...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.
Wild world, a revisionist take: Two men of the world, Pete 'n' Joe, do a weird, atonal version of the Cat's old Tea for the Tillerman tune.
Grovel. Scrape. Shuffle. Bow (Part II): Dutch dhimmis offer profuse apologies via You Tube for Fitna. From wired:
Dutch people eager to dissociate themselves from the anti-Quran film Fitna have taken to the web to apologize for the controversial video.
Hundreds of Dutch citizens have uploaded videos to YouTube showing themselves holding signs with apologies for the film. In other anti-Fitna clips, the subjects simply say the words, "I'm sorry."
Fitna, a 17-minute film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, juxtaposes passages from the Islamic holy book with graphic footage of terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe. In one scene, the sound of paper ripping can be seen as a reader pages through the Quran.
A website called Sorry for the Film encourages users to upload photos of themselves to indicate they do not support the views propagated in Fitna. Mediamatic, a technology collective based in Amsterdam, posted instructions for making "Sorry Fitna" videos…
There's only one word for these characters: pathetic.
Political chameleon: He's black, white, rich, poor. Why, this graduate of Harvard law school is even "blue collar". Whatever you want him to be, he'll be, so long as you're taken in by his "Everyman" scam and elect him president.
Trinity United’s pity party: You can understand why Bambi’s church is so sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians. As the Wrightists see it, whitey’s to blame for all their tsuris; as the Palestinians (and other Arabs) see it, the Zionists are to blame. Also, both victim groups are always up for a good nutty-as-baclava conspiracy theory, especially one involving the Jews.
Growing by leaps and bounds: For the first time in history, there more Muslims in the world than there are Catholics.
Don’t worry, though. Only a tiny minority of the new Numero Uno are violent “extremists”. The vast majority of those who want to see sharia calling the shots are perfectly content to allow nature take its course and let demographics do the heavy lifting.
The naked truth: Under the terms of sharia, dhimmis get to live (under humiliating circumstances) provided they don’t criticise the religious doctrines of their overlords. Geert Wilders has dared to defy those terms. In so doing, he has rent a small tear in the Iron Veil that has fallen on Europe. That makes him and his subversive film a clear threat to those who think sharia and dhimmitude are the way to go. From FrontPage Magazine:
Even before its official release, Fitna, the new film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, served to demonstrate the dire threat that radical Islam poses to the West.
Muslim indignation at the film has fueled a phenomenon that has habitually stifled honest discussion about Islamic terror and its origins. When non-Muslims point out that Islamic jihadists commit acts of violence and are inspired to do so by the Qur'an, many non-Muslim and Muslim apologists for jihad, including many who are widely known as "moderates," respond by claiming that those who point to this truth are committing an act of "hatred," "bigotry," "Islamophobia," and the like. Curiously, these supposed voices of reason have not a word to say about the actual acts of violence and hatred committed by the jihadists -- or about the sources that engender them. Rather, the daring voice that reports on these actions is vilified.
Wilders' film speaks for itself. Quoting Qur'anic verses and Muslims themselves, Fitna clearly demonstrates that Muslims who engage in violence and hatred do so with reference to the Qur'an. In making this clear, Wilder's film also points the way to a solution to the crisis within the Islamic faith: Only when peaceful Muslims begin to turn their indignation upon the extremists among them, rather than upon Wilders and others critics who speak out against the dangers of Islamic fanaticism and its sources, will there be progress against the spread of jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism within the Muslim world and beyond. Unfortunately, the intolerant reaction to Wilders' film shows yet again that this is, at best, a dim hope.
Like the little boy in that Andersen story, Wilders had the audacity to point out that the Emperor is buck nekkid. The clueless and the craven are hoping that, since it was a “right wing” “anti-immgration” “Islamophobe” who did the pointing, the vast majority of people will ignore him, and continue to hail the Emperor’s beautiful haute couture. So far, that seems to be what’s happening.
Update: Der Spiegel interviews Wilders--and the interviewer is Fitna to be tied by the Dutch guy's audacity.
The sunny side: The executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress in Ottawa laments the kafirs’ inability to see the Prophet Mohammed as he really was (i.e. one peaceful, righteous dude):
If the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) were to live among us today in our democratic Canadian society, he would not recognize or accept the explanation of Islam that some self-proclaimed "authorities" are promoting and offering to Muslims and the world.
