Ayaan Hirsi Ali: In Praise of "Blasphemy"

I know I said I was outta here, but this one is so good I couldn't wait until Tuesday to post it. It's the speech Hirsi Ali gave when she accepted The New Criterion's Edmund Burke Award. In the wrap-up of her comments, the ex-Muslim tells the assembled that "Islamophobia" is the newfangled name for an old-fangled concept--"blasphemy." (And, I must say, detaching the concept from something which, in the West, is seen as a negative--i.e. shut your mouth, impudent infidel--and rebranding it so that it now seems to be part of something modern and righteous and suffused with "social justice"--i.e. the anti-racism/victimhood narrative--was nothing less than brilliant.)

Here's Hirsi Ali encouraging people to protect their turf by remaining steadfast in their defense of free speech (which, in and of itself, is "blasphemy"):

[I]f you believe that the idea of Islamic law is a bad idea, you must defend the freedom of speech. The other side either calls it “Islamophobia” or the classic name: blasphemy. If you say this about the prophet, it’s blasphemy. (“Islamophobia” is a very new term. When did it come into sway? 2006? 2005? It’s a very young idea. But before Islamophobia came around, it just used to be called blasphemy.) 

One fifth of humanity is labelled Muslim. And the Medina agenda [of dawa and jihad] is to co-opt them: it’s to convince them that Sharia law, Islamic law, unreformed, is the best idea. That the idea of America is very bad. And that they should submit to Islam. Major resources for this cause are being pushed by countries like Saudi Arabia, where our president is. If you want to defeat or even engage with the idea of Islamic religion and Islamic law, the way to go is blasphemy. I believe in blasphemy. In fact, Surah 25, Chapter 25 of the Quran is called The Criterion, and portends to be the distinction between right and wrong. So The New Criterion, even the name itself, is blasphemic. 

In many ways I think it’s comical that I’m being recognized for saying men and women should be equal before the law. That’s what I’m being recognized for, pretty much. That’s what it amounts to. And that idea that men and women are equal before the law is blasphemic to Islamic law. The fact that homosexuals and heterosexuals should be equal before the law is blasphemic to Islamic law. The fact that people of different religions—Jews, Christians, those who have no faith—are equal before the law is blasphemic to Islamic law. The idea that human beings, men and women, can make their own laws based on reason, not shackled by divine law, is blasphemic to Islamic law.

The idea of America is secular. It is about the fact that we are created equal. That we make and amend our own laws. What is blasphemy to them is valuable and is law to us. And I took an oath when I became an American citizen. And my oath in my heart was: that is what I’m going to defend. Hear, hear, blasphemy.

Hear, hear--indeed.

Some enthusiastic anti-"blasphemy" fans express support for the
sharia-decreed punishment for the "crime".

FYI--I'm Taking the Loooong Weekend Off

I'm taking a break to recharge, refresh and relax. Hope to be back at it on Tuesday.

Ta-ta to all until then.

The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is the Jihad Itself--and Foolish Leaders Who Ignore It

In a staggeringly idiotic piece in the National Post (it appears as the editorial in the newsprint version of the paper), Kelly McParland applauds Angela Mekel's refusal to do anything of significance to protect her populace from Muslims (including "refugees") intent on waging jihad:

“Anxiety and fear cannot be a counsel for political action,” she said in making clear that a recent spate of violent attacks would not alter her government’s generous treatment of Middle East migrants and refugees. Her statement echoed a similar warning by Franklin D. Roosevelt at his first inauguration in 1933. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” Roosevelt said as he took office at the absolute rock-bottom of the Great Depression. 

America might be down, but it was far from out, he maintained at the time. “This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.” 

Whether deliberately emulating Roosevelt or not, Merkel’s comment was apt, timely and courageous. Compare it to the frenzied fear-mongering of the recent Republican party convention, and it doesn’t require much reflection to conclude Germany has the more admirable leader.

In the paper paper, McParland's thoughts appear with this headline: "The only thing we have to fear is still fear itself." Au contraire, said I in the letter I sent in response:

"The only thing we have to fear is still fear itself"? Tell that to the elderly Catholic priest in Normandy who was decapitated in his own church by a jihadi terrorist wearing an electronic ankle monitor (which had been disabled so as to not alert authorities that he was on the loose). Or to the children mowed down en masse in an act of vehicular jihad in Nice. Or to those who happened to be in the wrong places at the wrong times in Munich or Brussels or Istanbul or Florida.

Oh, wait, you can't tell them. They're dead.

And that, I suggest, is the litmus test to determine whether FDR's Depression-era assurance is applicable to our time. If "fear itself" were all there was to fear--in other words,  were there no jihadis wreaking bloody mayhem on the unsuspecting as they go about their daily lives--then the above-mentioned individuals, whether or not they were wracked by fear, would still be very much alive.

In sum, fear only fear itself (and not the relentless, bloodthirsty "Allahu Akbbar" boychicks) and you're pretty much signing Western civilization's death warrant.

Sorry if that sounds scary and un-Rooseveltian, but that's the God's honest truth.

Update: Dear Angela and Kelly--please watch this:

A White House Built By Slaves...and a Lifestyle Funded by Them

Considering her free and easy spending habits, Michelle Obama's victimhood mentality, writes Daniel Greenfield, is at odds with her Marie Antoinette-ish way of life: 

Michelle’s house, her luxurious lifestyle, is built by taxpaying slaves who are forced to turn over their money to fund her pleasures. She spent more money on one night in Morocco than the average American family will see in five years.  

