here's part of the new anti-semitism

[Link: www.adl.org...]

Having just read the article linked on the previous thread, thanx Charles for giving it its own space.

Brilliant essay by Mr. Foot. It's unimaginable to me how gravity even keeps these peoples' feet on the ground.

This is off-topic but very interesting:

LAST SUNDAY, BOMBER WALKED AWAY FROM JERUSALEM CAFE

www.jpost.com

Another article linked on the front page, WHY TEENAGER DECIDED TO BLOW HIMSELF UP, describes in detail what ANOTHER bomber, 15, went through after being recruited. He explained that he didn't want to go to school. And he described how his handlers told him his family's house would be demolished, but that they'd rebuild it and give his family money.

Abusing the Constitutional right to Free Speech:

Take a Look at these idiots:

RNC "Not Welcome"

Perth synagogue defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti

Saturday morning, the 112-year-old Perth Hebrew Congregation was marked with anti-Semitic posters and signs, one of which read "6 million more please with fries" according to the synagogue's Rabbi, Dovid Freilich.

I don't even know what to say anymore.

Mr. Foot has it exactly right.

Rob Foot wrote:

"In the past five hundred years, perhaps in all history, there has only been one genuinely successful revolution...It was the American Revolution of 1776."

With all due respect to the American Revolution, I beg to differ;
The Zionist revolution, with all past and present hardships, is also a genuinely successful revolution!

This is a very good essay. He puts together some of the ideas I have had about why the left hates America so bad. I think he is right when he says

In the past five hundred years, perhaps in all history, there has only been one genuinely successful revolution - one that delivered on its promises for a better world, based on the principles of freedom, equality, enterprise and endeavour; one that actually succeeded, despite the acknowledged imperfection of some of its outcomes. And of these latter, thanks largely to the failure of socialism, we now understand rather better that politics cannot be relied upon to correct the human condition.

It was not the English Revolution of 1641, nor the French of 1789, or the French or German of 1848, or the Russian of 1917, the Chinese of 1949, or the Cuban of 1958, the essays of the Parisian students in 1968, nor the host of abortive adventures in Asia and Africa.

It was the American Revolution of 1776. That's the only one that has ever really worked.

That is what really makes the LLL's blood boil.

Picture of anti-Semitic graffiti on a Perth synagogue

#5 zulubaby's link

which was said to have come from a right-wing nationalist group.

WHy is it that whenever I read something like that in the MSM, I automatically think "Muslim immigrants"? The EU blaming "neo-nazis" when their own report stated "North African origin" and "Palestinian youths" perhaps?

One thing to remember is that much of the hard Left doesn't realize that they're really demanding socialism!

I've had several occasions where someone would be talking about all of the social programs they want, all of the societal changes, all of the, well, socialism you'd could think of, but insist that it has nothing to do with any actual socialism.

They'll explain how awful capitalism is, without understanding what capitalism is, either ("capitalism" appears to be "Republicans with a lot of money").

People who will, in the same breath, deride the military because of the nonexistent draft (yes, a lot of people think we still have one running) but want mandatory public service for everyone.

People who want lower taxes, but demand a fourfold expansion in every social program, ever.

People who think that the normal environment for your money is the pockets of the government, and can't for the life of them imagine that people might be able to spend their money more effectively than someone in the government.

But - and they'll tell you this on a regular basis - they're not socialists.

#8 GH

With all due respect to the American Revolution, I beg to differ;
The Zionist revolution, with all past and present hardships, is also a genuinely successful revolution!

I don't understand. What revolution?

@6 American Infidel

What concerns me, is if the hatred continues to grow and then we're massively attacked again we'll see isolationism grow expotentially in this country. Taking us out of the world economy, and cutting off all our diplomatic ties with all of our allies as well. That would be an understatement of madness.
I would then be very concerned about the survivality of our nation and that of Israel. We do indeed seem to be in the same leaking boat!

A great essay. I especially liked the point made at the end - that the American Revolution is the only one that ever worked and that, in itself, must be mortifying and enraging to the Left.

However, I take issue with the idea that capitalism and socialism are competing ideologies. Capitalism is not an ideology - it's an economic system. It has never pretended, as socialism has, to have all the answers to life's questions or to fix all of the world's inequities. You can be an atheist or a religious Christian or Jew and be a good capitalist. You can be a decent person or an a**hole like Trump or Soros and be a successful capitalist.

It's the resentful feeling that the "wrong" people are getting rewarded that fuels the popularity of socialism. (I must admit that even a conservative like me longed for the guillotines to appear when I caught 10 minutes of "The Simple Life.") Of course, all of us know we'd be much better at being rich than bimbos like Paris Hilton. It's not a big leap from thinking that to believing that Hilton's bucks should be redistributed to the deserving (like me, for instance) and she should be made to milk cows and hoe the garden for real - and for the rest of her life.

