State of the Teacher's Union
Like everyone else, I've been watching the madness in Wisconsin. Being a public school teacher, (yeah I may have mentioned that once or twice in the past) I'm disgusted with the teachers in Wisconsin. I understand not wanting to take a pay cut. I took one this year, and I have to pay more out of pocket for my insurance. It hurts. I hate it. But I also understand that the money has to come from somewhere, and if the money isn't there, cuts have to be made. (I'm a taxpayer tool, as much as I hate that). I also know that my school district has made some poor financial decisions in the past that I and other teachers are now paying for. Could we have done anything about that? Probably not. But that's another post, the one where I question why we have school boards.
But back in Wisconsin, how can teachers pretend that they have the best interests of the students at heart when they've abandoned their students or dragged them along to the demonstrations in order to save their own paychecks? Students are supposed to learn what from this? The benefits of mob rule? If the democratic process doesn't produce the results that you want, then it's time to hit the streets? The union has become the fourth branch of government? Why work when you can protest? Doctors are frauds who will write phony prescriptions for political purposes? Teachers are liars who will abandon the students that they've agreed to teach if they don't get their way?
I've watched some of the videos of the union protesters. It's obvious that civility is only expected from conservatives and Republicans. Union members, Democrats, and anyone else on the Left is free to make their own rules and be as rude and violent as they want. Who's going to care? The Press, who is on the side of the unions? The Obama White House corruptocrats, who are owned by the unions?
We're on February break this week, and if I believed in this madness, I could go to Lansing to protest too. I'd rather find a way to get some of my paycheck back from my union that spends my hard earned money on outrageous salaries for union leaders and sends money to organizations that I don't much care for.
Oh, and more money for education does not, as we have seen for years, improve the quality of education. We need
vast curriculum changes for that.
Another absurdity that is subverting the democratic process and that is being given tacit approval by the Press and by the White House, is the childish and undemocratic tactic of the Democrat representatives in Wisconsin leaving town to avoid having to vote on Gov. Walker's bill. Had Republicans done this to avoid voting on Obamacare, they would have been tarred and feathered.
The whinyness and selfishness of the left, the fact that they are willing to sink as low as necessary and be as brutal as they are, and damage the country and the country's laws without a second thought in order to get their way is truly amazing. I do hope the grown ups are able to restore order at some point, and that students are able to go back to school.
Labels: Democrats, education, MSM, teacher's union, the Left, Wisconsin
More Pre-emptive Surrender to Islam
This cartoon was was censored by the quislings and dhimmis at the Washington Post and lots of other American newspapers that have no problem running comics and articles that insult Christians and Jews. Suddenly though, they have developed their latent religious and cultural sensitivities. There were no protests, no threats of violence, even the folks at CAIR expressed no fuss. But, I'm sure that CAIR understands much better than the cowards in the Washington Post editorial department, that merely by asking for an opinion from the Hamas front group CAIR, that Muslims no longer have to make threats. Our MSM has surrendered. The first amendment has been replaced by Sharia law in the news room. The censorship of the cartoon proves the point of the joke, something else the dhimmis at WaPo didn't get. Repost it and pass it on.
UPDATE The captions are really hard to read so: The top one says,
Picture book title voted least likely to ever find a publisher
The bottom caption reads, Where's Muhammad?
Labels: CAIR, Hamas, islam, MSM, Non Sequitur, sharia, Washington Post
Burn, Baby, Burn
First of all, publicly
burning a Qu'ran is a stupid thing to do. Being a book lover, I look at the burning of any book, even a lousy one, as a desecration. The "pastor" in charge of this fiasco needs to find a more intelligent way to make his point, like maybe doing some research into Islam so that he can spread that information. The more people who understand Islam and the terror and abuse it has spread, the brake it's put on freedom and civilization, the better we infidels will be able to battle it, along with its Leftist dhimmi enablers.
So far, the best commentaries on this silly episode come from
Debbie Schlussel Here’s what I view as far more offensive than the burning of Korans: that the outrage over this is more so than the outrage of any Islamic murder of Americans, any jihadist beheading videos featuring Westerners being slaughtered in the name of the Koran.
and
Ann Coulter Also, as I recall, there was no Guantanamo, no Afghanistan war and no Iraq war on Sept. 10, 2001. And yet, somehow, Osama bin Ladin had no trouble recruiting back then. Can we retire the "it will help them recruit" argument yet?
Michelle Malkin does a good job of reminding us that there are always Muslims somewhere outraged over something we in the West are doing or not doing.
I keep wondering when some big time pundit will point out that this tells us more about both Islam and the West than either their our our leaders are willing to admit. We are bombarded with worry warts insisting that this Qu'ran burning will be a tremendous recruiting tool for Al-Quaeda and the Taliban. These days it's hard to find any behavior from the West that isn't claimed as a propaganda coup for Islamic terrorists; cartoons of Mohammed, protests against the "Ground Zero Mosque", killing terrorists, the list is endless.
If, as we are constantly assured by the apologists, that it is only a "tiny minority" of Muslims who engage in terrorism, where are they finding so many Muslims who are inspired to be terrorists at the slightest provocation? Wait - not provocation - it's any act that any Muslim finds distasteful. And if it isn't terrorism, there will be riots, lots of riots featuring burning American flags, screaming, ranting, and more than a few random murders from outraged members of what we are - again - constantly assured, is a religion of peace (just chock full of Ghandis don't you know) . . . as long as we follow their rules, you know, as long as we act as dhimmis. If they're as peaceful as the apologists claim they are, why are they so damn easy to provoke?
It's past time to let the Islamic world know that we aren't interested in being lorded over by misogynistic, insecure, tyrannical, parasitic, seventh century barbarians. But that's the problem, isn't it? Our spineless leaders, along with our mainstream media, is afraid to take that stand. Somehow, they continue to take the coward's way out and insist that - really, it really is a religion of peace, honest, and anyone who claims otherwise is an "Islamophobe." And this is from the leaders and elites of the richest, most powerful society ever developed by mankind. They have decided to wimp out. It's every infidel for himself.
The Roman historian, Tacitus insisted that in order to remain strong, a society needs to be engaged in constant warfare (but I can't find the exact quote). Stop fighting, and men become lazy and indolent. I've never been much of a fighter myself, but as I've gotten older, and had a family, and have finally come to the understanding that there are things worth fighting for, and sometimes one does have to stand up or be trampled on, I've become more willing to stick my neck out, raise my voice, and challenge the enemies of civilization. While I don't relish war, when you compare Islam to the West, not only are they willing to die (but for all the wrong reasons), they're willing to watch their children die too, if not murder them outright. Meanwhile, our children are learning that there is nothing worth fighting for, that's in morally superior not to fight, and if we just reach out to our enemy, not think of them as "the other" and try and understand their grievances against us, and compromise, we will all learn to love one another and live together in peace and harmony, if you accept slavery as peace and harmony.
I'm sure our wonderful elites would make great slaves. They could work and demonstrate their moral superiority at the same time.
