October 26, 2006
Exposed cheekbones as raw meat left outdoors, and other analogies
An Islamic cleric who recently told his flock that a woman's place is in the home has now apologized.
Uncovered meat attracts cats, Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali had reminded his flock, and obviously one cannot blame cats for attacking uncovered meat. Women who leave their homes, etc., are the meat, see, so rape, when you think about it, isn't really the perp's fault. Blame the meat.
Anyway, like I said the Sheik has apologized, saying something had been "lost in translation"; he'd "only intended to protect women's honour."
Dirka, dirka.
Posted by bill at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2006
Jihadists in our midst
Dirka, Dirka.
Posted by bill at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2006
"Americans will die for liberty"
Mark in Mexico emailed and excerpted this fantastic article appearing in Friday's (U.K.) Telegraph and written by Andrew Gimson. It is entitled, "Americans will die for liberty". Excerpts:
The Americans are more old-fashioned than us, and what is equally admirable, they are not ashamed of being old-fashioned. They know Churchill was a great man, so they put his house on the map. There is a kind of Englishman to whom this sort of behaviour seems painfully unsophisticated.
We are inclined, in our snobbish way, to dismiss the Americans as a new and vulgar people, whose civilisation has hardly risen above the level of cowboys and Indians. Yet the United States of America is actually the oldest republic in the world, with a constitution that is one of the noblest works of man.
While Europe has engaged in the headlong and frankly rather immature pursuit of novelty - how many constitutions have the nations of Europe been through in this time? - the Americans have held to the ideals enunciated more than 200 years ago by their founding fathers.
The quiet solicitude that Americans show for the comfort of their visitors, and the tact with which they make one feel at home, can only be described as gentlemanly. These graceful manners, so often overlooked by brash European tourists, whisper the last enchantments of an earlier and more dignified age, when liberty was not confused with licence.
Again some Europeans will give an unkind smile. All this sounds so Puritan, so naïve and so self-righteous. We cannot help feeling that the Americans ought to have been able to settle their quarrel (the Civil War) without killing each other, and, while we cannot defend the institution of slavery, we wonder whether the North had the right to impose its will by force.
These are vain quibbles. The North went to war and was victorious.
The Americans are prepared to use force in pursuit of what they regard as noble aims. It is yet another respect in which they are rather old-fashioned. They are patriots who venerate their nation and their flag.
The idea has somehow gained currency in Britain that America is an essentially peaceful nation. Quite how this notion took root, I do not know. Perhaps we were unduly impressed by the protesters against the Vietnam war.
It is an idea that cannot survive a visit to the National Museum of American History in Washington, where one is informed that the "price of freedom" is over and over again paid in blood.
But when the Americans speak of freedom, we should not imagine, in our cynical and worldly-wise way, that they are merely using that word as a cloak for realpolitik. They are not above realpolitik, but they also mean what they say.
These formidable people think freedom is so valuable that it is worth dying for.
Posted by bill at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)
Muslims victimized - details at 11
I don't know about where you live, but where I live, the local nightly news tonight discussed the gigantic terrorism plot for a few minutes, then briskly moved to: (1) a bomb-making (and -detonating) tutorial; and (2) why we should be concerned about the "Muslim community." Nice to see we're keeping eyes on the ball.
On the other hand, President Bush finally acknowledged "we're at war with Islamic fascism," which is progress for the White House, to say the least.
Posted by bill at 06:16 PM | Comments (0)
"Intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale"
British security authorities have thwarted a plot to carry out what would have been a spectacular attack on U.S.-bound jets, using liquid bombs smuggled onto planes via carry-on luggage. Although DHS hasn't yet implicated Al Quaeda, Michael Chertoff highlighted the plan's apparent sophistication, saying it was "about as sophisticated as anything we've seen in recent years as far as terrorism is concerned...This was not a situation with a handful of people sitting around dreaming about terrorist plots." It is, in other words, a very real - and "imminent" - threat; DHS has raised its threat level to Elmo red for air travel, up from Bert yellow.
As usual, Hot Air is collecting the bestest links.
