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So now, by "controversy," we are of course referring to how he lost all that weight. Pills? Stomach stapling? Voodoo? Because we know he must have lost it. It's not like Michael Moore would ever manipulate an image to make a political point or anything.Good eye Wonkette.
SALT LAKE CITY— The American Civil Liberties Union plans to sue the National Park Service in Federal Court if it does not change the name of Zion National Park in southern Utah. The ACLU expressed concern that the name is offensive to many Arab-Americans.I used to live very near Zion National Park and have been at least two dozen times. I can say with some certainty that no Palis have been ethnically cleansed from the area. However, I hear the Joos have kicked out more than a few Paiute Indians and have built a 'security fence' to protect the Zionist settlements in occupied 'West Gaza' (the so-called state of 'Utah').
“The word Zion is intimately associated with Judaism,” explained Sarah Jacobsen of the ACLU. “And this is a particular sect of that religion that advocates the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from the region of Palestine. The park’s name could hardly be more inflammatory.”
The Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 yesterday that taxpayers can use federal courts to challenge state taxes, a defeat for Arizona and its tax break that helps fund private religious schools. The decision could leave tax credits in more than 40 states vulnerable to federal court challenges...I'm sorry. This is much more troubling than removing the term 'under God' from the Pledge. Remember, we are talking about tax credits here, not write-offs. That means that every dollar given to these private religious schools is given back to the tax-payer in the form of a credit against taxes paid. To put this in perspective, this is what is happening in just one state of 40 that have the credit (from Tucson Citizen):
At issue is an income-tax credit that helped raise 58,122 donations totaling $29.5 million for scholarships and grants last year, most of it going to religious groups.The Atheist lobby is trying to raise taxes in Arizona by almost 30 million dollars! Between $500-$625 dollars per family, per year!
The tax break, enacted in 1997 at the urging of school-choice advocates, allows a dollar-for-dollar bottom-line tax savings of up to $500 for an individual and $625 for a married couple.
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.UPDATE: Linked by James "I have a great job and you don't" Joyner in the Beltway Traffic Jam
A domain name outage Tuesday morning left many popular Web sites such as Yahoo, Google, Microsoft.com and Apple.com temporarily inaccessible, according to a Web research company.
So far I have ellaborated two assumptions that go into writing this trifle of a blog:Ah, to be filled with youthfull idealism again!
A) The war against Islamists threatens the short-term security of the US and the long term survivability of Western culture.
B) The root cause of Islamism is Islam. Not poverty. Not oppression. Not Zionism. Islam.
Last, and really the gist of this blog is this:
C) In a real war, against real enemies, we need some good old fashioned, sweet down-home, funny, bigotted propoganda. Tell me, what would the "greatest generation" think of liberal wusses cringing at words like "kraut" and "nip"? Remember all those great bugs-bunny cartoons demonizing the Nazis? "Nazis is zee craziest people!" Rip-roaring fun with a message: the enemy is real and we are better than they.
So, poke fun at Islam. Make fun of Muhammed. Paint our enemies in the worst light possible. Tell jokes about them. Create art that ridicules them. Sing songs not suitable for prime-time. Offend people that need offending.
We will have no WILL to fight if we do not beleive that are cause is right and no STOMACH for the horrors of war if we do not beleive that our enemies are real.
Jeff Quinton on the religion of Mall Rats.
Douglas of No Pasaran notices a possible break in the Nazi-Islam alliance.
Religion of the WWW.
Zionists trying to kill Palis with second-hand smoke.
Pakis nail 55. Captain notes one in geting 'nailed' in particular.
Religion of Please Don't Kill So Many Infidels.
Aaron on the Religion of Van Gogh.
Religion of Lyndon LaRouche.
Religion of Brotherly Love.
Religion of All Your Adjectives Are Belongs To Us.
Michelle on the Minority Who Want Us Out. Keep dreaming babe.
Religion of Europe.
No expert or political leader can possibly have enough knowledge to get up every morning and order the world from scratch: decide whether to wear clothing, which side of the street to drive on, what counts as mine and what as yours.It seems odd, then, that Rauch would come to the conclusion that Hayek would probably be FOR gay marriage. His arguement seems to boil down to this: gay marriage is NOT a radical departure from our cultural norms. It is simply tweaking it's boundaries.