Labels: Ann Coulter, Debbie Schlussel, islam, Koran, Michelle Malkin, MSM, Tacitus
Helen Thomas
You really have go beyond the pale to get the mainstream media to notice anti-Semitism these days, since, as we're told, those Jews are always playing the anti-Semitism card. And of course, if you aren't as deferential to Israel as the Israel Lobby wants you to be, well then, the Jew-controlled media bounces your butt out the door. Just ask Glen Greenwald and his fellow hate monkeys.
Others noticed Helen Thomas' tendencies years ago.
Labels: anti-semitism, Helen Thomas, MSM
More Anti-Israel Insanity
So the
Gaza Flotilla wasn't filled with peace activists after all. Leftard, Israel hating, Hamas supporting, Turkish thugs were lying. What a surprise. For a good run down of the duplicitous violence of the flotilla members visit
Solomonia. I came to it by way of
Debbie Schlussel. I was actually planning on doing a post today, but not on this. I've been neglecting my blog, and I thought maybe I could get a couple posts up. But then I read of this fiasco with the flotilla right before I left to go the the Memorial Day parade with my daughter.
I've been following it throughout the day, and I wrote three letters to various newspapers in order to express my opinion at the way they've allowed themselves to be manipulated for years by Islamists, whose lies are so transparent, whose hatred is so apparent, one has to wonder how and why the MSM allows itself to be played the way it has been played.
Labels: Debbie Schlussel, Gaza, Gaza Flotilla, Hamas, islam, Israel, MSM, terrorism
But It's For Our Own Good
Let's see. In a few years we won't be allowed to use incandescent light bulbs. If we don't have health insurance we can face fines and possible jail time. We shouldn't use oil from Islamic nations, but we aren't allowed to drill our own or build nuclear power plants to power the future battery powered automobiles, which I'm sure we will be "encouraged" to buy in order to "save the planet." Muslims who promote and engage in Jihad are the victims and the people that they murder are - um - are - the oppressors? And that's not just in Israel any more. Local Detroit papers went on for days with articles about how the local Muslim community was afraid of that backlash that we've been warned about since September 12, 2001, you know, due to the latest unfortunate incident where a Muslim is stricken with
Sudden Jihad Syndrome, this time at Ft. Hood, where a Muslim major went on a short shooting spree that had nothing to do with the fact that he's Muslim - and well, I'm sure everyone has read about all of those politically incorrect red flags that were ignored, since had anyone in authority taken action, they would have been roundly attacked by CAIR and their fellow traveling diversity mongers. And yes, many fellow citizens have allowed themselves to be convinced that this had nothing to do with Islam.
And then there's
this piece by Mark Steyn about how we're poised to loose even more of our formerly Constitutionally protected, but granted by our Creator, rights.
I’m always appreciative when a fellow says what he really means. Tim Flannery, the jet-setting doomsaying global warm-monger from down under, was in Ottawa the other day promoting his latest eco-tract, and offered a few thoughts on “Copenhagen”—which is transnational-speak for December’s UN Convention on Climate Change. “We all too often mistake the nature of those negotiations in Copenhagen,” remarked professor Flannery. “We think of them as being concerned with some sort of environmental treaty. That is far from the case. The negotiations now ongoing toward the Copenhagen agreement are in effect diplomacy at the most profound global level. They deal with every aspect of our life and they will influence every aspect of our life, our economy, our society.”
Hold that thought: “They deal with every aspect of our life.” Did you know every aspect of your life was being negotiated at Copenhagen? But in a good way! So no need to worry. After all, we all care about the environment, don’t we? So we ought to do something about it, right? And, since “the environment” isn’t just in your town or county but spreads across the entire planet, we can only really do something at the planetary level. But what to do? According to paragraph 38 on page 18 of the latest negotiating text, the convention will set up a “government” to manage the “new funds” and the “related facilitative processes.”
The whole thing is worth reading because one, it's by Mark Steyn, and two, we need to pay attention to what these "selfless" environmentalists have in store for the rest of us.
As our rights are slowly eaten away, it appears that it is with the blessings of a large portion of our fellow American citizens. Of the 53% of the voters who elected our current president, there are many who did not know his real agenda. Some of them foolishly depended on the Obama-loving, Bush-hating MSM for their information. Others were just stupid. But a lot of folks agree wholeheartedly with the Obama agenda. For example, there was this letter in today's Detroit Free Press.
Thanks for the comprehensive coverage of Michigan tax needs and present income statistics.
You report, "The top 5% of households in Michigan now have as much or more income than the bottom half." Anyone who reads this and does not support a graduated income tax either didn't graduate from the 7th grade, or did graduate from Harvard Business School and is now one of the millionaires or billionaires protecting their incomes in that 5% bracket.
It's not hard to guess who is fighting the graduated income tax movement, and who is funding it.
Most of your readers are too young to remember the days when our country and leaders believed in a sane and fair distribution of wealth in this country.
In the '50s, we had an excess profits tax where companies had to pay their excess profits in taxes or give the money to their employees in bonuses. Blue-collar workers received healthy bonuses every quarter at the company where I worked.
Excess profits? How much is excess? And what will this writer say when some bureaucrat decides that he has to part with more of his excess income? I bet this is a person who decries "obscene" profits too . . . as opposed to merely erotic profits, or "artistic" or . . . you get the idea. Too many people today find freedom an
irksome burden and are looking for scapegoats for their problems. Obama and the Democratic Congress are helping out with lists of the most popular, you know, Fox News, Big Pharma, Wall Street, the Insurance Industry.
But remember - Obama and his cronies, and environmentalists, and the diversity lobby, and the Islamic community have your best interests at heart. They know what's better for you much better than you do. After all, they're intellectuals.
Labels: Detroit Free Press, economy, environment, islam, Mark Steyn, MSM, Obama, Obamacare
Obama and the Press
Ever since Barack Obama hit the national scene, it's been painfully obvious that the press, rather than act in its proper role as inquisitor of public figures has degenerated into lapdog. But only for Obama. Collectively, they are his lapdog and are willing and eager to do his bidding. What is their thanks for this unquestioning obedience? Well, as
this report, that I found at
Subvet's blog, shows, their thanks is that they get treated like the dogs they've become.
On April 27, President Obama welcomed the University of Connecticut Lady Huskies, who had just won the NCAA women's basketball championship.
After the event, President Obama went to the White House basketball court to shoot hoop with the Lady Huskies. The White House press corps was not allowed to attend.
Reads the print pool report from that day: "After shaking hands with the team's parents and members of Congress who showed up, the president walked the team over to his basketball court and shot hoops. The pool was held back from the stroll down the drive and around the corner, and couldn't see the court. Poolers could hear periodic cheering coming from the other side of the bushes."
Can't you just hear the whimpering? See the tongues hanging out of the reporter's mouths?
And don't forget what happened when a member of the White House Press Corp dared ask Obama a real question when he paid them a surprise visit. At around 3:20 of
this video of the event, the foolish reporter who forgot his place gets shown the rolled up newspaper.
Obama's attitude of disrespect reminds me of
Macbeth, Act III, Scene I, where Macbeth is meeting with the murderers whom he hired to kill his friend, Banquo.
First Murderer
We are men, my liege.
