Tolérance

France is Deporting Muslim Clerics and Ken Hughes finds it curious:

«Human Rights Lobbies seem to be turning a blind eye to Frances expulsion of Muslims, according to the British newspaper, The Telegraph. Frances Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is quoted saying “We have to act against radical preachers.” There goes freedom of religion. France’s been lecturing America for years on everything from world politics to bad food, now they’re taking the preemptive stand they’ve always apposed America for taking.

Muslims who assumed French citizenship aren’t protected, they can be deported under French law enacted to fight terrorism. All this is with out the benefit of counsel, [Are you listening Senator Dick Durbin?] An Algerian Cleric, Rena Ameuroud’s being expelled because his brother, Abdurrahman is a convicted terrorist.

Where’s the indignation by the world community? Where’re American liberals, who believe sleep deprivation is cruel and unusual punishment? Where is the indignation from the left, Senators, Kennedy, Schumer, Durbin, Biden, etc. Why haven’t they spoken out on the abuses of power the French Government is using against a minority in their country?»

But They're Just Bored Gangsta Thugggz...

BBC: Seven French 'died for al-Qaeda'

«"At least seven people from France have died... fighting for al-Qaeda's cause, some in suicide attacks," Nicolas Sarkozy told Le Parisien.

Another 10 are in Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Afghanistan, he said.»

The only thing that accounts for the small number is that these are the ones bored enough to leave their state benefits behind. Which leaves many semi-lethargic sympathizers hanging out in ratty suburban apartments outside Paris thinking of ways to call themselves victims.

Turning the Kids into Cardboard Cutouts

There’s been so much propaganda and hate speech that it even comes bubbling out of French adolescents’ zits.



They might find this guy’s work helpful. It would be a lot easier if they would stop forcing their unresolved anger on their children.

So many mosques ...	Tellement de mosquées ...
... and so little time.	... et si peu de temps.

As probable as the French 'resistance'	Aussi probable que la 'résistance' fwançaise
The myth of moderate Islam.	L'islam modéré n'est qu'un mythe.

Hey, Lefty...

...Grow a nutsack.

EURSOC put it this way:

«Pacifism took such a grip in the late thirties that it was chiefly responsible for allowing the Nazis to roll half way across Europe before we belatedly woke up.

Pacifism was part of the fabric of European socialism then as well as now.

During the war it was an integral part of the logic of collaboration.»

As for what the Jihadists want from the rest of the world, it's quite simple, really:

What part of the sentence 'STOP!' did you not understand?	Quelle partie de la phrase 'ARRETEZ-VOUS!' n'était pas comprise?
British support shoot to kill policy.	Le public britannique soutient la politique de tirer à vue.
.

What part of the sentence 'STOP!' did you not understand?	Quelle partie de la phrase 'ARRETEZ-VOUS!' n'était pas comprise?
Al-Guardian, still reeling from having to let go of a terrorist supporting 'journalist', describes the latest London arrests.	Al-Guardian, toujours sous le choc d'être obligé de licencier un 'journaliste' pro-terroriste, relate les dernières interpellations à Londres.

What, me worry?	Et vogue la galère
Brussels feels invulnerable.	Bruxelles se sent invulnerable.

Near East: On Fire

Middle East Times: "The Muslim mind is on fire":

« The latest reliable report confirms that on average 33 Iraqis die every day, executed by Iraqis and foreign jihadis and suicide bombers, not by US or British soldiers. In fact, fewer than ever US or British soldiers are dying since the invasion more than two years ago. Instead, we now watch on television hundreds of innocent Iraqis lying without limbs, bleeding in the streets dead or wounded for life. If this is jihad someone got his religious education completely upside down.

A couple of weeks ago London was on fire as Pakistani and other Muslims with British citizenship blew up tube stations in the name of Islam. Al Qaeda in Europe or one of its franchises proclaimed proudly the killing of 54 and wounding 700 innocent citizens was done to "avenge Islam" and Muslims.

There were attacks with bombs that killed scores inside Shia and Sunni mosques, inside churches and inside synagogues in Turkey and Tunisia, with Muslim preachers saying that it is okay to kill Jews and Christians - the so called infidels.

Above all, it is the Muslim mind that is on fire.

Well, that is all over now. Time has come for the big Western vengeance.»

