing the headscarf in public schools. Today, it seems, the European Union Court has approved the Turkish ban on girls wearing the headscarf in public schools:

Turkey can ban Islamic headscarves in universities, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

The court rejected an appeal by a Turkish woman who argued that the state ban violated her right to an education and discriminated against her.

Leyla Sahin had brought the case in 1998 after being excluded from class at Istanbul University.
But the judges ruled that the ban was justified to maintain order and avoid giving preference to any religion.

Although overwhelmingly Muslim, Turkey is a secular republic and the Islamic headscarf is banned in all universities and official buildings.

The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul says the verdict will have a major impact as more than 1,000 other women from Turkey have filed similar applications.
'Extremist movements'

According to the court's ruling, which is final, the headscarf ban is based on the Turkish constitution's principles of secularism and equality.

In a society where men and women are equal, it said, a ban on religious attire such as the headscarf was justified on university premises.

"The court did not lose sight of the fact that there were extremist political movements in Turkey which sought to impose on society as a whole their religious symbols and conception of a society founded on religious precepts," the court's ruling added.

I have three thoughts on this.

1) Erdogan had better prepare for the inevitable riots, huh?

2) The United States doesn't have a ban on the headscarf, so I guess we are more openminded than both Turkey and France.

3) It sure is curious that the European Court is ruling on the laws of a nation which is not even a part of the European Union.

Jordanians Rally:
"Burn In Hell al-Zarqawi"

Earlier this week, there was a demonstration, 150,000-strong, against Al Qaeda in Morocco. Today, Jordanians rallied in the streets against Al Qaeda mastermind, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi:

AMMAN, Jordan - Thousands of Jordanians rallied in the capital and other cities shouting "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!" a day after three deadly hotel bombings that killed at least 59 people. Officials suspected Iraqi involvement in the attacks, which were claimed by al-Qaida's Iraq branch.

As protesters in Jordan and elsewhere in the Arab world denounced the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, security forces snared a group of Iraqis for questioning and officials said one of the bombers spoke Iraqi-accented Arabic before he exploded his suicide belt in the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The main demonstration in Amman lasted for more than an hour. But honking vehicles, decorated with Jordanian flags and posters of King Abdullah II, cruised Amman's streets until late in the night, as passengers chanted "Death to al-Zarqawi, the villain and the traitor!" and anti-terrorism slogans.

About 50 people, including Jordanian children holding tiny flags, placed candles on a makeshift sand memorial in the driveway of the Hyatt.

King Abdullah II, a strong U.S. ally, vowed in a nationally televised address to "pursue those criminals and those behind them, and we will get to them wherever they are."

Could this be the beginning of the collapse of Islamofascism in the Arab world? That would be nice, but let's not get too excited. The tribalism continues on:

"Oh my God, oh my God. Is it possible that Arabs are killing Arabs, Muslims killing Muslims? For what did they do that?" screamed 35-year-old Najah Akhras, who lost two nieces in the attack. Similar thoughts were heard over and over throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But, the bombings did create a second interesting spectacle to go with the protests; Al Qaeda released a statement attempting to justify their actions. Ha!:

CAIRO, Egypt - In an apparent response to Jordanians who took to the streets to call for its leader to "burn in hell," al-Qaida in Iraq took the rare step Thursday of trying to justify the triple suicide bombings that killed 56 people, mostly Arabs.

Earlier Thursday, the group posted a Web statement claiming responsibility for Wednesday's attacks. Then a second al-Qaida statement appeared on the Internet "to explain for Muslims part of the reason holy warriors targeted these dens." That statement appeared after Arab-wide expressions of outrage.

"Let all know that we have struck only after becoming confident that they are centers for launching war on Islam and support the crusaders' presence in Iraq and the Arab peninsula and the presence of the Jews on the land of Palestine," the group said.

Really, these guys are pathetic losers, aren't they? In America, we marginalize people like this, and they have to scurry off and live in the backwoods of places like Idaho, and Montana. In the Arab World, they can become revered leaders.

It doesn't make them any more impressive, though. They are maniacal, murderous, racist idiots. No society should tolerate such people.

Will London Burn Too?

Interesting. The Spectator is telling it like it is about Islam:

Two other Islamic principles are important subjects of debate among contemporary Muslims. The first concerns ‘sacred space’. Islam is a territorial religion. Any space once gained is considered sacred and should belong to the umma for ever. Any lost space must be regained — even by force if necessary.

Migrant Muslim communities in the West are constantly engaged in sacralising new areas — first the inner private spaces of their homes and mosques, and latterly whole neighbourhoods (e.g., Birmingham) by means of marches and processions. So the ultimate end of sacred space theology is autonomy for Muslims of the UK under Islamic law.

Radical Muslims hope for the re-establishment of the Caliphate, abolished by Atatürk in 1924. The possibility of a Southern Europe Caliphate and a North Sea Caliphate has been raised.

The other important principle is the classic Islamic division of the world into Dar al-Islam (the house of Islam), where Muslims rule, and Dar al-Harb (the house of war).

The sinister name for non-Muslim territory indicates that Muslims have an obligation to wage war until it becomes Dar al-Islam. There is much debate within Islam today as to whether or not the West is Dar al-Harb. Non-Muslims can be thankful for alternatives such as Dar al-Sulh (House of Truce) and Dar al-Ahd (House of Treaty).

