The number of Modoggie posts has grown so large that it’s no longer practical to leave a list of them at the bottom of every post. This list will be kept up to date, and from now on I’ll link to this post when referring to previous Modoggie stories.
The Strange Case of the Modoggies; or, Mohammed as a Roundabout Dog
Right now the oppressive regime in Myanmar, or Burma, is once more featuring prominently in the news. The hated regime represents everything that left wing political parties abhor: excessive brutal force used to suppress the poor population, widespread censorship, strict military rule. You name it, the Burmese government does it. But… the government isn’t a right wing dictatorship at all. It is a socialist dictatorship!
Yes, you read that right: Myanmar is a people’s socialist republic, just as Cuba, Laos, and North Korea are. Myanmar was a British colony that gained independence in 1948 under the name “the Union of Burma”. It was a prospering democratic country. Rich in resources, rich in history, with many capable people. The first non-westerner to head an international organization was the Burmese U Thant: he became Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1961 to 1966. Unfortunately, Burma also had a few capable people who weren’t interested in the nation, only in wealth and power. Meet General Ne Win.
That changed in 1962, when General Ne Win staged a coup d’état. From that moment Burma shut down its borders to the world. He ruled for 20 years with an iron fist. Under his government the country became a socialist nation. Not just in name, but a real socialist nation. With all the trappings: the nationalization of industry, a government monopoly on just about everything, strong censorship, closed borders, and a one party government. Plus, of course, widespread poverty for everybody, even for the supporters of the regime. Only the top generals a few colonels and a major or two really bathe in luxury. is beats being a sergeant cracking the whip than being a civilian on the receiving end, however — the normal way socialism works worldwide, in other words.
In 1974 the regime changed its name to the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma. In 1988 they again changed it, this time into “The Union of Burma”. It wasn’t what they really wanted, so in 1989 the country was renamed again, now as Myanmar. The name Burma still applies, but is officially not recognized anymore.
A rose would still smell as sweet even if you name it differently. The reverse, of course, is also true: manure wouldn’t smell any better under a different name. The government in 1988 named itself the “State Law and Order Restoration Council” or SLORC for short. When this gave the world a foul taste in its mouth: Why, we change it, of course! So the SLORC became the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) in 1997. Under this name the socialist regime is currently known — until the next change, that is. No matter under what name they operate, be in no doubt that Myanmar is a socialist people’s republic.
- – - - – - – - -
From the moment Burma closed itself off from the outside world, the economy went up the creek. What was once a prosperous country with a good future to look forward to changed into a socialist slave camp. Maybe not as bad as North Korea, but certainly one of the worst in the socialist world. So bad, in fact, that even socialists do not want to be associated with it. Now, that really takes some doing!
Several Western governments are now being urged by left-wing organizations and parties to boycott Myanmar. The Dutch government in particular is rather vocal about it. Prime Minister Balkenende, who incidentally just announced he will refuse a referendum on the Euro constitution, against the wishes of both parliament and the entire population, asked for such an international boycott. Krista van Velzen, a member of parliament for the Dutch Socialist Party and the only member of parliament with a criminal record, is extremely vocal about economically boycotting this vile oppressive regime into surrender. Which is in line with her party’s policy, I might add.
This is completely useless. Boycotts are rarely successful. If they are, other factors play a much more important role behind the scenes. As much as the socialist fighters for world peace and solidarity would like you to believe: South Africa wasn’t boycotted economically into surrender. Exporting oranges formed just a little part of the economy (“Boycott Outspan”), exporting gold was far more important. Political pressure from the leading nations of the world changed more than not buying a few oranges. South Africa was anything but a socialist nation, so international political pressure did work.
In Burma even that doesn’t work. The government, in good socialist tradition, doesn’t give a hoot about the world or anyone’s opinion. If it did, it would have surrendered decades ago. It doesn’t like a boycott, but doesn’t care one way or another. Exporting rubies is profitable enough, be it legal or illegal. (A lot of the ruby export is done illegally the government itself.) Big companies, such as Shell, Heineken and Phillips have been forced out of Burma without any effect whatsoever, apart from some loss of revenue, and not even a significant loss at that. Since they are exploiting capitalist companies, that’s a side benefit in the eyes of our progressive fighters for the world proletariat.
In fact, the opposite would work: much more international business investment in the country would almost certainly topple the government. Big companies usually provide good health care and education for their staff and dependents. They build hospitals and schools. A healthy worker is a good worker. An educated worker is a profitable worker. Doesn’t sound altruistic, but that’s the way the world works. Luxury is addictive. Once business invest in Burma’s economy, it will improve everybody’s standard of living measurably. Sooner or later the regime will topple from within. It’s also much easier to convince a rich general to retire in comfort than force him to defend himself until the last bullet.
This was Bangkok reporting,
H. Numan.
Thanks to the suave and sophisticated LN for this story.
Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers has a new target these days: God.
Chambers filed a lawsuit in Douglas County Court Friday afternoon. However, Chambers isn’t suing God because he has any kind of beef with the deity. He says the suit is to fight possible laws restricting the filing of frivolous lawsuits.
There are those (usually to the left of us at Gates of Vienna) who say the majority of frivolous lawsuits don’t originate with individual citizens, but are overwhelmingly corporate conflicts. Here are a few examples:
The single factor most clogging the judicial system is frivolous litigation brought by corporations against corporations, which don’t involve independent trial lawyers at all. For example,
- John Deere went after a competitor for using the same shade of green that Deere paints its tractors.
- Gillette sued Norelco, claiming its ads for a new electric razor were “false and deceptive” because they depicted non-electric razors as “ferocious creatures.”
- Nabisco sued Keebler over the latter’s claim that its chocolate-chip cookies contained 25 percent more chips than Nabisco’s.
