Monday, July 24, 2006

Get ready

Michelle Malkin passes along a warning:

The Jerusalem Post reports today on the activation of Hezbollah sleeper cells outside Lebanon:

Hizbullah "sleeper" terror cells set up outside Lebanon with Iranian assistance have been put on standby The Jerusalem Post learned on Sunday, and are likely planning attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets throughout the world.

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) confirmed to the Post Sunday night that it had instructed embassies, consulates and Jewish institutions it was responsible for abroad to raise their level of awareness in light of the conflict in the North.

I repeat: It's our problem, too.

This makes me tilt back toward wondering if the power grid problems in Queens might not be terrorist rather, than Teamsters, related.

But probably not. For one thing they would be taking credit for it.

Beyond moral equivalence

and on to open advocacy.

From The Washington Post:

TYRE, Lebanon, July 23 -- The day ended in Tyre as it began, with a desperate cry of grief.

"Where's my father? Where's my father?" asked Mahmoud Srour, an 8-year-old whose face was burned beyond recognition after an Israeli missile struck the family's car Sunday. His mother, Nouhad, lurched toward his hospital bed, her eyes welling with tears.

"Is he coming?" he asked her.

"Don't worry about your father," she said, her words broken by
sobs.


Barely conscious, bewildered, he lay with his eyes almost swollen shut. His head lolled toward her. A whisper followed.

"Don't cry, mother," he told her.

Mahmoud's father, Mohammed, was dead. An Israeli missile had struck their green Mercedes as they fled the southern town of Mansuri, where the family
had been vacationing. . .


Question: Do you think that there are any Jewish children who have been injured, any Jewish families who have suffered terrible loss from the Hezbollah attacks upon Israel? Beyond that do you think that there are any Israeli families grieving losses suffered during any of the countless terrorist attacks that nation has suffered in past years?

I imagine there are. So why don’t we read about them in The Post and other major daily papers? Why don’t we see them profiled on the network news or CNN? Why are casualty figures from Israel discussed in impersonal terms while reporters move heaven and earth to find tear-jerkers to report on among Israel’s enemies?

It’s too bad for the WWII era Japanese that there were no leftist reporters in their cities when the US Army Air Corps was sending hundreds of B-29s over their largely wood and paper cities by night to drop napalm.

Just think of the world pictures an intrepid (if morally challenged) reporter could have painted about young mothers with babies strapped to their backs running down the debris clogged street not realizing that their beloved infants were on fire, blazing like torches.

Of course reporters in WWII would not have done such a thing. They understood that there was a war on and that Japan was suffering the consequences of starting it. There is a war on in Lebanon and the Lebanese are suffering the consequences of their toleration of the presence of Hezbollah.

Come to think of it the mainstream media knows which side they’re on just like Ernie Pyle did; it just isn’t the same side.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Range Report


I went to Rex's Indoor Range this weekend. I wanted to try out some Federal HST ammunition for my Glock .40 caliber.

HST stands for Hydra-Shock Two and was intended to replace the Hydra-Shock, however people will not stop ordering original Hydra-Shock so Federal keeps making it.

This is despite the fact that tests have proven that Hydra-Shock expands better with the post removed.

This was shot at 15 yards rapid fire.



I also wanted to try out some Cor-Bon Pow'R Ball for my .38 Super. The Pow'R Ball is a light hollow point bullet with a plastic ball swaged in the cavity. This allows reliable feeding in older automatics which have not had their feedway modified to accept hollowpoints.

The PRB worked well. There were no stoppages and the slide was cycled reliably every time (this is an sometimes an issue with light bullets).

The 100 gr. bullet leaves the barrel at 1525 feet per second so the flash and report are comparable to that of a full power .357 magnum. However recoil is very mild. This target was shot at 15 yards. One magazine was slow fire and the rest were rapid fire.

Sorry the picture is out of focus, BTW.

Streicher's is a good source for HST. For Pow'R Ball you need to find a local source or order directly from Cor-Bon.

All we are asking. . .

Thomas Sowell proves once again why he is called the smartest man in America:

One of the many failings of our educational system is that it sends out into the world people who cannot tell rhetoric from eality. They have learned no systematic way to analyze ideas, derive their implications and test those implications against hard facts.

