A EULOGY FOR LINCOLN

Siggy posts excerpts from the moving eulogy of Abraham Lincoln given by Rabbi Isaac M Wise, delivered in Cincinnati Ohio, on April 19, 1865.

Here is just one paragraph:

The photographer or lithographer, the painter or sculptor, can not eternize a man; he can not give you more of him than a faint delineation of the outside, shape and features, the most unimportant portion, the mere case of a person. Monuments, however lofty and extensive, crowded with inscriptions and symbols, tell very little, after all, of the man himself, to whose honor they may be erected. The passions, feelings, struggles, victories, motives and thoughts of a great mind, and each of them is a real fraction of his existence, are so innumerably manifold and change so often, that no artist can represent a considerable portion of them. This is the case especially with the deceased, Abraham Lincoln. The best representation of his figure will not tell posterity who he was. His outside appearance bore no resemblance even to his real nature. The most skillful philosopher will fail in describing the man who stood at the head of affairs during this gigantic struggle, his cares and troubles, his sleepless nights and days of anxiety, his thoughts and his schemes, his triumphs and mortifications, his hopes and fears, and ten thousand more sentiments, feelings and thoughts, which moved his mind in the stormy period of his Presidential term.

Go and read it all.

Siggy asks, "Would the candidates for the highest office in the land today be worthy of these words?" Alas, no. Most modern politicians aspiring to the highest office in the land are mere moral pygmies compared to Lincoln, who--though he was vilified by many in his own time--was arguably among the greatest, if not the greatest, of all American Presidents.

ZOMBIES OF THE MSM

In "George Orwell, Call Your Office", Cliff May asks a pertinent question:

A bill to restore to American intelligence agencies the authority they formerly had to monitor, unfettered, the communications of foreign terrorists passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support. Senator Jay Rockefeller, the Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee said that every day that our spy shops don’t have this authority our intelligence is being “degraded.”

National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell, a former vice admiral of the Navy, an intelligence officer for 25 years, and head of the National Security Agency under President Clinton, said that without this authorization, vital intelligence is being “lost.”

A letter sent by 25 state Attorneys General of both parties says that America’s security is being “jeopardized” by the refusal of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to allow her members to vote on the bill – which, it is believed, would pass with bipartisan support in the House as well. The moderate Blue Dog Democrats are pushing Pelosi to permit the vote.

And in an interview with National Journal, an intelligence adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign broke with his candidate’s position opposing this bill – which also contains a provision granting legal protection to telecommunications companies being sued for cooperating with the U.S. intelligence officials to detect and prevent acts of terrorism.

"I do believe strongly that [telecoms] should be granted that immunity," former CIA official John Brennan told National Journal reporter Shane Harris in the interview. "They were told to [cooperate] by the appropriate authorities that were operating in a legal context." Last month, Senator Obama voted to strip language in an intelligence bill that would have granted to Verizon, AT&T and other companies the immunity.

Regarding the telecoms, Senator Rockefeller has said: "What is the big payoff for the telephone companies? They get paid a lot of money? No. They get paid nothing. What do they get for this (for cooperating with intelligence officials to prevent terrorism)? They get $40 billion worth of suits, grief, trashing, but they do it."

I have publicly praised those Democrats — e.g. Rep. Joe Donnelly of Indiana — who have taken a principled stand on this issue and, by doing so, incurred the wrath of Speaker Pelosi, the trial lawyers who stand to make billions of dollars, MoveOn.org, the ACLU and CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations, a pro-Islamist group which has organized a campaign against the Senate bill).

Yet for some reason, in all the mainstream media coverage of this issue, those who support the bill are portrayed as “partisans,” and those who oppose it are called “civil rights advocates” or something equally flattering. Why is that? Discuss among yourselves.

There’s much more on this issue – the substance and principles, not the politics — here.[emphasis mine]

This is relevant to the post just previous to this one. From a psychological perspective, the behavior of the MSM in this as in so many other matters appears to be motivated by underlying ideological principles of which they are largely unaware; and almost none have thought through the consequences of promoting those principles.

Beneath the conscious, deliberate bias and blatant manipulation of news for 'the good' of us all, is an uncritical, unthinking cognitive apparatus that has been virtually destroyed by years of academic propaganda-- to the point that many of these journalists simply regurgitate the marxist talking points in which they have been marinating for several decades--without even recognizing them as such.

Instead, they believe that their behavior is truly motivated by a desire for 'social justice' and 'peace'.

Many of these walking, talking advertisements for 21st century neo-marxist fascism--who laughingly call themselves "objective journalists"-- are nothing but the mindless zombies of a not-quite-dead marxism/communism/socialism that rose from its 20th century grave. What gave new life to these moldering and rotting ideas that certainly deserved to die after the mass death and destruction they caused, was the energizing power of postmodern rhetoric, cultivated in the hallowed halls of academia, and inoculated into the unsuspectng children who came there to learn.

Instead of learning to think, they were indoctrinated into the ever-growing ranks of leftist zombiest churned out by those institutions.

The zombies of the MSM walk among us without hinderance; wreaking havoc and mindlessly mouthing the multicultural platitudes and encouraging the 'class struggle' and promoting marxist envy--in other words, generally behaving like this undead ideology is some sort of beacon of "hope" or "change" for today's world.

These zombies prey on the soul and eat the life force of free societies like ours; and, like the utterly clueless Sean of the Dead, we go through our days oblivious to the havoc, barely noticing that something is very wrong.

Eventually, even the hapless Sean's perceptual and cognitive abilities kicked into gear and were able to override the overly emotional self-involvement to make him aware of the danger.

Godzilla and the many monsters in Japanese and American cinema were symbolic of the dangerous and frightening forces unleashed after WWII. In our own time, it is the ubiquitous fascination with zombies that symbolizes the forces that threaten to engulf our society and the world.

What better image than a zombie is there to represent the horrifying mindlessness of the herd mentality that the political left have re-dedicated themselves to in the new century?

UPDATE: Charles Johnson asks, "What the hell is wrong with our mainstream wire sources?"

Also, GatewayPundit wonders about this story.

The answer? Zombies. See above.

UPDATE II: Disaster preparedness--even for zombie invasions! (hat tip: Instapundit)

A PATHETIC 'TRIUMPH' FOR THE LOSERS, PSYCHOPATHS AND BARBARIANS OF ISLAM

At American Thinker, Gary Wolf deconstructs the pervasive anti-Israeli bias of the media (hat tip: Larwyn):

The bias of the mainstream media against Israel never ceases to amaze me. It must rank as one of the most curious sociopolitical phenomena of our era. The further the Palestinian Arabs move toward a barbaric Islamic theocracy, the deeper the support for them among the cadre of "progressive" journalists.

An example of the entrenched bias is last Thursday's (March 6) article from the Associated Press, "7 die in shooting at Jerusalem seminary."

Let us first examine the headline: "7 die." Seven what-people? Jews? Martians? And they are not killed, they simply "die," in the passive sense, as if from a stroke. The main reason why this is so insidious is that such language is never used when the enemies of Israel are the ones who die. One of the calling cards of Leftist journalism is that when Arabs die, you know how they died, who killed them, and whether they had any special characteristics worthy of pity. If the sides were reversed, the headline would read, "Israeli extremist massacres 7 youths learning Koran at Gaza holy place."

Wolf goes on to deconstruct the entire article with all its implicit and explicit bias; and then demonstrates how an article about 9/11 would sound, using the same sort of media template that is used to protect terrorists today.

