The Emperor is Naked

The Emperor’s New ClothesGates of Vienna’s mission statement requires it to do battle with the Great Islamic Jihad in the realm of ideas.

We agree with Fjordman and many others that the Jihad is just a symptom, and that the enemy lies within. This war is a civil war within the West, between traditional Western culture and the forces of politically correct multicultural Marxism that have bedeviled it for the last hundred years. It is being fought in the back halls and cloisters of the culture, with untenured nobodies like me wielding a salad fork against the broadswords and maces of the fully-armored knights of the media and the academy.

Even so, there’s no doubt that the Emperor has no clothes. He struts up and down the esplanades of the culture with his full entourage, confident of his own splendor, but wearing his birthday suit.

Ours is the collective voice of the little boy in the crowd who dares to say, “The Emperor is naked.” It’s just not loud enough to be heard.

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In the comments on last night’s post, Phanarath approached the issue with his usual cheerful optimism:

The good news is that once we have defeated the enemy at home, we might find that there are no serious enemies abroad. Just remove the funding from the leftinflated monsters and most of them turn to dust.

He’s right, but that simple phrase “Just remove the funding” conceals an almost unimaginably difficult task. It would be easier to cap Mount St. Helens than to stop the funding of the Left. The Marxist/Multicultural cancer has metastasized and multiplied its blood vessels in order to tap into government at every level, not to mention corporate, civic and charitable organizations. From the United Way to McDonalds to Microsoft, from your federal tax check to the entrance fee at a state park — more than twenty cents out of every dollar you spend nourishes, by one means or another, the ravenous and parasitic leftist behemoth that aims to destroy the culture it feeds on.

So, to quote Lenin: What is to be done?

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In a post last week, commenter Vicktorya said this:

I’ve never thought of myself as an activist, and wouldn’t care for the title, but I do “get it”, and can read the writing on the wall, and KNOW that the MSM (aka left-leaning media) is killing us. There are some bright spots, of course. But the propaganda work is so pervasive and strong…

But I’m asking, what can we do, moreso, together? I wish to leverage our intention into effective action, and invite hints, suggestions, cooperation…

Well, what can we do, if we work together?

I have said before that the blogosphere is developing enormous power, but so far it has been a reactive power, and not a proactive one. When we swarm something, we have a real effect, and can collectively sway the course of events.

But it seems we’re always responding to something. First was Trent Lott’s gaffe at the Strom Thurmond birthday party. Then came Dan Rather and “fake but accurate.” We helped the Swiftboat Vets leverage their effort against John Kerry into an effective response. And the recent Fauxtography scandal was a bloggers’ triumph.

But all of these accomplishments are reactive. Even as we respond effectively to the enemy’s tactical moves, we cede him the initiative. This drains us of our energy to think and act strategically, to be innovative and creative, and thus surprise our antagonists.

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Some of our readers are old enough to remember the conservative initiative back in the mid-’80s which aimed to organize the purchase of CBS and thus “become Dan Rather’s boss”. The effort caused some eye-popping alarm among liberals before it petered out later in the decade.

I’d like to revive that meme here, in a slightly different version. Back then, the takeover bid was to be funded by wealthy Republican individuals and organizations, and aimed to acquire enough shares to tip the balance in the CBS boardroom.

Why not hybridize that meme with the Swiftvets initiative? The Swifties had an enormous impact without attracting any wealthy contributors.

What if the blogosphere were to convince a few hundred thousand people to give $50, or $100, or $500 to a holding company established for the sole purpose of acquiring a controlling interest in a major organ of the liberal media?

Some of the law bloggers (Glenn Reynolds and Eugene Volokh come to mind) could set up a holding company for the assets collected. Bring in a business blogger like Larry Kudlow to help run the show. The full purchase price wouldn’t have to be amassed, just the marginal amount that would help leverage the rest.

I’m ignorant of both law and business, so there are probably dozens of reasons why my idea is a stupid one. I have no doubt that commenters will arrive in force to point out the details of my foolishness and offer their own more expert ideas.

But that’s the great thing about the distributed intelligence in action here — with enough knowledgeable and clever people at work on it, a viable idea can emerge and be implemented.

But — only if its time has come.

When its time has come, the meme will explode, and nothing will be able to stop it.

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I’ve said repeatedly that, if we want to win this war, we need to take back the culture. In order for that to happen, the organs of mass communication will have to change. The new media — of which this blog is a microscopic piece — will eventually supplant the old ones. Eventually Katie Kouric and Paul Krugman will become quaint historical artifacts, a set of wax statues at Madame Tussaud’s.

There’s no doubt that the Emperor has no clothes, and in due course everyone will become aware of it and start to snicker at his pale and flabby flesh.

But, thanks to the Jihad, we may not have enough time to wait for this process to unfold. We may have to put on our pajamas and go to work to help it along.

The siege of ConstantinopleWe really are at a cultural version of the Gates of Vienna. The enemy has driven the traditional culture back inside its fortifications, and is busy digging tunnels to undermine the walls. Many of our people have been captured or converted, and the remnant is just barely holding out, drinking rainwater from the rooftop cisterns and eating dogs just to stay alive.