"Peace" movements are among those who take advantage of this widespread inability to see beyond rhetoric to realities. Few people even seem interested in the actual track record of so-called "peace" movements --that is, whether such movements actually produce peace or war. Take the Middle East. People are calling for a cease-fire in the interests of peace. But there have been more cease-fires in the Middle East than anywhere else. If cease-fires actually promoted peace, the Middle East would be the most peaceful region on the face of the earth instead of the most violent.

Was World War II ended by cease-fires or by annihilating much of Germany and Japan? Make no mistake about it, innocent civilians died in the process. Indeed, American prisoners of war died when we bombed Germany.

[Snip]
There was a time when it would have been suicidal to threaten, much less attack, a nation with much stronger military power because one of the dangers to the attacker would be the prospect of being annihilated.

"World opinion," the U.N. and "peace movements" have eliminated that deterrent. An aggressor today knows that if his aggression fails, he will still be protected from the full retaliatory power and fury of those he attacked because there will be
hand-wringers demanding a cease fire, negotiations and concessions.


[Snip]

The most catastrophic result of "peace" movements was World War II. While Hitler was arming Germany to the teeth, "peace" movements in Britain were advocating that their own country disarm "as an example to others."

British Labor Party Members of Parliament voted consistently against military spending and British college students publicly pledged never to fight for their country. If "peace" movements brought peace, there would never have been World War II.

Not only did that war lead to tens of millions of deaths, it came dangerously close to a crushing victory for the Nazis in Europe and the Japanese empire in Asia. And we now know that the United States was on Hitler’s timetable after that.

For the first two years of that war, the Western democracies lost virtually every battle, all over the world, because pre-war "peace” movements had left them with inadequate military equipment and much of it obsolete. The Nazis and the Japanese knew that. That is why they launched the war.

"Peace" movements don't bring peace but war.


G. Gordon Liddy tells this story about his college roommate. The young man was French and had spent most of the war years hiding from the SS with his family because his father was under a sentence of death. After becoming close enough friends to ask personal questions Liddy asked why France fell so easily to the Nazis. After all, France had a larger army and more tanks (and French tanks had larger guns).

The young Frenchman told Liddy that when little boys in France got into fights with other children their mothers would tell them, “Do not fight. You are the smarter of the two; prove it by just walking away”. On the other hand German mothers told their sons, “You are an Aryan and a member of the Hitler Youth. When you grow up you can become a member of the Waffen-SS. You can defeat any foe.”

The Frenchman told Liddy, “We both believed our mothers”.

History proves over and over again that the weak and timid are nothing but prey for the ruthless and strong. As long as mortal man rules the Earth the old saying “If you desire peace prepare for war” will be true.

Strange Bedfellows

From The Washington Post:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Mo., on behalf of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church, which has outraged mourning communities by picketing service members' funerals with signs condemning homosexuality.

The church and the Rev. Fred Phelps say God is allowing troops, coal miners and others to be killed because the United States tolerates gay men and lesbians.

Where to begin.

It is no surprise that the ACLU is aiding the organization calling itself the Westboro Baptist Chruch. They are able to serve three goals with their support for WBC. One, they are able to join in with an organization which is celebrating the deaths of American servicemen. Two, they are able to defend the general right to carry on protests in the most obnoxious way possible. Three, they are able to assist in bringing publicity to an organization which misrepresents Christianity in a way which makes the true Church appear not just bigoted but over-the-top crazy as well.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Is the power grid the next target?

Michelle Malkin is blogging about the blackout in Queens:

Have you heard about the nightmare in Queens? Some 100,000 people are without power and have been blacked out for six days straight. And there's no end in sight.

This is too bad for the people without power, but what I find interesting is this from the New York Times:

Utility officials and others said this power failure was perplexing, unlike previous blackouts that darkened large swaths of the city and were corrected in a day or two. This time, new problems have cropped up day after day: dozens of manhole fires, transformer fires and, most seriously, electrical cables' burning out and needing replacement.

"This is a very strange phenomenon," said Joe Flaherty, a consultant to Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers Union of America.

Chris Olert, a Con Edison spokesman, said, "We'll take those cables that were damaged and analyze them, but until then, we won't know what happened.'

The blackout has exposed an apparently serious weakness at the utility: its inability to measure the size of a problem.

I have to wonder if this is an exercisecercise by terrorists. Try it out on a small scale and learn two things. One, if your methods work and you can do it and get away with it and two, what the authorities will do in response.

If this turns out to be the case I can only imagine that the terrorists are encouraged.