Over at Israellycool the human face of this massacre and the media's horrific anti-Israel bias is further exposed. Here is how the AFP frames the face of the mass murderer, his picture lovingly held by a sweet little girl:


___________________________________________________
A relative holds up a picture of Alaa Hisham Abu Dheim, a Palestinian suspected of gunning down eight students at a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem. Israel went on alert as crowds mourned eight teens killed by a Palestinian at a Jewish religious school in an attack claimed by Hamas that shook faltering peace talks. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
___________________________________________________


Only the Israeli papers bothered to show the faces of the innocents who were butchered by the "suspected" murderer in the attack, and I urge you to go over to Israellycool to see their faces and find out something about them. They are: Yonatan Yitzhak Eldar, 16; Segev Peniel Avihail, 15; Yochai Lipschitz, 18; Roey Roth, 18; Avraham David Moses, 16; Neria Cohen, 15; and Yehonadav Haim Hirshfeld, 19.

As Wolf noted in the American Thinker article:

One of the calling cards of Leftist journalism is that when Arabs die, you know how they died, who killed them, and whether they had any special characteristics worthy of pity. If the sides were reversed, the headline would read, "Israeli extremist massacres 7 youths learning Koran at Gaza holy place."

Needless to say, the MSM articles I read did not state the ages of those who were murdered, simply referring to them vaguely as "people". [Wouldn't want to inflame the passions of the readers in the wrong way, would we?]

ShrinkWrapped sums up the pitiful Palestinians (and their enablers in the media, as well ) when he commented on Friday:

In Pity the Poor Anti-Semite I pointed out the core conflict within the Arab anti-Semite:

Here is the crucial point for those who imagine that a tiny group of people, barely 60 years out of an almost successful genocide, left with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, comprising approximately .05% of the world's population, who came to the desert in Palestine and built a modern technological nation, would have the time and interest to simultaneously devote themselves to oppressing the Muslim world, with almost 100 times their population and oceans of oil:

The anti-Semite necessarily defines himself as monumentally inferior to the Jew.

This resides in the core of the anti-Semite and renders him permanently damaged and weakened. Only the aid of a being much greater than themselves, Allah, can save them from disaster. Short of such divine intervention, they are doomed to remain defeated. The Muslim nations of the world do not see it as within their abilities to compete in a world of high technology, higher education, competitive open economies; no, they look to nuclear weapons, only available to them by virtue of their Allah given oil money rather than by the sweat of their own brows, to bring them relief from the often imagined depredations of the now conflated Jewish/American demi-Gods.

It is this inferiority that leaves the Arab celebrating as a great triumph the murder of unarmed Jewish students, many of them teenagers, as they study their Torah. What a pathetic triumph!

If Hamas and Hezbollah consider this some sort of "triumph", then it indeed a pathetic one, of a kind that only losers, psychopaths and barbarians can be proud.

UPDATE: Oh, and the "moderates" in the so-called Middle East peace process have now honored the mass murdering terrorist:

Mahmoud Abbas's official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper has honored the killer of the eight high school students gunned down this week with the status of Shahid - Holy Islamic Martyr. In so doing, the PA is sending its people a straightforward message of support for the terror murders and the murderer. According to the PA interpretation of Islam, there is no higher status that a human being can achieve today than that of Shahid.

In this sick religion, there is no higher status than that of Shahid; and no more subservient one than that of dhimmi. Mass murdering religious degenerates and mass media useful idiots---a match made in Allah's paradise.

CARNIVAL OF THE INSANITIES

Time for the weekly insanity update, where the insane, the bizarre, the ridiculous, and the completely absurd are highlighted for all to see! This has been a week of rare idiocy (as always!). So, if you want to remain sane, the best thing is to poke some fun at the more egregious absurdities.

Send all entries for next week's carnival to Dr. Sanity by 8 pm ET on Saturday for Sunday's Carnival. Only one post entry weekly per blogger, please. And you might read this before submitting an entry
**NOTE: I am now getting many more submissions than I can possibly include in the weekly Carnival. Please don't be offended if your submission is not used (oh, okay, be as offended as you like) as it only means that for a variety of reasons I wasn't able to fit it into the "flow" as I put together each Carnival.

REMEMBER, THERE ARE SO MANY INSANITIES AND SO LITTLE TIME!!!

1. Degenerate mass murderers of children somehow think calling us capitalists is some sort of insult. I wonder who they take their cue from ?

2. It's fun to blame the Jews--it's that same old double standard.

3. The mullahs of love. Oh, you meant those engineers.

4. It's war, comrades! Nevermind. He doesn't help the poor either. Don't you love it when a plan finally comes together?

5. The video that fulfills Obama's promises. Pick a new, middle name for him! Join the Rezkorama--or is that off-limits in discussing The Messiah too? The audacity of losers?

6. Depends on what your definition of "mainstream" is, doesn't it? Just another job Americans won't do.... and some advice from John Kerry about looking like a dork...

7. Do what this person suggests...or join the Democratic Party and learn to feint--or be inscrutable! It's not just well-aged beef...it's rotten.

8. Somebody should answer that damn phone--and we know who!

9. Power failure? Whoops! Clearly, an apology was not enough.

10. A whole latte talent and a whole latte more.

11. Sheesh! Just tell him goodbye. The essential difference between male and female!

12. The roar of the gyno-saur (sour?) This is your brain on Hillary! Sexual predator? The essential difference between a Clinton and someone who has nothing to hide.

13. We're just so00 mean. Clearly we are the suckers we've been waiting for! Diversity is job one! Hill and Barack of the Casbah (is it too un-PC to say that?).

14. An escalating war...but the military become more and more PC. Waiting around for respect from people who don’t respect themselves is a fool’s errand. Even judges get into the dissing act.

15. Hey! It's only a game! Compare the doodles and you'll see how much Hollywood has deteriorated! California ticky tacky.

16. The colon who came in from the cold.

17. Every kid wants one of these. It's a toy with a twist! I mean, what contemporary kid wouldn’t want this fine, fun-filled example of a failing bureaucracy in an ever-growing fascist state?

18. Daylight Savings Time: A really really bad idea.

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Carnival of the Insanities can also be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival and at the BlogCarnival.

If you would like to Join the insanity, and add the Carnival of the Insanities button to your sidebar (clicking on it will always take you to the latest update of the Carnival), click on "Word of Blog" below the button to obtain the html code:

Heard the Word of Blog?

A BEACON OF REASON AND SANITY

My admiration for Dr. Wafa Sultan continually grows as she courageously--despite death threats, is willing to shine a psychological spotlight on the many insanities of Islam.

Cox and Forkum penned a tribute to her a while back:


The cartoon seems particularly insightful after reading this transcript from MEMRI (the video clip is here, and is even more fascinating to watch her do battle with the puppets of Islam). Here are a few excerpts, but you must read it all:

Arab-American Psychiatrist Wafa Sultan: "All religions and faiths, throughout the history of humanity, have been subject to criticism and affronts. With time, this has helped in their reform and development. Any belief that chops off the heads of its critics is doomed to turn into terrorism and tyranny. This has been the condition of Islam, from its inception to this day. Islam has sentenced [its critics] to prison, and whoever crosses the threshold of that prison meets his death. The Danish cartoons have managed to break down the first brick in the wall of that prison, and to open up a window, through which the sunrays enter, after a lengthy darkness.

[...]
Wafa Sultan: "Why are they upset about what is going on in Gaza, while the Koran says to them: 'They shall kill and be killed.' So here they are - killing and being killed. What's wrong with that?"

Tal'at Rmeih: "Leave the Koran out of it. If you want to talk politics, go ahead."

Moderator: "I beg you to stick to politics. He talked only about politics."