Q. – Is it exaggerated when people talk about a clash of civilizations, as between the West and Islam?What is this "Clash of Civilizations" that the interviewer mentions? "The CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF WORLD ORDER" by Samuel P. Huntington is required reading for all Sith Paduans. Huntington's argument was first made in this article which is good if you can't get hold of the book. The full article is posted at this website. Foreign Affairs summarizes Huntington's thesis:
A. – “No. This is just the beginning. The Church has defeated communism, but is just starting to understand its next challenge – Islamism, which is much worse. The Holy Father has not been able to take up this challenge due to his old age. But the next pope will find himself having to face it.
World politics is entering a new phase, in which the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of international conflict will be cultural. Civilizations-the highest cultural groupings of people-are differentiated from each other by religion, history, language and tradition. These divisions are deep and increasing in importance. From Yugoslavia to the Middle East to Central Asia, the fault lines of civilizations are the battle lines of the future. In this emerging era of cultural conflict the United States must forge alliances with similar cultures and spread its values wherever possible. With alien civilizations the West must be accommodating if possible, but confrontational if necessary. In the final analysis, however, all civilizations will have to learn to tolerate each other.Huntington summarizes his central claim:
It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.Robert Spencer over at Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch does a great job informing us of the ideological roots of our present problems. In his view, Islam as an ideology is the problem. To some extent I agree, especially because culture is informed by ideologies. However, read how Bishop Mazzolari answers this question:
Q. – Recent statistics say that only 20% of Muslims in Italy respect the Koran’s teachings, just as only 20% of Catholics go to Mass every Sunday. Hence they are Muslims, but in name only.This is a remarkable observation on the part of the Bishop. Islam is not only a religion, but a cultural identity. The umma is the "community of Muslim believers," so non-Muslims are outside the community--kind of like being outside 'the family' so to speak. This is worrying, if true, because it implies that it is not just radical Islam or Islamists who we need to fear--but the vast majority of Muslims who see themselves first and foremost as "Muslim", part of a larger "nation". That is, we should not be surprised that many Muslims find a Jewish state so offensive, that they recoil at our occupation of Iraq, and that they hate our dominant position in the world--while at the same time they ignore genocide, brutal dictatorships, and all sorts of interstate conflict. Why? Because we are OUTSIDERS. We are the OTHERS. And not just 'we Americans'. The 'OTHERS' are all non-Muslims--even those living in Islamic societies. If you doubt that being a religious minority in an Islamic society is bad, then how do you explain this?
A. – “But their Islamic culture remains. Religion is only a part of their civilization. No one can erase their belonging to the umma, the community of Muslim believers.”
No. This is idiotic. Islamic people base their decisions only and exclusively on the umma. They don’t even know what individual rights are. It’s absurd to teach them the first amendment of the American Constitution, which says Congress can make no law to prohibit freedom of worship or to limit freedom of speech or the press. They have absolutely no comprehension of this.Not a good sign. Hopefully he turns out to be wrong, and that Muslims can find something in their culture that can lead them to liberalism. Articles like this give me some hope that we can find many Patrick Henry's in the Islamic world--people devoted to individualism. Of major concern to me, from this quote, was the Bishop's emphasis on the umma. Again, in his view, this sense of putting the community interest beyond self-interest is a challenge for those of us who would like to see liberalism thrive in the world. How can one talk of the individual right of religious preference to a whole civilization that has no concept of individual rights? And if you think I overstate the case, check this out:
Q. – Are there Catholics who convert to Islam?It should noted that these converts need to be firebranded because they are black, which in the Sudan generally means "not a Muslim." See, that tattoo on my ass? Stop calling me kufr! Perhaps these unfortunate dhimmis ought to head over to the Spoons Experience for a brief lesson on how to 'pass'.
A. – “Yes, unfortunately. Pushed by hunger, at least 3 million have headed north and have had to profess the shahada, the public profession of Muslim faith, in order to find jobs. These converts are then fire-branded, literally being stamped on their sides like cows so as to distinguish them from infidels...