MACBETH
Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept
All by the name of dogs: the valued file
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,
The housekeeper, the hunter, every one
According to the gift which bounteous nature
Hath in him closed; whereby he does receive
Particular addition. from the bill
That writes them all alike: and so of men.
Now, if you have a station in the file,
Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say 't;
And I will put that business in your bosoms,
Whose execution takes your enemy off,
Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
Which in his death were perfect.
As my students and I discussed when we read this scene, Macbeth knows that he has dipped his toe into the water of evil and is only going deeper. How can he have respect for men who make their living doing vile deeds? He holds his nose as he deals with them and hates himself as much as he despises them.
I don't think Obama despises himself. I do think that he has lost his respect for an obsequious press that has debased itself enough to willingly become cheerleaders for a man who is not qualified to be president of the United States. And as Eric Hoffer noted,
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
Labels: Eric Hoffer, Macbeth, MSM, Obama
How Well Do Newspapers Report the News?
The one argument that I've read from people who don't wish newspapers to fade away - as they seem to be doing, is that without our daily paper, there would be no reporters braving uncomfortable and disquieting situations around the world in order to inform us of the happenings in far away places and in our own back yard. That's almost a plausible excuse to keep newspapers being printed, until I think of the simply awful coverage of Israel from my local papers and the slim to nonexistent coverage of other trouble spots that don't involve Jews or Israel.
For example, how much do you know about the civil war that's been raging in Sri Lanka for the past 30 years? Sure, you may be aware of it, maybe you can even name the main players; the government vs. the Tamil Tigers. But what about the thousands of civilians who have been killed, injured, and displaced during this war? Where are the reports and the outcry from the various "peace" and "human rights" groups?
This war entered my view today because
Vanderleun over at American Digest has a post on it.
In other news that hasn't been reported by my
local papers:
(IsraelNN.com) For the second time in less than a week, a packed Brooklyn, New York, synagogue has been the target of threats of violence by intruders.
On Monday, according to Yeshiva World News, an Arab man in his mid-30s entered Boro Park's 'Sephardish Shul' and began making proclamations of jihad. Members of a Jewish volunteer security organization, the Shomrim, apprehended the threatening individual. They held him until police officers arrived at the scene, arresting the suspect. Detectives spoke with the "Middle Eastern man" at a station house near the synagogue.
Police officials reminded the community, "If you see something, say something." Security in Brooklyn's heavily Jewish Boro Park area has been stepped up during the Purim holiday.
Just two days earlier, a man wielding a butcher's knife burst into a Kerestir Chassidic synagogue in Williamsburg. He initially turned up unarmed and began throwing soda cans at the gathered worshipers, which hit one of them, and returned shortly thereafter with the bladed weapon.
The attacker was prevented from using the butcher's knife on anyone by a young man, described as a "friend" of the knife-wielding intruder, who then fled together with him.
The recent attacks come just over a month after Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn was targeted in a series of English-language jihadist videos posted on the Internet. The videos and accompanying texts singled out "770," but also intimated that all Orthodox Jewish organizations were equally worthy of attack by Muslims. The threatening material included images of the 770 synagogue and study house, pictures of the police van out front, and indications of which parts of the building are crowded at what times.
The source of the thinly-veiled threats, a group called Revolution Muslim, is domestic to the United States.
Yes, that was the entire article - from an Israeli newspaper. I'm guessing that this attack was roundly ignored by the American press in general, not just by my local papers. Can you imagine the hysterical outcries though, if a Jew intruded on or threatened violence during a service at a mosque? Yow!
And then there's this incident, the anniversary of which is today, the 1977 Hanafi Siege. I don't recall it at all, but back in '77, I had other things on my mind. According to
Wikipedia,
The 1977 Hanafi Siege refers to an incident that occurred March 9-11, 1977, in which three buildings in Washington, D.C. were seized by 12 gunmen. They were held responsible for taking 149 hostages and the death of two people. After a 39 hour standoff all hostages were released from the District Building (city hall) – now called the John A. Wilson Building, B'nai B'rith headquarters, and the Islamic Center.
One of those killed was 24-year-old Maurice Williams, a young radio reporter from WHUR-FM, who stepped off a fifth floor elevator into the crisis. (The fifth floor is where the Mayor and City Council President have their offices). The gunmen also shot DC Protective Service Division, Special Police Officer Mack Cantrell, who died a few days later in the hospital of a heart attack. Then-D.C. council member, later mayor, Marion Barry walked into the hallway of the District Building after hearing a commotion and was hit by a ricocheted shotgun pellet just above his heart. He was taken out a window and rushed to a hospital.
The gunmen had several demands. They "wanted the government to hand over a group of men who had been convicted of killing seven relatives – mostly children – of takeover leader Hamaas Khaalis. They also demanded that the movie Mohammad, Messenger of God be destroyed because they considered it sacrilegious."[1]
Time magazine noted: "That the toll was not higher was in part a tribute to the primary tactic U.S. law enforcement officials are now using to thwart terrorists—patience. But most of all, perhaps, it was due to the courageous intervention of three Muslim ambassadors, Egypt's Ashraf Ghorbal, Pakistan's Sahabzada Yaqub-Khan and Iran's Ardeshir Zahedi."[2]
There's more, of course, but the main thing is that we have to keep reminding ourselves that attacks on Jews by Muslims are not recent. They began at the beginning of Islam. They continue to this day, because no matter how much the apologists want the world to believe that the fault lies with Jews, Zionists, Israel, or its policies, the sickening fact is, Muslims have always had a reason for oppressing and murdering Jews . . . and Christians . . . and any other infidel who happened to cross their bloody path. But they continue to deny responsibility for all of the death and destruction they have caused since their rise in the seventh century.
If our newspapers were worth the paper they were printed on, they would speak truth to power and report boldly and truthfully on the pathologies of Islam. Until they do, and if they ever do, I'm not sure I'll miss them.
Labels: American Digest, Hanafi Muslim Siege, islam, Jews, MSM, Muslim anti-semitism, Newspapers
The Argument
Thanks to advances in the Internet, I can get into arguments with people anywhere the world, at any time, and for as long as I'm interested in banging my head against a wall. As if there weren't enough ways to waste time already on the computer. I wasted a good amount of time on this one. The argument had already begun. I was merely watching it on
The Jungle Hut (and I can't seem to find the post that the argument took place on). But then, words were printed that I couldn't ignore from an Algerian Muslim woman named Lilia. It was some of the same sick anti-Semitic crap that I've heard before, and I couldn't just let it go.
The debate continued
here on Conservative Outrage. And I shouldn't have even been a participant there. I accidently linked over from
Blowing San #1. Nobody told me that the debate had moved there. But the argument did continue until the Muslim woman decided that I was an islamphobic, bigoted dunce who was too stupid and hateful to admit the truth of her words. Of course, her words were idiotic. There is a huge population who would agree with her though. They have other problems too.
I only thought the debate had ended though. Lilia snuck up on me
here where once again I proved my duncehood and hatefulness. Maybe she thought one more attack on my stupidity would do the trick.
Of course, it didn't. I proved to be much too thick.
