Zero Happening At Ground Zero--UPDATED

What's happening in New York City this balmy summer day? The city bustles but there is little building going on ground zero. Prices are sky-rocketing. Government officials are wrangling (imagine that):

In a report to New York governor David Paterson, Mr Ward said: "The schedule and cost estimates of the rebuilding effort that have been communicated to the public are not realistic."

He said developers and government agencies would set new "clear and achievable timelines" by the end of September.

Mr Ward said the earliest rebuilding estimates in the wake of the 9/11 attacks were not truthful, referring to them as "emotional dates".

My initial response to the Twin Towers going down was that we should rebuild as quickly as possible. Get it done and show the world what America is made of tough stuff. Nothing keeps us down and all that.

Given that the Left operates like 9/11 didn't happen and ignores the consequences of unchecked Islamofascism and feels the threat is exaggerated (see here, here, or just watch CNN) a huge dirt hole seems to be an appropriate reminder. Put up 2,000+ markers where the people died and be done with it. Let every person look and ponder what happens when bad ideologies triumph (at least temporarily).

As an added bonus, there should be flat screens replaying the Towers going down with video of our soldiers hunting and killing terrorist scum. It's "raw", I know, but there's a simple elegance to my plan don't you think? As an added bonus: It's cost effective.

UPDATED:

Rachel Lucas reminds us why we need constant reminders of the consequences of Islamofascism:

Dear Britain: the more you apologize for stupid shit like this, the more you will be apologizing in the future for ever more innocuous “offenses.” You will never be done with it, you will never be able to satisfy these people until you utterly BEND TO THEIR WILL, and you will apologize yourselves right into cultural oblivion as Islam slowly but very, very surely mows you down with its “outrage” and your proclivity to be doormats. Very impressive. Your dead and dying grandfathers and grandmothers, who stood up to the last set of fascist assholes when most of your neighbors didn’t - they must be so proud.

Dirt. Pit. We need the reminders.

Cross-posted at Right Wing News

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.

Iran's Leaders Are Cuckoo

In case you missed it, Ahmadinejad expressed his warm fuzzies for Israel again:

Speaking of which: always one with the quick quip, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “labeled the Zionist regime as a ‘stinking corpse’ and said those who think they can revive the corpse of this fabricated and usurper regime are in mistaken."

If you think he was taken out of context, well, that’s from the Iranian news agency. It’s enough just to point out the quote and let it sit there and stink. File that one away with the others. The future should never come as a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention.

It is easy to get inured to insanity in this post-modern age. Surely, a civilized looking human cannot have genocidal desires. As Dr. Sanity says, though, psychopathology is woven in and through Islamic society:

Then, don't forget all the other superpsychos whose megalomaniacal blood lust and chilling disregard for their fellow human beings are unparalleled in modern history. Names like Osama Bin Laden, Aymen Al-Zawahiri, Moqtada Al-Sadr...the list goes on and on and on, encompassing a great many of the Imams and "holy" leaders. Never have so many wanted to kill so much because it is so essential to their identity.

Then there is this guy, who seems a bit unclear on the concept of "antisocial".

So, why is this sort of hate and viciousness celebrated in the Islamic world? I note in a series on the psychopathology of terrorism that along with the parenting issues, cultural factors play an extremely strong role in personality formation and can under certain circumstances "stack the cards" against normal develoment even if all other factors are benign (which they aren't, actually, but read the entire two-part article if you are interested).

Several key factors that contribute to the development of psychopathy include:

Genetics

Constitution/temperment

Parenting

Culture

Children who happen to be born into authoritarian or tyrannical regimes are frequently systematically indoctrinated and programmed (by teachers or political authorities) to develop habits of thought and behavior at variance with healthy parenting and inconsistent with normal human values. Such programming can easily deform personility development in a variety of ways--none of them very healthy or humane. It is easy in such tyrannical regimes to become rigid; or mindlessly obedient; or cruel; or rebellious, bitter etc.

We shouldn't be surprised when a professed lover of killing actually kills. It's what he's been programmed to do. He'll do it eventually.

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.

