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British children are forced to bow to Allah. The two who didn't get detention.

And you thought Republicans were dumb. They have some wimpy competition.

Intelligent design stuff.

Greta Van Susteren smacks down Anderson Cooper. Anderson has a staff of 60. A couple are dedicated to peeling his grapes and fanning him no doubt.

James Lileks smacks down M. Night Shamalayan:

The trailer doesn’t spell out the message, but Gort – played by Keanu Reeves – says “if the earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth lives.” Well, there’s a message we can all get behind. And if the film flops, you get the Malibu beach house. Seems win-win for everyone except, well, the poison-belching peons who will queue up for another sermon. Gentle cautionary tales are one thing; this groveling self-hatred is another. Same with the M. Night film that has the trees emitting pollen that makes us all kill ourselves – apparently the trees took a big wait-and-see attitude towards deforestation in the late 19th century, and finally decided to kill people when we were just starting to get the point.

The taxing work of being rich and finding enlightenment. Sigh. Aimless and dough-filled make for such trying times. Via Alarming News

Barack Obama's pedigree includes forged papers? Is it possible he doesn't really exist?

Speaking of Obama, if he really is an American citizen, which is in question (see above), he's not patriotic. I question, very openly, his patriotism as does Jonah Goldberg. But the true believers question the questioners. It's amusing.

Tigerhawk on loving America....and those who hate it.

Patterico honors Jesse Helms and thanks the Left for their sympathy.

This is what the world is coming to and Rachel Lukas has a solution. She's going soft.

And on that outrageous note, I'm going for a walk, because my blood pressure is up again from watching the video at Rachel's link.

UK Socialized Medicine: Sorry, there's nothing we can do

America's health care: Yes. We. Can.

UK - “Enlightened” Socialized Healthcare: Sorry, can’t be helped. Your daughter is destined to look like Charles Laughton playing Quasimoto - learn to live with it until the effects kill her.

US - “Backwards” Healthcare: Your daughter will be restored in both health and beauty. Yes we can.

Choice. It's all about choice. For the socialist's claims to choice, they certainly do like limiting them.

Best Headline of the Week

"Jesus in a Green Beret. Europe has lost its mind." Hey monkeys are people too, stop being a hater! And, what about revoking personhood rights to people who are clearly somewhere outside of all species?

British Suicide Bomber Prematurely Activates

Gateway Pundit reports that a 22 year old WHITE man exploded his face a bit when his suicide vest prematurely activated in the loo. Aw....

Let the significance of this sink in. Imagine a society where every person becomes a suspect. Oh wait, we don't have to. Israel lives with these threats every day.

Why does anyone wonder why we fight these bastards?

Cross-posted at Right Wing News.

Afghan Hijacker Works In Airport Lives On Welfare

It's a nice gig, if you can get it:

Hijack a plane. Threaten and assault passengers. Get let out of jail. Get a job working in an airport and live, rent and tax free, on welfare.

That’s quite a career path.

UK Terrorists: Dead Eyes

Look at these UK terrorists. Don't they all have the same look? Maybe they haven't blown themselves up yet, but they seem to be men already dead.

Giving Away Britain

Gordon Brown just did it. The whole disturbing article here. Here's a taste:

Just as in the 13th century, so in the 21st. Magna Carta has to be defended. Brown and company are destroying Magna Carta. They are continuing in the idiotic and treasonous steps of their political forbears who have made one treaty after another with European leaders and have illegally given away British rights and liberties.

For a mess of pottage they have sold the British birthright.

Why? Why would Brown do it?

One reason is that he is a Socialist and Socialism is a global religion. It hates nation states. It wants one allegiance to one global state in which national politicians such as Master Blair can play lofty roles. Socialism is an ignorant religion that ignores the scientific facts of freedom, the essential connection between a people being free and being prosperous, the indisputable link between a people’s safety and education and happiness and their ability to make local decisions about their police and their schools and their livelihoods.

But there is another reason for Brown and Miliband and Blair and Heath and Clarke and Major and Heseltine and all the rest of them to support the creation of the EU and the destruction of Britain, aside from the obvious reason that they do not like Britain much, do not understand or love her history, do not forgive her imperfections and seek to support her real goodness, and do not understand political or economic science, and that reason is this –

They want to be part of the inner circle. They want to be in the circle for exactly the same reason that there are circles of girls and boys in schools and circles of men and women in clubs and at work . They want to feel that they are in a special circle and you and most other people are outside it. They think that they are something because they are in the circle. They think the circle is superb.