Some radical British Muslims used to believe in a ‘covenant of security’ which forbids Muslims living in the UK from engaging in military action within the country. Preposterous though it seems, they believed that, were it not for this ‘covenant’, they would be duty-bound to attack the majority community. Most now believe the covenant to be null and void because of the UK’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the most radical of all hold that the covenant of security applied only to Muslims who had sought refuge in Britain, not to those who were born here. In the words of Hassan Butt, ‘They [the British-born] owe nothing to the government. They did not ask to be born here; neither did they ask to be protected by Britain.’

In Britain we already have many examples of Muslim violence. Some are within the community — ethnic violence such as Kurds against Pakistanis in Peterborough or so-called ‘honour killings’. Some are between Muslims and other communities such as the blacks vs Asian Muslims in Birmingham or the armed black Muslim gangs in south London threatening to kill those who will not convert to Islam. Will we see the same patterns of sectarian violence as in Pakistan, the homeland of so many British Muslims? Shias and Sunnis killing each other, and the persecution of Ahmadiyyas by Sunnis?

Most alarming of all is the prospect of Muslim secessionist violence in the UK as in Kosovo, the Philippines, Thailand and elsewhere (Huntington’s much-reviled ‘bloody borders of Islam’). Now this is happening — apparently — in France. A radical Muslim preaching at Hyde Park Corner on 6 November called for what had happened in France to be repeated here. He urged all Muslims to move into Muslim areas, after which any Churches would be expelled. He told his audience that Europe had once been Muslim and called on them to make it Muslim again.

Many British cities already have concentrated Muslim communities. Conservative estimates based on census returns indicate that Bradford had a Muslim population of just under 49,000 in 1991, rising to over 75,000 in 2005. But Sher Azam, president of the Bradford Council of Mosques, claims that 100,000 Muslims in Bradford attend mosque each week, suggesting a total Muslim population in Bradford far in excess of this. Whatever the true figures, it is clear that within a few years Bradford and many other British cities will have Muslim majorities. It is also clear that the often quoted figure of 1.6 million for the total British Muslim population must be a gross underestimate.

Islamic enclaves would be defined by Islamic values, education, politics, religious practice and above all law. They would be ‘cleansed’ of any non-Muslim presence. This cleansing is already beginning by means of threats and violence to isolated churches in Muslim majority areas. Even Islamic law is already semi-established, in that a multitude of Shariah councils and Shariah courts exist which deal with family issues, effectively creating an unofficial parallel legal system within the UK.

Unless the multiculturalist policy — which has been indirectly facilitating the separatist agenda of radical Islamists — is reversed immediately, we shall wake up and find we have sleepwalked into a situation of apartheid and segregation. If we sleep long enough, we may even wake up to find that, like Paris, London is burning. Or that we are living in an Islamic state.

Those are words of warning. Can anyone tell me, is the Spectator a liberal or conservative periodical? If it is liberal, then this article is an extraordinary occurrence.

The French Intifada Rages On

The destruction continued last night:

Arsonists attacked again overnight, the 14th straight day of violence. However, car burnings fell again overnight to 482 from 617 the previous night, Hamon said. The peak in car arsons was overnight between Sunday and Monday, when 1,408 vehicles were torched. The number has steadily dropped every night since then.

This "is an encouraging sign that does not, however, diminish the police effort," Hamon said.

Overnight, vandalism at two power stations caused blackouts in parts of Lyon, France's second-largest city, police said.

Vandals set 11 cars ablaze and rammed a burning car into a primary school in the southern city of Toulouse, damaging its entrance, police said. Another school was set on fire in the eastern city of Belfort.

Violence, albeit on a much smaller scale, spilled across France's borders to Belgium, where rioters burned cars for a fifth straight night. Fifteen vehicles were torched, but the government said the attacks were isolated and could not be compared to the French riots.

France's emergency decree paved the way for possible curfews in Paris, its suburbs and more than 30 other cities and towns nationwide if officials feel they are needed. By Wednesday evening, only a few municipalities and regions imposed them; Paris had not.

In Nice, Cannes and 19 other towns in the Riviera region, minors were forbidden from being outdoors between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. without adult supervision. Certain bars in Nice and another town were ordered closed during those hours for 10 days.

There have been no direct clashes between youths and police in the Riviera but unrest that started in the area on Friday had persisted in some towns for four nights.

Sometimes You Just Gotta Love Your Enemies

This time, a mainstream media exec tells us the truth behind the lies. Here is evidence that the MSM colludes to keep conservatives out of power. As if we needed any more than we already have, huh? But, this quote is so blatant, it will almost take your breathe away:

Jean-Claude Dassier, the director general of the rolling news service TCI, said the prominence given to the rioters on international news networks had been “excessive” and could even be fanning the flames of the violence.

Mr Dassier said his own channel, which is owned by the private broadcaster TF1, recently decided not to show footage of burning cars.

“Politics in France is heading to the right and I don’t want rightwing politicians back in second, or even first place because we showed burning cars on television,” Mr Dassier told an audience of broadcasters at the News Xchange conference in Amsterdam today.