Wafa Sultan: "Dr. Faysal, you know that you cannot separate Islam from politics. Islam is not a religion, but politics. You must let me express my views the way I want. When you called me, you didn't say I was not allowed to discuss Islam or the Koran. Islam says to them that they will 'kill or be killed', and here they are-killing and being killed. So what's wrong with that? They want to be martyred and to meet their black-eyed virgins, and Israel is merely helping them get what they want. What's wrong with that?

"If you want to change the course of events, you must reexamine your terrorist teachings, you must recognize and respect the right of the other to live, you must teach your children love, peace, coexistence, and productive work. When you do that, the world will respect you, will consider you in a better light, and will draw you in a better light."
[...]
Wafa Sultan: "How can someone who believes in killing people who do not pray possibly criticize liberties in the West? This is a farce. What past is he defending? Is he defending the invasions and lootings?"

Tal'at Rmeih: "I am defending the past of the Islamic nation, which was the beacon of knowledge for the entire world…"

Wafa Sultan: "…polygamy, beheadings, chopping of heads and feet on alternate sides, accusing people of heresy, and drinking camel urine, as a cure for all ailments - is this the past he is defending?"

Tal'at Rmeih: "No, I am defending a magnificent past of a magnificent nation, which was the cradle of knowledge and civilization, at a time when the most that people in the West could do was to catch a rabbit and scurry back to their caves. This nation has made the greatest contribution to civilization and humanity. Our religion is not complete without recognition of other religions. We are the ones who have called for tolerance and respect for religions."

Yes, we in the West are constantly being reminded of the incredible ''tolerance and respect for religions that the followers of Islam demonstrate. Just the other day, I believe, we were witness to the the horror and death a shining example of that 'tolerance' and the kind of 'respect' for life that Islam teaches.

Clearly--at least according to the 'expert' on Islam who debates Dr. Sultan--Islam is a powerful force for civilization while those who support such atrocities as freedom and the sanctity of individual human life are leading the world back to barbarism and ignorance. LOLOL

Dr. Sultan is a beacon of reason and sanity shining in the mental darkness and moral depravity perpetuated by the leaders of today's Islam.

BATTLE HYMN OF THE OBAMA

Amid discussion about whether BHO is the Messiah or not, here's a little hymn for Barack Obama supporters....

Their eyes have seen the glory of the coming of Barack;
He'll be trouncing on both Hill and Bill till they ain't bouncin' back;
He hath loosed his fearful rhetoric of hope for Joe Six-pack;
His truthiness marches on!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truthiness marches on.

They have watched Him in the reruns of a hundred lame debates
When He smiles they swoon and when he blows his nose how He relates!
You can sense his substance clearly in the mood that He creates;
His words go on and on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His words go on and on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall always call retreat;
He is fearless in his certainty we must embrace defeat;
Oh, be swift, thou moonbat infidels to kiss his holy feet;
Your God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Your God is marching on.

Like the king of kings Barack Hussein was born across the sea,
With a chance to win the White House and restore democracy;
He'll get rid of Bush and Clinton and we'll finally be free!
When He's elected Prez.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! When He's elected Prez.

Now don't ask them what He's ever done to get to where He's at;
They don't worry 'bout that Rezko stuff-- He is so much more than that;
As for ringing phones at 3 AM, He always likes to chat!
He'll bring us hope and change!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! He'll bring us hope and change!

UPDATE: A cartoon by Eric Allie says it all:

LET'S HOPE FOR THE BEST !

Muqtada Al-Sadr Comatose In Iranian Hospital

Why do I really have doubts that it was food poisoning? Personally, I'm hoping the Mossad had something to do with cooking the food and used a secret sauce that only effect lunatic shiite clerics who preach hate and death.

Some justice in that, don't you think?

QUOTE OF THE DAY

...comes from the inimitable Mark Steyn, writing at The Corner and discussing Harvard swimming pools and Minneapolis taxis and the phenomenon of "sharia creep":

Forty years ago, advocating separate drinking fountains made you a racist. Today, advocating separate taxi cabs or separate swimming sessions makes you a multiculturalist.

Read it all.

Hooray for "progress" and all those progressives out there demanding hope and change.

BLEAK HOUSE

Victor Davis Hanson talks about the platitudes and mush —- and thousands of personal voice tales of catastrophe right out of Dickens-- that characterize the speeches of the Democratic candidates:

One striking difference between McCain's speeches and those both of Obama and Clinton is the former's absence of personal misery stories. At least McCain is clear on two vital issues of our time: ensuring that U.S. forces once committed to war defeat the enemy rather than withdraw in defeat, and ensuring that we cease borrowing money to spend what we don't have or are not earning.

94% of mortgages may be paid each month, but we hear constantly from Obama of foreclosure signs and the evicted. Unemployment may still be at historic lows (cf. the frequent -6-7% of the last three decades), but in Hillary's world Jane Doe and Joe Sixpack are out of work and starving. The point is not that these are not real stories, but that these human agonies are not put into any broad perspective to ascertain to what degree things in general are far worse than before.

A poignant anecdote is instead intended to move, sadden, and finally anger us—to the point of begging a Hillary or Barack to intervene to stop the unceasing misery of innocent others. The net result is one of profound depression that America is such an awful, failed country — and I'm not sure if that innacurate storyline is one they really want to pound home to the voters for the next nine months. It all sounds right out an Athenian court case where the victim brings in starving children in rags to sway the popular jury.

If one were going to make the case for agony and hardship, the Democratic candidates should at least make it rational and collective: e.g., gas is over $3.50 a gallon, this means X billion out of U.S .pockets, and Y dollars more lost from your personal budget for the year — AND this is due to A, B. and C that we had some control over. It gets worse when we get to education, where the culprit is always the absence of money, never the lack of standards, the absence of accountability, the politicization of the curriculum, the infusion of therapy into the classroom, the popular emphasis on sports or leisure rather than on knowledge, or the role of unions in stifling indvidual initiative and excellence.

There is no doubt that both Clinton and Obama, for all their talk of "hope" are both heavily invested in misery and failure--both in their economic philosophy, as well as their desire for immediate (if not sooner) surrender in Iraq.

You would think that people with real "hope" would see the progress in Iraq and the turnabout that has occurred in the hearts and minds of the people there. You would think that people hyping "change" would come up with some ideas and programs that aren't beholden to an ideology that has already failed in country after country, and which has made their economies circle the drain.

The Democratic party has become a bleak house that only knows how to pander to the pessimism and envy of Americans. Since 2000 when Bush was elected, they have been whining constantly and pointing to doom and gloom omens whenever they could about the economy. Their goal? To create a perception of disaster--even as the economy chugged along like the little engine that could. No group is happier or more excited over the possibility of a real recession than the Democratic elite, who are practically salivating over the word. Never mind that unemployment remains at historic lows, as Hanson mentions; or that manufacturing has actually grown during the Bush years:

From 2003 to 2006, manufacturing growth averaged over 2.3%. There’s every reason to believe that real growth in manufacturing continued in 2007.

Okay, what about the decline in total manufacturing jobs? Well, that’s due to productivity and calls for a history lesson.

In 1945, 16% of Americans worked in agriculture. By 2000, that percentage had shrunk to 1.9%. Yet, as with manufacturing, and despite steep, long-term, productivity-driven drops in the prices of agricultural commodities, agriculture’s GDP has grown consistently in real terms — but just not as fast as other sectors in the economy.

When’s the last time you read somebody fretting over the “de-agrification of America” and longing for workers to head back out into the fields? And why would it be a bad thing if, over the next few decades, we’re able to get ever more value out of manufacturing with fewer people as long as overall unemployment stays low?

This is why the Democratic candidates try to outdo each other with stories of pathos and woe, since anecdotes are the only real data to which they can refer to justify their economic doom and gloom.