UPDATE:

A friend who lives in the area tells me that if there is sabotage going on the most likely suspects are not al Qaeda, but Con Ed employees looking for some serious overtime pay. This does fit in with the modus operandi of Northeastern labor unions.

Proportionate!

Ben Stein puts Israel's actions in Lebanon into perspective:

So, now I see that some commentators are saying that Israel's bombing of Lebanese Hezbollah strong points and neighborhoods is "disproportionate." The Israeli campaign, so this story goes, is bullying and terrorizing the Lebanese populace, and this is (so the argument goes) typical Israeli thug behavior.

Hmmm.

Let's see. In World War II, the Germans bombed exactly no United States cities or towns. We bombed the hell out of them, day and night, for more than two years, including helping the British with firebombing Dresden, one of the most appalling civilian killings by a free people of all time.

[Snip]

Now, Israel is bombing Beirut. The Lebanese have been sheltering Hezbollah killers who have been rocketing and bombing Israel for ten years almost every day. The Lebanese have admitted the terrorists into dominant positions in their government. In every way, Lebanon has made itself a haven for terrorists bombing civilians day in and day out in Israel. Is Israel finally standing up and saying enough "disproportionate"? Yes, if you think Israel and Jews should be permanent victims who suffer, bleed, and die in silence the way the Nazis preferred. No, if you believe Jews have the same rights as other people to defend themselves.

[Snip]

By any historic measure, Israel's response to a decade of torment is extremely restrained -- maybe too restrained. And it can stop any time the Hezbollah says they will use peaceful means to get their aims. I don't hear them saying that. What I hear is a thousand Hezbollah rockets falling on exclusively civilian targets in Eretz Israel. There's your answer about whether Israel's response is disproportionate.

By now the pattern should be familiar to everyone.Israel is attacked. Israel defends herself. The world condemns Israel.

Does anyone stop to wonder why? Why is Israel alone not granted the right claimed by every other nation on the surface of the earth, the right to defend herself?

By international agreement Lebanon was supposed to control its border with Israel. Lebanon was supposed to keep Hezbollah from staging terrorist attacks on Israel from Lebanese soil. The truth is that Lebanon finds itself in very much the same position that Afghanistan found itself in after 9/11. After all the Taliban did not have to offer shelter to al Qaeda and Lebanon did not have to allow Hezbollah a free hand in Southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese people cannot even claim, like the Iraqi’s under Saddam, that they had no say-so in the matter. Their government was democratically elected. They chose the leaders who crawled into bed with a murderous terrorist gang. The fact that the Lebanese Prime Minister is threatening to have the Lebanese Army fight alongside Hezbollah proves their complicity with the terrorists.

Sorry guys, but if you lay down with dogs you wake up with fleas. If you lay down with terrorists you wake up with a 500 lb. smart bomb crashing through the roof of your bedroom.

Two bits of good news from Milwaukee

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A 35-year-old pizza delivery man who shot a 14-year-old boy he said was trying to rob him won't face criminal charges.

Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Irene Parthum, who reviewed the July 14 incident, said Andres Vegas of Cudahy was acting in self-defense when he shot the boy, who himself was wielding a BB gun pistol. Police said at the time that the 14-year-old suffered non-life-threatening wounds to the shoulder, hand and buttock.

Parthum also said Vegas, who had been delivering a pizza in the 2400 block of N. 34th St. at the time of the shooting, won't be charged for carrying a concealed firearm because he had been robbed during a delivery last year and, under state weapons law, had a reasonable belief he needed to protect himself.

The 14-year-old and a 13-year-old who may have been his accomplice could be charged next week in Children's Court, prosecutors there said.

The first bit of good news is that the good guy shot the bad guy and the second is that he will not be charged with a crime for it.

One thing we need to address is Mr. Vegas' marksmanship. At close range he shoud have been able to drill the little goblin dead center. If anyone wants to start a fund to raise money for shooting lessons for Mr. Vegas let me know.

Hat Tip: Cam Edwards

Next stop Krystalnacht

The Brussels Journal has more bad news out of Europe:

Only about 1,300 Jews live in Norway, but because of the tensions and the current events in the Middle East, they are at risk of being attacked. The Norwegian newspaper VĂ¥rt Land reports that a Jew was assaulted by Arabs in the streets of Oslo last Saturday. In response, The Mosaic Community in Oslo has sent out a recommendation to its members to leave the kippah at home, or cover it under a cap. It is also warning its members against speaking Hebrew in public. During the past few days the Community has received several threats and other unpleasant messages.

