:: ::
:: MAX BLACK ::
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."--C.S. Lewis
"The Swiss pocket knife of conservative thought on the web..." - Eli Kardrakian
"Bookmark Max and dump your subscription to the newspaper; if you don't have a birdcage you really don't need it anyway..." - Shirley St. James
:: Sunday, July 31, 2005 ::
Is main-stream-media negatively affecting the outcome of the war in Iraq? You bet.:: Saturday, July 30, 2005 ::
[I really can't properly express my disdain for what poses as main-stream-media today and I cannot be happier that their circ. stats and viewership ratings are on a death spiral. It can't happen fast enough for me. Good riddence I say.]
Update: Did I mention that I have complete and utter contempt for "the media"? Poseurs.
:: Max 3:37 PM [+] ::
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"Mike, when the shit goes down and the bullets are flying, you stick with me and I'll get you out. Never fear when the Q is here! You've seen me in action. You know I'll get you out. I'm a Mexican, not a Mexican't!"
This is why Islamofacists will never win - they're sooo out-classed...[minute-men my ass]
Related: And they can't get enough humiliation either - I'm beginning to think they actually like getting their asses handed to them...losers.
:: Max 11:25 PM [+] ::
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Sondra K appears to be having some serious tech issues...
:: Max 10:02 PM [+] ::
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Maybe a glimmer of hope for the Gallic state: Nicholas Sarkozy, who I've blogged about before, is fed up with radicalized Imams poisoning the minds of Muslim youth. Tony Blair, Schroeder and Bush might take a clue from Sarkozy on how to handle these ignorant and dangerous Neanderthals - give them the boot.
:: Max 4:09 PM [+] ::
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Just uploaded this image to test Blogger's image handling capabilities. The interface is less user friendly than Flickr but I'd rather not have my images link back to the photo handling service. Blogger doesn't do that. Here's the pic: Pastel Bears
:: Max 2:33 PM [+] ::
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From Corante's Rebuilding Media:: Friday, July 29, 2005 ::"...whatever the future holds, we know now that old media are doomed to be replaced by new media. The declines in newspaper and magazine readerships, in radio listenerships, in television viewerships, and in cinema visitorships are obvious, well predate the rise of the Internet, and are accelerating. Two forces are shattering the old media.
"The first is technology. Although media technology is undergoing its greatest change since the day in 1440 when Johannes Gutenberg first inked type, the news & information media industry has mistaken these new technologies merely as electronic ways to distribute otherwise printed or broadcasted products for more than ten years now. This industry hasn't, and unfortunately still isn't, ably using the unique characteristics and capabilities of new media technologies.
"The second force is what we can perhaps call estrangement. The news & information industry has largely lost touch with consumers' needs, interests, and purses during the past 30 years. The rapid declines in newspaper readership, broadcast viewership, and cinema visitorship are among the evidence demonstrating this. The rapid increases in peer-to-peer file sharing systems, podcasting, and perhaps even citizen journalism, plus the very fact that more than 600 million people worldwide have gravitated onto the Internet despite their already having access to the old media, underline this."
-Vin Crosbie
It's shocking really, how slowly establishment media are responding to the rapid evolution of communication technology. But any honest assesment would probably show the near impossibility of such centralized "push" media giants like network television and print media to turn on a dime; it's tantamount to commanding a slow moving 800 lb. Gorilla to morph into a swarm of Bees. It ain't gonna happen like that.
To wit: "We gotta get into that blogging thing if we want to get snaps from younger readers...I'm serious Bob, we've just gotta get some blogging going if we want cred..." Oh. Dear.
Related: Well, there's this too [er, heh, indeed].
Also Related: With all of their big-gun resources and superstar pundits, MSM seems more adroit at sleeping through the really big stories - like this one. I guess their ratings tell 'em we're more interested in Michael Jackson's exploits that we are in the attempted assasination of the President of the United States.
:: Max 9:29 AM [+] ::
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Arianna Huffington's version of PlameGate"Not everyone in the Times building is on the same page when it comes to Judy Miller. The official story the paper is sticking to is that Miller is a heroic martyr, sacrificing her freedom in the name of journalistic integrity.
"But a very different scenario is being floated in the halls. Here it is: It's July 6, 2003, and Joe Wilson's now famous op-ed piece appears in the Times, raising the idea that the Bush administration has 'manipulate[d]' and 'twisted' intelligence 'to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.' Miller, who has been pushing this manipulated, twisted, and exaggerated intel in the Times for months, goes ballistic. Someone is using the pages of her own paper to call into question the justification for the war - and, indirectly, much of her reporting. The idea that intelligence was being fixed goes to the heart of Miller's credibility. So she calls her friends in the intelligence community and asks, Who is this guy? She finds out he's married to a CIA agent. She then passes on the info about Mrs. Wilson to Scooter Libby (Newsday has identified a meeting Miller had on July 8 in Washington with an 'unnamed government official'). Maybe Miller tells Rove too - or Libby does. The White House hatchet men turn around and tell Novak and Cooper. The story gets out.
If this is the case, it's curious Rove or Libby haven't dropped the dime on Miller. I mean, if Rove is supposedly the Darth Vader of the Republican Party, wouldn't he push the New York Times over the cliff in a heartbeat exposing Miller as the original PlameGate leaker? It's also interesting to speculate that Miller's source might not be "in the intelligence community" at all. According to many reports, there were any number of people who knew Plame's thinly veiled identity and her relationship to Joe Wilson. And it's obvious Miller's ongoing series tacitly supporting the theory that Saddam was reconstituting his WMD progarm was totally at odds with the anti-war Democrats in Washington. Any number of Bush-hating wonks on the left would have had a motive to shut down Miller's investigation. I suppose if you believe Arianna's version of events above, you would also have to believe that Karl Rove is actually protecting the New York Times by not revealing Miller as the source of the leak - not a totally implausible scenario given the topsy-turvey relationships involved but it seems rather far-fetched to me. What's in it for Rove - or Bush for that matter - to cover for Judith Miller and the New York Times? Payback for her obediently "pushing...manipulated, twisted, and exaggerated intel in the Times"? That would be a stretch of truly MacheRovian proportions.
Note: The link above takes you to directly to PlameGate central; Tom Maguire
:: Max 3:09 PM [+] ::
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Dinosaur Discovers Bloggosphere"Senate Democrats and Judiciary Committee minority staffers are miffed that conservative bloggers appear to have more information about Bush Supreme Court nominee John Roberts than they do.
'They've got material out there that we don't know about,' complained Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Of course, Tim Blair dug it up [>]
:: Max 2:12 PM [+] ::
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Scott Burgess: David VS Goliath...
...or, the photon is mightier than the web-press. Scott Burgess' little email outing the UK Guardian's terror apologist Dilpazier Aslam is still reverberating: "Albert Scardino, the Guardian's executive editor for news, has resigned as a direct result of Sassygate." MSM have no one to blame but themselves. Were it not for talented journalists like Mr. Burgess, Aslam would still be spewing his hate and bigotry through the Guardian megaphone. The only thing that troubles me about this whole episode is Scott's security - don't want a repeat of the brutal van Gogh tragedy. Watch your back Scott.
:: Max 1:28 PM [+] ::
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The Epimenides Paradox Writ Large
Some moderate Muslims are speaking out against terrorism - is this a trend or just taqiyya?
Lets hope it's a trend.
Update: Some people think it's just another load of taqiyya.
:: Max 6:57 AM [+] ::
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Masterpiece"He was a disabled man who was autistic, and dyslexic to a degree that he couldn't read one word. He was frightened and timid, had no artistic instincts, and no interest in anything other than making money. Someone once asked me: 'What did it mean to be Andy's manager?' I said: 'I had to think of things that he might do, I had to do them, and then I had to pretend that he was involved!"
Paul Morrisey on Andy Warhol via Clive Davis
:: Max 6:49 AM [+] ::
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Greatest threats to peace come from weakest states in the world? Wretchard has it.:: Thursday, July 28, 2005 ::
:: Max 6:41 AM [+] ::
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Got a problem with this?"The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be."
No surprise the left villifies the Federalist Society - the Constitution is their enemy. Thank SondraK for connecting the dots [>]
:: Max 11:35 PM [+] ::
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Dymphna is seeking a fresh neologism to replace the term "suicide bomber". I haven't a clue - the first thought that came to my mind was rabid exploding dogs. I know, it's too long.
If you have a better suggestion, leave it in the comments section of The Gates of Vienna post on the matter.