This too, via Brussels Journal in an interview with investigative journalist Richard Miniter: "America Is Winning the War on Terror" Rich Miniter:

«Yes, I think that on balance we are winning, I think this for several reasons. Since 9/11 more than 5,000 al Qaeda members have been killed or captured in 102 countries. The war on terror is a lot larger than the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. It occurs on a global stage. A tremendous number of terrorist plots by al Qaeda and its organisations against Western targets have been forded. A plan to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Paris was prevented, as well as an attempt to sink U.S. and British war ships in the Strait of Gibraltar by ramming zodiac inflated rafts loaded with bombs into the hulk of these ships. In fact, the intelligence that led to the unravelling of these plots came from prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That alone, I think, justifies holding those prisoners.»

I can live with that. Apaprtently Brussels Journal's Paul Belein pont to some who just can't seem to:

«The four young British suicide terrorists of Pakistani origin who committed last week’s London bombings appear to have become Islamic extremists at a government-funded youth centre in Leeds: the Hamara Youth Access Point. The Canadian Globe and Mail reported yesterday that apart from the British government the European Union, too, funded the centre. People working at the centre described it as a hub of radical Muslim politics and a hotbed of Islamic organizing, routinely hosting mysterious figures to speak about extremist politics.»

Now, isn't that just precious?

Caution: Socialism Still at Work

From Bloomberg:

«The number of jobless fell by 28,000 to 2.75 million, using International Labor Organization methods, the Labor Ministry in Paris said today. The jobless rate declined to 10.1 percent from 10.2 percent, the highest since December 1999.

The Brussels-based European Commission said July 18 the economy had been 'disappointingly slow' in the second quarter and cut its growth forecast for this year to 1.3 percent from the 1.6 percent it predicted in April.

In contrast the U.S. economy, which is expected by the White House to grow 3.6 percent this year, created 146,000 jobs last month, helping the jobless rate to fall to 5 percent, the lowest since September 2001.»

Villepin's 100 days are up on the 16th of September. (Tic tic tic) Thanks to the lumbering economic structure and absolute obstruction from labour, the small reforms which the PM has been able to get through won't provide the dynamic effect which is hoped for or needed. There IS one good thing about all of this: the more the obstructionists succeed today, the greater the chance that more people will see them as the vile, impoverishing, leftist revolutionaries that they are.
Comparing that 10.1 figure to the U.S.' 5 percent figure shows one basic and structural thing: half the number of people per capita who need all of that wonderful left-wing dependancy compassion.
As irrational as it is to compel someone to try to undo decades of malaise in 100 days, one has to wonder just what makes up a man such as Villepin who is as faithful as he is to such a opportunist who finds himself cornered and desperate.

The same BBC that reported that Al-Qaida did not exist	La même BBC qui prétend qu'Al-Qaida n'existe pas
After a 'journalist' at the Guardian is outted for belonging to a radical Muslim outfit, someone at the BBC is caught sending death threats to an Afghan blogger. Can you say 5th column?	Un 'journaliste' chez Al-Guardian est exposé comme appartenant à une officine radicale islamiste. Ensuite, quelqu'un à la BBC se fait attraper en train d'envoyer des menaces de mort à un blogger afghan. 5ème colonne, cela vous dit quelque chose?

One Town's Warm Farewell to a Soldier

While the loudest among Europe and North America’s chattering and abusive attention seekers busy themselves with convincing themselves of one thing or another, there are the real people living the experience of the War on Terror through those fighting it. While the chatterers rattle on about Americans and Texans, finding convenient details to dwell their hatred on and telling themselves that these folks are unthinking, less than human and unfeeling, unsophisticated, selfish, and the like, they also impose on them the slight of also being the opposite of those very things: conniveing, TOO emotional, NOT cynical enough, and the rest of that nonsense.

When Molly anf Geert, two of this blog's good friends and visitors sent me this tale of a Soldier’s funeral in a small town, I wanted to share it. It typifies the small town America that I love – the one that visits an elderly neighbor, does charity locally, around the country, and internationally, and shows its’ love for people through its’ personal actions, not calculated lectures and dependence on a distant disembodied Government worried about its' image.

What follows is a message from Vicki Pierce about her nephew James' funeral (he was serving our country in Iraq):

"I'm back, it was certainly a quick trip, but I have to also say it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. There is a lot to be said for growing up in a small town in Texas.

The service itself was impressive with wonderful flowers and sprays, a portrait of James, his uniform and boots, his awards and ribbons. There was lots of military brass and an eloquent (though inappropriately longwinded) Baptist preacher. There were easily 1000 people at the service, filling the church sanctuary as well as the fellowship hall and spilling out into the parking lot.

However, the most incredible thing was what happened following the service on the way to the cemetery. We went to our cars and drove to the cemetery escorted by at least 10 police cars with lights flashing and some other emergency vehicles, with Texas Rangers handling traffic. Everyone on the road who was not in the procession, pulled over, got out of their cars, and stood silently and respectfully, some put their hands over their hearts, some had small flags. Shop keepers came outside with their customers and did the same thing. Construction workers stopped their work, got off their equipment and put their hands over their hearts, too. There was no noise whatsoever except a few birds and the quiet hum of cars going slowly up the road.