Their inflexibility and rigidity in response to changing times and cultures goes against the encouraged moderation, logic and consideration he stood for and the perversions of these values stand in the path of progress. They produce an "in-captured mentality" that is excessively pessimistic, rigid, spiritless, visionless, and intellectually dead. It undermines the core of God’s powerful message in the Qur’an: "And We have not sent you (Muhammad) except as a mercy to humanity." (21:107)
When the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was asked to curse non-Muslims, he - the best and wisest of teachers and mentors -- emphatically refused, saying "I have not been sent to curse people but as a mercy to all humanity." (Muslim)
So, what about abuse, violence, or terrorism in the name of Islam (sometimes "hidden" behind less direct words)? Muhammad forbade it ALL; he was not sent just to those who wish to be "true representatives," but to all people, as the MERCY of God.
And that is why the loud voices who call themselves over and over "sole" representatives of Islam cannot be what they proclaim, because they do not follow the Prophet’s teachings in spirit. In their understanding of Islam, there is only ritual but not the essentials; their interpretations are void of true Islamic logic.
Muhammad (pbuh) was not sent as a dictator, but as God’s messenger, advisor, guide, mentor, reformer, teacher... He was sent to heal society, not to oppress or poison it; to build good relations among all peoples, not to fragment them; to ease life for humanity, not to make it onerous; to bring hope to all, not fearful anxiety; to help us develop social responsibility, not just retreat into "survival of the fittest."
He was sent for all of these good reasons; both theory and the praxis, both concept and hands-on. In contrast, those who claim to be "sole representatives of Islam" do quite the opposite in their words and deeds.
Are those who act so zealously against the Prophet’s logic blinded by their egos to the extent that they cannot recognize how much he disliked acts of abuse, violence and injustice?! If only these self-appointed "representatives" could know how much they do not know about Islam; if only they would follow the humbler example of those Muslims who seek to live their faith in spirit and action, rather than by ritual alone. But perhaps if they did stop to reflect and become spiritually enlightened, our 21st- century media would have little to talk about. Imagine; all those Islamophobic reporters, columnists and editors laid off - gone!
Tragically, it is part of the human condition that some of the worst-off among us are those who are so full of their own importance that they are unaware of their ignorance. Out of their ignorance and arrogance, they produce daily this excitement for the media, who wait in breathless anticipation - like Hollywood paparazzi -- for juicy tidbits to use against Islam and Muslims. Truth goes out the window long before pens hit paper or fingers tap the computer keyboards of manufactured journalism…
Some “juicy tidbits,” huh? Oh, you mean like these? I can see why they would really bum you out.
Bambi and Oprah: A MadTV parody.
The audacity of cluelessness: Young, old, black, white—they all love their Bambino. From the Chicago Sun-Times (my bolds):
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Barack Obama supporters in the Steel City must not have read the national polls.
Young white males in this town also must not have heard that Gov. Edward Rendell, the state’s top booster of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s push in Pennsylvania, doesn’t believe they will vote for a black man.
Because Pittsburghers — in all shades — came out en masse, filling up the auditorium at the Soldiers Military Museum where his more-than-40-minute speech was interrupted repeatedly with raucous shouts, whistles, clapping and stomping.
Children too young to see over the heads of standing adults stood on the seats and clapped as if they understood every word.
‘Half hour too long’
Seith Reighard, a 20-year-old microbiology major at Pittsburgh University, sat with a row of other young white males as they waited for Obama to appear.
“I think Obama is the most genuine politician I have seen in a long time,” Reighard said. ”My generation had lost our faith in politicians to actually do something, and finally I see a guy come along who will. It doesn’t matter, the color of his skin.
“I am here because I feel for once my views will be heard.”
National polls put Obama behind by double digits in Pennsylvania, but given the enthusiastic turnout (all of the free tickets were taken), you couldn’t tell he’s an underdog in the state.
He was introduced by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who told the crowd that Obama’s campaign offers a “chance for America to chart a new course” and cited Obama’s “intellect” and “integrity” as some of the factors leading to Casey’s endorsement.
