DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE

Doesn't this remind you of something? A scene from Shakespeare, perhaps?

DON'T APOLOGIZE FOR THE TRUTH -- NOT NOW, NOT EVER

Two must-reads this morning. The first is this piece by Father Raymond J. de Souza in the National Post:

Painful though it may be, speaking frankly is necessary if there is to be honest and open dialogue between the Abrahamic faiths. Given the reaction to Benedict's address, though, one wonders if that dialogue is even possible.

The Pope devoted almost 4,000 words to examining the relationship between faith and reason, and the prospect for dialogue between modernity and the world of religion.
[...]
In response to this historical excursus in an academic lecture by one of the world's most erudite theologians, we are witnessing a wave of madness and malice, no doubt an embarrassment to millions of Muslims.

Roman Catholics are likely angry. Relations between adherents of the two religions simply cannot develop without all conducting themselves as mature adults.

It does a disservice to children to call the wild-eyed statements and deranged behaviour of the past days childish.

It is not only the obscenity of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist terrorist band suppressed in several Muslim states, demanding an apology from anyone, let alone the Holy Father.

It is not only the grandstanding Pakistani politicians passing resolutions condemning a papal speech few read, and even fewer understood. It is not only the extraneous charges about the Holocaust and Hitler by the agitated and excited.

It is that we have seen this before.

Yes we have, and likely we will see it many more times as long as we continue to appease the madness and look away from the truth.

Victor Davis Hanson, in perhaps a moment of sadness to which I can fully relate, has this to say while thinking about Oriana Fallaci and the Pope and these depressing times:

In matters of the present war, I have given up on most of the neoconservatives, many of whom, following the perceived pulse of the battlefield, have either renounced their decade-long, pre-September11 rants to remove Saddam (despite the 140,000 brave souls still on the field of battle who took them at their word), or turned on the President on grounds that he is not waging the perfect fight and thus is not pursuing the good war. The Paleo-right is as frightening as is the lunatic Left. My old Democratic party is long dead, their jackals trying to tear apart the solitary and stumbling noble stag Joe Liebermann, the old center taken over by the Kerry and Soros billionaires, and the guilt-ridden academic, celebrity and media cadres.

So we really are left with very little in these pivotal times—the will of George Bush, of course, the Old Breed unchanged since Okinawa and the Bulge that still anchors the US military, the courage and skill of a very few brave writers like a Hitchens, Krauthammer, and the tireless and brilliant Mark Stein, but very, very few others. No, this is an age in which we in the West make smug snuff movies about killing an American President, while the Taliban and the Islamists boast of assassinating the Pope.

So long may you run, Ms. Fallaci, you who by now have learned that, yes, there is a soul, and, yes, yours was indeed saved for eternity if only for its singular courage and honesty alone. And dear Pope: clarify, contextualize, express sorrow over the wrong interpretation of your remarks, but please don’t apologize for the Truth—not now, not ever.

Read both articles-- and never apologize for facing reality; or for speaking the truth.

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.

Thanks for all the submissions. I try to use as many as possible! SO MANY INSANITIES! SO LITTLE TIME!!!

1. Hump? Lump? Dump? Frump? Maybe it was a spelling error? Yet, the real threat to humanity is obviously from this other religion. Islam means peace, after all. Now, this is priceless!

2. A little too clever, perhaps? A little too outraged, perhaps? Whiners and losers.

3. Hmmmm. Ditzy. Just as you might have expected.

4. If you take a closer look, modern feminism defies all stereotypes! Why should they have to make any sense? So, this could well be a celebration of feminist principles

5. Who else would he hang with? Hillary?

6. The rocky path to a miniseries. The left as a comedy for our times; And a movie that's making diplomatic waves! Oh, and don't forget to check out the "Kill Bush and Blair" Film Festival.

7. You can almost hear the anguished wailing of Howard Dean at this news.

8. A cold chill blew across his spine, as an evil--nay malevolent!--laugh welled up in his throat.... I hope the left appreciates the irony here. But probably not.

9. Ten stupid things said by liberals in only four days. Only ten? (Hey, they pissed me off this week quite a bit). Here's a video metaphor capturing the essentials of leftist philosophical foundations.

10. Well, is he, or isn't he? I can't make up my mind which would be more amusing. This, however is somewhat less amusing. Are they, or aren't they? Only their accountant knows for sure.

