And licking the boot that kicks them...

A theme song for the new paradigm

A Contretemps Not In The Making

World’s most improbable headline: Hezbollah leader in Lebanon says Bush and Rice should 'shut up' about prophet drawings.

Let’s ask him when his crack wears off, but he must mean that he just doesn’t want people mentioning his fellow ass-bandits doing things like this:

Or this:

Naturally…

Gold medal winner in the poop chute competition

What is Susan Sarandon doing at the Olympics?



Only in Europe could being a celebrity idiot be considered a humanistic achievement.

Brussels tries to snuff island: snus film at 11

The summer camper’s paradise of Åland, which is semi-autonomous (much in the way the Channel islands are,) are fed up with the culture of regulation. They want to cesede (if there’s anythign to cecede FROM in such a legally vaguely internatioal entity).

The nanny-super-state banned their only profitable export because they don’t think people can make choices for themselves and act in their own self interest. If they really want to look out for people in that way, what they should ban is their own creeping folk marxism.

Lord Mayor scheduled to get up with fleas

A Day Older (adloyada - tut, tut...) points out what Red Ken’s political ‘posse’ has in common with Ahmedinajad:

«Now I wonder if anyone will ask Ken about his views of what his friend Sheikh Qaradawi said here about the Holocaust in this sermon last Friday which was aired on Qatar TV?

The governments must be pressured to demand that the U.N. adopt a clear resolution or law that categorically prohibits affronts to prophets - to the prophets of the Lord and His messengers, to His holy books, and to the religious holy places. This is so that nobody can cause them harm. They enacted such laws in order to protect the Jews and Judaism. Like some Danes have said: 'We can mock Jesus and his mother.' They were asked: 'Can you mock the Jews?' Here they stopped. The Jews are protected by laws - the laws that protect Semitism, and nobody can say even one word about the number [of victims] in the alleged Holocaust.

Elsewhere she gives an example of the pointlessness of even trying to carry around ‘that are of peacefulness’ as it’s currently described by the left. Worse still it’s a attempt they try to make only by way of personal association with those they believe are “peace’s ambassadors to the world of lunacy.” Yet another failure all around when they won’t take a moment to even pretend to talk about the way Islamists address their fetishizing of death and calling for death at every stubbed toe.

From the Artist Formerly Know as 13

Pop culture: civilization's suicide method of choice.

Boycott Them! Kill Them! Behead Those Who Insult Islam!

Who? Why, the Egyptians, of course!

(Turban tip to Tom Pechinski and Daryl Cagle)

Boycott Them! Kill Them! Behead Those Who Insult Islam!

Who? Why, the Egyptians, of course!

(Turban tip to Tom Pechinski and Daryl Cagle)

In a Nutshell

One can't put it much more concisely than Jane Biran:

One wonders if the Prophet Muhammad would approve of rioting, grievous bodily harm and arson.

If the answer is yes, then a depiction of his followers as violent is justified. If no, then some of his followers are causing offense to him on a daily basis.

How 'bout that Arab Mind?

…and the region's alleged allergy to democracy?

W. Thomas Smith, Jr let Brigadier General Daniel P. Bolger, commander of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team in Iraq, answer that one.

I do not subscribe to an Arab mind or ‘an Oriental mind’ – with apologies to the late General of the Army Douglas MacArthur – or anything like that. The daily lesson I get is that Iraqis are individuals. Sure, they have cultural views based on their upbringing. Who doesn’t?

In Iraq, years of isolation and repression have made a lot of people here especially insular, magnifying this region’s tendency to value strong extended family ties. When you can’t trust the government – Ottomans, British mandate, Ba’athist socialists, and then the ultimate Ba’athist dictator, Saddam – you go with whom you can trust. People here rely on the family, writ large, sometimes called “tribes” in recognition of their size: thousands of relatives claiming kinship.