:: Max 10:02 PM [+] ::
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CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations] the "wahabi lobby". They're disingenuous at best and probably lying when they denounce terror - don't fall for it.
UPDATE: These Arabs, on the other hand, are for real. No surprise they happen to be bloggers too.
:: Max 9:49 PM [+] ::
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The Black Family: 40 Years of Lies - don't miss it.
:: Max 9:42 PM [+] ::
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Into thin air...
Brian Maloney challenges Air America to fess up. It would seem to me that if the $480,000.00 in taxpayer funds were treated as a loan to the AA corporation, the liability would still show on the books regardless of who now owns the company - unless it was repaid by the previous owner which does not appear to be the case. C'mon Smalley, come clean - you wouldn't want to be called a lying liar would ya?
:: Max 4:03 PM [+] ::
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Zacht Ei has more on the beatings - by Muslim thugs - of Theo van Gogh's son, Lieuwe. Apparently the police didn't bother to respond to the call but offered Theo's parents flowers "if they wanted them".
:: Max 3:37 PM [+] ::
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Michael Yon deserves a Pulitzer for his journalistic efforts in Iraq; he shames MSM with every stroke of his keyboard and every click of his camera. I've added Mr. Yon to the Prairie Fire blogroll under the Power Punditry heading so he's easy to find. Check in often.
:: Max 3:19 PM [+] ::
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Via Fjordman:Ruling on a Muslim eating with a kaafir (infidel)
Question :
If a Muslim eats or drinks with a Christian or any kaafir, is that considered to be haraam?
Answer :
Praise be to Allaah.
Eating with a kaafir is not haraam if it is necessary to do so, or if that serves some shar'i interest. But they should not be taken as friends, so you should not eat with them for no shar'i reason or for no shar'i purpose. You should not sit and chat with them and laugh with them. But if there is a reason to do so, such as eating with a guest, or to invite them to Islam or to guide them to the truth, or for some other shar'i reason, then it is OK. The fact that the food of the People of the Book is halaal for us does not mean that we have to take them as friends and companions. It does not mean that we should eat and drink with them for no reason and for no purpose. And Allaah is the source of strength.
Primitive bigots...
:: Max 3:10 PM [+] ::
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Max Black's Hacks...
:: Max 8:02 AM [+] ::
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Micheal Moore is a selfish, self-indulgent, hypocritical jerk: "Hey Dude, where's my tip?":: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 ::
[I really didn't think it possible that a single human could consume - in one sitting - $248.73 worth of food. What a freakin' obese slob.]
:: Max 7:40 AM [+] ::
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Front Page interviews Steven Malanga on the new-new left; don't miss it.
:: Max 4:34 PM [+] ::
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Excellent review of Brian C. Anderson's South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias over at Villainous Company.
:: Max 4:01 PM [+] ::
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Brian Maloney and Michelle Malkin are working on an emerging scandal in which government funds destined for poor children and seniors were allegedly diverted to Air America. Don't look for MSM to cover it [well, cover it UP maybe] or apologies from Frankenwhine - they're shamless losers.:: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 ::
:: Max 9:04 AM [+] ::
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From a "reform minded Muslim":"Yet two myths still rear their heads in this most sympathetic of Muslim responses. First, that Britain courted the attack by joining the US in Iraq. Second, that Islam cannot be held responsible for what a few twisted Muslims choose to do.
"Terrorists have never needed an Iraq debacle to justify their violent jihads. What exactly was the Iraq of 1993, when Islamic radicals first tried to blow up New York City's World Trade Centre? Or 2000, when the USS Cole was attacked? Indeed, that assault took place after US military intervention saved thousands of Muslims in Bosnia.
"If staying out of Iraq protected anybody from terrorism, then why did "insurgents" make hostages out of reporters from France, the most anti-war, anti-Bush nation in the West? Even overt solidarity with the people of Iraq, demonstrated by CARE's top relief worker in the area, Margaret Hassan, did not shield her from assassination.
"When Muslims ignore these facts, we cloud what ought to be a clear repudiation of the London bombings. I say "ought" not just for moral reasons but also for strategic ones. An unqualified rejection of the London bombings can only help moderate Muslims differentiate themselves from the apologists.
"Which brings me to a second myth: that Islam has nothing to do with these atrocities. You need not live in Britain to cling defensively to that line. Consider a prominent imam in New York City. He is a gentle, decent man; a new generation type who emphasises multi-faith dialogue. To top it off, he just returned from a conference about moderate Islam in Jordan, where he played a key role.
"But in his official response to the London bombings, this cleric sanitises the Koran. He says it teaches us - and here is the precise quote - "whoever kills a human being ... it is as if he has killed all humankind". The imam is honest enough to indicate that he has removed a part of the passage but not honest enough to tell us it is a crucial part. The full verse reads: 'Whoever kills a human being, except as punishment for murder or other villainy in the land, shall be regarded as having killed all humankind.' Militant Muslims easily deploy the clause beginning with 'except' to justify their rampages."
- Irshad Manji, The Australian, [don't miss it]
:: Max 11:36 AM [+] ::
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Quote of the day via the Adam Smith Institute, the "ultimate inversion"::: Monday, July 25, 2005 ::"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force".
- Ayn Rand
:: Max 12:18 AM [+] ::
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This is the story..."...of a right friendly land,
Where people were quick to lend a free hand.
With the best of intentions they passed many laws,
To fix what they felt were quite fixable flaws.
But the fixes, they found, were too much in the end,
For the bureaus and programs and taxes they penned.
Once the lessons were learned, here's what they knew:
The contentment of many can't come from the few."
Donald Luskin has the link.
:: Max 6:53 PM [+] ::
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"Why do they call the Guardian 'the thinking man's newspaper'...? Obviously because even a thinking man wants a good laugh every now and then."
Arjan Dasselaar, Zacht Ei
:: Max 6:35 PM [+] ::
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"It was hot. A few lost, cotton-ball bunches of cloud drifted in a brassy sky, leaving rare islands of shadow upon the desert's face.
"Nothing moved. It was a far, lost land, a land of beige-gray silences and distance where the eye reached out farther and farther to lose itself finally against the sky, and where the only movement was the lazy swing of a remote buzzard."
Welcome home Mr. Teachout, hope your mother recovers quickly.
:: Max 6:11 PM [+] ::
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Busted!
:: Max 5:34 PM [+] ::
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Nothing personal really..."Our new enemies are not political enemies in any traditional sense, belligerent in the service of certain interests of their own. Their belligerence is focused rather on the very existence of an alternative to their vision of beatitude, namely on Western democracy and its commitment to individual freedom and economic prosperity. This was put with all possible clarity by Hussein Massawi, a former Hezbollah leader. 'We are not fighting,' he said, 'so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.'"
Roger Kimball, Armavirumque
:: Max 5:17 PM [+] ::
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"Our jihadist enemies are fighting to create an ideal society that looks a lot like Afghanistan under the Taliban. And this is a vision that is repugnant to the foundational ideals of free people everywhere. Women forced to be barefoot, burka-clad, illiterate, and unemployed. Christians and Jews barely tolerated as second-class dhimmicitizens. No art, no science. Societies dominated by poverty, oppression, backwardness, and ignorance.
"In the world according to radical Islam it's the jihadist way or the highway, and these 7th-century dogmas represent the only acceptable outcome to al Qaeda.
"But the far-left views the world through a political prism that distorts this essential reality. Fixated by a knee-jerk hostility towards all things American, the likes of Ali, Fisk, and Galloway refuse to recognize the existence of this conflict, much less the stakes that are involved. Their primal instinct is to appease bin Laden and his cohorts rather than oppose them.
"But Winston Churchill defined an appeaser as "someone who feeds the crocodile in the hopes of being eaten last". The sooner we accept the fact that this is a war; then the sooner we can get about the task of winning it."
Ted Lapkin, NRO
:: Max 5:09 PM [+] ::
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Patrick Ruffini is conducting a straw poll on the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination. What are you waiting for go vote!
:: Max 4:45 PM [+] ::
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Arab bloggers respond to the bombings in London and Egypt:
Big Pharaoh annoys the terrorists; Omar of Iraq The Model pities "the regimes and media that supported the terrorists and apologized for their doings" and Sandmonkey has possibly the most important observation that I've found anywhere:"Mona El Tahawy says what I've been saying all along: In this fight against terrorism, we are all in this together!"There is no more "us" and "them" It is all "we". When London, Beirut and Sharm el-Sheikh are all attacked in less than 48 hours, there is no more Muslim or Christian or Jew. There is no more believer or infidel. There is no more East or West When the dead in Sharm el-Sheikh included Britons, Dutch, Egyptians, French, Kuwaitis, Spaniards, and Qataris, it is all we and we are all in this together."