And, now that things are going well in Iraq, the last thing you hear is any Democrat talking about it--except, of course, to remind people that they were opposed to it from the beginning--no matter what they said at the time, or how they voted. The anecdotes are being trotted out fast and furious here, too, to justify the "psychopathic soldier" meme--most recently that they even kill poor, helpless puppies-- that most of the poltiical left subscribes to anyway.

In fact, if you actually look at the behavior of the Democratic candidates and their leftist political base, you begin to see that "hope" and "change" are the last things in the world they stand for--or champion. More like hype and shortchange.

The Democrats live in a very bleak house, indeed.

DIVERSITY

Cartoons by Chuck Asay

THE ALLIANCE

Paul Mirengoff at Power Line has it exactly right:

For years now, the American left has been arguing that the war in Iraq is a distraction from the "real" war against al Qaeda and is counter-productive because it's "creating" new terrorists. Apparently, it never occurred to these deep-thinkers that inflicting a defeat on al-Qaeda in Iraq -- a defeat made possible because a previously sympathetic population turned with our help against al Qaeda -- might constitute a devastating blow to al Qaeda's standing in the Arab world.

The idea that losing a war hurts one's standing may be a novel one for our sophisticated liberals. But Osama bin Laden has long grasped it, famously stating years ago that "when people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse."

[...]Sheikh Abd Al-‘Aziz bin Abdallah Aal Al-Sheikh, the highest religious authority in Saudi Arabia, issued a fatwa late last year prohibiting Saudi youth from engaging in jihad abroad. It states: “I urge my brothers the ulama [the top class of Muslim clergy] to clarify the truth to the public . . . to warn [youth] of the consequences of being drawn to arbitrary opinions and [religious] zeal that is not based on religious knowledge.” Around the same time, Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, an influential Saudi cleric whom bin Laden once lionised, wrote an “open letter” condemning bin Laden. “Brother Osama, how much blood has been spilt? How many innocents among children, elderly, the weak, and women have been killed and made homeless in the name of al-Qaeda?” Sheikh Awdah wrote. “The ruin of an entire people, as is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq . . . cannot make Muslims happy.”

Indeed. Abe Greenwald notes that there has been an "Iraqi sea change", not the least of which is marked by the fact that the NY Times is reporting the following story. And that story is about the de-radicalization of Iraqis:

This is, in its way, more important than political reconciliation and even more important than hunting down al Qaeda. This is the long war stuff, the hearts-and-minds stuff.

The goal was to offer freedom as an alternative to extremism; the criticism was that it was a dream; the reality is that it is happening. From the Times:

Such patterns, if lasting, could lead to a weakening of the political power of religious leaders in Iraq. In a nod to those changing tastes, political parties are dropping overt references to religion.

And the revelations don’t end there. Sabrina Tavernise, who wrote the piece, notes that the extent of Iraqis’ wholesale rejection of jihad is unique in the region

Read both the Power Line and the Commentary articles. And, from the original Times article there are these fascinating quotes:

[...]young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.

“I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”

Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.”

The shift in Iraq runs counter to trends of rising religious practice among young people across much of the Middle East, where religion has replaced nationalism as a unifying ideology.

Oh My God! Does this mean that George Bush actually got it right after all?? Contrary to liberal talking points, Iraq is turning people away from Al Qaeda and terrorism! How Astonishing. How Amazing.

How terribly sad for the left. For the second time in the last 20 years, all their dreams are going to be dashed.

Things just haven't been going their way lately. Let's look at just two other losing positions that their ideological idiocy has brought them to. The first I wrote about yesterday; and you should read through the comments to see the howling of the leftists sent from a Salon.com link. Their attitude seems to be, HOW DARE YOU CRITICIZE DEAR HUGO--WHEN THE EVIL IMPERIALIST GEORGE W. BUSH STILL EXISTS! One commenter in particular keeps flogging dead (and discredited) horses and constantly retreats into blatant anti-American rhetoric. America MUST be to blame for all the evil in the world! That's what his socialist masters have decreed and he believes it. If he has any doubts about that "truth", then the entire ideological house of cards the left has built will collapse. These clueless morons will defend Hugo till the death because he is one of them--a tyrant and a fascist who will do whatever is necessary to implement their beloved marxist ideology.

That ideology has forced them to sleep with tyrants like Chavez, as well as to make common cause with terrorists.

Let's look at an article from Lebanon's Daily Star, which discusses the love between the far left and Hizbollah:

Recently, when the Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh was assassinated in Damascus, the collateral damage was felt in academic departments, newsrooms, think-tanks and cafes far and wide. That's because it quickly became apparent how wrong had been many of the alleged experts writing about the militant Shiite organization.

At Mughniyeh's funeral, Hizbullah leaders placed him in a trinity of party heroes "martyred" at Israeli hands. The secretary general of Hizbullah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, vowed "open war" against Israel in retaliation. Tens of thousands of people attended the ceremony, and for days Hizbullah received condolences. Iranian officials stepped over each other to condemn the assassination, many of them affirming that Israel's demise was inevitable. In the midst of all this one thing was plain: Mughniyeh was a highly significant figure in Hizbullah, and the party didn't hide it.

And yet over the years, an embarrassing number of writers and academics with some access to Hizbullah dutifully relayed what party cadres had told them about Mughniyeh: that he was unimportant and may even have been a figment of our imagination. It was understandable that Hizbullah would blur the trail of so vital an official. But not that those writing about the party should swallow this line without bothering to pursue the numerous sources of information that could have confirmed details of Mughniyeh's past. Their fault was laziness, and at times tendentiousness....

But there was more here than just manipulation. The Mughniyeh affair highlighted a deeper problem long obvious to those following Hizbullah: The party, though it is religious, autocratic, and armed to the teeth, often elicits approval from secular, liberal Westerners who otherwise share nothing of its values. This reaction, in its more extreme forms, has been reflected in the way many on the far left have embraced Hizbullah's militancy, but also that of other Islamist groups like Hamas or Islamic Jihad - thoroughly undermining their own ideological principles in the process.

The primary emotion driving together the far left and militant Islamists, but also frequently prompting secular liberals to applaud armed Islamic groups as well, is hostility toward the United States, toward Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians and much else, and, more broadly, toward what is seen as Western-dominated, capitalist-driven globalization....

A bizarre offshoot of this trend has been the left's elevation of Islamist "resistance" to the level of a fetish. You know something has gone horribly wrong when the writer and academic Norman Finkelstein volunteers to interpret Hizbullah for you, before prefacing his comments with: "I don't care about Hizbullah as a political organization. I don't know much about their politics, and anyhow, it's irrelevant. I don't live in Lebanon."

Yes, the underlying principle that helps you understand all the irrational and self-defeating behavior of the political left is a hatred of America and its values.

That America won the cold war against the Soviet Union was a shock they are still trying to recover from. They awaited the worldwide imposition of socialism/communism with religious fervor and had no doubts that their ideology would triumph. Then, at their lowest point, along comes the Islamic fanatics who (contrary to the article quoted above) actually DO share the same fundamental value--which is to forcibly impose their ideology/religion on the rest of the world. And America stands in the way--just as it does for the current crop of neo-marxist fascists.

The only difference between the Islamists and the left is the level of self-delusion. The left really truly have convinced themselves that they stand for "peace", "social justice", "brotherhood" and the like--even as their behavior demonstrates quite the opposite. This delusion effectively disguises their lust for power over others.

