(26 Jan 08) “….We now have millions of citizen's who don't really have any thinking skillsat all, as they've never been taught how to. They've only been taught the current fashions of what to think, meaning the entirely bogus, peripheral and useless. And I've spent a large part of my own daft life being the same. Many in the West are even below the level of a flickering survival instinct to know when they're under sustained attack by Islam and its new pals the Left...Thus I have someone say to me that on the sad death of a very successful albeit not coping young man like Heath Ledger, that he's dead because of the 'pressures' of making $30 million dollars a year....”Anonymity and Heath Ledger by Robert Neville, “….There's nothing hard about living your dream to the max at 28 years old as opposed to doing none of the things you want to and broke…What's truly and profoundly boring is the frustration and despair of being forced to live an alternate life of crushing, limiting poverty and anonymity, right up to the grave…There are very few headlines about the early accidental deaths, suicides and so on of fruiterers, bus drivers, panel beaters and process workers. The last thing a pharmacy assistant wants' to read about is someone who is so 'down to earth', that they really are just like them….”
(26 Jan 08) “....Once again, the shrewd strategists of Hamas have played a blinder in the past few days, managing to wrong-foot the governments of both Israel and Egypt and manipulate the ever-obliging western media...... Yet even while Israel is being excoriated for ‘laying brutal siege' to Gaza and inflicting ‘collective punishment' upon the Palestinians in their ‘open prison', the said Palestinians suddenly breach a hole in the wall with Egypt and pour through. What's this – a ‘Berlin wall' that the Telegraph and others have suddenly discovered Egypt operates to keep the Palestinians in Gaza and out of Egypt? Just like Israel has done? Isn't Egypt's wall therefore also an ‘apartheid wall' -- or is it only the Jews who do apartheid? And what's this – a supply route into Gaza controlled by Egypt, not Israel? So how can this have been Israel's ‘brutal siege'? Hasn't Egypt equally been laying ‘brutal siege' to the Gazans, also enforcing upon them ‘collective punishment' and also forcing them to live in an ‘open prison'? Or is it only the Jews who can ever be guilty of such heinous acts?....” Hamas :2, World:nil, Melanie Phillips, Spectator UK “....And what's this? Khaled Abu Toameh reports in the Jerusalem Post: At least 90 Gazans, most of them women, were wounded by Egyptian border guards using tear gas, clubs, water cannons and live ammunition to disperse the demonstrators, who were protesting against the continued closure of the border crossing That's protesting against the closure of Egypt's border crossing. If Israel had wounded 90 Palestinians using tear gas, clubs, water cannons and live ammunition, there would have been hysterical claims of a massacre and genocide. Yet when the Egyptians do it, the British media scarcely even report it..... The astounding distortion of the media's coverage of the Middle East means that most people are unaware of the extreme lengths to which Egypt routinely goes to keep the Palestinians out. That is in large measure because Egypt's President Mubarak is fighting to prevent the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood... from taking over his country. Gaza is thus a nightmare for him.... The gullible stupidity of the western intelligentsia, in sanitising Hamas and mindlessly reproducing its propaganda lies as facts, is thus helping deliver further victory to the very people who are pledged to destroy the free world. But blinded by their prejudice against the Jewish state, this is the last thing the useful idiots of the west will ever see.....”
Turkey's leaders plan Muslim Europe
(26 Jan 08) “....If you thought Turkey was no threat to the West, think again. A new generation of politicians is aiming to Islamise the state by stealth. The AKP - Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, or Justice and Development Party - has a stranglehold on Turkey for the foreseeable future..... Since coming to power, the AKP has done nothing revolutionary, but it does have a revolutionary agenda. For all their suavity, its leaders seek to transform the country into a Sunni Muslim republic..... A sinister slogan attributed to the AKP is that democracy is 'a bus we can ride until we reach our station'.....” Turkey's leaders plan Muslim Europe , The First Post, The Online Magazine “...Under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his foreign secretary Abdullah Gul, the party has been cautious until now.... the party shares the Islamist belief that Europe will inevitably be conquered by the high birthrates of its Muslim inhabitants - and Turkey's entry would immediately add some 70 million.... The party has also done its best to Islamise the bureaucracy. Even in Istanbul, post-office employees now stop work for Friday prayers, and civil servants are no longer expected to work a full day during Ramadan.... Although the wind is blowing their way, I doubt if more than 15 per cent of the population really want a full-blown Sunni republic. But the AKP is being patient. Gul and Erdogan are clearly willing to defer Turkey's Islamisation if they can advance Europe's....”
