Scaramouche!

"The Zionist colonialist greedy ambitions in Palestine started in 1882. ... The coming of the Jewish throngs to Palestine continued until 1948 and their goal was taking over the Palestinian lands and then taking the original inhabitants' place after their expulsion and extermination. ..."

2012-01-31T18:17:00.000-05:00

UNRWA-sanctioned textbooks teach lies, Zionhass to Palestinian moppets.

Post-Shafia Verdict, the Afghan Embassy Gets In On the PR Act

2012-01-31T16:18:00.002-05:00

The Afghan Embassy in Ottawa publicly condemned the Shafia family murders on Tuesday, calling the honour killings of three teenagers and their father’s first wife “a heinous crime against humanity.”

“There is nothing (honourable) about violence against anyone, especially against innocent women,” says the embassy’s written statement.

“(Honour) killing is unacceptable in Afghanistan Constitution and its Justice System.”...

Given that both its Constitution and system of justice are based on sharia, a law that enshrines the divinely-decreed superiority of men, that's rather a laugh and a half.

London School of Economics Effectively Submits (to Islam and Its Own Dhimmitude)

2012-01-31T15:57:00.001-05:00

Roger Kimball writes:

Ah, the venerable London School of Economics. According to its web site, the elite social science institute was “set up to improve society and to ‘understand the causes of things.’” The LSE, continued the bulletin, “has always put engagement with the wider world at the heart of its mission.” What better way to accomplish that than by censoring free expression about sensitive topics? Here we have it, folks: an institution that prides itself on being on the cutting edge of all things modern — and devoted, what’s more, to understanding n”the causes of things — resurrects that icon of medievalism: a law against blasphemy!

Don’t believe me? Check it out here: “The London School of Economics [LSE] Student Union has passed a motion effectively making it impossible for students on campus to criticize Islam.”

Ouch...

I don't know why Roger's saying "ouch." From the sounds of it, the capitulation didn't hurt a bit.

Update: My poem for the skool:

Behold, the LS of E
Where it is as clear as can be
That Islam is what harks;
In fact it's like Marx.
And like Marxists brooks no blasphemy.

CAIR-CAN Comments on the Shafia Verdict

2012-01-31T13:49:00.001-05:00

No Islam to see here, folks. Best move along now:

“This a tragedy that started with the mistreatment of the women themselves, continued through the lack of an appropriate response from those charged with providing assistance and, ultimately, resulted in their tragic deaths and no verdict will change that sad fact. Our thoughts today are with the victims of this shocking crime and with the remaining children who must be protected and provided with a safe and secure upbringing” said Ihsaan Gardee, Executive Director of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN).

“By all accounts those convicted have been afforded due process and must now face the consequences of their actions. This case sends a clear message to would-be perpetrators that these kinds of abhorrent actions will not go unpunished.

In November 2011, CAIR-CAN and over 70 other Muslim and non-Muslim organizations, as well as dozens of Imams, scholars and community leaders issued a Call to Action to Eradicate Domestic Violence. The Call to Action reiterates in no uncertain terms that Canadian Muslims unequivocally condemn the notion of ‘honour killing’ or other gender-based violence as un-Islamic and un-Canadian.

“CAIR-CAN and its partners are intent on continuing the critical work of educating families and communities about the unacceptability of violence on every level, and alternative ways to resolve conflicts and prevent future tragedies. Ongoing and new projects and initiatives aimed at establishing and supporting existing social services providers with the necessary resources to address gender-based violence must be supported and promoted. These include white ribbon campaigns, workshops and community round tables and, most recently, the Family Honour Project launched by the Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration in London, Ontario which is modeled on the Chicago based anti-gang violence Ceasefire program.

“Despite this case being about people who identified themselves as Muslim, the statistics about gender-based violence tells us that no one religion, culture or ethnicity holds the exclusive franchise on this scourge and we are confident that our fellow citizens will recognize this and support the efforts being made by Canadian Muslims to tackle this important issue."...

OnIslam Crows: Tunisian Jews Balk at Emigrating to Israel

2012-01-31T13:33:00.000-05:00

I predict that in coming days they will come to regret it.

The West's Blindness Re the Ascendance of Islamism is Tantamount to Civilizational Suicide

2012-01-31T12:54:00.001-05:00

The great Melanie Phillips writes:

One year ago, the US and Britain helped street protesters to overthrow president Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. Hailing the revolutionary tumult of the "Arab Spring" as the equivalent of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the West went on to help armed Libyan rebels remove president Muammar Gaddafi by military force.

This regional strategy was promoted even though it was obvious from the start that the people who were best organised to take advantage of any elections in the Arab world were Islamists of one stripe or another - religious extremists all, united by their hostility to the West.

And so it has proved. The Islamists are coming to power in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia, and in turn are being increasingly empowered elsewhere. In Libya, sickening atrocities, including the torture and killing of Gaddafi himself by a lynch mob, have been carried out by those brought to power with the assistance of British and US bombing raids.

Yet Western politicians are even now hymning the brave new dawn of democracy throughout the Muslim world. British Foreign Secretary William Hague conceded earlier this month that the regional violence and votes for Islamism were a "setback", but he insisted: "Greater freedom and democracy in the Middle East is an idea whose time has come."

And the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist organisation now in the ascendancy, which uses violence and political manipulation to advance its aim of world domination for Islam, is suddenly being hailed by Western leaders as the acme of moderation.

Yet in helping to get rid of Mubarak and Gaddafi, Britain and the US have managed the signal feat of ousting oppressive regimes that were at least helpful to the West, and replacing them with oppressive regimes that are acutely hostile to the West...

What gives with this stupifying blindness? I think T.S. Eliot nailed it years ago when he observed that "Humankind cannot bear very much reality."

The Incoherence of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women

2012-01-31T10:25:00.002-05:00

How can the CCMW get that the mosqueteria is not a good idea but insist that there's no such thing as "honour killings" (they're part and parcel of generic "domestic violence," doncha know?). And there's certainly no way Islam is at all implicated in such crimes. "Patriarchy": yes; Islam: no.

Also--"femicide"? Puh-leeze!

Update: "Domestic violence"? Works for them.

Three Saudi Doctors Sue U of Ottawa for $150 Million

2012-01-31T10:10:00.000-05:00

They allege they were discriminated against, of course. (At first they lodged a complaint with a "human rights" tribunal, but you can't get the really big pay offs there.)

Annihilationalist Mufti Deja Vu

2012-01-31T09:00:00.000-05:00

From a JTA editorial:

A Palestinian mufti has called for violence against Jews, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding Palestinian leaders disavow him and America's presidential race could be affected.

That could be the lead sentence of a news report from last week.

Or from 1946.

Sixty-five years ago, another Palestinian mufti, another Netanyahu and another American presidential race likewise intersected in an unexpected round of high-stakes Middle East politics and diplomacy...

"Independent Thinker" Purged From Daily Kos for "Islamophobia"

2012-01-31T08:31:00.000-05:00

A cautionary tale for all leftists who stray from the path of "virtue."

Our Homie Omie--GITMO's Little Jihadi Prince--Has a "Get Out Of Jail Free" Card

2012-01-31T08:10:00.001-05:00

And, more fool us, we're the ones who gave it to him.

As Per Usual, the Elite Media Muddy the Waters Re the Trouble With Islam

2012-01-31T08:03:00.001-05:00

In the wake of the Shafia verdict, Canada's elite media (the Ceeb, the Glib & Mewling) are frantically spinning the message that there's nothing to see here (save Canadians' "racism"), folks, so it's best to return a.s.a.p. to the land's Trudeapian multiculti default setting, the one the elites embrace so thoughtlessly and wholeheartedly.

Canada Refuses to Take Palestinians' Crap

2012-01-31T07:26:00.002-05:00

Whenever I read/hear stuff like this, it reaffirms to me that, at the moment, Canada is the sanest country in the world.

Update: Canada's Baird says, "Delegitimization of Israel is the new anti-Semitism." Yes, and that delegitimization is what I call Zionhass.

If I Read One More Time How Certain Islamist Parties are "Pragmatic"...

2012-01-31T07:03:00.000-05:00

...I'm going to puke.

The "Human Rights" Mausoluem--Where Human Rights Go To Be Buried

2012-01-31T06:56:00.003-05:00

Michael Coren and Jonathan Kay discuss my "bête blanc" (I call it that since the sucker's white, not noir), our "human rights" mausoleum. In so doing they mention some of its inherent problems (that its construction costs have mushroomed and that it will never be self-financing; that it is creating friction between "victim groups"--Jews and Ukrainians, especially--as they vie for equal space for their mass atrocity; that a museum devoted to a concept--"human rights"-- and not a discrete historical event--the Holocaust of the American Civil War, say--is a difficult if not a dubious if not a next to impossible undertaking; that it's in Winnipeg, which, unlike, say, Paris, Washington and Jerusalem, is not a place people are drawn to for its museums). Alas, they fail to get to the crux of the matter: that we, the taxpayers, have wasted a colossal amount of our cash on an edifice that validates "human rights," a concept that used to mean something, but that in our time has become stripped of meaning, a peurile cliche that's been systematically hijacked and perverted by the power-hungry, the Zion-loathing and the deranged (categories which often tend to overlap).

A museum devoted to burnishing the reputation of "human rights" rackets around the world, including the odious UN "Human Rights" Council and our own petty and squalid domestic "human rights" Inquisitions? Other than, say, The Museum of the Arab Spring, can you think of a worse idea for a museum?

Jordan's King Abdullah Meets Welcomes Hamas Leader

2012-01-30T12:09:00.003-05:00

One Israel-loather welcomes another. Anyone who's suprised by that shouldn't be.

Update: Could Hamas be coming to Canada?

Update: Turkey May Soon Host Hamas

Update: Hamas supposedly faces funding problems because Iran has cut it loose. Oh well, it can always return to its MuBro mothership, can't it?

UAE Teenager Pays the Price (3 Years in Jail) For the "Crime" of Stealing Kisses

2012-01-30T12:01:00.000-05:00

I know it contravenes sacred multiculti doctrine to say so, but a society that criminalizes normal teenage behaviour is seriously messed up.