Of course, the problem is: who decides who is "deserving?" In the old U.S.S.R. the Communist elite thought that the Communist elite was the most deserving - one class system replaced another.

If we all woke up tomorrow morning and found the Left in charge (scary thought), is there any doubt that they would reward themselves handsomely and consign the rest of us (and not just Paris Hilton and Martha Stewart) to the salt mines and the firing squads? Also, is there any doubt that if the Noam Chomskys and Gore Vidals ran the country, those Americans left alive after 10 or 15 years would be dining on grass too?

Sharon calls on Jews to move
From correspondents in Jerusalem
July 19, 2004

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today called on all Jews living in France to leave and move to Israel "immediately" after a rise in anti-Semitism.

"Move to Israel as early as possible - that's what I say to Jews all around the world, but there (France) I think it's a must," Mr Sharon told a meeting of an American Jewish association.

"They have to move immediately."

[Link: www.news.com.au...]

Secular leftism = religious emotion divorced from religious belief. It's what happens when one makes a god of one's irreligion. Perhaps the only thing worse is making a god of one's religion, as do the Islamists.

Excellent column indeed.

Manning Clark, whose 1958 claim that "Lenin was Christ-like, at least in his compassion"

Jesus issued orders for a particular number of people to be hanged to prove a point?

Please, show me that part of the Bible. I admit, I skimmed parts. Other parts I learned in other books. Some of it is not the official Bible.

Still, I don't think I'm on thin ice here.

#13 [Engineer]

>>> I don’t understand. What revolution?

Just two major items for your consideration. The Zionist revolution achieved:

1. Transformation of a dispersed and persecuted people into an independent, self-sufficient nation that is capable to defend itself.

2. The revival of the Hebrew language.

In many aspects, the Zionist revolution is by far more “revolutionary” than the American revolution, which, with all due respect, was just an abolition of the British rule in the colonies.

@19 Beagle

You're not standing on ice at all, but solid ground.
There is no such "animal".

1 Dave Ray

The Prebyterians are just practicing liberalism. They probably believe that unless they seat the Islam at the table with an equal voice, then they're racists. Typical liberals, they make no distinction between the desire to hurt some other group, and legitimate self-defense. In a way, they see their mission as the same as the ADL from the bottom of your link: "counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry". Certainly they think that's what they're doing.

GOOD!

You dont know how wonderful it is to watch the loony Left writhe in agony at their powerlessness. 1968 is DEAD! Finished! Gone! As The Big Lebowski would say,

"Your war is over! Condolences, the bums lost! I advise you to do what your parents did, get a job sir! The bums will never win, Lebowski! Do you hear me? The BUMS WILL NEVER WIN!"

#20 GH

1. Transformation of a dispersed and persecuted people into an independent, self-sufficient nation that is capable to defend itself.

Well, no. Without massive money from the American governmet, Israel would not have survied the first years. Now that they have got rid of most of the socialism they started with, they are doing much better, but they still depend on America to sell them weapons at cut rate prices and to stop the worse of the UN.

In many aspects, the Zionist revolution is by far more “revolutionary” than the American revolution, which, with all due respect, was just an abolition of the British rule in the colonies.

It was FAR FAR more than that.

Don't forget that even socialism by choice, which what were the kibbutzim in Israel, is dying. Many of them are already fully privatized while others are still going through the process – all voluntarily.
Having said that, we shouldn’t never forget the role they have played in 'Tekumat Israel'! With all of their shortcomings that brought about this change, the kibbutzim in Israel played a crucial role in its defense: settling on the borders and in remote regions removed from its population centers.

' The evil is pre-assumed, cosmic and all-encompassing. ... America's evil is inherent, insistent and inevitable. '
Rob Foot

. A French Loon once apprised me of the 'fact' that 'Americans' (as in American Jews) supplied equipment and parts for the death camp crematoria in WWII. When I asked him to show me evidence for such an odious claim, his reply was:
" It COULD be. You don't KNOW"

Would someone please the last three words in the excerpt to me:

"...and heal it."

Just how would the effusion of bile heal?

One might well ask what is it that drives one to WANT to be on the left; to WANT socialism as a way of life and to be so bitter when it fails.

Are leftists basically a lazy people who want the state to take care of them? To want the state to guarantee their existence from birth to death in return for sometimes very onerous conditions such as complete and abject obedience to the state's rules. Never mind that these dictates and rules and the enforcement of them ultimately, in this supposedly classless culture, creates an elite which make the rules and set the agenda to enforce them; an elite to which the rest of the socialist left must perforce kowtow and by which they must agree to be ruled.

Voluntary slavery in return for a no-risk future; a future with few surprises and no room for adventure or deviating from the dictated path.