The Islamists don't even pretend to disguise that lust. Cleverly, they stroke the collective ego of the left and --at least when they speak English--they mouth the words the left wants to hear. They enjoy playing the victim even as they plot to victimize and kill. What they say in their own language, to their own people, about their intent is far different. What they are teaching their children is a good measure of their real intent with regard to Israel, America, and the West in general.

The Islamists are able to cynically manipulate the West, precisely because so many leftists are so wrapped up in their own politically correct postmodern fantasies--where they are "champions of the oppressed" and will transform the world into a socialist utopia that they will benevolently rule for the "good" of everyone else.

That fundamental psychological pathology is the foundation of the alliance between the political left and the Islamic fanatics who want to make all of us submit or die.

As the young Iraqis quoted above are discovering, when you wake up from the nightmare of Islamic fanaticism you begin to finally appreciate reality. If the political left in this country--particularly those Democrats who don't buy the whole socialist enchilada and still have a modicum of love and appreciation for this country and the economic and political liberty it stands for--ever wake up (and by "wake up" I mean begin to have some self-awareness and insight into the actual consequences of the rhetoric and policies they have been blindly supporting for the last several decades) then the West can finally defeat Al Qaeda and all the Islamofascist groups around the world that threaten freedom and democracy.

But first, those of us who are dedicated to the proposition that our soldiers and marines shall not have died in vain and that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth-- must continue to expose the unholy alliance that our elite have made with an enemy that desires to enslave or kill us all.

HUGO SHOWS HIS COLORS

South America is on the verge of war...

South America was on the brink of war yesterday as Venezuela and Ecuador amassed troops on the Colombian border in response to the killing of a Marxist rebel leader.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to join the rebels in a war to overthrow hard-line Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a key ally of the United States, deploying tanks, fighter jets and thousands of troops along the Colombian border.

As Fausta says at Pajamas, Chavez is "rattling his saber." He desperately needs something to distract his people from the fact that he has taken their economy down the toilet (see previous post for an explanation of the psychological mechanism involved)

Of note, are these two little tidbits of information:

But the Colombians described the raid as the most significant blow yet against the FARC.

And evidence found in the raid suggests that Chavez recently gave the FARC $300 million, Colombia's national police chief said Monday.

Speaking at a news conference, Gen. Oscar Naranjo said evidence in three seized computers also suggests FARC had given Chavez 100 million pesos when he was a jailed rebel leader.

Naranjo said other evidence in the computers suggests FARC purchased 50 kilograms of uranium this month.

"The revelations about agreements between the terrorist group FARC and the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela will be submitted to the Organization of American States and the United Nations," Uribe's communique said Monday. (emphasis mine)

Gee, I wonder who they could have purchased it from? I guess you could say that dear Hugo is in with the terrorists.

This will only raise his standing with the political left in this country! Soon, Cindy Sheehan and the peabrains of Hollywood and academia will soon be swooning yet again at benevolent actions of the courageous tyrant of Venezuela who has brought "hope and change" (especially change) to his adoring people.

DEMOCRAT DISPLACEMENT

Dis-place-ment - a separation of emotion from an object of fear or threat and its redirection toward someone or something that is less offensive or threatening in order to avoid dealing directly with what is frightening or threatening

A perfect example of the defemse mechanism:




If you prefer to live in the real world and deal with the important issues of the day, then I suggest you take a listen to last night's Sanity Squad Podcast! Join Shrink, Neo, Siggy and Me as we face some of the more frightening realities of today's world! Click on the button below:

MAYBE IN THE FUTURE THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT?

Andrew McCarthy writes on the cognitive dissonance that exists in dealing with terrorism and terrorists:

After nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered in the atrocities of September 11, 2001, President Bush boldly announced that the United States would not distinguish between terror networks and the regimes that support them. They would all be regarded as hostile and dealt with accordingly.

What a sad commentary it is that, less than seven years later, we are left to wonder whether our State Department will stand with the American victims of terror or join forces with the other side: a regime with a long, remorseless record of practicing terrorism, preaching terrorism, and murdering Americans.

McCarthy is, of course, talking about that jolly murdering band of terrorists we have come to know and love as Fatah--one of two terrorist camps competing with each other for dominance over Palestinian heart and minds. The State Department of the Bush Administration seems to think that Fatah is a 'better peace partner' than Hamas:

Despite the relentless practice of Palestinian terror, and despite the president’s post-9/11 admonition, the Bush administration has foolishly supported Fatah with millions of dollars in financial assistance and weaponry. Indeed, when Hamas captured Gaza, it reportedly seized a trove of American assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, rocket launchers, ammunition and armored personnel carriers from Fatah compounds.

The State Department, which champions lavish U.S. support for Abbas, rationalizes that Fatah is a force for “moderation.” Yet, at a 2007 celebration to honor Arafat’s memory, Abbas urged a throng of 50,000 Palestinians to re-aim their guns at the “occupation” (i.e., Israel) instead of turning them on each other: “Fatah,” he promised, “will not give up our principles and we have said that rifles should be directed against the occupation.... We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation....”

And just last week, Abbas revealed that his current feint at negotiations with Israel is — like his mentor Arafat’s similar tactics — a strategic pause at best. He explained to a Jordanian newspaper that he was not pursuing “the armed struggle” at “this present juncture” only “because we can’t succeed in it.” He was quick to add, though, that “maybe in the future things will be different.”

Uh huh. Right.

The Paleostinians repeatedly attack Israeli civilians then get the international community all worked up when Israel retaliates. Their cowardly 'militants' hide among women and children, then get the international community all worked up when women and children are killed when the Israelis attack them.

But, as Siggy notes, there is no such thing as a disproportionate response when the Palestinians call is--and always has been- for genocide against the Jews. Calls to genocide; calls to "slaughter the Jews" are already disproportionate and require a proportionate response.

The World Bank has accused Israel of destroying the Palestinian economy. You will have to read the article to believe it. Of particular note is the World Bank's acting Director's comments:

“The pillars of Gaza’s economy have weakened over the years. Now, with a sustained closure on this current scale, they would be at risk of virtually irreversible collapse,” said Faris Hadad-Zervos, the acting director for the World Bank in the Palestinian Authority territories.

Hadad-Zervos told participants at a closed-door meeting of private-sector organizations and aid groups that “A solution must be reached very soon, if not immediately…Otherwise, Gaza’s dependence on humanitarian assistance could become a long-term and comprehensive situation.” (emphasis mine)

Too late, I'm afraid. It has already lasted for half a century, and it couldn't get more culturally and societally "comprehensive" than it already is. The Palestinian "economy" has been based for decades on the creation and export of two fundamental products: (1) terrorism and (2) victimhood. Far from "creating the conditions for an 'irreversible' economic collapse in Hamas-controlled Gaza, the Israelis have made a herculean effort to assist the Palestinians over the years, particularly to support the development of a Palestinian middle-class.

Sadly, they have been thwarted in those efforts by the two precious Palestinian commodities that have been marketed for decades by the dysfunctional Palestinian leaders.

These leaders manipulate Palestinian "victimhood at the hands of Israeli oppression" so convincingly and with such great gusto, that they have conned the international community into believing that Palestinians have absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for the garbage dump their society has evolved into. The poor, oppressed suicide bombers of Palestine have become the "opiate" of the leftist masses.

In a series of posts about Palestinian psychopathology, Siggy has this to say:

The Palestinians, as a group and as a society, have failed. Unlike other Arabs in the region, they live in close proximity to a vibrant and free society. They know and see the benefits of what living in a free society means. They also know to acknowledge Israel’s successes, they have to acknowledge their own failures. Culturally, that is too high a price to pay.