Only this time there will be no King of Poland to ride down the hill in a glorious charge. This time there will be no Jan III Sobieski to save our sorry fundament.

We’re going to have to do this one ourselves.

So: if you like this meme, or any of the others you see here, spread ’em around. None of this will take off without the support of at least one of the major blogs, so hit Charles (or one of the others) upside the head with a two-by-four until he picks up the meme.

And if these memes die, more will be along later. Pay attention; watch for the one whose time has come, and then help spread it.

Also: have that hundred dollar bill ready to hand out to the right cause when the moment arrives.

Grabbing You by the Lapels, I say…

You must go over to Average Gay Joe’s blog and watch the video here. Scroll way down to see it.

I don’t want to spoil this for you so I won’t discuss it here. The place for the discussion is at Joe’s, who put it up for all of us to see.

Well done, sir. This is one spell-binding piece of work.

Thanks for passing it on.

No More “Fatwa Fridays”

Dennis Mitsubishi has caved to the mau-mauing of CAIR. There will be no jihad-mocking commercials on Columbus area radio stations.

This is very depressing. Between the surrender of Dennis Mitsubishi, the groveling of the Pope, and the pre-emptive self-censorship of a German opera house, it seems that the entire West is ready to roll over as soon as a mob of angry Muslims starts screaming. Or even before it starts screaming.

The next time something like this comes up — and you know it will — let’s mount a grassroots blog campaign to counter CAIR. If a couple of the big blogs like LGF got on it, and the rest of us responded, it could make a difference.

We could have been posting Dennis Mitsubishi’s phone number, and urging everyone to call the dealership to express their support. People who live in the Columbus area could have promised to buy their next car there. It would have made it easier for those poor guys to resist the pressure from CAIR.

Instead we just sat around picking our toes in our pajamas. Next time we’ll know better…

US Intelligence Report: Japan War Breeding More Kamikazes

White House ‘strongly disagrees’ with OSS assessment.

by Tim Reagan
Scientific Christian Monitor
January 18, 1944

Oil tanks burning at MidwayA classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) contends that the war in Japan has increased Shinto radicalism, and has made the kamikaze threat around the world worse. Based on information from US government officials who had seen the document and spoke on condition of anyonymity, The New York Times reports that the NIE document, titled “Trends in Global Kamikaze attacks: Implications for the United States,” says the war plays a much more direct role in the spread of Shinto radicalism around the world than has previously been indicated by the White House, or in a recent report by the US House intelligence committee.

The intelligence estimate, completed last October, is the first formal appraisal of Pacific kamikaze attacks by US intelligence agencies since the June 1942 Battle of Midway, and it represents a consensus view of the 16 different spy services inside government. The estimate asserts that Shinto radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the Pacific.
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An opening section of the report, “Indicators of the Spread of the Global Kamikaze Movement,” cites the Japanese war as a reason for the diffusion of kamikaze ideology. The report “says that the Japan war has made the overall kamikaze problem worse,” one US intelligence official said.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the White House, sensing the importance of the issue of Japan during an election year, moved quickly to counter the impact of the NIE report. White House spokesman Watkins Peterson said the Roosevelt administration “sharply disagreed” with the findings of the 16 intelligence agencies, saying “anti-American fervor in the Japan began long before the attack on Pearl Harbor.”

But The New York Times reports that some Democratic and Republican politicians felt the report was another indication of an already bad situation in the Pacific. Republican Sen. Jerry Kahn of Massachusetts said it showed that the Roosevelt administration policy towards Japan was acting as a “recruiting poster” for kamikaze pilots.

Council Results, September 15

Watcher’s Council As usual, the voting spread for the September 15th nominations is oddly clustered. In the Council offering, there was one clear winner, two members tied for the second spot and the rest of us kind of dribbled down the page. In other words, the members seemed to have no trouble making a choice for their first place vote, but second place was harder to choose, and thus the number of posts getting at least one vote was large.

In the non-Council offerings, four nominations tied for second place.
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Socratic Rhythm Method took first place among the Council offerings with Your Chance of Dying in a Terrorist Attack, which used statistics to demonstrate how futile statistical averages are when it comes to considering the meaning of events:

According to one estimate, your chance as an American of dying by accidental drowning is 66 times greater than your chance of dying in a terrorist attack. (Or it might be seven times greater; see the post.)

As many Americans have been killed by lightning, accident-causing deer and allergic reactions to peanuts as terrorism, since they started keeping track, they say.

You’re twice as likely to die crushed under a vending machine as you are to die in a terrorist attack, according to this source. You are 225,409 times more likely to die in an auto accident, another source says. More people accidentally shoot themselves to death than die in terror attacks, it says here. [links can be found in original post]

[…]

But as these amateur statisticians watch all the tributes, retrospectives and rerun cable news coverage today, does it begin to dawn on them that this was a big deal for reasons beyond its threat to our own, individual, personal lives? Or does that not compute?

Do they think I’m some dolt who’s afraid there’s a terrorist waiting around the next corner to shoot me in the head, and wants George W. Bush to protect me? Do they think I’m some kind of racist, willing to go balls to the wall to fight a bunch of anonymous Arabs but not the far more serious and deadly threats of heat exhaustion and falling off the toilet? Do they think I’m contributing to the success of terror attacks by exaggerating their impact, while they’re working hard to ensure the terrorists don’t win?