What has impressed me is how willing most Iraqis seem to be to look at other points of view. For so long, they got one way – Saddam’s way – shoved down their throats. I have seen a genuine interest in other ways, and it is not unusual to find your conversation with an Iraqi private, sergeant, or captain drift into all kinds of areas. Things like: Do Americans believe in God? What is success in private business? What is federalism in America? Why do Americans care about Iraqis? Do Americans have weapons in their homes? Why don’t Americans seem to like soccer? These are reasonable questions, as are many others. The fact that they get asked, tells me that the minds here are very much open to new possibilities.

In terms of courage and honor, those are esteemed traits in Iraq, and especially in the military. Iraq’s soldiers have a good reputation in Iraqi society for the right reason. They put their lives on the line to protect the people. Of course, without skill, discipline, and leadership, courage does not get much done. Units fight well not because every soldier in each unit is fearless, but because the strength of the teamwork allows a multiplier effect to those who are brave.

The French Way of Caricaturing American Policies and Positions

While some French readers have made smug comments about French courage versus American treachery (plus ça change…), it turns out that both George W Bush and Condi Rice spoke up about the crisis, albeit belatedly, in ways that no French leader has.

Indeed, according to the Transatlantic Intelligencer, this (the Gallic self-praise versus Yankee damnation that leads to that type of smug comments) is only French society's and the French media's usual way of doing business:

Note that the French press is making much of the fact that a State Department spokesperson, Justin Higgins, is supposed to have made similar “freedom, but” remarks, even going so far as to describe the cartoons as “incitation to religious and ethnic hatred” – an assessment, incidentally, that none of us can either confirm or reject without precisely seeing them. These alleged remarks by Mr. Higgins – similar remarks are attributed in an AP story to State Department spokesperson Janelle Hironimus – have been stylized by both Le Figaro and Le Nouvel Observateur into the official position of the United States as such. (Thus Le Nouvel Obs: “The United States has condemned the publication of the controversial caricatures… as an ‘unacceptable’ incitation to religious or ethnic hatred.”)

Pointing out that Justin Higgins is just one press officer among (many) others, John Rosenthal notes how un-English the words attributed to the entire State Department, to the entire U.S. government, to the entire American nation sound.

Indeed, if anyone should be attacked for cowardice or treachery, it should be the EU…

In addition, the cowardly Bush has not set aside his trip to Pakistan and thanks to John Vinocur and Dan Bilefsky, we know that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has set the blame squarely where it belongs:

Rasmussen argued that the cartoon crisis had been hijacked by Middle East countries that were using the caricatures for domestic ends … the crisis … was more about attempts by Iran and Syria to cause diversions in the Middle East than 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. … "I have never doubted that Bush would stand up for Denmark," Rasmussen said. "He values faithfulness and loyalty. I was not surprised he decided to call me and express support."

Update: The French have produced some rather well-argumented defences of free speech, coupled with denunciations of Muslim double standards. Unfortunately, the anti-Americanism is never far away.

A French Imam defends Denmark while taking a dig at the United States. In Oliver Roy's piece, you can also read the digs at Uncle Sam between the lines, notably where he bewails Europe's having to take responsability in Afghanistan, etc.

Meanwhile, Le Monde's Francis Cornu celebrates Al Jazeera, while Alain Salles suggests that reviews that aren't favorable to BHL's American Vertigo must be lacking in seriousness and lets BHL's assertion that someone who doesn't like his book can be nothing but a French-hating populist stand.

"Europe: Your 9/11 will come"

As you've probably heard by now (unless you happen to live in a Muslim country), the images that hurt religious sensibilities and got the world's Muslims out into the street (especially in countries where Muslims fear most for their lives) were never published in any Danish newspapers and one of them, in fact, had to do with a totally unrelated pig contest (merci to T Pechinski). The originals not being offensive enough to cause fury against Denmark, and demand apologies, members of the Islam Society of Denmark fabricated their own fakes, leading Interventor to say that the "actions of the Danish mullahs sounds like a crude version of the old Soviet KGB Disinformation Bureau activity" and leading Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to exclaim that

I am speechless that those people, whom we have given the right to live in Denmark and where they freely have chosen to stay, are now touring Arab countries and inciting antipathy towards Denmark and the Danish people

Invoking an axis (sorry a triangle) of death, Bernard-Henri Levy (merci, S Stevens) has some wise words.