Put up a sticker and you've done your bit
(23 Jan 08) “....I have this visceral dislike of bumper-sticker moralisers. These are people who go out of their way to advertise what they take to be their own exalted moral sensibilities, but do so at no cost to themselves and without the messy business of having to weigh costs and benefits or to choose between stark alternatives where none is particularly pleasant or easy. It's all form and no substance for these people, and there's no shortage of them around.... what about many of those who announce that we should "Save Darfur"? Nowhere do they tell us how this is supposed to be accomplished. Through the UN, perhaps?....most people who put "Save Darfur" stickers on their cars would be horrified at the prospect of US military action. What they mean is that saving Darfur, in the abstract, as a general notion, as some warm, fuzzy abstraction, is a jolly fine idea. So count them in. But if it were to require making unpalatable choices - killing people, propping up the least bad alternatives and so on - well, then stop right there. This is about feeling good about oneself and showing that one cares.....” Put up a sticker and you've done your bit , James Allan, The Australian “...A study on the website American Thinker claims that in the seven years between the signing of Kyoto in 1997 and 2004, carbon emissions from countries that signed the treaty rose 21per cent, while among non-signers they rose 10per cent. And Australia, until recently a non-signatory, had a slower increase than Canada, a loud, vocal and proselytising signatory. If that's correct, then what exactly is the benefit of Kyoto?.. Has anyone else noticed that as soon as the Rudd Government ratified Kyoto and advertised its good intentions, all the heat (if you'll pardon the expression) went out of the issue. It's as though one has only somehow to signal one's on the side of the angels - or at least willing to talk the talk - and that's that.....If you are serious about cutting carbon dioxide emissions, you need to make them more expensive. So you can tax them or you can create a system to ration such emissions. Alas, rationing schemes not only discriminate against new entrants and provide rent-seeking opportunities to those operating the system, they don't really work. We don't set up a complicated alcohol or tobacco rationing system with tradable rights to drink or smoke. We tax these products. The EU carbon trading scheme hasn't worked and won't work. It's more of the form-over-substance charade.....”
What A Strange Place Canada Is
(23 Jan 08) “....A few days ago, I was interrogated for 90 minutes by Shirlene McGovern, an officer of the government of Alberta. I have been accused of hurting people's feelings because, two years ago, I published the Danish cartoons of Mohammed in the Western Standard magazine. Early in her interrogation, she said "I always ask people … what was your intent and purpose of your article?" .... When she's doing government interrogations, she always asks people about their thoughts. It was so banal, so routine. When she walked in, she seemed happy. With a smile, she reached out her hand to shake mine...... I was there because I was compelled to be there by the government, and if I answered Officer McGovern's political questions unsatisfactorily, the government could fine me thousands of dollars and order me to publicly apologize for holding the wrong views. I told her that the complaint process itself was a punishment. Even if I was eventually acquitted, I would still lose — hundreds of hours, and tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills. That's not an accident, that's one of the tools of these commissions....” What A Strange Place Canada Is , Ezra Levant, The Globe and Mail, “...One of the complainants against me is someone I would describe as a radical Muslim imam, Syed Soharwardy. He grew up in the madrassas of Pakistan and he lectures on the Saudi circuit. He advocates sharia law for all countries, including Canada. His website is rife with Islamic supremacism — offensive to many Canadian Jews, gentiles, women and gays. But his sensitivities — his Saudi-Pakistani values — have been offended by me...It's the same for Mohamed Elmasry, the complainant against Maclean's magazine for publishing an excerpt from Mark Steyn's book, America Alone... On this point, I agree with Mr. Soharwardy and Mr. Elmasry: I blame the Jews. A generation ago, illiberal elements in the "official" Jewish community pressed Canadian governments to introduce laws limiting free speech... now come Mr. Elmasry and Mr. Soharwardy and their ilk, using the very precedents set by the Canadian Jewish Congress....”