Free Speech and Radical Islam in Canada

I have been following the persecution of Mark Steyn from the beginning, but the story must be reaching critical mass because my brother sent a link to this article with the note saying "You have to blog on this asap!"

Free speech seems to be a uniquely American notion these days as other democracies are caving to politically correct demands. In Canada, an excerpt from Mark Steyn's book America Alone prompted this, as Steyn himself describes:

I don't know whether my bestselling book is still available in Canadian bookstores, but it's coming soon to a Canadian "courtroom" near you! The Canadian Islamic Congress and a handful of Osgoode Hall law students have complained about the article in Maclean's to (at last count) three of Canada's many "human rights" commissions, two of which have agreed to hear the "case." It would be nice to report that the third sent the plaintiffs away with a flea in their ears saying that in a free society it's no business of the state to regulate the content of privately owned magazines. Alas, I gather it's only bureaucratic torpor that has temporarily delayed the province of Ontario's en thusiastic leap upon the bandwagon. These students are not cited in the offending article. Canadian Muslims are not the subject of the piece. Indeed, Canada is not mentioned at all, except en passant. Yet Canada's "human rights" commissions have accepted the premise of the Canadian Islamic Congress--that the article potentially breaches these students' "human rights."

This legal imbroglio will pave the way for more speech suppression if the case goes the way the Islamic agitators hope. What speech offends you? And what should happen to those who offend you? Roast them, I say! Steyn notes the obvious:

CBC commentator Rex Murphy said Maclean's should not have to defend itself for starting debate and stirring thought.

"Is every touchy, or agenda-driven sensibility now free to call upon the offices of the state and ... embroil them in 'justifying' their right to write and broadcast as they see fit?" he asked on CBC's flagship news program, The National.

Steyn said the CIC and law students acting on its behalf aimed to shut down debate by making it more trouble than it's worth for editors to run pieces on controversial topics.

But he added, "In using quasi-judicial coercion to squash debate, they make one of the central points of my argument -- that a proportion of Islam is inimical to Western traditions of freedom -- more eloquently than I ever could."

I have read Steyn's book. It sits on my bookshelf in all its red splendor. The way to rebel against this sort of nonsense is to support Mark Steyn. Buy his book today. Here. Or here are some other links on how to support him:

National Review

Or send a book to the Saudi's. They need some edumacation.

Who Are We Fighting Again?

The worst sort of haters:

Last month al-Qa’eda bombed a UN building in Algiers because, like de Mello, it was symbolic of the decent world which the Islamists want to destroy. Eleven UN officials were killed at once. And so it goes on.

The murder of Bhutto, the murder of UN officials, the countless murders of innocent Iraqis, the murder of Lebanese who fight for their democracy, the murder of commuters in Madrid and London are all part of the same war against people and life. They are all part of the same deadly global ideology of hatred and despair. These assaults will not end if we retreat — from Afghanistan, from Iraq or anywhere else. Weakness will cause the terrorists to redouble their efforts.

We fight for life and happiness against death and despair.

Psychopaths

You know, it's difficult to comprehend psychopaths. They are wired so completely counter to normal, socialized people that the normal people rationalize and minimize for their own psychological comfort.

Over at Shrinkwrapped, the good doctor discusses sociopathology in regards to Islam. I personally feel that there are some characteristics inherent in Islam that make psychopathology more likely. Shrink touches on this:

Psychopaths are not, in fact, particularly good liars; they spin tales and get away with it because their listeners fail to confront them on the inconsistencies. So, why bring Psychopaths into the mix when discussing the danger from radical Islam? Unfortunately, those who follow the dictates of their Koran (whether it is simply one of many interpretations or the only interpretation, as insisted upon by the Islamists, is immaterial) are explicitly permitted to lie, threaten, cheat, do whatever it takes to dominate the infidel. Whether or not the typical Muslim is a psychopath is not the issue; the issue is that Islam, as practiced in the public sphere, behaves like a Psychopath. Note that it is often the apostate Muslim, most at risk from the reactions of their former co-religionists, who most acutely points out the failures (and questions the existence) of Moderate Islam and Moderate Muslims.