I Hereby Nominate the 'Mosqueteria'

2012-01-30T10:07:00.000-05:00

Nominations for Top Achievement Awards at TDSB Now Open!

Canadian Muslims Have a Mixed Reaction to Shafia Verdict

2012-01-30T09:48:00.003-05:00

Some (in this onIslam report) applaud it:

The Manitoba-based Islamic Social Services Association expressed concern over the crime.

“We accept and respect the justice system and we believe that the indicted were given a fair trial,” it said in a statement.

“Our thoughts, today, are with the victims of this heinous crime; may they rest in peace. We are also concerned for the remaining children and their future.

“We hope and pray that all stakeholders will come together to provide these children a safe, secure and spiritually compatible home.”

Others, however, deplore it:

Some Muslims were worried that the use of the term “honor killing” in the verdict could associate the heinous murder with their faith.

“I’m very upset about the fact that this was played out as “honor killing” and somewhat exotic and strange, instead of the fact that this is femicide, which is the killing of girls and women because men, our patriarchy, thinks that that is OK,” said Alia Hogben, president of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women.

“I feel very very sad. I'm sad for the deaths.”

Hogben said that using the term honor killing in the case did more harm than good.

“My concern is far greater and more deep,” she said.

“The use of the term honor killing was dreadful, utterly dreadful, and it shouldn't have been used.”

The Manitoba-based Islamic Social Services Association was also concerned.

“We are hopeful that Canadian Muslims and the Islamic faith will not be stigmatized, as a whole, for this crime.”

In Islam, there is no place for unjustifiable killing as the case in honor killing.

Even in case of capital punishment, only the government can apply the law through the judicial procedures.

And, of course, this being a piece from onIslam, the obligatory disclaimer shows up--

Though portrayed in the Western media as exhorted by Islam, honor killing is a cultural act and has nothing to do with the faith.

--as does this innacurary (which as far as I can tell appears in every onIslam report about Canada):

Muslims make around 2.8 percent of Canada's 32.8 million population, and Islam is the number one non-Christian faith in the Roman Catholic country.

Actually, here in Canada--as in all free, democratic nations--we take pains to separate church and state, so while Canada is home to many Roman Catholics, it is not a "Roman Catholic country." So whassup up with this constantly repeated claim? My hunch is that it's a function of onIslam (a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate) seeing Roman Catholics as Islam's biggest rival in the global religious sweepstakes.

Convicted Mass Murderer Papa (Mohammad) Shafia Played the Islam Card--and Lost

2012-01-30T09:03:00.008-05:00

The Shafias are planning to appeal, of course. I'm sure this was reported at the time by the Canadian media (I can't imagine Christie Batchford, for one, keeping it quiet), but this is my first encounter with it:

In the three-month-long trial, Shafia testified, "My children did a lot of cruelty toward me," as he wept openly on the stand. He went on to say he believed his children "betrayed" him by dating and he did not hide his anger, saying a father would never expect that kind of behavior from this daughters.

In taking the stand, Shafia swore to tell the truth on the Quran and he again invoked the holy book to say Islam does not condone killing people to preserve a family's honor.

In a direct response to a question from prosecutor Laurie Lacelle, Shafia said, "To kill someone, you can't regain your respect and honor. Respected lady, you should know that. In our religion, a person who kills his wife or daughter, there is nothing more dishonorable. How is it possible that someone would do that to their children, respected lady?"

"You might do it," Lacelle calmly replied, "if you thought they were whores." Shafia had used that term in a conversation captured by wiretaps.

You also might do it if, as per the Koran's words, you believed these women were your chattel who were obliged to bend to your will.

I'm pretty sure that inconvenient truth won't factor into CAIR-CAN founder Sheema Khan's Chicago gang "honour crime" rehab. Desperately--and despicably--Sheema calls the Shafia trial

an “Ecole Polytechnique” moment for many Canadian Muslims. A shocking wake-up call to the ugly reality of family violence rooted in the need to control women – ostensibly for the sake of family “honour”. Horrific details of dysfunction within the Shafia family, culminating with the murder of four women – have shaken many out of complacency.

Let's all hope it's not another "Ecole Polytechnique" moment--i.e. yet another occasion when we turn a blind eye to a crime the arose out of the morass of Islamic misogyny, but that was never recognized as such. To do that--to overlook the Islamic component of these crimes--would be to murder the four Shafia women and the women of the Montreal Massacre all over again.

Update: Some years ago, Sheema shilled for the institution of sharia law here in Ontario. (H/t: BCF)

Update: Fortunately, most Globe and Mail readers don't seem to be taken in by Sheema. For instance, one reader notes that only recently she

was calling on this page for Canadians to honour their culture of human-rights by allowing burkas -- tents with small cage-holes -- to be worn by Muslim women wherever they chose, including in courts?

She seems to feel that one form of medieval, male dominating, oppression is better than another. Sheer confusion, schizophrenia, a joke, what ... ?

None of the above, I'd say. More like sheer calculation on her part and the ability to capitalize on the opportunity handed to her on a silver salver by Canada's newspaper of record to convey her message to the elite swathe of Canadians who comprise the paper's readership.

Another reader has the effrontery to point out that Sheema has been a fierce advocate for Islamic law:

Didn't Sheema Khan want sharia law legislation introduced into Ontario?

Why yes, yes she did. Kind of hard to square that with her current hand-wringing over Muslims' "Ecole Polytechnique moment." Speaking of which, someone else notices the problem with Sheema harnassing the Shafia trial to the Montreal Massacre:

This article was started with a reference to the murder of 14 women at at Ecole Polytechnique by Marc Lepine. Mr. Lepines real name was Gamil Gabar, who was raised by a muslim father and learned Muslim attitudes to women. The media couldn'act fast enough to bury that fact. That should have been the wakeup call to the Muslim community, as well as a wake up call for all Canadians who still buy into Pierre Truedeaus multicultural hell.

His real name was Gamil Gharbi, but close enough.

And finally, someone makes a good--albeit a terrifying--point:

Horrifyingly, this might actually just cause these Honour Murderers to take their daughter/wife to the old country for a vacation, and do it there.

Anyone gather the stats on women killed on family vacations in the old country?

Excellent question. I suspect not, although off the top of my head I can recall a fairly recent incident--a Bangladeshi-Canadian woman, a student at UBC, whose husband threw acid at her face and liqidated her eyeballs during a trip to the old country. Despite numerous operations, the woman, who was flown back to Canada, has no hope of regaining her vision.

Newt's "New" Theme Song?

2012-01-30T03:09:00.000-05:00

This one should do:

"Should There Be Extra Prison Time for 'Honour Killings'?"

2012-01-30T02:53:00.000-05:00

A Toronto Sun poll

For the Gazilionth Time, There Are No Jokes In Islam

2012-01-30T02:45:00.000-05:00

A Just For Laughs gag involving Muslims has gone viral, eliciting the wrath of those who decry it for "offending Islam":

Last April, Shalom Toronto reported, the program aired a gag which showed six “Muslims” lying in wait for motorists returning to their car in a parking lot, and then laying out prayer mats and kneeling to “pray” on them.

The gag showed the “prayer” taking a long time and preventing the motorists from exiting the parking lot. The motorists are shown reacting angrily to the “Muslim worshipers”.

After the worshipers leave the parking lot, the gag continues when a “policeman” appears and wishes to give the drivers a traffic ticket for having parked in the lot for longer than five minutes despite a sign explicitly prohibiting from doing so. The drivers try to explain that they were delayed because of the “worshipers”, but fail to convince the “officer”, until he finally reveals to them that the whole incident was a gag.

Shalom Toronto reported that the video was recently uploaded to YouTube with Arabic subtitles. The individual or individuals who uploaded the video complained that the gag offended Islam.

The clip was criticized by Muslims who accused the television program of deliberately humiliating Islam. The clip received 1,900 “dislikes” and one talkbacker even called to boycott the program. Another respondent claimed that the owner of channel which airs the program is probably Jewish, arguing that only Jews can make fun of Islam and Christianity. Certain angry users expressed their wishes that Allah will extract revenge and curse those behind the gag.

In contrast, other respondents made claims against Islam for carrying out acts of terrorism which murdered thousands of people, and criticized Muslims for their inability to deal with humor. Some people who identified themselves as Muslims said they actually liked the gag and did not see it as causing any damage or harm to Islam.

Islamists to Davos Movers and Shakers: We're Open for Business

2012-01-30T02:07:00.000-05:00

Meet the new batch of Arab strongmen. Same as the old batch--only with more sharia:

(Reuters) - Leaders of the Arab Spring sought to assure the world's elite in Davos that the rise of political Islam is not a threat to democracy, and pleaded for help creating jobs and satisfying the hunger of their people for a better life.

Politicians, activists and entrepreneurs from countries that have cast off dictators and held free elections in the last 12 months were prized guests at the World Economic Forum, where they asked for patience, understanding and investment.

The new prime ministers of Tunisia and Morocco, both chosen from Islamic parties, dismissed Western worries about a surge of political Islam across North Africa and sought to dispel the notion that the promise of last year's protests had faded.

"I do not believe the new regimes should be called political Islamist regimes. We must be careful with our terminology... For the first time in the Arab world, we have free and honest elections that led to democratic regimes," Tunisian Prime Minister Hammadi Jebali told a Davos panel.

Twelve months ago, stunned Davos delegates watched live television images of crowds surging into Cairo's Tahrir Square in a political earthquake few had anticipated.

Arab officials and civil society activists urged Western executives and commentators not to demonize the Islamic movements that have gone from prison to parliament and the corridors of power in a year of stunning transformation.

"I would like to ask the businessmen in the room. Have you suffered from the victory of the Islamists? You supported the dictatorships in the past," Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane said.

"Today we can guarantee your interests more than they did in the past." ...

To translate from the Islamist: You owe us--big time--kafir, for doing business with our irreligious predecessors. If you know what's good for you (i.e. us) you will put up and shut up.