Why Arab Ideas of Shame and Honor Make Peace Impossible
(21 Jan 08) “....Most people remember the Iraqi Information Minister's outrageous statement that there are no American troops at Baghdad International Airport. Some were outraged by it, others bemused by the sheer bald-faced denial of reality. Few realized that in truth they were getting a view into how Arab cultures cope with defeat. Arab cultures cope with defeat by first denying it happened and then by pasting conspiracy theories over it.... Orientalists often celebrate the 'Death Before Dishonor' cultures of the east and romanticise them. The reality though is that an honor and shame based culture is not a moral culture. It is a culture in which each man must see himself as a hero and twist and warp reality to maintain his status. Honor comes before everything else....This is why vendettas in the Arab world never end until one side is completely decimated. As long as both sides continue to live, the pressure of shame and honor compel them to continue killing each other....There may be truces and pauses in the violence but sooner or later the killing always resumes. It's why peace is ultimately impossible...To the Muslim mind, non-Muslims can only attain peace with Islam by submitting to them as the messengers of Allah....” Why Arab Ideas of Shame and Honor Make Peace Impossible , Sultan Knish, blogsite “...To understand why the Palestinians won't make peace with Israel, the simple answer is that any peace would require admitting to a defeat....The moment they reached a genuine accord with Israel and ended the killing, no matter how much land they gained, the mythology they built up about Israel and themselves will come crashing down on them....The so-called cycle of violence is really a cycle of shame and honor, in which to atone for their shame, they go out and kill until they feel honorable again. Reaching a lasting peace becomes a hopeless task because peace can only be made with people who are prepared to compromise. And compromise would be a shameful act....Violence compensates for the failures of Arab states and Arab cultures who see themselves as great and yet see their world status as small.... Only honor can wipe away shame and shame comes from any sense of failure or inadequacy....The war can never be lost because they can never admit defeat until it is as overwhelming as it was in Japan, another honor-shame culture that utterly refused to acknowledge they were losing..... But there is no emperor to step in and end the war here. It will only end when we surrender or until they realize they have no choice but to admit defeat and do as the Japanese did, reshaping their culture into one that can learn from the West and compete with us in other areas than warfare. Until that day comes the violence will only grow worse....”
Global Warmings is a hoax that has become a dogma
(21 Jan 08) “....Lately, it's been cold in Morgan Hill. And, the rain has been abundant. In fact, our seasonal average rainfall is from 98 percent to 120 percent depending on the area of Santa Clara County. As far as temperature, we seem to have experienced a fairly mild year. But, that wasn't the prediction. On Jan. 4, 2007, BBC News reported "2007 to be 'warmest on record.' "So, what happened? In South America, last year was one of the coldest ever observed. In Buenos Aires, it snowed for the first time in 89 years. Chile had the roughest winter, according to the agricultural minister, in the past 50 years. Most of Antarctica is actually getting colder. Now, it's even snowing in Baghdad!...I am not a "global warming" advocate. I believe climate is cyclical.I believe disastrous "global warming" is a hoax and has become a dogma resembling a "religious" faith.....” Global Warmings is a hoax that has become a dogma , by Burton Anderson “...Dr. Fred Singer, the inventor of the ozone measurement instrument, the most eminent environmental scientist of the last 40 years says, "The actual measurements (those instruments we have in the oceans and the heavens) taken with weather satellites, show conclusively that the climate is not warming." A Washington, D.C. resident John Lockwood was conducting research at the Library of Congress and came across an intriguing headline in the Nov. 2, 1922 edition of The Washington Post: Arctic Ocean Getting Warm; Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt.".... "This was one of several such articles I have found at the Library of Congress for the 1920s and 1930s," says Mr. Lockwood. "I had read of the just-released NASA estimates, that four of the 10 hottest years in the U.S. were actually in the 1930s, with 1934 the hottest of all." Here we have a concept, "global warming," grabbed by "environmentalists" as their banner, to promote these revolutionary ideas, without any perusal or proof....”