The Jewish journalist Mona Levin declared she as shocked by the Mosaic Community's recommendations. In a reaction she said she was going to wear her Star of David again: "We should not hide that we are Jewish. If we do that, we betray ourselves."

At the same time, the cartoonist Finn Graff published an anti-Israeli cartoon in the popular Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. The cartoon shows Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a Nazi commander in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. The scene comes from the movie Schindler's List, in which the commander shoots down a random Jew from his balcony. For the sake of clarity: Finn Graff is the same cartoonist who declared only half a year ago that he would not draw a cartoon about Muhammad out of fear and "respect." Apparently he has no problems with his fear, nor does he need to show any respect when he can insult Jews or Israel, or Christians for that matter.

Why don’t the European governments get it over with and declare sharia already?

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. If you are Jewish or if you love freedom or if you are a Christian or if you have ever told the truth about Islam in any public forum. If you are female and do not wish to wear a head covering and never go out in public without a male escort. If you are any of the kinds of people who find themselves on the very long list of people whose existence Islamofascists find intolerable and you happen to be in Europe - Get Out Now.

The end of the UK?

The Amercian Spectator is commenting upon the coming dissolution of the United Kingdom.

When Scotland failed to qualify for the World Cup, its political leader, First Minister Jack McConnell, said he would support any team playing against England. So, according to a poll, would two-thirds of the population of Scotland.

Following Mr. Connell's announcement, a 7-year-old boy wearing an English St. George's Cross on his T-shirt and kicking a football in a park with his father in Edinburgh was punched in the head by an adult attacker who screamed: "This is Scotland, not ****ing England!" Athough many Scots expressed shame and apologies to the "wee boy," this was only the beginning of a series of vicious incidents. In Aberdeen a disabled man was dragged from a car and
attacked for showing a St. George's Cross flag. In Linwood, Renfrewshire, two England supporters aged 19 and 36 were hospitalized after being beaten up by Scots when they toasted England's victory over Trinidad and Tobago.

When these incidents were reported in the press, readers' letters revealed many similar happenings, such as: "I am a swerving soldier and I and many other English families in our area are sick of being targetted by your yobs...targetting parked cars with English flags, ripping down English flags from houses..." A former Royal Air Force man wrote: "The last time I was [in Scotland] I was openly insulted and will not return."

Leading London journalist Stephen Glover wrote: "An Englishman living in Scotland displayed the St. George's flag outside his house by way of identifying with England's World Cup team. His windows were smashed. The same man says that abuse was also hurled at him when he went to his local shop wearing an England strip....Whenever I visit Scotland, I am amazed at how self-preoccupied the country has become...I mourn for my disintegrating country. Some profound re-shaping of national identity is taking place. I grow more and more fearful."

England-Scotland football matches have been banned because of vicious fighting. English conventions at Scottish hotels have been canceled.

[Snip]

Normally, when federal states like the U.S., Australia, and Canada are engaged in international sporting contests, people put aside state rivalries and support the national team as a matter of course. That things are going so differently in Britain shows one aspect of an increasingly dysfunctional political culture.


A Scottish police spokesman said: "We will not be advising people not to wear English shirts." What is astounding is that this needed to be said at all.

What is happening between England and Scotland is really nothing to do with sporting rivalry. It is to do with a surging nationalistic and political hatred that has flourished since the Blair government granted Scotland its own National Assembly, and, perhaps co-incidentally, the adversary culture stepped up a general attack on
established British history and traditions. In a number of visits to Scotland since 1973 I had never until recently encountered anything remotely like it.

England and Scotland have Labour governments in deep trouble. In Scotland, where the Tories are comprehensively wrecked, the next government may be Scottish Nationalists, who may well encourage even more extremism.From the day it gained office in Britain New Labour, in an ambiguous alliance with orces further left, has either initiated or connived at loosening, weakening, unscrewing and generally damaging the structures of virtually every British institution and tradition. Its crowning achievement may be the actual destruction of the United Kingdom.


For all the gratitude that patriotic Americans feel toward Tony Blair for his unwavering support for the US in its global war against Islamofascism the fact is that in every other respect he is a barking moonbat.

As a left-liberal “loosening, weakening, unscrewing and generally damaging the structures of. . . institution[s] and tradition[s]” comes naturally to him.