Each of these cases is more representative of the true problem of frivolous litigation.
However, the blogger making this claim has his own spin:
…because they involve a Republican constituency-business-rather than a Democrat constituency like trial lawyers, tort reform advocates don’t mention them [the corporate civil suits].
This attitude regarding tort law seems to be in a minority. Many people think that tort reform is long overdue:
An elite group of greedy trial lawyers are exploiting the legal system for their own gain. The balance has tilted too far and all of us pay more for goods then we need to and have fewer products to choose from due to manufacturer fear of exploitative lawsuits.
This is why we need civil justice reform in this country; to restore the proper balance and confidence in the system. Fewer and fewer Americans view the civil justice system as fair and just. A recent poll commissioned by the Institute for Legal Reform found that 67% of Americans believe that lawyers benefit most from the current class action lawsuit system.
The system was not intended to benefit lawyers, and yet 2/3 of Americans believe that is exactly who benefits most from the current class action lawsuit system. Undoubtedly, these two-thirds of Americans make decisions everyday — consciously or subconsciously — based on this lack of confidence in the civil justice system. That is bad for freedom. That is bad for economic prosperity and the pursuit of happiness. And, finally, it is bad for our great experiment in self-government.
As a reflection of the national attitude, there are many thousands of lawyer jokes loading down email boxes in this country. An attorney I know and admire, and one who is far to the left of me (she works for the non-profit, government subsidized organization, Legal Aid), collects these jibes. She’s a salaried attorney whose clients are the very poor — those who cannot get representation in court against landlords, bosses, etc. Her experience has generated a fine contempt for the mega-rich attorneys like John Edwards, who has made a killing in tort law, even as he plays his broken record about the “Two Americas” — the selfish rich and the deserving poor. A man with a 29,000 square foot home piad for by his share of the take on large civil suits, and who built his presidential campaign on helping the poor — seeing them as vicitms –simply has no sense of irony. But if you’re a Democratic contender, that’s part of your socialist platform and you deviate from it at your own risk.
Nearly everyone running for President is personally wealthy, Democrats and Republicans alike. However, the Dems are stuck with their statist Keynesian New Deal heritage. So they have to keep mouthing platitudes and never admitting that their programs have produced a huge metastasizing underclass in this country — a problem that didn’t exist before President Roosevelt’s Band-Aids on the Depression, or the unintended but deleterious consequences of President Johnson’s War on Poverty. Poverty, with its attendant widespread deviancy and degradation, definitely won that battle. But the Dems still hang on, pretending otherwise, and proposing more “reforms” on top of the damage they’ve already done.
Here are a few favorites from my friend at Legal Aid:
Q: What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 12?
A: Your Honor.
if you’ve sat through a few cases in this country, you might think this IQ# is generously high for many of our judges — D.…
- – - - – - – - -
Q: What’s the difference between a lawyer and a herd of buffalo?
A: The lawyer charges more.
but you still feel run over — D.
Q: What do you call a lawyer gone bad?
A: Senator
That’s why we seldom elect Senators for President in the US — D.
And finally, this:
God decided to take the devil to court and settle their differences once and for all. Satan heard this, laughed and said, “And where do you think you’re going to find a lawyer?”
Here is an image of the first page of state senator Ernie Chamber’s suit against God. May the best person win. While the deity is not an attorney, He may still have the moral edge in this case.
He walks into the room
He’s got a briefcase like a bomb
A smile on both faces
And he calls it aplomb
He wants a bite of your apple
Hands you back the peel -
He’s fresh out of law school
He’s got a license to steal…
When he offers his advice
You can guarantee
For several hundred dollars an hour
He will see
Just how many complications
Your life will reveal -
He’s fresh out of law school
He’s got a license to steal…
He’s an ambulance chaser
A waver of papers
He loves to mix with the movers and shakers
He’s taking from them
He’s taking from you
Lawyers love money
Anybody’s will do (Just take it)
He’s poking his nose
Into people’s despair
When tragedy strikes
He will always be there
Looking so cool
His greed is hard to conceal -
He’s fresh out of law school
You gave him a license to steal…
We’ve got seven hundred thousand
Attorneys at law
Nobody can tell me what we need them all for
We should throw them in chains
Chastise and rebuke them
If that doesn’t work
We should take them out and nuke them
Blow a lawyer to pieces
It’s the obvious way
Don’t wait for a thesis
Do it today
Take him to the court
Of your final appeal
When you’re fresh out of lawyers
You don’t know how good it’s gonna feel…
By the way, Al Stewart’s “License to Steal” is on his CD Last Days of the Century. Done with a rock ’n’ roll back beat, it makes a fine song for aerobic exercise. At the very least, it will increase your endorphin levels.
It appears that a modern EU version of the Nuremberg Laws is being formulated in Europe. A 21st century bureaucratic Brussels equivalent of the Ministry for Racial Purity is under construction.
But this time Europe is following the American model, instead of the Nazi one: instead of the purity of the Herrenvolk, a fair distribution of racial spoils will be the goal.
The first news we received of this came in an email yesterday from a concerned mother:
My son lives in Sweden and he just told me that one of the newspapers says that the EU is concerned about discrimination and will have a survey asking people what their race is. Some Swedish politician said that if this is allowed they will soon have passports stamped Jew. I told my son when he receives it to answer the question with the answer Human Race. If enough people do this they will have to decide that there is no such race as human, or ask nationality. This is as far as I am concerned a way to pass special laws protecting Muslims.
Sorry I don’t have more info. I am sure you can track it down.
God Bless.
Signed,
HumanP.S. Sorry for any spelling errors, but I am furious.