In Dublin, Michelle Obama and her entourage took a sightseeing trip that cost over $250,000. Michelle's people bought up 30 rooms at the five-star Shelbourne Hotel while she stayed in the Princess Grace Suite which has more living space than most American homes. The Shelbourne Hotel wasn't built by slaves. But it was funded by them. So are all of her jaunts, excursions and parties. 

When she shops around Paris and then flies over to London in a 757 to see the sights in London, her slaves pick up the tab. When she and her husband decide to fly out for a “date” to New York while the city is shut down, it’s her slaves in the big city watching the motorcade pass who have to pay for it. Their Africa trip cost millions. American slaves paid for it with their blood, sweat and toil.  

Maintaining the Obama lifestyle cost $1.4 billion a few years ago. It’s unknown what it costs today.

No worries. Once "Louis" and "Marie" have embarked on the next chapter of life, they can get tips from the Clintons on how to establish one of those "save the poor/fund our lavish lifestyle" foundations.

Dear Pope Francis: What's WRONG With You?

Yesterday, an elderly priest in Normandy was decapitated by a jihadi already known to police. Upon completing his gruesome feat, the jihadi screamed the age-old Islamic war cry, whereupon French police opened fire and dispatched him to the great jihadi cat house in the sky (or, more likely, to the eternal flames of Hell).

Today, the head of the Holy Roman Catholic Church says there's definitely a war going on--but it isn't a religious one.

So what gives with this pope? Why the refusal to see the jihad that's plain as day (and red as blood)?

To put it succinctly: why is he such a craven dhimmi?

Update: Joseph Klein says the pope is "delusional."

Bill Calls Hillary "The Best Darn Change Maker I Know"--And He Doesn't Mean It Ironically!

At first, I thought he was referring to her ability to hand back change from a $50 bill a la an experienced Walmart cashier. Because, thought I, he couldn't possibly be giving props to that other sort change-making--say the "changes" she wrought in Libya and Benghazi, or the way she "changed" (or rather finagled) her emails when she was Obama's Sec'y of State.

At least, he couldn't be saying it without his tongue implanted firmly in his cheek.

Could he?

Then again, since the Left seems to live in its own little Candide-eque bubble, one in which French priests aren't being decapitated by known jihadis and all's right with the world so long as there's a Democrat in the White House, Bill, who is looking more and more corpse-like these day, must have been (you should pardon the pun) dead serious.

As a special treat, here's Leonard Bernstein, who was big into the "Radical Chic" of his day (the radical chic of ours having "evolved" into Black Lives Matter) conducting his own composition--and the perfect choice for the 2016 Democrats' theme song:

Election

It's a big deal that Hill'ry's a chick.
"She's cracked the glass ceiling"--that's their shtick.
And that's great, as Bill says,
(If you want as your prez
A superannuated Tracy Flick.)

American University Campuses Offer Lots of "Safe Spaces"--Unless You're Jewish

And, no surprise, a plethora of Jew-hate and a paucity of free speech seem to go hand-in-hand.

"One of the Attackers, 19-Year-Old Adel Kermiche, Was a Local Man Who Was Known to Intelligence Services Ater His Failed Bids to Reach Syria to Wage Jihad"

They should have let him go. If they had, there's a good chance he would now be dead--or as good as dead--over in Syria, and the French priest he slaughtered (while wearing the electronic ankle bracelet that was somehow supposed to render him non-threatening) would still be alive.

"The Real Hillary Clinton" Is...Selina Meyer!

That's the revelation that struck me when I read this:

The real Hillary Clinton requires people to pose before she steps into the picture so they don’t waste her time. The real Hillary Clinton laughed at the thought of a rapist beating a child into a coma and then getting off. The real Hillary Clinton has never met a charity she didn’t steal from. The real Hillary Clinton dislikes people and has her assistant elbow them out of the way.

The big difference here, of course: Selina Meyer, as horrible as she is, is a fictional president. The specter of a Hillary presidency, alas, is all too real.

Guess Which "Progressive" Actress Thinks HIllary Is "Worse Than Trump"?

It's die-hard Saundersnista Susan Sarandon, who brought her resting bitch face to Hillary's coronation.

Gee, Thanks, Hank

Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson has now apologized for comparing Israeli settlers to termites.

Worst. Wedding Venue. EVER

Now taking bookings for your swanky nuptials (and other celebrations)--the Seventh Fort in Kaunas, Lithuania:

It’s also a popular venue for graduation parties and wedding receptions, complete with buffets and barbecues, as well as summer camps for children who enjoy the elaborate treasure hunts around the premises. 

Most of the visitors are unaware that they are playing, dining and celebrating at a former concentration camp.

In 1941, thousands of Jews were imprisoned, starved and finally massacred by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators at the Seventh Fort in what was then the largest mass killing in the country’s history. The complex is believed to be the first concentration camp located on territory that Nazi Germany conquered following its eastward invasion. 

Even by the unfortunate commemorative standards in Eastern Europe — where many Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust sites have been damaged or neglected — the Seventh Fort is unusual for its erasure of the recent past. ...

Do you get the feeling that the Lithuanians would not be unhappy to do 1941 all over again?

Paul Simon Sings "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at Troubled Democratic Convention

Hear it here.

I hate to break it to you, Mr. Simon, but Hillary Clinton, for whom lying is the same as breathing, isn't the "bridge."

She's the "troubled water."



Update: “And now here’s Paul Simon to sing ‘Fifty Ways to Leave Bernie Sanders.’ “

Russia to Hillary: We've Got (Your) Mail

Do you think that, by showing how easy it was to hack the DNC's emails, the Russians were signaling how easy it was to do the same to the unsecured server Mrs. Clinton had in place when she was Obama's Secretary of State?