“We need to hear and listen to the voices of young people all across the country,” Casey said. “Young people have sparked a renewed sense of hope and optimism.
Under fire, Obama has appealed to the “better angels of our nature,” Casey said…
Yeah, he’s a regular Martin Luther King, rolled into one.
Building faux-democracy at the expense of crippling the real McCoy: What happens when an American president grossly misunderestimates the enduring appeal of jihad, sharia and Islamic Judenhass? The Jews get shafted—again. By Mort Zuckerman in JWR:
The world applauded when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, forcibly removing Jewish settlers. At last, the Palestinians were free to show how they could build their own society.
But what did they do with their freedom? They elected the terrorist organization Hamas in 2006. First Fatah and now Hamas have rained 4,000 rockets on Israel, killed 24, and wounded 620 — the equivalent of killing 1,200 Americans and wounding 31,000. The citizens of Sderot and Ashkelon have suffered a collective trauma; children fear that when parents leave for work, they will never see them again.
And what does the world do?
It criticizes Israel — Israel! — for a "disproportionate" response. Israel is discriminating in trying to defend its people. It attacks Gaza's rocket launchers, weapons factories, and terrorists, all hidden in civilian areas.
What is a proportionate response? None at all, it seems.
Hamas kills indiscriminately. It makes no distinction between civilians and combatants. But it is Israel that earns the opprobrium. The moral equivalency was evident in a New York Times headline: "Hamas and Israelis Trade Attacks, Killing at Least Nine." Nor did TV broadcast pictures of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza celebrating the news that eight teenagers had been shot dead and many more injured in the library of a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem.
Would Paris, London, Bonn, or New York sit back quietly if terrorists attacked from sanctuaries somewhere just off their borders? Silent voices. Where is the world's outrage against these Palestinian war crimes? Twelve resolutions have passed the United Nations Human Rights Council on the conflict, but not one has made even a passing reference to the terrorism against Israel.
Where is the appreciation that while under attack, Israel has continued to supply its enemies with electricity and with 2,500 tons of food and medicines every day? Last year, 14,000 Gazan Palestinians were treated in Israeli medical facilities.
But Palestinians continue to get away with their confidence trick of persuading the world that they are the victims. The death of every Arab woman and child is a propaganda victory for Hamas, so it uses women and children as human shields and then exaggerates the casualties. The distortion foisted on the world is manifest in the celebrated case of the death of Mohammed al-Dura, who was alleged to have been shot by the Israelis in Gaza on the first day of the intifada. Now an independent French ballistic expert reports that he could not have died from Israeli gunfire. The technical analysis shows the shots could have come only from Palestinian positions.
And what of the Palestinian leader supposed to be leading the peace effort? Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas says, "What is happening now in Gaza is more than a Holocaust." Absurd? This from the "peacemaker" whose doctoral dissertation included the theory that European Zionists conspired with the Nazis to push for the Holocaust so that it could ultimately result in the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. According to Abbas's writings, 6 million Jews were not sent to the gas chambers to be killed but were among corpses cremated for sanitation reasons.
Some suggest Israel should deal with Hamas; there is talk of Egypt negotiating a truce. But why negotiate with an enemy dedicated to Israel's destruction? Recognition of Hamas would prove that terrorism, not diplomacy, is the way to gain Israeli concessions — not to speak of international support — and would strengthen Hamas in the West Bank. Any truce would protect the smuggling of arms and munitions until Hamas can attack again, with missiles that can reach Tel Aviv.
This current turmoil is a direct outcome of Bush administration misjudgments. We forced the Israelis and the Palestinians to include Hamas in the 2006 election. Later, we caused the removal of Israeli control of the Philadelphi road, a crucial barrier in the protection against the smuggling of arms, insisting it be left to the Palestinians under Egyptian and European supervision. Israeli protests that foreign troops would not stop either terrorists or arms from making their way into Gaza went unheeded.
America has an extra moral obligation to defuse this crisis…
Not happening, Mort. Instead, Condi Rice is adding accelerant to Israel’s funeral pyre with her incessant calls for “peace”. (Ms. Rice is being ably abetted by Israel's clueless leadership, which is delighted to collude in their state's demise.)