11. All Plamed out. And at least one person is sorry for blaming the wrong guy.

12. The Germans have finally achieved world dominance....

13. A failure to launch.

14. Another cautionary tale about eating too much. But there is hope on the horizon....

15. Queerspawn reflections.

16. Less popular in the polls than even Bush?? Amazing.

17. Analog hacking?

18. Ombudsmen have feelings too.

19. Celebrating diversity, one psychotic at a time.

20. Fun with Tom, Rex, and the housing market.....Corporate home sponsorship.

21. I thought those aliens looked familiar. I see them in magazines all the time.

22. Yeah, right. And we are surprised at this because...? More from academia to impress you with their intellectual acumen.

23. 5 million hits?

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

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A LITANY OF INSANITY

****BUMPED TO TOP, WITH UPDATES****

Things seem to be getting out of hand with this story, which validates the title of this post. Scroll down for further updates.

According to media accounts there is a "chorus of condemnation" reverberating around the world to Pope Benedict's remarks the other day about Islam and violence (see here for the original speech, which is frequently quoted out of context).

Apparently there is also an "outbreak of fury" and violence accompanying the chorus. It seems that it is very politically un-correct to suggest that forced conversions to a religion are contrary to both God's nature and to reason itself.

SC&A note in their reasonable and measured way that:

It is clear for all to see that Islam, under they tyranny of dysfunctional leaders, has been reduced to a shell of itself. Where once truth was championed and sought, now Islamic leaders demand that even history be rewritten to accomadate the deliberate deceit or ignorance that the Islamic leaders perpetrate.

Nowhere do Islamic leaders, fostering the anti Rome frenzied hysteria, note that the Pontiff’s remarks that

…only by recognizing the “rationality of faith'’ do people “become capable of that genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today.'’

I think we can safely say that a "genuine dialogue of cultures and religions" is unlikely to occur considering that one of the cultures and one of the religions seems to be in a constant state of quasi-psychotic paranoid agitation. Having adopted the mantle of victimhood, muslims seem intent on demonstrating their persistent irrationality and the absurd lengths they will go to in order to remain in denial about what the increasingly fanatical adherents of their religion are doing around the world.

The litany of their complaints about how badly they are mistreated by the world grows daily. Benedict is just the most recent invocation in that insane litany.

It is laughable to witness the angry, violent demonstrations denouncing any suggestion that Islam is an angry, violent religion. It is hilarious to observe the wails of victimhood and oppression as Islam's religious leaders call for killing Jews and Christians; beheading those who insult Islam, even as their own rhetoric isn't so much insulting as it is directly threatening the rest of the world.

Michelle Malkin notes:

Guess what's on the best-seller list in "moderate" Turkey right now? Via AllahPundit and Gerald Augustinus:It's a hot-selling novel titled Papa’ya suikast (”Attack on the Pope”) which predicts that Pope Benedict will be assassinated in Istanbul.Which side will the West--and moderate Muslims--stand on?

Who will stand up and say without equivocation: "I support the Pope," she asks?

How in the world can any sane person take these people's complaints seriously? It is like trying to placate a paranoid and delusional patient by confirming that aliens have indeed planted a transmitter in their brain and that you, yourself, are one of the alien agents responsible for the state of affairs--just as they suspected.

Does anyone imagine that validating the delusion makes the paranoid less likely to act on their paranoia? Or that appeasement facilitates contact with reality in the deluded individual?

I will stand up and support the Pope. I will stand on the side of truth. And reason. And reality. And on the side of the forces of civilization--against this continued litany of insanity in the muslim world.


(LEFT) Muslim students in India burn an effigy of Pope Benedict in an effort to demonstrate how peaceful a religion Islam is in the 21st century.






(RIGHT) Other protesters indicate how a "genuine dialogue of cultures and religions" should be properly managed.

UPDATE: The NY Times wastes no time in adding to the litany, calling the Pope's words "provacative", "dangerous", and "tragic"; but failing to condemn the disproportionate response from the Islamic world.

UPDATE II: Oh yeah, this is so very adult and tolerant.

UPDATE III: The Anchoress sums it up nicely. History seems to be repeating itself...or at least rhyming. Allah has more.

SPACE FAUXTOGRAPHY ?

On September 18, Iranian-born, Dallas businesswoman Anousheh Ansari (bio here) and two astronauts are scheduled to blast off in a Russian Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Ansari replaced Japanese-born businessman Daisuke Enomoto, who was pulled from the flight for medical reasons.

The Iranian news media has not made too much of the first Iranian woman scheduled to go into space, but there have been a number of reports about it and this Iranian space site has a number of pictures.

So it is interesting to me that one of the photos has clearly been photoshopped from the original Energia site:



Image from this Energia site



This photo appeared in the Iranian press and on this Iranian space site.

Photoshop manipulation of this sort is eerily reminiscent of this expose of a CAIR photo posted at LGF.

It is getting tiresome to point out how photographs are being manipulated by various media with ideological agendas, but this would seem to represent one more example of the insanity--this time culled from the space environment.