I did accuse her repeatedly of being anti-Semitic, a charge she denied. After all, she didn't hate Jews, and she wasn't blaming all of the problems of the world on Jews, but on
Zionists. Recently though, the reality of "
anti-Zionism" has been exposed.
I don't want to rehash the entire argument here. But basically, according to her, it was the Israeli Mossad who assassinated JFK and who brought down the World Trade Center. Furthermore, Mohammed did not ethnically cleanse the Arabian peninsula of Jews. Jews somehow corrupted Islamic scripture when it came to that unfortunate episode. To be fair, she only compared Israelis to Nazis once. The argument was also joined by a woman from NYC, who also tried desperately to help me understand the truth, but I proved to be much too pigheaded for even the two of them combined.
The thing is, I was able to answer their arguments while they ignored most of mine, preferring to bring new charges against Israel and the Zionists (not Jews). In fact, Lilia claimed to know the difference between real Jews and Zionist Jews. I was less than kind to her in my response to that moronic, insulting claim. In my sudden doubt as to whether I was a real Jew according to her Islamic standards, I pressed her on the subject. For some reason, she backed down on that one.
Except for the one regarding the Jews of Arabia, I'd heard all of these claims before and read some of the twisted thought behind them, so I know the bizarre claims that are out there. And I know that a lot of people, not only in the Islamic world, but all over the world believe that crap. That's the worst part of it. But don't try to convince me that this idiocy is real. Don't try to convince me that the psychotic killers of Hamas and Hezbollah are the moral equivalents of the IDF. And just crawl away quickly before blaming Zionists - not Jews - for the problems in the Middle East and the Muslim world.
One thing I take care to do on mine or any other blog that I comment on, is to not use my anonymity to say things that I wouldn't say to a person's face. So when Lilia made the insane claim that Jews - oh wait - I mean Zionists, were at least partially responsible for the Holocaust, I did get a bit excited, but I thought I showed great reserve. Had we been face to face, I probably would have gotten even more insulting.
I called Lilia anti-Semitic because to her, Jews were not people, rather, they are a collection of stereotypes, scapegoats who cause no end of trouble for everyone. And she has the audacity to think she can decide who is and who isn't a real Jew? To her, the real ones deny the legitimacy of Israel. Imagine that. To her, my avarice and hook nose wouldn't be enough to pass her "Jew test".
I decided at that point that it wasn't up to her, or me, or anyone else in the world to judge the legitimacy of the State of Israel, the one Jewish nation on the planet, and the only one whose legitimacy is questioned - even though we're told that this opposition has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Right. I brought up some of the real atrocities in the world that are being ignored because they don't involve Jews defending themselves. There were no responses from either Lilia or Elizabeth, the woman form NYC.
That's something else I've noticed in this debate, when I've had it with Israel bashers and non-anti-semites who blame all the evils in the world on Zionists or the Mossad, but not the Jews; when you ask them the tough questions, they have no logical answer. And when they have no arguments left, they always resort to name calling. It's happened to me every time I've engaged any of these dopes in debate.
As for being called an islamophobe. Let's look at it this way. Anti-Semites create paranoid fantasies where Jews, or Zionists, or the Mossad are part of some insidious conspiracy to take over the world, or spread Zionism, or oppress the "Palestinians" or control the government. It used to be contained in the fetid fever swamps of delusional weirdos on the fringes of society. But now, thanks to the advance of Islam into the West, and their willing progressive dupes in the media and on college campuses, it's become another respected point of view. And that does have me concerned.
"Islamophobes" merely read the news and pay attention to the depravities being committed by Muslims around the world. And we take them seriously instead of trying to excuse them in fits of multicultural "understanding". And we certainly don't believe it when a
Canadian newspaper can find no pattern in the arrests of suspects in a terror plot who all just happen to be Muslims. Nor do we ignore the fact that
French "youths" who are torching cars every night in the suburbs of Paris are Muslims. Reports like
this and
this and
this and
this just from the past two days on
Little Green Footballs help to fuel the fire of distrust of the Muslims world in this islamophobe. It doesn't even include the anti-Israel aspects of professional women's tennis that LGF and
Debbie Schlussel are reporting on. And if you notice, Islam or Muslims are never responsible for any evil done by Muslims in the name of Islam, never ever. It's not a Muslims man's fault he can't control his sexual urges. It's the fault of women, who must be covered from head to to in a shapeless garment so nobody can know who or what is under it.
OK, so that's only true in some Islamic countries. In others, women can show their faces. Wow, that's a huge step toward freedom!
So with all of the vicious hatred coming from the Muslim world, I will continue to be on my guard, and I will continue to stand up for the one democracy in the Middle East, the one Jewish country in the world, no matter how much anyone with a morally inverted view of the world tries to convince me with their mental gymnastics and delusional thinking that good is evil and evil is good.
Labels: "islamophobia", anti-semitism, Debbie Schlussel, islam, Israel, Little Green Footballs, MSM
Sympathy for the Devil
As expected because it happens every time Israel takes the gloves off and defends itself, the MSM has decided that the big bad Israelis are hurting the poor defenseless Gazans. As
Michael Oren reports,
International's coverage of Saturday's fighting in Gaza concluded at midnight with a rush of images: mangled civilians writhing in the rubble, primitive hospitals overflowing with the wounded, fireballs mushrooming between apartment complexes, the funeral of a Palestinian child. Missing from the montage, however, was even a fleeting glimpse of the tens of thousands of Israelis who spent last night and much of last week in bomb shelters; of the house in Netivot, where a man was killed by a Grad missile; or indeed any of the hundreds of rockets, mortar shells, and other projectiles fired by Hamas since the breakdown of the so-called ceasefire. This was CNN at its unprincipled worst, grossly skewering its coverage of a complex event and deceiving its viewers. Yet Israel should not have been surprised.
What's even more sickening, hypocritical, and downright evil is that, as we all know, there is real
oppression going on in the world. As
Nat Hentoff points out,
If Eleanor Roosevelt were still here, she would be enraged and sickened by the utter failure of the United Nations, which she nurtured into being, to stop the continually mounting horrors inflicted on the people of Zimbabwe by its insatiably evil president, Robert Mugabe. While the United Nations just mutters away, in a Dec. 7 lead editorial, the Washington Times got to the rotting core of his rule: "People are starving and compete in the countryside with baboons, jackals and goats for roots and wild fruits; health care has imploded and cholera is on the march as water and sewer systems collapse; and refugees by the millions have left the country." Some of those refugees bring cholera with them to neighboring states.
South Africa keeps shaming itself by continuing only to "mediate" this virulent crisis as if it's possible to mediate relations with a plague. And the 15-nation Southern African Development Community also continues its minuet with deadly Mugabe. Only Botswana and Kenya face the naked truth and call for his removal." Said Mugabe (Associated Press, Dec. 19): "Zimbabwe is mine."
And don't forget other places where innocent people are being slaughtered for one reason or another. But the world can't be bothered to care as Israel must be condemned because those uppity Jews just don't know their place in the world. And it's not just Muslims who expect dhimmi behavior from Israel, most of the rest of the world does too.