Grovel. Bow. Shuffle. Scrape. Repeat: Dutch Jews do the ever-popular dhimmi dance. From ejpress:
AMSTERDAM (EJP)---The umbrella representative group of Jewish communities in Holland, called the newly-released anti-Islam film ‘Fitna’ by extreme-rightist Dutch MP Geert Wilders “counterproductive” and “generalizing”.
But the country’s "Centraal Joods Overleg" (Central Jewish Platform) drew the attention to the fact that the 15-minute film, entitled "Fitna" a Koranic term meaning ‘strife’, shows Muslim clerics calling to behead Jews, Koran passages equating Jews to "pigs and monkeys" and photos of demonstrators promising "another Holocaust" and praising Adolf Hitler.
The film, which shows footage of the New York 11 September terrorist attacks followed by the Madrid train bombings, was posted on the internet on Thursday.
Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) which holds nine of the Dutch parliament's 150 seats, said he wants to show that the Koran "is an inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror".
In a statement, the Dutch Jewish body said Wilders’s film "was guilty of serious generalizations." "Only the negative elements of the Koran are shown," it said, adding: "By presenting graphics on the explosive increase of the Muslim population in Holland and Europe in relation with pictures of terrorist attacks and with the slogan ‘stop Islamization, protect our freedom", Wilders suggests that all Muslims are potential terrorists."
While the anti-Jewish statements Wilders compiled "demonstrates some Muslim clerics have dreadful ideas about Jews and that even children are being brainwashed," the film only serves to "polarize Dutch society and is counterproductive to the fight against extremism,” the Jewish body said.
The Central Jewish Platform said it wants to work with the Muslims in Holland and the rest of the country in order to halt extremism and radicalization…
It heartens me not at all to know that the Dutch Jewish establishment is as out to lunch as the CJC.
Speed demons: The bad news is that driving in Saudi Arabia is extremely dangerous, and traffic fatalities in the Magic Kingdom keep going up and up.
The good news is that they can't blame it on the women drivers.
The real deal: Racist ranter Jeremiah Wright showed up at a Chicago church for a birthday party the other day—and the crown went wild. From the Chicago Sun-Times:
Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor surprised a South Side congregation Friday night by showing up at an event marking poet Maya Angelou's birthday.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright received a thunderous, standing ovation from members of St. Sabina Church, which hosted Angelou as she nears her 80th birthday.)
"When he came out, people literally went wild," said St. Sabina's pastor, the Rev. Michael Pfleger.
Wright, Obama's spiritual adviser for years, has lain low ever since his fiery past sermons became political fodder in the presidential campaign.
Obama has condemned remarks by Wright that denounced America for allegedly racist and genocidal acts. Wright recently scrapped plans to receive an award in Texas and to speak at Houston and Tampa, Fla., churches.
Wright did not talk publicly about Obama on Friday night. Instead, he gave the benediction at St. Sabina and smiled as the audience sang "Happy Birthday" to Angelou.
Wright attended at the invitation of Pfleger, who called recent criticism of Wright "shameful."
"I wanted him to come here so he could see that people really stand with him and support him while he's under all this attack," Pfleger said Saturday. "America, unfortunately, has been really cheated of knowing the real Dr. Wright."…
Oh, so you mean the real Dr. Wright isn’t an obnoxious conspiracy-purveying, America-loathing, Jew-despising, Farrakhan-adoring hate monger? Good to know.
“Silent” treatment: The Los Angeles Times calls the Muslim response to Fitna “muted”. Here’s some of the mutedness, as reported by Reuters (my bolds):
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Muslim nations on Friday condemned a film by a Dutch lawmaker that accuses the Koran of inciting violence, and Dutch Muslim leaders urged restraint.
Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Freedom Party, launched his short video on the Internet on Thursday evening, prompting an al Qaeda-linked website to call for his death and increased attacks on Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan.
"The correct Sharia (Islamic law) response is to cut (off) his head and let him follow his predecessor, van Gogh, to hell," a member of Al-Ekhlaas wrote on the al-Qaeda affiliated forum, according to the SITE Institute, a U.S.-based terrorism monitoring service.
Dutch director Theo van Gogh, who made a film accusing Islam of condoning violence against women, was murdered by a militant Islamist in 2004.