In every era, there people have denied the evidence in front of them, whether it was Stalin or Hitler or Pol Pot or whomever. No one wants to acknowledge such evil because it demands action or reveals the co-dependent person to be weak and stupid.

A large segment of our population simply denies evil exists despite all the evidence to the contrary. It's easier. Shrink talks about this phenomenon and it's a worthwhile read.

He links to a website dedicated, of all things, to sociopaths, or rather the people harmed by them. The tales are disturbing and instructive. One thing that is very evident: psychopaths create havoc, confusion, doubt and chaos wherever they go. Energetically, they disturb the force, to invoke Star Wars speak. Nothing is ever settled. Nothing feels solid.

As our recent church and mall killers reinforce once again, there is no innocent to a psychopath. People exist to meet their needs and a psychopath has no problem using them for their own ends. They are liars from the beginning--first to themselves, second to anyone else who might interfere with their aims.

We must avoid denial and face the fact that these people exist. They are able to do great harmed mostly when they steamroll unchecked. Direct confrontation is the only option, as reasoning does not work with these most unreasonable of people. We need to keep that in mind when a lying, pathological regime like Iran claims to have quit pursuing nuclear material. It is ridiculous on it's face.

Psychopaths don't go away before their desires are fulfilled. We need to remember that.

Steyn Mourns Howard's End

And so do I. Steyn says it best:

In more genteel mode, he put it like this: "Multilateralism is a synonym for an ineffective and unfocused policy involving internationalism of the lowest common denominator." See Darfur, the Iranian nukes, the UN's flop response to the tsunami. If it's right to intervene in the Sudan, it's not wrong because the Russian guy declines to stick his hand up at the relevant meeting. The Howard years saw the emergence of a regional power that, from East Timor to Solomon Islands, understood its responsibilities at a time when the Euro-Canadian poseurs shrunk from theirs.

As a distant observer of Australian affairs, I had some small personal contact with Howard and co. over the years. Merry, feisty, blunt and fair, they were exactly what we need at this moment: happy warriors. I'm saddened Australians feel differently. But if it's too late to get the US constitution amended in time for them to run for president next November, the savvier candidates ought to snap 'em up as speech writers.

Free Speech on Campus

Free intimidation, more like. Look at what happened to Nonie Darwish, the Arab-American author who spoke out at Wellesley about the threat from Islamofascism. She says of the Muslim girls who disrupted the speech, disrespecting her and others in attendance:

“Muslim girls like these are like gangsters. They know more about their rights in America than the Jewish girls do. The Muslim girls all have a chip on their shoulders.”

And then she is silent. Softly, she says: “We are fighting an avalanche. We are too few. I am frightened by my culture of origin. I am scared of my own people.”

That's on a college campus. There are far more examples of attempts, by diverse people, to share a diverse message. And here is what happens when people share a view that isn't politically correct, namely, that radical Islam gives moderate Islam a bad name.

That's right, being for free speech and against fascism and saying so, well, that's just crazy talk.

Marxism Is Fun In Theory & Why Blowing Up Yourself Can Sound Like A Good Idea

I haven't been blogging as much since teaching the little ones. (Today, we learned about Egypt, Turkey, The Kurds, and Syria. Yes, we did.) Because of being otherwise detained with a business deal, too, reading has become secondary, especially web reading.

Shrinkwrapped knocked this out of the park, though, explaining why Marxism is dangerous. He tells this story:

In college, I dabbled in radical politics. I went to many anti-war demonstrations as a teenager. I enjoyed the frisson of rebellion that the Psychedelic 60s was shrouded within, yet a single incident awoke me to the reality that I would never be a good Marxist. I had been intrigued by Trotsky, the idea of constant revolution was fascinating to someone who wished to resist falling into the predicted and predictable path I feared I was on. On campus was a well established group of young Trotskyites, the Young Socialist Alliance. They were involved in various protests, which were always enjoyable, not least for the presence of many nubile, young radical women who approved of radical young men. One fateful day I stopped by the YSA table to find out more about them. I made a joking reference to the previous weekend's demonstration and discovered that the leader of the group was a young man who was incredibly humorless. He proceeded to lecture me (hectored me, perhaps) with a diatribe on how much commitment was necessary for the revolution to succeed and how there was no room for humor in the revolution; this was deadly serious business fighting the oppressors and jokes had no place in it.