The cycle of violence is not simply destined to perpetuate itself- the cycle of violence is reinforced and ever escalating. Dysfunctional behaviors that were unknown or unheard before have become commonplace.The self destructive behavior of the Palestinians comes about as the result of the integration of exaggerated love and exaggerated hate into a fused single exaggerated emotion. What distinguishes the two becomes no more than a blurred idea. Thus, violence directed at each other is a appropriate as violence directed at the Israelis.

This kind diseased thinking is not just about violence. Even the wildest conspiracy theories, widely welcomed and accepted, become a reflection of a dysfunctional defense mechanism and absurdity. As Arab religious and political leaders whip crowds into a wild frenzy, warning of ‘Jewish plots’ to control the world, these same religious and political leaders have no trouble promising that ‘Muslims all over the world will work together to control the world’ and that the ‘flag of Islam will fly over the White House’ and the British Parliament. Those who resist will be destroyed.

These kinds of projections are used by religious and political leaders to control and feed the fantasy with the intoxication of absolute power....

There is a difference between backward societies and failed ones. Backward societies are unaware of the possibilities in front of them. Failed societies have squandered the opportunities that have been afforded them.

In the escalating and seemingly endless psychopathology of the Palestinians you can begin to see and understand the core premises and abnormal psychology that fuels the terrorist/jihadist vision, which is based on a hatred so consuming, it has not only destoyed the very soul of the Palestinian people, but it threatens to envelop the entire world with its madness.

For every professional victim, there are hordes of victimhood pimps urging them on to even greater heights of victimhood in order for the pimps to bask in a glow of moral righteousness and virtue. You can see this in the adoption of the Palestinians as "global chic" by the morally bankrupt and mindless intellectual elite of the left, as they glorify and worship Palestinian dysfunction and pathology.

The reason why the critics of Israel always seem to ignore Palestinian atrocities and give them a free pass on having any responsibility for the lack of any progress or civilized behavior in their present-day culture is clear. I wrote in that earlier piece:

The West for the most part has the attitude that somehow, allowing the Palestinians to suffer the consequences of their choices and behavior would be "punishing them". A typical proponent of this attitude, for example, is former President Carter, who has consistently and regularly advocates that Israel's actions should be punished, but that the Palestinians must be given a free pass by civilization.

Carter blithely discusses the "devastating consequences" of Israel or American actions, but I have yet to see him--or any others who put forth the same compassionate view-- grapple with the "devastating consequences" of the Hamas charter. Or of suicide bombers. Or of the intent, stated repeatedly by the leaders of the Palestinians and sanctioned by the Palestinian people who voted to elect Hamas, to destroy Israel.

Carter and the other terrorist enablers of the West ignore Palestinian behavior with the cultivated cognitive dissonance of today's postmodern left. The obsession of the West with the eternal victimhood cult of the Palestininas has been the single biggest psychological impediment toward peace in that region.

Why should the Palestinians' behavior ever change? What could possibly motivate them to be civilized? Or deal honestly with Israel? They have every reason to believe that the Carters of the world will always let them off the hook--and bail them out--no matter what they do or how badly they behave.

When it comes to seeking peace; or establishing a civil and productive society the Palestinians have shown themselves to be completely hopeless and only focused on war.

In fact, they are so committed to war; so determined to continue on their path homicidal violence for violence' sake, that they are indoctrinating the next generation into the cult of death (and they don't even need Mickey Mouse to do it).

Western leaders are amazingly slow learners. They have been excusing the Palestinians and vilifying Israel for decades now, and yet they wonder why peace is so elusive in that part of the world.

The Palestinian Con is one of the greatest deceptions in the history of the world.

And the Western world, which is the actual victim of the con seems bent on never calling these flim-flam artist to account for undermining every peace process; breaking every truce; squandering every chance; and worshipping death. It is truly amazing how the West, instead of understanding the con, are willing accessories to it and instead view the con artist as the victim and constantly act to protect and defend him. What would you say to a victimized senior citizen who delusionally protects the perpetrators of a scam who have robbed him of all his savings? You would rightfully think he is out of his mind and feel pity at how the ravages of age have compromised his cognitive functioning.

So, why is the international community always sucked into this dysfunctional psychodrama?


If you have any doubts about the power and sanctity that can be yours if victimhood status can be officially confered upon you; or of the endless moral benefits of being "oppressed"; just consider the central Palestinian role in the quasi-religious cult of victimhood that is part of today's pervasive leftist dogma.

In the holy book of leftist belief, "victimhood" is the most celebrated quality deserving of attention and pity. This is in part because many on the political left have a pathologically narcissistic need to see themselves as "champions of the oppressed", hence the constant need to find and maintain an oppressed class of people to champion. The Palestinians fit the bill for the left.


But their con job is not as effective as it once was. It has been observed and well-documented (and here)that whenever the flow of international aid is halted to these barbarians, the terror magically stops. Give them money for food and infrastructure, and instead they buy guns and bombs.

With every invitation to rejoin the civilized world that has been offered up to them; with every sign of compassion and caring from the international community, the Palestinians instead chose cultural suicide and prefer death and destruction. They would much rather kill Jews than work to create a life for their children.

In fact, they'd rather their children kill Jews, too.

Palestinian pretensions to virtue and culture have been fully exposed as a fraud. Even their most famous con has been exposed for the shameless lie that it is. The death-worshipping cult of hatred they "elected" to govern themselves only pulls them deeper into the gutter of pathos and decay, and the "moderate" Abbas is only marginally different.

Living in a fantasy world where everything is the fault of the Jews, they have hopelessly degenerated into self-delusion, denial and paranoia and have chosen to embrace hate and violence rather than making a better life either for themselves or their children. They are more concerned with avoiding shame rather than behaving honorably.

One of the most important expressions of a shame culture (as well as shame-avoidant and grandiose persons in general) is the rampant psychological projection and refusal to accept responsibility for any inappropriate behavior--up to and including the most disgusting of atrocities. It is always someone else's fault (for the Palestinians, it is always the Israelis/Jews).

In this way the shame-avoidant culture of the Palestinians continues to act irresponsibly and even flaunts its grandiose entitlement. They perceive nothing wrong with their barbaric and malignant behavior and are encouraged in their delusional beliefs by their fellow Arabs and Muslims and the intellectual elites of the left.

Unable to create the institutions necessary for a civilized society--despite the billions of dollars in aid from the rest of the world-- they are simply too preoccupied with their unbridled envy and loathing of their more successful cousins, the Jews to be able to move forward. In their perverted world, it is shameful if you do not desire to murder Jews and do not want your children to blow themselves up; but not at all shameful to be a member of an ignorant, medieval death-cult.

Just as alcoholics are addicted to ethanol, the Palestinians are addicted to their Jew-hatred and will not miss any opportunity to overindulge. Their intoxication has been continuous for over half a century now. If they did abstain--even for a moment--delirium engulfs them and they focus their obsessive lethal destructiveness on each other.

The psychologically inebriated members of Hamas actually believe that they can continue to mouth the same old pathetic and stale shibboleths that have sunk the region into a bottomless quagmire of sadistic violence and death.

“We will never recognize Israel. There is nothing called Israel, neither in reality nor in the imagination.”

And then, with a practiced histrionic flair, they extend their hands demanding more money for their obsession; more encouragement, and more admiration from that the rest of the world; sure in their limitless narcissism that they will be treated kindly and with all the due deference they feel they deserve.

But the West has had enough. Some nations are finally waking up to the fact that unless something different is done on the international level, we will simply have another half century of Palestinian dysfunction.

Unless we demand that THEY change their behavior, the future will not be any different than the past 50 years have been. "Maybe in the future things will be different"? Don't count on it.



UPDATE: And, if it is cognitive dissonance to give either camp of these thugs money with which they can buy (and do)weapons; it is absolute madness to give them guns.