You should note that my hair has turned white. The greatest punishment Arabs can inflict is oppression, a sense of falsity. If they can fool you, they do it with will all their might. They are proud of their ability to trick you, to behave like liars and compliment you. Al Turabi [Islamist leader in Sudan] will take Bush for a ride, wherever and whenever he wants. And he could do much worse things. I, rather than being tricked and playing the fool, prefer being slapped in the face. Muslims fill you with fear, they keep you in a permanent state of uncertainty. It’s a continuous psychological affliction, worse than torture.Tonight's homework: Read Huntington's article! If you cannot read the whole article in the next few days, I suggest you ruminate on Huntington's ending remarks. Do you agree with his policy prescriptions? Does he get it wrong in believing that peaceful coexistence is possible? Is this, perhaps, an option with Confucian civilization, which does not seem overtly expansionist, but not with Islamic civilization, which I have argued sees itself in messianic terms? Is he empirically wrong when he concludes that the relative military strength of the West will decline in comparison with other civilizations?
In the short term it is clearly in the interest of the West to promote greater cooperation and unity within its own civilization, particularly between its European and North American components; to incorporate into the West societies in Eastern Europe and Latin America whose cultures are close to those of the West; to promote and maintain cooperative relations with Russia and Japan; to prevent escalation of local inter-civilization conflicts into major inter-civilization wars; to limit the expansion of the military strength of Confucian and Islamic states; to moderate the reduction of Western military capabilities and maintain military superiority in East and Southwest Asia; to exploit differences and conflicts among Confucian and Islamic states; to support in other civilizations groups sympathetic to Western values and interests; to strengthen international institutions that reflect and legitimate Western interests and values and to promote the involvement of non-Western states in those institutions.
In the longer term other measures would be called for. Western civilization is both Western and modern. Non-Western civilizations have attempted to become modern without becoming Western. To date only Japan has fully succeeded in this quest. Non-Western civilizations will continue to attempt to acquire the wealth, technology, skills, machines and weapons that are part of being modern. They will also attempt to reconcile this modernity with their traditional culture and values. Their economic and military strength relative to the West will increase. Hence the West will increasingly have to accommodate these non-Western modern civilizations whose power approaches that of the West but whose values and interests differ significantly from those of the West. This will require the West to maintain the economic and military power necessary to protect its interests in relation to these civilizations. It will also, however, require the West to develop a more profound understanding of the basic religious and philosophical assumptions underlying other civilizations and the ways in which people in those civilizations see their interests. It will require an effort to identify elements of commonality between Western and other civilizations. For the relevant future, there will be no universal civilization, but instead a world of different civilizations, each of which will have to learn to coexist with the others.
the capitol is being evacuated and I'm hearing sirensDeveloping...
RS: Congratulations on your new appointment. The news has been quite a shock inside the beltway. Do you care to comment or do you have anything to say to those who question your qualifications for this post?
JM: They are wrong! I predict I will do a fantastic job, John Paul II will finally pass on, and that an American Cardinal will take his place.
The correct answer is three!
RS: Er, ok. What about George Tenet? What do you think of his performance?
JM: On a scale of one to ten, one being the equivalent of the Carter plan for energy independence and ten being the reincarnation of HarryTruman--Eleven!! The buck will stop here.
RS: Much of the pressure in Washington pushing for Tenet's resignation surrounded various intelligence failures on WMD in Iraq. If the President had asked you if there were WMD in Iraq, how would you have responded?
JM: Wrong! On a scale of one to ten, one meaning we're as certain of WMD as Noam Chomsky is of the existence of God and ten being metaphysical certaintude in the form of a burning bush on Mt. Sinai--the correct answer is three.
RS: Three? What exactly does that mean
JM: Wrong! Predictions. You have five seconds, Mort the Mouth Kondrake, Go!
RS: Um, who are you talking to?
JM: Wrong! Washintonienne will be revealed as none other than Senate Judiciary Chair Orrin Hatch's secret alter ego and occasional lover.
RS: Er. Ok, well thank you.
JM: Wrong! The DNC will reveal that it took secret campaign contributions from the Chinese mega-shipping firm, COSCO, and then diverted said funds to build the already sizeable war-chest of Presidential hopeful John F. Kerry...
Democratic senator - and certain presidential nominee - John F. Kerry gave the middle finger to a Vietnam veteran at the Vietnam Memorial Wall on Memorial Day morning, NewsMax.com has learned.What does the "F" stand for again?
...terms such as "Islamic terrorism" should not be used....Right, perhaps Zen Buddhist terrorist would be more to her liking?
Ebadi also told the audience not to believe in the theory of a clash of civilizations. "That is used to justify war," she saidInsert head in sand.