To be completely fair, other photographs of Ansari at the Iranian site and in the Iranian press show her hair without cover-up. This particular example might only be attributed to one over-zealous protector of public morals.

But just one is one too many. And it makes you wonder how much the news media is distorting truth, when it has a mind to fake the news.

UPDATE: MSNBC's Cosmic Log also discusses the alteration of this photo.

UPDATE: I received this comment from someone at the Iranian space link, which notes that they picked up the photo from ISNA and that they are not a government website:

Dear Pat Santy,
Thank you very much for your interesting to our website. I published that news and my source was ISNA. I didnt change any picture from Ms. Ansari as you can see so many pictures from anousheh without any scarf in spacescience.ir website. I just pick the picture up from ISNA and paste it in my pages.
"Space Science" is not a govermental website and we never thinking that seeing ladies hair have any problem.
We just are a Scientific NGO that are looking for Space Science and Technology Developing for peace in our country.
Please do a favor for me and let your readers know about it.
Thank you very much in advance.

Shahram Yazdanpanah
Space Science & Technology Researcher
www.spacescience.ir
Shaharm Yazdanpanah

REALLY SCARY STUFF--Connecting the Dots of Fascism

I never connected all these fascist dots before, but Gagdad Bob has done so, and believe me--it is pretty scary stuff.

He has pretty much convinced me that it's too late for America.

IMAGINE

Today, Charles Krauthammer looks rather unflinchingly at the costs of a military solution to the Iran problem.

He concludes that the costs are heavy and are likely to include astronomical oil prices; sending the world's economy into a "deep spiral"; the chance that Iran will activate terror cells across the world; and then, there's the diplomatic costs:

There will be massive criticism of America from around the world. Much of it is to be discounted. The Muslim street will come out again for a few days, having replenished its supply of flammable American flags most recently exhausted during the cartoon riots. Their governments will express solidarity with a fellow Muslim state, but this will be entirely hypocritical. The Arabs are terrified about the rise of a nuclear Iran and would privately rejoice in its defanging.

The Europeans will be less hypocritical because their visceral anti-Americanism trumps rational calculation. We will have done them an enormous favor by sparing them the threat of Iranian nukes, but they will vilify us nonetheless.

These are the costs. There is no denying them. However, equally undeniable is the cost of doing nothing.

There is no getting around all these unpleasant realities should it come to facing down Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Nevertheless, the most unpleasant reality of all would be for Iran and the fanatical religious leaders who run that country to have nuclear weapons to hold the world hostage to their demands. These are the same leaders who have openly expressed wiping Israel off the map. And you must ask yourself, do you think they mean what they say?

In my professional opinion, they do. Those who say that the Iranian ambitions for nuclear weapons are years away, have not factored into their equation the possibility (strong, I would say) that they have already got their hands on some weapons from North Korea or the former Soviet Union.

Frankly, their behavior is similar to the typical bully, who is smugly sure that he has the upper hand, and is just playing with you to set you up for his forthcoming physical attack.

Of all possible realities, the one suggested above would definitely be far worse if we allowed it to play itself out and did not intervene, because the ultimate cost--in lives lost, as well as the devastation and destruction-- would be far greater.

Imagine it.

Imagine Allah's heaven
It's easy if you try
A hell upon earth
Don't bother asking why
Imagine all the people
Dying for jihad...

Imagine there's no freedom
I wonder if you can
No need to think or reason
A caliphate of man
Imagine when they bring forth
Sharia in the world...

Imagine there's no Jihad
It's easy if you try
No more Islamic bombers
Who wish for you to die
Imagine every nation
with all their people free...

You may say Im a dreamer,
But it's easy don't you see,
To imagine life in freedom
And the end to tyranny.

THE DARKNESS CLAIMED HER NOT

Oriana Fallaci has died.

Wretchard has the best tribute I have seen:

And this time I paid attention, not to a woman in the autumn of her beauty, but to a warrior in the fullness of her strength. At the time of her death Oriana Fallaci was facing a suit in Italy for daring to suggest that her country and culture were under threat from radical Islam. In her youth she did not bow to Hitler; and in her old age she hurled defiance at yet another tyranny. The darkness came and yet the darkness claimed her not.

It is a sad day for those who love freedom and celebrate the human spirit.

THE INSANITY NEVER STOPS

This is the last day of my conference and blogging should be back to normal by tonight! In the meantime, the insanity never stops, does it?

LITTLE MEN AND WOMEN

David Warren's column today covers a lot of ground, but there is one part that mentions how both Bush and Blair are heading into the twilight of their political careers. He says:

They are both towering figures, in comparison to the little men who oppose them. We won't know what trouble is, until the little men replace them.