Of course, this is the effect the terrorists are having on good, decent people everywhere. If their murderous schemes serve to unite rather than divide us, maybe all the death and destruction will somehow be worth it.
:: Max 11:29 AM [+] ::
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Old soldiers never die, they just get cranky...:: Saturday, July 23, 2005 ::
:: Max 10:31 AM [+] ::
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Newsweek responsible for London bombings? LGF blogs you decide.
:: Max 11:52 PM [+] ::
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"New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that terrorists come "in all sizes and shapes and forms" and it wouldn't be fair for police to profile terrorism suspects on the basis of a Middle Eastern appearance.
sigh...
:: Max 2:23 PM [+] ::
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"This is Egypt you dogs of hell..." The Big Pharaoh has updates on the brutal, primitive and futile Sharm El Sheikh bombings: "The dead included Egyptians, Britons, French, Spaniards, Dutch, Qataris, Kuwaitis. You can almost find any nationality in Sharm."
:: Max 9:53 AM [+] ::
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"Now that's news!":: Friday, July 22, 2005 ::"Hmmm. Sadly, I'm starting to think "freedom-loving press" is an oxymoron, at least when we're talking about someone's freedom besides their own. This little puff piece seems a rather grotesque paean to the sadistic, tyrannical rapists and murderers that were Saddam's sons. Like most media bias, it's not even so much what it says ("fond memories of Uday and Qusay," all reference to their vicious brutality assiduously omitted from mention - oh, and the guy who turned them in? a dirtbag), but just the fact that they're reporting this crap (sorry, can't come up with a more fitting word) rather than the historic creation of a consensual, constitutional gov't with defined individual liberties. Ho-hum, democracy and freedom being codified for 25 million people. Yawn. Hey, look! Some of Saddam's old followers miss the tyrant princes! Now that's news!"
MSM: liars, cowardly apologists, poseurs and quacks...
:: Max 12:22 AM [+] ::
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Dilpazier Aslam
Scott "I'm in charge now" Burgess knocks it out of the park: MSM absorbs another crushing Blogger knee to the journalistic groin: "the Guardian of London has fired Dilpazier Aslam"
Mr. Burgess - the United Kingdom deserves you - really it does.
:: Max 11:35 PM [+] ::
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Someone should ask the libs if today's deadly bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh are a result of Egypt's involvement in Iraq - oh wait, I forgot - Egypt isn't involved in Iraq. How odd; I thought all this indescriminate murder and mayhem was do to BushHitler's "occupation" of Iraq. Hmmmm. I'm sure MSM will have a fine answer to this conundrum - if they can find six seconds of airtime to shoehorn it in between their non-stop, back-to-back, in-depth fabrication of the Plame/Rove myth.
:: Max 10:20 PM [+] ::
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Commies say: "Detention of Cubans in US illegal". Er, as opposed to the detention of all of the Cubans in - ahem - Cuba?!. I think what I despise first and foremost about garden variety socialists is the gaping holes in their logic followed closely by their hypocracy - I mean, I know it sounds cliche but, you really can't make this Bizarro-World stuff up. You really can't.
:: Max 3:49 PM [+] ::
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"stop tolerating intolerance...""For decades the supporters of multiculturalism have used tax money and government regulations to actively discourage assimilation of immigrants into the broader society, preferring to see communities develop which favour 'identity politics' better suited and more amenable to their own collectivist world views. And now we are paying the price for that. We will not be able to defend ourselves physically or preserve our liberal society unless we stop tolerating intolerance, and that includes not just fundamentalist Islam but also the anti-western bigotry of the multiculturalists."
Perry de Havilland, Samizdata
:: Max 8:39 AM [+] ::
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"Russia will soon enact a new law ending inheritance tax and cancelling tax on gifts between close relatives." Smart, very smart.
:: Max 8:33 AM [+] ::
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Waking up smelling coffee, progressive rubs sleep out of eyes:"Of course, I started out saying we deserved it. I rattled the shibboleths and evoked the totem of roosting chickens. I suddenly reversed my support of the Kurds and the Afghans and the Sudanese, all to blame George Bush. But I knew it was a lie.
"See, like any progressive, I knew that true people's movements don't, as the terrorists do, boast of their love for death, or target the innocent, or espouse Jewish conspiracy theories, or reject democracy on principle, or enslave women - especially all at once. I'd seen this foe before, and it's name wasn't America. It was fascism, trading in jackboots for keffiyahs and merging Mein Kampf with Qur'an. In this fight as any other, I knew I had to stand where I'd always stood... with the heretics, the hebes, the homos and the harridans.
"Be they the slaughtered mothers of the Sudan, the roasted innocents of Manhattan or the pulverized cosmopolitans of London or Bali or Tel Aviv, I therefore announce my solidarity with the victims against this rising fascist tide. We have met an enemy that is not us, who hates us for our good ideas, not our bad policies. Fighting it requires no apology."
- Rober F. Mason
:: Max 8:13 AM [+] ::
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Danes to offer "olive branch" to Muslims::: Thursday, July 21, 2005 ::"If we don't watch out, then we can easily create an atmosphere of xenophobia, where people make a connection between being Muslim and being a potential terrorist, said Liberal Youth chairman Karsten Lauritzen. "If a terror attack strikes Denmark, we could easily end with some deep divides."
Boy, why would anyone make that connection? I mean, I wouldn't think twice about getting onto a crowded subway car with a rucksack carrying Muslim. Nope, I would never make that connection. Heck, that would be like racial profiling n'stuff.
:: Max 7:38 AM [+] ::
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"all men are created equal except Jieews"
The Iraqi Constitution is now public and - as is true of all committee-wrought language salad - the Devil is in the dressing [or as Tom Waits puts it: "the large print giveth and the small print taketh away"]
:: Max 10:12 PM [+] ::
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This is what happens when you couple unfettered immigration with immigrants who refuse to assimilate - chaos.
:: Max 6:38 PM [+] ::
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Blog of the Week: Professor Bunyip. Just keep scrolling - the deeper you go the better it gets.:: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 ::
:: Max 4:29 PM [+] ::
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Michael J. Totten examines the left's intolerance of centrists: "Perhaps the reason conservatives in general are more tolerant of centrists in general is because - for right now anyway - there are more former liberals around than there are former conservatives. It might not be any more complicated than that."
:: Max 1:44 PM [+] ::
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TED"Think of it. A rise within the party and America beginning with the son of an Irish Immigrant becoming a successful politician in Boston. His son, with the eye on the main chance, rises higher through politics, stock speculation, bootlegging and other businesses. That man decides to create a political dynasty and has the sons and daughters and resources to do it. It begins in ernest with the election of his son, John F. Kennedy, as President, a squeaker as dubious as the Florida vote in 2000. It goes on from there through trials, tribulations, and tragedies well known to all. It goes on and it goes on and it goes on. Whole libraries are written about it. Multiple millions worship at the feet of this fantasy. It is, it seems, the stuff of American myth and legend.
"And now, several decades, numerous deaths, and many millions of dollars later, the entire project has produced for the ages as its final result, the Kennedy Apotheosis in three small but hefty letters: T E D.
"As I said, there are more depressing things in our politics than being a Democrat. You could always be a Kennedy. You could even be a Ted."
- Gerard Van der Leun, American Digest
:: Max 1:10 PM [+] ::
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"...I hate to say it. I mean, I feel badly saying it between you and me. But I do know dumbass questions when I see dumbass questions."
- Orrin Hatch
A terrific putdown by Senator Orrin Hatch to Charles Schumer. [let the games begin]
:: Max 1:49 AM [+] ::
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Kristol VS Barnes on Roberts? They're probably both right...
Upshot? Bush handled the process smartly, something his critics can't get their head around.
:: Max 1:33 AM [+] ::
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:: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 ::"My own judicial philosophy begins with an appreciation of the limited role of a judge in our system of divided powers. Judges are not to legislate and are not to execute the laws ... My judicial philosophy accordingly insists upon some rigor in ensuring that judges properly confine themselves to the adjudication of the case before them, and seek neither to legislate broadly not to administer the law generally in deciding that case.
"Deciding the case ... requires an essential humility grounded in the properly limited role of an undemocratic judiciary in a democratic republic, a humility reflected in doctrines of deference to legislative policy judgments and embodied in the often misunderstood term "judicial restraint." That restraint does not mean that judges should not act against the popular will ... [T]he framers expected them to be discerning the law, not shaping policy. That means the judges should not look to their own personal views or preferences in deciding the cases before them. Their commission is no license to impose those preferences from the bench."