Of course it should be noted that Scottish antipathy toward England is not new.

Look at the lyrics to Capercaillie’s song “Beautiful Wasteland”:

I embraced my father's warnings, and studied in your schools
to justify your theories and convoluted rules
Travelled to the corners, where everybody knows
My country's been wearing, the emperor's clothes

Or “Waiting For The Wheel To Turn”

Living in a place with time
Living in a place where reality is
Standing on a big broad line
Watching it all go byAh, but you're taking it all away
The music, the tongue and the old refrains
You're coming here to play
And you're pulling the roots from a dying age.

Remember the Buachaille Mor
Reaching for the skies from the barren shores
Watching over the village of burns
And counting the days since the gael kept home
But the stranger claims it now
Sitting like a king with his gold from the south
Don't you see the waves of wealth
Wasing away the soul from the land.

Here come the Clearances my friend
Silently our history is coming to life again
We feel the breeze from the storm to come
And up and down the coast
We're waiting for the wheel to turn

Free were the fields of fern
Free was the fishing in the coves of care
Empty are the homes of old
Empty for the sake of summer's cause
Yes, you're taking it all away
The music, the tongue and the old refrains
You're coming here to play
And you're pulling the roots from a dying age.

Here come the Clearances my friend
Silently our history is coming to life again
We feel the breeze from the storm to come
And up and down the coastWe're waiting for the wheel to turn

The people who are “taking it all away” are the English. The “Wheel” is the wheel of history which lifts those who are on the bottom to the top and casts those on top to the bottom as it inexorably turns, and the “Storm to Come” is full Scottish independence. This song was written before Tony Blair became Prime Minister.

If you want an inkling of the cause of the Scotsman’s resentment against England watch Braveheart. Celts have long memories.

Reconsidering Bolton

There is apparently another outbreak of sanity going on in DC. The Washington Post is reporting that Senator Voinovich has changed his mind about John Bolton:

One senator's change of heart about John R. Bolton has rekindled efforts to win Senate confirmation for the interim U.N. ambassador, as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) yesterday called for "swift action" on the nomination.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled a hearing next week on Bolton, a sharp-tongued conservative whose aggressive style has earned him enemies as well as fans. On Thursday,
Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) said he no longer objects to confirming Bolton to the U.N. job for the remainder of the Bush administration.

You may remember Sen. Voinovich's embarrassingly unhinged performance on the Senate floor during Mr. Bolton's confirmation. Voinovich broke down and sobbed as he begged his colleagues not to confirm Bolton to the post of UN Ambassador.

President Bush gave Mr. Bolton a recess appointment to the post anyway and Bolton has spent the past year proving what everyone with an IQ in the double digits knew all along. That he would be eminently qualified to hold the job of UN Ambassador at any time, but at this particular time he is perhaps the best qualified person in the entire nation.

As the world faces a crisis of titanic proportions with the Dark-Age savages of the Islamic world seeking global domination the UN sinks under a sea of incompetence and corruption the true magnitude of which has not even begun to be revealed.

That the UN could be a part of the solution to this crisis under the best of circumstances is a hopeless fantasy. No deliberative body whose composition includes a majority of seriously un-free nations has any hope of defending global freedom. However the UN could make things a great deal worse. To a significant segment of Western European and American society the UN carries considerable moral authority (that it does nothing to earn this authority and everything to squander it is irrelevant to the Left).

The UN could easily use its unearned and undeserved authority to hinder that handful of nations who still have the will to act. A man like John Bolton as the Ambassador from the United States wielding the US Security Council veto and unafraid to say the things that need to be said (and make the threats that need to be made) can do an enormous amount of damage control.

That Mr. Bolton has been effective in upholding US interests at the UN can be seen by the fact that the usual rogue's gallery of moonbats is lining up to oppose his confirmation:

"Instead of wasting time and playing politics, the administration should nominate someone else to take Mr. Bolton's place," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), the Foreign Relations Committee's ranking Democrat. . .

. . .Senate Democratic leader Harry M. Reid of Nevada told reporters this week that he will consult with colleagues before deciding how vigorously to oppose the nomination. He said Bolton "has done nothing to set himself out as somebody that should be approved by the Senate."

It has been said that you can learn as much about a man by observing his enemies as you can by his friends. In this case John Bolton comes very highly recommended.