Can't wait for the flow of those incriminating communiques, the ones deleted by the Mrs. C.'s obliging factotums, the ones she believed were lost forever.

Creeping Sharia? What Creeping Sharia?

There's a suburb of Detroit that has a Muslim majority, and U.S. edition of British newsmagazine The Week wants everyone to know that, for the most part, everything there is hunky-dory:

The Detroit suburb of Hamtramck, Michigan, used to be 90 percent Polish-American and overwhelmingly Catholic. But most of the Poles moved out after the struggles of the U.S. auto industry, and immigration from Yemen, Bangladesh, and Bosnia has transformed the blue-collar town of 22,000 residents into the nation's first majority Muslim community. It's also the first to elect a majority Muslim council. The transition was sometimes tense — beginning in 2004, the town gave a local mosque permission to broadcast the 6 a.m. call to prayer from loudspeakers. Some residents — and anti-Muslim voices on the internet — accused the council of planning to usher in sharia law. But city councilor Saad Almasmari says he represents all Hamtramck residents in accordance with local laws and the Constitution: "It was a political election, not a religious one." His goal, he says, isn't to make the city more Muslim but to "bring more financial resources to the city." Polish-American Mayor Karen Majewski says that Hamtramck is a place where diverse people "live next to each other, but not in some idealized Kumbaya, Epcot Center kind of way. It sometimes gets contentious, but we deal with it."

 "Contentious" but with no discernable sharia-creep? Tell that to some disgruntled non-Muslims in the town (my bolds):

The debate over the Muslim call to prayer is reverberating once again. 

          At last week’s city council meeting, several residents of the Hamtramck Senior Plaza apartments on Holbrook complained about the volume level of the call to prayer coming from the Ideal Islamic Center, located across from the apartment complex. 

          Jeanette Powell said she’s not complaining as a way to “bash anyone’s religion.” 

          She said the call or prayer was broadcast at 6 a.m. and found the volume “overbearing.” 

          “Just turn it down a little bit.” 

          Carol Marsh said not only was the call to prayer too loud, she insisted that the organizers of the center never said it would serve as a mosque. 

          “We were lied to,” she said. “We were told it would never be turned into a mosque.” 

          But Sakrul Islam of the center said no one ever said it would not be a mosque, saying an Islamic center “covers everything.” 

          He warned Marsh that if she continued claiming she was lied to he would file a defamation lawsuit. ...

In other words, not only is it not an idealized Epcot Center Kumbaya kind of place. It sounds like it's shaping up to become a little slice of Yemen (even if it does have "ham" in its name).

Wasserman-Schultz: Out As DNC Chief; In as "Honorary Chair" of Hillary's Effort to Get Dems Elected Everywhere

Don't you dare go calling it a payoff for services rendered, 'kay? Because it's obviously nothing of the sort.

Iran's Tunnel Vision

Looks like the Shia lunatics just got Hamas'd.

Bernie "El Socialist" Sanders and His Jew-Hating Amigo From Spain

As Ron Radosh notes, Bernie may have been born a Jew, but there's no disputing that his real religion is flakey Utopianism, and he seems to enjoy the company of Jew-hating creeps:

Because of the tumult over the WikiLeaks revelations showing how the DNC worked to undermine Bernie Sanders’ candidacy in the Democratic primaries, few people have noticed the controversial guest that Sanders has invited to the Democrats’ convention.
Spanish newspaper ABC reported on July 22 that Paul Bustinduy, secretary of international relations of Spain's far-left, anti-Semitic party Podemos, is Bernie's guest. 

Although Podemos came in third place in the June 26 Spanish national election, it is a political force to be reckoned with in Spain. Podemos had joined an alliance with other mostly leftist groups in a coalition called United We Can -- this was the name Podemos ran under. The alliance included the  United Left, whose main component is members of the old Spanish Communist Party, which on its own has little support in Spain. 

Composed of old Communists, Trotskyists, independent revolutionaries, Basque and Catalan nationalists, leftist urban intellectuals, and former supporters of the Socialist Party annoyed at what they perceive as its continuing compromises, United We Can models itself on the Marxist Greek party Syriza. Syriza brought the Greek economy to near total collapse. 

To call Podemos blatantly anti-Semitic would not be a false accusation...

I wouldn't call Bernie antisemitic in the traditional sense of the word (i.e. someone who hates Jews qua Jews). But I would call him a Zion-loather, which places him in the same company as some of the vilest people of our time--or any time.

Update: We learned from the WikiLeaks revelations that--quel shockeroo!--the system was rigged to shaft Bernie from the get-go. (Meanwhile, Hillary insists, in a breathtaking feat of implausible denial, that she was out of that particular loop. Hey, me too, Mrs. C.!)

Despite the dirty double dealing, Bernie is set to stand at the podium tonight and reiterate his support for the woman who was the beneficiary of this outrageous corruption.

While many last week joined the "Ted Cruz is a skunk for withholding his endorsement of Trump" pile on, at least Ted had the gumption to stick to his guns.

Bernie, on the other hand, has shown himself to be as pathetic, and as servile, as he is gumptionless (if one may be allowed to coin a mot juste).

If Authorities Had Their Druthers, All Murderous Jihadis Would Be Labelled "Crazy" (Because It's So Much Easier Than Having to Come to Terms With the Reality of Jihad)

German authorities and their complicit lackeys in the media have been trying to play the "he wuz crazy" card re the latest feat of jihad in their country--a human bomb from Syria who self-detonated outside a music festival; well, what do you expect of someone who, as CNN (among many others) "explains" had tried to commit suicide twice before after Germany refused his refugee claim? It may, however, prove to be more difficult to do so in light of this--Syrian suicide bomber who blew himself up outside German music festival had pledged allegiance to ISIS, had Islamist videos at his home and had enough chemicals to make ANOTHER bomb, police reveal.