- John Roberts on his judicial philosophy.
:: Max 12:08 AM [+] ::
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SCOTUS NEWS: Keep your eye on NROs Bench Memos but Tradesports is where the real action is. As of this moment, Jones is way out in front.
Given Tradesports amazing track record, you've got to believe Edith Jones will get the nomination - all the big money is on her.
6:30 PM Central Update: Wow, watching Tradesports is thrilling; Luttig is slowly gaining on Jones.
6:35 PM Central Update: Luttig/Jones losing ground, they're buying Roberts!?
6:40 PM Central Update: Unbelievable, the money's on Roberts
6:45 PM Central Update: All the gas is going out of Luttig/Jones - looks like it's Roberts. This is fascinating.
6:47 PM Central Update: CNN just announced it's Roberts! Tradesports predicted Roberts 10 minutes before CNN announced it - not a great "prediction" but it had it before the public announcement.
Well, it's all over but the shouting. If you want to check out a boring Tradesports contract, take a look at "Rove Resignation" - not alot of action over there.
Final update for this post: Orin Kerr over at the Volokh Conspiracy has an interesting post on the inaccuracy of Tradesports (or predictive markets generally) in predicting "the discretionary decision of one person, as compared to predicting the collective outcome of the individual decisions of many" noting that Tradesports players incorrectly predicted Rehnquist's retirement based on little more than press reports. However, Kerr also noted the market started to move toward Roberts about an hour before the official announcement which seems about right for this kind of contract - the market had it right even if the "prediction" was only an hour in advance of the actual outcome. Whatever the case, it was fun watching the probabilities collapse and Roberts emerge as the nominee 10 minutes before the AP announced it.
:: Max 5:38 PM [+] ::
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"...blogging would be no fun if you couldn't engage in some rampant speculation now and again."
Tim Chapman speculates on Bush's SCOTUS nomination and pulls Judge J. Michael Luttig of Alexandria out of his hat. Seems to be a good possiblity - the family is all dressed up apparently with somewhere to go. Here's his SCOTUSblog profile.
[if Luttig's the pick, there's gonna be a whole lot of handwringin' going on - he's a white man!]
Update 1: MSM seems to think it's Judge Edith Hollan Jones. Here's Jones' SCOTUSblog profile.
Update 2: Apparently Luttig has dissapeared - the media-swarm can't find him which would lend credibility to Chapman's pick.
Update 3: Scratch Luttig; The big-bucks at Tradesports is flowing to Edith Jones.
:: Max 4:53 PM [+] ::
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StopEverybodyAndEverythingAndIhateBush.org
:: Max 4:20 PM [+] ::
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Arianna must have a good sense of humor because she hired Greg Gutfeld. Don't miss "THE HUFFPO KIDS FUNNY PAGE SPECIAL!"
:: Max 4:14 PM [+] ::
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The Dinocrat: "33 years as a Democrat is long enough...":: Monday, July 18, 2005 ::
If you are a shareholder of New York Times Co. stock, don't miss Dinocrat's post on the current state of the company: profits down 14%; decline in circulation 26%."While the broad market has gone up 10%, the New York Times' shareholders have lost almost 30% of their money. Put another way, New York Times shareholders have lost over 40% of the money they would now have simply by being in a diversified portfolio. Disastrous."
[ya, and after the Plame-out, look for the stock to take a real nose-dive - I predict the low twenties by December]
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:: Max 7:55 AM [+] ::
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Indra Nooyi invited to WH dinner?! This has got to be another KR rope-a-dope - I simply can't believe they're that tone-deaf...
:: Max 11:16 PM [+] ::
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Unite Against Terror - Just do it.
:: Max 9:44 PM [+] ::
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Muslim hoods riot on Bastille Day
Fjordman has it: "Anti-French "youths" attacking synagogues? I wonder what kind of ethnic background they might have?"
I suppose we'd know the answer to that question if the cowardly press would tell the truth. Note: in the link above, French police "use[d] shoulder-held grenade launchers" to quell the rioters. Try finding this story in the New York Times.
[Somebody send in the International Red Cross and Amnesty International to survey the condition of the captives - you know, make sure they're getting Qur'ans and prayer rugs and rice pilaff in the penitencier.]
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:: Max 9:21 PM [+] ::
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Mission Impossible
With infinite patience Michael Totten draws a picture for the left of the left because they're having trouble with all the big words.
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:: Max 6:23 PM [+] ::
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"I used to be proud to call myself a leftist...""We are witnessing one of the greatest betrayals by the left since so-called left-wingers backed the Hitler-Stalin pact and opposed the war against Nazi fascism. Today, the pseudo-left reveals its shameless hypocrisy and its wholesale abandonment of humanitarian values. While it deplores the 7/7 terrorist attack on London, only last year it welcomed to the UK the Muslim cleric, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who endorses the suicide bombing of innocent civilians. These same right-wing leftists back the so-called 'resistance' in Iraq. This 'resistance' uses terrorism against civilians as its modus operandi - stooping to the massacre of dozens of Iraqi children in order kill a few US soldiers. Terrorism is not socialism; it is the tactic of fascism. But much of the left doesn't care. Never mind what the Iraqi people want, it wants the US and UK out of Iraq at any price, including the abandonment of Iraqi socialists, trade unionists, democrats and feminists. If the fake left gets its way, the ex-Baathists and Islamic fundamentalists could easily seize power, leading to Iranian-style clerical fascism and a bloodbath. I used to be proud to call myself a leftist. Now I feel shame. Much of the left no longer stands for the values of universal human rights and international socialism."
- Peter Thatchell
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:: Max 6:01 PM [+] ::
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Now Playing
Could you survive decapitation? Could you live without a head? She's absolutely alive and positively real! Truly one of Tiawan's strangest teenage girls...
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:: Max 4:03 PM [+] ::
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This is interesting; looks like the London bombers might have been duped by their controllers - they had return tickets from Luton back to London and had paid their parking fees.
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:: Max 3:37 PM [+] ::
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Powerline outs the Seattle Times for journalistic malpractice. I'd call it lying to the public.
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:: Max 8:16 AM [+] ::
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Probably all you really need to know about the New York Times::: Sunday, July 17, 2005 ::
Via Donald Luskin [>]
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:: Max 8:01 AM [+] ::
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Plame/Rove in a nutshell::: Saturday, July 16, 2005 ::"[I]n the real world there's only one scandal in this whole wretched business - that the CIA, as part of its institutional obstruction of the administration, set up a pathetic "fact-finding mission" that would be considered a joke by any serious intelligence agency and compounded it by sending, at the behest of his wife, a shrill politically motivated poseur who, for the sake of 15 minutes' celebrity on the cable gabfest circuit, misled the nation about what he found.
- Mark Steyn
:: Max 7:21 PM [+] ::
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"Public Trust In Media At All Time Low"
[No kidding?...C'mon, yer joshin' me...Reeeally?...Noooo way...]
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:: Max 6:30 PM [+] ::
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NYT duped by "angry Muslims"? [this is getting too easy]
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:: Max 6:03 PM [+] ::
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What if they had a scandal and nobody showed up?:"[I]t looks as if this scandal is about a spy who was not endangered, a whistle-blower who did not blow the whistle and was not smeared, and a White House official who has not been fired for a felony that he did not commit. And so far the only victim is a reporter who did not write a story about it." - John Tierney, New York Times
That Karl Rove is such a devious rascal; how does he do it?
[Hope they took Judith Miller's belt and stockings.]
Update: Fat Steve is hosting a big fat Plame/Rove linkfest - don't miss it.
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:: Max 3:31 PM [+] ::
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TAKE THE IPIP-NEO "five factor model of personality" exam for a snapshot of your personality. I scored low on liberalism but high on intellect [hmmmm...]. Don't cheat!*
*unless of course you're personality type is dishonest - don't know how the eggheads factor that into the equation.
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:: Max 11:16 AM [+] ::
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NOW PLAYING: An oldie but goody - an ABC News report from the good old Clinton era: like the Dems say, there's no connection between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein - no connection whatsoever - Bush Lied!.
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:: Max 8:42 AM [+] ::
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Take Back the Memorial Update: Jeff Jarvis has a lengthy post on the status of the tacky, hate-America-first "International Freedom Center" that's scheduled to be placed directly adjacent to the WTC Memorial. Looks like opponents have made some headway but the relocation of the IFC is by no means assured. If you're concerned, drop by the Take Back the Memorial site and join 33,000 of your countrymen in signing their petition to have the IFC moved away - far away - from the gound zero site.:: Friday, July 15, 2005 ::
If you've forgotten what exactly took place on September 11, 2001, here's a little reminder.