I became a Muslim because I felt Islam was more humanistic and peaceful than other religions.More on the Religion of Peace here and here. But don't worry, no tautologies here.
16: A cup with that only contains half a cup of water is...A: Libertarian.
CONS[ervative]: half full.
LIB[era]L: half empty.
L[i]B[e]RT[arian]: an example of shortages caused by government control of our water supply.
COMM[unist]: an example of inequitable wealth distribution caused by the inherent social injustice in free enterprise.
Those who keep silent about terrorists will be regarded belonging to them*giggle* *snort* *cough* Who needs Comedy Central when you have Abdullah!?!
The time has come to revisit the laws of war and to make them relevant to new realities. If their ultimate purpose was to serve as a shield to protect innocent civilians, they are failing miserably, since they are being used as a sword by terrorists who target such innocent civilians. Several changes should be considered:The third point is especially well-taken. We are in a war with not only the fish, but also with the sea in which the fish swim. I saw on CNN, a couple of days ago, a guy trying to estimate the number of al Qaeda operatives. His estimate? Between one and two-thousand. Obviously he was trying to downplay the recent ISS report that estimated about 18,000 al Qaeda world-wide. The policy implication from the talking head on CNN was that the al Qaeda threat was not nearly as grave as widely believed. But how did he count "al Qaeda" members? He included in his estimate only those who had completed actual military training in Afghani camps, and who then had been formally invited into the ranks of the organization. In this man's estimation, only those who were shown the secret handshake, given the ritual spanking, and given the keys to the secret cabal cave are "al Qaeda." This definition seriously distorts the nature of the WOT and of terrorism in general.
First, democracies must be legally empowered to attack terrorists who hide among civilians, so long as proportional force is employed. Civilians who are killed while being used as human shields by terrorists must be deemed the victims of the terrorists who have chosen to hide among them, rather than those of the democracies who may have fired the fatal shot.
Second, a new category of prisoner should be recognized for captured terrorists and those who support them. They are not "prisoners of war," neither are they "ordinary criminals." They are suspected terrorists who operate outside the laws of war, and a new status should be designated for them - a status that affords them certain humanitarian rights, but does not treat them as traditional combatants
Third, the law must come to realize that the traditional sharp line between combatants and civilians has been replaced by a continuum of civilian-ness. At the innocent end are those who do not support terrorism in any way. In the middle are those who applaud the terrorism, encourage it, but do not actively facilitate it. At the guilty end are those who help finance it, who make martyrs of the suicide bombers, who help the terrorists hide among them, and who fail to report imminent attacks of which they are aware. The law should recognize this continuum in dealing with those who are complicit, to some degree, in terrorism.
Fourth, the treaties against all forms of torture must begin to recognize differences in degree among varying forms of rough interrogation, ranging from trickery and humiliation, on the one hand, to lethal torture on the other. They must also recognize that any country faced with a ticking-time-bomb terrorist would resort to some forms of interrogation that are today prohibited by the treaty.
I essentially agree with Dershowitz on these points, although I would note that legal accountability and popular sentiment don't always go hand-in-hand.Of course he's right. However, it seems to me that there is a significant portion of the population that believes that what is legal is that which is right. I'm sure this applies to none of my readers, but I know a lot of
But if the media are really, as they claim, merely "objective" recorders of the facts, then surely they would at least cover the negative and positive facts equally. Indeed, one could argue that in the context of war, civilian deaths or abuse of detainees isn't really "news" but an unfortunate constant of war. What is really "news" in Iraq is that the U.S. military has taken remarkable steps to minimize civilian casualties, and is attempting an unprecedented task: to destroy an enemy and rebuild a society simultaneously. Certainly that wasn't the tack taken in WWII, when Japan and Germany were literally destroyed before the task of rebuilding began.Amen brother. When was the last time the national media even mentioned the deplorable conditions in Attica or Chino? What makes us different than the Baathist thugs is that torture was an institutionalized norm in the former regime. People were paid to torture. That was their job. In our military, soldiers are arrested for doing things that only resemble torture. Go read the whole article.
The "news" in Iraq, then, isn't the behavior of the prison guards, for such brutality occurs every day in every prison in America. If there had been a cover-up, then that would be newsworthy, but the only reason the media know about the story is because the military initiated an investigation. What the whole sorry episode shows is not the failure of the military or the administration, but rather the constant reality of evil in human hearts, an evil that war has always provided an excuse to indulge. That out of 150,000 troops in Iraq a dozen would be sadists should not surprise us.