Wilders' film "Fitna" -- an Arabic term sometimes translated as "strife" -- intersperses images of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and Islamist bombings with quotations from the Koran, Islam's holy book.
The film urges Muslims to tear out "hate-filled" verses from the Koran and starts and ends with a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb under his turban, accompanied by the sound of ticking.
The cartoon, first published in Danish newspapers, ignited violent protests around the world and a boycott of Danish products in 2006. Many Muslims regard any depiction of the Prophet as offensive.
"The film is solely intended to incite and provoke unrest and intolerance among people of different religious beliefs and to jeopardise world peace and stability," the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said…
Yup. You can barely hear them.
Lovely to look at; as left as they come: He has little experience; his heroes include a racist Christian (Jeremiah W.) and a racist Muslim (Malcolm X); and he has lots of unresolved, ahem, parental issues. And yet folks are still all gung-ho for Bambi. What gives? Well, according to Kenneth Blackwell (no, not that Mr. Blackwell, of the egregiously lame best-and-worst dressed lists), it’s because the Bambino is so gosh-darn purty. From the New York Sun:
It's an amazing time to be alive in America. We're in a year of firsts in this presidential election: the first viable woman candidate; the first viable African-American candidate; and, a candidate who is the first frontrunning freedom fighter over 70. The next president of America will be a first.
We won't truly be in an election of firsts, however, until we judge every candidate by where they stand. We won't arrive where we should be until we no longer talk about skin color or gender.
Now that Barack Obama steps to the front of the Democratic field, we need to stop talking about his race, and start talking about his policies and his politics.
The reality is this: Though the Democrats will not have a nominee until August, unless Hillary Clinton drops out, Mr. Obama is now the frontrunner, and its time America takes a closer and deeper look at him.
Some pundits are calling him the next John F. Kennedy. He's not. He's the next George McGovern. And it's time people learned the facts.
Because the truth is that Mr. Obama is the single most liberal senator in the entire U.S. Senate. He is more liberal than Ted Kennedy, Bernie Sanders, or Mrs. Clinton.
Never in my life have I seen a presidential frontrunner whose rhetoric is so far removed from his record. Walter Mondale promised to raise our taxes, and he lost. George McGovern promised military weakness, and he lost. Michael Dukakis promised a liberal domestic agenda, and he lost.
Yet Mr. Obama is promising all those things, and he's not behind in the polls. Why? Because the press has dealt with him as if he were in a beauty pageant.
Mr. Obama talks about getting past party, getting past red and blue, to lead the United States of America. But let's look at the more defined strokes of who he is underneath this superficial "beauty."…
We know who he is. Jesse Jackson. With bigger ears.
First things first: Pakistan's new prime minister was sworn in the other day. His first order of business--slamming that dastardly Dutch exposé, Fitna.
Second order of business: trying to keep the "insulted" from doing too much damage to civic infrastracture.
Spitzer tchotchkes: It never ceases to amaze me what people try to flog on e-Bay. For instance, Eliot Spitzer “memorabilia”. Here are some of the many incredible items which, according to a Newsday article, are going for a song:
· the Web domain name clientnine.com., priced at a bargain-basement $250,000
· a photo greeting card from the Spitzer family, current high bid just $9.99.
· a signed, 8x10 glossy photograph of the disgraced governor--$75 .
· The Emperor’s Club VIP coffee mug
· a bald baby doll from the 1940s advertised as a Spitzer look-alike
Who the heck would want to spend actual money on this chazerai? According to Moe Berkowitz, who's been in the political memorablia game since folks were going Madly for Adlai, "There are local collectors: people who collect senators and governors, they of course need to have that (Spitzer item) in their collection…There are people who collect items of people who have fallen in disgrace. Another Spitzer area is people who will collect Judaica; people who collect items that are Jewish."
Thanks, but I think I'll stick with my dreidel collection.
Memo to fox: please see to that sticky hen-house situation: Muslim groups are calling on the Arab League to be more pro-active in "solving" the problems in Darfur.
Fear, loathing and cluelessness in the U.K.: A pundit in the Daily Mail frets that Fitna may propel Old Blighty into an unwanted jihad:
From the Netherlands drift the first sparks of a firestorm that threatens to engulf Britain and the rest of Europe.