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:: Max 7:52 AM [+] ::
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Free Ganji
"This candle is dying out, but its voice will not..." A letter to the people of the free world.
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:: Max 10:31 PM [+] ::
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Michelle Malkin is recommending a new book, Infiltration, which claims al Queada has established training operations across the Afghanistan border in Pakistan and that the terrorists are planning new attacks on American soil. Here's the June 2004 customs Action Report, alerting border agents to be on the lookout for Pakistani's traveling to the US:
My response is, well, d'uh. Inasmuch as there is no such thing as a US "border" in any meaningful sense of the word, this "action report" seems kinda moot. No matter, you can be certain they're on their way (if they're not here already) and U.S. Customs and Border "Protection" will be the last to know. Actually, it would seem to be in Vincente Fox's best interest to catch terrorists on his side of the line - before they enter the US - because if it's ever proven al Queada crossed the Mexican border and committed a successful "spectacular" attack on an American city, the southern border will be locked down for good - the American public will demand it. Ditto for the Canadian border.
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:: Max 9:41 PM [+] ::
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"I'm still naive, I guess, since I have difficulty wrapping my mind around the idea that individuals like this use their modern scientific education in the service of a bizarre fantasy that a person blowing themselves up will instantly pass through a door into "Paradise." Pure terror for political ends I could understand, but that is cognitive dissonance of an order I cannot comprehend. And from educated people. The rage and shame must be extraordinary.
- Roger L. Simon
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:: Max 4:04 PM [+] ::
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The Rove non-scandal is claiming victims in the Democratic Underground:
"This isn't America anymore! I walk around saying karma, karma, karma ALL the time, it's NOT working!!!!""I'm almost to the point where I don't even want to check in with DU anymore!
"EVERY single time we seem to get some traction on something, THE subject gets changed or "Fuzzed"! So what about DSM??? What about the War??? What about Impeachment???
"I get all hyped up that something will happen, then "Poof" we get MORE OF THE SAME!!!
"Where the F--K are OUR Representatives & Senators??? I certainly can't appeal to mine down here in Florida!!
"I'm so SICK & TIRED, and TIRED & SICK!!"
- ChiciB1
It's got to be real frustrating to be a Democrat these days...
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:: Max 2:08 PM [+] ::
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"This surely qualifies as one of the "hey, big whoop" stories of all time. And I am not saying this because I am some partisan gunslinger. Simple fairness says that an official called by a journalist who volunteers a piece of gossip and then responds, "I heard that too," is not retailing a piece of incendiary information intended to destroy lives and place CIA assets in harm's way.
"And I'm going to be blunt here. Anybody who says different has an agenda that has nothing whatever to do with Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, or much of anything else besides doing damage to the Bush administration and character-assassinating Karl Rove."
- John Podhoretz
Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Dem character-assassins look fantastically foolish here. Don't know whether they're just plain stupid or they've fallen for a classic Rove rope-a-dope. Either way, they've come off as bumbling dupes.
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:: Max 12:43 PM [+] ::
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The blogosphere's favorite whipping boy, Paul "stop it again" Krugman never lets us down and today is certainly no exception. As usual, up is down, down is up and one plus one equals 47. U-Fisk his latest Orwellian nightmare: Karl Roves America
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:: Max 12:03 PM [+] ::
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A Glimmer of Hope?"Osama bin Laden's standing has dropped significantly in some key Muslim countries, while support for suicide bombings and other acts of violence has "declined dramatically," according to a new survey released today.
"In a striking finding, predominantly Muslim populations in a sampling of six North African, Middle East and Asian countries also shared to "a considerable degree" Western nations' concerns about Islamic extremism, the survey found. Many in those Muslim nations see it as threat to their own country, the poll found."
Via Zacht Ei [>]
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:: Max 8:50 AM [+] ::
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There is a growing concensus that the whole Plame affair is merely an ill-conceived, partisan psuedo-scandal that's making Joe Wilson's Democrat enablers look like imbeciles. If the whole thing deflates, MSM isn't going to come out clean on this one either.
More: Malkin's all over it [>]
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:: Max 8:01 AM [+] ::
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FINALLY: ABC News provides conclusive evidence there was no connection whatsoever between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden!
[D'oh!]
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:: Max 7:49 AM [+] ::
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You're either with us or you're - well - er - Britain?!"[s]even British Muslims have been captured in Afghanistan and detained in Guantanamo. Several British Muslims have attempted suicide-bombing missions in Israel, at least one successfully, and others have been reportedly killed fighting with Abu Musab Zarqawi in Iraq. Omar Sheik, responsible for beheading Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, was born and educated in Britain, a student of the London School of Economics, no less. Those recruited to Islamism are not the poor and disinherited, but, on the contrary, those whose intelligence and social advancement allow them to submit to the luxury of an identity crisis."
[And the "Shoe Bomber" - don't forget the "Shoe Bomber"...]
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:: Max 12:41 AM [+] ::
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Nothing really surprises me anymore, particularly the suggestion that THE FREAKIN' UN WANTS CONTROL OVER THE FREAKIN' INTERNET. Why doesn't this surprise me?:: Thursday, July 14, 2005 ::
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:: Max 12:29 AM [+] ::
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Yes, as a matter of fact, they do bomb children..."Why does any responsible news organization try to dignify these people with labels like "insurgent," as if they have a cause and a purpose other than murder? Why doesn't every national and religious leader in the Arab world condemn these criminals for what they are? Why aren't other nations joining the fight to rid Iraq of this evil?"
- Jeff Jarvis
Good questions Jeff. Maybe George Galloway can help you out.
I really think Jeff Jarvis is a standup guy, and he's done well to bring some sanity to the left regarding the GWOT but I'm not sure any of it's sinking in. And I'm really not convinced that simply calling terrorists "terrorists" will change anybody's world view. The real test will be when the next "big one" happens. Will the left continue to misplace the blame on Blair and Bush for fighting back against this barbaric mayhem or will the liberal elite finally comprehend the depth of the evil that is global Jihad? Sadly, I predict the icons of the left will, like Mr. Galloway, align solidly with radicalized Islam. In any case, Jarvis is a welcome, if not lonely voice from an increasingly marginalized left.
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:: Max 10:20 PM [+] ::
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Thursday Download Pick
This is excellent: Microsoft has released a series of Excel Personal Financial templates for common calculating chores such as 401 K Calculator, Buy VS Lease Car Calculator, Closing Cost Calculator, Consumer Debt Manager, and Loan Calculator with extra payments - 32 in all.
Download for free here [>]
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:: Max 6:31 PM [+] ::
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Joseph Wilson: Fraud and Scoundrel
There can be no question that "Ambassador" Joseph Wilson (the fourth) is simply a Democrat hack playing partisan politics in a time of war. Transparent attempts at political sabotage, such as the supposed "outing" of Valerie Plame, is why the Dems are losing their grip on the reigns of power in America. Happily, the moonbats continue on their rapid downward spiral, apparently unaware that they are being overwhelmed by the fact-checking capabilities of the new media - and "main-stream-media" is no longer able to provide them cover. It's as obvious as the mud on Dan Rather's face: Joseph Wilson is a fraud and a scoundrel.
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:: Max 6:04 PM [+] ::
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In case you missed it the first time around, Terry Teachout has reposted The Teachout Cultural Concurrance Index - anchovies? Definitely yes.
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:: Max 4:49 PM [+] ::
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TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG...
if you're in the job hunt - that is the question.
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:: Max 4:13 PM [+] ::
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AKA Speedy
"Nicolas Sarkozy...If he has his way, this hyperactive, pro-American, Gaullist, free marketer will transform French politics for good."
Pro-American free-market French politician?! We blog you click through with perplexed amusement.
[and he's real popular - don't forget he's popular too...]
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:: Max 3:47 PM [+] ::
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A message to the left:"We are infidels, and our infidelity matters much more than our active collaboration. As part of the hated West, we were a target long before Madrid, Iraq, Afghanistan or 9/11. Al-Qaeda does not care what we say about where we stand: it considers only whether our destruction would amount to a sufficiently emphatic statement of its aims and intentions. Its objective is to remake the world in the image of Islam, its strategy to terrify the West into surrender.