UPDATE -- Tom L. emailed this article a few weeks back describing Pakistan-bound Muslims' unhappiness with "humiliating" and "harassing" treatment at Glasgow airport. A few details are especially chilling -- first, the story focused on Dr Mohammad Anwar of "Glasgow's Central Mosque," who hspecifically praised security at Manchester and Heathrow -- as Tom notes, both are focal points of the plot -- as "completely different" and "very courteous" to Muslim cultural "sensitivities." Second, Drudge is linking (link seems to be down) to a report that the plot involved "citizens of Pakistani descent" -- and the July story specifically involves UK-Pakistan flights. Hmm.
Posted by bill at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)
August 08, 2006
There's no threat, until there is
The AP reports that 11 young men from Egypt entered the U.S. last month on student visas and have now disappeared. Then men are presumably Arab, and presumably Muslim, and were here "for a 32-day cultural-exchange program to intensively study English, learn about Montana history and go on several field trips."
If this sounds absurd to you, that's because your post-9/11 brain has not turned to morally ambivalent mush. If it doesn't, it's because you're far less judgmental than I am. Kudos to you.
UPDATE 08/09 : Obviously profiling is sinister, but here's the "broad strata" of missing Mohameds, Moustafas, Ahmeds and an Ali:
1. Ibrahim, El Sayed Ahmed Elsayed; DOB OF 4/29/1986.
2. El Dessouki, Eslam Ibrahim Mohamed; DOB OF 02/21/1985.
3. El Bahnasawi, Alaa Abd El Fattah Ali; DOB OF 04/02/1986.
4. Abd Alla, Mohamed Ragab Mohamed; DOB OF 02/15/1984.
5. El Laket, Ahmed Refaat Saad El Moghazi; DOB OF 09/01/1986.
6. El Ela, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Abou; DOB OF 02/02/1985.
7. El Moghazy, Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed; DOB OF 08/08/1986.
8. Abdou, Ebrahim Mabrouk Moustafa; DOB OF 02/25/1984.
9. El Gafary, Moustafa Wagdy Moustafa; DOB OF 07/01/1988.
10.Maray, Mohamed Saleh Ahmed; DOB OF 09/12/1985.
11.El Shenawy, Mohamed Ibrahim Fouaad; DOB OF 08/12/1988.
Posted by bill at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2006
An idle Tuesday morning
A friend of mine emailed this video a few days back -- the emergency call placed by Kevin Cosgrove, who was on the 105th floor of the South WTC tower on 9/11. I debated for a bit whether to post it. It's among the most disturbing, heart-wrenching videos I've ever seen, but truth be told I think scenes of 9/11 can indeed be played too much. Nonetheless I kept coming back to two words: "never forget".
Never forget, either, our Islamist enemies having a good chuckle in their caves watching this footage, as though they were reminiscing about some fraternity prank. Or how liberals have approached this war.
Posted by bill at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2006
Hate chart
Cliff Notes for World War III, courtesy of the good folks at Slate.
Posted by bill at 09:19 PM | Comments (0)
July 16, 2006
Where to look
Updates on the Isreali-Hezbollah war are at Pajamas Media, Truth Laid Bear (a blog aggregator) and Hot Air. Between these three sources, you'll find breaking news, media analysis, opinion, etc. -- from what I've seen since last week, if you want to know what's really happening, you'll have to contend with the disparate voices of the blogosphere, read a bunch of sites, then make up your own mind about what's happening and why, and its significance. Sorting through the stories can be time-consuming, but as we've seen, the end result is a far better picture, and more perspective, than the mainstrem media is offering.
Newt Gingrich says it's World War III; our enemies believe it's a worldwide conflict - why wouldn't we?
Posted by bill at 09:02 PM | Comments (1)
June 12, 2006
More from the religion of peace
Jihadi for "progress": The Muslim prophet Muhammad married a 9 year-old boy. Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi had a 16 year-old wife when he was killed last week. (Let's assume for banter's sake that they were married for less than 7 years.)
Posted by bill at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)