When we turned off the highway suddenly there were teenage boys along both sides of the street about every 20 feet or so, all holding large American flags on long flag poles, and again with their hands on their hearts. We thought at first it was the Boy Scouts or 4H club or something, but it continued .... for two and a half miles.

Hundreds of young people, standing silently on the side of the road with flags. At one point we passed an elementary school, and all the children were outside, shoulder to shoulder holding flags ... kindergartners, handicapped, teachers, staff, everyone.
Some held signs of love and support. Then came teenage girls and younger boys, all holding flags. Then adults. Then families. All standing silently on the side of the road. No one spoke, not even the very young children.
The last few turns found people crowded together holding flags or with their hands on their hearts. Some were on horseback.

The military presence… at least two generals, a fist full of colonels, and representatives from every branch of the service, plus the color guard which attended James, and some who served with him ... was very impressive and respectful, but the love and pride from this community who had lost one of their own was the most amazing things that I've ever been privileged to witness.

Rif Mountain scum	La caillera des montagnes Rif
After the second death of Van Gogh, is a third one far behind?	Suite à la deuxième mort de Van Gogh, est-ce qu'une troisième mort se profile à l'horizon?

Like death and taxes	Faute de pas de chance, quoi
Le Monde Al-Jazeera sur Seine prepares the way for collaboration. Just as the French were quite content to live with Nazism in Republika Franska, they get ready to live with Islamofascism at home.	Le Monde Al-Jazira sur Seine déblaye le terrain en vue de la collaboration. Comme les fwançais étaient tous contents de vivre avec le nazisme en Republika Franska, ils se préparent à courber l'échine devant l'islamofascisme chez eux.

Smart, Cosmopolitan, Internationalist, All-Knowing Lefties

They're just SO over that Kyoto thing

Australia, Asian nations, and the U.S. manage to evade European blackmail
And they'll still beat the attention-seeking kooks who've taken over Brussels at their own game.

The Press: Aiyeeee!!!! My eyes!!!!

Glenn Reynolds points out that there ARE arabs who bravely and vocally oppose terrorism and the feudalistic preactitioners of that dark art, but that the western press doesn't really want to know, or doesn't know how to get past their own precambrian ideological filter:

«What's depressing is how little attention these demonstrations got from the media (you'll notice that most of the links above are to blog reports, not news stories). If any of these groups had blown something up -- or even just burned President Bush in effigy -- they probably would have made the evening news. But when Arabs and Muslims defy news-media typecasting, they seem to be ignored.»

Organized by Cairo blogger Karim Elsahy, attended also by the widely read Big Pharaoh were there. More photos were carried by GatewayPundit who noted that even tourists (the usual intended target in Masr) joined in. Of course like all closed and untrusting regime des bananes the cops (who are usually in tactical uniforms) busted it up like all good paranoiacs do.

«People started looking and reading what was written. A number slowed down just to read what we were displaying. Others sounded their car horns. I felt we were getting a very positive response from the people until Egypt's "do-not-disturb-the-peace-whatsoever" police destroyed our utopia and our ecstasy the same way Samson destroyed the temple.»

So the question is: where IS the damned media? Do they really want these particular Arabs to be on their own on this one? Historically, radicals with the passivity adn sheepishness of the rump of the population would treat these folks the way Arab Jews and Christians have been treated: driven off and marginalized while killing a few by example or to indulge baser emotions.

Let's hope they don't let it happen again.

Spam in a Can

Not satisfies to admire young men in bicycle shorts, JoKe shows up wherever a window of opportunity shows up. Auntie Beeb obliges:

«Earlier, senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry and senator and astronaut John Glenn had turned up at Kennedy Space Center's press complex.»

The reality of his interests are quite different.

French prison: the Gitmo that never was

The practices of some law enforcement bodies appear to be both abusive and ineffectual. Where are the slobs in the streets with pitchforks?

The Beeb reports on the reason a UK court has turned down an Jihadist will not be extradited to France:

«But the judges in Thursday's hearing expressed doubts about the evidence against Mr Ramda gathered from Bensaid's testimony.

They pointed to claims that Bensaid had been mistreated by the French authorities.

Mr Ramda's lawyer told the court there was a "real risk" that Mr Ramda would suffer ill-treatment himself if he was returned to France.»

So You Want to be a Martyr for Someone Else's Cause?