Yesterday evening I asked my Swedish correspondents to see what they could find out. LN supplied a link to a Swedish newspaper story, and Carpenter has translated it.
From yesterday’s Aftonbladet:
The EU now wants to register which racial group you belong to.
“It’s madness”
EU wants to reduce discrimination – by registering which race you belong to.
“I guess they’ll soon begin stamping “J” in Jews’ passports once again,” says MEP Christofer Fjellner of Moderaterna [the Moderate Party].
- – - - – - – - -
It is in the proposal of the EU’s new discrimination directive the rather controversial program is found. In the document, for instance, it’s written that “The European Parliament recommends the member states to consider collecting statistical information on how different racial and ethnic groups are represented.”
Could be legislated
“This is to measure discrimination. But it is madness, even if the intentions are good,” says Cristofer Fjellner. “It’s just the fact that they use the concept of race feels very odd.”
Despite this, the report was adopted by a vast majority. It now goes further to the EU-commission who, to all appearances, will bring a proposal of legislation.
“If it gets adopted, SCB [Statistiska Centralbyrån - Swedish official bureau of statistics] will have to begin collecting such information and sending it on to Brussels” says MEP Carl Schlyter of Miljöpartiet [the Environment Party].
The Swedish MEPs look worriedly at this development. “It is unpleasant” says Cristofer Fjellner.
I did my own research and found this press release from the EU parliament dated September 27th:
No let up in fight against racial discrimination
The European Parliament adopted an own-initiative report on the application of the Racial Equality Directive of 2000 with 500 votes in favour, 46 against and 24 abstentions. MEPs believe more needs to be done to implement the directive in full, notably on issues such as legal redress, the burden of proof in racial discrimination cases, awareness-raising, data collection and the independence of anti-discrimination bodies.
Directive 2000/43/EC (see link below), known as the Racial Equality Directive, was due to be implemented by all Member States by 19 July 2003. The directive was revolutionary at the time of its adoption because it did not limit protection against discrimination to the area of employment but also covers social security, education and access to housing.
However, according to the draft report of the Civil Liberties Committee, authored by Kathalijne Buitenweg (Greens/EFA, NL), questions remain as to the directive’s real impact.
I’d agree with that last sentence, but not for the reasons given by the EU. I’d be concerned that the same pernicious system that we have here in the USA — disproportionate allocation of resources based on ethnic identity — will be adopted in Europe.
But the mandarins of the EU believe that they can use their system to combat — wait for it — discrimination:
Not all Member States have fully implemented it in their national law. Not many cases are brought to court, which the rapporteur believes may be due to the length and complexity of the procedures. Proving discrimination is notoriously difficult, and the directive’s rules on the burden of proof have not been properly applied in some Member States.
Data on race and ethnicity — a useful tool, despite concerns
The collecting of sensitive data, which could be needed to establish indirect discrimination or to assess the extent of discrimination in society, continues to raise concerns and fears in many Member States. The committee “underlines that additional guarantees should be provided for data on race and ethnicity, as these data could be diverted and used for other purposes in the justice and home affairs field” but it does believe such data — for example, statistics on racist crime and on employment — are needed as a tool to combat discrimination.
Now we get down to the nitty-gritty of this deal. Countries in Europe, bowing to their PC Multicultural idols, do not gather crime statistics based on race or ethnic origin. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so hard to get exact numbers on the incidence of violence by Muslim ethnic minorities — the data are simply not collected. Everyone knows that the rate of immigrant crime is vastly greater than the proportion of the population, but no one can say exactly what it is.
And the EU wants to keep it that way. Its citizens and taxpayers will be required to deliver benefits by the dump truck load to the protected ethnic groups, but will be forbidden to look at the crime and mayhem the immigrants commit.
And here’s a final little fillip from the wizards in Brussels:
Independence and funding of equality bodies
Although nearly all Member States now have bodies responsible for equality issues, the report questions whether all such bodies will be able to carry out their functions independently as required by the directive, and whether these bodies have sufficient funding to operate effectively. MEPs believe the Commission can play a role in monitoring the independence of these bodies.
This is truly Orwellian. The directive requires the bodies to operate independently. The Commission will act to enforce the independence of these bodies, and monitor their independence.
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Subordination is Independence.
My correspondent is right: when this process reaches its full flower, there will be no more Human Race.
There will be the Ummah Race and the Kuffar Race.
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in’t!
Ousama Kassir, who originally hails from Lebanon, is under indictment in the United States for conspiracy aimed at providing material support to terrorists. He has been charged with planning to set up terror training camps for would-be mujahideen in Oregon back in the 1990s. If his plans had matured, graduates from his little academies would have been sent to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban.
His other alleged activities include setting up and maintaining websites giving fellow terrorists instructions on bomb-making.
Mr. Kassir had been holed up in Sweden, where he was probably safe from the long arm of American law, until 2005. Then he made the mistake of stopping off at the airport in Prague on his way to Beirut. The Czech authorities were alert; they detained him, and have been holding him in custody ever since.
And now it looks like he’s going to be extradited to the United States to face the music. According to the Prague Daily Monitor:
Prague, Sept 25 (CTK) — Swede of Lebanese origin Ousama Kassir left the Czech Republic Tuesday for the USA, where he is suspected of involvement in terrorism, after Czech Justice Minister Jirí Pospíšil decided to extradite him, ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncová told CTK.
The Prague High Court on July 17 upheld the April verdict by the City Court in Prague saying that Kassir’s extradition is admissible. The decision was confirmed by Pospisil on September 18.
“The minister decided in harmony with the Czech Republic’s commitments in the field of international cooperation in fight against criminal activities,” Kuncová said.
However, Kassir’s lawyer Umar Switat said previously that international agreements on the basis of which Kassir can be extradited do not apply to any of the accusations against him.