Justice For Zainab, Sahar, Geeti and Rona

2012-01-29T16:18:00.006-05:00

The trio who plotted and executed the murders of the above-named individuals out of a pathologically misplaced sense of family "honour" (not unlike many who share their belief system, they were convinced it was situated in the dead chicks' vajayjays) are going to be put away for at least the next 25 years.

Kafir justice. It really sucks, doesn't it, Shafias?

Update: “It’s really about men’s need to control women’s sexuality and freedom"--that's pretty much the crux of Islamic law, no? Not that that's how the media will be unpacking the Shafia (by coinkydink, a name that's a mere one letter away from "sharia") case in coming days, as these crimes will undoubtedly be framed as a cultural "aberration." (That's exactly how Rosie DiManno described them--shame on you, Rosie--in her final story pre-verdict).

"Self-Help" Treatment Leads to, Um, Self-Death

2012-01-29T10:07:00.001-05:00

You have to feel sorry for this chick, but, really, how dumb/desperate do you have to be to subject yourself to this sort of quack "therapy"?

A Quebec woman who died last summer after a reported spa detox treatment was actually a member of a self-improvement group practising risky therapy involving sweating and hyperventilation.

Radio-Canada's Enquête program has learned that Chantal Lavigne, 35, died from hyperthermia, after undergoing a nine-hour session of intense sweating at a home in rural Quebec in July 2011.

The session was part of a seminar called "Dying in Consciousness" led by a self-styled Quebec therapist.

Lavigne and eight other participants were covered in mud, wrapped in plastic and blankets and spent nine hours lying with their heads in boxes while being encouraged to hyperventilate.

Lavigne was eventually taken to hospital unconscious by ambulance, with a body temperature of 40.5 degrees. She died hours later...

"Dying in Consciousness"? Mission accomplished.

They Don't Call It "Jihad" for Nothing

2012-01-29T09:27:00.000-05:00

Non-submissive Frank Gaffney and others discuss CAIR's struggle to silence New York's "blasphmous" police commissioner (who's an uppity kafir, thank God).

Gender Apartheid Taxi Company Launched in Germany

2012-01-29T08:55:00.008-05:00

Call it a pure case of demand (for gender-segregated transportation) resulting in supply:

NORDERSTEDT, Germany – A German Muslim has introduced the country’s first Muslim taxi service through which Germans can arrange shared car rides of the same sex, The Local.de website reported on Friday, January 27.

“Many Muslim brothers and sisters complained that they can’t use conventional offers because the gender segregation stipulated by Islam is not implemented,” Selim Reid, a 24-year-old from Norderstedt, city of about 70,000 near Hamburg, told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper.
The idea of the website, Muslimtaxi.de, was first introduced by Reid after a personal experience of his parents.

He said he was inspired to create the site because of Muslims’ bad ride-sharing experiences.

In 1996, his parents, who are originally from Iraq, caught a ride with a Muslim-hating driver who spent the whole time criticizing them.

“The driver and the people with him swore the whole way about foreigners in general and in particular about my mother’s head scarf,” Reid told the newspaper.

“He thought that my parents do not understand German,” he added...

I'm pretty sure what "inspired" him is the "gender segregation stipulated by Islam," but for PR purposes that story about his folks' ordeal puts a nice "victim" spin on things, don't you think?

Update: If there can be a Little Mosque on the Prairie, how about a Muslim Taxi?

Zafar Speaks!

2012-01-29T08:24:00.000-05:00

Here's the Iran fan 'splaining how his "weak" landsmen are being "intimidated" and "bullied" by the U.S. and its allies, and how Iran's leaders are standing resolute in the face of such flagrant hostility:

If you're still awake after that riveting performance, here's Part II:

Only Somone Really "Smart" (and Really Leftist) Could Say Something So Stupid

2012-01-29T08:16:00.000-05:00

Israel is using Iran to sidestep Mideast peace talks

Yeah, because if only it would put the threat of nuclear annihilation at the hands of Mahdi-nutjobs aside for the moment, it could concentrate on "making peace" with Arab "moderates" whose fondest hope is Zion's demise.

When Your Numero Uno Pundit Takes To Quoting A Tapped Out Communist Gasbag to Make His Point, It's Generally Not a Good Sign

2012-01-29T08:03:00.004-05:00

Thomas L. Friedman writes (with no evident sense of irony):

THE Associated Press reported last week that Fidel Castro, the former president of Cuba, wrote an opinion piece on a Cuban Web site, following a Republican Party presidential candidates’ debate in Florida, in which he argued that the “selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is — and I mean this seriously — the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been.”

When Marxists are complaining that your party’s candidates are disconnected from today’s global realities, it’s generally not a good sign.

The dictator whose country is crumbling because of his idiocy and ignorance is trying to score points against men who are stalwart defenders of the free market? America may be in rough shape at the moment (in no small part because of a far leftist president who has kited the national debt and who, all in all, hasn't a clue about how the free market works), but even TLF, that sage of global economics, must admit it's no Cuba.

Update: I guess TLF didn't bother to consult Fidel re his assessment of Obama. When you want to make Republicans look bad, it's generally not a good sign if the former dictator/forever Commie you're citing is an equal opportunity basher of American political parties who has opined that a robot would do a better job in the White House than the Democrat who currently occupies it.

Update: Mark Steyn is blown away by the, ahem, effervescence of Friedman's prose. (Hey, ain't we all?)

A few "late model" cars in Fidel's Havana

"Stop Bitchin' About Our Enrichin'"

2012-01-29T07:27:00.000-05:00

Iran issues a command to IAEA officials who are in Ayatollahville for a look-see.

A Bit Nippy Out There

2012-01-28T13:21:00.000-05:00

Topless protesters detained at Davos forum

A Kinder, Gentler Taliban

2012-01-28T08:19:00.000-05:00

Tough sell.

Occupy--and Rob

2012-01-28T07:27:00.002-05:00

A cautionary tale for Occupy-friendly clergy.

Myth America

2012-01-28T07:03:00.001-05:00

According to the New Republic, the suddenly optimistic Obama (buoyed by his own boundless self-regard, no doubt) was influenced by an NR piece asserting that American decline is a "myth." (This from a man who believes that Israel can and must negotiate a "peace" deal--a chimera if there ever was one.) But in these days of stratospheric national debt, and the spectre of another Obama term, American decline is, as Mark Steyn and one of the Penn boys might say (or sing), no myth.

When "Social Justice" Equals Zionhass

2012-01-28T06:39:00.004-05:00

"Social justice" is a hot button item for TDSB educators—or should I say indoctrinators?—these days. And, hey, who could complain about wanting the moppets to have more empathy for the suffering of the less fortunate around the globe so that, in an fit of Kielburgerian frenzy, they'll be motivated to "tikkun olam" (that's "repair the world" for those unfamiliar with tribal parlance). But guess what you often get when "social justice" becomes your core doctrine? In two words: hate Israel. The National Post's Kathyn Blaze Carlson explains how it works here:

Rachel Adelman’s Israeli son never clicked with the traditional education system, so when the family moved to Canada, she was drawn to an alternative public school that promised an intimate setting where students could express themselves freely; a school “based on the principles of participatory democracy and social equity,” as the school advertised itself.

She learned soon enough, though, that those promises of open-mindedness and equality “sounded nice,” but that the reality in the hallways would nearly cost her son his sense of self.

Eitan, then 17 years old and described by his mother as shy, came home from his first day at Toronto’s Student School in a “state of dismay,” his mother said.

“He said, ‘Ima [Hebrew for mother], the walls of the school are plastered with posters saying Israel: Apartheid State,’ ” said Professor Adelman, who now teaches at the Harvard Divinity School, referring to flyers mounted by a pro-Palestinian student club.

At the first all-school assembly, the students were shown Occupation 101, a controversial film that has been accused of portraying Israel as equivalent to Apartheid-era South Africa. Prof. Adelman said the school’s administrator defended the showing, saying the school had a policy of allowing students to voice their ideological bents. Two months later, Eitan switched schools.

But The Student School is just one of several Canadian schools that have moved “social justice” education onto the timetable. In launching nine alternative academies last week, one of this country’s boldest education directors touted “social justice” education as a way for children to gain social status and self-esteem. Proponents also say the approach teaches tolerance and respect for diversity — that it grooms socially conscious students prepared to fight against injustices they see in their communities...

"Social justice" education is a way to insert leftist cant/recieved wisdom/utter bollocks directly into the brains of impressionable young'uns. Period. The only "self-esteem" it boosts is that of the indoctrinators. And they're already so full of themselves, and so persuaded of their own virtuousness (and the wickedness of anyone who does not agree with them) that more "self-esteem" is about the last thing they need.

Update: A few years ago, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, that odious racket, announced plans to spew its ugly propaganda in High Schools (because when it comes to Zionhass, the younger the better). The Zionhass detailed in the NatPo article is a product of that effort.

The Kafir In Me Says There's A Lot More to This "Human Interest" Story About Altruistic Muslims Sharing Their Mosque With Orthodox Jews

2012-01-27T14:28:00.003-05:00

Here's a story designed to warm the cockles of your heart (whatever they are): a Chabad congregation in the Bronx that lacks its own premises has been invited to set up shop inside a mosque. And in case you think that this is a purely selfless act on the Muslims' part, and that there's no ulterior motive whatsoever, then you, my friend, unlike me, belong on the interfaithy tasty samosas circuit:

At first, it did not make sense, said Hana Kabakow, wife of Rabbi Meir Kabakow. “I was surprised,” said the 26-year-old congregant who was born and raised in Israel. “But when I came here I understood.” The Kabakows have been coming to the service from Brooklyn for the last two years.

Harriet Miller, another congregant, said she appreciated the center’s accommodating the synagogue. “They are very sweet people,” said the 79-year-old Bronx native and long-time resident of Parkchester, who added that she welcomes the new Muslim immigrants in her neighborhood: “We were not brought up to hate.”

Drammeh also understands the importance of teaching tolerance more broadly, and for turning the school—which was itself founded at the nearby St. Helena Catholic Church on, of all days, Sept. 11, 2001—into a model of sorts for religious tolerance in New York.