Let's hope we don't elect a President who wants to be part of the world clique. Just imagine Al Gore running things. See how much fun he has being the doyenne of world high society? It's a little creepy and a lot of bad news for anyone who loves freedom.

H/T Instapundit

Bon Chance, La France!

Samzidata has a snort out loud post regarding the demise of the French countryside. That formerly crumbling rural haven where no one could afford to live and no one wanted to, anyway, being that it was cut off from civilization.

No more.

Provençal France is now the refuge of Brits and Americans, meanwhile the young French ditch Paris for England. The French find this Pepé Le Pew smelly:

Another French vignette of decline is of clever sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, who can not seem to get jobs worthy of their obvious talents and superior educations, unless they go to vulgar England. Even there, they will have to start out as waiters and waitresses, but at least they'll have a chance of better things soon. In France, education is obviously far better than in vulgar England, but in vulgar England, for some reason probably involving evil America, more stuff is actually being done.

So, will France's voters try to make the symptoms of economic decline and of the new super-suburbanisation illegal? Probably. Good luck with that, mes amis. You will need it. A smarter attitude would be to stop fretting about these changes and to start profiting from them, as many French people are already doing, of course, not least by selling their rural shacks for silly English money.

Truly, it's insulting for an inferior culture to triumph over a culture so self-evidently superior.

C'est la vie!

Nashi: Russia's Version of Hitler Youth--UPDATED

Fascism is in fashion. A nice sum-up of the Russian mind:

For the east European countries with first-hand experience of Stalinist terror, the Kremlin's rewriting of history could hardly be more scary. Not only does Russia see no reason to apologise for their suffering under Kremlin rule, it now sees the collapse of communism not as a time of liberation, but as an era of pitiable weakness.

It ALWAYS saw the collapse of communism as weakness. This is not a new development. What is new is the economic strength to organize and retrench. Drunk on oil revenue, the Kremlin rises again.

And history is rewritten:

Russia barely commemorates even the damage it did to itself, let alone the appalling suffering inflicted on other people. Nashi is both a symptom of the way Russia is going - and a means of entrenching the drift to fascism.

Terrifyingly, the revived Soviet view of history is now widely held in Russia. A poll this week of Russian teenagers showed that a majority believe that Stalin did more good things than bad.

If tens of thousands of uniformed German youngsters were marching across Germany in support of an authoritarian Fuhrer, baiting foreigners and praising Hitler, alarm bells would be jangling all across Europe. So why aren't they ringing about Nashi?

Because the left engages in the same kind of moral equivalence as Vladamir Putin and his cronies. They have a crush on communism.

Britain banishes Churchill from history books. Russia brings Stalin back. Japan finds neonationalism. This bodes ill.

UPDATE: I missed this on Friday, but Gary Kasparov explains Putin perfectly:

The web of betrayals, the secrecy, the blurred lines between what is business, what is government, and what is criminal--it's all there in Mr. Puzo's books. A historian looks at the Kremlin today and sees elements of Mussolini's "corporate state," Latin American juntas and Mexico's pseudo-democratic PRI machine. A Puzo fan sees the Putin government more accurately: the strict hierarchy, the extortion, the intimidation, the code of secrecy and, above all, the mandate to keep the revenue flowing. In other words, a mafia.

The question Kasparov doesn't answer: Why does the populace submit and actually facilitate the mafia? One answer is fear. Yes, fear is a motivation. But this is Russia not Italy. The Russian ego is driven by pride and strength. They enjoy intimidation. The general population relates to and lives vicariously through Putin and his mafioso government's strength.

Perhaps the great majority of thinking Russians were expunged during Stalin. Perhaps the thinking man fled Russia during the ensuing communistic years. But Russia thrives on brute force. The average Russian respects it. Who wants choices when one can have power?

H/T Gina Cobb

It's The End of the World As We Know It

I've noticed a change in how Western Civilization is described recently. It's almost like some are gleeful that it's almost over. Why wait for tomorrow? Some write the glowing post-mortem today:

There is no reason a nation with a shrinking population cannot maintain steady rates of GDP per capita growth if mechanization and labour productivity gains keep up a good pace. Indeed, George Mason economist Robin Hanson argues that soon enough robots will be doing almost all the jobs [pdf] anyway. So it is easy enough to imagine a country that maintains a high standard of living as the population eventually shrinks to ... nothing. People differ rather vehemently on this issue, but I see nothing wrong with a population dwindling away entirely, as long as living conditions remain high. All individual lives come to an end, but they are not therefore worthless. Societies don't last forever either, and neither do nation-states. A society that fades away in high style might count as a spectacular human triumph, not a failure. Where's the underprovided public good in steady-growth population decline?