(20 Jan 08) “....Award-winning author Mark Steyn has been summoned to appear before two Canadian Human Rights Commissions on vague allegations of "subject[ing] Canadian Muslims to hatred and contempt" and being "flagrantly Islamophobic" after Maclean's magazine published an excerpt from his book, America Alone ..... Steyn's predicament is just the latest salvo in a campaign of legal actions designed to punish and silence the voices of anyone who speaks out against Islamism, Islamic terrorism, or its sources of financing. The Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC), which initiated the complaint against Steyn, has previously tried unsuccessfully to sue publications it disagrees with, including Canada's National Post ..... The Islamist movement has two wings -- one violent and one lawful -- which operate apart but often reinforce each other. While the violent arm attempts to silence speech by burning cars when cartoons of Mohammed are published, the lawful arm is maneuvering within Western legal systems. Islamists with financial means have launched a legal jihad, manipulating democratic court systems to suppress freedom of expression, abolish public discourse critical of Islam, and establish principles of Sharia law..... At the time of her death in 2006, noted Italian author Orianna Fallaci was being sued in France, Italy, Switzerland, and other jurisdictions, by groups dedicated to preventing the dissemination of her work..... “ Mark Steyn Is Not Alone , The American Spectator “...A major player on this front is Khalid bin Mahfouz, a wealthy Egyptian who resides in Saudi Arabia. Mahfouz has sued or threatened to sue more than 30 publishers and authors in British courts, including several Americans, whose written works have linked him to terrorist entities..... Shortly after the publication of Funding Evil in the United States, Mahfouz sued its author, anti-terrorism analyst and director of the American Center for Democracy, Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, for alleging financial ties between wealthy Saudis, including Mahfouz, and terrorist entities such as al Qaeda.... The litany of American publishers, television stations, authors, journalists, experts, activists, political figures, and citizens targeted for censorship is long and merits brief mention. There is an obvious pattern to these suits that can only be ignored at great peril......THESE SUITS REPRESENT a direct and real threat to our constitutional rights and national security. Even if the lawsuits don't succeed, the continued use of lawfare tactics by Islamist organizations has the potential to create a detrimental chilling effect on public discourse and information concerning the war on terror.....”
(20 Jan 08) Terry Gygar is former member of the Queensland Parliament , and now Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Bond University
“....The recent appointment of former State MP Mike Kaiser as Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's Chief of Staff has again drawn attention to the “elephant in the corner” that the Australian Electoral Commission, the ALP and (it seems) the Coalition Parties, don't want to discuss - the ease with which the Australian Electoral Roll can be “rorted” to skew election results and the apparent frequency with which this occurs.....Kaiser was forced to resign from the ALP and his seat in the Queensland Parliament in 2001 after admitting to signing a false electoral enrolment declaration in 1986. This was apparently part of a branch stacking effort related to an ALP pre-selection ballot. The incident didn't badly affect his career in the Labor Party however, as he moved on to become Assistant National Secretary of the ALP, then Chief of Staff to NSW Premier Morris Iemma in 2005 and now holds the same position for Queensland's Anna Bligh....”The Dead Don't Vote...by Terry Gygar, ON LINE OPINION “...Phoney electoral enrolments have apparently been part of ALP culture for time immemorial. Peter Beattie, who feigned shock and horror in 2001 when Kaiser's “indiscretions” became public, admitted, in his earlier autobiographical book In the Arena when discussing the 1983 election campaign: “Doorknocking Alexandra Hills was an interesting affair. One female member of the Labour Party was not at home when I called on her at the vacant allotment where she purportedly lived. To my not particularly great surprise, she later voted in the pre-selection.”....There are three simple ways of fiddling the poll: 1 ..enrol people at existing addresses when the person enrolled not exist or does not live there; 2 ...enrol people at addresses that don't exist; 3 ...and don't deprive the dead of the right to vote, just because they are no longer alive All three methods have been proven to be historically popular with the ALP (in Queensland at least) especially in marginal seats, where a few dozen votes can often make all the difference..... Method one led to the downfall of Mr Kaiser, but is not popular with the foot soldiers because it gives a real address at which investigations can commence. Only the most dedicated would take that risk today....”
Peace is War: The Brainwashing and Oxymorons of Political Correctness
(20 Jan 08) “....The celebration of oxymora is central to the politico-linguistic discipline commonly known as “political correctness”.....To disable rational opposition to the prevailing orthodoxy, the first step is to take control of the language, forbidding certain words, promoting others, and changing the meanings of words within the permissible vocabulary to align with an all-pervading political ideology....The second step is to erode the logical framework of thought itself......The preparatory task in the Marxist/Frankfurt schema was to make the “long march through the institutions”, destroying the cultural fabric of Western Civilization, leaving it ready for re-branding with what is now known as political correctness.....” Peace is War: The Brainwashing and Oxymorons of Political Correctness , By Baron Bodissey “....By adding massive amounts of bureaucratic regulation to the structure of society, the PC regime effectively ends the rule of law. When laws proliferate as they have in recent decades, virtually everyone is a lawbreaker. Enforcement becomes capricious, allowing the State to exert legal pressure against those elements which are most threatening to its hegemony.....After a while, everyone learns the unwritten and unofficial rules, and tiptoes in fear around the danger zones. Anything that violates the PC code of the moment is pushed underground and becomes samizdat, or disappears altogether.....Britain is an example of the modern PC regime in its full baroque exfoliation, and Lionheart's case is emblematic of what happens to those unfortunates who transgress the boundaries of PC. The rules against racism and religious incitement are not applied equally to all races or all religions — witness what happened to the complainant against the behavior of Muslims on the London Underground....”