“Having satellites trained on towns across France 24 hours a day showing the violence would have been wrong and totally disproportionate ... Journalism is not simply a matter of switching on the cameras and letting them roll. You have to think about what you’re broadcasting,” he said.

Man, oh man, you just gotta love your enemies, when they tell the truth. Thanks for that, Mr. Dassier.

I think Mr. Dassier might be interested to know that, here in America, we have a channel called C-Span, which just switches on the cameras and lets them roll. The liberal magazine, the New Yorker, had a twenty-page feature on the founder of C-Span a few years back, wherein they praised the channel for the positive impact it has on Democracy, by bringing the uncensored truth of the inner-workings of government, and politics, right into the homes of the average American.

Gee, what a concept, huh, Mr. Dassier?

Al Qaeda:
Jordan Is
Garden Of
Jews And
Crusaders

Well, now we know why they bombed Jordan, a relatively peaceful Arab nation:

Al-Qaida claimed responsibility Thursday for three suicide bomb attacks on Western hotels that killed at least 56 people, linking the deadly blasts to the war in Iraq and calling Amman the "backyard garden" for U.S. operations. Police continued a broad security lockdown and authorities sent DNA samples for testing to identify the attackers. Land borders were reopened after being closed for nearly 12 hours.

Government spokesman Bassel Tarawneh lowered the death toll by one, citing confusion in the early hours after the blasts. He said the number was likely to rise slightly.

He said the victims included 15 Jordanians, five Iraqis, one Saudi, one Palestinian, three Chinese, one Indonesian; 30 others hadn't been identified.

The nearly simultaneous attacks late Wednesday also wounded more than 115 people, police said. They detained several people overnight, although it was unclear if those being held were of suspects or witnesses.

The al-Qaida claim, posted on a militant Internet site, said Jordan became a target because it was "a backyard garden for the enemies of the religion, Jews and crusaders ... a filthy place for the traitors ... and a center for prostitution." The authenticity of the posting could not be independently verified, but it appeared on an Islamic Web site that acts as a clearing house for statements by militant groups.

The claim of responsibility, signed in the name of the spokesman for Al-Qaida in Iraq, said the attacks put the United States on notice that the "backyard camp for the crusader army is now in the range of fire of the holy warriors."

Ok, duly noted. Al Qaeda is a bunch of Jew-hating, anti-Americans, just like Hitler. Thanks for telling us, you freaking lunatics.

Oh, by the way, The Astute Blogger predicted this some time ago.

Dhimmi
Hollywood

Albert Brooks made a movie. Hollywood canceled it's release. Gee, can you guess why?:

Sony Pictures got upset about a "bad" word. They demanded it be taken out of the title of a movie. The word is "Muslim."

Give me a break. Do we have to be that sensitive? Or fearful?

The movie is "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World." The writer and star of the movie, Albert Brooks, says he made the movie because he was concerned that, in the wake of 9/11, Americans hated even the word "Muslim." "A part of me always thought," Brooks said, "what are there, a billion-and-a-half Muslim people on this planet, and I never thought that all of them wanted us dead."

Brooks thought he could put his professional skills -- he's a comedian -- to work on the problem. "I thought, what could I do to make a movie in . . . my style to sort of soften this subject."

He imagined himself given a special assignment by the U.S. government: "Maybe the only way to really understand somebody is to see what makes them laugh," he is told. "Go to India and Pakistan, write a 500-page report, and tell us what makes the Muslims laugh."

What's controversial about that? The movie is a comedy about humor and cultural differences. Brooks performs his stand-up routine in India:

"Why is there no Halloween in India? 'Cause they took away the Gandhi!"

The audience doesn't laugh.

Says Brooks: "I steered clear of religion in this movie. There's no mention of the Koran -- the whole point of the movie is looking for comedy, not looking for God. I was allowed to film in the biggest mosque in India, and when I told the imam the plot of the movie, he started to laugh."
Sony officials liked the movie, too, Brooks told me, and planned to premiere it last month. "Posters were made, trailers were made, and then about three months later, on a Monday morning, I get this phone call, we can't release the movie with the title."

The call came shortly after a Newsweek story claimed that soldiers at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a Koran down the toilet, and rioting broke out in the Middle East. It turned out that the Newsweek story was wrong. They retracted it. And it turned out that the rioting may have been a previously planned anti-American demonstration that had nothing to do with Newsweek's story. But Sony's president still said he wouldn't release a film called "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World."

How cowardly. Hollywood used to make lots of big-star, big budget movies about Arab terrorists, like "Executive Decision," "Rules Of Engagement," and "True Lies" ... but not after Sept. 11. Tom Clancy's best-selling novel "The Sum of All Fears" is about Palestinian terrorists, but Hollywood morphed them into European neo-Nazis.

Eurabia
In A
Nutshell

Notice the Star of David, the symbol of Judaism, is portrayed as the equivalent of Nazism.

Notice they're hanging Arab/Palestinian flags in front of a building which features the word "Liberte'."

Why?

Because they can, because they have "Liberte'" to do so.

Notice the martyr on a stretcher; a symbol of Jihad.

There you go, Jew-hatred, abuse of Liberte', and Jihad. Eurabia, in a nutshell.