Do they think they’re smarter than I am?

September 11 didn’t make me fear for my life, or the lives of people close to me, any more than the JFK assassination made my parents fear for their lives. (And for extra credit, what’s your chance of being elected President of the United States and then shot to death?) Probably a lot like the last generation’s reaction to Kennedy’s death, it made me feel powerless in the face of a profound, frustrating, awful loss. It was an affront to my country, its people and its principles. It brought us all together in an unprecedented way.

Soccer Dad and Shrinkwrapped tied for second place. The former for Three Strands Not Easily Broken and the latter for 9/11 Ambiguities.

Here is Soccer Dad’s thesis:

While there are, no doubt, many more than three factors that led to 9/11; there are three that I’d like to highlight: 1) the ideology that drove Osama Bin Laden in his war against the West 2) the acceptance of some terror that likely convinced Osama Bin Laden that he could strike at the U.S. with impunity and 3) the failure of the West — the U.S. in particular — to use the tools at its disposal to fight terror.

And Shrinkwrapped, continuing the 9/11 meme in a psychodynamic way, offering several paradigms from which to consider the issue of terrorism. One is to view Al Qaeda as a criminal organization, another is to see the Koran and its adherents as essentially violent, and yet another is in the mode of the Bush Doctrine, which hopes that by establishing functional democracies where only tyranny existed before that Islam will be forced to consider and to reform its own internal contradictions. Then there are those who believe that it’s just a matter of giving Islam’s adherents time to catch up to the modern world, thus eliminating a large part of the sense of humiliation and inadequacy (I think my summary here is correct. Shrinkwrapped may not agree). Then he says:

The Modern World demands a very high level of cognitive ability in order to become a full participant. Modern economies are so wealthy that even the most limited people, with the most minimal skills and advantages, are able to live relatively well (fantastically well, in comparison to poor people throughout human history.) This means that if you are a young man with a limited education living in a developing country, even if you are literate and intelligent, you have almost no chance to join in the modern global economy. The most successful developing countries, like South Korea and Taiwan, had populations willing to work hard for their children’s sake, accepting their own limitations, in order to ensure their sons and daughters the opportunity to go to school and become successful members of the burgeoning global economy. America has been particularly adept at accepting such “strivers” as new members and accepting their children as Americans. Too many other nations have been unable to accept the implicit trade-off of current status and deprivation for the adults in the interest of their children’s future. There remains a very significant portion of the Islamic world that has clearly not yet accepted this trade-off, and is in denial that the trade-off is unavoidable.

When I read this, I was struck not by the limited education and skills of those in poor countries, but the underclass in our own country, which Shrinkwrapped has just described here. I am attempting to drag one grandson out of the mire of this fetid swamp, and I am not sanguine about my chances of lighting some fire of vision for himself or his family any time soon. In other words, we have a huge bloc of adults in this country who don’ do “trade-offs’ for their children, either. It is most disheartening.

Non-Council Winners were led by Villainous Company’s And At Night, I Dream Of You…, a moving memorial to one of the 9/11 victims, Lydia Estelle Bravo. And Bravo she was:

How do you tell the story of a woman you never met? Someone whose life was extinguished as casually as one pinches a candle flame after a memorable evening? Reading what those she left behind had to say about her, I have no doubt that Lydia loved life; that she made the days and nights of everyone around her memorable. One piece said that to Lydia, life was a feast.

This does not surprise me. You see, Lydia was an oncology nurse for eight years. Living in death’s shadow for such a long time brings everything into sharper focus. It makes one appreciate how truly precious each and every moment we have on this earth is, how lucky most of us are, even to be able to walk out our front doors each morning and do mundane things like pick up the paper, fight rush hour traffic, or sit in overlong meetings listening to pompous, pontificating nitwits rehash things that could easily be said with far less oxygen. But on the flip side we also get to see sunsets, Italian movies, giggling babies, and the face of the one we love each morning resting on that pillow beside us; looking in sleep — for a moment — as innocent and carefree as a child again.

That sight alone is worth the price of admission.

As they say, RTW.

There were four nominations sharing second place. In the interests of brevity, I will list them and urge that you click on these links, which astonish in their variety:

Everything is at The Watcher’s Place, waiting for your perusal.

Killed in a Burqa

Terrorists have gunned down a female official of the provincial Kandahar government in Afghanistan. According to the Times Online:

Kandahar woman in a burqaA senior women’s affairs official who has criticised the Taleban’s treatment of women was shot dead outside her home in southern Afghanistan today.

Safia Ama Jan was getting into a car outside her house in the city of Kandahar when two gunmen on motorcycles opened fire.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, although Taleban insurgents have killed numerous government officials as part of their war against the Government and foreign forces supporting it.

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Mrs Ama Jan had worked as the provincial director of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs since the Taleban were overthrown five years ago. She may have been targeted for her opposition to the Islamic extremists’ attempts to limit women’s involvement in politics and education.