(12 Jan 08) “....Few medical journals have the storied reputation of The Lancet, a British publication founded in 1823. In the course of its long history, The Lancet has published work of exceptional influence, such as Joseph Lister's principles of antiseptics in 1867 and Howard Florey's Nobel Prize-winning discoveries on penicillin in 1940. Today it is one of the most frequently cited medical journals in the world....So naturally there was great interest when the Lancet published a study in October 2006, three weeks before the midterm US elections, reporting that 655,000 people had died in Iraq as a result of the US-led war... Few medical journals have the storied reputation of The Lancet, a British publication founded in 1823. In the course of its long history, The Lancet has published work of exceptional influence, such as Joseph Lister's principles of antiseptics in 1867 and Howard Florey's Nobel Prize-winning discoveries on penicillin in 1940. Today it is one of the most frequently cited medical journals in the world....So naturally there was great interest when the Lancet published a study in October 2006, three weeks before the midterm US elections, reporting that 655,000 people had died in Iraq as a result of the US-led war..... truth, it turns out, is that the report was drenched with politics, and its jaw-dropping conclusions should have inspired anything but confidence....” A War Report Discredited , Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe “...In an extensively researched cover story last week, National Journal took a close look under the hood of the Lancet/Johns Hopkins study. Reporters Neil Munro and Carl M. Cannon found that it was marred by grave flaws, such as unsupervised Iraqi survey teams, and survey samples that were too small to be statistically valid.... Bad as the study's methodological defects were, its political taint was worse....Much of the funding for the study came from the Open Society Institute of leftist billionaire George Soros, a strident critic of the Iraq war who, as Munro and Cannon point out, "spent $30 million trying to defeat Bush in 2004."... Lancet editor Richard Horton "also makes no secret of his leftist politics," Munro and Cannon write....At a September 2006 rally, he publicly denounced "this axis of Anglo-American imperialism" for causing "millions of people . . . to die in poverty and disease." Under Horton, The Lancet has increasingly been accused of shoddiness and sensationalism. But because it served the interests of those eager to discredit the war as a moral catastrophe, common-sense standards were ignored....”
(13 Jan 08) “...As predictable as the sun rising in the east, the United Nations has voted to assault religious liberty. Islam, however, is to be protected from criticism since Muslims are said to be under vicious attack in the West..... The inmates again have taken over the asylum as human rights violators joined the panel to insulate themselves from criticism. The only country certain to be denounced is Israel. Unfortunately, the Council is now busy distorting the concept of religious liberty....The perpetrators are obvious: while persecuting states vary greatly in their practices, most are either Communist or Islamic.... Pakistan, where religious minorities face legal discrimination and private violence, led the battle against the "defamation" of religion. The underlying philosophy is simple: people do not have a right to practice their chosen faith. Only Islam is valid. Thus Christians, Baha'i, Jews, Hindus, and others deserve whatever treatment they receive in Islamic societies. For apostates the penalty usually is death. Blasphemers risk lengthy prison terms. Evangelism often is a criminal offense....Most nations already have laws against violence, fraud, and defamation, but they apply to individuals, not religions. Muslim activists want more....” Blue Helmet Bigotry , by Doug Bandow, The American Spectator “....The resolution technically covers all faiths and is filled with the usual boilerplate about "mutual respect and understanding."..... the offenses against Muslims pale compared to the role that Islamists have played in committing terrorism against the U.S., Israel, and other states. Mistreatment of Muslims is infinitesimal compared to the abuse of Christians before, during, and after September 11 across the Islamic world. The real target of the resolution is anyone, especially journalists, who criticizes a certain religion. In practice, the resolution means: "Thou shalt not speak ill of Islam.".... The resolution goes on to urge states to "prohibit the dissemination of racist and xenophobic ideas and material aimed at any religion or its followers that constitute incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence." ...Who could be in favor of such materials? Alas, as President Bill Clinton taught us, everything depends on what is is. To fundamentalist Muslims, factual criticism of their faith and the prophet is incitement to violence -- just ask those Christians beaten and murdered by Muslim mobs after publication of the Danish anti-Mohamed cartoons.... Muslims are largely protected in Christian and secular lands. Discrimination, though unfortunate, is limited.... In contrast, in most Muslim countries religious minorities are not just defamed, but brutalized, as persecution ranges from modest to severe. But reality does not matter to the United Nations, which has affirmed the OIC's (Organisation of the Islamic Conference) alternative universe. The Islamic nations sacrifice individual liberties to enforce the supremacy of Islam. They expect Western nations to follow suit....”