The Clash of Civilizations

Here, is an excellent article,from the German paper, Die Welt, via Fjordman, about why Western Civilization is such an amazing thing, and so worth preserving:

The title of my pages is The Free West. It is not a random title. It is something I believe in. I am a secular person but I deeply believe - in an almost religious way - in the freedoms our western societies have achieved through sacrifice, pain, suffering, and through the collective intellectual and emotional efforts of millions of human beings who have shaped our pasts.

Our freedom is not a phenomenon we should take for granted. It is a miracle. The basic ‘natural’ state of human existence is marked by repression, lack of justice, hunger, the rule of tyrants, and only in the last three centuries, we see the emergence of individual freedom. Technology, sciences, the separation of church and state, helped in creating the right mindset for the development of the free spirit that independently produces its own values, its own lifestyle, and its own world - without neglecting tradition and history.

Since 9/11 my life has been marked by the feverish question why young, bright men started to hate our freedoms and gave their lives - and took the lives of thousands of others - in order to create a world ruled by ancient superstition.

Our freedoms exist thanks to individual discipline and individual responsibility within functioning organizational bodies like the judiciary, the state, the police, and the great thing is that this system works: never before in European (and Western) history have so many people been living with so much freedom, so much wealth, so much possibilities to shape their lives in peace and safety.

Nevertheless, these young Muslims, living among us, were disgusted by our freedoms and preferred a life in the shadow of medieval texts they considered sacrosanct. What we face today is how two deeply contrasting worldviews collide: the idea that reality is a human adventure, and the idea that reality is the product of a superhuman Force that contains all other forces. In other words: the struggle between the West and radical Islam is another phase in the containment of the tradition of magical thinking that has been haunting the human race since the beginning of human consciousness.

Go read the rest.

14th Night

No Pasaran says, "They stayed home to watch soccer last night":

394 vehicles burned, 169 arrests, and 5 French departments making use of a curfew.
The government has refused to allow a peace march on the Champs-Elysées this Friday. What the TF1 article linked to above fails to mention is the this march, far from anything peaceful, is the brainchild of the General Union of Palestinian Students and was meant to coincide with the first anniversary of Arafat's death from AIDS (putain, on n'arrête pas de nous faire chier avec ces histoires de sidaïque). Would they have worn bomb belts?

Interior Minister Sarkozy has requested the expulsion of all foreigners convicted of violent acts during the rioting. Moonbat human rights groups have seized upon this proposed measure and are squealing like stuck pigs even though the measure would be more symbolic than anything else. The French simply cannot admit that these rioting scum are not foreigners but their own children, French born and raised.

These Are The Days
Of Miracles
And Wonders

This is the long distance call:

PITTSBURGH - Two lines of an alphabet have been found inscribed in a stone in Israel, offering what some scholars say is the most solid evidence yet that the ancient Israelites were literate as early as the 10th century B.C.

"This is very rare. This stone will be written about for many years to come," archaeologist Ron E. Tappy, a professor at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary who made the discovery, said Wednesday. "This makes it very historically probable there were people in the 10th century (B.C.) who could write."

Christopher Rollston, a professor of Semitic studies at Emmanuel School of Religion in Johnson City, Tenn., who was not involved in the find, said the writing is probably Phoenician or a transitional language between Phoenician and Hebrew.

"We have little epigraphic material from the 10th century in Israel, and so this substantially augments the material we have," he said.

The stone was found in July, on the final day of a five-week dig at Tel Zayit, about 30 miles south of Tel Aviv.

We Are
At Home
Here
Whatever
We consider
Our Culture
Belongs To
Our
Chosen Country

From Tony Blankley, at the Washington Times:

When, seven months ago, I finished writing my book, "The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations?" (Regnery Publishing, Washington D.C. September 11, 2005), London had not been attacked by Islamist terrorists, the Tate Museum in London had not removed an art exhibit because it offended radical Muslim sensitivities and France had not yet experienced the explosion of violence from elements of its Muslim population in its "no-go zone" communities.

The fact that I predicted all those events in my book was not the result of clairvoyance. It was merely the result of a normally intelligent person looking at the facts, and their rather obvious implications, without the blinding effect of a politically correct mentality.

After studying what the radical Islamists were saying and doing in Europe, I opened my book with a scenario of a London Islamist terrorist attack and an Islamist demand for removing offensive European art work from museums. Then, I wrote: "Muslim parts of Paris, Rotterdam and other European cities are already labeled no go zones for ethnic Europeans, including armed policemen."

As the Muslim populations and their level of cultural and religious assertiveness expand, European geography will be "reclaimed" for Islam.

Europe will become pockmarked with increasing numbers of little Fallujahs that will be effectively impenetrable by anything much short of a U.S. Marine division. "Thus, as the fundamentalism expands into European (and perhaps to a lesser extent American) Muslim communities, not only will Islamic cultural aggression against a seemingly passive and apologetic indigenous population increase, but the zone of safety and support for the actual terrorists will expand as well." (The West's Last Chance, pp. 55-56).

Now, two weeks into the appalling explosion of violence in Europe (and the equally appalling French governmental passivity in the face of such violence) most of the world's media treats this huge event as the third or fourth story on the evening news. From the BBC and CNN to the major newspapers of the world, the story is underreported and misreported. On Monday The Washington Post was still not reporting the story on the front page.