As a well known women rights campaigner, she was aware that she was vulnerable to attack and had asked for official transport and personal bodyguards. The Afghan Government rejected these requests. It is thought that she was getting into a taxi on her way to work when she was killed.

The report adds this poignant note:

She was wearing a burqa when she was shot.

ABC (Australia) notes that the Taliban have now claimed credit for the murder:

The Taliban, who have killed numerous government officials as part of their war against the government and foreign forces supporting it, claimed responsibility for shooting Safia Ama Jan.

[…]

A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayat Khan, said Ama Jan was killed because she worked for the government.

“We have told people time and time again that anyone working for the government, including women, will be killed,” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

That’s the way to win the hearts and minds of your countrymen.



I wanted more background on Safia Ama Jan, but was unable to discover any references to her, except for today’s news stories, after numerous searches on the internet.

I tried the variant “Safiyeh” instead of “Safia” for her first name, but that didn’t help. I suspect there may be information out there under other variant spellings. If anyone has any knowledge or suggestions on how to find further data about her (without having to read Pashtun, Farsi, or Urdu, that is), please leave a comment.

I Never Thought I’d Live to be a Million

Listen to me, you young whippersnapper!Gates of Vienna just passed an important milestone: a million visitors have been logged on our site meter. The lucky 1,000,000th man or woman to pass through these gates was from the ISP Millenium Digital Media, in Seattle, Washington, at 12:55 am.

It happened a bit earlier than we expected, for two reasons. First, Tim Blair linked us last night and boosted our overnight traffic with a lot of additional Antipodean visitors. Welcome, visitors from Oz!

Secondly, just to complicate matters, we got an Instalanche late last night, and we had to rush this post to the printers so they could set the type and roll the presses by morning. Welcome, Instapundit readers!

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Actually, we must have passed the million mark a while back, because Dymphna and I were too dim to put a site meter on our blog until five or six months after we set up shop. I know we had at least a handful of visitors back in those early days, because some of them left comments.

But we’ll celebrate today, anyway.

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For our newer readers, Dymphna and I are a husband/wife team who took up blogging almost two years ago as a way of doing our small part against the Great Islamic Jihad. We live in Virginia, have a son in college, and are doing this even though we are old enough to know better.

Dymphna had the bright idea that we should interview each other for this occasion. Each of us made up five questions for the other, and here the results are below.

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Dymphna’s Questions for the Baron

You were the one who started this blog. What motivated you?

I knew that you were a really good writer, and wanted you to have an outlet for your writing. I also though it be therapeutic for you, a way to help you cope with your daughter’s death.

What was your greatest fear about beginning this project?

First it was that we would have no commenters.

Then I was afraid of being flamed or ridiculed by our commenters. We have been blessed by very little of either.

The Ranting ManWhat have you come to like the most?

Making the images, and writing the rants.

When I found the “Ranting Man”, it was an ideal confluence of both these impulses. It’s a lot of fun to write all those rants and tirades.

What has most surprised you?

The amount of traffic, and the number of links we get. I thought we would always be a small blog, one of many occupying a counter-jihad niche.

What made you most excited?

The day we got our link from Mark Steyn. Which happened to be last Saturday!

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The Baron’s questions for Dymphna

What were your goals when you started blogging?

Not to fall down in public and make a spectacle of myself.

What has been your most exciting moment?

The day I saw “Gates of Vienna” on Belmont Club’s blogroll. Remember how excited I was when I called you at work?

Also, the time I was interviewed by Norm Geras.

Who were your role models?

Wretchard’s analyses and synthesis, and Shrinkwrapped’s careful deliberative prose.

When do you think we’ll pass the two million mark?

Sooner than I’d be willing to guess. This seems to be an exponential process, at least for now.

What are you most grateful for about Gates of Vienna?

A place to write, to be read, and to receive feedback.

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We owe a big debt of gratitude to the people who helped give us a leg up. We couldn’t have made it to a million hits without encouragement (and links) from Wretchard, Roger Simon, Charles Johnson, and Norm Geras. We owe a special thanks to Fjordman, whose guest-posts have brought in many readers we wouldn’t otherwise have had, and who introduced us to all our delightful Scandinavian commenters.

Dymphna particularly wants to thank the Watcher of Weasels and all the present and former members of the Watcher’s Council for helping her find an audience.

And we’re grateful to all our readers, especially the ones who come to the comments to inform, argue, and discuss. In a civil and temperate manner, that is.

Fortress Switzerland

The people of Switzerland seem to have taken an object lesson from the Swedes and the British, and have decided to step back from the brink of the immigration cliff. According to AFP, Swiss voters have strongly approved a tightening of asylum laws:

According to early poll projections, Switzerland has voted heavily in favour of making it harder for asylum-seekers to gain entry to the rich Alpine state.

Despite warnings of damage to Switzerland’s humanitarian reputation, some two-thirds of voters appeared to have said ‘yes’ in referendums on laws limiting access for non-European job-seekers and making the country’s asylum rules amongst the West’s toughest.

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Ah, yes, “warnings” — a nice impersonal construct. Who was “warning” the Swiss? Kofi Annan? Human Rights Watch? The International Socialist Alliance? Or maybe the Arab League?