I thought he was a complete jerk; I also thought he was a very dangerous jerk. This was the kind of person who would have no trouble condemning someone for thought crimes. If that was the kind of person who was attracted to Marxism, perhaps I wasn't as much of a radical as I fancied.

Years later I can still recall him, with a Che Guevara beard, intense eyes, and a complete lack of humor or humanity. Any revolution that condemned humor was not a revolution for me.

Rage at a cruel and withholding universe (often a derivative of infantile frustration) is difficult to tolerate. Most of us, with good-enough parenting, come to temper our infantile frustrations (which have roots in our infantile grandiosity which is so painful to give up) by using our loving ties to our parents to metabolize the rage which would otherwise be so destructive. Those unfortunates who cannot do so via love are left enraged and searching for ways to offload the rage to an external victim. Ideologies that enable such offloading attract the angry and the failed and it is through this pathway that Marx (the angry, anti-Semitic hater of religion) and the Islamists (descended from Qutb, the angry, anti-Semitic hater of secularism) find their true identity.

That all-consuming anger, that root of bitterness, gives a place to the devil. It reminds me of a scripture in Ephesians, chapter 4 verse 27:

“Be angry, and do not sin”:^[f] do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil.

There are many people in the world giving the devil ample room to do his work.

Six Flying Imams May Get Spanked Yet

Blue Crab Boulevard, reports of a moderate Muslim who is fighting back against radical Islamists whom he hates. Go check this link. If all American Muslims looked like this and took this tack, there would be less anger at what is perceived as silence in the face of terrorism and brutality that some Islam believers condone.

Suddenly Jasser is a sought-after radio and TV commentator. His new role is taking lots of time, a scarce commodity for Jasser, who practices internal medicine and is president of the Arizona Medical Association.

But he believes that a Muslim voice is critical in response to the imams' charges, which include one that they were discriminated against for praying in the airport gate area. "Americans are so worried about offending religious sensibilities," he says. "We as Muslims must step forward and say, 'This is not about prayer, it's about airline security.' "

"I believe I represent the views of the large majority of Muslims in this country," says Jasser. "They are repulsed by political sermons, by apologetics for terrorism. The vast majority do want to separate their spiritual identity from their political identity."

I would say that Dr. Jasser is right. We do need to hear more of these voices. Unfortunately his opposition is very vocal and exploits the American love of Freedom of Religion and non-discrimination. Yet, if they had their way, there would be no freedom for anyone else.

Over at Jihad Watch there is this about the notion that Islam may reform:

As I have said many times, there are moderate Muslims, but Islam itself is not moderate. That fact must be faced by both reformers and those who place high hopes upon them. And in fact, on the Bennett show this morning I explained why Islamic reform faced monumental obstacles, and said that we should not kid ourselves about its prospects for large-scale success.

Well, there might not be wholesale reform, but at least Americans can support those Muslims who believe in a church-state concept, who do not embrace violence (jihad/struggle) to conquer the world, who value freedom for all people. Dr. Jasser is one such Muslim.

More about him here.

HotAir has a nice video of Dr. Jasser.

Taliban Recruits

LGF has a must-see video. Young teen suicide bomber weened on hate and death interviewed.

Captain's Quarter's: Hamas Hates Israel & The Sun Rises in the East

Wow. Big news, I know. But Cap'n thinks there's a little more there, there and I do, too:

.. Hamas insists that it will never recognize Israel nor abide by previous agreements of the Palestinian Authority. It's hardly breaking news; Hamas has said this repeatedly even before winning control of the PA early this year. However, their latest venue does warrant a second look:

Haniyeh arrived in the Iranian capital on Thursday for a four-day visit for talks with Iranian leaders including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." ...

Haniyeh called Iran, a longtime ally of Hamas, the Palestinians' "strategic depth" because they were together in their fight against Israel.