The big networks have consistently given only headline coverage to the story. I was in Russia last week (lecturing and doing media on my book) and actually timed the BBC coverage of the French Muslim violence story at about a minute and a half, while in the same broadcast the post-Pakistani earthquake-relief story was given over fifteen minutes. CNN International proportioned its coverage similarly.

Soon, the violence of the last two weeks will be seen as the opening of an event of world-historic significance.

Even when the current violence subsides — even when the French government attempts to placate its radical Muslim population by offering more welfare benefits and programs — it will not be the end of the story. A new benchmark of the possible will have been established. The flaccid and timorous response of the French government will only increase the radicalizing Muslim elements' contempt for Western cultural weakness.

As Paul Belien, writing from Brussels this weekend, observed: "It is not anger that is driving the insurgents to take it out on the secularized welfare states of Old Europe. It is hatred. Hatred caused not by injustice suffered, but stemming from a sense of superiority. The 'youths' do not blame the French, they despise them."

As Mr. Belien reports, look what a typical radical Muslim leader, Dyab Abou Jahjah, the leader of the Brussels-based Arab European League, says: "We reject integration when it leads to assimilation. I don't believe in a host country. We are at home here and whatever we consider our culture to be also belongs to our chosen country. I'm in my country, not the country of the Westerners."

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

On The Day of The Balfour Declaration

Christian Hate? brings us a quote from an article in the famously Israel-hating newspaper, the Guardian, circa 1917:

'...the declaration of policy by the British Government to-day is the security for a new, perhaps a very wonderful, future for Zionism and for the Jewish race.'

Yes, and now that the Jewish state is established and thriving, the Guardian hates it. Could it be because they can only find it in them to love Jews, when Jews are downtrodden, but, the instant Jews are powerful and successful, then they become a threat?

And, why would that be? Why would the people at the Guardian, the BBC, and so much of the world's media, be bothered by successful Jews?

France
Out of
France
Now

Yaakov Kirschen, the Jerusalem Post cartoonist, and proprietor of the blog Dry Bones, posted this doozy today.

Yaakov used to write for Mad Magazine. That gives him a very high Cool Quotient, in my book.

{:-)

The Jihad Is Worldwide and Coordinated
Iran Warns Of
"Unpredictable Consequences"

From CNN:

HELSINKI (AFP) - Any move to refer Iran's nuclear program to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions would have "unpredictable consequences," the country's representative at the UN atomic agency warned.

A European-sponsored resolution adopted by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), paving the way to such action before the Security Council, has "in our view has jeopardized the positive atmosphere existing between both parties," Iranian representative Mehdi Akhondzadeh said at a seminar in Finland.

"Any action from interlocutors to further complicate the situation could have unpredictable consequences," he added, speaking in Helsinki.

The resolution, drafted by European Union negotiators Britain, Germany and France and adopted on September 24, stated for the first time since the IAEA began investigating Iran in February 2003 that Tehran was in "non-compliance" with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), mainly for hiding sensitive atomic activities for almost two decades.

Like riot across Europe, perhaps?

Just so everyone knows, I don't discount the idea that there are economic or racial factors to the riots in France. Poverty and racism make people angry. But, riots come about because of flashpoints of anger present themselves, at the right time, in the right place. Many riots begin spontaneously, but a charismatic person, backed by a band of 4-8 strategically placed aids, can start a riot in a crowd which is already filled with anger.

Anyone who has ever been to a U2 concert, or a Peter Gabriel concert knows that there are people who are masters of crowd control. Hitler was a master at crowd control. Many American Evangelical Ministers are experts at crowd control.

There are techniques to crowd control; rhythm, music, chanting, repetition of phrases, movement etc. These techniques can be employed at will by a person who is willing to wait for the right conditions to come along.

Simply put, I think it is very likely that Iran and Al Qaeda, or some other terrorist organization, are working together at this point. I believe this Iranian-proxy terrorist organization has trained a few charismatic individuals, and teams of aids, in the techniques of crowd control, and I believe they have sent them around the world to destablize societies.

I believe these teams of special forces, then lie in wait of a situation they can exploit.

Remember, the riots which have started in the past few weeks, did not start spontaneously, but instead started a few steps removed from the original incendiary incident.

The Danish riots began several weeks after Jyllands-Posten published the Mohammed cartoons.
The English riot began after a meeting to establish peace between Muslims and the surrounding community. The meeting was thought to have resolved the issue. When the Muslims began rioting, the West Indians were surprised, even shocked. One women was quoted as saying, "At first, we thought they were joking.
The Egyptian riots began a year after the original offense.
The French riots began after two very foolish, absurd deaths.

Riots begin for one of two reasons generally; boisterous sports fans play out their excitement by wrecking things, or people get swept up in a frenzy of anger over an injustice. It is my contention that these riots do not meet these criteria.

I believe, Iran, are even now, biding their time, across Europe, looking for the slightest infraction which they can turn into a heinous injustice in the minds of impressionable and angry "youths."

If I am right, we will see more in the weeks to come.

Dhimmi
France

Villepin has a great plan to pay off the rioters:

PARIS (AFX) - Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin unveiled a raft of social and economic measures designed to improve conditions in France's tough, low-income neighbourhoods that have spawned unrest raging across the country.