And it seems that voters are expected to pay more attention to Switzerland’s reputation than to their own physical and economic well-being. “Dietrich! Don’t vote ‘yes’ on that referendum! How could we hold our heads up in polite company if we passed such a racist law?”

Switzerland must have organizations analogous to the ACLU, left-wing spoilers that have the time, the money, and the know-how to put a spanner in the works of the democratic process:

The measures have already been passed by both parliament and the government, but opponents raised enough signatures to force a national vote.

AFP, being a good buddy of Reuters, knows how to frame the story, and makes sure to include the opinion of an “opponent”. Needless to say, it’s the only voter that they quote:

“I have voted ‘no’,” said 35-year-old Raphael Engel after casting his ballot in Geneva. “Europe is more and more becoming a fortress and Switzerland should set a humanitarian example.”

This reminds me of NPR back in 1984, covering Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory. The reporter stood outside a polling place, sticking a microphone into the face of voter after voter, but somehow only the clips of Mondale voters ever made it onto the air for “All Things Considered”.

The Swiss, instead of setting a humanitarian example, have decided to be a beacon of backwardness for the racists, bigots, and Islamophobes among us. More power to Switzerland!

Do you think Europe is starting to wake up? First the Swedish election, and now the referendum in Switzerland…

One by one the nations of Old Europe open their bleary eyes, clutch their aching heads, look at all the garbage and empty wine bottles around the room from last night’s wild socialism party, and moan, “What the hell was I thinking of?”



Hat tip: Reader LN and commenter Thanos.

Jihad on Wheels

Pimp my jihad!We’ve often said in this space that in ridicule is the most powerful weapon in the arsenal of the Counter-Jihad; it’s one that our enemies have no defense against.

Now there’s a car dealership in Ohio that gets it, according to yesterday’s Columbus Dispatch:

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Some Columbus radio stations have rejected as insensitive an advertisement for a car dealership that invokes Islamic references.

The general manager of the dealership, though, says the promotions — which he called “tongue-in-cheek” — will air on some stations beginning next week.

In the spot, Keith Dennis of Dennis Mitsubishi talks about “launching a jihad on the automotive market.”

Sales representatives “will be wearing burqas all weekend long,” the ad says. One of the vehicles on sale “can comfortably seat up to 12 jihadists in the back.”

“Our prices are lower than the evildoers’ every day. Just ask the pope!” the ad says. “Friday is fatwa Friday, with free rubber swords for the kiddies.”

Don’t you love it?

Readers who are in or near Columbus: if you’re in need of a car, please go down to Dennis Mitsubishi and look at what they’ve got. Those guys deserve as much business as they can get — the bodyguards and bullet-proof vests are cutting into their profits.

Not everyone in the radio business is free of the PC mindset, however:

Jeff Wilson, general manager of Radio One stations WCKX (107.5 FM), WJYD (106.3 FM) and WXMG (98.9 FM), doesn’t intend to air the spot.

“We won’t play that,” Wilson said. “With no disrespect to their creativity or their desire to build business, everything we’re about is promoting the values of diversity. To air things of that sort would go against our mission statement.”

Yup. Got it. Mission Statement. Diversity. All the key words are in place.

But the general manager of Dennis Auto Point, Aaron Masterson, doesn’t see the problem:

Calling the commercial aggressive, Masterson said, “This is one where we feel we’re taking a bull’s-eye on terrorists. After all the nonsense that the terrorists put the public through, they’re fair game.”

He must be doing something right, because the usual suspects are offended:

The president of the Columbus chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, doesn’t think terrorism is to be taken lightly.

Asma Mobin-Uddin said she is concerned the ad’s tone and imagery are “mocking and disrespectful to many different areas. One is Islamic faith and Islamic culture.”

This commercial spot was written in-house by the dealership. You know as well as I do that no advertising agency or marketing firm would ever put such an ad together. Change comes from the bottom up.

If the manager of a car dealership in Columbus gets it, then anyone can get it.

After all these years of being mau-maued by CAIR, after all the treacly propaganda ladled onto their viewers and readers by the MSM, after all the diversity training and multicultural outreach forced onto the public by the politically correct power structure — despite all this, ordinary people are getting the message.

Despite the efforts of their betters, they understand the Islamic world all too well.



Hat tip: Alexis.

Some Days the Bear Eats You

An alert reader in Russia drew my attention to a Mosnews article from last week. It seems that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently paid a visit to Chechnya an billed himself as a friend and protector of Islam:

Putin Calls Russia Defender of Islamic World

The Russian BearRussia is the most reliable partner of the Islamic world and most faithful defender of its interests, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Chechnya’s capital Grozny. Putin unexpectedly visited the war-ravaged republic to speak in the local parliament that opened for its first sitting on Monday.

“Russia has always been the most faithful, reliable and consistent defender of the interests of the Islamic world. Russia has always been the best and most reliable partner and ally. By destroying Russia, these people (terrorists) destroy one of the main pillars of the Islamic world in the struggle for rights (of Islamic states) in the international arena, the struggle for their legitimate rights,” Putin was quoted by Itar —Tass as saying, drawing applause from Chechen parliamentarians.