“We’re not as divided as the media portrays us to be,” Drammeh said. “Almost 90 percent of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian teachings are the same.”

And if you believe that patent falsehood (but exceptionally good PR for Muslims, and a superb way of blowing smoke re Islamic doctrines that express contempt for Jews and Christians--the dhimmi) then there's a good chance you think that when Muslims scream "Allahu Akbar" it's because they're sticklers for accuracy and want to give Allah's name in full (first name: Allahu; last name: Akbar).

Update: For those whose chests still harbour warmth courtesy their heart cockles, prepare for a cold blast of reality--the "altruistic" imam of the mosque 'splaining that pesky "Jewish problem."

Islamists Speak With Forked Tongue

2012-01-27T13:58:00.000-05:00

It's hardly a shockeroo that the things the Muslim Brotherhood says to gullible kafirs is completely different from--and entirely at odds with--the message it imparts to the faithful:

Amid new strains in U.S.-Egypt ties, some in Washington are studying the tensions and results of recent voting for indications that democracy can take hold. Those who say the Muslim Brotherhood is showing new signs of moderation should compare its message to outsiders, in English, with its message to Egyptians and other Arabs, in Arabic.

Take the Brotherhood's official English and Arabic Web sites, IkhwanWeb (http://www.ikhwanweb.com/) and IkhwanOnline (http://www.ikhwanonline.com), from one day this month. In English, the home page featured no fewer than eight articles on the solicitude of the Brotherhood toward Egypt's Coptic Christian minority. The Arabic home page, by contrast, included just two small pieces on this theme. The contrast is sharper on other key issues. On democracy, the English home page one January day featured several articles with headlines such as "Why Islamists Are Better Democrats" and "Democracy: One of the Objectives of Shariah?" There was nothing comparable in Arabic. Instead, Arabic readers saw three pieces against freedom of the press, attacking two top independent Egyptian dailies for printing criticisms of the Brotherhood.

This kind of double talk is part of a pattern. Last February, right after Hosni Mubarak was overthrown, the Brotherhood published what it called an English-language version of Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie's message to the Egyptian people, celebrating their revolution. In that version, he supposedly spoke mainly of democracy, tolerance, pluralism and coexistence between Egypt's Muslims and Christians. But the text of his statement, published simultaneously in Arabic, had a totally different tone. In his authentic message, Badie wrote at great length on how Egypt's uprising was a blessing from Allah -- and how much Egyptians needed to stay firm in their Muslim faith to reap its real rewards. The following headlines on the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) led the English site in recent months: "FJP and Christians Stem Sedition," "FJP Denounces Attack on Israeli Embassy" and "FJP Women's Committee Provides Free Medical Services in Sharqiyyah City." But not one of those stories appeared on the Arabic home page. Throughout the past year, women often are referred to by the Brotherhood in English -- but almost never in Arabic. The same is true for the English and Arabic Web sites of the FJP, which now controls Egypt's parliament..

I have a relative who happens to be a pathological--and thus a serial--liar, so I've had lots of experience disbelieving fibs presented as the God's honest truth. Even so, every so often I still get taken in; it's exhausting keeping your guard up all the time, and one does so want to believe that this time, the person is telling the truth. If only I could come to accept about this relative what I know about the Muslim Brotherhood: that expecting this most self-serving of rackets to tell the truth is a recipe for heartbreak, disappointment and frustration, the triumph of hope over experience and reality.

Atlantic Magazine Spin: Just Because John Mearshimer Spews Zionhass Galore That Doesn't Mean the Rest of His Palaver Is Worthless

2012-01-27T13:38:00.000-05:00

A profile of John Mearshimer in The Atlantic seeks to rehabiliate the image of Harvard academic, tarnished when he went all nutty about "the Israel lobby" and its supposedly insidious influence on American foreign policy. Judge for yourself whether or not the effort is effective. (I say not.)

So THAT'S Why She Became The Nanny

2012-01-27T08:04:00.000-05:00

Fran Drescher says she was abducted by aliens who implanted a chip in her hand.

Liam Neeson Gets the Itch for Islam

2012-01-27T07:49:00.004-05:00

He says he started to feel its appeal while filming in Istanbul:

'The call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week, it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing,' he said.

'There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning, and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim.'

If Liam reverts it will be Islam in Britain's biggest "get" since the singer who used to be known as Cat Stevens.

"Our Side's" Behaviour in Libya Is So Appalling It Prompts MSF to Bolt

2012-01-26T12:50:00.000-05:00

From Reuters:

Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has halted its work in detention centers in a Libyan city because it said its medical staff were being asked to patch up detainees mid-way through torture sessions so they could go back for more abuse.

Rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about torture being used against people, many of them sub-Saharan Africans, suspected of having fought for Muammar Gaddafi's forces during Libya's nine-month civil war.

The agency said it was in Misrata, 200 km (130 miles) east of the Libyan capital and scene of some of the fiercest battles in the conflict, to treat war-wounded detainees but was instead having to treat fresh wounds from torture.

"Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in order to make them fit for more interrogation," MSF General Director Christopher Stokes said in a statement...

I so glad that "our" Libyans are much nicer/better/less barbaric than those "other" Libyans.

Fictitious "Arab Spring" Gives Al Jazeera Cred With Americans Both Left and Right

2012-01-26T12:38:00.003-05:00

Kafirs are so gosh darned gullible. Here's proof--Oren Kessler writing in the Middle East Quarterly:

Al Jazeera's sympathetic coverage, in both Arabic and English, of the past year's Arab upheavals signaled to many that Americans may finally let the network in from the cold.[16] It was a view the Obama administration—eager to drain the bad blood of the Bush era—readily encouraged.

"Al Jazeera has been the leader in that they are literally changing people's minds and attitudes. And like it or hate it, it is really effective," Secretary of State Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in March. AJE, she said, is "must watch, real journalism."[17] Dana Shell Smith—the first deputy assistant secretary of state for international media engagement and an Arabic speaker—described Al Jazeera Arabic as a "really important media entity" with which the administration has a "really great relationship."[18]

The thaw has been bipartisan with Republicans as wary as Democrats of slighting a network riding a worldwide wave of popularity—AJE now reaches a quarter of a billion people in 130 countries[19]—and perceived as siding with freedom and democracy against dictatorship.[20]

"It's like Rip Van Winkle—you wake up and, my God, it's a different world," said Tony Burman, at the time AJE's chief strategic adviser for the Americas. "Hosni Mubarak did in eighteen days what I thought it would take two years to do." Walking through the State Department, Burman said, he sees his station playing on virtually every computer and television screen.[21]

Judea Pearl is a celebrated University of California computer scientist and cofounder of the Daniel Pearl Dialogue for Muslim-Jewish Understanding, created to honor his son, the Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped and beheaded in 2002 by al-Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan.[22] Since 2007, Pearl has been a lonely voice on the left warning against Al Jazeera's legitimization. "Their unconditional support of Hamas's terror in Gaza, the Hezbollah takeover in Lebanon, and the Syrian and Iranian regimes betrays any illusion that democracy and human rights are on Al Jazeera's agenda"—he wrote this year—"weakening the West is their first priority."[23]

March Lynch, a commentator on Arabic media, accurately noted, "There has been a switch on the perception of Al Jazeera Arabic, simply because right now, the U.S. and Al Jazeera Arabic are more aligned in backing the democracy movements ... It's not like Al Jazeera or the U.S. have changed that much. The issues have changed."[24]...

No they haven't. The issues are the same--as are the players. It's still the same old Al Jazeera. It's still the same old Muslim Brotherhood. It's still the same old confounding gullibility of the ignorant, the lazy and the foolish.

And, oh yeah, it's still the same old Tony Burman, former Ceeb functionary, former A-J functionary, usefully idiotic now and forever.

Your Tax Dollars In Action--Funding the Ceeb's Zionhass

2012-01-26T10:25:00.000-05:00

Bruce Bawer discusses a new documentary that dissects our state broadcaster's die-hard bias against Israel and its passion for the leftists' favorite "victims," those lovable Palestinians:

Not only is the CBC systematically anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian. Its journalists introduce Israel and Palestine into stories that are utterly unrelated to Israel and Palestine, comparing aggressors with Israel and victims with Palestinians, the more firmly to fix in viewers’ minds the notion that Israelis are, indeed, the incarnation of evil and Palestinians as pure as the driven snow.

When, in fact, it's the Ceeb that incarnates pure evil. ;)

Egypt Refuses to Allow Some Americans to Leave

2012-01-26T08:57:00.000-05:00

Under the circumstances, it may be time for the Navy Seals to perform another Somalia-style rescue.

"I would love to be chavista like @RosinesCandanga I support the revolution, but I travel in a private jet and I am Justin Bieber's bff!!"

2012-01-26T08:48:00.001-05:00

The tweets of Venezuela teen queen Rosines Chavez (Hugo's daughter) show up on the HuffPo (of all places).

Give that girl a Disney TV show! She could be the next Hannah Montana (if Hannah were, you know, the daughter of a Communist strongman whose sidekick was Mahmoud Ahmadiinejad).

Lefty Jews Stuck in a 1930s Time Warp

2012-01-26T08:01:00.000-05:00

Responding to the silly-billy who wrote an article contending that since Gingrich isn't an Alinsky fan, he must be an anti-Semite, Jonathan Tobin invites liberal Jews whose understanding of conservativism hasn't advanced an iota since FDR to wake up and smell the Zionhass:

[T]he whole argument is based on a fallacious assumption that most conservatives are closet anti-Semites who will vote for a candidate if they believe they are, in their hearts, against the Jews. This is, of course, an article of faith for many Jewish liberals whose heads are stuck in the politics of the 1930s when conservatism was associated with anti-Semites like Father Coughlin. While the vestiges of that old conservatism carry on in the person of paleo-con outliers such as Pat Buchanan and radical right-wingers who now support Ron Paul because of his negative attitude toward Israel, the rest of the GOP is nothing like that. Indeed, its evangelical and social conservative grass roots are largely comprised of ardent philo-Semites.

Yes, but that's only because they want to convert us all to their Jesus religion. (That's me channeling the typical Jewish lefty.)