The initiatives -- outlined before parliament the same day the government approved powers to declare a state of emergency in specified regions of the country -- aim to reduce chronically high unemployment in those suburbs, provide better education and address entrenched racism.

No plan to help out the victims forthcoming.

The Afterglow of Hell

Among my biggest fears with regards to the future of Europe is that, if they don't put a stop to the Jihadis among them quickly, then they will resort to their old ways, and elect fascist strongmen, who will settle things the old-fashioned European way.

Behold, Le Pen:

French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed Wednesday his National Front party has been "submerged" with prospective members and supportive e-mail since rioting erupted in heavily immigrant communities near Paris.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Le Pen described the recent violence as "just the start" of conflicts caused by "massive immigration from countries of the Third World that is threatening not just France but the whole continent."

Le Pen said people with immigrant backgrounds who commit crimes should be stripped of their French nationality and sent "back to their country of origin."

Reminded that the vast majority of youths taking part in the arson and rioting are French, born in France to immigrant parents, he said: "What does that mean? Are they French because they have a French identity card?"
French nationality should be given only to those who ask for it and "who are worthy of it," he said. "Those who got nationality automatically, who don't consider themselves French and who even say publicly that they consider France their enemy should not be treated as French."

Le Pen said he is convinced that what he described as a surge in support for his "zero immigration" platform would translate into votes at the ballot box for his National Front party.

French voters "are saying to themselves 'Le Pen was right. We were told that Le Pen is an extremist because he said that immigration problems would lead to disorder. The facts have shown that he was right,'" he said.

"We are receiving thousands of new members, tens of thousands of e- mails. All of our offices are submerged, we don't know how to respond because we don't have the staff to reply to the wave of people who, 95 percent of them, salute and approve our positions," he added.

And what salute do they use, Monsieur Le Pen?

Oh boy.

Get it together, Europe. For the sake of the rest of humanity, get it together.

This reminds me of an email from a French person which was posted over at YARGB (please pardon the computer translation):

I thus tested but in vain, to contact the site of the embassy of the USA, intentionally to ask Bush to prepare to help us to empty and reorientate on their continent, musulmano-African and to protect us, our leaders doing nothing but lend the side instead of seeing that it is indeed uen civil war requiring a military treatment without concession.Impossible to have the site of the embassy from the United States in Paris, due to saturation!

Get that. This guy wants America to prepare to come over and "reorientate" their musulman-Arican citizenry. Apparently, he wants us pull up our sleeves and help the French ship the Africans back to Africa.

Somehow, the European mind vasciallates between Europia and Inferno.

Hyatt Hotel In Amman, Jordan Is Bombed

Some "disaffected youth" set off a bomb in the hotel lobby:

AMMAN, Jordan - An explosion shook the Grand Hyatt hotel in Jordan's capital late Wednesday, and witnesses saw smoke rising from the building. A police official said some people had been killed, "and there are many wounded."

An American businessman who was at the hotel when the explosion occurred, said a "bomb that went off in the lobby." He declined to identify himself.

Police said the cause of the explosion was unknown.

A black cloud of smoke was seen rising from the building in the commercial Jebel Amman district following the blast at about 8:50 p.m. (1:50 p.m. EST).

Ambulances were seen rushing to the hotel.

Government officials are searching the wreckage for the root cause, but it is nowhere to be found, apparently.

Are The Jihadis Becoming More Desparate?

The Astute Blogger notes that in London the Metropolitan Police are stepping up the terror warning:

[Sir Ian BlaIr:] "I have never seen anything like what's happening at the moment. There are people out there in the UK plotting mass murder without warning." ... "I do believe the state has a duty to its citizens to give the greatest level of protection it can." ... "This is different. It is chilling and what we are saying is we are very, very worried and alarmed about it..."

The Astute Blogger comments:

A major attack was just foiled in Australia. There is a WIDESPREAD intifada throughout France. And now this.

I don't think all this was MERELY intended to coincide - more or less - with Ramadan and Eid. I think that as the Iraqi election gets closer, and as we put MORE AND MORE pressure on Syria - and ESPECIALLY as we put more pressure on Iran - that the jihadoterrorist threat INCREASES.

WHY?! We are cornering the enemy and they know it, and they are getting more desperate.

I hope he is right.

French Rioting Appears To Lose Strength

Initial reports last night made it seem as if the rioters were picking more high-profile targets, and were being more aggressive in their encounters with police. But, while that may have been true, this morning, it looks as if the French police are gaining the upper hand. From AP:

PARIS - France's storm of rioting lost strength on Wednesday with a drop of nearly half in the number of car burnings, police said. But looters and vandals still defied a state of emergency with attacks on stores, a newspaper warehouse and a subway station.

The extraordinary 12-day state of emergency went into effect Tuesday at midnight, giving special powers to authorities in Paris, its suburbs and more than 30 other cities from the Mediterranean to the German border — an indication of how widespread arson, riots and other unrest have become in nearly two weeks of violence.

The emergency decree invoked a 50-year-old security law dating from France's colonial war in Algeria. It empowers officials to put troublemakers under house arrest, ban or limit the movement of people and vehicles, confiscate weapons and close public spaces where gangs gather.

Local officials could also choose to impose curfews. By midday Wednesday, only a few municipalities and regions had. Paris had not.