But as Charles Johnson at
Little Green Footballs correctly points out,
At some point, though, don’t we need to ask, “How innocent are those ordinary Gazan civilians, anyway?” Just two weeks ago, tens of thousands of these civilians attended an enormous Hamas rally glorifying the Qassam rockets they launch into Israel. The entertainment was an ugly “play” in which a Palestinian dressed as kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was “humiliated” onstage.
[ . . . ]
At some point, though, don’t we need to ask, “How innocent are those ordinary Gazan civilians, anyway?” Just two weeks ago, tens of thousands of these civilians attended an enormous Hamas rally glorifying the Qassam rockets they launch into Israel. The entertainment was an ugly “play” in which a Palestinian dressed as kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was “humiliated” onstage.
Debbie Schlussel makes an important point as to the ineptitude of current Israeli leadership. We can only hope that they sharpen up immediately. They've taken the initiative. They'd better keep it.
Labels: Debbie Schlussel, Gaza, Israel, Little Green Footballs, MSM
Mumbai
Everyone (or at least it seems like everyone) has demonstrated their disgust at the Mumbai massacre. Some news sources even used the words "Islamic" and "terrorists" in the same paragraph. It may have been accidental, but some of us noticed. The
truly stupid are still scratching their heads wondering what could have set these young militants on their murder spree.
Melanie Phillips, who should always be listened to, said:
We should pay the closest possible attention to what happened in Mumbai because something on this scale could well happen here.
But because we don't understand what we are actually up against, we are not doing nearly enough to prevent this — or something even worse — occurring; and if it were to happen here, we would be unable to cope.
The Mumbai atrocities show very clearly what too many obdurately deny — that a war is being waged against civilization.
It is both global and local. It is not 'our' fault; it has nothing to do with Muslim poverty, oppression or discrimination.
The Islamic fundamentalist fanatics use specific grievances — Kashmir, Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya — merely as recruiting sergeants for their worldwide holy war against all 'unbelievers'.
The Mumbai attackers targeted British, American and Indian citizens simply because they wanted to kill as many British, American and Indian 'unbelievers' as possible.
Where they found Muslims, they spared them.
They also singled out for slaughter the occupants of an outreach organization geared to Jews with no Israeli or political agenda — underscoring the point that at the core of the Islamists' hatred of Israel festers their hatred of the Jews.
This was not, as is so often described, 'mindless violence'.
The biggest problem we're facing is not the Islamic terrorists though. It's the idiots in the MSM and other opinion makers, who sit with their heads firmly entrenched up their elite buttocks, preferring to wallow in the stench of their own crap rather than admit to the reality of today's world. Small minority . . . hijacking of a great religion . . . How ignorant must someone keep themselves to believe that crap?
It's been
reported that,
Despite the evidence presented, there is an incredible disconnect from reality by otherwise rational and reasonable individuals, people in leadership, and some at higher levels in our own law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Why else would one treat with sickening malaise the existence of a bullet-ridden school bus situated on the grounds of a private Islamic commune located at the base of the Catskill Mountains in New York State? This would be the same Islamic compound “of Qu’ranic study” that is outfitted with a firing range, where area residents often hear the sounds of automatic and semi-automatic weapons fire.
How was this group dealt with by local community leaders? Not with the slightest scintilla of suspicion or even curiosity, but with a parade. An actual parade, through the streets of Binghamton, NY, to celebrate interfaith dialogue. What about law enforcement? Well, they consider this commune “good residents,” mostly because they have not had to respond to any “trouble calls” to that location.
It is truly the fault of cowardly leaders in the West, in Europe and the United States that the Islamo Nazis have made this much progress against us.
Will the massacre in Mumbai cause any of our politically correct elite to remove their heads from the comfort of their own asses? Maybe, but I'm guessing they will be few in number. If we are to actually ever fight back it will be in spite of our leaders, not because of them.
“Fear not your enemies, for they can only kill you.
Fear not your friends, for they can only betray you.
Fear only the indifferent, who permit the killers and betrayers
to walk safely on the earth.”
Edward Yashinsky
Labels: Edward Yashinsky, islam, Melanie Phillips, MSM, Mumbai, terrorism
The Best Laid Plans . . .
I had planned to write a scathing post firing the MSM due to the total abdication of their mission by so many mainstream journalists. Not surprisingly I'm not the only one bemoaning the lack of honesty and professionalism of the current crop of newsfolk. So rather than write, I'm going to link to others who have already written what I was planning on writing for the past two weeks. These links are much better written than what I would have turned out anyway. You would think that some of them are professional writers.
Victor Davis Hanson writes about
the end of journalism.
There have always been media biases and prejudices. Everyone knew that Walter Cronkite, from his gilded throne at CBS news, helped to alter the course of the Vietnam War, when, in the post-Tet depression, he prematurely declared the war unwinnible. Dan Rather’s career imploded when he knowingly promulgated a forged document that impugned the service record of George W. Bush. We’ve known for a long time — from various polling, and records of political donations of journalists themselves, as well as surveys of public perceptions — that the vast majority of journalists identify themselves as Democratic, and liberal in particular.
Yet we have never quite seen anything like the current media infatuation with Barack Obama, and its collective desire not to raise key issues of concern to the American people. Here were four areas of national interest that were largely ignored.
Diana West points out some of the episodes of media failure to inform.
Despite the disgrace of our free-but-self-caged press, many voters have managed to learn for themselves that Obama has spent a lifetime associating with the kind of anti-Americans and subversives that, by rights, make him ineligible for a federal security clearance — something Daniel Pipes has noted. Many voters understand that when you "spread the wealth around" you are enacting a basic premise of Marxism, or communism, or socialism, or something once upon a time derided as plain old commie-pinko. But that was a long time ago, and the fact is, we just don't know how many Americans are still put off, if not outraged, by such things.
And maybe this becomes the most important question to be settled on Nov. 4: How many Americans still consider mixing with and supporting bomb-throwers and radicals to be un-presidential? How many Americans still consider a Marxist basis for economics to be, in fact, downright un-American?
The most forceful piece is by
Orson Scott Card. He calls it, "Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?" You should read all of these in their entirety, but if you can read only one, read this one.
An open letter to the local daily paper -- almost every local daily paper in America:
I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.
This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.
It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.
What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.
The goal of this rule change was to help the poor -- which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house -- along with their credit rating.
They end up worse off than before.
This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.
Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)
Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefitting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?
I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."
Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.
On the other hand, this did save me a lot of writing.
Labels: Diana West, MSM, Obama, Orson Scott Card, Victor Davis Hanson
Stupidly Biased Headlines
At Comcast's homepage, the headline reads, "Companies get OK to harm polar bears. When you go to the actual story though, they soften the bias a bit. The headline reads, "
Companies get OK to annoy polar bears". Then there is this provocative opening,
Less than a month after declaring polar bears a threatened species because of global warming, the Bush administration is giving oil companies permission to annoy and potentially harm them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas.
The Fish and Wildlife Service issued regulations this week providing legal protection to seven oil companies planning to search for oil and gas in the Chukchi Sea off the northwestern coast of Alaska if "small numbers" of polar bears or Pacific walruses are incidentally harmed by their activities over the next five years.