Meanwhile, Barcepundit asks when Sinéad will be allowed to show her head again and when burnt-out embassies will be rebuilt in Spain and Italy…

"Behead the one who insults the prophet," read one placard a Muslim protester held at a weekend demonstration here against cartoon depictions of Islam's prophet Muhammad. "Butcher those who mock Islam," and "Be Prepared for the Real Holocaust," read other signs.

So started Mary Jordan's article. Leave it to Ann Coulter, though, to put it in a way that's self-evident:

The little darlings brandish placards with typical Religion of Peace slogans, such as: "Behead Those Who Insult Islam," "Europe, you will pay, extermination is on the way" and "Butcher those who mock Islam." They warn Europe of their own impending 9/11 with signs that say: "Europe: Your 9/11 will come" -- which is ironic, because they almost had me convinced the Jews were behind the 9/11 attack.

She goes on to add:

Largely unnoticed in this spectacle is the blinding fact that one nation is missing from the long list of Muslim countries (by which I mean France and England) with hundreds of crazy Muslims experiencing bipolar rage over some cartoons: Iraq. Hey -- maybe this democracy thing does work! The barbaric behavior of Europe's Muslims suggests that the European welfare state may not be attracting your top-notch Muslims.

Jan M Olsen has more about Jyllands-Posten and the reaction in Denmark…

A Moral Atomic Bomb

Bernard-Henri Levy (writing in the OpinionJournal Extra column) believes that European governmental apologies over cartoons not published by their governments are counterproductive. He couldn’t be more right. What does being inconsistent about free speech as a value in a pluralistic society have? It has that “go ask your mother” quality which goes beyond an outsider playing left against right. It undermines our basic social principles which are (or should be) universal in a republic.

«The heart of this second triangle? First, the affirmation of principles. The affirmation of the press's right to the expression of idiocies of its choosing--rather than the acts of repentance that too many leaders have resorted to, and which merely encourages in the Arab street the false and counterproductive illusion that a democratic state may exert power over its press.»

Apologies create a kind of social precedent which undermines the sophistication of the democratic model by making all hurt feelings equally regrettable, no matter what scale the issue. Intended for domestic consumption, they are more of a crud populum that the “Arab street” will not understand, not take seriously, and shortly forget since the same act will be played again.

- Shukran, S²

Hardee HarHar!

WTO overrules EU chicken-bone dangling

From the continent that brought you crop circles, another sure-fire formula to propagate starvation and over-cultivation bites the dust. The WTO ruled against the EU on GMOs.

NRO: Let Them Eat Precaution

Don't expect much, though. Nativist pagan nonsense will likely still get the usual lefty kid-glove treatment as long as it remains politically useful.

„All right, I insulted Americans – but they are not planning to behead me”

Even with an infantile, fantasist view of Americans which is based on carefully selected narrow sampling which doesn’t reflect any significant part of the population, Anatole Kaletsky writing in the Times (UK) clearly states the obvious.

Winner of the coveted ¡No Pasaràn! tag-line award

EU Rota:

Sectarianism: Dueling Banjos
Environmentalism: What The... I want my money back.
Germany: Sisyphus may have had It easy
EU Scam: Dead dorse beaten, marinated, and derved With GMO corn
EU Elites: despot put on ice

And this:

EU Competitiveness: objects in rear view mirror are closer than they appear

Bravo, old chap! The asian meteors chasing that cute but nebulous blob are a fabulous touch.

And now for something completely predicable

Monty Jihad (and friends’) Flying Circus

- with thanks to Ken for the image

Hebdo Hebdo