If President Bush is to be believed, Russia is “a reliable partner in the War on Terror.” Do I smell a conflict of interest here? Can a “reliable and consistent defender of the interests of the Islamic world” also combat Islamic terrorism effectively under all circumstances?

A related story reports that the Russian parliament has voted to grant amnesty to Chechen terrorists. If a “militant” quits a recognized terrorist group and surrenders his arms, no further questions will be asked.

The end of the Mosnews story has this little piece of information, which may shed some light on Mr. Putin’s motives:

Russia, a country with a total population of approximately 144 million, has 23 million Muslim residents representing 38 peoples, according to the Council of Muftis of Russia.

That’s 16% of the population, which is a higher proportion of Muslims than in the population of India. And not only that, the population of Christians in Russia is declining much more drastically than that of the Hindus in India.

So Russia has a demographic problem. But the Russian government is aware of it: another news story outlines a state initiative designed to persuade Russians to start breeding again:

In a move clearly aimed at encouraging more births in this country, a top government official has come up with a plan to re-introduce the long-abandoned childless tax in Russia.

Speaking to the press after a seminar that focused on low birth rates in Russia health and social development minister Mikhail Zurabov suggested that childless taxpayers should help the state support families with children and thus at least partially assume the cost of encouraging more births.

[…]

In his state of the nation address earlier this year President Vladimir Putin said the most urgent problem facing Russia was its demographic crisis.

That’s one of those rare instances when Vladimir Putin and Mark Steyn agree on something.

Russia’s problem is much more severe than India’s, because the non-Muslim population in India is simply growing more slowly than the Muslim population, whereas Russia’s non-Muslim population is actually declining in absolute terms.

The country’s population is declining by at least 700,000 people each year, leading to slow depopulation of the northern and eastern extremes of Russia, the emergence of hundreds of uninhabited “ghost villages” and an increasingly aged workforce. Official Russian forecasts, along with those from international organizations like the UN, predict a decline from 146 million to between 80 and 100 million by 2050.

But in an exclusive interview to the BBC, Viktor Perevedentsev, who has been studying Russia’s population since the 1960s, said he believed even these figures may be overly optimistic. He said the decline was likely to accelerate and that the Russian leadership should accept the population had reached a “tipping point”, beyond which direct intervention would be ineffective.

The article doesn’t list the growth rate of the Muslim minority, but if Muslims in Russia are breeding like Muslims in nearby countries, a back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that in two generations they may well represent more than half the population.

Mr. Putin is a relatively young man, and presumably hopes to remain in power for the rest of his natural life. It seems that he has sensed which way the demographic winds are blowing, and has trimmed his sails to take advantage of this particular breeze.

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The Mosnews article about Russia’s demographic crisis has some additional commentary on the topic. The editorialist does not see Russia as being fundamentally different from the rest of Europe, but merely the worst-off in a set of demographic basket cases:

But, experts see no reason to believe that sanctions against the childless will do much to raise the birthrate. Germany, for instance, already spends more than any other country on family subsidies, and has the world’s second-highest taxes on childless singles (after Belgium).

Russian observers also doubt that such measures as re-introduction of childless tax in Russia will prompt people to have children. While rights activists denounce sanctions against the childless defending their freedom of choice, even those who back the idea in principle are not sure it will work.

These days in Russia many married couples are reluctant about having babies, even if they are well-off and can afford to multiply. Many of the generation of those who are now in their 30s and 40s have already developed a set of personal values and there is hardly a place for a kid in their lives. Maybe, they would not mind a surcharge to exonerate themselves. If, of course, they ever experience any pangs of guilt…

[…]

The idea of bribing people into having babies will hardly work for middle class tax payers, who earn well enough not to ask for more from the government. As to fining people for not having babies, international experience shows that such schemes are not effective either. Besides, in a country where many employers are still reluctant to report their workers’ incomes in full to avoid taxation, the plan is even more likely to fail.

[…]

Another reason why bribing people into having babies or forcing them into it through sanctions would not work is that our reluctance is rooted in our consumer mentality. We are no givers, but a generation of egoists whose choice between a screaming infant and a Zermatt ski vacation is easy to guess…

A childless tax? Well, perhaps, it is not such a bad idea, after all, as long as its size is reasonable. For, if it is not Russian taxpayers will not pay it. Instead, they will rather pay a doctor who will confirm their infertility. [emphasis added]

As Mark Steyn has frequently pointed out, it is a mistake to view demographic issues in purely economic terms. According to classical economic analysis, in earlier days couples had large families in order to assure themselves of financial security in their old age; that is, the explanation for high birthrates was purely an economic one.

By this argument, socialism and the welfare state have removed these incentives by providing lifelong security even for the childless. Hence people stop having babies, and the demographic crisis ensues.

But what if there are other non-economic reasons for having children?

There’s a well-established correlation between strong religious beliefs and family size. And it’s not just that the Bible says “be fruitful and multiply”, and the faithful behave like mindless automata and obey.

Having kids is an exhausting, thankless, and expensive task that takes up the most productive and energetic years of your life. If you believe there’s nothing to life but this material world and your own desires and pleasures, why would you decide to undertake such a burdensome effort? Better to enjoy the moment, not think about death, and live the good life while you can.