"But the penny drops tardily. On the morning of the London bombings, this newspaper reported on a group of middle-aged Irishwomen attending a rally at the G8 summit in Edinburgh where they held placards bearing an image of George W. Bush and the slogan, "World's 1 terrorist". On the letter's page on Saturday, three out of four writers blamed Bush for what had happened in London. Such thinking, which used to be merely tedious, now becomes dangerous.
"Let's hope we smell the coffee before we discover what the word terrorism means. Our collective mind, numbed by the dim cynicism of the Michael Moores and Clare Shorts, is slow to grasp what is going down. With our constant talk of "fundamentalism" we have fostered this misleading notion of a primitive peace-loving monster being awoken from its slumbers by Western bellicosity. It's time we got cause and effect in the right order.
"The world's number one terrorist? We wish. Very soon we may find ourselves praying that Bush and Tony Blair will be able to strike terror into the hearts of those who perpetrated last week's atrocities."
- John Waters, The Irish Times (subscription required)
Well said. Radical Muslims would just as soon saw-off the fat head of a Michael Moore as a John Ashcroft. Actually, were they given their way in America, I suspect the Jihadists would likey turn their attention first to acedemia and then move quickly upon Hollywood - the two towering pillars of "progressivism" in America. But ultimately, nobody is safe from these brainwashed, suicidal mass-murderers as many thousand of moderate Muslims would attest - were they still alive and breathing to do so. See previous post for more.
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:: Max 2:40 PM [+] ::
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"Are you ready? Tomorrow you will be in Paradise . . ."
Here's the religious motivation and technical details of what it's really like to be a homicide bomber [>]
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:: Max 2:31 PM [+] ::
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Cap'n Ed debates::: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 ::
Are Bloggers and Journalists Friends or Enemies? Watch it here [>]
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:: Max 8:41 AM [+] ::
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From Alaa's mouth to Allah's ears:"What has reminded me of this right now in the present situation is a sentence of Isaac Deutscher which I can never forget. It goes something like this: "God help those whom the Jews take it into their head to be their enemies!!" What is so striking about this sentence is that it applies precisely to the Arabs as well. You may draw your own inferences from this which may throw some light on the madness that is going on in these days.
"It has struck me suddenly, that perhaps one of the main mystic keys to defusing the whole thing is to bring about a real historic reconciliation between these two surviving branches of the Semitic race, and I don't mean just solving the Israeli-Palestinian problem, but something far more profound than that. Is this not the real challenge for the non-Semitic western broker, for his own peace and safety, if not for anything else?"
Salaam, Shalom
- Alaa
:: Max 4:04 PM [+] ::
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Uh Oh; this is serious. John "Magic Hat" Kerry is calling for "an end to Karl Rove's days in the White House"
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:: Max 2:03 PM [+] ::
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"Thank you, Mr. Rove""Democrats and most of the Beltway press corps are baying for Karl Rove's head over his role in exposing a case of CIA nepotism involving Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame. On the contrary, we'd say the White House political guru deserves a prize-perhaps the next iteration of the "Truth-Telling" award that The Nation magazine bestowed upon Mr. Wilson before the Senate Intelligence Committee exposed him as a fraud.
"For Mr. Rove is turning out to be the real "whistleblower" in this whole sorry pseudo-scandal. He's the one who warned Time's Matthew Cooper and other reporters to be wary of Mr. Wilson's credibility. He's the one who told the press the truth that Mr. Wilson had been recommended for the CIA consulting gig by his wife, not by Vice President Dick Cheney as Mr. Wilson was asserting on the airwaves. In short, Mr. Rove provided important background so Americans could understand that Mr. Wilson wasn't a whistleblower but was a partisan trying to discredit the Iraq War in an election campaign. Thank you, Mr. Rove."
And, surprise, surprise, Matthew Cooper's wife is Mandy Grunwald, one of Hillary Clinton's closest political advisors. I wonder if NYTs Judy Miller is protecting Grunwald/Hillary? I've got a warm and tingly feeling the Times is hiding something really nefarious here. If they are, it'll be bigger than RatherGate.
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:: Max 11:48 AM [+] ::
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Old Grey Lady Diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease:: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 ::
Powerline does a wonderful job smashing today's NYTs insanely dishonest "editorial" relating to the fading Rove "story". Don't miss it.
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:: Max 11:22 AM [+] ::
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Blogger's Tech Notes
Check out this handy Beginner's Guide to Podcasts [>]
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:: Max 11:05 PM [+] ::
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GRAB a cup of coffee and revel in the clinical deconstruction of Progressive "intellectual", University of Michigan "history professor" and terror apologist Juan "Coleslaw" Cole.
And if that's not enough, don't miss Scott Burgess' refined [and as always hillarious] disection of an equally misinformed "Progressive intellectual" on Global Warming.
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:: Max 9:37 PM [+] ::
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"Sarah Boxer's very existence ought to encourage would-be journalists everywhere. You can be dumb as a sack of hammers and still make it all the way to the New York Times." - Michael J. Totten
Totten's a genius - read the whole thing.
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:: Max 5:54 PM [+] ::
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French tougher on terrorists than British?"Counterterrorism specialists disdain the British. Roger Cressey calls London "easily the most important jihadist hub in Western Europe." Steven Simon dismisses the British capital as "the Star Wars bar scene" of Islamic radicals. More brutally, an intelligence official said of last week's attacks: "The terrorists have come home. It is payback time for - an irresponsible policy."
{...}
"France accords terrorist suspects fewer rights than any other Western state, permitting interrogation without a lawyer, lengthy pre-trial incarcerations, and evidence acquired under dubious circumstances. Were he a terrorism suspect, the author of Al-Qaida's Jihad in Europe, Evan Kohlmann, says he "would least like to be held under" the French system."[emphasis mine, ed]
Daniel Pipes, the New York Sun
Bet they don't get no Qur'ans, prayer rugs and rice pilaf in the penitencier...
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:: Max 5:22 PM [+] ::
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"Racist" Pizzaman Update
Remember the Danish pizza maker that banned French and German citizens from his pizzeria because their countries failed to support the US invasion of Iraq? A Danish court found him guilty of racial discrimination and fined him $800.00. However, the defiant pizzaman has refused to pay the fine and has instead, opted to do the jail time. Here's an update [>]
[He really needs to consider relocating - pizza is like the US National Dish.]
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:: Max 4:17 PM [+] ::
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But what if the terrorists are right?
If you have issues with moral relativism, just refer to the handy Huffpo Guide to Good and Evil
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:: Max 4:06 PM [+] ::
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More on the Rove/Plame Affair
"What's in a Name?" JustOneMinute has a nice review of the recent history of the Wilson/Plame affair. Don't miss Fishkite's page capture of Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson the IV's previously online bio listing Valerie Plame as his wife. Also, Cap'n Ed has a post on the matter that frames the dustup in it's proper context - a "tempest in a teapot".
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:: Max 3:27 PM [+] ::
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Register This
Say goodbye to those annoying and invasive registration forms. Bugmenot.com comes to the rescue with preregistered usernames and passwords. So you can find it quickly, I've added this invaluable website to the top of the Prairie Fire blogroll. Blog-on!
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:: Max 1:11 PM [+] ::
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Jihad"Today, in the West, we are witnessing the Islamic stage of weakness, but the stage of violent jihad is coming sooner or later. The reality is exactly the opposite of what multiculturalists claim, who think clashes with Muslims will diminish in time as we "get used to" each other. They won't. They will become more dangerous, as Muslims grow bolder and work to silence the media and moderates while supporting terrorism. If we fail to understand this, the War against political Islam in 2020 won't be in Tehran, Riyadh or Baghdad. It will be in Paris, London and Amsterdam, and maybe in Montreal, Sydney, Detroit and New Jersey, too.
- Wolfgang Bruno from the The Stages of Jihad
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:: Max 11:15 AM [+] ::
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Common Sense"...the danger in separating "Islam" from "terrorism" is that it leads the control-freaks of the nanny state into thinking that "terrorism" is something that can be dealt with by border security, ID cards, retinal scans, metal detectors. It can't.
Terrorism ends when the broader culture refuses to tolerate it. There would be few if any suicide bombers in the Middle East if "martyrdom" were not glorified by imams and politicians, if pictures of local "martyrs" were not proudly displayed in West Bank grocery stores, if Muslim banks did not offer special "martyrdom" accounts to the relicts thereof, if schools did not run essay competitions on "Why I want to grow up to be a martyr".