PRETTY DARN DUMB

Charlote Allen asks, "We Scream, We Swoon. How Dumb Can We Get?" Pretty darn dumb, apparently:

Here's Agence France-Presse reporting on a rally for Sen. Barack Obama at the University of Maryland on Feb. 11: "He did not flinch when women screamed as he was in mid-sentence, and even broke off once to answer a female's cry of 'I love you, Obama!' with a reassuring 'I love you back.' " Women screamed? What was this, the Beatles tour of 1964? And when they weren't screaming, the fair-sex Obama fans who dominated the rally of 16,000 were saying things like: "Every time I hear him speak, I become more hopeful." Huh?

"Women 'Falling for Obama,' " the story's headline read. Elsewhere around the country, women were falling for the presidential candidate literally.

Alas, the old sexist stereotypes hold true. Women ARE more emotional. There's a reason why "hysteria" is a term associated with women. It's because they are fully capable in large numbers of acting like idiots in situations like this, thus confirming for all observers which is the 'weaker sex.'

And after all these years of feminist 'enlightenment'!

But what should we expect from a feminist movement that lost its way several decades back when it succumbed to the rhetoric of the postmodern neo-marxist fascists?

These ideologically-in-lockstep, histrionic gals learned a critical lesson from all that rhetoric; and it is what underlies their abandonment of Hillary Clinton for the girlish and non-threatening smiles of Obama: race trumps gender in the victimhood heirarchy of the left. Therefore, Obama is far more deserving of their adoration and worship. They never celebrated stars like Condi Rice--who broke out of both the gender and the race molds maintained by the left-- because the fact that she was a vile Republican made her ineligible in the left's victimhood sweepstakes.

Yep. You have to be pretty darn dumb to behave like that. Or, less than 16 years of age.

Either way, the level of maturity that drives the behavior of today's representatives of the political left is rather awe-inspiring.

UPDATE: And for a case in point of the awe-inspiring histrionics of the left, you need look no further than the 'famous' Jane Hamsher of Firedoglakepuddle--who singlehandedly assured the re-election of Joe Lieberman by energetically supporting his opponent; and whose laughable use of the term "insufferably ignorant" reaches new heights of cluelessness--even for her. Let us hope she decides to support Obama and does for him exactly what she did for Ned Lamont.

THIS IS GOOD FOR A LAUGH

Check it out. It demonstrates how easily ideologically-induced self-delusion can overwhelm common sense--even in supposedly educated people.

Next we'll probably get to see Obama trot out his own set of slavish military generals to make the same 'general' points.

CARNIVAL OF THE INSANITIES

Time for the weekly insanity update, where the insane, the bizarre, the ridiculous, and the completely absurd are highlighted for all to see! This has been a week of rare idiocy (as always!). So, if you want to remain sane, the best thing is to poke some fun at the more egregious absurdities.

Send all entries for next week's carnival to Dr. Sanity by 8 pm ET on Saturday for Sunday's Carnival. Only one post entry weekly per blogger, please. And you might read this before submitting an entry
**NOTE: I am now getting many more submissions than I can possibly include in the weekly Carnival. Please don't be offended if your submission is not used (oh, okay, be as offended as you like) as it only means that for a variety of reasons I wasn't able to fit it into the "flow" as I put together each Carnival.

REMEMBER, THERE ARE SO MANY INSANITIES AND SO LITTLE TIME!!!

1. Good news is no news. Not antiwar--just on the other side. What side is the State Department on?

2. If the Hamas is worse than even Israel...and if Israel's actions are worse than the Holocaust; then......well, you make the connection! Uncivilized? How can anyone possibly say that when they're number one?

3. Why is this not surprising? Even the tiniest terrorist needs to play! Even the most idiotic moonbat need an Egyptian vacation!

4. Top 10 Hillary campaign slogans on a T-shirt! And, the Top 20 Conservative slogans on a Tee (we're always completely fair and imbalanced in the COTI) !

5. The Biased Liberal Media, Meet Hillary Clinton; Hillary Clinton, Meet the Biased Liberal Media...maybe it's a vast leftwing conspiracy, Hill? A behind the scenes transcript of an editorial brainstorming session!

6. But she's honored to ridicule and deride Obama! Will she club the baby seal to death? Things are definitely getting out of hand.

7. Whoops, I think she made an ad for John McCain! But some apparently think it's subliminally racist? Some think the whole focus is overtly racist and a chance for 'White redemption'?

8. Barack Dukakis? Wink, wink; nudge nudge. Oh, I think he's more than a face in a potato, don't you? E.g., possibly as corrupt as the rest.... but I refer you to Teddy 8: 12-18 for today's Gospel.

9. And this blogger's honored to ridicule and deride Fidel.

10. A new symbol for government that more accurately reflects its political stance! Acute politics, indeed. A meme that unites the world! American Derangement Syndrome?

11. The 5 dumbest product bans. How do you like your steak--with or without hair? Well, there is an ecological virtue in dirty hair.... but not in laminated plastic, unfortunately.

12. Some leap day history--give us back the days you stole! Not to mention the hours....

13. Liberals: are they neurotic or just irrational? Why not both? The closing of the academic mind space. Maybe they need to fall in love with their therapists?

14. Somewhere on the internet, someone is WRONG. (not me)

15. Bozo the Clown in charge of operational security?

16. Hoplophobia? Well, hoplo- is Greek for weapon...but I don't think it has caught on. Meanwhile, the Italian city of Parma is officially relieved of its association with imitation grated cheese! Thank goodness!

17. Yummmm! Have some grub!

18. An interview from Heaven's gate: Thou shall not be a schnook -- a good summary! Human nature hasn't changed--it's the technologies, stupid!

19. What she says is bad enough...but what she doesn't say leaves you [fill in word here].

20. How to talk to a lady....Wow! You like my butt? Sometimes even sweet talk won't cut it! Just GO AWAY!

21. Fashion fads you won't want to remember! Celebrity drug addictions.

***************************************
Carnival of the Insanities can also be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival and at the BlogCarnival.

If you would like to Join the insanity, and add the Carnival of the Insanities button to your sidebar (clicking on it will always take you to the latest update of the Carnival), click on "Word of Blog" below the button to obtain the html code:

Heard the Word of Blog?

FOR ALL THE 'PIERRES' OUT THERE IN LA-LA LAND

I could characterize commenter "Pierre" as a clueless leftist, but instead, I'll let you look at his useless comments in the previous threads (see here , here and here, for example) so you can assess for yourself the kind of thinker he is.

Anyway, it is for his sake and in response to this comment of his on the last thread, that I reprint this table (hat tip: mih6). The numbers come from the link; do the math:

Taxes under Clinton 1999 / Taxes under Bush 2008

Single making 30K - tax $8,400 Single making 30K - tax $4,500

Single making 50K - tax $14,000 Single making 50K - tax $12,500

Single making 75K - tax $23,250 Single making 75K - tax $18,750

Married making 60K - tax $16,800 Married making 60K- tax $9,000

Married making 75K - tax $21,000 Married making 75K - tax $18,750

Married making 125K - tax $38,750 Married making 125K - tax $31,250

Comment that came with the email:

If you want to know just how effective the mainstream media is, it is amazing how many people that fall into the categories above think Bush is screwing them and Bill Clinton was the greatest President ever. If any democrat is elected, ALL of them say they will repeal the Bush tax cuts and a good portion of the people that fall into the categories above can't wait for it to happen. This is like the movie The Sting with Paul Newman; you scam somebody out of some money and they don't even know what happened.