The only thing we had to do to get the Czechs to let him go was to promise not to stick him in Guantanamo:
- – - - – - – - -
“The USA has provided the Czech Republic with the highest possible guarantee, in the form of a diplomatic note issued by its embassy [in Prague], that Oussama Abdullah Kassir will not be detained or imprisoned in other than civilian facility after his possible extradition to the USA,” Kuncova said.
“This means he will not be imprisoned at the Guantanamo base and will not be put before the military commission,” Kuncova said.
But Mr. Kassir hasn’t lost all hope; the appeal process has not been exhausted:
Switat challenged Kassir’s extradition today, saying it was illegal.
Not all legal means have been exhausted. A constitutional complaint could have been filed against the High Court’s decision, so the ministry’s secret and unusual procedure is a gross violation of law, Switat said.
The ministry reacted to this saying that Kassir’s extradition was in line with law.
The suspected terrorist is afraid he faces brutal treatment at the hands of the American justice system:
Kassir has dismissed all accusations, saying he is not a terrorist and has no contacts with terrorists. He has said he fears he may be tortured and given death penalty if extradited to the USA.
Oh, yes, that’s what we do here. Everyone knows how routine torture is in this country. Mr. Kassir is likely to face a reduced falafel ration while he’s in stir. Or be subjected to Britney Spears songs played at top volume. The horror!
Life was easier in Sweden. He didn’t have to hide his activities, or skulk around like a criminal:
However, when still in Sweden, Kassir did not hide his admiration for Osama bin Laden and his approval of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the USA.
The Swedish daily Expressen wrote some time ago that Kassir had asked for political asylum in the Czech Republic. In his letter to his family in Stockholm Kassir wrote that Sweden had abandoned him, the daily said.
Abandoned him, eh? I’ll bet he’s pining for the fjords right about now.
H. Numan, our expatriate Dutch correspondent, sends us this report on the state of PC Multicultural primary education in the Netherlands. The article and the excerpt from the school website are his own translations.
… by letting somebody else do that. That’s the way socialism works. What happens if a fighter for world peace, protector of the oppressed workers, and eternal foe of discrimination gets tapped on the shoulder by reality?
This:
Targeted because you aren’t Mohammedan
By Bram LoggerUTRECHT – Expelled from school. Not because you are a bully, but because you are bullied. It happened to Cyril Teissier (9) on the Zuilen primary school ‘The Circle’.
“It’s really frustrating that we have this discrimination, for that’s what it is; we couldn’t stop it,’’ said internal school manager Annet van der Ree.
As the only white and Christian Dutch boy in class, Cyril in group 5 was bullied so much by his Moroccan classmates that school management thought it better to send him to a different school. The bullying kids kept on doing that: kicking, beating, intimidating, and excluding him from his classmates.
Cyril’s parents, Laurent and Laura Teissier, deliberately chose to send all their kids to the ‘black’ primary school “The Circle”. Cyril’s older sisters (now 15 and 19) went there. “Because of the warm atmosphere, and also because it is a minority school, which receives a lot of extra financial attention from the government. That’s why there is always something nice going on there. We never had any problems with our two older kids.”
Unfortunately, Cyril wasn’t that lucky. “It started in group 5. He had two friends. They started to beat him and bully him more and more often. And laugh, when he was in pain,” according to Laura. “When two new (Moroccan) boys joined the class, things went seriously wrong. They wanted to prove themselves and incited the others to bully Cyril even more.
- – - - – - – - -
“Often Cyril was beaten. The school soccer field was only for Moroccan boys; you cannot play there, they said to him. And if he wanted to play with the girls in class, he was called a faggot. His only friend in class, a Turkish boy, fell for peer pressure and joined the bullies. He wasn’t a Moroccan, but at least he was a Muslim. Thus, better than Cyril.”
After each incident the school sat around the table with the bullies. They promised not to do it again. But more often than not, the very next day they broke their promises.
In the end, Cyril couldn’t bear it any longer. He didn’t want to go to school any more. He remained in his bed, and asked to be sent to a different school. The school management thought this was the best solution too. “Let Cyril go three more years to a nice school. This will only get worse,” said Van der Ree. “I told Cyril’s parents they should for once let idealism not interfere with the welfare of their child.
In the meantime, Cyril is now very happy in group 6 on the Montessori school in Oog in Al. “Twenty minutes cycling, not really convenient,” said Laurent Teissier. “We really dislike that. We hoped so much all our kids would get a good start in a black school. That was a failure.”
This summer a community announcement fell on the doormat of the Teissier family. It told about what a great success the “mixed school The Circle” was. “A nice safe place for all children from the community,” it said.
That was just too much for Laurent and Laura Teissier. “The school and the politicians shouldn’t behave as if there are no problems. We have the impression that bullying and discrimination by Moroccan youths against the Dutch is growing in Zuilen. Something should be done about that.”
The school’s website (in Dutch) : www.obs-decirkel.nl
Care to send the “school for peace” a nice email? post@obs-decirkel.nl
From the school’s website:
As of 2006 The Circle is a school for peace. We work on a program that raises the social and emotional climate in class and school. Pupils in a school for peace know how to handle conflicts. Thus, the school for peace becomes a community for peace, in which everyone (pupils, staff, parents, supporting staff) feels involved and responsible. A environment where people interact in a positive way with one another. A school where pupils have a vote, where pupils can influence the climate of their class and the school, on their own educational environment and their own development.
I wouldn’t call this school a black school. Rather a red school. Strange to call yourself a school for peace. Do other schools teach war?
At least, they are very honest: the pupils certainly influence the climate of their class and school. The kids sure know how to handle conflicts: you stamp it out with maximum violence. To top it off: the red management couldn’t manage a bun fight in a bakery.