In the absence of a belief in something larger than oneself, no amount of state subsidy or punishment will be adequate to reverse the demographic disaster that is looming before the end of this century. Russia and Japan are simply worst-case scenarios; the same fate awaits the rest of Europe, Canada, China, and maybe even the United States.

The new generation that greets the dawn of the 22nd century will believe in something. The only question is whether it will be Allah or something else.



Hat Tip: commenter npabga.

As a matter of interest, I figured out the origin of the nickname “npabga”: it’s a visual simulacrum of the Russian word “правда”, or “pravda” (Russian for “truth”). Instead of transliterating the word, he has made the closest approximation to it in appearance, using lower-case Latin letters. Very clever.



Update (from Dymphna): I’d just like to mention — casually, of course — that on Mark Steyn’s mailbox page THERE’S A LINK TO THIS GATES OF VIENNA POST. Oh. My. God! Look on the right sidebar, under the headline “Russia: Bear Necessities”.

Better go look now; who knows how long it’ll be there? Just casually, though…

In Which Chester Has an Idea for an Adventure

Chester has a great idea. A reading club. Go here for details.

It’s still in the “if” stages, but your interest might help things get going.

Just another Adventure of Chester’s.

And since I tried without success to put up a comment , I’ll add here what I tried to say at his place:

I’d love to participate. I could read without feeling guilty…”oh, I’m not wasting time. I’m doing this for Chester’s reading club.”

I’d like to suggest Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals” but only if people can get it at the library…which I did this afternoon. The list price on the inside cover is $35.00. However, most libraries have it.

I’ll post a notice on Gates about your idea.

Y’all go over to Chester’s and put in your two cents’ worth. A bloggo book club is a timely idea.

The Coalition of the Thin-Skinned

“Please do not offer my god a peanut.”

Apu NahasapeemapetilonThat’s what Apu says after Homer mocks the statue of the god Ganesh, in the Simpsons episode “Homer the Heretic”. Apu is an Indian, or to be more precise, a Slurpee Indian, and not a Casino Indian.

Am I being offensive? You wait; I’m just getting warmed up.
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The Simpsons is no respecter of religions. Ned Flanders takes one for the Christians. Krusty the Clown’s rabbinical father takes one for the Jews. Hindus… New Agers… Atheists… Presumably, if Zoroastrians or Jains could be shoehorned into a script, they’d come in for some ribbing, too.

But not Muslims. Funny about that.

9-11 can’t be the cause, nor even the first attack on the WTC in 1993, because the classic Simpsons episodes predate those events. Maybe Salman Rushdie was an object lesson, warning the show’s writers away from the topic. Or maybe it was just writerly intuition.

Not many prominent Westerners are willing to mock Muslims. South Park tried, but Comedy Central was prudent enough to suppress the offending sequence. Jay Leno has just broken the taboo — we’ll see how long it will be before the fatwa is issued and the Prophet’s hit squads try to take him out. If he’s smart, he’ll get plastic surgery right now before moving to Ashtabula to live under an assumed name.

Muslims are sensitive about their religion, you see, and tend to react violently when it is defamed. Make fun of Islam, and your business could be torched. You, your wife, your children, your uncles, and your cousins could be killed. Don’t mess with those guys.

But Muslims aren’t the only ones. Religion-, race-, and gender-based hypersensitivity has become a national preoccupation. With less violent results, mind you, but victimology is still a prominent pastime.

Maybe it started with the Anti-Defamation League, and then spread to the Italians. The Indians (Casino Indians, that is) took it up, or at least the faux Indian, Ward Churchill, did. If you believe the legacy media, women, homosexuals, transvestites — all are ready to be offended.

This is a media-driven phenomenon, hyped on the airwaves and cheered on by trial lawyers. When an African-American woman is ready to sue an airline because a stewardess said “eeny-meeny-miney-moe”, you know that things have reached epidemic proportions.

The little chinamanIf you happen to use one of the increasingly numerous forbidden words or phrases, you could be in big trouble, especially if it occurs on the job or in an academic institution.

It doesn’t matter that when you used the phrase “a chink in the armor”, you didn’t mean a Chinese knight. It’s re-education camp diversity training workshop time for you, bub!

And this used to be a free country. Funny about that.

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If you look at archives of political cartoons from the mid-19th century, you’ll find a cornucopia of raunchy, vulgar, and insulting disrespect. Those cartoonists could give the Daily Kos guys a run for their money. Perhaps the objects of scorn were just as offended as their counterparts are today, but such treatment was not culturally verboten back then. It wasn’t just ethnic stereotyping; you were fair game if you were a Baptist, or from Tennessee, or a teetotaler. If you didn’t have a thick skin, you had no business being in politics.

Rastus CigarsWhence came this inalienable right not to be offended? Why the recent public requirement to cater to the terminally sensitive?

You’ll notice that not every group is included in the protected species list. It’s always open season on members of my tribe, the White European Males, dead or otherwise. But, hey, we’re the cruel oppressors and masters of the corporate power structure, so we can take it, right?