At its centre stands one man, a 44-year-old by the name of Geert Wilders.
He is a Dutch MP who likes sharp suits and has a shock of blond hair.
It's a look not dissimilar to that of car salesman "Swiss Toni" from classic comedy series The Fast Show - but mention the name of Geert Wilders in Holland and it won't raise a laugh.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
His actions, the Dutch government is warning, have put countless lives at risk. Plans are being drawn up to evacuate Dutch embassies around the world, riot police are on standby in Amsterdam and ordinary citizens are cancelling foreign holidays as they prepare for trouble.
There are already protests on the streets and by the goverments of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Wilders, you see, has spoken out against the Muslim faith. He's attacked the "tsunami of Islamisation" that he says is engulfing traditional Dutch society.
He's attacked the prophet Mohammed, saying that were he alive today he should be "tarred and feathered" and deported as an extremist.
He's attacked the culture of political correctness that has seen immigrants given housing and benefits without even having to try to assimilate into Western culture.
And he's attacked the Koran, a book he likens to Hitler's Mein Kampf, describing it as the cornerstone of a "fascist ideology" that aims to destroy all who oppose it.
Wilders has also made a 15-minute movie. Called Fitna (Arabic for "strife"), it was broadcast on the internet for the first time on Thursday afternoon, prompting fears of a backlash against Dutch citizens of unprecedented proportions.
Wilders remains unrepentant. Over the past few years the Right-wing MP has received many death threats and knows his life is in danger.
Even so, he says: "If I were to moderate my voice, if I stop saying what I think, then the people who use undemocratic arguments like death threats would have won.
There have been protests on the streets in response to Wilders' anti-Islamic statements
"So I will never stop, because if I moderate my voice, if I do not tell the truth according to me, then the people who use threats will win. I believe that in a democracy those people should never win."
Opinions of Wilders are mixed. The Establishment seeks to discredit him as an over-ambitious, Right-wing, pro-Israeli politician who will do anything to gain popularity.
It says his comments are so inflammatory that they have no place in a civilised society.
But others insist he should be free to express his opinions and that those who seek to silence him are the real threat.
Surveys show that many people agree with him. Where others have been cowed into silence, Wilders has given voice to the concerns of the masses (or so the argument goes).
And, as Wilders has noted, those concerns are not unique to the Dutch - but are also boiling close to the surface in Britain.
When a Danish newspaper published caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in 2005, more than 100 people died during ensuing protests across the Muslim world.
So it is hardly surprising that mainstream TV companies haven't been keen to broadcast Wilders's video.
The sensitivities surrounding the film mean that even making it available on the web hasn't proved straightforward.
When an early clip from Fitna was placed on YouTube, the internet moviesharing site, the authorities in Pakistan took the unprecedented step of blocking access to it.
Then, earlier this week, the website on which Wilders had proposed showing the film was closed down by its internet service provider amid concerns over its content.
Undeterred, Wilders vowed that, if necessary, he would personally hand out copies of it on DVD in Amsterdam.
In the end, he didn't have to, as he posted the footage on LiveLeak.com, a Britishbased video-sharing website.
It is that connection which yesterday dragged the UK into the controversy.
"This heinous measure by a Dutch lawmaker and a British establishment. . . is indicative of the continuation of the evilness and deep vengeance such Western nationals have against Muslims," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said.
The documentary juxtaposes Koran extracts against footage of terrorist atrocities, of Sharia law in action and of jihad...
Quel horreur! Grounds, indeed, for a relaunch of the holy war. Thing is, though, the pundit hasn't noticed that it’s already well underway.
Some gentle words from a true believer: North Carolina Muslim to Geert Wilders: Islam Will Dominate Europe, Destroy Western Civilization, Tear Out Dutch MP's Heart.
As always, thinking globally; acting locally.
Update: Chill, fellah. It seems Geert left a lot out.