For the term "little" you might also substitute "petty", "small-minded", "self-serving", or even "narcissistic". These little big men (and women, of course) of the Democratic Party have made it their mission in life to oppose, undermine, discredit, trivialize, undo, impede, harass, and scream with rage and frustration over any policy or action taken by the current administration. They have done nothing in the area of providing ideas, alternatives, or even a modicum of goodwill and genuine concern for national intersts/prioritiies.

Their counterparts in Great Britain have done pretty much the same thing with the usual European flair.

Byron York captures the essence of our own loyal knee-jerk Democratic nay-sayers when he suggests the following:

"Do you believe that Pelosi, Reid, Durbin, and others would not be accusing George W. Bush of pursuing a misguided strategy in the war on terror, charging that the president was so obsessed with tracking down every last terrorist in Afghanistan that he ignored threats from places like Iran, North Korea, and — yes — Saddam Hussein’s Iraq?"

Sadly it is far far too easy to believe. We already see this same dynamic in the slippery and hypocritical self-righteousness of denouncing this administration on the one hand for pursuing "unilateral" action in Iraq; and then denouncing them equally vociferously when they pursue multilateral diplomacy dealing with Iran. (cue the boy band N'Sync playing "Every little thing I do, never seems enough for you...")

Because, you see, it makes no difference to the little men and women buzzing hysterically around giants like Bush and Blair, who are clearly mentally and morally superior in every way. The only intent of these pests is to hinder and harass--they are determined to destroy; and never to help or facilitate anything constructive. Bush cannot ever ever be allowed to be right-- or even viewed as possibly right-- under any circumstances.

Because that would expose their narcissistic agenda, and then they would have to admit what a bunch of losers they are. In the U.S., the Democratic Party is truly over. The last one out the door should remember to turn off the lights when they leave.

UPDATE: Comments on this thread are now done.

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW, or, THE DEMOCRATS IN DENIAL

I just read that Bush's poll numbers are up to 45%, and it occurs to me that once again the Democrats and members of the reality-based community have overplayed their hand--and their chances--in the upcoming midterm elections. They may indeed win a few seats here and there, but the giddy optimism we are seeing on the lefty blogs and the usual MSM hype doesn't seem justified by...reality.

I'm still trapped in a conference for most of the day, but here's a sympathetic ditty dedicated to Dems in Denial everywhere:

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW

(The Democrats' Lament As Election Day Approaches)

Somewhere over the rainbow
In D.C.
There's a house we once lived in--
It's Bill Clinton's legacy

Somewhere over the rainbow
polls are forever blue
And winning back the White House dream
Really might come true

Today we'll wish upon a star
And hope Al Qaeda will stay far away from us
But if they don't we have no clue
of anything that we could do
To make them stay away from us

Somewhere over the rainbow
Moonbats flee
Since they flee over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't we?

Today we'll wish upon a star
And hope John Kerry never finds us
We're not so fond of Hillary;
And Al Gore's lively as a tree--
Let's put all three behind us!

Somewhere over the rainbow
We can win...
It would mean the whole world to us
How could that be a sin?

If happy little moonbats flee
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't we?

UPDATE: I'm sure many Dems will be weeping and wailing at this news.

JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR DENIAL

Just think of "tunnel vision" as just another word for psychological denial. From Cox and Forkum:

THREE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT: Savagery, Postmodernism, & The Terror Tax

I'm still totally distracted by this conference I am participating in this week, but I have 3 links for my readers:

The first is an excellent post at The Belmont Club that looks at Al Qaeda from the inside out. Of particular interest to me was the discussion of a certain terrorist document titled, "The Management of Savagery":

Zarqawi did not heed Al Qaeda’s requests. As the Iraqi jihad fell into barbarism, Al Qaeda’s leaders began advising their followers to go to Sudan or Kashmir, where the chances of victory seemed more promising. Al Qaeda, meanwhile, was confronting a new problem, which one of its prime thinkers, Abu Bakr Naji, had already anticipated, in an Internet document titled “The Management of Savagery.”

The theoretical basis for this strategy, an al-Qaeda document called the "Management of Savagery", has been the subject of study at West Point. It was anonymously authored by the mysterious Abu Bakr Naji, who anticipates the fact that while the Jihad will be everywhere tactically defeated by American forces, the necessary fate of each battlefield would be ruin and chaos; and it would not be an unfavorable outcome because chaos is on Allah's side. As the world's system administrator, America would be tied down attempting to restore order everywhere. The dilemma the US could not avoid was that to rule was to maintain order; but to fight the Jihad was to foul its own nest.