Pity this poor child, a victim of his parents’ political idealism. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is dragged along in demonstrations to hug trees, protest against asylum centers and God knows what else. This is, in my humble opinion, serious and premeditated child abuse.
— H. Numan
The Modoggies are back in the news. Our Swedish correspondent Carpenter sends us this brief report:
Blekinge Läns Tidning, local daily of Blekinge, Sweden, reports today on an upcoming Muslim protest in Karlskrona. It will take place on Monday, and will be attended by some 300 Muslims
Once again, the reasons for this are the roundabout dogs of blasphemy. Only this time they will not protest against one particular publication. The organizer Junaid Naseem is interviewed in the article, and tells us:
“We’ve followed the occurrences of the publications carefully, and it has been a topic of discussion among us Muslims in Blekinge. But it never seems to end and that’s what we are against.”
[…]
“I don’t understand why we should be insulted, again and again. To us, a dog isn’t always a cute animal.”
The protest is not aimed at the media in Blekinge, though:
“It is a protest against the publications as a phenomenon. We want them to cease.”
On a free press:
“[Freedom of the press] is good. But at the same time the media have a responsibility not to insult. For instance, you never write about suicides, out of consideration for the relatives.”
Lars Vilks has even made it into the political heart of the mainstream American media. We’ve been known to mock The Washington Post from time to time in this space. It is, after all, the in-house trade journal for the Democrat Party. It carries water for the Washington liberal establishment, and can be counted upon to toe the party line on everything from homosexual rights to the dangers of trans-fats.
But it doesn’t always get everything wrong, and it’s willing to publish occasional editorials that stray from orthodoxy.
Take, for example, this morning’s piece by Paul Marshall, “Muzzling in the Name of Islam”. Mr. Marshall uses Lars Vilks and his drawings as the jumping-off point for an analysis of political repression in Islamic countries:
Some of the world’s most repressive governments are attempting to use a controversy over a Swedish cartoon to provide legitimacy for their suppression of their critics in the name of respect for Islam. In particular, the Organization of the Islamic Conference is seeking to rewrite international human rights standards to curtail any freedom of expression that threatens their more authoritarian members.
In August, Swedish artist Lars Vilks drew a cartoon with Mohammed’s head on a dog’s body. He is now in hiding after Al Qaeda in Iraq placed a bounty of $100,000 on his head (with a $50,000 bonus if his throat is slit) and police told him he was no longer safe at home.
A minor factual quibble: Mr. Vilks actually drew his Modoggies sometime in July — or earlier — since the exhibition which rejected them opened on July 20th. Mr. Vilks continued to draw Mohammed in various canine guises throughout August and September, and presumably will continue in October and November and onwards, until the fatwa is carried out and he is slaughtered like a lamb.
But we’ll let that go, because otherwise Mr. Marshall’s summary of the crisis is accurate and complete. I’ll skip the rest of it, because it’s very familiar to regular readers of this blog.
He goes on to make this important point:
- – - - – - – - -
These calls [for limitations on freedom of the press] were renewed in September when a U.N. report said that Articles 18, 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights should be reinterpreted by “adopting complementary standards on the interrelations between freedom of expression, freedom of religion and non-discrimination.” Speaking for the OIC, Pakistani diplomat Marghoob Saleem Butt then criticized “unrestricted and disrespectful enjoyment of freedom of expression.”
The issues here go beyond the right of cartoonists to offend people. They go to the heart of repression in much of the Muslim world. Islamists and authoritarian governments now routinely use accusations of blasphemy to repress writers, journalists, political dissidents and, perhaps politically most important, religious reformers.
Mr. Marshall follows this with extensive examples of journalists and dissidents in various Islamic countries who have been arrested, imprisoned, and tortured for blasphemy or “insulting Islam”. He concludes with this:
Repressive laws, supplemented and reinforced by terrorists, vigilantes and mob violence, are a fundamental barrier to open discussion and dissent, and so to democracy and free societies, within the Muslim world. When politics and religion are intertwined, there can be no political freedom without religious freedom, including the right to criticize religious ideas. Hence, removing legal bans on blasphemy and ‘insulting Islam’ is vital to protecting an open debate that could lead to other reforms.
If, in the name of false toleration and religious sensitivity, free nations do not firmly condemn and resist these totalitarian strictures, we will abet the isolation of reformist Muslims, and condemn them to silence behind what Sen. Joseph Lieberman has aptly termed a “theological iron curtain.”
The theological iron curtain is draped over every country with a majority Muslim population. Wherever the Muslim faith predominates, political repression and despotism are the rule. Afghanistan and Iraq are no exception: any pluralism which is now tolerated in these two countries would recede quickly if the encouraging presence of the United States military were withdrawn.
Turkey is often cited as an exception — the exception — to Islamic despotism. But secularism in Turkey is enforced from the top down. It has shallow roots, and requires repeated interventions by the military in order to survive. Indonesia and Malaysia also used to be relatively tolerant places, but as European colonialism recedes further into history, these countries have become more and more Islamized and repressive.
Looking at fourteen centuries of Islamic history makes one wonder whether non-repressive government within a majority Muslim country is even possible. In the tenth century the differences between Islamic polities and European ones were not so stark, but Muslim countries have, by and large, remained in the tenth century, while the rest of us have moved on.
The big question remains: when Islam becomes the majority religion, does political repression inevitably follow?
Is Islamic despotism an accident of history? Or does the despotism always follow the religion, as thunder invariably follows lightning?
Oh, dear, there goes the fifth column, marching on to glory, though not everyone is pleased about their tactics:
Britain’s former spy chief accused the BBC of “parroting” Al Qaeda propaganda to children as young as six.