Update: How "cray-cray" is this--pre-'splodiation, he filmed himself in a video vowing that Germans "won't be able to sleep soundly" any more?

Update: Re the "crazy" teenager responsible for murder and mayhem in Munich, Raymond Ibrahim writes:

A German-born 18-year-old of Iranian descent named Ali Sonboly went on a shooting spree last Friday.  He reportedly targeted young children; a number of adolescents were among the nine he murdered. 

This incident is a reminder that the ongoing terrorization of the West is not limited to the Islamic State (“ISIS”), “extreme” Wahhabi or Salafi interpretations of Islam, or terrorists posing as refugees entering the West. 

Ali Sonboly was none of those things.  He was born and raised in Germany and, based on his name and Iranian heritage, was most likely of Shia background. 

But he was a Muslim.  He screamed Islam’s ancient war cry “Allahu Akbar” during his rampage.  It’s also telling that he launched his attack on the one day of the week that many calculated Islamic attacks on non-Muslims occur: Friday.[1] 

And that is the grand lesson of the Munich massacre.  Mere Islam—to borrow from C.S. Lewis’ famous book about the many commonalities shared by most Christian denominations—is responsible for the ongoing terrorization of the West...

No, no, no, Mr. Ibrahim. It must be "radical" Islam, or "extremist" Islam, or "radically extreme and violent Islamism/jihadism."

Well, mustn't it?

Hillary Clinton, Arguably the Least Self-Aware Woman in the U.S., Holds a Pity Party for Herself on 60 Mintues

Poor, poor, pitiful her. She is so upset at being held to an "unfair" standard. And, indeed, she's got a point. It is so unfair that actions that would have seen others thrown in slammer post haste--lying to Congress about her emails, for one--are overlooked, ignored and/or swept under the Oval Office rug when it comes to Mrs. Clinton.

And let's not even get into the Clinton family-enriching Clinton Foundation, whose shady pay-per-play shenanigans should cause all Americans to recoil in horror, even if its antics leave the Clintons and their supporters completely nonplussed.

If you want to feel pity for anyone, feel it for that poor schlub Nakoula Basseley Nakoula--the usual suspect who was rounded up for making a crappy YouTube video that did not, I repeat, did not give rise to the Benghazi conflagration.

Oh, and also for the American people, who may have to live with the ignominy--the horror--of Hillary as POTUS (and skanky Bill as the emaciated First "Spouse"--a word I use because I refuse to call the old Lolita Express horndog a "gentleman").

Black Lives Matter "Freedom School" Trustee Jerks Us Around Re Its Summer School Lessons

Eons ago I spent my high school years at what was then called Vaughan Road Collegiate Institute. The school has since undergone something of an apotheosis. It is now called Vaughan Road Academy.

The only reason I mention it is because, ironically enough, the school is the summer home of the Black Lives Matter "Freedom School." I wrote about the school here. Sue-Ann Levy picks up the story here:

ABOUT THE TORONTO FREEDOM SCHOOL
It started two weeks ago and is based at Vaughan Road Academy, a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) school in the Eglinton-Oakwood area. 

The Black Lives Matter-Toronto Freedom School is being led by LeRoi Newbold, a teacher at TDSB’s Africentric school and a member of the BLM movement. 

The Children’s Peace Theatre — heavily subsidized with Toronto, provincial and foundation grants and which operates out of the city-owned Massey Goulding Estate for rent of $2 a year — took out the permit for the Freedom School space. TDSB spokesman Ryan Bird says they paid approximately $3,400 for the three-week permit. 

Newbold and the BLM organizers refused several requests for an interview about the school, its curriculum and the attendees. 

Karen Emerson, artistic director of the Children’s Peace Theatre, would only say they were “particularly proud” to be trusteeing the Freedom School this year for BLM, whose members were “just awarded the city’s race relations award.” 

"Particularly proud"--to see it win an award it did not deserve.  (Odd how, since the announcement that BLM Toronto would be getting this prize, nothing more has been heard about it. Now, had there been an award for fracturing race relations, I can think of a no more deserving recipient than Pride parade-sabotaging BLM Toronto.)

Because the trustee refused to discuss anything about the school, Levy was forced to make do with the only available info:

But according to information posted on the BLM Facebook page, the program was designed to “engage children in political resistance to anti-black racism and state violence” — through a trans-feminist, queer-positive lens — and offer “an entry point into the #BlackLivesMatter movement.”

So what, precisely, does one learn at a BLM Freedom School? Apparently, a whole bunch of more or less useless stuff/indoctrination in the victimhood agenda:

It appears that the students have spent their time so far making accessible playgrounds out of jinx wood, learning about resistance in Brazil, about Nanny Maroon (a Jamaican national hero) and the Haitian Revolution, cooking hominy porridge and veggie patties, and visiting the Sustenance Greenhouse at the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. They also prepared drawings and notes to the incarcerated engaged in hunger strikes at Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay.

I was sufficiently intrigued by the name Nanny Maroon to look her up. According to her Wiki entry (which refers to her as "Nanny of the Maroons"--those being a people from West Africa who were shipped to Jamaica as slaves), Nanny is a folk hero because she rebelled against the English, forcing them to give Nanny and her people their own piece of land--Nanny Town. As someone who loves it hot and spicy, though, this is the part of the tale that interested me the most:

The Maroons also contributed to the cooking technique of jerking, adapted from the Arawak. Chicken or pork pieces were cooked over a low fire using green pimento wood. The smoke was smothered in order to escape detection by British forces.^[5]

The invention of jerk chicken--now, that's something to celebrate!