(12 Jan 08) A very long but important contribution
“....Conflicts within the Middle East cannot be separated from its peoples' culture. Seventh-century Arab tribal culture influenced Islam and its adherents' attitudes toward non-Muslims. Today, the embodiment of Arab culture and tribalism within Islam impacts everything from family relations, to governance, to conflict.... Every human society must establish order if it is going to survive and prosper. Arab culture addresses security through "balanced opposition" in which everybody is a member of a nested set of kin groups, ranging from very small to very large. These groups are vested with responsibility for the defense of each member and responsible for harm any member does to outsiders. If there is a confrontation, families face families, lineage faces lineage, clan faces clan, tribe faces tribe, confederacy faces confederacy, sect faces sect, and the Islamic community faces the infidels..... Understanding the influence of tribalism upon the development of both Arab culture and, by extension, Islam, requires acknowledging the basic characteristics and dynamics of Middle Eastern tribalism..... The man who can call on five or six adult sons and a similar number of sons-in-law to support him is a force with which to reckon. Cultural values underline this emphasis on progeny. A man is not a man if he cannot produce children, and a woman is not really an adult if she does not become a mother.... It is against this backdrop of tribal interaction that Muhammad's actions should be considered.....” The Middle East's Tribal DNA, by Philip Carl Salzman, Middle East Quartley “.....Building on the tribal system, Muhammad framed an inclusive structure within which the tribes had a common, God-given identity as Muslims. This imbued the tribes with a common interest and common project. But unification was only possible by extending the basic tribal principle of balanced opposition. This Muhammad did by opposing the Muslim to the infidel, and the dar al-Islam , the land of Islam and peace, to the dar al-harb , the land of the infidels and conflict.... The rise of Islam was both an economic and social revolution, offering new wealth and freedom to the dominions it assimilated under the banner of a universal brotherhood guided by the message of the Prophet of Allah." It may have been the best of all possible worlds, so long as one had not been one of the slain, enslaved, expropriated, suppressed, and degraded.... Muslims believe Judaism and Christianity to be superseded by Islam. All non-Muslims were infidels who should be subject to Islam. Jews and Christians were to be allowed to live as inferiors and subordinates, dhimmi s, but with obligatory, legally-mandated humiliation; other infidels, such as Hindus and pagans, could choose between conversion to Islam and death although, in practice, many Muslim conquerors preferred to derive economic benefit from their enslavement.... The basic tribal framework of "us versus them" remains in Islam. The conception "my group, right or wrong" does not exist because the question of right or wrong never comes up. Allegiance is to "my group," period, full stop, always defined against "the other." An overarching, universalistic, inclusive constitution is not possible. Islam is not a constant referent but rather, like every level of tribal political organization, is contingent. People act politically as Muslims only when in opposition to infidels....”
The past has a tight hold on most Muslims
(9 Jan 08)“....One bullet, well placed, can change the world. How different would the world now be if the bullets aimed at Mohandas Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King had missed their mark; if the bullets aimed at Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and on the darker side, Adolf Hitler, had accomplished their mission?With the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the shining hope of Pakistan and, by extension, the Middle East, tomorrow and the future will not be what they could have been..... The United States and, by extension, the world, turned a corner and set a completely different course for the future on Sept. 11, 2001. No one understands these simple facts more thoroughly than al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, the PLO.....” The past has a tight hold on most Muslims , Susan Hanley Lane “...As long as the West cherishes life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we are at a distinct disadvantage with Muslims. How do you fight an enemy who has turned death into not only the ultimate sacrifice, but into the ultimate prize in life? Picture two groups of soldiers, one fighting for their lives, the other using their own deaths as their most potent weapon. Who do you think has the advantage?..... Muslim clerics and thought leaders see the ultimate end that we refuse to admit: that thought leads to action and action leads to change. In this case, the change would be to a Western way of thinking which would result in a Western lifestyle.Keep in mind, these are nations that shroud their women from head to toe, with only their eyes and forehead open to view.... In a world wired by the Internet, when Muslim women see the freedom that Western women have, it is virtually impossible not to long for change. That change would set in motion the seeds for the eventual destruction of the way of life as Muslim men now know it. It is for this reason, although we are loathe to admit it, that if we do not destroy radical Islam, they will destroy us...”