Dame Pauline Neville Jones, who is also a former BBC governor, is infuriated at the stance the corporation’s Newsround programme took on the September 11 attacks.
She accused the flagship children’s news bulletin of feeding an “ugly undercurrent” which suggests the terrorist outrage was somehow justifiable.
Newsround is aimed at viewers aged between six and 12.
Here is their take on 9/11:
On its website it answered the question concerning 9/11, “Why did they do it” by saying: “The way America has got involved in conflicts in regions like the Middle East has made some people very angry, including a group called al Qaeda — who are widely thought to have been behind the attacks.”
Needless to say, this bit of agit-prop aimed at children annoyed some of the Brits and they were vocal enough in their complaints that Newsround amended their answer to this lame lie:
- – - - – - – - -
Al Qaeda is unhappy with America and other countries getting involved in places like the Middle East.
“People linked to al Qaeda have used violence to make this point in the U.S.A, and in other countries.”
“Other countries” include Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Argentina, France, Kenya, Yemen, Tunisia, Pakistan, Afghanistan (long before we ever got there), Egypt, Bali, Turkey, Qatar, and, last but not least, the UK.
Of course, the television “journalists” feeding this poison to young children would no doubt blame that on the former Prime Minister.
But Dame Pauline is having none of this tripe. She points out the fallacy in their of thinking:
Dame Pauline, who headed the Government’s Joint Intelligence Committee and is described as the most formidable female diplomat Britain has produced, said the new version was even worse.
“It still says it’s all America’s fault, and now for daring to be involved in the Middle East at all,” she said.
“It wasn’t ‘people linked to’ al Qaeda who killed 3,000 people that day, it was al Qaeda itself.
“Osama bin Laden even boasted of the attacks. Is the BBC really saying that if you’re ‘unhappy’ it’s quite normal behaviour to murder people?
“Is the BBC so naive as to take al Qaeda’s propaganda at face value? Or is there something more sinister at work here?”
Good questions. I think the BBC is so infested with fellow travelers that they pose an active danger to the continued existed of the UK — at least as we know it. She says:
“Al Qaeda make the manifestly false claim that America is part of an enormous Jewish-Christian conspiracy to dominate the world and kill Muslims.
“This is no secret — Osama bin Laden has said as much himself.
“We know that in the long run the struggle against terrorists is a battle for hearts and minds.
“How can we expect to win when our national broadcaster is parroting their line to our own children?
“There is only one set of people who are ever to blame for terrorist attacks and that’s the perpetrators themselves.”
In the old Cold War days, these traitors would eventually have made one way trips to the great Soviet Union. Now, as part of the elite MSM, they are content to watch Western civilization die the death of a thousand cuts.
Bastards.
That split personality, Sigmund Carl and Alfred, ponders the plight of Jews and of the rest of the world if Iran has or will soon get nuclear weapons for use on Israel. No doubt this is a scenario that many Israelis ponder also:
The left is all a twitter because they fear a western effort to make sure Iran doesn’t get the bomb. More than one ‘analyst’ has declared that ‘we can live with’ an Iranian bomb.
[…]
Neither Israel or the west can live with an Iranian or Arab nuclear program under any of the current regimes. The risk is too high and is therefore unacceptable.
The Iranian regime leaders have gone out of their way to conceal, cheat and obfuscate everything that has to do with their nuclear programs. IAEA inspectors have been lied to and deceived on a regular basis and Ahmadinejad himself presented a bald faced lied at Columbia when he stated that the IAEA had declared the Iranian nuclear program ‘a peaceful program.’ In fact, the IAEA has concluded just the opposite.
Imagine being a black person in a neighborhood where you are surrounded by KKK members who for decades have promised to lynch you. They have no problem stating what is they have in store for you and they teach those lessons to their kids in neighborhood schools and in summer camps and even in churches. Parents display their pride as their children play games like ‘slaughter the nigger!’ and express their desire from a young age to participate in the killing of blacks.
The comparison between the Israelis and American blacks in, say, the 1920’s, is apt. Of course, the Israelis have the chutzpah to hang on while the professional victimoid Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Sharpton only serve to degrade the national conversation on race. Unlike Sharpton & Co., Israelis are not extortionists and they don’t demand reparations – though they have tried to get those Swiss banks to release the money they’ve been holding since World War II. They’ve even made some progress in that regard.
It is probable that with the ongoing help of the trouble-making Russians (“if we can’t prosper, don’t none of you get to prosper either” seems to be their motto…Putin will never make Eagle Scout) and very scrutable China (through its client state, North Korea), Iran will have nuclear weapons capable of hitting lots of places besides just Israel…
- – - - – - – - -
The French have made it plain that their nuclear weapons are not for show:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy piled pressure on Iran at the United Nations Tuesday, saying it would be unacceptable for the Islamic republic to get hold of nuclear weapons.
Sarkozy’s comments came just hours before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due to address the world body, in a speech expected to attempt to play down fears of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
“Iran has the right to nuclear energy,” Sarkozy told world leaders at the General Assembly’s 62nd session here. “But allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons would mean an unacceptable risk for regional and world stability.”
Sarkozy added there would be no world peace if the international community “shows weakness in the face of the proliferation of nuclear weapons,” in a speech received with loud applause from the rest of the assembly.
Of course, Jacques Chirac laid the groundwork while in office. As the BBC reported in 2006:
Speaking at a nuclear submarine base in north-western France, Mr Chirac said a French response “could be conventional. It could also be of another nature.”
He said France’s nuclear forces had been configured for such an event.
France has had an independent nuclear deterrent since 1960, after an arms programme ordered by Charles de Gaulle.