Levant Drops a Bombshell

2012-01-26T07:36:00.000-05:00

How's this for a gibungous conflict of interest? The same "unbiased" panel that's hearing all and sundry kvetch about the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline doled out moolah to some of eco-loonies--a number of them American--who are giving testimony that the panel is supposed to weigh when considering whether or not to give the project its "hechsher."

Why Are Ontario Taxpayers Ponying Up $5 Million for that Ludicrous "Human Rights" Mausoleum?

2012-01-26T07:24:00.000-05:00

I didn't even know our pockets were being picked until I read this:

Consider that over two years ago, the museum received a $5-million funding commitment from the Ontario government spread over 10 years. To date, over $1 million has been transferred to the museum from their government, yet neither the museum, its fundraising arm nor the Ontario government have put out a news release to notify the media and public about the donation.

Considering how strapped we are for cash in McSpendy's benighted domain, I say we renege.

Adam Carolla Cracks Wry and Wise About Obama's Ginned Up Class War

2012-01-26T07:02:00.000-05:00

From Brian Bolduc's funny piece in The Corner:

Were Carolla to design the tax system, “you should get one vote for every $10,000 you pay in taxes,” he says. “That would make it interesting.” Currently, President Obama “doesn’t give a rat’s a** about who’s rich or who’s poor,” he says. “Somebody just told him: ‘It’s pretty easy: What percentage of people voting make over $250,000 and what percentage of them make less than that?’ Well, 95 percent make under that, so guess what the theme of this speech is going to be? Not how lazy the other 95 percent are.”

“Bill Gates gets one vote, and so does my mom,” Carolla says. “It doesn’t matter how much you put in or how hard you work, you get one vote.” And your neighbor, if he makes less than you, is likely to vote someone into office who promises him your money.

“That’s a wonderful democracy, isn’t it?”

Geithner says he'll likely be calling it quits. Hey, Obama, how about giving Carolla his gig?

"Anyone Who Thought Moneyball Was a Good Movie, Please Leave the Room Immediately"

2012-01-25T18:28:00.002-05:00

Via The Corner:

Meet "Sunny Islam," a Brit Whose "Warm" Name Belies His Horrific Actions

2012-01-25T18:17:00.001-05:00

From the Daily Mail:

A Muslim man who raped women to 'teach them a lesson' for being on the streets at night was jailed indefinitely today because of the danger he poses to women.

Sunny Islam, 23, who comes from a strict Muslim family, dragged his terrified victims - including a 15-year-old - from the street at knifepoint, bound and assaulted them during a two-month reign of terror.

Police fear that Islam may have attacked many more...

Obama's "Ambitious Vision" for Afghanistan

2012-01-25T14:19:00.001-05:00

This is from Steve Coll's profile of the ever-elusive Mullah Omar, the Taliban hotshot/figurehead/fearless leader. (Only the abstact is available online, so I quote from my hard copy of The New Yorker):

Obama's advisors hold differing opinions about the prospects for negotiations. Some believe that the Taliban remain committed to taking full power and will use the negotiations only to win prisoner releases and buy time. Others hope that negotiations might produce ceasefires or divide Taliban leaders. The most ambitious vision is of a settlement eventually embraced by Karzai's government, Pakistan, and NATO in which a large section of the Taliban would convert into a peaceful political party, to stand in elections, take seats in parliament, and perhaps share in a regional administration of Taliban strongholds in the south and east.

Meanwhile, still others hope that unicorns and rainbows will suddenly appear in Waziristan, and that Mullah Omar will turn into the Dalai Lama and broker a peace deal between Israel and Hamas. Which, all things considered, is about as likely a scenario as the bolded one.

Get Out Yer Teeny Tiny Violins for Gail Asper's Mausoleum Sob Story

2012-01-25T13:52:00.007-05:00

In a letter published in the Canadian Jewish News, Gail "Daughter of Izzy" Asper invites us to feel her pain re her "human rights" mausoleum's financial travails:

In the article “Cash shortfall delays human rights museum” (Jan. 5), you note that the private sector’s fundraising goal for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights was $150 million. When the federal government first expressed interest in making the museum a Crown corporation, it entered into an agreement in 2007 with the various stakeholders, including the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The Friends agreed to raise $105 million toward the construction and development costs. The commitment of the Friends was to deliver a cheque for $105 million by April 1, 2011. This is what the Friends did, so in fact, we met our goal of raising $105 million. Recently, when costs increased to $310 million, the museum asked the Friends to increase their goal from $105 million to $150 million. We have been steadily working on raising this amount and have raised an additional $25 million over our original goal, which in and of itself was viewed as quite ambitious.

We will continue to seek support from the private sector so that this federal Crown corporation can open as soon as possible. Happily, our donors continue to show unwavering support and are rising to the challenge. As we have said to our supporters, no one said this would be easy, and it probably explains why this is the only new national museum established in more than 45 years. While it is definitely not for the faint of heart, the good that this museum can do definitely makes it worth the effort.

No it doesn't. Not when you consider the festering offal that "human rights" (as exemplified by the UN's Zion-loathing "human rights" council and Canada's plethora of nutty "human rights" bodies) has become in our time. Clearly, the woman's desire to see her late, beloved papa's "dream" become a reality (more than anything else, it's a national public monument in memory of him) has made her delusional.

Things Lefties Like

2012-01-25T07:58:00.003-05:00

Found this on the Toronto Public Library site:

Thu Jan 26, 2012
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
90 mins

Toronto Reference Library The Appel Salon
A panel discussion of three bold ideas for civic change borrowed from other cities that could work here in Toronto. Each one is a world-class idea worth stealing related to social justice, sustainability or culture.

With [CBC] radio host and filmmaker Sook-Yin Lee; Rick Smith, a prominent Canadian author and environmentalist; and MP Olivia Chow. The event will be moderated by Royson James, Urban Affairs Columnist for the Toronto Star; and President
of Ryerson University, Sheldon Levy, will play the role of devil's advocate...

Think I'll give it a pass. Even with that old "devil" Sheldon, it sounds pretty ghastly.

"Even Though He Tried Stuffing the Derma, I Knew in My Kishkes Obama Was No Good"

2012-01-25T07:40:00.001-05:00

Speak politics the Jewish way!

Napoleon and the Rabbits

2012-01-25T07:33:00.001-05:00

Thought I'd share this, an amusing passage from a book I'm reading, Alan Shom's Napoleon Bonaparte:

Napoleon's return from Austerlitz had been triumphant. As he traversed the German states, crossing the Rhine, church bells rang as he passed beneath a long series of triumphal arches of flowers in one city after another. The people of Paris cheered even more loudly, giving balls and elegant dinners for this man who, only a few weeks earlier, had been thought to be finished, and with him his tinsel empire. As a part of these celebrations, Imperial Master of the Hunt Marshal Berthier gave hunting parties for Napoleon, including one of his Corsican favorites, a rabbit hunt. Berthier, who personally preferred stag, had gone to considerable trouble to buy approximately one thousand "hares."

On the day of the hunt all was in readiness, the rabbits in massive cages along the wooded sides of an open field, as several carriages finally appeared, Napoleon and his staff soon emerging in full hunting regalia. As Napoleon walked across the field, the signal was given to release the rabbits, and hundreds upon hundreds of black-and-white rabbits leaped forward, enjoying their new freedom. But as the intrepid hunters prepared to go in for the kill, the animals, instead of fleeing the the opposite direction, perversely turned straight for the hunters, coming at them in magnificent bounds.

At first Napoleon could not believe his eyes, nor could anyone else, laughing at the comic absurdity of the whole thing. But laughter soon gave way to perplexity, and perplexity to concern, as the hundreds of animals continued to head directly for Napoleon. Finally a bit anxious himself, he turned and ordered those around him, even the coachmen and postilions, to grab sticks and chase away the insolent animals now poking fun at the emperor's reputation as a distinguished huntsman. But all to no avail. They swarmed around Napoleon, entwining themselves between his legs, even leaping into his arms. He tried beating them off with his riding crop, but more arrived. At last his aides-de-camp and coachmen came to his rescue and got him back safely into his carriage, though it too was quickly besieged.

It had been a narrow escape! A furious Berthier, humiliated by the absurd event, learned only afterward that his men, instead of trapping hares, had purchased a thousand tame rabbits--due to be used for pâté--from farmers. And the mighty victor of Austerlitz, who had soundly defeated a combined force of 85,000 Russian and Austrian troops armed with cannon, muskets, and sabers, had now ignominiously scurried off another battlefield, pursued by a a thousand unarmed rabbits, who had mistaken him for the kindly man who was due to give them their daily feed.

"We'll Be at TIFF in September"

2012-01-25T06:53:00.002-05:00

That's only one of many "ridiculous things said at Sundance":

In Obama's Rewrite of History, Rugged Individualism Becomes Rugged Collectivism

2012-01-25T06:47:00.005-05:00

Andrew Cline writes apropos last night's performance:

If you want a good distillation of this president’s wrongheaded view of the United States of America, look no further than this rhetorical bit from the end of tonight’s State of the Union address: “No one built this country on their own. This Nation is great because we built it together. This Nation is great because we worked as a team. This Nation is great because we get each other’s backs.”

Unity is central to American identity, but not the way Obama envisions it. E pluribus unum is not Latin for, “Hey, bro, let’s invest in some infrastructure together.” The notion that this nation is one big team that acts collectively toward shared goals set by the state would be completely foreign to the men who founded it. But that is Obama’s concept of America.

Could he be mistaking America for--oh, I dunno, off the top of my head--Soviet Russia?

Update: Rules for living--never eat at a place called "Mom's"; never play cards with a guy named "Doc"; and never vote for a lefty preaching "fairness."

Update: Mark Steyn says:

When a politician uses the word 'fairness' what they mean is government management of relations between individuals.

Update: No hope, no change.

The Banking Jihad is Going Like Gangbusters in Yorkshire

2012-01-24T18:19:00.000-05:00

And not only in Yorkshire.

Delusional at Sundance

2012-01-24T13:06:00.001-05:00

The 1% being inherently eeville and the 99% being eminently virtuous (or so we're told), a downright delusional Robert Redford claims that Hollywood celebs and other wealthy souls who attend his Sundance Film Festival belong, of course, to the latter.