Seventy-three percent of respondents in a poll published Wednesday in daily Le Parisien said they agreed with the curfew.

Overnight Tuesday-Wednesday, youths torched 617 vehicles, down from 1,173 a night earlier, police said. Incidents were reported in 116 towns, down from 226. Police made 280 arrests, raising the total to 1,830 since the violence broke out 13 nights ago.

"The arrests are bearing fruit," said Interior Ministry spokesman Franck Louvrier. "It's clear there has been a significant drop, but we must persevere."

Christian Gaillard de Lavernee, head of the national civil security brigade, told reporters that firefighters responded to 30 percent fewer calls overnight than the previous day.

In some towns, concerned residents have banded together to keep overnight watch on public buildings and to patrol their neighborhoods, armed only with fire extinguishers.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse youths throwing gasoline bombs in the southwestern city of Toulouse, and rioters used Molotov cocktails to blow up an unoccupied bus powered by natural-gas in the town of Bassens, near Bordeaux. No injuries were reported.

Subway service that had been shut down in the eastern city of Lyon resumed Wednesday after a firebomb exploded in a station late Tuesday. No one was injured, but city transport officials announced that bus and subway service will be halted each evening at 7 p.m. at least until Sunday as a precaution.

Arsonists also set fire to a warehouse used by Nice-Matin newspaper in Grasse, national police spokesman Patrick Reydy said. Youths looted and set fire to a furniture and electronics store and an adjacent carpet store in Arras in the north, he said.

The northern city of Amiens, central Orleans and Savigny-sur-Orge, and the Essonne region south of the capital were putting into place curfews for minors, who must be accompanied by adults at night. Two cars burned in Amiens overnight despite the curfew, compared with six a night earlier, police said.

Looks like it will be over in a day or two. Good. Now, what are the French going to do about these "disaffected youth" in their midst?

She's Looking For The "Real Killer"

Mary Mapes, producer of the National Guard documents story, which was designed to take down a sitting President, insists she has done nothing wrong, and she is still investigating "the source of the controversial documents.":

In her first interview since being fired, former CBS News producer Mary Mapes maintains that her controversial "60 Minutes II" story on President Bush's National Guard service was "true" and that "no one has proved that the documents were not authentic."

Mapes was fired after an independent panel found her basic reporting was "faulty."

In her interview with ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross, to be broadcast Wednesday morning on "Good Morning America," Mapes says she is unrepentant about her role. "I don't think I committed bad journalism. I really don't," she says.

Mapes is author of a newly-published book about the controversy, called "Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power" (St. Martin's Press).

Mapes says she believes the panel's findings were used by CBS President Les Moonves as a pretext to remove Dan Rather as anchor of the "CBS Evening News."

"Les Moonves viewed the news department as being kind of an uppity group of folks who thought they worked in news rather than television news," she told Ross. "And he wanted them to work in television."

Mapes says Rather did not have "any obligation to resign" from his position, as CBS correspondent Mike Wallace recently suggested.

Mapes says she is continuing to investigate the source of the controversial documents whose authenticity was seriously questioned by the CBS panel.

She tells Ross that she had no journalistic obligation to prove the authenticity of the documents before including them in the "60 Minutes II" report. "I don't think that's the standard," she said.

Yes, that's right, because the standard is, simply, that a reporter should print whatever the hell they want to print. Especially if it speaks "truth" to power.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

13th Night

I mean, what do you even say at this point? Just make sure you read the stuff I highlighted.
From AP:

PARIS - France declared a state of emergency Tuesday to quell the country's worst unrest since the student uprisings of 1968 that toppled a government, and the prime minister said the nation faced a "moment of truth" over its failure to integrate Arab and African immigrants and their children.

Rioters ignored the extraordinary security measures, which began Wednesday, as they looted and burned two superstores, set fire to a newspaper office and paralyzed France's second largest city's subway system with a gasoline bomb.

The measures, valid for 12 days, clear the way for curfews after nearly two weeks of rioting in neglected and impoverished neighborhoods with largely Muslim communities.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, tacitly acknowledging that France has failed to live up to its egalitarian ideals, reached out to the heavily immigrant suburbs where the rioting began. He said France must make a priority of working against the discrimination that feeds the frustration of youths made to feel that they do not belong in France.

"We must be lucid: The Republic is at a moment of truth," Villepin told parliament. "The effectiveness of our integration model is in question." He called the riots "a warning" and "an appeal."

Despite his conciliatory tone, Villepin said riot police faced "determined individuals, structured gangs, organized criminality," and that restoring order "will take time." Rioters have been using mobile phone text messages and the Internet to organize arson attacks, said police, who arrested two teenage bloggers accused of inciting other youths to riot.

Images of teenagers from immigrant families pelting riot police with stones and gasoline bombs — reminiscent of Palestinian youths attacking Israeli patrols — are resonating throughout the Arab world.

The Egyptian daily Al-Massaie referred to the riots as "the intefadeh of the poor." Arabic satellite networks have given lead coverage to the mayhem, with regular live reports.

Late Tuesday, rioters looted and set fire to a furniture and electronics store and an adjacent carpet store in Arras, in the northern Pas-de-Calais region and set fire to the Nice-Matin newspaper's office in Grasses, in the southeast the Alpes-Maritimes.