Thank you all for your efforts in attempting to forestall another civilian genocide. It is gratifying that at least the bloggers have learned the lesson of Rwanda.
From CNN:
"A spokeswoman for Kofi Annan said the U.N. secretary-general will focus on stemming the fighting in western Sudan, where the lives of hundreds of thousands of people are threatened. Annan has been flooded with requests from people across the world beseeching him to provide emergency assistance to end the killing in Darfur, spokeswoman Marie Okabe told reporters Thursday."
Over one million people are currently in the desert without food, water, shelter, medicine, or protection from Sudanese militias. Several hundred thousand are estimated to die within months through direct slaughter, and starvation and disease as the Sudanese government continues to block food, medicine, monitors and the media. They each have a face and a family.
This link sends emails to:
Consul General of France Richard Duque
Consul General of Italy Pierluigi Squillante
Consul-General for UK Sir Thomas Harris KBE CMG
Minister of Foreign Affairs for Norway Jan Petersen
Minister of Foreign Affairs for Uganda Hon. James Wapakhabulo
Secretary-General Kofi Annan
Sudanese Ambassador to US Khidir Haroun Ahmed
Swiss Ambassador to US Raymond Loretan
US President George Bush
For more information go HERE
Please keep in mind that the recent peace deal ending the civil war has no impact on the Darfur region which is a separate conflict. The one million people dying in the monsoon will gain no relief from the peace deal. Hopefully they will gain relief from us or gain it a day sooner.
Thanks, from Jane
With Thanks to Asher
RS called last night. He had a visitor flying in from NYC who was stuck in a holding pattern over DC for an hour...He was bored, so he picked me up and took me back to his house. His friend arrived around 11:30pm, and was exhausted from his hellish plan ride. So Rob and I went upstairs and got ready for bed...So I get into bed and by then, it's midnight.Etc., etc., etc. [Insert lurid details here, unless this is a "treatment" in which only a synopsis of the lurid details are revealed pending a book deal]
"What time is it?" RS asks.
"Midnight," I reply.
"Do you know what that means?"
"Uh...no."
"That means it's your birthday." And he pulls out this pink and green package, and I just know it's a new Lilly dress.
Abu Hamza al-Masri, the fiery Muslim cleric whose shuttered London mosque was linked to Zacarias Moussaoui and shoe bomber Richard Reid, was arrested Thursday in Britain, accused in a U.S. indictment of trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon and providing aid to al-Qaida, officials said.What can I say? I'm stupified. This comes as a total shock to me.
Al-Masri, 47, also is charged in the 11-count indictment with hostage-taking and conspiracy in connection with a December 1998 incident that killed four tourists in Yemen.
Q) Who was the first woman on the Supreme CourtYes, trick questions are par for the course on bonus points. Live with it. What? Unfair? But you don't get penalized for missing it? A joke at your expense? Hmmm, yes, it is. What? Ugh. Would you like some wine to go with that cheese?
A) Earl Warren.
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda is poised to stage a new strike on the United States, Attorney General John Ashcroft said as authorities launched a public hunt for seven "armed and dangerous" suspects.Jessica Cutler was unavailable for comment on how this would affect her much discussed sex life.
Nearly a decade after the Oklahoma City bombing, Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges Wednesday for helping carry out what was then the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. He could get the death sentence he escaped when he was convicted in federal court in the 1990s.Miss Cutler's publicist, Wonkette, also had no comment on the Nichols situation.
The blogosphere is bigger than it was a week ago, thanks to two Washington chick bloggers who "take it."If Jessica Cutler disgusts you as much as it does me and all of the aforementioned bloggers, you definitely will not want to go to this site which has some pics of the disgusting woman in question and her partner in crime. Also, you won't want to go there if none of this intrigues you, disgusts you, sickens you to the point that knowing the identities of those cryptically mentioned in Jessica's weblog. Oh, and if you aren't jealous of "RS" (even in the darkest recess of the worst part of your psyches) then don't go here to find out who he is. And if you hate looking at her disgusting face in staged quasi-lesbo poses with Wonkette, then don't go here. Homos.
Certainly, 800 deaths is substantial. It's four times what I had predicted beforehand (I was low for the regime change phase but didn't anticipate the scope of the insurgency/terrorist aftermath). Each one of these deaths is a personal tragedy, leaving behind a lot of mourners.Go see the numbers yourself. It's an excellent post.