Jihadist target: nations who collaborated in the routing of the Taliban from Afghanistan, and the double plus ungood disposal of the Iraqi tyrant would be punished.

«Man linked to London bombings threatens Sweden

The 39-year old Swede suspected of involvement in the London bombings has said that Sweden would be “punished” if he was handed over to a foreign power.»

Especially true for nations inadvertertently harboring jihadist wankers in a maze of immigration and refuge laws, and showing the submissiveness sympathy that won't make them a target.

Originally from Lebanon, has lived in Sweden since he was 18, where he seems to have learned a thing or two from a society that evil people can easily take advantage of. Taking a language cue from leftist agitators, he said:

«I am proud of Osama bin Laden. I am proud of everyone who wages war for justice.»

Media Ambush Roundup

Tech Central station writer Nidra Poller clues us in on RFI (Radio France International), whose French feed, I can tell you, varies greatly from its’ abandoned “English general feed” which varies greatly from its’ “English to Africa” feed. All for propaganda purposes:

« Listening to RFI is something like knowing your local French ambassador's chauffeur. You get a lot of gossip but there's no way to verify the information. It's all under the wraps of secret diplomacy. Is monsieur l'ambassadeur really negotiating the sale of highly sensitive military equipment to a certain rogue government or is he just fishing for a vote at the next major international rendez-vous?»

As if this was remotely meaningful to those of us listening with baited breathe for news on the events of the world.

Likewise Honest Reporting cites a San Francisco Chronicle gambit where they calls a earnest blogger in Jerusalem writing about everyday life “an Israeli settler” in the usual derogatory fashion reserved for certain people of a certain religion who don’t carry a certain political pissbucket.

« The last time I checked, we residents of western Jerusalem were not considered 'settlers'. I wondered: Had the western media, which already dehumanized Israeli residents of the West Bank and Gaza as problematic 'settlers' and interlopers, come to consider all of Israel a controversial 'settlement'?!»

The short answer to Brian’s question is yes. Thanks for being a good sport and letting them play their game....

In the mean time Hugo “the totalitarian elf” Chavez is cranked up about Venezuelans being able to get 50 US television channels. If they can get 50 US TV channels then they have a satellite dish, and can get in excess of 150 Spanish language stations. Like any good liar, there’s no point for him to take into consideration that the rate of English speakers in Latin America isn’t all that large, while a fifth of the US population is fluent in espaneesh, the language of El Zappo, the lost Marx brother.

Or what's left of them	Ou ce qu'il en reste
Sharon visits Paris and Chiraq is sweating his balls off. Thanks to Balagan.	Sharon arrive à Paris et Chirak a les valseuses en compote. Merci à Balagan.

Combattant, Christian, and Zionist

Combattant, chrétien, et sioniste

In the run-up to the release of his next novel at the end of August (Cosmos Inc.), Maurice G. Dantec recently gave an interview to the Jerusalem Post. Money Quote: Dantec speaking about leftist journalists "... who think that every suicide bomber who blows himself up in a Tel-Aviv disco is a pop icon, while serving up K-rations of their pacifism with every line they force feed us.

Juste avant la rentrée littéraire et la sortie de son nouveau roman fin août(Cosmos Inc.), Maurice G. Dantec a récemment accordé une interview au Jérusalem Post. La phrase qui tue: Dantec parle de les journalistes de gôche "... pour lesquelles tout kamikaze qui se fait sauter dans une discothèque de Tel-Aviv est une icône pop, mais qui nous gavent pourtant de pacifisme en ration K à chacune des lignes qu'ils nous forcent à ingurgiter."

"Hitler requires, not condemnation, but understanding"

The notion that you can somehow defeat violence by submitting to it is simply a flight from fact. As I have said, it is only possible to people who have money and guns between themselves and reality.

…the greater part of the very young intelligentsia are anti-war … don't believe in any 'defense of democracy,' are inclined to prefer Germany to Britain, and don't feel the horror of Fascism that we who are somewhat older feel

wrote George Orwell (respectively) in 1941 and 1942. Max Boot takes on moral relativism in the 1940s, noting that, contrary to what is commonly believed today,

Appeasement did not end with the German invasion of Poland in 1939. … Enlightened opinion ranging from Amnesty International to Dick Durbin joins in this moral relativism by suggesting that the United States has become no better than its enemies through the actions it has taken to prevent terrorism. Just as 1940s pacifists could see no difference between Nazi concentration camps and British wartime curtailments of civil liberties, so today's doppelgangers equate the abuses of renegade guards at Abu Ghraib with the mass murder carried out by Stalin or Pol Pot.

