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January 25, 2008

Clear sight needed

Another gem from Breath of the Beast, which speaks to my previous post below:

Just so there is no room for misunderstanding here, let me say this explicitly, I leave it open that it is possible that America did not have to kill all of the Indians who were killed in the development of the continent. It is probable that a better understanding of the cultural issues at stake and a better grasp of the possible strategies might have brought about a solution to the problem without as much carnage as did happen. No one (at least no one with any power to change the course of events) was able to see and verbalize that the Indians and their way of life were being replaced by the leading edge of western civilization. If they had been able to frame the situation that way, the whole thing might have been handled with out the wasteful and disillusioning hypocrisy of treaties that promised autonomy and coexistence.

Likewise, I am not saying we have to kill a large number of Muslims. It might only be necessary to kill a few- the few that are actively trying to kill us. The fact is, though, that our current approach is without doubt the worst way to handle the problem and will end up costing more in suffering and blood than a more frank and aggressive tack. We must acknowledge that they do not consider us fully human, and that many of them take it as their sacred responsibility to either make us full humans in their eyes by converting us to their primitive and imbecilicly intolerant cult or KILL us.

They will continue killing us and forcing us to kill them until we solve the problem in some way and that solution will be impossible if our rules of discourse continue to outlaw the vocabulary to describe the problem and the concepts that define it.

If we are not going to speak plainly and without political correctness, we may just go the way of the American Indian. Is that what we want?

Or maybe we can either invent a replacement for oil or, perhaps just take it away from them. How we do it is debatable but unless we are able to speak frankly about it and consider the alternatives, we will continue to pretend it’s not really a problem until the Christians and Jews among us are all reduced to dhimmi status and the rest are forced to become Muslims and head the call to prayers five times a day.

I’m not necessarily advocating that we take and hold the oil fields, nor am I saying we must invade Iran next. I am merely saying that we have no idea what we can do to stop being picked off a few (or a few dozen or a few thousand) at a time. We have not yet made the commitment to define and solve the problem as it exists. As a result we are forced to make concessions to a parasitic cultural disease. Caliphate Islam is attempting to burrow into and control the heart and mind of Western Civilization. Unless we can reclaim the vocabulary with which to identify and talk about it, we are at its mercy. The only thing standing in our way is our misunderstanding of our own principals.

At least for now, it's our call.

January 24, 2008

Where do they come from?

From Wretchard:

And it turns out that most combat Jihadis didn't spring up spontaneously, radicalized and outraged by the "idea" of Israel or some television broadcast about Iraq. They came from ground long tilled and fertilized by extremism. "The West Point center's analysis notes that the home towns and regions listed by many fighters correlate with areas of high insurgent activity in the Arab world. More than half the Libyans came from in or around the coastal cities of Darnah and Benghazi. Both are long associated with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which in November officially affiliated itself with the global al-Qaeda network headed by Osama bin Laden." This suggests a vital synergy between the effects of Jihadi propaganda and the efforts of extremist agitators. The suicide bomber, it's not surprising to learn, is the end product of long preparation and cultivation.

Perhaps one reason why the West has proved so helpless in the face of threats like al-Qaeda is that it is culturally unable to resist, or even to condemn, extremist Islamic agitation in its pre-militant phase. By fighting only those who have crossed the sharp legal border between religious hate-mongering (which is tolerated as a multicultural right) and actual belligerency it is permanently restricted to chipping away at the tip of the iceberg, while nine-tenths of it is allowed to grow unchecked beneath the surface.

The West Point analysis points out that many of the problems which beset Iraq have their origins elsewhere; in so-called allied countries and even within communities in the West. Iraq became a dumping ground, a mere outlet for the hate that is daily generated by radicalism in the Middle East, North Africa and in the West. A foreign suicide bomber is man who by definition was ready to explode before he even got to Iraq. The country itself provided him with a graveyard, but the process which gave him birth is still in full swing.

I am coming more and more to the opinion that this is all going to end up in nuclear fire- there are "moderate muslims" (see Marzouq in the comments) but they are overwhelmingly outnumbered by the killers and the cowed. Sooner or later they will have to be faced, and it will be kill or be killed.

January 23, 2008

From the past

Color pictures from the 1930's-40's.

Just wonderful.

via the Perfessor

January 18, 2008

Troubling news

Mount St. Helens is grumbling again. Glad I live in Mobile!

Morning giggle

From NRO:

"Frisbeetarianism (n.): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there."