Update: You can see why the "Freedom School" would want to focus on Jamaican folk hero Nanny and not on, say, rampant and intractable homophobia in modern day Jamaica.

Syrian Kids Bring Along Plenty of Baggage (Including a Culture of Gender Apartheid) to Summer Camp

She's trying to be a H.appi Camper, the name of a day camp for Syrian kids that's supposed to help them "transition" to their new home, but, as one young participant admits, Canada is a lot different than Syria. For one thing,

“Here it’s a very diverse culture, you have many people coming from various different countries and backgrounds and religions. Back home we don’t have the mixing of boys and girls and this is completely new, which is amazing.”

And so far, the H.appi Campers seem to be anything but, well, h.appi (for now at least, the "h.appi" being aspirational rather than actual):

Camp supervisor Windemere Jarvis, the only counsellor who doesn’t speak Arabic, says she’s impressed by how eager the kids are to learn new customs. 

They’ve opened their hearts and bared their souls every day, she says, pointing to painful anecdotes about bombings, destroyed homes, and grief that can send her home “crying all night.” 

“I was talking to a friend of mine and they said, ‘You know what, I think the most important thing is when you hear these stories is not to cry because that is their reality. Just let them talk and let them know that what happened to them was okay and that they’re here now and we want them to be super happy here and feel like this is safe,“’ says Ms. Jarvis.

Ms. J. says that acclimating them to Canada and its unfamiliar customs is proving to be a bit of a challenge:

The athletic 21-year-old has taken a keen interest in boosting self-esteem among the girls, noting that a clear gender bias toward the boys “is very visible.” 

“The other day we lined them up and immediately all the boys went to the front of the line and the girls went behind them,” she notes. 

She worries about how the boys might be disciplined for such behaviour at a Toronto school unfamiliar with Syrian culture. 

“It’s not their fault,” she says, envisioning repeated trips to the principal’s office for something they don’t understand.

I know the perfect place for the lads--Valley Park Middle School.

But since the girls are now supposed to shed their cultural baggage and become strong and empowered females, perhaps they should find somewhere else to go:

Ms. Jarvis says she tries to introduce new ideas by showing them girls can do anything and by recognizing and praising female achievements. 

“I think that’s something they’re a little hesitant toward it but they’re not resistant,” she says. 

“And I think that they definitely – the girls especially – want to be empowered and they want to change. Because (after) coming here (to Canada), that’s what’s going to happen to them.”

Let's hope so. Then again, their menfolk--fathers, brothers and uncles--may have some strong opposition to the idea.

I know--maybe we should send them to summer camp.

The Daffy One State "Solution" That "Solves" the Jewishness Right Out of Israel

It's ba-ack.

South Carolina Realtor Hedging His Bets

John Kerry Wants Assad-Supporting Putin To Work With the U.S. to Get Rid of "Extremists" in Syria

What could possibly go wrong?

Debbie's Downfall

Too bad. So sad.



Update: Buh bye, Deb.

More on the Munich Shooter's "Motive"

Robert Spencer writes:

The Munich shooter’s motive is completely unclear, because we don’t yet know if he was teased in school or on the job, or if he had trouble getting a job in the first place, or if he had psychological problems, or if he was a brooding loner who always left his moderate Muslim friends disquieted – the only thing we do know is that he couldn’t possibly have been motivated by a religion that exhorts its adherents to “slay them wherever you find them” (cf. Qur’an 2:191, 4:89, 9:5). 

No, none of that is true, and one wonders if even the European and North American political and media elites believe in their own nonsense anymore. The Munich mass murderer was motivated by Islam, pure and simple – by its teachings of warfare against unbelievers and the necessity to subjugate them. His war cry of “Allahu akbar,” revered by jihadis for its power to “strike terror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah” (Qur’an 8:60), demonstrates that. 

"Teased in school or on the job"--ding ding ding ding ding!

Munich Redux

Roger L. Simon has some thoughts on Munich (and Munich):

Munich — déjà vu all over again. 

It's a while ago, 1972, that Palestinian terrorists massacred 11 Israeli athletes at the Olympics in that city, but that particular monstrosity came back into the news as recently as December 2015 with the release of a documentary far more potent than the pallid Steven Spielberg film on the subject. Apparently, the terrorists tortured the athletes before killing them, going so far as to castrate one in front of his teammates. (Spielberg and Tony Kushner, creepily, tried to make the Israeli revenge the moral equivalent of the Palestinians' atrocities. Well, ignorance is bliss, I suppose.) 

These and other horrifying details had been covered up for years by the German police — an interesting fact to ponder as we watch what is transpiring now and listen to the reports. As of now we know the new Munich killer was an 18-year old German-Iranian (some reports just say Iranian) who, according to at least one witness, a Muslim woman, yelled "Allahu Akbar" as he sprayed people with bullets; many were children. Early speculation he may have been a right-wing extremist appears to have faded.  A particularly scary report from the Daily Mail says police are investigating a fake ad on Facebook advertising free food at McDonald's. The killer stood in front of a McDonald's when he fired. Jihadi groups have advised killing children first because it inflicts the greatest pain on the community. Who knows where this will lead? 

Simon has already answered that question. It will lead--undoubtedly and inexorably--to more equivocation and muddying the (Islamist) waters by those in positions of authority, as Simon reiterates here:

Our leaders, as we have been reminded in the last few days from France, tend to be tardy about informing the public on what actually is happening during terror incidents, often bowdlerizing or misdirecting the truth for dubious ends. The monster of Nice, we were told, was a loner only recently converted to radical Islam (and therefore somehow exonerated), when it turned out he and his Islamist co-conspirators had been meticulously planning their mass-murdering truck attack for months. 