There is also an enduring tendency to blame the victim. George Galloway, Saddam Hussein's favorite member of Britain's Parliament, suggests that Londoners "paid the price" for their government's "attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq." The implication is that Al Qaeda has reasonable grievances and if only we could satisfy them — by, for instance, exiting Iraq — we would have peace. The same thing was said about Hitler, who complained that Germany had been wronged by the Treaty of Versailles.

Meanwhile, Harry's Place digs out one of the intelligentsia members' replies to Orwell's 1942 speech (thanks to Ashbrook's Peter W. Schramm):

Fascism is not a force confined to any one nation. We can just as soon get it here as anywhere else. The characteristic markings of Fascism are: curtailment of individual and minority liberties; abolition of private life and private values and substitution of State life and public values (patriotism); external imposition of discipline (militarism); prevalence of mass-values and mass-mentality; falsification of intellectual activity under State pressure. These are all tendencies of present-day Britain...

Don't let us be misled by names. Fascism is quite capable of calling itself democracy or even Socialism. It's the reality under the name that matters. War demands totalitarian organisation of society. Germany organised herself on that basis prior to embarking on war. Britain now finds herself compelled to take the same measures after involvement in war. Germans call it National Socialism. We call it democracy. The result is the same.

...Who is to say that a British victory will be less disastrous than a German one? The last British victory was pretty meaningless.

...The corruption and hollowness revealed in the prosecution of this war are too contemptible for words. Certainly I will accept my share of responsibility for them, but I wont fight in a war to extend that corruption and hollowness.

...Orwell dislikes French intellectuals licking up Hitler's crumbs, but what's the difference between them and our intellectuals who are licking up Churchill's?...

French intellectuals?! How did they get in here? It is is certainly not anything I remember reading much about in my French history courses. (You know, the ones that French bloggers are always (re)assuring us are part of a pretty much objective "programme".)

Does this mean that French intellectuals were just as "lucid" in the 1940s as they are today? Were they just as admired as they are today? If their accounts of moral relevance in the 1940s were just as listened to (by snickering, superior-sounding, "war is (and violence is) always the worst solution"-thinking citizens in occupied — and, to some extent, pacified — France) as they are today, what does this say about the citizens' attitude towards the war, towards the Anglo-Saxons' part in waging it, and towards the members of the home-grown résistance?

Continuons. (By the way, think of the line, "Oh we don't like Saddam either", as you read the rest of D S Savage's piece of wisdom, as well as the image of Dubya as a dummy and the justice-implying attitude, "they had it coming"…)

I am not greatly taken in by Britain's "democracy", particularly as it is gradually vanishing under the pressure of the war. Certainly I would never fight and kill for such a phantasm. I do not greatly admire the part "my country" has played in world events. I consider that spiritually Britain has lost all meaning... I feel identified with my country in a deep sense, and want her to regain her meaning, her soul, if that is possible: but the unloading of a billion tons of bombs on Germany won't help this forward an inch... Whereas the rest of the nation is content with calling down obloquy on Hitler's head, we [pacifists] regard this as superficial. Hitler requires, not condemnation, but understanding. This does not mean that we like, or defend him. Personally I do not care for Hitler. He is, however, "realler" than Chamberlain, Churchill, Cripps, etc, in that he is the vehicle of raw historical forces, whereas they are stuffed dummies, waxwork figures, living in unreality. We do not desire a German "victory"; we would not lift a finger to help either Britain or Germany to "win"; but there would be a profound justice, I feel, however terrible, in a German victory...

Harry concludes: "Any resemblance to the more recent equating of the US and the UK with Baathist Iraq and al-Qaeda is, I am sure, purely coincidental."

While we are on the subject,
what European leader thundered
that America's president was
“guilty of a series of the worst
crimes against international law”?

Some liberals appear to be arguing that our tolerance of our own tolerance is making us intolerant of other people's intolerance, which is intolerable

For four years, much of the western world behaved

as follows, writes Mark Steyn (danke su Franz Hoffmann):

Bomb us, and we agonise over the "root causes" (that is, what we did wrong). Decapitate us, and our politicians rush to the nearest mosque to declare that "Islam is a religion of peace". Issue bloodcurdling calls at Friday prayers to kill all the Jews and infidels, and we fret that it may cause a backlash against Muslims. Behead sodomites and mutilate female genitalia, and gay groups and feminist groups can't wait to march alongside you denouncing Bush, Blair and Howard. Murder a schoolful of children, and our scholars explain that to the "vast majority" of Muslims "jihad" is a harmless concept meaning "decaf latte with skimmed milk and cinnamon sprinkles".