Delivering Obstetrics from Radical Islam
(9 Jan 08) “...Is a Muslim within his rights to insist a female physician examine his wife, or refuse male assistance in the birth of his child? And, are hospitals obliged to accommodate the Muslim's wish when this unfairly burdens staff, entails a delay that jeopardizes patient care, or if accommodations like these contravene the Hippocratic oath ? Europe grapples with questions like these with increasing frequency; and Great Britain and the Netherlands appear well on their way to translating the discriminating tastes of their hospital guests into hospital policy....Dutch National Broadcasting Foundation (NOS) report that acknowledges “some physicians” feel the professional organization is too quick to cater to “the wishes of Muslims.”... Grumbling over belligerent males in the obstetrics ward has also made news in Belgium , where two cases in particular made headlines recently. One concerns anesthetist Philippe Becx , who, on the night of August 23, 2007, was called to assist an emergency Caesarian. The doctor arrived to find his path obstructed by the patient's husband, who said in no case would a man be allowed to care for his wife. Two hours of debate ensued, in which time Dr. Becx explained he was the sole anesthetist on duty. At last an imam was called to broker an accord; this consisted of draping the expectant mother with cloth, and exposing her flesh to the doctor at the injection point alone. The doctor reluctantly consented, and, after administering the epidural, waited outside the operating room, where he assessed his patient and conversed with the (female) gynecologist through a duty nurse and a door propped ajar...” Delivering Obstetrics from Radical Islam, R. John Matthies “... France 's most famous cartoonist and political satirist, Plantu , whose work appears on the front page of Le Monde, has, over time, produced several noteworthy panels on Islam in the obstetrics ward. One represents a quarrelsome Muslim, who demands to know the faith of his wife's physician. The doctor's answer? “Humanitarian.”......Don't we have a duty to protect women against assaults on their freedom? 30 years ago, Muslim women arrived at our hospitals, thinking nothing to be seen by physicians who were most often male […], and one neither experienced this sort of difficulty, nor witnessed this kind of violence. Why this regression? Should we simply resign ourselves to the present situation, and take a great step backwards? It is the responsibility of Islam to embrace the liberties required for citizens of a modern state, and not the other way around....”
Multiculturalism is breeding intolerance
(8 Jan 08) “....It has taken a long time to happen, but at last an authoritative and senior establishment figure has pointed to the elephant in the room....We have tiptoed around its effect on our society and culture. Even the somewhat belated recognition by ministers that newcomers should show a commitment to British values and demonstrate a knowledge of English tends to be couched in economic terms and ones favourable to the immigrants themselves - that they will get a job more easily and their lives will be enhanced if they are more integrated....few politicians have been willing to do what Michael Nazir-Ali has done, which is to question the impact of a growing Muslim population upon the very fabric of the nation, turning it within half a century into a multi-faith and multicultural land....” Multiculturalism is breeding intolerance , by Philip Johnston UK Telegraph “....In truth, the bishop has simply articulated what many in the Government and in the race relations world have already come to realise (and which most of the rest of us understood years ago), and that is the baleful consequences of three decades of multiculturalism. Last year, even the Commission for Racial Equality, once a cheerleader for the concept, recanted with a report that depicted Britain as an unequal and segregated nation in danger of breaking up.... For many years, those who wanted Britain to be recognised as a multicultural society which needed to revise, or even jettison, five centuries of Protestant hegemony held centre stage. Anyone who questioned it had their reputations trashed.... When he became prime minister in 1997, Tony Blair urged the nation to embrace multiculturalism. Almost 10 years later, as he prepared to leave Downing Street, he was making speeches informing immigrants they had "a duty" to integrate with the mainstream of society. "Conform to it; or don't come here. We don't want the hate-mongers, whatever their race, religion or creed," he said.
Why the Bishop of Rochester is right about `no-go` areas for non-Muslims in Britain
(8 Jan 08) Interesting to note the personalities central to this piece. The author, Manzoor Moghal is chairman of the Muslim Forum. Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, has both a Christian and Muslim family background .