Who cares about the Western world? Societies eventually die. If it dies in this generation, but dies in style, fantastic. The article was written by an economist calling into question the notion that children are a public good. Some aren't a public good, I'll grant him that. Neither are some economists.

I would like to suggest that the chances of Western Civilization going out in style are slim to none without military to protect it. Forget about breeding workers to feed the pensions. The wealthy and childless don't need a pension anyway. They have their money. Who cares about the dull-witted and poor? Tough bananas. They're going to die one way or another.

Actually, with a dwindling population, the rich and poor will likely die in the same way: at the point of a sword.

The Western world may be run by a world of robots, but someone has to run the robots. And a wealthy society, as fat and old as Europe, is ripe for the picking by a younger, hungrier bunch.

I think the save the earth, one-child types might want to consider how they want to meet their Maker. It is unlikely they will go out while communing with nature. It is more likely they'll go out communing with human nature.

H/T Glenn Reynolds

Words & Deeds

Gordon Brown: The Maverick. This man will change the nature of the relationship between the U.S. and Britain. He will change the language of war. He will be partner not a "lap dog" like Blair. And the British press, both left and right, want out of Iraq. Up until today, Brown gave signals that he felt the same way. Here is what Brown said:

But in an article today in the Washington Post, Mr Brown quoted the former US president Franklin Roosevelt when he said that the "arsenal of democracy" - schools, museums, newspapers and the arts - was just as important as weapons in defeating terrorists.

And Mr Brown again avoided using the term "war on terror", in favour of calling terrorism "a war against humanity".

Gordon Brown says flowery words, but as of today, will keep troops in Southern Iraq, much to the fury of the left in Britain. Will Gordon Brown's words save him at home?

A theory has been put forward that the left won't take terrorism seriously until they have the power. Only then would they act like adults and honestly engage the problem. Nancy Pelosi has yet to grow up. She looked rather silly sitting with the Syrian tyrant Assad. Senator Obama says he'll engage all the rogue states if he's president. Would Clinton and Obama keep the flowery rhetoric while seriously dealing with the War on Terror? I'm not so sure--they have a lot of anti-war promises to keep.

More optimistically, is there a tough Republican who could continue the fight and encourage citizens with articulate, reasoned and inspiring arguments? Before the Bush presidency I thought deeds were enough; and they are still the most important indicator of a man's character. In our next president, though, it would be nice if he could be a master of words, too.


Cross posted at Right Wing News.

British History Without Winston Churchill

I named my Shih Tzu Winston for heaven's sake! What is Britain thinking? Nope, there's no good guys in the world. And no bad guys. Hitler and Stalin won't get a mention in history class, either. How do you learn history without historical figures? You don't.

Most American Muslims Assimilated, A Significant Minority Want To Kill You UPDATED Lutherns Too

UPDATED:

Iowahawk reports on a poll of Lutherns. This is significant:

Kohut pointed to one of the study's key findings that only 29% of all respondents agreed that "bloody, random violence against infidels" was "always" or "frequently" justified, versus 56% who said such violence was "seldom" or "never" justified. The approval of violence rose slightly among younger Lutherans and when the hypothetical violence was targeted against Presbyterians, but still fell well short of a majority.

"The only demographic cohort we saw where murderous random violence had a majority support was among 18-35 year old male followers of the Wisconsin Synod," said Kohut. "And that was barely above the margin of error. Even then, fewer than half (41% to 46%) said they would personally volunteer to carry out the violence themselves."

Well, I'm just happy about the majority. Focus on the positive, you know?

*******

Says Ace:

"Overwhelming majority." 26%-69% on the terrorism justified vs. never justified question amoung young Muslim American males.

Again, I was more hoping for something like a "unanimity."

I ask of Mr. Hooper: Would he feel relieved if I told him right now 69% of young non-Muslim males opposed, but 26% supported, killing you and fellow Muslims due to our anger at their foreign policy?

I don't think so. I think he'd call that "hatred" and "backlash."

So I'm not getting why he thinks that we should be happy that only one in four young Muslim men are open to murdering the rest of us.

Ace goes on to illustrate how the media, and the polling company itself (Pew), obscure the important data for politically correct ends.