… You'll recall that it was [The Age's editor Andrew Jaspan] who objected to the energy and conviction of certain freed Australian hostage, at least when it comes to disrespecting their captors: "I was, I have to say, shocked by Douglas Wood's use of the 'arsehole' word, if I can put it like that, which I just thought was coarse and very ill-thought through ... As I understand it, he was treated well there. He says he was fed every day, and as such to turn around and use that kind of language I think is just insensitive."

And heaven forbid we're insensitive about terrorists. True, a blindfolded Wood had to listen to his jailers murder two of his colleagues a few inches away, but how boorish would one have to be to hold that against one's captors? A few months after 9/11, National Review's John Derbyshire dusted off the old Cold War mantra "Better dead than red" and modified it to mock the squeamishness of politically correct warfare: "Better dead than rude". But even he would be surprised to see it taken up quite so literally by Andrew Jaspan.

Usually it's the hostage who gets Stockholm Syndrome, but the newly liberated Wood must occasionally reflect that in this instance the entire culture seems to have caught a dose. And, in a sense, we have: multiculturalism is a kind of societal Stockholm Syndrome. Atta's meetings with [Johnelle] Bryant are emblematic: He wasn't a genius, a master of disguise in deep cover; indeed, he was barely covered at all, he was the Leslie Nielsen of terrorist masterminds — but the more he stuck out, the more [US Department of Agriculture official] Bryant was trained not to notice, or to put it all down to his vibrant cultural tradition.

That's the great thing about multiculturalism: it doesn't involve knowing anything about other cultures — like, say, the capital of Bhutan or the principal exports of Malaysia, the sort of stuff the old imperialist wallahs used to be well up on. Instead, it just involves feeling warm and fluffy, making bliss out of ignorance. And one notices a subtle evolution in multicultural pieties since the Islamists came along. It was most explicitly addressed by the eminent British lawyer Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, QC, who thought that it was too easy to disparage "Islamic fundamentalists". "We as western liberals too often are fundamentalist ourselves. We don't look at our own fundamentalisms."

And what exactly would those western liberal fundamentalisms be? "One of the things that we are too ready to insist upon is that we are the tolerant people and that the intolerance is something that belongs to other countries like Islam. And I'm not sure that's true."

Hmm. Kennedy appears to be arguing that our tolerance of our own tolerance is making us intolerant of other people's intolerance, which is intolerable. Thus the lop-sided valse macabre of our times: the more the Islamists step on our toes, the more we waltz them gaily round the room. I would like to think that the newly fortified Age columnists are representative of the culture's mood, but, if I had to bet, I'd put my money on Kennedy: anyone can be tolerant of the tolerant, but tolerance of intolerance gives an even more intense frisson of pleasure to the multiculti masochists. Australia's old cultural cringe had a certain market rationality; the new multicultural cringe is pure nihilism.

"Have a good fight – even though you're not fighting for anything worthwhile"

…someone needs to tell these Democrats that you can't be against the war and supportive of the troops at the same time

writes Jay Bryant (while Emmett Tyrrell wonders whether the liberals can learn from Vietnam).

Because if you do, you are saying something like, "Have a good fight – even though you're not fighting for anything worthwhile."

"Whoever kills a human being, except as punishment for murder or other villainy in the land, shall be regarded as having killed all humankind"

Two myths still rear their heads in Muslim responses to the London bombings, writes Irshad Manji.

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.

Read the rest…

Why are there virtually no Afghans, Iraqis, or Palestinians among the terrorists in the West?

Can I remind you that the murder of 88 Australians in Bali took place before the operation in Iraq? Can I remind you that the 11th of September occurred before the operation in Iraq? Can I also remind you that the very first occasion that bin Laden specifically referred to Australia was in the context of Australia's involvement in liberating the people of East Timor? Are people, by implication, suggesting that we shouldn't have done that?

… this is about hatred of a way of life. … We lose sight of the challenge we have if we allow ourselves to see these attacks in the context of particular circumstances rather than the abuse, through a perverted ideology, of people … and their murder.

Prime Minister John Howard of Australia

In the New York Times, Olivier Roy goes on to destroy most of his country's "common wisdom" as the professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences takes on the

troubling question: has Britain (and Spain as well) been "punished" by Al Qaeda for participating in the American-led military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan? While this is a reasonable line of thinking, it presupposes the answer to a broader and more pertinent question: Are the roots of Islamic terrorism in the Middle Eastern conflicts?

If the answer is yes, the solution is simple to formulate, although not to achieve: leave Afghanistan and Iraq, solve the Israel-Palestine conflict. But if the answer is no, as I suspect it is, we should look deeper into the radicalization of young, Westernized Muslims.