Environmentalists said the new regulations give oil companies a blank check to harass the polar bear.
If you are not an acolyte of Al Gore and you are intelligent enough to keep reading, you get to,
However, the Fish and Wildlife Service said oil and gas exploration will have a negligible effect on the bears' population.
"The oil and gas industry in operating under the kind of rules they have operated under for 15 years has not been a threat to the species," H. Dale Hall, the Fish and Wildlife Service's director, told The Associated Press on Friday. "It was the ice melting and the habitat going away that was a threat to the species over everything else."
and
"Polar bears are already protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which has more stringent protections for polar bears than the Endangered Species Act does,"
and
There is no evidence of a polar bear being killed by oil and gas activities in Alaska since 1993, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Since 1960, when the hunt for oil and gas began in Alaska, only two fatalities of polar bears have been linked to oil and gas activities in the state, the service said.
Inbetween, there are some typically stupid statements by environmentalists who don't want us to have any oil or gasoline ever again.
The other stupidly biased headline was in today's
Detroit Free Press. It read, "Broad scale of U.S. injustice revealed." It actually comes from the reliably anti-American, anti-Israel, McClatchy Newspapers. According to the article, somehow the United States military picked up the wrong guys on the battlefields of Afghanistan and foolishly imprisoned them in Guatanamo Bay. They're all innocent. They're all
victims of circumstance. No mention is made of the "innocent" detainees, who after being released from Gitmo have been
recaptured on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At least 10 detainees released from the Guantanamo Bay prison after U.S. officials concluded they posed little threat have been recaptured or killed fighting U.S. or coalition forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to Pentagon officials.
One of the repatriated prisoners is still at large after taking leadership of a militant faction in Pakistan and aligning himself with al Qaeda, Pakistani officials said. In telephone calls to Pakistani reporters, he has bragged that he tricked his U.S. interrogators into believing he was someone else.
Another returned captive is an Afghan teenager who had spent two years at a special compound for young detainees at the military prison in Cuba, where he learned English, played sports and watched videos, informed sources said. U.S. officials believed they had persuaded him to abandon his life with the Taliban, but recently the young man, now 18, was recaptured with other Taliban fighters near Kandahar, Afghanistan, according to the sources, who asked for anonymity because they were discussing sensitive military information.
The MSM is getting lamer by the day. Not only are they actively working against the interests of Western civilization, they barely even try to hide it.
Labels: Comcast, Detroit Free Press, Guantanamo Bay, media bias, MSM
Finding the Dark Cloud in the Silver Lining
The Associated Press ran
this story. The Detroit Free Press dutifully picked it up, but due to space limitations only ran a
portion of it under the headline, " '07 may be U.S. troops' deadliest".
With less than two months left in the year, 2007 is on course to be the deadliest year on record for U.S. forces in Iraq, despite a recent sharp drop in U.S. deaths.
At least 847 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year -- the second-highest annual death toll since the war began in March 2003, according to Associated Press figures.
In 2004, the bloodiest year of the war for the United States so far, 850 American troops died.
Most were killed in large, conventional battles like the campaign in Fallujah against Sunni militants in November, and U.S. clashes with Shi'ite militiamen in Najaf in August.
But the U.S. military in Iraq has increased its exposure this year, reaching 165,000 troops -- the highest levels yet.
Moreover, the military's decision to send soldiers out of large bases and into Iraqi communities means more troops have seen more "contact with enemy forces" than ever before, said Maj. Winfield Danielson, a U.S. military spokesman.
This is another demonstration that no matter how well things go in Iraq, those dedicated supporters of our troops will find a way to turn it into a negative. When Iraq is pacified and rebuilt, when our troops have been allowed to finish their job, the MSM and assorted Democrats will either find a way to spin that into a negative or try to take credit for it. You really have to wonder at this point how low they can go and how lame they can be.
Labels: Detroit Free Press, Iraq, MSM
Redefining "Islamophobia"
We could say that the 25 newspapers that refused to run the comic strip
Opus these past two Sundays are all suffering serious symptoms of Islamophobia. I don’t mean that phony malady promoted by
CAIR and their fellow traveling jihadi sympathizers. I mean a real fear of Muslims. The papers that wimped out on the Opus issue did so out of a genuine fear of Muslims and what they would do if some insane irresponsible imam whipped the Muslim world into the same kind of frenzy that we witnessed during the
Danish Cartoon meltdown. This is the Islamophobia that the Islamists want us to feel. They want us to be afraid to "insult" Islam, or even question Islam. This is the Islamophobia that keeps the dhimmis in their place. It's the Islamophobia the Swedes refuse to bow down to (at least in this case) in their defense of the
Mohammed dog cartoons.
A phobia is defined as an irrational fear. But based on past experience, this fear is far from irrational. Cowardly maybe, but not irrational. Since so many in the mainstream media (who should know better) have once again twisted and debased the English language by accepting Islamophobia as a legitimate state of mind, we can call their acceptance of dhimmi status, Islamophobia.
Besides self-censoring the comics page, are newspapers also censoring and adjusting the news because of their Islamophobia? After all, both Detroit papers ran glowing press releases – uh – I mean articles on the appointment of
Ismail Ahmed as head of Michigan's Department of Human Services.
Debbie Schlussel was the only source of information as to Ahmed’s dark past, which, had either paper also reported it, outraged readers might have demanded his appointment be rescinded. My letters to newspapers and government officials, alas, were not enough to do the trick.
Both papers give Muslims, including spokesmen from CAIR, valuable space on their editorial pages to advance their causes. A Muslim spokesmen was allowed to criticize those of us who are against the building of Muslim footbaths at U of M Dearborn with student fees, as Islamophobes. Another prominent Muslim was quoted in an article on the New York City Police Report on homegrown terrorism, making the idiotic claim that Islamophobia is morally equivalent to anti-Semitism and racism. That's the phony Islamophobia by the way. The real Islamophobia is that fear of Muslims that keeps the News and Free Press pages always open to Islamic spokesmen.
There are other stories that we are not getting from the News or the Free Press. When is the last time they reported on the constant bomb attacks across the “restive” south of
Thailand by Islamic terrorists? Why haven’t we read about the destruction of the
Nahr al-Barad refugee camp in
Lebanon that has left 40,000 Palestinians homeless? Last summer, The News and The Free Press featured Al-Jazeera style reports, day after day, as reporters from both papers followed a group of Lebanese-Americans on a tour of houses that were destroyed by Israel simply because they housed Hezbollah-built rocket launchers that blasted rockets indiscriminately into Israel in order to murder innocent civilians. Then there was the tiny story of four
Sudanese refugees being beaten to death by Egyptian soldiers as they sought to gain refuge in Israel. Not refuge in any Muslim country, but in Israel, you know the Jewish state condemned by the Muslim world, Europe, and the United Nation's so-called C
ommission on Human Rights, but the only country in entire Muslim dominated North Africa/Middle East that Muslim genocide victims looked to find at least a tiny sliver of hope.