But let's have a little perspective, shall we?....
We lost many times 800 in both the Mexican War and the Spanish-American War, the rationales for which are long forgotten by most.
Indeed, there are perhaps dozens of battles in American history in which we took more than 800 deaths.
more men die each year by falling down stairs or walking off cliffs than die in the military under the current administration's Evil Plan to wipe out the Healthy American Male.For Extreme Insight into the ironicalness of leftist perception, Cameron is declared Padawan Sith apprentice.
Blogger has rerouted all the connections without bothering to tell anybody, in effect dropping the "www" from our web addresses.Oh the pain of redoing all of my links! To quote Jerry Seinfeld (supra):"I thought the whole Google buyout thing was going to be good for Blogger?"
The writer [yours truly, Rusty Shackleford] here believes that freedom of speech is a privledge, and not a right.Ah, now that is the kind of level-headed challenge that is both theoretically coherent, deeply insightfully, and completely wrong. I teach my students in my Intro. to American Government class almost the same thing when we try to define a "right" to them. The unfortunate truth, though, is that it is a really pathetically simplistic definition.
A right, by its nature, cannot be impinged on for any reason whatsoever. A privledge can be impinged on for any reason - or any set of guidelines can be used to impinge upon it (ie, a time of war.)
The Privelege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.So, when can the government completely forego the judicial process and jail people at a whim? In times of war. Which, I think was my original point all along. The Founders uderstood context, and they enshrined it in the Constitution. In normal times certain rights trump government interests, however, in times of war, certain social interests outweigh the interests of individuals. Rights, therefore, cannot be thought of as absolute. This is why Jefferson wrote that rights were "unalianable" and not "inalianable."
misunderstanding of the difference between a right and a privledge is disturbing.But I would respond by saying that I find your lack of faith in the Force...disturbing!
Support for WWII throughout the conflict was very high, international in nature, and the goals, enemies, and stakes were very clear.A) Why was support high throughout the conflict? I maintain that a good deal of this support can be attributed to censorship and propoganda. That is to say, propoganda caused support (or at least what I perceive to be a high level of it) to be maintained throughout the war.
There are American soldiers dying in Iraq for a reason. One of those reasons, hell, maybe one of the best reasons is the Freedom of Speech which was so important to those brave men who founded this country that they put it in the first amendment to the Constitution.I must say that if Pseudopsalms is right about the reason these soldiers are fighting than I’ll have to withdraw my support for this war. I may fight for my right to disagree in a civil war, but I don’t see the logic of fighting a war against Baathists in Iraq so that I can disagree at home. There is no connection between the two. None. We fight Baathist in Iraq to increase SECURITY at home. We send our boys to kill and be killed because we don’t want our enemies setting the terms of our war—and like it or not we were already in a state of war (see my previous post, especially on Hobbes’ definition of war). We didn’t want to wait around for the next 50 years waiting for Saddam to get hold of a WMD. We didn’t want to wait around for the next 50 years waiting for al Quaeda to fully cooperate with Saddam. We didn’t want our planes to be shot at for the next 50 years. We began the shooting war to protect LIVES, not the right to look at porn.
Those men are dying for US! To give the rights we seem to take for granted… That includes, it must include, the right to disagree.
Mein Kampf, written by Adolf Hitler, is a best-seller in the Arab World. It is distributed by the Palestinian Authority headed by Yasser Arafat. Yasser Arafat became the disciple of Amin Al Husseini at the age of 17.Can anyone verify that?
there is evidence that Amin Al Husseini was the one who first proposed the FINAL SOLUTION to the Germans, in order to avoid mass migration of Jews to their homeland and prevent the creation of the State of Israel.That would be a major revelation to me. I have serious doubts about it, though. Not that the jihadis didn't like the whole 'Final Solution' thing, only I doubt that they "first proposed" it. Hitler was evil enough to come up with that doozie on his own.
Watching images of this weekends Kerry campaign, the following impressions came to my mind. At first I was a little bored. Then I saw the pictures and it piqued my interest. Interesting. Interesting. Interesting. Very Interesting. Then, suddenly I lost interest.
Donald Rumsfeld made me into the filthy whore I am today. AND he authorized my heroin use which completely drained my kid's trust fund.---Courtney Love