Conflicts in the Middle East have a tremendous impact on Muslim public opinion worldwide. In justifying its terrorist attacks by referring to Iraq, Al Qaeda is looking for popularity or at least legitimacy among Muslims. But many of the terrorist group's statements, actions and non-actions indicate that this is largely propaganda, and that Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine are hardly the motivating factors behind its global jihad.

First, let's consider the chronology. The Americans went to Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11, not before. Mohamed Atta and the other pilots were not driven by Iraq or Afghanistan. Were they then driven by the plight of the Palestinians? It seems unlikely. …

Another motivating factor, we are told, was the presence of "infidel" troops in Islam's holy lands. Yes, Osama Bin Laden was reported to be upset when the Saudi royal family allowed Western troops into the kingdom before the Persian Gulf war. But Mr. bin Laden was by that time a veteran fighter committed to global jihad.

… Abdullah Azzam, Mr. bin Laden's mentor, gave up supporting the Palestinian Liberation Organization long before his death in 1989 because he felt that to fight for a localized political cause was to forsake the real jihad, which he felt should be international and religious in character.

From the beginning, Al Qaeda's fighters were global jihadists, and their favored battlegrounds have been outside the Middle East: Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya and Kashmir. For them, every conflict is simply a part of the Western encroachment on the Muslim ummah, the worldwide community of believers.

Second, if the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine are at the core of the radicalization, why are there virtually no Afghans, Iraqis or Palestinians among the terrorists? Rather, the bombers are mostly from the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Egypt and Pakistan — or they are Western-born converts to Islam. Why would a Pakistani or a Spaniard be more angry than an Afghan about American troops in Afghanistan? It is precisely because they do not care about Afghanistan as such …

"Born again" or converts, they are rebels looking for a cause. They find it in the dream of a virtual, universal ummah, the same way the ultraleftists of the 1970's (the Baader-Meinhof Gang, the Italian Red Brigades) cast their terrorist actions in the name of the "world proletariat" and "Revolution" without really caring about what would happen after.

It is also interesting to note that none of the Islamic terrorists captured so far had been active in any legitimate antiwar movements or even in organized political support for the people they claim to be fighting for. They don't distribute leaflets or collect money for hospitals and schools. They do not have a rational strategy to push for the interests of the Iraqi or Palestinian people.

Even their calls for the withdrawal of the European troops from Iraq ring false. After all, the Spanish police have foiled terrorist attempts in Madrid even since the government withdrew its forces. Western-based radicals strike where they are living, not where they are instructed to or where it will have the greatest political effect on behalf of their nominal causes. …

On Orbit

1429 UTC Liftoff. MECO at 1438 UTC. On orbit at 1503 UTC



Hoowah! Ride 'em, cowgirl.

Keep Them in their Pigsty

Jihadists are a threat, and they can take their leftist revolutionary butt buddies with them.

On the Cusp of Freedom

Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea, who has been imprisoned for more than 11 years is effectively a free man at long last. The severity of his punishment in a prison cell 3 flights underground was politically motivated. He was the only militia commander who was imprisoned, and had to concede that of all the factions operating in Lebanon, only Hizballah, proponents of social feudalism, did not have to disarm, and remain armed.

It’s clear that Geagea’s release stems directly from two things: the reconciliation pursued in the absence of the Syrian boots on their neck, and the diminished ability of the Syrians to do what An-Nahar editor Gebran Tueni called "humiliation … and political and judicial blackmail" to the Lebanese isn’t what it used to be. It’s been firmly disallowed by the fire put to Syria’s feet. Subtle threats of war seem to have quite an effect on totalitarians.

BD by Stavro - sometimes sharp, sometimes tacky, but always a free spirit.

HimHimHim! Chimpy W. Hilterburton Made Exercise no fun!

Mary Katherine Ham gives us the run down (oof!) on the sick and twisted leftist remake of Run. Lola, Run

She also gives a pasting to the unctuous Robin Givhan displaying the gauchistes ugly reflex to act like unpleasable adolescents.

So to get along with the "reality based" community, we all need to get off of that treadmill and do a few bonghits...

Shrinking Cells?

Some out there are becoming more optimisting about the War on Terror.

- The 7-July-2005 London bombers may have been unwitting mules. Bear in mind that the Kamikaze pilots at the end had their aircraft launched off of carriages which separated from the vehicle so that they had no landing gear, and did not have the option to hesitate or change their minds.

- The 21-July-2005 bombers could possibly have been suspicious of the cell handlers duping the walking bombs. The handlers were possibly just one or two people to limit the risk of exposure of the cell as well.