But how about the Irish? How come it’s still OK to make fun of the Irish? It’s not like they’re at the top of the ethnic heap.

Years ago, when I had perhaps taken more adult beverages than was wise, I said to Dymphna, “The only difference between the Irish and the English is that an Englishman has a father’s name on his birth certificate.”

My spouse laughed very hard, put down her drink, and kicked me in the male generative organs. Then she slapped me on the back and said, “It’s a good thing you’re amusing!”

If the Irish are strong enough to take it, why not the rest of us? What’s wrong with everybody?

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The new politically correct game has some rules:

1.   Mortgage diversityA protected group may not be depicted, described, or in any way represented as distinct, except by members of the same group.

This is why football teams can’t be named for Indian tribes, even if the Indians don’t care. A member of another race can’t take the part of a black character in a play or a movie. If you’re not a member of the group, such representations are inauthentic and forbidden.

It’s also why the people in the mortgage loan ads or the kids on a vaccination poster in the doctor’s office always look exactly alike except for their skin color and facial features. The “brown people” are just honkies whose faces are covered with shoe polish.
 

2.   No negative characteristics, implied or overt, may be used in any depiction of a protected person.

Indians are never drunk. Black people never eat fried chicken. Italians are never criminals.
 

3.   The Multicultural FestivalThere is only one circumstance in which distinctive ethnic characteristics may appear: the Multicultural Festival.

That’s when we eat chitlins and tacos. That’s when protected people dance in their serapes or saris. It’s OK then. It’s blessed by the PC authorities because we’re not stereotyping, we’re celebrating diversity.

It looks the same, though. Funny about that.

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The little Dutch boyPolack jokes have already entered the dustbin of history. My brother, who is most emphatically un-PC, converted all of his repertoire into West Virginian jokes. But even hillbillies have been ruled out of bounds, and have become “Appalachian-Americans”. No, I’m not making that one up. Google it; you’ll see.

It won’t be long before the Irish, the Swedes, the Dutch, and the Danes are added to the rolls of The Protected. Then there won’t be anyone left but us male WASPS, the ultimate monsters, always oppressing everyone else, even while bound like Gulliver by the Lilliputian PC ropes of the Postmodern Age.

All of this absurdity is yet another aspect of the Demonic Convergence, in which Marxism, Political Correctness, Multiculturalism, and Islam are merging into a single amorphous blob, the Party of Fellow Travelers and Strange Bedfellows.

Presumably the PC Masters will keep on calling the shots and enforcing the rules right up until the day when the Shari’ah is instituted, and they themselves either have to pay the jizyah, say ash haduallaa ilaaha il-lallaah wa ash hadu anna muhammadar rasullulah, or die.

That will be the same day that Madonna is forced into the hijab, and a stone wall is toppled onto Elton John.

A Sure Cure for Paranoid Hysteria and Stuffed Shirts: Ridicule

First, Hot Air has a short take on Jay Leno’s warm-up patter. H.A. didn’t find the jokes very funny, but Gates of Vienna doesn’t get out much; we are easily amused. Be sure to take a look at the video and let us know your considered opinion. Want your own fatwa?

Meanwhile, TownHall has an amusing cartoon about the pope’s miter — i.e., that “funny hat” he wears.
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H.Payne at Townhall News


The cartoonist, H. Payne, has unwittingly stepped on an ants’ nest here: Benedict XVI’s coat of arms has an image of a miter instead of the usual papal tiara, much to the disgust of traditional heraldists. And he also has a picture of a Moor (a Muslim), whose identity is in question. If icons are your bag — they fascinate me — Wikipedia has a wonderfully detailed description of Benedict’s choices for his coat of arms.

Benedict XVIMakes me think ‘twould be fun to invent my own. Everybody ought to have a coat of arms. The coming generation seems to be regressing to an earlier stage of history — illiteracy — so having a coat of arms would allow one to be identified. Much better than a national I.D. card, don’t you think?

(Hey, Baron, are you busy right now? I have an idea for an image… I promise, it won’t take you long. Yes, I know I’ve said that before, but honest, this one is easy as pie. See, all you have to do is…)

What would appear on your coat of arms?

As I was putting up the larger image of the Pope joke, I noticed another Jay Leno quote on the sidebar of the same page:

Jay Leno: “President Clinton is still very upset that ABC did not pull the movie. He wanted the movie pulled. If fact, he told them that he was thinking about changing his mind about appearing op the show ‘Wife Swap.’”

Notice that (as befits ex-presidents) Mr. Clinton is no longer center stage. For a man of his egotistical proportions (he can lift well over his size), being relegated to the sidebar must be akin to having entered Dante’s Purgatorio.

Meanwhile, laugh! It’s Friday after all… time to rejoice (because it’s not Monday — that’s why).

Gates of Vienna on WND!

The Mexican PledgeThis morning’s World Net Daily has a discussion of the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance affair, and it not only mentions of Gates of Vienna, but gives us a link, too. I’m particularly pleased that they used my photoshop job for their illustration.

Readers might want to drop by there, because the article quotes at least two of our commenters by name. You’ll have to go over there and read it to find out if you’re one of them…