Nine buses were set ablaze at bus depot in Dole, in the eastern Jura region, and a bus exploded in Bassens, near the southwest city of Bordeaux after a gasoline bomb was thrown into it.

"France is wounded. It does not recognize itself in these devastated streets and neighborhoods, in this outburst of hatred and of violence that vandalizes and kills," Villepin said. "The return to order is the absolute priority."

The violence started Oct. 27 ... It has grown into a nationwide insurrection by disillusioned suburban youths, many of them French-born children of immigrants from France's former territories like Algeria.

The French system, said Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a lawmaker from Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of northeast Paris where the unrest started, is "running out of steam."

God, it's like watching a guy you never liked much, get the crap beat out of him. After a while, you just feel sorry for the guy, for the people who have to watch, for humanity itself.

It's sad. Just sad.

Villepin is saying their "integration model" is broken, but he has no idea why, and meanwhile the Muslim Jihadis just keep kicking him in the head. The French system is running out of steam.

Palestinian
Art

Courtesy Zombie

On November 6, 2005, I attended the opening reception for a new exhibit at the Berkeley Art Center, a city-sponsored gallery in Live Oak Park. The exhibit was called Justice Matters: Artists Consider Palestine, and purported to "address current contemporary issues of occupation and colonization within Palestine."

The first painting to catch my eye was this one of what is apparently a young suicide bomber wearing a mask made out of a kaffiyeh. The Arabic words behind him say, over and over, "I will not accept a little" or "I will not accept a pittance," apparently referring to the desire for a Palestinian state that occupies all of modern-day Israel, and not just the West Bank and Gaza. In other words, it is a call for the elimination of Israel, seemingly with suicide bombing as the means for achieving this. (Thanks to evariste for the translation.)

Palestinian
Reality

Jihad Chic

Yes, that's right. It's the latest in French fashion. And this ain't a frickin' joke. I posted this little CUANAS fashion piece back at the end of beginning of October, well before the riots.

More evidence that the West is decadent and begging to be killed, from Dhimmi Watch:

"Terror fashion" is about to invade cities. The new French brand Anticon is launching a new concept of hooded sweatshirts. Graffiti artists, people with acne, snowboarders or simply superheroes would certainly be into them. To order your sweatshirt, you'll have to wait a few more weeks but we wanted you to be first in the know. Definitely an eye-catching fashion statement!

13th Night

Yesterday, I predicted that after the Fatwa issued by the Union for Islamic Organizations of France, we would see more church's and synagogues bombed. The first news out of the 13th night of rioting is that a Protestant church in Meulan has been firebombed:

An eyewitness report which appears to be corroborated by commenters from the same town:
Afro-Moslems rioters attack a Protestant church.

«Tonight the Protestant church in Meulan was attacked. The roof is completely destroyed. I do not yet know if the interior is completely destroyed or not. You can’t smoke in a mosque, but trashing a church is less serious.»

This story also seems to be corroborated by this email, which The Anchoress received from a French reader. It's a must-read.

Is The Media Beginning To Tell The Truth?

Maybe I jumped the gun with the post below. It seems the New York Times actually admitted that the riots are being perpetrated by Muslims, and did so in three different articles. Wow.

And now, here's a French writer, from a journal called Valeurs Actuelles, who lays it on the line:

How ethnic is the present violence in France? Liberal commentators, both in France and abroad, tend to say that poverty and unemployment, rather than race or religion, are the driving force behind the riots. Mr. Villepin himself tends to share this view, at least in part. He said yesterday on TV that he is earmarking enormous credits for housing rehabilitation, education, and state-supported jobs in the areas where the unrest has developed. But the fact remains that only ethnic youths are rioting, that most of them explicitly pledge allegiance to Islam and such Muslim heroes as Osama bin Laden, that the Islamic motto - Allahu Akbar - is usually their war cry, and that they submit only to archconservative or radical imams.

The fact also remains, according to many witnesses, that the rioters torch only “white” cars, meaning white owned cars, and spare “Islamic” or “black” ones. One way to discriminate between them is to look for ethnic signs like a sticker with Koranic verses or a picture of the Kaaba in Mekka or a stylized map of Africa. Further evidence of the animating influence in the riots lies with the French rap music to which the perpetrators listen. Such music obsessively describes White France as a sexual prey.

Are white people "sexual prey" because we are infidels, which means, of course, that we are next to inhuman?

Lord, what a situation we have allowed to fester here in the West.

If You Want The News In France
Talk To Algerians

You see, Algiers, which is geographically to the south of France, is a Muslim country, so their reporters are able to penetrate the neighborhoods where the rioting is taking place, without armed escort. France 2, the government-owned TV network, yesterday announced that they would no longer give a daily tally the number of cars burned. This would indicate that the French government doesn't want you to know what is happening.

If it is true that the French government doesn't want news getting out, then, do you think they will give armed escort to journalists?

Hell no.

That's why, if you want the real news on France, you've got to turn to Algerians.

But, the truth is beginning to come out:

Callers on talk radio are starting to reveal what MSM is censuring: the racist, Islamist nature of the ongoing uprising.

State TV has already manipulated reports, albeit hamfistedly. The most notable example was the bait-and-switch reports about the handicapped woman doused with gasoline and burned by rioters. Every attempt was made to have viewers believe that race was not