Can all of this be chalked up to Islamophobia? Is there a fear in newsrooms across America that protects Muslims from reports of all but their most egregious crimes? What have you heard about the
Holy Land Charity trial in Texas? Outside of the Internet, and a few MSM sources, not much. In Detroit papers, nothing. So maybe they’re right. Maybe Islamophobia is a serious problem. But remember, it's the Islamophobia of the dhimmi, that very real fear that makes one accept a second class existence under the "protection" of Islam. Is that what our newspapers have accepted?
Labels: "islamophobia", Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, MSM, Opus
AntiSemitism at the BBC
In the interest of appeasement (at least in my opinion) the Detroit News gives runs an occasional column by local imam, and Hezbollah supporter,
Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi
No matter what the subject of his columns are, he almost always throws in at least one gratuitous slap at Israel, and the occasional anti Bush jab. A few years ago, he made the idiotic statement:
"There are Jewish extremists who believe those do not confess the Torah must be killed".
It made no sense except to insult Jews so I googled the statement and ended up at a Nazi website on their fake Talmudic Quote page. They also had fake Zohar (kabbalah) quotes, but nothing from the Tanakh (bible) because those would be too easy to refute. As unknown as the Talmud is even among most Jews, the Zohar is very obscure. Neither the Imam or the Nazis he admires know that Jews do not "confess the Torah", whatever that means. Not only did I write to local Jewish leaders about it, getting zero response, but I did a
post on it. I always wondered, did the Nazis make up these quotes?
Nope, they stole them from the original source. I found that source at
Melanie Phillips who linked to
Harry's Place. Why the sudden interest in these anti-Jewish defamations? Because now they're showing up on the BBC message board and the BBC doesn't object. According to the post at Harry's Place,
BBC Radio 5 Live message board moderators have refused to remove a posting from the 5 Live website, which states that
“Zionism is a racist ideology where jews are given supremacy over all other races and faiths.
This is found in the Talmud.
There is a law called Baba Mezia which allows jews to lie as long as its to non-jews. many pro jewish supporters will cringe at this being exposed because they know it exists, yet they keep quiet about it, hey frip, jla and co
The Law of Baba Mezia!! Tsk tsk tsk! Its in the Talmud.”
When I brought the mailing to the attention of the moderator, “The BBC Communities Team” emailed back, stating
“we have decided that it does not contravene the House Rules and are going to leave it on site”.
Apparently, at least three others have also complained to the BBC.
The message was posted by “Iron Naz”. A brief Google search on this name suggests that he is unlikely to be a (bottom of the class) Jewish theological student.
Only “Iron Naz” himself knows how he came to hear of the supposed Law of Baba Mezia. The bastardisation of Talmud quotes, however, is normally rooted within “The Talmud Unmasked”, a classic core antisemitic text written at the end of the 19th Century by a Jew hating Russian Catholic Priest, Rev. Father Justin Praniatis, who gave evidence at the infamous Beilis blood libel trial in Kiev, 1913.
Praniatis argued that the Talmud advocated ritual murder, but was shown by Jewish and Christian scholars to be a charlatan with no knowledge of the Talmud. The all Christian jury found Beilis innocent. The influence, however, of Rev. Praniatis’ work has of course spread well beyond the confines of Imperial Russia.
Today, the core text, “The Talmud Unmasked” is distributed by neo-Nazi booksellers via the internet. It gained a brief surge of publicity in the UK in the early 1990s as part of a series of mass antisemitic mailshots by a coterie of veteran Jew haters led by the notorious Dowager Lady Jane Birdwood. She was eventually convicted in 1994 of distributing “threatening, abusive and insulting material” on account of an antisemitic compendium, “The Longest Hatred”, the contents of which included the Talmud material.
Attacks on the Talmud are also an increasingly routine component of Arab and Islamist antisemitism, anti-Zionism and Israel hatred. Until now, however, the BBC was not known to have joined this particular part of the club.
It is bad enough that it is up to readers to police what the BBC publish on their own websites, but it is far sadder that this public body should actively refuse to remove the filth, and give no explanation for their actions - or perhaps its just that “The BBC Communities Team” agree with the essential element of the posting:
“Zionism is a racist ideology where jews are given supremacy over all other races and faiths.”
Even though they deny it, the MSM, especially in Britain where the BBC and other news sources are especially blatant in their Jew hatred, have allowed some nasty antisemitism to filter up from the deranged, paranoid hate mongers to the mainstream. In the U.S., the claim is that both sides have to be represented, but if you look at what they choose to publish, with the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, and the NY Times all giving their oped pages over to Hamas, you know that's a lie.
Of course, "The Talmud Unmasked" can be found in its entirety on the Internet. It's also available from Amazon. Reading some of the reviews there from reviewers who accept its veracity, you can feel the insanity. Cruising the Internet, there is a lot of hatred and insanity. It does not have to be fed by the BBC. If I were a British Jew, I'd be looking to emigrate.
I will have to find time to write the BBC.
Labels: anti-semitism, BBC, fake Talmudic quotes, Harry's Place, Imam Elahi, Melanie Phillips, MSM
You Can Fool Some of the People Some of the Time
Both of Detroit's major newspapers run frequent puff pieces on Islam and on local Muslims. If something newsworthy (bad) happens in the Middle East, a Muslim voice, or two, or many, are given a few column inches to blame Israel for the problem. There is always at least one representative from
CAIR. There may or may not be a response by a local Jewish milquetoast rather than a strong Jewish voice.
Last week's puff piece in the
Detroit Free Press celebrated American Muslim women subjugating themselves by choosing to wear head scarves,
At 19, Sandra Jawad decided she wanted to wear an Islamic head scarf. Her mother's response: a long lecture on how that could draw prejudice and limit her career options. "She told me, it's going to be hard. ... It'll make things difficult," Jawad said, recalling a four-hour talk with her mom in their Dearborn home last July.
Jawad eventually convinced her family to let her wear the head scarf. And six months later, her 44-year-old mother began wearing one, too, spurred by her daughter's religious awakening.
The two are part of the growing number of Muslim women in Michigan choosing to wear the head scarves, known as hijab, with many donning them at increasingly younger ages.
The upswing is driven by increased attendance at local mosques and Islamic schools, where clerics often describe hijab as the flag of Islam.
And the local trend mirrors an increased use of hijab among women in the Middle East and Europe, where Islamic beliefs in Muslim communities have intensified. In the past, women often waited until reaching their teenage years or middle age before putting on hijab, but now, even elementary school-age children are wearing them.
There is some controversy because,
Some "look at us, smirk, stick out their tongues or shout out the window, 'Why do you have that on?' " said Arrwa Mogalli, 29, of Dearborn, who has worn hijab since she was 11. "You have nuns totally covered ... and no one questions it. But when a Muslim does it, we're from outer space."
Drat those accursed Islamophobes! Don't they know that:
. . . regardless of style, the underlying concept is the same: "A woman is like a pearl that needs to be hidden,"
A few days later in the
Free Press letter section, most of the responses were not proper dhimmi responses. Readers wrote in with comments like:
In response to your June 12 article "A return to tradition: More Muslim women in metro Detroit defy stares and prejudice by wearing head scarves": Wearing of hijab is not a return to tradition, but an anachronism and a throwback to a time when religious differences were at their zenith and bred hatred, warfare, crusades, jihad and abuse of women, requiring them to be hidden from the sight of conquering hordes.