Mark Steyn, the Telegraph
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:: Max 11:00 AM [+] ::
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Lorie Byrd has an excellent post on the Plame/Wilson/Rove affair with emphasis on the pretentious White House press corp. And here's Cliff May's perfect assesment::: Monday, July 11, 2005 ::"Two possibilities and a world of difference between them:
1) Rove knowingly exposed a covert CIA agent as a way to "punish" Joe Wilson.
2) Rove was asked why the Bush administration would send someone like Joe Wilson to Africa on a secret mission for the CIA. Rove answered: "We didn't. His wife works at the CIA. She got him the assignment."
If it's (1) Rove did wrong and probably deserves to be prosecuted.
If it's (2) Rove was merely telling the truth to a reporter about a curious situation -- unusual perhaps, but hardly criminal or even scandalous.
I know which I think is more likely. I'm not sure that will matter much to the MSM which smells blood in the water.
This is exactly right - they hate Rove so much they'll twist truth-telling into a "White House scandal". Anymore, I actually enjoy it when the main-stream pundits make complete fools out of themselves on national television. Thankfully, Polipundit watches it so I don't have to.
Best Plame/Rove post goes to Roger L. Simon:"I certainly don't know the answer to that, but if he wasted even a minute of his time bad-mouthing Joseph C. "Our Man in Niger" Wilson and his hemi-semi-demi covert agent wife, he's not the cold-blooded strategist he is reputed to be. (But who is?)
Now the reified libs over at the NYT are reported to be riding forth in high dudgeon to support freedom of the press or their own anonymous sources - or something - in the pursuit of the nefarious presidential adviser. Off with his head, so much for Rovingham! The great game of the Administration vs. the Media goes on while in the real world people are still being unearthed from the smouldering remnants of the Underground."
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:: Max 7:32 AM [+] ::
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Hillary for 2008!
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:: Max 4:58 PM [+] ::
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Unbalanced
John Gibson really is an anachronistic crank and Fox News would do well to replace him. I despise France for her politics but draw the line at offensive, sophomoric rhetoric. Scott Burgess lays it on the line.
[And what's with Gibson's acidic voice anyway? I mean how did a guy with such an annoying voice ever land such a prominent media postion?]
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:: Max 4:22 PM [+] ::
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Rottweiler Pup's at it again. He has a report on how the "religion of pieces" is handling the London bombings. As usual, it's well worth your time.
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:: Max 1:59 PM [+] ::
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"I Leave For War"
An excerpt:"For anyone that reads this; yes I am a 30 year old idealist, at 20 I was a cynic, but now I have a mission in life and a purpose. I found God, but I am far from a religious fanatic, I found a God that inspired me to do good deeds just for the sake of doing good. I can feel his prescence in everything around me, the sunset, the waves crashing on a Hawaiian beach and even in the evening breeze that is laced with plumeria. I would call myself a soldier of God, but not in any way that says he favors me or my cause. I am a soldier of our lord because I choose to serve the side of good, good is opening a door for a stranger, or helping your neighbor empty his trashcan, or going to Iraq because you want to help a people find their voice and feel what we feel when we think of our freedoms. The most fundamental question I ask myself everday is: If I have the chance to do good, even if there is a terrible price to pay, why wouldn't I? I wish more Americans would ask themselves this question, if you can do good, what on earth would stop you from following through?"
- Caelestis, The Makaha Surf Report
Glad he's on our side. Good luck and Godspeed Caelestis.
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:: Max 1:40 PM [+] ::
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Taheri's Solution:: Sunday, July 10, 2005 ::
Iranian author, Amir Taheri proposes the only, serious, real-world solution to radicalized Islam in his July 8th essay entitled Time to Hit the Suicide Factories. Don't miss this one.
Update: Make no mistake, this is what the solution looks like - and what a vision it is.
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:: Max 1:18 PM [+] ::
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Hurricane Watch:: Saturday, July 09, 2005 ::
Here's the Mobile, AL NOAA doppler monitoring Hurricane Dennis. Hit the "short range loop" for an animation of the hurricane movement. You can fly over the Hurricane landing point with Google Maps/Satellite [sorry, no direct link - just enter the city/state [Mobile, AL?] in the search box and enter].
Hang on to your hats, looks like yet another very destructive weather event is about to take place on the battered gulf coast.
Update: I just checked again and it looks like the storm will make landfall somewhere between Fort Walton Beach and Dauphin Island. I'm guessing it'll hit just West of Pensacola - Gulf Shores/Perdido Key area.
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:: Max 12:26 PM [+] ::
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French Wine Sales Tank:: Friday, July 08, 2005 ::
From the Adam Smith Institute:
French wines "bland and of poor value...""Bordeaux exports fell more than 22 per cent in value and 12 per cent in volume last year, under pressure from the New World, falling consumption and the high euro. Claret sales in the UK fell 25 per cent in value over the past year."
"8,000 to 10,000 hectares of vines are being torn up, with farmers receiving 11,000 pounds per hectare to reduce or stop their production. Meanwhile, for the first time ever, Appellation Controllee wines are being distilled into industrial alcohol.
"What happened was New World vintners and a failure to respond to them. They entered the market at the low end about 30 years ago, selling cheap and cheerful wines with names like Kanga Rouge. Over the course of a generation they have educated British tastes, producing award-winning wines, and persuading the British to pay for them and enjoy them. The result is that the British now drink excellent wines from places like Australia, South Africa and Chile, and find many of the French ones to be bland and of poor value."
:: Max 1:30 PM [+] ::
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Britain's George Galloway is a perfect hybrid of Michael Moore and Howard Dean. I knew he'd cross the line on this one:"I thought George had sunk to the depths of sickness in the past but this exceeds anything he has done before. You would think an MP whose constituency borders on Aldgate East's first thoughts would have been with the victims of these horrific attacks and the emergency services. His few remaining friends will turn away in horror from this intervention."
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:: Max 12:42 PM [+] ::
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They're scared:"The terrorists struck because they're scared of us in London. Scared of a city where we all mingle together, an old trading town where a good deal beats the colour of someone's skin or the identity of someone's God. The unthinking unity in our city - one we don't boast about, because it's part of all of our lives, is something that terrifies those who'd seek to rule us by racial or religious dogma."
Well said. The terrorists are literally scared to death. Terrified because their entire world-view is up against an immovable wall of reason, rationality, technology and economics that they'll never breach with the puny tools of terror. The harder they bang on the wall, the larger and thicker the wall gets. They're done for.
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:: Max 10:52 AM [+] ::
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Voices of Reason - Arab bloggers comment on the London bombings"We know the pain, sadness and chaos that such inhumane acts may bring to a lot of innocent people and families because we experiencing it on a daily basis from the same thugs, the Wahabi terrorists cockroaches.
{...}
"We sympathize with deep condolences to all the victims and their families in London and the UK and they have to stay vigilant because the thugs may plan more attacks just to show how strong they are." - Hammorabi"...there is NO REASON for any human being to commit such horrific crimes against other human beings especially knowing that the victims are completely innocent... I am sick and tired of hearing people giving religious and/or political explanations for these monstrous crimes... NO religion on earth should even be called a religion if it advocates or leads to killing or harming innocent civilians... religions where created as a way to guide human beings' lives; they are an ethical code, just like laws are but more powerful; they were established as a way for people to seek a higher power when they feel helpless and hopeless with their mere human capabilities. No religion was initially found as a way to destroy humanity or kill human beings." - Beth-Nahrain"It is horrible to harm other people. What took place in London this morning is a cowardly action. No one could ever give any reason or justification for what a bunch of ruthless terrorists did. There is no morality in terrifying & killing peaceful people. I can imagine the disturbance, chaos & fear caused by the incident since we live this situation here in Iraq daily.
{...}
"...but what is more important is to take tougher measures by the European leaders, especially the French & the German, against terrorists. France & Germany try to show courtesy in dealing with the insurgents in Iraq, believing that such conduct may keep terrorists away from their soil. By inference, terrorism, if prevails, will spare no land to invade." - IBN ALRAFIDAIN"The way to beat them is not to give in to them, and more democracy and democratic institutions, a complete overhaul of the education system in the Arab and Muslim worlds and the full separation of Mosque and State.
"The time is now. We have to get this done. Otherwise we will be completely left behind and will suffer much more at the hands of these terrorists.
"My heart and thoughts go to the people of the United Kingdom in this very difficult time." - Mahmood
It's interesting these voices are largely heard only through the blogosphere. I have to believe the vast majority of Muslims would condemn Wahabist fanaticism - if they weren't afraid of getting their heads cut off.
Related: Regarding Arab condolences, Jeff Jarvis has this to say: "And on Global Voices, they're aggregating views from the Muslim blogopshere. They're quoting condolences. I wonder how representative that is. If only it were."