Wretchard notes that this kind of sophisstication and adaptation on the part of the enemy is something that the US is denied because of the insistence by many of dealing with terrorism from a legalistic perspective.

The second article is Victor Davis Hanson's postmortem on The Path to 9/11:

What are we to say about throat-clearing historians who damned the docudrama (often without seeing it) on grounds of the lack of historical integrity, this from a discipline where postmodernism--there is no objective truth, just rival discourses and narratives constructed on class, race, and gender--was not only appeased, but nearly destroyed the profession.

And what are we to think of Bill Clinton lamenting the movie's supposed deviation from the "truth", or Sandy Berger's concern about protocols, or Madeline Albright's apparent charge of partisanship, this from a former Secretary of State who has traveled the globe plugging her book by faulting her successors to foreign media in a time of war. Although I'm not a fan of docudramas, I found The Path to 9/11, with its disclaimers, far closer to the "truth" about the saga of bin Laden than what turned up in Bill Clinton's "factual" autobiography.

And, last but not least, check out Siggy's post "It's The Terror Tax Not The Patriot Act That Is The Problem" which highlights the enormous terror "tax" the world is paying because of the actions of a minority of radical fanatics of Islam:

Terror isn’t going away- and neither will the ‘terror tax.’ Unless and until we recognize that it is the terror tax and what that really represents, and not the Patriot Act, that is the problem.

Some things really are that simple.

The solution is not to waste time arguing about the Patriot Act, but to deal with the real "root cause" -- i.e., the terrorists.

More tonight!

WHO WOULD HAVE BELIEVED IT?

I have been trying to make this same point repeatedly on Dr. Sanity (just pick a post at random, or see the posts in the week before 9/11), but James Lewis at American Thinker captures the moral rot at the center of the political left (read it all, of course):

The Left, the media, and the Democrats are still steeped in denial of those simple, stubborn facts. Maybe reality is just too frightening for them. Whatever it is, to live in such denial is to surrender any claim to moral seriousness. It utterly disqualifies one to be a decision maker. We can thank our lucky stars that Bush, Blair and Cheney are adults.

So we are left with the Cheney Criterion: If there is a one percent chance that leaving Saddam in power would subject the West to nuclear terrorism, we would choose to change his bloody regime. The US and UK acted in the full knowledge that we might be wrong about our facts about a closed regime—and if we were, we would be screamed at for years and years by the International Left—the New York Times, the WaPo, KozKidz, the Guardian, the BBC, Al Jazeera, and all the yellow bellies in Europe.

Bush, Blair and Cheney did not have the luxury of pretending that hard choices can be wished away. That is what Harry Truman meant about the buck stopping here, in the Oval Office.

The greatest disappointment since 9/11/01 has been the total moral vacuity of the Left—a complete and utter nullity—both here and in Europe. Today, five years later, psychological denial still rules the day, and the few Democrats who raise their heads above the screaming mob are chased out, like Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller.

One-third of American voters are still being suckered by the left-wing media, who live in some sort of Toon-Town where you can Have your Cake and Eat it Too, where Lunches are Free and Health Care is Too, and where there are no ideological killer movements in this world, and to achieve World Peace you just have to point your finger at the “Warmongers” and scream really loud. The Left is now populated by “mewling, puking infants,” as William Shakespeare put it, utterly lacking an understanding of the world as it is.

It is a sad sight to behold. We need unity, not denial. As it is, the Left has become a Fifth Column, fighting the civilized world and busily explaining away danger. The New York Times can get away with sabotaging our fight for survival against the worst fascist movement since you-know-who. The Left is even descending to Nazi slogans and scapegoating Jews. A generation ago, who would have believed it?

Slowly and almost imperceptably, the liberal left has morphed into the lunatic left. They have abandoned most of the liberal legacy that gave them emotional consistency and moral clarity; and instead, they have embraced positions that would have been completely inconceivable to imagine just a few short years ago.

How did this happen?

I admit that the whole process was pretty much off my radar screen during the 90's, and it wasn't until I started to notice the behavior of the political left in the run-up to the 2000 presidential election--and even toward the end of the Clinton Administration-- that I noticed something in their behavior that had puzzled me greatly when I first observed a similar strain in my daughter's elementary school.

It took me a while to understand the connection between these two disparate observations, but some relevant observations about it are discussed in this post:

Observe how easily Islam has been able to subvert key Western values--such as freedom of speech and expression--with a degree of invincibility and outraged virtue, capitalizing on a tactical opportunity that they have never before had in history. And worse of all, many on the political left--particularly the remnants of utopian socialism-- are aiding and abetting the Islamofascists.

With that in mind, is it at all surprising that Islam is able to take maximum advantage of this Achilles heel within Western culture and use the vulnerability to optimize their own religious, political, psychological, and military objectives?