January 17, 2008

Been there, done that

From John Scalzi's blog "Whatever":

With the exception of the three or four hours he spent up a tree yesterday, chased there by Kodi after he foolishly ran away from her, thus triggering her hunting reflex, Temp Cat™ is doing fine, as you can see. We still need to canvass the neighborhood to see if anyone’s missing him, but I believe Krissy has already scheduled a vet trip for him for shots, deworming and possible detestefying. I say “possible” because Krissy seems to think he’s been previously snipped; I rather think it’s that he’s not yet hit cat puberty. Either way, we’ll find out. And naturally once we’ve paid for his emasculation, then we own him, because if you’re going to take someone’s balls from him, you pretty much owe him lifetime support.

How could you do any less?

January 16, 2008

Worse than we thought?

A light and friendly discussion about property in Minneapolis

Boomlet?

Insty gets cute:

An examination of global data also shows that the United States has a higher fertility rate than every country in continental Europe, as well as Australia, Canada and Japan. Fertility levels in those countries have been lower than the U.S. rate for several years, although some are on the rise, most notably in France. . . . To many economists and policymakers, the increase in births is good news. The U.S. fertility rate — the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime — reached 2.1. That's the "magic number" required for a population to replace itself.

Countries with much lower rates — such as Japan and Italy, both with a rate of 1.3 — face future labor shortages and eroding tax bases as they fail to reproduce enough to take care of their aging elders.

Interesting. I credit the Spears family.

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LOLOL!

Thank you

Recently, as it is wont to do in January, my ClustrMaps link reset. Usually I don't notice this, as I'm not narcissistic about who or how many read this site, but this year they sent me an email apologizing for, and explaining why they do it. Well, fine, OK.

Having that "on my horizon" if you will, I took a look at the new map- and was astounded. What a wonderful world when people from all over, and I mean ALL OVER, take the time to come see what I'm thinking about. It's profoundly humbling, and I just want to say thank you to each and every one of you for taking the time from your life to visit my humble little blog. You have no idea how much it means to me.

Thank you.

January 15, 2008

How addicted?

67%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

I guess I can still quit, though...

Infirmary bound

Pray for Tim Blair. Please.

Free speech

As most of you already know, Mark Steyn is under attack by Canada's Human Rights Commission in a baldfaced strike against free thought and speech. From the Belmont Club:

The really insidious thing about inquisitions, such as the one undertaken by the Human Rights Commission, is the secretly shameful gratitude those that are spared feel that it is being done others. Not to us; we are safe. But somewhere in the subconscious we know that've only postponed the trial, not overcome it. But what of it? That problem can be left for tomorrow. Today it's enough to be glad this is happening to someone else.

It gets lively in the comments, with posts by NahnCee and Zenster striking the most fire. We had all better wake up; this crap happens as much in the US as it does in Canada.

January 14, 2008

Clemency

OUCH

That will leave a mark.

via Ace

January 11, 2008

Taunting the tiger

At Breath of the Beast, an electrifying post:

How many times do we have to win the argument? Time and again the left comes up short on ethical, rationality and logic points and long on emotional blackmail. Still, they keep coming back with the same old tired circle of indignation, evasion and juvenile posturing.

Sometimes, the order in which ideas present themselves to you is more important than their individual coherence or importance. Occasionally, the most trivial and unrelated things can serve as stepping stones to a entirely new vista, a new perception of an old, unsolved puzzle. I’ve tried for a few months now to complete my Cultural Insanity series on the dangerous evolutionary dead end that is the progressive, secular humanistic, socialist left. I had put up three posts that were quite well received (I, II and III) in July and August. I was on a roll. But as I approached the last post in the series I stalled.

I realized I had never really got beyond finding innovative ways of explaining how wrong and developmentally immature they are. When I started putting that last post together, the one in which I would put the coup-de-grace on the left by uncovering and laying out the underlying flaw in their philosophy and rational, I could not complete the series. The deep underlying flaw kept receding from my grasp. I knew most of the important pieces of the puzzle...

RTWT here, then start at his first post and continue through to the last. Just a great and penetrating mind.

Flakes

Flakes

Notice who's missing?

via Insty

Whew

New exhibit finally installed- hooray! Mebbe I can post something worthwhile now that the excitement's over. I would post about the new exhibit but there's nothing I can put up here- these folk are protective. Just go to the Exploreum website and you'll see what's up. Come see us!