Oh, well. So it was in Nice and Paris and San Bernardino, so it was in Munich then and now — homicidal rage generated by sick religious ideology.

It Was a Jihadi Again, Media People. Deal With It

The media so wanted it to be an attack by an immigrant-hating "right winger." Again and again yesterday afternoon, on both CNN and Fox News, they kept mentioning that yesterday was the fifth "anniversary" of the Anders Breivik massacre, an occasion that an immigrant-hating "right winger" might wish to commemorate--supposedly--by shooting kids at a McDonald's in Munich.

"Experts" were trotted out who said that it seemed to be shaping up as some sort of "right-wing" attack, and Fox anchor Shepard Smith, for one, was convinced that that's what it was.

Naturally, an eye-witness, a Muslim woman, cast doubt on that scenario when she said she heard the gunman holler the traditional jihadi war cry as he opened fire, specifically targeting children.

Even with the obligatory "Allahu Akbar," analysts remain baffled--yes, baffled!--as to what his motivation could possibly be.

Well, at least we know that an Anders Breivik-like grudge has now been ruled out.

Maybe.

Or maybe not.

Update: They're saying he was "deranged," but he had wits enough about him to hack into a young woman's Facebook page and lure the unsuspecting to that McDonalds with the promise of free food.

Crazy like a "lone wolf," no?

Update: He was "depressed." (Don't most depressed people amass huge quantities of ammo and lure people to certain death at a fast food joint that's synonymous with America?)

Update: He had "no ties to militant Islam." Quel relief, eh?

Thankfully, He Didn't Add Insult to Injury By Singing "You've Got a Friend"

John Kerry visits Americans wounded in Nice attack

Terrorists Blast Through Obama's Sang Froid Once Again

In yet another display of his flawless timing, no sooner had Barack Obama assured Americans that, pace Donald Trump's speech last night, there was nothing to fear but fear itself,  news was breaking of an apparent terrorist incident unfolding at the softest of targets--a large shopping mall in Munich, Germany.

CNN is reporting that the shooting began at a McDonald's.

It is interesting to note that the mall is across the street from the stadium built for the Munich Olympics, the 1972 games that are infamous for the terrorist incident which took the lives of 11 Israeli athletes.

The Germans, like the French, used to be under the impression that the jihad against the Jewish state was different than the jihad being waged against the rest of the infidel world (if, indeed, they bothered to acknowledge the reality of the global jihad at all). They are now learning to their horror that that couldn't be farther from the truth and that, in a very real sense, all infidels--and, certainly, all Europeans--are now Israelis.

Now That He's In Hot Water, Publisher of London, Ontario Arabic Magazine Tries to Distance Himself From Holocaust-Denying Editorial In, Um, His Own Rag

Of course, the feat is much easier said than done (my bolds):

Condemnation is raining down on an Arabic magazine in London after it published a column questioning the Holocaust, the Nazi murder of six million Jews during the Second World War. 

But while the London police hate crime unit is investigating, and a national Jewish group urged Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government — an advertiser in the publication — to distance itself from the monthly Al Saraha, its publisher says he was unaware of the facts and apologizes to Jewish people. 

“I didn’t mean to reject something that happened historically,” Abdul Haidi Shala, speaking in Arabic translated into English, told The London Free Press on Thursday. 

“I was curious to know why Hitler killed Jews during the Holocaust, so I read through his article and I found information,” the publisher said. 

“I don’t know. History knows,” he said. “I believe in the correct history. If someone told me the correct history was 10 million or 20 million people died, then I’ll believe it as long as it’s correct history.”...

Shala, the magazine’s owner and general manager, said he didn’t know that the facts in the piece, which he said was written by an Egyptian journalist for another publication, were incorrect.

Epic fail, dude!

Update: The non-fact-checking publisher doesn't acquit himself any better when interviewed by the CBC:

The magazine's publisher Abdul Hadi Shala said he meant no harm when he selected the article, which was first published in an Egyptian newspaper. He maintains he does not share the editorial stance of the author. 

"The opinion here is the writer only, not my opinion," he told CBC News.

Riiiiight!

A crucial point to make here: the Ontario government, which had previously advertised in this publication, including in the issue in which this Holocaust editorial (one which, BTW, is fully in line with Arab/Muslim consensus on the subject) appeared, is now saying all the right things:

Angry reaction came from across the province Thursday, including from Ontario Deputy Premier Deb Matthews. 

"I want to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the statements in the Al-Saraha article," she said. "Statements like these, filled with hatred, prejudice and lies, have no place in our society." 

Matthews says, neither she nor the premier knew the article would be published when they bought advertising space in the magazine. Matthews says the advertising will stop.

 That's swell, Deb. As is this info:

Until yesterday, the City of  London's immigration portal linked to the digital edition of the magazine, but the link has been removed.

Wouldn't it be even better, though, if both these governments could get an Arabic speaker (Jonathan Halevi, perhaps?) to vet such publications before having any dealings with them?

Me Being Facetious

There's an article in the National Post about the high "cost of schmoozing." It details some of the expenses that accrue when federal or provincial elected officials get together, including the fact that "190 MPs charged the House of Commons for Tim Hortons in fiscal 2016, to the tune of almost $14,000."

What's the big deal?  After all, isn't all the "wining, dining and Tim Hortons," like Justin Trudeau's new Canada Child Benefit Income Redistribution scheme (which is expected to cost already over-burdened taxpayers a whopping $22.4 billion), really just a way to "stimulate the economy"?

Foreign Policy-Wise, Is Trump Merely Barack Obama With Bad Hair?