- The relative youth of these bombers might be a sign that law enforcement is closing in on the core cell core members or "leaders". They are likely using cult-like indoctrination techniques which are more successful on the young to bring relative outsiders to the point of being able to act out their handlers' plans. It supports that past prospective mules are dubious of them as well when the plan is to drop their satchel IEDs and run.

- The cells might have poor prospects for growth under successful infiltration. As with ETA in recent years, going after younger outsiders to use as their “fresh meat” does not require as much risk to the cell itself being infiltrated, young outsiders doesn’t attract as much attention to their activities.
Using mules doesn’t kill off the future of the cell by employing the few disconnected saboteurs that remain. If information is traveling between cells hand to hand and person to person, so are people. With “turnover” there is a greater likelihood that they don’t trust those from outside their circle as much.

- There is a chance that the pattern of events indicates that the circle is getting smaller. The cells are shrinking. The last gasp will be a play at inspiring uncoordinated dramatic attacks by individuals which are less likely to have the scale of 9-11 or the Madrid bombings. We may be seeing that disconnection and isolation going on right now.

The London bombings appear to be an attempt to blackmail the European public from completely disengaging with the rest of the world on the War on Terror. When you set aside the fear and harm caused by those bombings there are the signs of success in the War on Terror. Previous options which placed huge numbers of people at risk are closed to the Global Jihadists. Their methods, the effect of what they can do, and it’s effect on the civilized world are becoming less, not more, with every crime they attempt.

Oriana Fallaci : "Il Nemico che Trattiamo da Amico" ("The Enemy we Treat as a Friend")	Oriana Fallaci : "Il Nemico che Trattiamo da Amico" ("L'ennemi que nous considérons comme un ami")
The idea of moderation in Islam is an illusion, integration by Muslims is a lie, tolerance by them is a comedy. Multiculturalism is a farce.	L'idée même d'un Islam modéré n'est qu'une illusion, l'integration de la part des musulmans est un mensonge, leur tolérance n'est que comédie. Le multiculturalisme est une farce.
UPDATE: English version of Oriana Fallaci's latest here and here.

What Europe desperately needs ...	Ce dont l'Europe a desépérérement besoin ...
... but doesn't have the balls to do. Gitmo.	... mais elle n'a pas les couilles pour le faire. Guantanamo.

Méchoui Party
Make mine well done.	Je veux ma part bien cuite.

The French Hegemon in Anaconda, Montana

Telegraph (UK): "France flouts the Pepsi challenge"

As Carine commented on, while France gets bunched up in a knot about the sale of a yogurt company, why haven't Americans done the same when it comes to one of our fleuron.... roadside motels that the whole "proletariat" can afford? How about the affordable, mass produced automobile too, while we're at it?

WHY are they so cranked up?

Linguistically challenged	Sous-doué en langues
Why is it that Mr. Fluent in French Kerry spoke in English to the French State TV reporters?	Pourquoi Monsieur Je-cause-en-fwançais-couramment a-t-il parlé en anglais aux journalistes de la chaîne télé de l'Etat franchouille?

There's Always One in the Crowd...

A France 2 TV jounalist saw him in the crowd. Tintin gets the forlorn tourist, probably out looking for some Imodium, to answer a question: Was it a problem for him to cheer for Lance if he was such great pals with Dubya? (Regardless of the fact that the connection is limited to the fact that they're both Texans.)

The screen went cold. The refugee said something about sports and entertainment stopping at the US shoreline... Suddenly he's a "uniter not a divider" type of American supporter of his countrymen? Funny that - not too long ago wasn't he using old friends abroad to manipulate domestic US politics?

Allons enfants de la Patrie Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

Endless thanks to Val & Co.

... and the laugh is on them	... plus dure sera la chute
More dysfunctional EU behavior. European cooperation is a joke.	Encore et toujours un comportement dysfonctionnel de la part de l'UE. La cooperation intra-européenne n'est qu'une mauvaise blague.

School of hard knocks	L'école de la rue musulmane
New from Dantec. Europeans get a crash course in Muslim theology.	Du nouveau de la part de Dantec. Les européens ont la chance inespérée de bachoter la théologie musulmane de façon intensive.

Shoot on sight	Tirer à vue

Now THAT’S Entertainment!

This is peddled as a tourist attraction and entertaining somehow, according to cette régime de bananes.



Meanwhile, the Renaissance man shows off yet another superhuman skill. Hotwiring private property for the use of the l’état. Either that or looking puzzled before giving speeches in an angry tome of voice that makes people think that something is actually happening.
Note the dates, or more precisely the GAP in the dates on his website under “Latest News on Government Action.”