UPDATE: 'Anton' in the comments helpfully provides an update link to the numbers above. I checked the math on the first three pieces of data to satisfy myself that the emal had it correct--and it did, generally; but with a few relevant caveats!

DEEP DENIAL

Once again, Wretchard cuts to the core of the issue when German authorities cave on freedom of speech after threats of Muslim violence:

German authorities closed an art exhibition organized by a Danish artists group named Surrend after "after threats believed to be from Muslims " unless they removed a poster depicting the Kaaba. "The director of the art gallery in Berlin said there had been threats of violence if the poster was not removed, so they had decided to shut for a while."
[....]
But the enforcers of political correctness have failed to grasp is that things have already gone too far. It's no longer about dialogue, it's about a deadly ideological conflict. Yet when momentous issues pivot around hanging up a poster or releasing a home movie it's probably a sign that we are both in deep trouble and deep denial.

Wilders is no longer engaged in 'dialogue'. He's engaged in guerrila theater; gone outside of parliament to snipe from behind the cover of the very things his unnamed opponents shelter behind. It's not the art gallery that is temporarily shutting down but the cognitive processes of the politically correct mind. They're in an endless loop with no hope of escape until someone hits the reset button.

Wretchard goes on to note how those threatening violence unless their demands are met are not confronted for their behavior; instead, the insensitive people who have dared to offend them with art; or speech; or whatever--are the ones "responsible" for causing the problem.

This is an extremely fascinating line of 'reasoning' for the PC crowd who are usually obsessed with determining and proclaiming victimhood. By logical extension, they must also believe in their heart of hearts feel that rape victims "ask for it"; battered women must be responsible for their spouse's violence against them; and, in general, anyone who is bullied and pushed around must be the "root cause" of the bully's violence and threats.

How in heaven's name have people who are so invested in the whole "victim/oppressor" template and apply that dialectic to every situation, managed to PERVERT and INVERT reality to such an extent so that the thugs and bullies--i.e., the violent oppressors in the real world-- have become "the oppressed"? How did victims of violence, or threat of violence, become the oppressors?

I have talked about this psychological dynamic many times, and it involves both psychological projection and denial. Deep denial, in fact. Denial so opaque, that to let in even the slightest sliver of the light of reality would be overwhelmingly traumatic for the denialist, and would turn their basic assumptions about the world and about themselves topsy-turvy.

The consequences of this sort of deep psychological denial can be seen every day in today's world. But like all defense mechanisms, it serves a very important purpose for the users.

As a psychiatrist, I would be the last person to maintain that even a primitive defense mechanism like denial doesnt have some positive results for the individuals and groups who use it. Obviously any defense mechanism that results in immediate death or injury of the person using it would probably not last long as a viable strategy in the real world; nor would it be particularly helpful for the species as a whole.

In fact, denial does work--at least for a while--and that is why it is so often resorted to in extremus.

Some of the positive consequences of psychological denial include:

• In the short-term, psychological denial can help a person maintain their sanity--which would be threatened by awareness of a painful truth or reality
• In the short-term, denial can help a person function day to day
• In the short-term, denial can prevent a person from having to acknowledge painful thoughts, feelings or behavior and help them protect both their selfhood and worldview from unacceptable reality that is threatening to either or both

The operative word in all of the above is "in the short-term." In the short-term, even the unhealthiest of defenses--such as denial, projection, paranoia-- may be creative, healthy, comforting, and coping. And, while the behavior of those in denial may strike observers as downright peculiar at times, in the short-term, they may be transiently adaptative.

In fact, psychological denial is a way to integrate one's experience by providing a variety of filters for pain and mechanisms for self-deception. It creatively rearranges the sources of conflict the individual faces so that the conflict becomes manageable (hence the 'inversion of reality' mentioned above serves to: (1) protect themselves physically from the threat of violence and (2) protect their world view from the acceptance of facts or truth which effectively negate its premises and hence threatem them emotionally . All they have to do is to creatively rearrange the sources of conflic, and shazam! Both physical and emotional danger are neatly avoided!

But let us now consider some of the negative consequences of psychological denial:

• In the longer-term, denial requires continued compromises with reality to maintain the pretense that "everything is fine!" or "If only X would happen, everything would be fine!" (or, in the case Wretchard discusses, "If only those artists would stop offending Muslims, everything would be fine and we could all live in peace."

Eventually, however, denial has to escalate. It breeds delusional thinking, along with paranoia and then the inevitable conspiracy theories begin to take the place of rational thought in those who deny reality for long periods of time. (See all the 9/11 conspiracy theorists for examples in our own country; or the increasingly shrill accusations that anyone who alludes to the threat of Islamic terrorism is a fearmonger and promoting a 'culture of fear' in order to fool the American public into thinking we are at war. See here and here for common examples in the muslim world which is rife with conspiracies and which could not exist as a cohesive society without this sort of dysfunctional glue to hold them together.

• The denier must then place the blame for the unacceptable reality on someone else and that leads to increased conflict between deniers and non-deniers. Efforts to maintain their denial consumes them and will lead them to escalate their anger and rage as their denial becomes untenable and ever more obvious.

• The denier will begin distort language and logic to rationalize and justify their behavior(examples of this are too numerous to mention, but I have discussed it here , here and here) . Eventually, cognitive strategies and rational argument will be abandoned altogether by the denier, because those strategies are not sustainable and are unable to convince others; at which point the person in denial will simply refer to his feelings or emotions as the sole justification.

• The denier will feel justified in acting out against those who threaten the peacefulness of their fantasy; they will use psychological displacement to attack those relatively less dangerous (i.e., the cartoonists, the filmakers, the artists etc.) and give a free pass to the bombers, the terrorists, the murderers. The only kind of 'power' those in denial can ever 'speak truth to' are generally the kind that won't hurt them (i.e., the US Government); they are scared shitless of anyone who might actually harm them in any way. These brave, brave Sir Robins bravely run away when there is a real bully or threat that needs to be faced down. Funny how that works.

• Problem solving and decision making will deteriorate as the entire focus of energy becomes the maintenance of the denial. In place of rational alternatives, excessive emotionality in general; and specifically anger and rage escalate toward those who are "blamed" for the reality that does not conform to the denier's world view.

• In the end, interactions with those in denial are characterized by the denier's frequent smugness; sense of superiority; arrogance; belittlement of alternative views; and undiluted hatred toward anyone or any idea that questions their world view or underlying ideology.

The left's current consensus views on terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan, the war on terror, political correctness and multiculturalism is primarily based on a web of deep denial.

9/11 did not wake them up; rather it forced them to openly move toward what they have supported surreptitiously all along--the elimination of free speech in the name of political correctness and multiculturalism; a dictatorship where the pseudo-intellectual, politically correct priesthood rule; and complete control over the lives of others (for their own good, of course!). Since their objectives dovetail nicely with those of the Islamic terrorists, they have made common cause with them and have not lost many opportunities to enable and encourage them, even as they denounce America and the principles of freedom and democracy out of one side of their mouth, while remaining convinced that their actions are patriotic and are representative of "true" American values.

The denialists pretend their actions are motivated from 'love' and 'peace' and a higher form of patriotism; but this is only how they rationalize it to themselves. Their self-deception is simply stunning in its sweeping grandiosity and self-righteousness betrayal of the good, as they cede, one by one, every important value of Western Civilization to the Islamofascist barbarians--and then pat themselves on the back for their compassionate sensitivity and saintly antiwar stance.

Denial is the refusge of the terrified and frightened. The perversion of reality that deep denial leads to if not recognized and corrected is often becomes far more dangerous to the individual--and the society--than the reality that is being avoided.

In the end, denial unacknowledged only facilitates and enables the real threat to life and psychological health.