Jonathan S. Tobin writes:

[Trump's] populist followers and the tame conservatives who have latched onto him because of partisan loyalties claim to despise President Obama. But the sad truth is that Trump’s vision of America is far more in tune with that of the man he wishes to replace in the White House than of Reagan or Jeanne Kirkpatrick. Trump’s supporters are gulled by his braggadocio into thinking he’s a breath of fresh air but, in fact, he is anything but. If Trump is not apologizing for what he sees as a flawed America, much like Obama, he lacks confidence in the strength and the transcendent importance of our values. Like Obama, he is also determined to withdraw from the world. He speaks of defeating ISIS but like Obama, he also makes it clear he has no intention of committing the resources to that fight.

Also highly disconcerting is Trump's admiration for such WWE champions as Vladimir Putin and Artie Erdogan, an affinity which can't help but reveal the candidate's authoritarian tendencies. (As well, high-fiving Islamist Artie for his recent triumph shows that, while Trump may not be stupid, he is shockingly, even dangerously, ignorant.)

To Canada's Orwellian Refugee Gate-Keepers, All Refugees Are Equal, But Some Refugees Are More Equal Than Others

Justin's Trudeaupian Canada lets in semi-vetted Muslim Syrian "refugees" by the thousands but insists on sending the gay, Christian grandson of Hamas's founder back from whence he came to certain death (the sharia punishment for the "crime" of gayness). Luckily, the young man was able to find refuge in the U.S.

Something very askew there, don't you think?

Hillary's Email Hanky-Panky: Comey Was OK With It; Hitler, Not So Much

Jihad Is Jihad Is Jihad

Jew-hate makes you stupid; so stupid, in fact, that it can lead you to believe that the jihadis who attack you and the ones who attack Israel are entirely different. And, as Evelyn Gordon writes re a newly released EU report on terrorism in Israel (it was written last year but had been suppressed until last week), that idiotic assumption can be deadly:

[The report concluded that] the attacks were due to “the Israeli occupation . . . and a long-standing policy of political, economic, and social marginalization of Palestinians in Jerusalem,” to “deep frustration among Palestinians over the effects of the occupation, and a lack of hope that a negotiated solution can bring it to an end.” This, the report asserted, was “the heart of the matter”; factors like rampant Palestinian incitement and widespread Islamist sentiment, if they were mentioned at all, were evidently dismissed as unimportant. 

The report’s first implication is obvious: if Palestinian attacks stem primarily from “the occupation,” there’s no reason to think anything similar could happen in Europe, which isn’t occupying anyone. Consequently, there’s also no need to learn from Israel’s methods of dealing with such attacks. . . . 

[H]ad EU diplomats understood the major role played by Palestinian incitement—for instance, the endless Internet memes urging Palestinians to stab, run over, and otherwise kill Jews, complete with detailed instructions on how to do so—they might have realized that similar propaganda put out by Islamic State, urging people to use similar techniques against Westerners, could have a similar effect.

They might also have prevented that horrific attack in Nice. But the stupid EUnuchs, those refined and superior beings, are wed to their comforting delusions about Israel (which they despise), Muslims (whom they adore, primarily for being "victims" of Western "colonialists") and the jihad (which they comprehend not at all).

Oh, Crap!

Poop café opens in Toronto

Should be a big hit with the non-anally retentive.

Jew-Hate? In a Canadian Arab Language Newspaper? I'm Shocked, Shocked, I Say!

This one, from B'nai Brith Canada, came through the transom today:

An article appearing in a monthly Arabic newspaper distributed in London, Ont. engages in virulent antisemitism, Holocaust denial and homophobia, B’nai Brith Canada has discovered. 

Al-Saraha, the newspaper that published the article, is recommended as a news outlet for new immigrants by the London and Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership, an official agency funded by the Government of Ontario. 

Entitled “The Question Which Everyone Ignores: Why Did Hitler Kill the Jews?,” the article begins by denying that 6-million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, claiming instead that “Jewish propaganda managed to spread [this number] and establish it.” It continues by falsely asserting that “the Jews caused most of the economic collapses that occurred in the banks in the period between 1870 and 1920.” 

In more lurid detail, the piece asserts that “The first theatres of homosexuality appeared in Berlin in the 1920’s, and the first presentations of pornography appeared in 1880 and 1890 by the hands of Jewish authors”. It concludes by claiming that Adolf Hitler created 6-million new jobs upon his rise to power in 1933, and that this is the source of the “Jewish propaganda” figure of 6-million Jewish casualties in the Holocaust. 

“This article constitutes an obscene form of hate propaganda aimed at Canada’s Jewish community,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “Its appearance in a community newspaper which hosts advertisements from local businesses and mainstream political parties is extremely worrying.” 

Al-Saraha is published by Abdul-Hadi Shala, a Palestinian from Gaza who resides in London, Ont. and operates a local art gallery. The article in question was originally published in al-Masry al-Youm, one of the largest Egyptian daily newspapers, and authored by Egyptian pundit Salah Montasser. It was then republished in the June-July issue of al-Saraha, which a local source told B’nai Brith can be found “in every Middle Eastern restaurant and every Middle Eastern grocery” in Southwestern Ontario. 

B’nai Brith Canada is in contact with the London Police Service regarding this matter.

I can all but guarantee that the London Police Service, which is no doubt deep into community outreach with that city's burgeoning Arab/Muslim population, will do bupkes (that's Yiddish for nada) about it.

What I find far more alarming than the presence of Jew-hate in an Arab newspaper (the absence of such hate would be much more shocking) is the fact that there are so many places where such hate can be distributed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, even though it's probably one of the most "Islamophobic"--and therefore verboten--things you can say in Justin's Trudeaupia: The more Muslims there are in Canada, the worse it'll be for the Jews.