Donkey shenanigans: In keeping with today’s (unintentional) animal theme (so far, dogs, sheep and wolves), here’s an excerpt of a book review by Raymond Ibrahim, editor of The Al Qaeda Reader. (I have a well-thumbed copy, if anyone cares to borrow it.) Ibrahim is explicating Inside Jihad: Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam by Dr. Tawfik Hamid, who knows all about the subject since he’s a former jihadi:
…Hamid’s metaphors are more poignant and instructive. After accurately likening radical Islam to a “cancerous cell” within the Islamic body, he goes on to discuss Western “myths and misconceptions” regarding the spread of this cancer (i.e. that Islamist terror is the inevitable byproduct of poverty, discrimination, ignorance, absence of democracy, colonialism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, U.S. foreign policy, et. al.). He then reminds us that “Every medical doctor [i.e. people who truly apply the “scientific method”] will assert that it is very difficult to treat a disease if it is misdiagnosed or if the disease is confused with symptoms. If we misdiagnose, then we treat the wrong illness. If we confuse the roots of the illness or superficially mask its symptoms, we cannot effect [sic] a cure. The same applies to the societal disease of terrorism.”
Bringing his psychological background in play, Hamid carefully delineates the phases of radicalization — from hatred to suppression of conscience to desensitization to violence — with a stress on how radicals seek to suppress the human capacity for critical thinking, well demonstrated by a telling dialogue with a senior member of al-Gam’a who once explained to him that “One’s brain is similar to a donkey…you can ride it to the palace of Allah, but you must leave it outside when you enter.”
To sum it up: the trouble with the world today is that too many asses have parked their brains.
Baaaa, humbug: A Reuters blogger describes a scene supposedly redolent with meaning—Obama campaigning in a building where a scene from The Silence of the Lambs was shot:
PITTSBURGH – Sen. Barack Obama held a campaign rally on Friday in the Soldiers and Sailors museum in Pittsburgh. No drama there? Well, the building was used to film a crucial sequence in the movie “The Silence of the Lambs.”
For anyone not familiar with the 1991 thriller, the scene occurs when serial killer Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, is locked in a large cage from which he toys with Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee played by Jodie Foster .
It’s in this scene that she discloses to him her childhood memory of finding a slaughterhouse for lambs.
The cage is super secure but not secure enough to hold Lecter, who escapes by clubbing his guards to death, stringing one of them up from the walls and then ….
Actually, you should see the movie for yourself. It didn’t win five Oscars for nothing.
Pennsylvania Sen. Robert Casey held a news conference to explain his decision to endorse Obama in the very room where the cage was constructed, a spacious, opulent chamber with an ornate balcony.
Obama, who is running for the Democratic nomination, made no reference to the film in his speech in a hall downstairs.
But there was a distant echo of one of its most chilling lines. Lecter taunts Starling when she visits him in the cage with the words: “People will say we’re in love.”
During his speech, a supporter shouted to Obama: “I love you, Obama.” And he replied smoothly: “I love you back.”
There’s another chilling echo, of course, one that has nothing to do with Hannibal the Cannibal but much to do lambs. It’s the sound of Jesse J. and Malcolm X seeping out from under Bambi's ill-fitting sheepskin. Not that the bewitched would notice. Even after the Wright revelations, to them he's still the same sweet, appealing lambikins--the café au lait JFK. And unless it turns out he was frolicking with Eliot and "Kristen" at the Mayflower, they're voting for him no matter what. (And afterwards, perhaps, they'll celebrate with fava beans and a little Chianti?)
Diana West asks us to consider "the unified effort of Muslims and Europeans to censor a critique of Islam--something not tolerated under Islam:
From EU to NATO officials, from the head of France to (sadly) the head of Denmark, the official European response to "Fitna" is less in line with Western traditions of free speech than with the censorship of Islamic law. Indeed, Dutch officials couldn't find a Dutch law under which to ban "Fitna," and they tried. The pressure to silence "Fitna," however, reveals the extent to which Islamic law has already eroded core conceptions of Western liberty."
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Changes in body postures and facial expressions by which dogs indicate their feelings and intentions to other dogs. A-B Neutral to alert attentive positions. C: Play-soliciting bow. D-E: Active and passive submissive greeting - tail wags, ears fold back, weight is transferred to hind legs. I: Passive submission. J: Rolling over and showing belly and genitals. F-H: Gradual shift from aggressive display to ambivalent fear/defensive/aggressive posture.
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