Multiculturalism and political correctness are two of the fundamental pseudo-intellectual, quasi-religious tenets-- along with a third: radical environmentalism--that have been widely disseminated by intellectuals unable to abandon socialism even after its crushing failures in the 20th century. These tenets have been slowly, but relentlessly absorbed at all levels of Western culture in the last decade or so--but primarily since the end of the Cold War.

All three have been incorporated into most K-12 curricula and all other learning environments. They have been at the forefront of attempts by leading academics and academic institutions to rewrite most of history and undo thousands of years of Western cultural advancement. And further, as the culture has been completely saturated with this toxic brew, any attempt to question the tenets' validity or to contest their value is met with hysterical accusations of racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, imperialism, bigotry, or--worse of all --intolerance or insensitivity.

It just so happens, that these tenets represent three of the four pillars that are the foundation of an evolving epistemological, ethical and political strategy that the socialist remnants in the world have developed and are using to prevent their ideology from entering the dustbin of history.

And, what is most interesting is that, even as they encourage and enable Islam with the first three pillars; the Islamofascists are aiding and abetting them by using the fourth pillar- Terrorism. We can think of the four pillars as the reason for both the socialist revival (particularly in the western hemisphere recently) and the rapid advancement of the Islamic Jihad.

You will have to go there to see the transformation of the traditional leftist/Marxist thought of the 20th century into the even more vapid postmodern philosophy of the lunatic left, which now permeates many aspects of our culture.

It is this philosophy, slowly absorbed, that is responsible for the left abandoning any pretense at traditional liberalism, which used to champion the rights of the individual over the state. And it is the illogical and irrational tenets of postmodern philosophy that are at the heart of the moral and intellectual rot that has poisoned the liberal left and allowed its lunatic fringe undisputed center stage. Is it any wonder that they are not only comfortable with, but consciously (the leadership) and unconsciously appease and enable Islamic totalitarianism?

Believe it.

THE SANITY SQUAD IS UP

The latest edition of the Sanity Squad is up, and Neo-neocon, Shrinkwrapped, Siggy and I discuss grieving and making moral judgements in the wake of the 5th anniversary of 9/11.

You can check out all the Sanity Squad podcasts here at Pajamas Media.

Comments and suggestions appreciated.

FOR OUR CHILDREN'S SAKE

I am at a conference for the rest of the week during the day, so will be somewhat distracted. However, I did want to say a few things about the President's speech last night which I didn't get a chance to listen to, but which I read this morning. Here is a part I especially liked:
Bush said exactly the right thing if there is to be any hope of making Iran and it ruling psychotics see reason:

If we do not defeat these enemies now, we will leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons. We are in a war that will set the course for this new century — and determine the destiny of millions across the world.

Read the entire speech. I believe he has made it as clear as possible that we will use pre-emptive force if the mullahs do not relent on the issue of nuclear weapons.

Mario Loyola at The Corner agrees:

Conservatives these days are dejected that the president's rhetoric appears less-than-reinforced by the decisions and actions of the national -security establishment. But viewed from Tehran, Washington has continued to raise the stakes—and quite skillfully united the international community—against Iran's nuclear program. Nearly 60% of the public in France would approve the use of force before allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons.

With statements such as the president made yesterday, and the brilliant diplomacy orchestrated by U.N. ambassador by John Bolton, the United States is fanning an increasingly chill wind in the direction of Tehran. Have no doubts that the Iranians are starting to get scared, and not a moment too soon.

If there is anyone in the world who doubts that Bush means what he says, then they haven't been paying attention for the last 6 years. Taking a stand now gives us the best chance of preventing the loss of possibly millions of lives in the future.

We are now in the early hours of this struggle between tyranny and freedom. Amid the violence, some question whether the people of the Middle East want their freedom, and whether the forces of moderation can prevail. For 60 years, these doubts guided our policies in the Middle East. And then, on a bright September morning, it became clear that the calm we saw in the Middle East was only a mirage. Years of pursuing stability to promote peace had left us with neither. So we changed our policies, and committed America's influence in the world to advancing freedom and democracy as the great alternatives to repression and radicalism.

Those who are unable to see beyond the usual appeasement and express a desire for stability over everything else, will likely not appreciate the courage and remarkable clarity of vision that drives Bush, and which I think is --despite its many flaws in implementation--the hallmark of this administration.

To my mind it is like seeing an asteroid hurtling through the heavens toward our planet on a flat-out collision course that has the potential to destroy everything and everyone; and responding by sending out as many rockets as possible to meet it and deflect it, even just a bit, from its path of destruction.