British Sailors To Be Freed Soon

Finally.

Can we start blowing things up now? And will the British change their rules of engagement in the Persian gulf so this doesn't happen again?

Iran Can Just Try American Hostage Taking

Americans can shoot the scum in self-defense. Excellent.

Sanctioning Iran

"It's a difficult situation in which we find ourselves," said Nana Effah-Apenteng, the ambassador from Ghana. "I think it would be better for them to wait and get consensus."

That's the problem with the U.N. in a nutshell--waiting for consensus.

Has Iran Declared War on Great Britain or Iraq?--UPDATE Scroll Down

Iran operatives in Iraq's territorial waters have kidnapped fifteen British sailors. Does Iran have a death-wish or are do they believe the international community will be forced to negotiate about the nuclear thing?

With Ahmadinejad in the U.S. to address the U.N., perhaps the U.S. should seize him. Isn't it permissible to capture the enemy commander during war?

The President and Congress have more important things to deal with than subpoenas and testifying.


UPDATE: Well, I'm not alone in my thinking, but I'm surprised how nonchalant some appear to be about this development. Andrew Cochran notes that oil hasn't shot up in response (always a delightful outcome for rogue states in dire financial straits).

Brendan Loy has a nice round-up. His wife and I are on the same page, evidently. He points to Dr. Rusty Shackleford who says this:

Isn't this an act of war?

Another update: Given that embassies in Tehran were making evacuation plans yesterday.....er, I hate to place the tinfoil hat on here, but what are the chances that this was a planned operation?

Allah provides video of the last time Iran took British personell hostage and says:

Iran can’t have meant to do this, not with Ahmadinejad set to address the Security Council tomorrow about the nuclear program and not to the British, who’ve been adamant in opposing any military action on Iran.

Maybe, and in my heart of hearts I'm a Realist--which posits that nations are rational actors that act in their own interests. But rationality is constrained by culture and what may seem rational in Tehran may seem crazy-insane to the rest of us. Case in point: all of Iranian history since 1979.

Anyway, I agree that they'll probably be let go unharmed. And it's far more likely that Allah is right and that this is probably nothing more than a bunch of Iranian sailors working from the cuff and egged on by years of propaganda, but never completely write off the crazy. Especially when you're dealing with Iran.

Allah has more.

And the Brits are brave. May they come back whole and well. Right now, they're blind-folded and being paraded around.

UPDATE II: Ahmadinejad cancels trip. Awwww..... Wonder what he's going to do with his 15 British visitors? Each hour that passes bodes ill.

Muslim Mother and Three Daughters Burned to Death for Being "Too Western"

Where are the moderate Muslims on this?

Who Lost Britain?

On the heels of the last post about a Virginia town knuckling to "moderate" Muslim thugs, Mark Steyn talks about who lost Britain.

America needs to wake up!

Melanie Phillips has another poignant vignette of life in culturally insecure, fatalist Britannia : Genuinely courageous Muslims who wish to resist the imposition of the Saudi-promoted and profoundlynon-traditional niqab in British schools get no support from the municipal authorities. Meanwhile, British Muslims radicalized by the ideological enforcers of the jihad’s mosque network are arrested for plotting to capture a soldier on leave and behead him on camera. And the media respond with discussion showsfocusing on the usual suspects – Bush, Blair, the Palestinian “peace process”.

As Miss Phillips says:

Watch this respectful Sky News interview (via LGF) with the ranting Islamist Anjem Choudary and last night’s morally eviscerated Question Time on BBC TV to see how Britain is ever more eagerly stretching out its neck for the cultural knife.

The victim of the would-be decapitators was to be a loyal Muslim soldier of the Queen. The plan is to relocate him for his safety – in effect, to place him in a kind of witness protection program. Can they find room for the entire nation in there?

Are the true moderate Muslims in America afraid? Is that why they don't stand up? If so, that is equally disturbing to there not being any true moderate Muslims.

Americans of all stripes need to strengthen the spine of the moderate Muslims. We must show the understanding of the situation and have courage to stand against radicals. This action will empower the fearful and undecided.

UK Muslim Soldiers Willing to Die For Freedom

Donald Sensing relates the bravery of the British Muslim soldiers who agreed to be targets to catch Muslim extremists intent on kidnapping and beheading them. Amazing!

Sensing says:

If Western Muslims are sometimes criticized for passivity in the face of Islamist terrorism, then their courage against it should be widely acknowledged. I’ve done my part, anyway.

Amen.