Which may explain George Bush’s silence regarding Iran in his recent speeches. To talk of their nuclear weapons build up would only incense those Americans who are adamant that we do nothing about the Iranian situation. Besides, it’s time for someone else to do the heavy lifting when it comes to Tehran’s machinations.
George Bush’s hands are tied. Should he even blink on the subject, impeachment proceedings will begin. In fact, the Dems probably have all the paperwork done and are simply waiting for him to mention the problems Iran has created throughout the whole of the Middle East to start the proceedings.
So for the non, we will learn to love the bomb. And then the Democrats can deal with the problem, whining all the way that it’s Bush’s fault.
Of course it is. All the evil in the world was devised by George W. Bush. Ask anybody.
Umm, Miz Hillary – got a moment to answer a question?
A representative of the Daniel Kovach Scholarship Foundation emailed us today, and asked us to spread the word that the Foundation is giving away $10,000 to a blogger this year. If you’re a college student, a U.S. Resident, and you keep a blog, you’re eligible.
Full scholarship details are available at the College Scholarships website.
This Second Annual Blogging Scholarship prize will be awarded at the Blog World and New Media Expo, to be held in Las Vegas on November 8th and 9th.
Important Dates:
Submission Deadline: Midnight PST on Oct. 6th
10 Finalists Announced and Public Voting Begins: 9am EST on Oct. 8th
Public Voting Ends and Winner Declared: Midnight PST on Oct. 28th
Contact Information:
Daniel Kovach
(919) 630-4895
daniel@collegescholarships.org
[Nothing follows]
“I keep thinking I have been focusing too much on the Marxists, and forgot about Big Business and the corporate interests behind mass immigration to the West. They have the money, and money makes the world go around, after all. The problem is that they treat countries as if they are corporations, and people as if they are commodities. They want us to import people as if they were toys or cheap toasters made in China. But people are not commodities, and countries are not corporations. It is a concept of capitalism that I cannot approve of, of reducing man to nothing but a worker and a consumer, homo economicus:”
I also tried to explain to Babbin my view that right now, the Republican Party is controlled by what used to be called the “Rockefeller Wing.”
Like David Rockefeller himself, the Rockefeller Wing involves millionaires and billionaires who run multi-national corporations.
Rockefeller Wing Republicans are already beyond borders in their determination to advance their multinational corporations for unbridled profit, whether or not U.S. sovereignty and the middle class are destroyed in the process.
I have reflected that Howard Phillips was probably right when he urged Ronald Reagan to form his own, new political party.
I’m not sure the moral Christians belong in the same party with the Rockefeller Republicans.
At any rate, George W. Bush in his second term seems determined to destroy the Reagan coalition once and for all.
[...]
We would be better off without a Republican Party if having a Republican Party means sovereignty under this false banner of one-sided trade agreements that have nothing to do with legitimate “free trade.”
This quote Fjordman uses highlights very well the fractures and fissions within the Republican Party. The Dems have their own quite different problems, mostly concerned with how far they want to go in copying Europe’s and the EU’s socialist policies and anti-war attitudes. But the Republicans are equally fractured.
Both parties have to deal with the reality that many — if not a majority — of Americans have begun to toss off their party ties, preferring to be known as conservatives or liberals, even while chafing at the broad-stroke definitions that these labels imply.
I disagree with Corsi’s statement above, about “moral Christians” vis-à-vis the Republican Party. There are many “moral Christians” to the left of me, though they tend toward the socialist “social justice” issues that so attracted me in my liberal youth. Liberation theology, which caught on in South America, grew out of the culture shock many European and North American Catholic priests encountered in their work in South America. Surrounded by a comfortable (and what seemed universal) affluence, they were staggered by the soul-numbing poverty they encountered — and which they proceeded to attempt to live while they were there. The passion of those priests in the front lines of this conflict was, unfortunately, not founded on any real understanding of economics. At most, in their seminary studies, they are introduced to a distorted version of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical, Rerum Novarum.
A more encompassing view of Christian economics can be found at The Acton Institute which was founded to study religion and liberty. From liberty, “justice” follows; it is not the other way ‘round. The Institute has been responsible for the spread of the ideas of both Lord Acton (“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”) and of Frédéric Bastiat, a French Catholic economic philosopher who was much impressed by the deleterious effects of the Corn Laws on the English economy:
England (and other countries of Europe) suffered from protectionist trade policies in the first half of the nineteenth century. The British public was plundered by the mercantilist Corn Laws, which placed strict quotas on the importation of grain. By raising food prices, the laws benefited landowning political supporters of the government at the expense of consumers, especially the poor.
Bastiat’s work was interrupted by his early death, but his “Parable of the Broken Windows” is still used to illustrate the fallacy of some economic theories and to expose the problems of hidden costs. [Scroll down the link]
Rockefeller Wing Republicans are already beyond borders in their determination to advance their multinational corporations for unbridled profit, whether or not U.S. sovereignty and the middle class are destroyed in the process.
Corsi has chosen to focus closely on the North American Union and for that he has suffered the wrath of Jed Babbin, the online editor of “Human Events”, who has indulged in some name-calling to make his point.. In fact, some of our commenters have taken Gates of Vienna to task for what they describe as a “myth.”
Fjordman has considered this topic in “Mexicans Welcome the North American Union.”
If you google the words “North American Union nothing but a conspiracy theory” (without the quote marks) you can find any number of skeptical reports on this issue, though the hits on this phrase also contain links to pages which say it is to be taken seriously and is a part of the large global corporations’ plan to improve profits and efficiency for themselves at a cost of sovereignty for the U.S. and Canada. Mexico is in many ways a failed state, full of corruption and lack of accountability, not to mention restless rebels who do on-going damage and disruption to the oil pipelines in their country.