A nation's level of civilization is best measured by how safe its women feel in expressing themselves without fear of being attacked. The nations where the practice of covering women is most rampant are precisely the ones where women are treated like property and attacked for educating themselves, seeking financial independence, and finding a mate on their own by freely showing their full nature and intellect.
Cultural diversity is all very fine, but the ones that negate enjoyment of life, encourage withdrawal from others, signal that you cannot make contact with me -- even look at me -- should not be encouraged. Such diversity is not expression of culture but of subtle hatred and undermines core American traditions.
and
So women are analogous to pearls that you have to keep hidden. At one Muslim meeting, it was said that that they are like flowers. What about women are persons who can stand up to men and don't have to hide behind their own skirts?
and especially,
There is no comparison between a covered nun and Islamic hijab. No one living in a Christian community has to worry about armed gangs breaking into a family home to threaten, beat or kill them because their daughters haven't become nuns. Islamic women have to worry about that daily in the Islamic world, and even in European countries Islamic women are subject to "honor killings."
Dressing modestly is a worthy ideal in any religion, but the traditional Islamic hijab is not a command from God; it's a command from Islamic men trying to preserve what they perceive to be the value of a woman as property. If free Islamic women truly want to honor the ideal of modest dress yet break the thought process of women as property, then they'll innovate new fashions that are modest yet don't look like the traditional dress that is associated with female oppression.
So even though our backstabbing MSM and other deluded opinion leaders are working overtime to force a benevolent impression of Islam, some Americans refuse to be fooled. Call us Islamophobes or anything you want. We don't care.
Labels: head scarves, islam, MSM
Muslim Mau-Mauing
Over the past six years we've seen a depressing number of news sources accept their dhimmi status and bow to Islamic thugs at CAIR and other Muslim pressure groups. They were afraid to publish the Mohammed cartoons. They condemned the Pope for his statements rather than violent Islamic reaction to the truth he told. They bought the Hezbollah propaganda during last summer's Lebanon war without question. Now Newsweek is trying to present Iran as a possible victim of American agression, or as it states in its insanely and blindly sympathetic to Iran
article,
The Iranians have reason to feel paranoid.
Fortunately, not every journalist is ready to bend over.
Rod Dreher boldly refuses to join the majority of his collegues in submission to Islamic pressure groups.
Dallas is home to a large and relatively prosperous Muslim community. The Dallas Central Mosque is Texas’s largest. The area’s Muslims, though, have had a contentious relationship in recent years with the Dallas Morning News, mostly because of the paper’s groundbreaking 2001 reporting on the Holy Land Foundation, whose leadership is now under federal terrorism indictment. Since then, local Muslim leaders have engaged in a running dialogue with the News, with the declared aim of improving relations.
It was in that spirit that Sayyid Syeed, then head of the Islamic Society of North America, came in, together with a local delegation, to see the editorial board a few months after I arrived from New York in 2003. Syeed made a laborious presentation about how journalists needed to join with the organization in promoting peace, tolerance, and reconciliation. I knew something about ISNA and asked Syeed why—if his group truly supported peace and suchlike—its board included members directly linked to Islamic extremism and anti-Semitism, including the notorious Wahhabi-trained Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj. The professorial Syeed dropped his polite mask, shook his fist at me, told me that I would one day “repent,” and compared my question with a Nazi inquisition.
Hysterical indignation, I soon learned, is the standard operating procedure for Islamic groups in dealing with the media in this town. Shortly after the Syeed meeting, I published a column in the News decrying the media’s evasion of legitimate questions about Islamic figures and organizations, hoping to shame journalists into posing them. That’s how I became, in the designation of one (now-defunct) Muslim website dedicated to criticizing the News, “the new face of hate.”
Read the whole thing for more on Dreher's battle against his local Dallas Islamists. He is inspiring and he gives me hope that others in his business will listen to him and realize what the Islamic supremecists are trying to force on us. Then write to your local news outlets and demand that they be vigilent in not succumbing to Islamic pressure. Especially write to the dhimmis at Newsweek and ask why they are taking the side of Iranian psychopath, Amadinajad. Have they no shame?
Labels: dhimmis, islam, MSM, Ron Dreher
The Death of Anna Politkovska
Michelle Malkin has the skinny on murdered Russian journalist, Anna Politkovska. The larger question, outside of "who did it?" is; will journalists and "human rights" groups demand answers the way they do from the United States and Israel when a journalist is accidentally killed under their watch? Or will they not even bother since Russia is not an open society and can't be shamed the way a country with a consensual government can.
So go ahead, you self-styled "speakers of truth to power", demand answers from Putin! Don't relent until he gives them to you. Let the rest of us spectators sit back and enjoy the spectacle.
Labels: Anna Politkovska, MSM
The Press vs. Israel
Nidra Poller has an excellent
article on the propensity of the gullible world-wide press to blame Israel for everything that goes wrong in the Middle East. This, plus the fact that they always give the benefit of the doubt to Hamas, or Hezbollah, or Fatah, or whichever Muslim terrorist group is claiming that Israel has commited a "crime against humanity" for defending itself makes one wonder if the press isn't made up almost totally of shills for the Jew-haters. Recalling the incident on the Gaza beach where seven members of a Muslim family were killed, Poller writes:
Two days after the incident, though, ample information, leaked to and posted on reputable websites, suggested that the Palestinian-supplied video “proving” Israel’s responsibility for the deaths and injuries had been manipulated—a shot of an Israeli Defense Forces gunboat, filmed earlier that day, spliced in to give the impression that it was firing directly at the beach, the scene of Huda finding her father’s body apparently staged. Data on the six shells fired from an Israeli gunboat that afternoon showed that the soldiers had aimed at a Qassam rocket-launching site at least 800 feet from the sunbathers. And so on.
But even after the IDF made the results of its investigation public at a press conference at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Western journalists maintained a climate of artificial doubt—balancing, even overshadowing, the government report with a reiteration of the Hamas narrative, now dressed up in pseudoscientific trappings supplied by a Human Rights Watch “expert,” Mark Garlasco.
Why is a lone investigator, working for a nongovernmental organization, more reliable than General Meir Kalifi’s investigating commission? What impartial agency has verified the data presented by Human Rights Watch and its self-designated expert? Hamas has an agenda. HRW has an agenda. But what is the agenda of the free press in our own democratic countries?
Rational examination of the evidence shifts the burden of doubt to the Hamas (and HRW) version of the incident. Israeli officials have now released ample details to support their conclusions. Hospital reports testify that one of the wounded had shrapnel removed by Palestinian doctors before her transfer to an Israeli hospital—medically inexplicable treatment that might have been about getting rid of any proof that Palestinian ordnance had caused the explosion. Close scrutiny of outtakes from the original video reveals a mixture of staging and real-time filming. Interviewed by Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Palestinian cameraman who filmed the explosion delivers a garbled story that unravels under questioning.
Labels: Israel, MSM, NIdra Poller
War's legitimate object is more perfect peace. Flavius Vegitius Renatus
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CHALLAH AKBAR