My hope is that the interceptor rockets have been sent out early enough, while the asteroid is far enough away from its target; and that the degree of deflection necessary to save us is small enough to achieve a complete miss.

THE PRIZE IS HUMAN FREEDOM

And that is why the terrorists will never win this war:

Everywhere, however, the tide has turned against them. Hundreds of terrorists have been killed or captured in those three countries in the past five years and many more put through re-education schemes to shed their fanatical view of faith and life in general.

And, despite numerous attempts, the Islamofascists have failed to produce another spectacular coup. Though tragic, the attacks on the transport networks in Madrid and London resembled poor remakes of 9/11, underlining al Qaeda's desperation rather than its ability to pursue its dream of global conquest. The fact that the Islamofascists have not succeeded in organizing a new raid against the United States in the past five years is a testimony both to American vigilance and the historic decline of al Qaeda-style terrorism.

FIVE years after 9/11, the United States looks less like the "House of the Spider" and more like a citadel of steel. And that is a result of the most important victory that free peoples have won against Islamofascism so far: the realization at the grassroots level of the danger that the modern world faces.

Despite efforts by postmodernists, multiculturalists and apologists of terror to explain (and explain away) Islamofascism, the overwhelming majority of free peoples, especially in the United States, realize that they are engaged in an existential struggle against an enemy that can and must be defeated both on the battleground and in the field of ideas.

The world is witnessing a new type of war in which none of the traditional causes of conflict such as territory, borders, natural resources and markets are the prize. The prize in this war is human freedom. And this is why, no matter how long this conflict takes, the enemies of freedom cannot win.

I think this piece by Amir Taheri is quite profound (read it all) and hopeful. It underscores what I have been thinking for quite some time: that there is no way human progress can be halted forever; humans will slowly--perhaps ineptly-- but surely move toward a state of increasing liberty; and, as Taheri says, there is no way that the enemies of freedom can ultimately win.

Because freedom is an unstoppable force and it is all around us. The human spirit may be vanquished temporarily; it may falter from time to time; but in the end, the desire for freedom will lead humans in the right direction.

Just as the air we breath keeps our bodies alive; so does freedom keep our souls alight.

It is possible that this is mere wishful thinking on my part, but as I look at the long march of human history, it has always been the forces of freedom that have pulled man forward, time after time.

The forces of oppression and slavery; and all those who seek to enslave the human spirit--no matter how carefully they disguise their agenda under utopian fantasies--will always end up in the dustbin of human history.

In this century, it will be no different.

I WILL NOT SUBMIT - EVER

(See Michelle Malkin)

THE LEFT'S SEPTEMBER 11th CREED

Since an anonymous commenter on the last post has seen fit to call me a "hatemonger" for choosing to focus on the left's paychological denial since 9/11; and since my email is running along similar lines, it occurs to me that I have hit a nerve that desperately needs to get hit. Not being someone to quit while I am ahead, I thought I'd continue to focus on that aspect of today.

In the 5 years since 9/11, we have heard promulgated just about every possible theory, from every possible font of leftist wisdom about the root causes of that horrible day.

Taken as a whole, the leftist theories add up to a compelling case of psychological denial, displacement, projection, and frank paranoia. The high levels of delusion and hysteria exhibited by the left since then should clue any reasonble person in to the fact that the events of that day were intensely threatening at a fundamental level to their ideology--hence the need to deny any thing of real importance occurred; or the need to find ways to blame it on the left's "real enemy of civilization" - George W. Bush.

But the events of 9/11 and its aftermath shattered an already-crumbling leftist dogma, and in the vacuum that resulted, a variety of sick conspiracy theories flowed in to shore up the foundation of that dogma--the belief that the U.S. is always in the wrong on every issue.

In May, 2004 by Robert Alt wrote a piece titled "The Liberals' Creed" which outlined some of the unquestioned religious beliefs of the liberal left. Since almost every aspect of the "creed" remain a fundamental part of the left's mantra to this day; and since the hyperreligiosity of their position-- which relies on feelings and emotions rather than facts or reason--eludes any attempt to be reasonable with them; and since their accusations are as persistent and repetitive as someone afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome-- I have taken the liberty of writing a "The Leftist's Creed on 9/11" (recited in unison) :

We believe that Bush, Cheney, and Republicans bear sole responsibility for 9/11;

We believe that the United States and its policies are responsible for making terrorists attack this country;

We believe that if we get rid of George Bush and the Republicans, we will once again be safe;

We believe that the people of America who supported those policies over the years (during Republican administrations) are little Eichmanns, and deserved to die on 9/11 ;

We are ready to believe (if the polls support thinking that way) that Bush and Cheney actually planned the events of 9/11 as a prelude to taking over this country, destroying our civil liberties; and instituting a fascist state.