Our Green Friends

America isn't the only nation in the world to have its moonbat fringe. It is also not the only nation whose moonbat fringe works overtime to spread as much discord and damage as possible. The Scotsman tells us that the UK's eco-Nazi moonbat Greens have been busy in Scotland:

ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners yesterday revealed detailed timetables for the trains that carry nuclear waste across Britain, triggering alarm that terrorists could exploit the information.

The report, from Greenpeace, includes details of more than 1,000 nuclear transports through the UK every year, including journeys through the centre of Edinburgh and other Scottish population centres.


[Snip]

The timetables show that the trains pass through central Edinburgh several times a week at peak times and stop at Lockerbie on the Torness-to-Carlisle route.

Trains also pass through West Kilbride as they travel from the Hunterston power station to Carlisle.

I'm sure that Islamofascist terrorists looking to stage another attack on British soil will be glad for the intelligence. Given that these people have usually shown themselves to be as dumb as a pile of sawdust it will be very helpful to them to have it all laid out in one place and delivered to their doorstep with the morning paper.

Also note how the Liberals are using this as an excuse to bleat about a "nuclear-free" future. That's just what the UK needs in an era in which petroleum prices are rising and the world's major supply of proven oil reserves sits beneath a part of the world ruled by Seventh-Century savages who are, oh by the way, waging a war to destroy societies like the UK's.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Was Pat Buchanan ALWAYS this crazy?

I'm not the only one to have noticed how shrill the increasingly unhinged Pat Buchanan is sounding. FrontPageMagazine has a post titled The Protocols of Pat Buchanan. Here is a sample:

Since the outbreak of the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, Pat Buchanan and other paleoconservatives have made themselves true exponents of populism: the Jew-baiting, conspiracy-driven demagoguery of 1890s agrarians.

In two columns, posted at WorldNetDaily this week, Buchanan accused President Bush of being a puppet of nefarious Jewish warmongers. Outlets of the Hate America Right – especially Paul Craig Roberts and LewRockwell.com – have joined him, and then some.

Nothing sets Buchanan’s imagination racing like a Bush-backed Israeli war.
On Tuesday, Pat asked, “Who is whispering in his ear?” His answer: bloodthirsty Hebrews.

Pat needs to get back on his meds, stop reading old Julius Streicher propaganda pamplets and get a life.

My contribution to the war effort


Check out this picture. It has been making its way around the 'net. Apparently it was staged by some reporters so that they would have something to write about. This is not uncommon.

It occurs to me that there is an opportunity here for the IDF to make some money. Why don't they do this. You send them $25.00 and a copy of your signature and they transfer the signature to one of their artillery shells, missiles or bombs that will be expended on the terrorists.

After all, most of us can't actually go to Israel and shoot the vermin ourselves, but this way we could still have a part in the festivities.

The coming fall of Europe, part II

Fjordman writes in The Brussels Journal:

In a true, totalitarian society such as the old Soviet Union, crime rates are usually low because of the crushing state control of all its citizens. Supposedly, street crime in Moscow in the USSR was rare, probably because the state itself was the biggest criminal. In contrast, in the European Union of today, which is not a totalitarian society, at least not yet, crime rates are booming in major cities. At the same time, authorities are stepping up censorship efforts, openly talking about media “speech codes” and aggressively slapping labels such as “racism” or “xenophobia” on anybody daring to criticize the immigration policies or pointing out the inadequate response to Muslim gang violence.

There is obviously a connection here: The less control the authorities have with Muslims, the more control they want to exercise over non-Muslims. As problems in Europe get worse, which they will, the EU will move in an increasingly repressive direction until it either becomes a true, totalitarian entity or falls apart. This strange mix of powerful censorship of public debate, yet little control over public law and order, has by some been labelled anarcho-tyranny.

He goes on to list some specific incidents:

While Islamic groups in Britain openly brag about how they are going to subdue the country by violent means or call for beheading those insulting Islam, Bryan
Cork, 49, of Carlisle, Cumbria, in the Lake District, was
sentenced to six months in jail for standing outside a mosque shouting, “Proud to be British,” and “Go back to where you came from.” One British court ruled that even use of the word "immigrant” as an insult could amount to proof of racial hostility.

In Belgium, a
Turkish-born Catholic priest, Père Samuel, has been prosecuted for “incitement to racist hatred” by the Belgian Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR), because of a remark he made in a 2002 television interview when he said: “Every thoroughly islamized Muslim child that is born in Europe is a time bomb for Western children in the future. The latter will be persecuted when they have become a minority.” He claims Muslims are invading Europe and warns for an impending civil war.