“….Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali's warning that Islamic extremism is creating 'no-go' areas in parts of Britain has provoked a predictable barrage of outrage. He has been condemned for making 'inflammatory' remarks, distorting the truth about our inner cities and 'scaremongering' against the Muslim population. But, paradoxically, this reaction from the politically-correct establishment is an indicator of the weight of his case. If our ruling elite were not so worried that his views would strike a chord with the public, it would not have been so anxious to condemn him….” Why the Bishop of Rochester is right about `no-go` areas for non-Muslims in Britain, Manzoor Moghal, Daily Mail “…It is not good enough just to dismiss his opinions and hope that the whole issue will go away, for the failure to achieve real integration in our society is far too serious an issue to be ignored. As he says, a key element of this failure is the sense of separatism that now grips too many Muslim communities…The heavy Islamic influence in parts of Britain amounts to a severe indictment of the dogma of multi-culturalism, which held sway in our public institutions since the early eighties. Instead of promoting a sense of mutual belonging and shared understanding, this doctrine has sown the seeds of division and suspicion by discouraging allegiance to a unified British identity…. Multi-culturalism was meant to build a unified society….instead it has achieved the opposite-promoting division and distrust-which has been exacerbated by Islamic extremism…”
So much for our 'way of life' Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail
(7 Jan 08)“...The deeply English, deeply Christian city of Oxford, one of the homes of free thought, is now being asked to accept the Islamic call to prayer wafting from mosque loudspeakers over its spires and domes. If that is not a threat to our "way of life", then I don't know what is. Allowing the regular electronic proclamation of Allah's supremacy in a British city is not tolerance, but a surrender of the sky to a wholly different culture. Just you wait and see what opponents of this scheme are accused of.... So much for the Great War on Terror, which has neither saved our way of life nor defeated Islamist extremism. What did you expect from the very same people who surrendered to the IRA...” So much for our 'way of life' Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail “....What a lot of hogwash we are fed. The murder of Benazir Bhutto is a disgusting crime, but people really should grow up a bit about Pakistan. This is a country that still has feudal landlords and slavery, which is utterly ethnically divided, speaking at least nine languages. It is deeply economically sick, corrupt as a corpse, and haunted by the sinister ISI intelligence agency. Fewer than half its people, and only 36 per cent of its women, can even read.... If we have learned nothing else from the Iraq adventure, surely it is time we grasped that other countries are the business of the people who live in them. We have quite enough to worry about at home without trying to impose our own wobbly political system on a nation where it couldn't work for five minutes (does it work here, actually?). Yes, our way of life does need saving, but mainly from our own Government....”
The last testament of Flashman's creator: How Britain has destroyed itself
(6 Jan 08) This is an extract from the book “The Light's On At Signpost” by George Macdonald Fraser, who died last week, January 2nd 2008.
“…My generation has seen the decay of ordinary morality, standards of decency, sportsmanship, politeness, respect for the law, family values, politics and education and religion, the very character of the British…. We were freer by far 50 years ago - yes, even with conscription, censorship, direction of labour, rationing, and shortages of everything that nowadays is regarded as essential to enjoyment. We still had liberty beyond modern understanding because we had other freedoms, the really important ones, that are denied to the youth of today. We could say what we liked; they can't. We were not subject to the aggressive pressure of special interest minority groups; they are. We had no worries about race or sexual orientation; they have. We could, and did, differ from fashionable opinion with impunity, and would have laughed PC to scorn, had our society been weak and stupid enough to let it exist. We had available to us an education system, public and private, that was the envy of the world…. Our children could play in street and country in safety. We had few problems with bullies because society knew how to deal with bullying and was not afraid to punish it in ways that would send today's progressives into hysterics…..” The last testament of Flashman's creator: How Britain has destroyed itself , George Macdonald Fraser “…Above all, we knew who we were and we lived in the knowledge that certain values and standards held true, and that our country, with all its faults and need for reforms, was sound at heart. Not any more. I find it difficult to identify a time when the country was as badly governed as it has been in the past 50 years…..Short of assassination there is little people can do when their political masters have forgotten the true meaning of the democracy of which they are forever prating, are determined to have their own way at all costs and hold public opinion in contempt…. I had not realised how offensive the plain truth can be to the politically correct, how enraged they can be by its mere expression, and how deeply they detest the values and standards respected 50 years ago…. among the middle-aged and people in their 20s and 30s there is a groundswell of anger and frustration at the damage done to Britain by so-called reformers and dishonest politicians who hardly bother to conceal their contempt for the public's wishes….”