They Wuz Robbed!

2012-01-24T12:49:00.001-05:00

Follow this closely because it's rather--you should pardon the expression--Byzantine: Daniel Pipes says the Islamists only "won" the Egyptian election because the land's military rulers perpetrated a gigantic fraud. The real winners were likely the "liberals," but the military stole it on the Islamists' behalf so that Egyptians would want the military to remain at the helm.

Whoa, that one made my head spin.

Update: Andrew McCarthy crunches the numbers rather differently:

The most influential figures and institutions in Islamic societies are those revered for their mastery of Islamic law and jurisprudence — such authorities as top Muslim Brotherhood jurist Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Cairo’s al-Azhar University, the seat of Sunni learning for over a millennium. In places where Islam is the central fact of life, even Muslims who privately dismiss sharia take pains to honor it publicly. Even regimes that rule by whim nod to sharia as the backbone of their legal systems, lace their rhetoric with scriptural allusions, and seek to rationalize their actions as Islamically appropriate.

If you understand this, you understand why Western beliefs about the Arab Spring — and the Western conceit that the death of one tyranny must herald the birth of liberty — have always been a delusion. There are real democrats, authentically moderate Muslims, and non-Muslims in places such as Egypt and Yemen who long for freedom in the Western sense; but the stubborn fact is that they make up a strikingly small fraction of the population: about 20 percent, a far cry from the Western narrative that posits a sea of Muslim moderates punctuated by the rare radical atoll.

"Blue-Collar" Boston Goalie Snubs Obama

2012-01-24T11:41:00.001-05:00

Oh, those "blue-collar" goalies. Always clinging to their guns and religion. ;)

Looking to Prevent "Honour" Crimes Chicago-Style (Just Don't Mention the "I" Word)

2012-01-24T07:51:00.004-05:00

At first glance, this (from the Globe and Mail) looks like a brilliant idea:

At first glance, gang crime in a U.S. city would seem to have little in common with the family conflicts that led to the killing of several women in Canada in recent years.

But one Canadian group is taking ideas gleaned from the streets of Chicago to tackle the troubling phenomenon of so-called honour crimes.

The Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration in London, Ont. will announce Tuesday that it has a partnership with the renowned Chicago anti-violence group CeaseFire to develop the Family Honour Project, which its creators hope will soon spread to other communities.

The initiative, the first of its kind in Canada, is based on the work of epidemiologist Gary Slutkin, whose public-health approach to violence reduction has been credited with contributing to a significant reduction in gang shootings in Chicago.

Although gang shootings and family honour crimes seem quite different, at their core they share one important cause: Both are driven primarily by the fear that a person’s reputation or image will be harmed if he or she doesn’t respond violently to being treated with a perceived lack of respect.

The CeaseFire approach suggests that if conflict can be identified and calmed before it spirals out of control, casualties can be avoided. Ultimately, it aims to teach those prone to react violently to change the way they think...

But what if the way they think comes from verses in the Koran which the devout consider perfect? With all due respect to epidemiologist Slutkin, how can you change thinking that's deeply rooted in Islam without ever mentioning Islam? More to the point, how can you turn a religo-cultural problem into a matter of "public health"?

I maintain that you can't, and that this effort, sincere though it may be, is thus doomed from the outset. That said, in severing the connection between Islam and these crimes, it may well succeed as a pro-Islam PR effort.

BTW, you'll never guess who spearheaded this project. None other than occasional Globe and Mail opiner and CAIR-CAN founder Sheema Khan.

The State of the Union is Parlous--and Broke

2012-01-24T07:18:00.000-05:00

Obama will spin it his way this evening, but all you really need to know about it is this:

Ryan's Fancy

2012-01-24T07:04:00.000-05:00

This one brightened my morning with smiles and chuckles--Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker fills us in on how "conciliatory" Barack Obama was early on in his term, and his search for "common ground" with inside the Beltway conservatives who fell for him:

On a frigid January evening in 2009, a week before his Inauguration, Barack Obama had dinner at the home of George Will, the Washington Post columnist, who had assembled a number of right-leaning journalists to meet the President-elect. Accepting such an invitation was a gesture on Obama’s part that signalled his desire to project an image of himself as a post-ideological politician, a Chicago Democrat eager to forge alliances with conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill. That week, Obama was still working on an Inaugural Address that would call for “an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.”

Obama sprang coatless from his limousine and headed up the steps of Will’s yellow clapboard house. He was greeted by Will, Michael Barone, David Brooks, Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Lawrence Kudlow, Rich Lowry, and Peggy Noonan. They were Reaganites all, yet some had paid tribute to Obama during the campaign. Lowry, who is the editor of the National Review, called Obama “the only presidential candidate from either party about whom there is a palpable excitement.” Krauthammer, an intellectual and ornery voice on Fox News and in the pages of the Washington Post, had written that Obama would be “a president with the political intelligence of a Bill Clinton harnessed to the steely self-discipline of a Vladimir Putin,” who would “bestride the political stage as largely as did Reagan.” And Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard and a former aide to Dan Quayle, wrote, “I look forward to Obama’s inauguration with a surprising degree of hope and good cheer.”

Over dinner, Obama searched for points of common ground. He noted that he and Kudlow agreed on a business-investment tax cut. “He loves to deal with both sides of the issue,” Kudlow later wrote. “He revels in the back and forth. And he wants to keep the dialogue going with conservatives.” Obama’s view, shared with many people at the time, was that professional pundits were wrong about American politics. It was a myth, he said, that the two political parties were impossibly divided on the big issues confronting America. The gap was surmountable. Compared with some other Western countries, where Communists and far-right parties sit in the same parliament, the gulf between Democrats and Republicans was narrow.

Obama’s homily about conciliation reflected an essential component of his temperament and his view of politics...

That's the funniest thing I've read in a while, made all the more hilarious because the comedy is unintentional. While I love the way Ryan is tryin' to make BHO sound JFK-esque ("Obama sprang coatless..."), he is totally off the mark in his assessment of "the most essential component of his temperament/politics." It is not, as Lizza claims, a hands-across-the table-let's-cooperate-and-compromise deal. It's a Harvard faculty lounge worldview, a perspective that precludes cooperation because it sees leftists as having a lock on virtuousness and folks on the right as being inherently evil (and never the twain shall meet). Shame on the above-mentioned foolish fawners who, though conservative, allowed themselves to be swept up in the Barry hysteria. I wonder if they wonder what got into them at the time.

From Those Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Richard Warman

2012-01-23T18:59:00.000-05:00

Hard on the heels of its community Town Hall, a "debate" about state censorship featuring Mr. Section Thirteen himself speaking for the defence, the Official Jews of CIJA (the body that absorbed and dismantled the Canadian Jewish Congress) partakes of another questionable hook up. Sassy Wire has the details.

Obama's Dazed, Durantyesque Debacle

2012-01-23T18:13:00.000-05:00

Mark Landsbaum writes re the Solyndra affair:

In the 1920s, New York Times reporter Walter Duranty infamously told us that Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy implemented elements of a market economy controlled by the state. An economic genius, Duranty was not. The fact that a market economy controlled by the state is an oxymoron apparently never occurred to him. Or maybe it did. Duranty also reported there was no ongoing genocide in Russia, even though he and his editors knew otherwise. Final body count: upward of 10 million, probably more.

For his quite-slanted reports, Duranty won a Pulitzer Prize: "Mr. Duranty's dispatches show profound and intimate comprehension of conditions in Russia and of the causes of those conditions. They are marked by scholarship, profundity, impartiality, sound judgment and exceptional clarity and are excellent examples of the best type of foreign correspondence." Duranty, by the way, considered Josef Stalin "a really great statesman."
You know how that Soviet economic experiment worked out. Apparently the bureaucrats at the Department of Energy, to say nothing of the occupant of the White House, missed that lesson in school. The federal government virtually never has done a better job than the private sector at anything, particularly in commerce. Do they even teach this truism anymore?

Despite history – and current events – many Americans buy into the notion that for good things to happen, the government needs to be involved, even in charge. How else can the private-sector bumpkins who made America the most prosperous nation on Earth possibly succeed?

TSA "Geniuses" Strike Again!

2012-01-23T17:58:00.001-05:00

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky (Ron's son) was waylaid by crack TSA officials when he refused to submit to a pat down prior to a flight. Because (goes TSA reasoning, apparently) you'll never know if an American senator has, say, a bomb strapped to his privates or a box cutter taped to his thigh unless you subject him to a rigorous groping.

France in Denial Re Banning 'Denial'

2012-01-23T17:46:00.000-05:00

On the one hand, I think its high time Turkey owned up to its part in the genocide of Armenians. On the other hand, it's hard to see what's to be gained in a free and open democracy by criminalizing the denial of said genocide.

Obama's Favorite Foreign Leader

2012-01-23T17:33:00.002-05:00

It sure ain't Stephen Harper.

Whether Newt's a Jew-Lover or a Jew-Hater Is In the Eye of the Beholder

2012-01-23T12:59:00.001-05:00

Here's an amusing exercise: compare the way Newt Gingrich is viewed by onIslam (i.e., as someone who uttered his statement about the Palestinians being "an invented people" because he's getting big bucks from AIPAC) to this piece, which claims that Gingrich slamming Saul Alinsky, the radical leftist who inspired Barack Obama, is a sign of Newt's "implicit antisemtism." According to Richard Silverstein, that's the, er, implication of these words from Gingrich's South Carolina victory speech:

The centerpiece of this campaign, I believe, is American exceptionalism versus the radicalism of Saul Alinsky,” Gingrich said, as the crowd chanted, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” “We are going to argue American exceptionalism, the American Declaration of Independence, the American Constitution, the American federalist papers; the founding fathers of America are the source from which we draw our understanding of America. He draws his from Saul Alinsky, radical left-wingers and people who don’t like the classical America.”