Hearing condolences from a handful of concerned Arab bloggers is encouraging but it's going to take many millions more to drown out the lunatic rantings of the Wahabist fanatics.
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:: Max 8:21 AM [+] ::
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Appeasment Watch: Stand or Run?:: Thursday, July 07, 2005 ::
It won't be long now before the British left begin pounding their "I told you so" drums. Rottweiller Puppy has a rundown of the players most likely to incite the UK's handwringing appeasement crowd:"The vermin who killed our countrymen and women yesterday did so in order to create a propaganda tool for people like Sacranie and Livingstone to use against our way of life, and they will use it.
"Whether we can resist the coming calls for appeasement and retreat will be the measure of whether the terrorists scored a victory yesterday, or took another, gigantic leap toward their own destruction.
"So here's the question: Do we stand or do we run?"
The British have an opportunity to show the "Koranimals" how it's done and I'm betting they will - in spite of "progressive" cowards like George Galloway.
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:: Max 7:24 AM [+] ::
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Oh Canada
On the Canadian media response to the London bombings, Kate McMillan poses an interesting question: "if a gawdamned nobody artist in Saskatchewan knows this, why doesn't the CBC?"
Read the whole thing - it's a classic MSM takedown[>]
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:: Max 10:53 PM [+] ::
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Surprise: DU Moonbats implicate Bush Administration in London bombings [What took 'em so long?]
[Oh, that's right, they're just now waking up...]
Update: OMG! The Jews Knew! This really is a BIG, complicated, international Zionist conspiracy. Glad the Moonbats are onto it otherwise, we'd have never known. Whew. Case closed - the Jews did it!
[really, I'd never have guessed it. I thought maybe some Arab guys did it but, shucks, it turns out it was the Jieews. Well, whaaddaya know, it wasn't Rove after all...]
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:: Max 9:36 PM [+] ::
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al Quaeda: You Lose!"I tell you what, if this is an "Islamic" terrorist attack, they're doing a piss-poor job. The pubs are all packed out, people sipping their pints happily, all a tad pissed off, but basically fine with it. Nice one, Al Quaeda - you profess to be from a teetotal religion, and you've given the pub trade a massive mid-week boost."
Europhobia"We shall not flag nor fail."
Solidarity"These fuckers won't win..."- Arjan Dasselaar
"But if these terrorists thought they could intimidate the people of a great nation, they picked the wrong people and the wrong nation. For generations, tyrants, fascists, and terrorists have sought to carry out their violent designs upon the British people only to founder upon its unrelenting shores.
"Before long, I suspect that those responsible for these acts will encounter British steel. Their kind of steel has an uncommon strength. It does not bend or break."
- Donald Rumsfeld
"On September 11, 2001, when I was trying to remember who had been through this before, and who could we look to as a model, the first thing I thought of were the people of London in the Battle of Britain and Winston Churchill"
- Rudolph Guiliani
"Perhaps now is therefore not the most inappropriate moment to do something which under ordinary circumstances would be decidedly un-English; viz, to express my real affection for the country in which I have chosen to live. It has become, in a way I never expected it to, home. And where the virtues of other countries fetishise a Romantic, Wagnerian heroism, those of England are unassuming: decency, carrying on, and in direr hours humour, stiff upper lips, and the ironic, benevolent wit of fellow-sufferers talking to one another. These are adult virtues, by comparison to which the others seem adolescent; by them one might live a daily rather than a cinematic life, share pints with friends, and when public duties call, do what they require with quiet steely determination and self-effacing humour. In unglad moments, these are sterner stuff.
- Oxblog
"It is important that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world."
- Tony Blair
God Save the Queen
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:: Max 1:22 PM [+] ::
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Muslims Warned"British Muslims were issued with a stark warning to stay indoors today, amid fears of reprisals following the London bombings.
Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, appealed for calm and condemned the bombings.
He said: "The Islamic Human Rights Commission utterly condemns this attack, but now we appeal that there should be no further victims as a result of reprisals."
Because of the uncivilized and barbaric tendencies of some Muslims, all Muslims are quickly becoming a pariah - social outcasts. That civilized Muslims don't move to condemn these senseless and futile attacks - in a loud and unequivocal way - creates further distrust. Maybe when they realize that people around the globe are increasingly reluctant to do business with Muslims, travel with Muslims, befriend Muslims, accept Muslims, they'll come clean and extract the deadly cancer that has infected their religion and society.
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:: Max 12:24 PM [+] ::
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Flashback; Unholy Alliance"Not only do I think it's possible but I think it is vitally necessary and I think it is happening already. It is possible because the progressive movement around the world and the Muslims have the same enemies. Their enemies are the Zionist occupation, American occupation, British occupation of poor countries mainly Muslim countries. They have the same interest in opposing savage capitalist globalization which is intent upon homogenizing the entire world turning us basically into factory chickens which can be forced fed the American diet of everything from food to Coca-Cola to movies and TV culture. And whose only role in life is to consume the things produced endlessly by the multinational corporations. And the progressive organizations & movements agree on that with the Muslims.
"Otherwise we believe that we should all have to speak as Texan and eat McDonalds and be ruled by Bush and Blair. So on the very grave big issues of the day - issues of war, occupation, justice, opposition to globalization - the Muslims and the progressives are on the same side."
-- British Member of Parliament George Galloway
Update: George Galloway's statement (I've been waiting for this):"We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the Government ignoring such warnings."
[Chickenshit]
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:: Max 12:13 PM [+] ::
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"This is the biggest global event that has ever taken place on this planet." - Will Smith on Live 8
Estimated U.S. Total Economic Engagement with Developing Countries in 2003
$US Billions (% of Total)
U.S. Official Development Assistance 16.3 (13)
U.S. Other Country Assistance 1.5 (1)
U.S. Private Assistance 62.1 (47)
Foundations 3.3
Corporations 2.7
Non Profits and Volunteerism 6.2
Universities & Colleges 2.3
Religious Organizations 7.5
Individual Remittances 40.1
U.S. Private Capital Flows 51.0 (39)
U.S. Total Economic Engagement 130.9 (100)
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:: Max 10:45 AM [+] ::
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The emancipation of Egyptian Women; an interesting photo-essay by the Big Pharaoh.:: Tuesday, July 05, 2005 ::
:: Max 10:36 AM [+] ::
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Smart Girl:My first encounter with Socialism
The year is 1984. I am a skinny ten-year old with long blonde hair and an almost equally long face and I've just moved from Long Island, NY to Oslo, Norway. I am enrolled in Class 4B at Lilleaker Skole and am learning Norwegian practically effortlessly (although it will never become perfect).
I love school and I always have. You could call me a nerd. Back in the States, I have a hard time telling people what my favorite subject is because they're all so damned much fun. Here in Norway, everything's confusing at first while I get used to reading and writing Norwegian, so I am most drawn to math for the first few months. We are learning division and I am finding it to be a breeze.
So easy and so much fun, in fact, that I fly through the assignments and am impatient to learn more. I eagerly raise my hand and announce that I'm done and may I please start the next chapter?
"No, Elise," I am told by the teacher whom I quickly grow to resent. "Not everyone has understood division yet. We only move ahead as a class."
I protest, say I can do it on my own, can I just advance a few pages? To no avail. I am to wait patiently until everyone in the class, including G. who I suspect is mildly retarded, has understood it. It takes fucking forever, and I make sure the teacher knows I think so by rolling my eyes fairly often. In pretty bad taste I know now, but hey, I'm ten.
Over the next three years until I move back to the States, I get used to the system and learn how to take advantage of it. I rarely do homework (we don't get grades, anyway) and only do the bare minimum of what's required of me. I guess you could say I am temporarily denerdified, although I fear I was on the verge of losing something far more important.
I have no idea if my experience is typical for Norwegian schools. As far as I know, I was just unlucky and had a bad teacher. I have, however, come to recognize my teacher's attitude as similar to one that is typically demonstrated (consciously or unconsciously) by the Norwegian Labour Party and the Socialist Left: There is no reason to work hard to achieve anything because the State will take care of your ass regardless. There is also no reason to assume any more responsibility than you need to, because the State knows what's best for you anyway. Forget about a social contract or any form for individual responsibility-- just lean back and enjoy the ride.
Tangent: I know it's a very complicated problem, but I sometimes wonder if there isn't any connection between this form of socialism and the fact that Oslo is the heroin-addict capital of the world?
That's pretty much it in a nutshell.
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:: Max 10:57 PM [+] ::
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