[Snip]

Writer Oriana Fallaci
has been indicted by a judge in her native Italy for vilification” of Islam, because of a book she wrote called The Force of Reason.

[Snip]

In Australia,
a Christian pastor who was ordered to apologize for vilifying Muslims said he would go to jail rather than say sorry for his comments. Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) deputy president Michael Higgins ordered two pastors to apologize for comments they made in a speech, on a website and in a newsletter. The tribunal found Muslims were vilified by claims that Muslims were training to take over Australia, encouraging domestic violence and that Islam was an inherently violent religion.

[Snip]

Koenraad Elst describes how, in Amsterdam in 1992, Mohamed Rasoel, a Pakistani immigrant, was charged with racism for his book The Downfall of the etherlands, Land of the Naive Fools. The judge decided that Rasoel had made “unjustified generalizations” by contrasting “soft Dutchmen” with “crude, cruel, corrupt and bloodthirsty Muslims” and that it was a racist pamphlet written with the sole purpose of inciting hatred.

He concludes with this:

The reason why European authorities are becoming increasingly totalitarian in their censorship efforts is to conceal the fact that they are no longer willing or able to uphold even the most basic security of their citizenry. If their governments are no longer capable of protecting them and their freedom of speech, Europeans may have to arm themselves to do this on their own. Michael Moore’s books, ridiculing American “gun nuts,” are bestsellers in Europe. Sadly, The Bill of Rights is less popular reading. Perhaps the time has come for Europeans to also take a second look at the Second Amendment – The right for the people to keep and bear arms.

I have said this myself.

The fact is that Europe is probably already lost. This is not good for the United States, but at least we can salvage something from the situation if we manage to learn something from it.

The lessons which I would take from this:
1. Control your borders. A nation which does not maintain sovereign control over who and what crosses its frontiers cannot survive.

2. Make them literally pry your gun out of your cold dead hand. A people who give up the right to defend themselves (and that includes the right to own the effective tools of self defense) are doomed.

3. Defend freedom of speech and the free flow of information to the death. In Europe many press outlets are either owned outright by the government (like the BBC) or they are heavily subsidized. Independent outlets (like Brussels Journal) are subjected to harassment with the goal of shutting them down.

4. Realize that Islam is the enemy. The so-called “moderate Muslim” (if they truly exist at all) is useless until he stands up in numbers and condemns terrorists and terrorism. The fact that there hasn’t been an abortion clinic bombing in the US for years is due in no small part to the almost universal condemnation of such by Christian leaders and rank-and-file Christians.
There are more, but this is a good start.

The daily funny

Moonbat Monitor supplies our daily chuckle:

There are some things I just don't worry about because they don't exist, never could happen, or do only in the rarest occasions. You know, things like getting struck by lightning, eaten by a dwarf, overdosing on Mountain Dew, spontaneously combusting, and this doozy - French military action.

French moonbat Jacques Myard, a member of their parliament, has suggested that France take military action against Israel to stop their assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon. In a statement on his blog, the feisty frog had this to say: "That we shall let Israel act in such way is inadmissible. The French government must take every measure, including militarily, in accordance with international laws that allow it, to protect her nationals and put an end on these outrageous attacks against civilians."

If the Jews awaken the mighty French war machine the IDF may find itself in the same position that the Wehrmacht did on 14 June, 1940.

Marching triumphantly through Paris.

Death Worshiper update

The Dumb Ox has a great post up about the stem cell controversy.

Have you have ever wondered where the idea of the Devil as a pitchfork holding character in a red suit with horns and a tail came from?

The Medieval Church noted the fact that Lucifer's sin was pride. The believed that if you made him look ridiculous his pride would be so wounded that he would flee.

I have always heard, "like father like son" so the death worshipers will want to avoid the Ox's blog.

A message to the guys on the ground

Michelle Malkin has a message for our military:

"Dear American Marines, sailors, soldiers, and airmen:

The complainers and critics may have neglected to show proper gratitude to you for helping to evacuate them from Lebanon. But there are many of us here at home who appreciate all you do.

THANK YOU."

I second that.

Am I the only one here disgusted with the whining and complaining coming from the ungrateful wretches being evacuated out of Lebanon?

The US government didn't tell these morons to go to Lebanon in the first place. In fact the State Department has been warning people not to go to Lebanon and other Middle East locations for years.