From the above, one might conclude that the antisemitism is so "implicit" that it's invisible/non-existent, but that's not how Silverstein sees it. Here's what he takes from the statement:

Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is replete with multiple references to the Founding Fathers and American constitution as the embodiments of liberty and democracy. But note how he sets up Alinsky as a radical who is alien to America. The final nail in the coffin is his reference to “classical America.” Who or what is classical America? It is of course white Christian America, everything that Saul Alinsky and many of you out there reading this are not.

This is a classic anti-Semitic diatribe gussied up in Tea Party rhetoric.

Sigh. Isn't there enough real Jew-hate/Zionhass (and a whole lot of it of the leftist/onIslam Islamist variety) in this world? Do we really need to go out and create it when, clearly, it isn't there at all?

Diana West Interviewed on C-SPAN

2012-01-23T11:42:00.000-05:00

I'm an unabashed West fan, so I loved it.

Muslim Canadian Congress Honours Jason Kenney Honoured for His "Courageous Decision"

2012-01-23T11:27:00.001-05:00

Which is to say his move to make Muslim chicks remove their Islamist facial covering when taking the Canadian Oath of Citizenship. This bit in the Stewart Bell story made me giggle:

There was a tense moment at the event when a woman dressed in a burka approached the Minister and tore off the blue cloth to reveal she was actually author and women’s rights activist Raheel Raza. Writer Tarek Fatah also briefly wore a burka hand puppet.

MCC agit-prop--you gotta love it! So much more enjoyable than, say, Elmo and his sock puppets.

Update: The MCC wants Canada to expand the burqa ban.

Florida Jews Flock to the GOP

2012-01-23T11:06:00.001-05:00

Remember how, during the last American presidential election, comedian and Obamasoxer Sarah Silverman launched an effort ("the Great Schlep") to get young Jews to try to strong-arm their grandparents who lived in Florida into voting for her guy, the happy hopeychanger? Remember how she advised the young'uns "to withhold visits to their bubbes (grandmas) and zaides (grandpas) if they don’t comply," explaining

“The people that vote there are the elderly Jews, and they’re not voting Obama because his name is scary,” Ms. Silverman said in a telephone interview. “But who has more power with them than their grandchildren?”

Consider this bubbe's and zaide's revenge.

"Except for Luiza, Who Is In Canada"

2012-01-23T08:07:00.000-05:00

Realtor's comment about his 17-year-old daughter--she was in Barrie, Ontario on an exchange program--becomes a catchprase, goes viral in Brazil.

Old MacDonald Has a Firm, CB, CBC

2012-01-23T07:54:00.000-05:00

Ceeb "deep thinker" Neil MacDonald "explains" the American political scene. In so doing, he tells us far more about his and the Ceeb's P.O.V. than he does about his purported subject:

This country's political discourse is angry and discordant, like a malfunctioning television left on at full volume.

It's soaked with religion and race, and it obsesses over trivialities — are Muslims bringing Shariah law to America? — while ignoring matters of real importance. (I have yet to hear any serious public discussion of the unravelling euro, and whether that contagion will spread to America.)

That's the Ceeb (and the leftist mindset in general) for you: minimize genuine threats ("bringing Sharia law to America," America's stratospheric debt and Obama's spendaholic ways) and maximize faux threats (Rush Limbaugh, Canadian oil pipelines, Republicans, "angry" "racists" who cling to their guns and religion).

Nietzsche Is Pietzsche

2012-01-22T09:25:00.000-05:00

"A new book on the philosopher’s American reception soft-pedals his dark influence."

A Jewish Eurovision Singer No Turkish Delight

2012-01-22T09:20:00.001-05:00

The selection of a Jew to sing Turkey's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest has brought out the worst of--and in--the Turks:

ISTANBUL // Turkey has chosen a young Jewish singer to represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest this year, triggering criticism from both fellow musicians and Islamist circles and fanning a broader debate: Do you have to be a Muslim to be a "real" Turk?

Can Bonomo, 24, a singer from the city of Izmir, was little-known when TRT, Turkey's state television, picked him this month as the country's entry for the contest.

The yearly event is watched by tens of millions of people around Europe and beyond. The 57th edition will take place in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in May.

Bonomo, who released his first album of alternative pop music less than year ago, said he did not expect TRT to select him.

"Eurovision is really a big deal in Turkey," he said earlier this week. "Usually TRT picks much more experienced musicians," he added. "So that was the surprise."

Since TRT announced its decision on January 11, the discussion about Bonomo's selection has been overshadowed by a debate about his religion. "A Jew will represent Turkey," the Islamist news website Habervaktim reported. The website also said some video clips of the artist were alleged to have shown symbols of Free Masons. Bonomo has been confronted with questions about his religion in television interviews. In one interview on the Haberturk channel, for example, he was asked to respond to allegations that he was nominated to curry favoured with the "Israeli lobby"...

Actually, he's not half bad:

(Question: Is Bonomo his real name, or did he pick it in homage to an American brand of candy?)

Human Rights Watch's Roth Is Seriously Out to Lunch

2012-01-22T08:28:00.002-05:00

Unlike, say, Gingrich, the head of Human Rights Watch, a huge clueless dhimmi/useful idiot, "gets" sharia (and democracy) not at all:

NEW YORK – A leading human rights group has urged Western countries to overcome their anti-Islamists’ sentiments and respect the people’s choice for new Islamist governments in the Arab Spring elections in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.

"The international community must . . . come to terms with political Islam when it represents a majority preference," Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in the group's annual report issued on Sunday, January 22.

"Islamist parties are genuinely popular in much of the Arab world, in part because many Arabs have come to see political Islam as the antithesis of autocratic rule."

Focusing on the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings, HRW's 690-page report on human rights abuses worldwide has shown it is vital for the West to end its policy of backing "an array of Arab autocrats" in exchange for supporting Western interests.

The report also focused on supporting elected groups in North Africa and the Middle East and encouraging them to respect basic rights.

“Rights-respecting governments should support international justice regardless of political considerations.

It’s misguided to believe that allowing countries to sweep past abuses under the rug will somehow avoid encouraging future atrocities,” Roth said.

"Wherever Islam-inspired governments emerge, the international community should focus on encouraging, and if need be pressuring, them to respect basic rights - just as the Christian-labeled parties and governments of Europe are expected to do," he added in the introduction to the report...

Um, he does know that Islam-inspired Muslims in "Arab Spring" lands are killing off their Christians as fast as they can, doesn't he?

Doesn't he?

Get 'Em While They're Young

2012-01-22T08:11:00.000-05:00

And, preferably, while they're in jail:

A third of inmates at one of Britain’s most notorious youth jails are Muslims and the religion is attracting a large number of converts.
There are 229 Muslims out of a total of 686 youngsters detained at Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution in West London, according to Ministry of Justice figures.

There are now so many worshippers at Friday prayers that they have to be split between Feltham’s mosque and its gym.

Sources claim that converts are attracted by the chance of better food and a more comfortable regime. But there are also fears that some are being radicalised...

A mosque in a gym? What a great idea!

Hamas Shake-Up

2012-01-22T07:55:00.002-05:00

Mashaal is out, but who will replace him as head Hamasshole? I'm betting on Haniyah the Horrible.

Update: He's as full of bluster as--and ever more horrible than--Hagar:

Daryl Hannah's Second Act

2012-01-22T07:47:00.000-05:00

There isn't much work in Hollywood for actresses in their 50s, much less ones who have ruined their looks via maladroit plastic surgery. (Who's performing these procedures--Dr. Mengele?) So what's a gal with a botched face lift and plenty of time on her hands to do? Why, reinvent herself as an environmental activist and scourge of all things carbonesque--including two proposed Canadian pipelines--that's what. Here she is getting a "you go, girl!" from a sympathetic Ceeber. (That the Ceeb and Daryl are muy sympatico on the pipeline issue is hardly a shockeroo.)

Newt Lays It (Sharia and the MuBros' Sharia Agenda for America) on the Line

2012-01-22T07:22:00.002-05:00

Say what you will about Newt, at least he knows that sharia, Islam's totalitarian law, is inimical to Americans' freedom--and is willing to say so. Out loud. In public. Andrew McCarthy gives him kudos for that, and for eliciting the wrath of Muslim Brotherhood offshoots CAIR and the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), two outfits that are working so hard to make sharia seem pleasant and benign:

The sharia of the IIIT and their chums at CAIR is patently antithetical to the individual liberties, equality of opportunity, and separation of powers that undergird our constitutional system, which any president must swear to preserve, protect, and defend. It is, of course, permissible in our free society to believe that our system should be overthrown in favor of a sharia system — just as it is permissible to believe the moon is made of blue cheese. But the rest of us are not required to admire an Islamist’s beliefs just because there is no crime in his holding them, or just because they derive from a belief system he labels “religion.” And given that one cannot rationally believe both a proposition and its opposite, Newt is exactly right to argue that a presidential candidate could not be faithful simultaneously to the Constitution and to the classical sharia preached by the Brotherhood.

Do I love Newt? Not really. Do I think he can defeat Obama? Not on your life. But do I love his refreshing and decidedly un-Barackian refusal to mince words re sharia? Absolutely!

Fasten Your Seat Belts, Egyptians, It's Gonna Be a Sharia Ride

2012-01-21T17:05:00.002-05:00

As predicted--and has now been confirmed--the Muslim Brotherhood was the big winner in Egypt's election:

CAIRO — The political wing of Egypt’s most historic Islamist party won by far the largest number of seats in the first post-revolutionary parliament, final results confirmed Saturday, and is now poised to play a dominant role in the drafting of a new constitution.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party took 47 percent of seats in the lower house of parliament, and the ultraconservative Salafist Nour Party won 25 percent of the elected seats.

The Brotherhood was banned under former President Hosni Mubarak but has emerged as a major force on the political scene since the uprising last year. The group’s Freedom and Justice Party has vowed that all political factions will play a major role in parliament, which is tasked with appointing a body to write the new constitution.

It boils down to this: Arab Spring=sharia; Freedom and Justice Party=sharia; new constitution=sharia.

Update: It seems like only yesterday when a hopeychanger said this in Cairo:

All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort – a sustained effort – to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.