And there are many Mexicans anxious to incorporate parts of the southwestern United States into Mexico territory, a fact which complicates our illegal alien problem. It’s akin to the Muslim concept of the Ummah, only this takeover is called Aztlan.
Of course, anyone who believes in Aztlan’s plans or the NAU is dismissed as seeing “Commies under the bed.” That quote, repeated derisively by the Left in the U.S. in the 1950’s, actually turned out to be true. There were active Communist cells in this country. When Soviet Russia imploded, these Marxists worked their way over to the Greens, dragging their outmoded theories along. Meanwhile, “Commies under the bed” has been dumped down the oubliette where inconvenient pieces of Leftist history are relegated. It beats ever having to admit they were wrong.
Fjordman’s corncern is spot on. We can be so busy looking at one problem that we forget to take in the bigger picture. There has never been a point in history where being informed in so many areas was so crucial. Whether it’s the hijacked climate issues with their faux science and charlatans who stand to make big money from people’s fears of the invented catastrophes, or the erosion of sovereignty all over the world, or the grasping mechanisms so apparent in Big Business — including Big Oil and the economic stupidities of the current alternate energy “resources” — we are in for a long haul.
And in America there are no political parties who are competent enough to handle any of these issues. Our political class is lazy, uninformed, and rapacious. Last year our Imperial Congress worked a total of 103 days, even as they voted themselves another raise and more benefits. These people may be our worst enemies and yet we have nothing better to replace them. Real leaders with integrity are absent from the scene and we end up settling for what we see as the least odious choice.
Batten down the hatches. We’re in for a long, stormy journey.
Meanwhile, stock up on some real economic and political theory. You could begin with Thomas Sowell.
I’ve chosen the Cathedral in Córdoba as the iconic monument for Spain. Its official name is the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin, but it is known as the Mezquita, which is Spanish for “mosque”. The Mezquita was originally built as a mosque in the 8th century after the Muslim conquest of Spain.
It’s an appropriate choice for the calendar, considering this coincidental announcement, issued today and reported by ANSAMed:
Spain: NGOs Forum on Discrimination Against Muslims
Madrid, September 28 — “Discrimination and Intolerance against Muslims” is the subject of a forum of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) organised by the Tres Culturas Foundation of Seville and the Foreign Ministry on October 8 on the occasion of the Spanish presidency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2007. Announcing the forum, sources from the foundation pointed out that he debate, which will involve major figures from the civil society in the OECD states, will be preparatory event to a conference in Cordova on October 9 and 10 with representatives of the governments of the OECD member states that will also focus on intolerance and discrimination against Muslims. The debate between the NGOs should result in a document with recommendations to be used as a starting point for the discussion on the following days.
Today’s Muslims have demanded that the Catholic Church allow the use of the Mezquita for Muslim services, citing the original function of the cathedral. However, when they do so, they are ignoring the fact that the Mezquita was built on the site of the Visigothic cathedral of St. Vincent, which had existed there prior to the Islamic conquest of the Iberian peninsula. Christian worship at that location was forcibly ended when the Arabs occupied Córdoba in 711.
The Reconquista of Spain from Arab domination began in the 9th century and continued for six hundred years, ebbing and flowing until Ferdinand and Isabella, Los Reyes Católicos, expelled the last of the Moors from Granada in 1492.
In the 13th century King Ferdinand III of Castile liberated Córdoba from the Moors, and the Mezquita became once more a place of Christian worship.
The exterior architecture of the Mezquita is relatively unprepossessing, but the internal vistas under the “poly-lobed” arches are breathtaking. To conclude the calendar, I have used an interior image, one that is quite different from the other calendar pages, and appropriate for a country that threw off the domination of Islam by force of arms.
One of my Spanish correspondents asked me to include the patron saint of Spain, Santiago Matamoros — “St. James the Moor-slayer” — in the image used for the Spanish calendar page.
According to a local tradition, the remains of St. James (Jesus’ disciple and one of the sons of Zebedee, who was slain by Herod Agrippa in Judaea in 44 A.D.) were miraculously transported to Compostela after his death. Another miracle occurred when St. James reappeared to fight the Moors with the Christian army in the battle of Clavijo in the 9th century, during the early stages of the Reconquista.
In the image below you can see Santiago Matamoros on the left, emerging from behind the pillar on his charger with his sword drawn, ready to strike once again at the Crescent and Star in the hour of Spain’s need (click for a larger image):
http://alianzacivilizaciones.blogspot.com
http://www.antizp.org
http://barcepundit.blogspot.com
http://contrayihad.blogspot.com
http://cyberterrorism.blogspot.com
http://deunvistazo.wordpress.com
http://elcuartoreich.blogspot.com
http://endefensadeoccidente.blogia.com
http://fabregas.blogspot.com
http://www.libertaddigital.es/bitacora/blogoscopio
http://nbtimes.blogspot.com
http://noticiasdeeurabia.wordpress.com
http://pre-eurabia.blogspot.com
http://www.redliberal.com/stopyihad
http://sentir-luchar-vencer-podemos.blogspot.com
http://toastedbread.wordpress.com
http://yahel.wordpress.com
- – - - – - – - -
These are the twelve countries which will appear on the 2008 Counterjihad calendar:
Since I was constrained to use only twelve images for this project, I had to leave out all the other countries which are currently threatened by Islam, including Portugal, Ireland, Belgium, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Armenia, Thailand, the Philippines, Canada, and New Zealand.
I apologize if your country was excluded; if I’m ever able to create a calendar for another year, I’ll have plenty of new monuments to choose from.
My remaining task for the 2008 calendar is to revise the page for each month to add any additional links, compile the complete calendar, and then make it available at our Café Press site.
Stay tuned.