We believe that Israel probably had a part in the events of 9/11, working with Bush and Cheney in some sort of neocon plot;

We believe that the only people who are innocent of 9/11 are the actual terrorists who plotted and executed it;

We believe that Bill Clinton and his administration had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 and that, if Al Gore had won the 2000 election then 9/11 would never have happened;

We believe that anyone who disagrees with the above statement is trying to distort history and their views should be prohibited. Only we --and Michael Moore-- know the truth and should be heard.

We believe that Bill Clinton and Sandy Berger have never lied;

We believe that the most serious outcome of 9/11 is the Islamophobia and the unconscionable backlash that has victimized Muslims in the U.S.;

We believe that the greatest threat to freedom in this country occurs when images of 9/11 are used to further the warmongering plans of the Bush Administration;

We believe that all the rhetoric used by the Bush Adminsitration is pure evil, designed to manipulate people to hate; but that the rhetoric used by Iran and the fatwas of Al Qaeda are "only words" and should not be taken at all seriously;
We believe that the people who flew airplanes into buildings on 9/11 are reasonable people who you can trust, and with whom you can discuss reality;

We believe that the Bush Administration is irrational, unreasonble and certainly cannot be trusted; and that they are completely out of touch with reality.

We believe that Iraq had nothing--nothing--to do with 9/11 because Saddam Hussein and his lieutenants have clearly said so, and we believe and trust them.

We believe that the deaths of almost 3000 Americans on 9/11 is not a big deal; certainly doesn't deserve the disproportionate response that the Bush Adminsitration has taken in the last 5 years; and that the threat to the U.S. has been grossly overblown and manipulated so that the Bush Adminsitration and Republicans can accumulate political power.

We believe that our motives in saying all this are pure, holy, and extremely patriotic; because we have no desire to acquire political power for ourselves and that it is our selfless duty to make sure the American people accept our creed.

We believe this country has suffered horribly under George W. Bush,
whose policies have caused us to
descend into hell.

But in November, 2006 , we will rise from the dead.
and ascend into congressional heaven
and shall sit once again at the right hand of power
from whence we shall judge the current administration.

We believe in the perfection of the U.N.,
the communion of multiculturalism,
the victimhood of the oppressed,
the resurrection of a dead ideology,
and denial everlasting.

Amen.

SEPTEMBER 11th - NEVER FORGET

In my own way I have been trying to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 all week with an emphasis in my posts on what I consider the catastrophic psychological denial regarding 9/11 that has been the hallmark of many on the political left in this country. The posts include:

The War on Terror is A Disproportionate War
Without A Trace of Irony
Remembering 9/11
Catastrophic Truths and 9/11
Denial and Submission

I see this profound denial of reality as catastrophic because it continues to this day to undermine the war effort; and it encourages and enables the very people who perpetrated those vicious attacks on our soil, and would like to do worse if they could.

While it has been five years since attacks of September 11, 2001, the memory and horror of that day remains fresh in my own mind. Never did I imagine that we would remain free from further attacks, and for that, I blame the Bush Administration and its courageous efforts--despite all the whining, screaming, and hysteria to the contrary--to do what it thought was right to protect America. (cartoon from Cox and Forkum)

Once again, I want to thank the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces; from the Commander-in-Chief down to all the volunteers risking their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq, for taking the fight to the enemy.

No matter what happens in the future, I honor and am humbled by the sacrifice they have all chosen to make to keep me and my family safe. That any American would doubt the committment to professionalism and compassion of our military personnel; and the everyday courage and heroism they display--is beyond comprehension.

They unreservedly deserve our deepest honor, respect and gratitude.

Let us also honor the victims of 9/11 today, by remembering that we are fighting a World War against Islamic fundamentalism and Islamic tyranny; and that we fight to preserve and extend the blessings of Liberty -- for ourselves; for our children; and for all of humanity.

For a tribute to each of the victims, go here to the 2996 Project.


For those of you who have the delusion that you reside in the "reality-based" community of the paranoid left (particularly the pseudointellectual academics) and who are so deeply into denial that you wouldn't recognize the truth if it fell from the sky and flattened you, I suggest that you check out the deeply disturbing Al Qaeda 9/11 memorial videos here. If it does not disabuse you of your sick conspiracy theories, then nothing rational will serve, and I recommend you get medication and therapy quickly.

Malkin has a round-up of debunkings. Ace has more. Also MEMRI has a film about the Arab and Iranian response to 9/11, 5 years later. Jay at StopTheACLU has a roundup of many blogger memorials to 9/11. Wizbang, also.

NEVER FORGET. NEVER AGAIN.