Looks like the question has now been answered--resoundingly. With Islamists holding 75% of the seats in parliament, Egyptians have committed themselves to an effort--a sustained effort--to focus on sharia, which pushes us apart.

"'They've hired assassins to eliminate me': Salman Rushdie cancels Indian literary festival appearance over Muslim extremists' death threats"

2012-01-21T07:39:00.000-05:00

Wise move, Salman.

On the Other Hand, Who Wants to Return to a 7th Century Male-Female Dynamic?

2012-01-21T07:35:00.000-05:00

A former Muslim Brotherhood sister has written a scathing account of her time in the outfit, and of the MuBros' chauvinistic M.O.:

"The Memoirs of a Former Sister: My Story with the Muslim Brotherhood" is the testimony of Intissar Abdel Moneim, an Alexandria-based novelist and author. With a compelling style and sharp language, the book takes the reader on a journey exploring the internal politics of the 83-year-old organization, placing special emphasis on discrimination against female members.

Throughout her work, Abdel Moneim decries the sisters’ internalization of oppression as women are socialized in a way that compels them to accept male dominance within the organization — and the household.

Early in the book, Abdel Moneim condemns what could be interpreted as the Brotherhood’s exploitation of the permissibility of polygamy in Islam.

“One of the areas where the Brothers have exploited the idea of blind obedience and submission is polygamy,” she writes, adding that a brother would take second and third wives for no valid reason. “When the [first] wife complains, a session is held for her where other sisters would remind her of the importance of obedience, patience and submission to God’s will and to [the husband]’s will,” she writes.

To understand the roots of the subjugation of women, Abdel Moneim unpacks the writings of Hassan al-Banna, the group’s late founder. Here, the author summons her courage and puts forth a vehement critique of the group’s canonized leader, who is rarely questioned, even by the most vocal ex-brothers.

Banna's teachings sought to limit women to "catering to their husbands' desires and to reproduction," Abdel Moneim writes.

The book dismisses Banna's dictum that there is no need to invest heavily in girls' education and that women should be trained only to serve as housewives and mothers. Abdel Moneim feels that this sentiment is contradictory to true Islam.

“It is true that Islam says that a woman’s primary role is to raise children, but it does not say that this is her only role and that she should not do anything beyond it. Neither the Koran nor the Sunna [Prophet Mohamed’s sayings and deeds] nor the sayings of the prophet’s companions and successors barred her from learning any sciences. The matter has been left for her to decide, according to her needs and circumstances," writes Abdel Moneim.

She goes on to criticize Banna's insistence that men and women should be separated. With a scathingly sarcastic tone, the author argues that Banna’s view portrays humans as if they are mere animals who have little control over their impulses.

“You cannot by any logic perceive all people as mere female and male sex organs that roam the streets looking for the moment of intercourse like cats," the book reads. Abdel Moneim attributes Banna’s rigid outlook to his rural background...

I doubt logic even enters into it. The thirst for power and the desire to lord it over others--yes; logic, alas, no.

What a Difference a Hundred Years Makes

2012-01-21T07:19:00.002-05:00

Mark Steyn contrasts the "woman and children first" philosophy of the Titanic era with the "me first" evacuation non-procedures of Captain "I'm Outta Here" Schettino's Costa Concordia:

Today there is no social norm, so it's every man for himself – operative word "man," although not many of the chaps on the Titanic would recognize those on the Costa Concordia as "men." From a grandmother on the latter: "I was standing by the lifeboats and men, big men, were banging into me and knocking the girls."

Whenever I write about these subjects, I receive a lot of mail from men along the lines of this correspondent:

"The feminists wanted a gender-neutral society. Now they've got it. So what are you complaining about?"

And so the manly virtues (if you'll forgive a quaint phrase) shrivel away to the so-called "man caves," those sad little redoubts of beer and premium cable sports networks.
We are beyond social norms these days. A woman can be a soldier. A man can be a woman. A 7-year-old cross-dressing boy can join the Girl Scouts in Colorado because he "identifies" as a girl. It all adds to life's rich tapestry, no doubt. But I can't help wondering, when the ship hits the fan, how many of us will still be willing to identify as a man.

No too many, it seems. And anyway, it seems the chicks would prefer not be saved, thanks very much, because that would imply they weren't mens' equals in every single way: "Equity uber alles," as they might say at the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the Toronto District School Board. Besides, one gets the sense that "human rightsy" chicks are far more irate about, say, the gender divide in Lego than they are about the dearth of male solicitude in cases of maritime disaster.

One-Eyed and Tres Creepy

2012-01-20T16:31:00.000-05:00

He's been our sworn enemy for well nigh a decade, and yet few infidels know what Mullah Omar looks like. FYI, he looks like this:

The Occupests' Next Target

2012-01-20T16:14:00.000-05:00

It's "evil" AIPAC, of course.

R.I.P. Etta James

2012-01-20T11:52:00.001-05:00

Man, she had great pipes in her prime:

Update: On a personal note, it was 25 years ago today that, "At Last," I met the love of my life, the guy I was to marry mere months later (and, whadya know?, we're still going strong today).

Thanks, But I Think I'll Wait For the Movie

2012-01-20T11:38:00.001-05:00

Wahida Valiante, the head of the Zion-loathing Canadian Islamic Congress and one of the world's "most influential Muslims," is launching her new book, A Mosaic of Thoughts, on the 28th. My question: when can we expect her to join Harpoon Siddiqui (the Toronto Star's resident shill for all things Islamist) as an Order of Canada winner?

Update: Some more info about the book--and a testimonial from another Zion-loather:

Topics covered in “A Mosaic of Thoughts” include:

Human rights and social justice
Politics at home and abroad
History and religion
Muslim families and social dynamics

“Wahida Valiante demonstrates what one individual can do to advance worthy causes. Her wise and persistent leadership on behalf of dignity and decency for people of all faiths has lifted the spirits and hopes of untold thousands of Canadians and people beyond. These endeavours are especially effective on behalf of Muslims who struggle under unwarranted but often fierce passions against Islam. We need more Wahidas”
- PAUL FINDLEY
Former U.S. Congressman (1961-1983); author, “They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby"

Caroline Glick on the New Jew-Hate

2012-01-20T09:31:00.000-05:00

She describes it thus:

Today's anti-Semitism is predicated on preferring Palestinian and pan-Arab nationalism to Jewish nationalism.

And like its racist and religious predecessors, its aim is to deny the right of Jews to be free.

Let's connect the dots, shall we? The world has gone from hating Jews because of their religion (Judeophobia, Judenhass), to hating Jews because of their "race" (anti-Semitism), to hating the Jewish nation (Israel) and Jews who uphold Jewish nationhood (a.k.a. the Zionists).

I can't help but think that my neologism--"Zionhass" (literally, Zion-hate)--is the perfect label for the latest form of the longest hatred.

Obama (That Old Smoothie) Brings His Act to the Apollo

2012-01-20T08:42:00.005-05:00

You would think "the hardest working man in politics®" would go for some James Brown, but it seems he's more of an Al Green type of guy:

You, you're so in love with me,
Whatever I do, you see,
Makes you go, "Yipee!"
'Cuz I make you feel I'm your friend
And, friend, I don't want that to end.

I'm sayin' people since,
Since we've been together,
Ooo, lovin' me forever
Is all you need.

Let me be the POTUS once again.
Everyone say "Ah, AMEN!"
So people, let's
Let's stay together.
Lovin' Barack whether, whether,
I am good or bad, sane or plum mad.

Why, please tell me why
Give me the heave-ho?
Why up and make me leave? Oh,
I still got lots to do.
You'd never do that to me.
I'll give you stuff, all for free.
So people let's, let's stay together,
I know you'll love me whether, whether,
I am dopey or smart, I've got your heart...

Dear Mullahs: Pretty Please Keep That Strait Open

2012-01-20T07:13:00.002-05:00

In the grand tradition of "pretty please give me back my drone" the POTUS pens a pusillanimous letter to Iran. The Ayatollah's press is delighted to report the contents of the cringe-inducing missive:

MP Hojjatoleslam Hossein Ebrahimi said on Wednesday, “Obama’s letter has several parts. Part of it is about this, (namely) that using international waterways is the right of all countries and all should benefit from them. And in this letter, he has described it as the United States’ red line.”

“In the letter, Obama has mentioned cooperation and negotiation based on the interests of the two countries,” Ebrahimi, who is the deputy chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, told the Nasimonline news website.

“He has stated in the letter that they will not take any hostile action against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he added.

Ebrahimi also said, “This is not the first time that Obama has sent a message and letter to the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has repeatedly spoken in a soft tone about the Islamic Republic of Iran, but, in practice, he has not acted accordingly.”

“Obama’s letter indicates that the United States has become afraid of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s might and has realized the point that an arrogant spirit is of no use, and therefore, he has softened his tone when speaking about the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he stated.

He added, “The important issue is that without the Islamic Republic of Iran’s permission, no country can benefit from the Persian Gulf.”

Obama, obviously, thinks he can catch more mullahs with honey than with sturm und drang. The Iranians, obviously, think he's a big pussy.

Muslim Clerics Funded By Wacky Wahhabis Are Teaching American Muslim Moppets to Hate

2012-01-20T06:48:00.000-05:00

No surprise, really, but still very disturbing to read.

Hamas Bans the Palestinian Version of American Idol for "Indecency"

2012-01-20T06:36:00.000-05:00

It featured chicks who weren't imprisoned in their Hamas chic--sharia body bags--so it had to go.

Nutty Israeli Lefty Uses "Concordia" Analogy to "Toast" Israel's "Cracked" Ship of State

2012-01-19T08:47:00.000-05:00

A case of wishful thinking, I'd say. You can find it in the Israeli self-excoriaters' favorite rag Ha'aretz, natch.

Cleric Barred From Entering Canada a "Muslim Star"

2012-01-19T08:39:00.000-05:00

Despite (or is it perhaps because of?) such statements as "every Muslim should be a terrorist," Jews are "our staunchest enemy," and "If [Osama bin Laden] is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him," fiery cleric Imam Zakir Naik has been elected one of onIslam.net's Muslim Stars of the Year.