Kind of reminds you of that peacenik hostage that got rescued in Iraq recently, doesn't it?

Check out Michelle's blog. She's got pictures!

Signs of hope from the White House

From The Washington Post:

President Bush's unwillingness to pressure Israel to halt its military campaign in Lebanon is rooted in a view of the Middle East conflict that is sharply different from that of his predecessors.

In other words the President is not delusional, at least in this matter.

When hostilities have broken out in the past, the usual U.S. response has been an immediate and public bout of diplomacy aimed at a cease-fire, in the hopes of ensuring that the crisis would not escalate. This week, however, even in the face of growing international demands, the White House has studiously avoided any hint of impatience with Israel. While making it plain it wants civilian casualties limited, the administration is also content to see the Israelis inflict the maximum damage possible on Hezbollah.

And we see how wonderfully free of terrorism Israel has been under the old approach. Someone once said that the definition of insanity was repeating the same action but expecting a different result.

As the president's position is described by White House officials, Bush associates and outside Middle East experts, Bush believes that the status quo -- the presence in a sovereign country of a militant group with missiles capable of hitting a U.S. ally -- is unacceptable.

It is beyond tragic that this is considered controversial.

The U.S. position also reflects Bush's deepening belief that Israel is central to the broader campaign against terrorists and represents a shift away from a more traditional view that the United States plays an "honest broker's" role in the Middle East.

By playing "honest broker" we grant moral equivalence to the murdering savages. This approach does not actually elevate the savages. It only degrades us.

In the administration's view, the new conflict is not just a crisis to be managed. It is also an opportunity to seriously degrade a big threat in the region, just as Bush believes he is doing in Iraq. Israel's crippling of Hezbollah, officials also hope, would complete the work of building a functioning democracy in Lebanon and send a strong message to the Syrian and Iranian backers of Hezbollah.

Praise God! The President has a clue! Kill the terrorists and keep killing them until the entire Arab population has internalized the fact that terrorism has NO future and terrorism will stop. Legitimize the terrorists by negotiating with them, by signing treaties with them and you only guarantee more terrorism. Why shouldn't Hezbollah be doing what it is doing? It has worked in the past.

"The president believes that unless you address the root causes of the violence that has afflicted the Middle East, you cannot forge a lasting peace," said White House counselor Dan Bartlett. "He mourns the loss of every life. Yet out of this tragic development, he believes a moment of clarity has arrived."

The President needs to realize that the "root cause" of terrorism in the Middle East is Islam itself. The terrorists are practicing a form of Islam which is more true to the Koran than that form of Islam being practiced by the so-called moderates.

One former senior administration official said Bush is only emboldened by the pressure from U.N. officials and European leaders to lead a call for a cease-fire. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan demanded yesterday that the fighting in Lebanon stop.

The history of the post WWII world tells us that "UN officials" and "European leaders" belong to the school of the totally wrong. It is encouraging that Mr. Bush knows this.

"He thinks he is playing in a longer-term game than the tacticians," said the former official, who spoke anonymously so he could discuss his views candidly. "The tacticians would say: 'Get an immediate cease-fire. Deal first with the humanitarian factors.' The president would say: 'You have an opportunity to really grind down Hezbollah. Let's take it, even if there are other serious consequences that will have to be managed.' "

We will lose if we are not willing to do what must be done in order to win. It is just that simple. Hezbollah is a cancer which must be cut out. Godspeed to the Israelis as they go about their necessary task.

The rest of the Post story is mostly the predictable moonbat response from the usual rogue's gallery of Clinton era former officials.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

MS-13

WSOC TV's website is reporting the arrest of two members of the gang MS-13 for auto burglary in Pineville, NC (a suburb of Charlotte).

MS-13 (the MS stands for Mara Salvatrucha) is an extremely violent and dangerous gang which was founded in Los Angeles by Salvadoran immigrants who were veterans of the Salvadoran civil war (ironaclly the gang was founded by both former members of the communist revolutionary groups and former members of the right-wing death squads). They have spread throughout the United States, Central and South America and are even making inroads into Europe.

The gang is involved in smuggling weapons, drugs and illegal immigrants across the border from Mexico. In fact many gang members are illegals brought into this country by the gang.

As someone who has to visit Charlotte a couple of times a month I am not happy about the fact that MS-13 is operating there.

I'm glad I've found a good source for Federal HST ammo.