Update: But wait, it gets better (i.e. worse):

B’nai Brith has also attempted to contact Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office and the members of her Liberal caucus who appeared in a full-page Ramadan Mubarak message mere pages after the antisemitic article in al-Saraha. As of 5 P.M. Thursday, B’nai Brith had received no response from the Premier’s Office. 

Sorry to Have to State the Obvious, But "Feelings" Won't Vanquish the Jihad

It started with the shocking, untimely death of Princess Diana, I think: people feeling the need to one up one another in demonstrating just how emotionally devastated they were by "their" loss, and that display being proof that they were in essence superior human beings because of their overly overwrought emotions.

Fast forward to today, and, as Bruce Thornton writes, "feelings"--which is to say the therapeutic approach to dealing with a public trauma--has, as expected, shown up in Nice, France (my bolds):

We know what is going to follow the latest terrorist murder in Nice. Shrines to the dead will instantly spring up. Conclaves of citizens will gather at sorrowful demonstrations filled with ecumenical clichés. The media will profile selected victims, wringing every ounce of pathos out of their tragedy. Twitter will be inundated with sentimental bromides and ephemeral hashtags, and politicians will give solemn and empty speeches laced with even emptier threats. 

Welcome to terror in a therapeutic age. 

What we will not read are passionate demands from most citizens of Western governments that mind-concentrating force be unleashed on those responsible for the latest slaughter of the innocents. Nor will we hear stirring speeches from our political leaders that forcefully make the moral case for war against the murderers and their enablers. 

Obsessing over feelings and emotions is what many moderns reflexively substitute for meaningful action. Righteous anger and burning revenge of the sort that fired up Americans after the Pearl Harbor attacks are too “mean” and “hurtful,” and require a serious commitment and exorbitant risk. Displaying emotion is cheap and gratifying and offends no one. Indeed, such displays demonstrate the purveyors’ superior “we are the world” sensibilities and sensitivity. It is “conspicuous compassion,” as Alan Bloom called it, as much a status symbol as Veblen’s conspicuous consumption. It’s how people show themselves to be civilized and advanced, too sophisticated for retrograde emotions like avenging anger. That’s so Old Testament...

That's for sure. But that "turn the other cheek"/what's-so-funny-'bout-peace-love-and-understanding stuff is to this era's jihad what Bambi is to Godzilla. (I'm sure you know what that looks like):

The problem is, we live in a world of people with radically different ideas about the goods they should pursue, and who don’t give a damn about “peace, love, understanding,” or the opinions of Western infidels about their religion. Whatever their potential is for possessing and recognizing a “common humanity,” in practice this possibility remains mostly unexpressed in their traditional religious tenets. Rather, Muslim jihadists––and hundreds of millions of ordinary Muslims–– limit their compassion, sympathy, and respect for humanity to fellow Muslims, and deny them to the infidel or heretic.  

That’s why zakat, the personal obligation for Muslims to make charitable contributions, for the most part restricts that charity to other Muslims. 

The only “common humanity” pious Muslims recognize is the divine obligation for all humans to become Muslim. Their highest goods are not democracy, prosperity, leisure, and tolerance, but obedience to Allah and his laws. And millions of them view violence in the name of Allah as the divinely justified instrument for creating a world in which “all men say there is no god but Allah.”

It's awfully hard to feel any warm 'n' fuzzy John Lennonesque (or Kerryesque) vibes about that.

My Nominee for "Most Obnoxious 'Progressive' American Jew": Peter Beinart

What a putz! And here's the great Caroline Glick to confirm it:

Last Friday, Peter Beinart and a few dozen Jewish anti-Zionists had a marvelous time in Hebron.

They wore funny blue T-shirts and sang about “tikkun olam” (repairing the world) in two languages.

They pretended they were civil rights activists.

They videotaped themselves being brave. They got shown to the door by security forces after wrecking a Palestinian farmer’s grazing land while supposedly defending him.

Five dual Israeli-American citizens got arrested.

And the rest ate a late lunch.

All in all, it was a great experience.

The sight of Beinart and his comrades locking hands and singing Debbie Friedman songs in Hebron was so absurd it was funny. But there was a menacing aspect to their solipsistic showmanship.

Beinart told the JTA reporter who joined them for the protest party, “I feel like I’m seeing the emergence of a new leadership.... People will try to write these guys off as lefties that don’t have any connection to the Jewish community. But... these kids actually come from the bosom of the Jewish community.

A lot of them are affiliated.”

No doubt they are. But to what? According to JTA, “Many belong to left-wing Israel advocacy groups such as J Street and the New Israel Fund, and others to groups that more deeply divide the pro-Israel community, including Jewish Voice for Peace, which supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, and IfNotNow, which holds its own sit-ins at US Jewish groups.”

In other words, they come from the marginal fringe of the American Jewish community. They represent no statistically significant demographic.

But they believe that their fringe voices should balance out the vast majority of affiliated Jews who disagree with them, simply because they like tikkun olam.

Exactly. Which leads me to conclude that, for "progressive" Jews like Pete the putz, "tikkum olam" is  Hebrew for "screw Israel."



Update: Beinart sings (to the tune of "Moon River"):

Tik' Olam,
Let's "repair" the globe
Although the task, we're told,
Is big.
We're all dreamers,
And real schemers,
And once Zion's finished
We'll all dance a jig.
Too crazy,
That is what we are.
More virtuous by far
Than thee.
We aim to bring "changes," by gum!
Even though they're dumb,
My huckleberry chum,
It's Tik' Olam for me!