Is it then FEAR which makes a sane person agree to mortgage their future and freedom like this; like the Japanese "Companyman for life" who agrees to having a job for life guaranteed by a company but in return is no longer a free man?

Is it fear of risk and the loss of the seeming safety of the planned future that causes so much bitterness on the left when their drive for this mirage of the future is thwarted?

It seems to me that most leftists couch the reasons for their choice in self-serving words and phrases of 'the greater good for the most people'--a phony charitableness towards one's fellow in order, not only to mortgage one's own future but the other fellow's as well.

To me the bottom line seems to be that FEAR drives the left and the loss of winning their point in order to achieve their tinsel future creates an insane bitterness. They have so little faith in their own abilities or those of others, they must step over the line of civility in order to drive their self-serving arguments home and justify the most egregious behaviour in support of their arguments.

Pretty Bizarre,

[Link: www.msnbc.msn.com...]

Bobby fischer hates america and jews, and he is half jewish...

What a nut.

Moreove...despite the demise of socialism everywhere the EU countries go in reverse to slowly adopt it.
A Swedish think-tank (paid by Swedish taxpayers) speaks to that in a new report which ranks the GDP of every individual EU country (except Luxemburg) well below any individual state in the US except: AR, MS, W. VA
You can read it (summary/full) in:
[Link: www.timbro.se...]

cirby #12

People who want lower taxes, but demand a fourfold expansion in every social program, ever.

On this one, they're generally getting what they want. Up to half the American people no long pay federal income taxes. And many received transfer payments back (welfare by any other name) in the form of "Earned Income Credits" which exceed by up to $5,000 any tax that might have been withheld.

They're still working on the fourfold increase in social programs.

# 26 Tululus:

That is a CLASSIC example of the irrational left.

Too bad the person never learned the Lincoln quote: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

#24 [Engineer]

>>>>> Well, no. Without massive money from the American governmet, Israel would not have survied the first years.

Even if there was some support from abroad, you do not refute my main claim of the immense success of the Zionist Revolution.

It seems that you are ignorant of a few basic facts:

1. ISRAEL WAS ESTABLISHED DESPITE THE FIERCE OBJECTION OF THE US STATE DEPARTMENT.

2. THE USA IMPOSED A FULL EMBARGO ON WEAPONS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ISRAEL.

3. ISRAEL’S WAR OF INDEPENDENCE WAS FOUGHT WITH WEAPONS THAT PROVIDED BY CZECHOSLOVAKIA (I.E., THE SOVIET UNION.)

4. THERE WAS NO FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM THE USA IN THE FIRST TWO DECADES.

quark2 #14

What concerns me, is if the hatred continues to grow and then we're massively attacked again we'll see isolationism grow expotentially in this country. Taking us out of the world economy, and cutting off all our diplomatic ties with all of our allies as well. That would be an understatement of madness.
I would then be very concerned about the survivality of our nation and that of Israel. We do indeed seem to be in the same leaking boat!

What we'd need to do if that happened would be to isolate ourselves from Islam, not from the entire world. We could end immigration of Muslims and stop issueing visas, restricting Muslim access to the US to diplomatic and highly scritinied business travel.

The world economy is so tied to the US that nation would refuse to trade with us. Why should they when we continue to set new records in our balance of payments deficit. And the Arabs would still sell their oil, since it's all they have to sell, the only thing that enables them to buy the western stuff they desire.

@31 Iron Fist

You'll be forgiven in advance as long as we know you're not rabid and have had your rabies shots. :)
So share what's the beef?

NYTIMES photo essay on the maimed in the Israeli arab dispute. Arab victims of Israeli defense measures equated with Israeli victims of terrorism.

# 38 Maine's Michael:

In juxtaposition to your Times link, here is an editorial in today NYPost.

American Heroes

No wonder I gave up reading the Gray Dowager.

On Friday on the DrudgeReport there was a scary, a-la Evita Perón picture of Hilary Clinton- wearing a heavy bloody red lipstick. Her red wrinkled lips (always seems like in a sucking mode – except when she faking a big laugh) reminded me of what she said 10 days ago, appearing in a fundraise in San Francisco: “we will take more of your money for the common good”. I couldn’t help it but I felt the sucking noise coming from my wallet - a very scary moment indeed

GH #20

In many aspects, the Zionist revolution is by far more “revolutionary” than the American revolution, which, with all due respect, was just an abolition of the British rule in the colonies.

"was just an abolition of British rule in the colonies."
Actually, it was just the sweeping recognition that individual rights flowed from our creator and not from any government that made it a revolution. Governments govern by consent of the governed, that was the revolution.

Why is the the Zionist "revolution" most often referred to as the Zionist movement, or simply Zionism? I seldom hear it referred to as a revolution.

I'm certainly not knocking the achievements of Zionism, which I applaud and support.

I

@39 Iron Fist

Big Texas sized (((HUG))). :)

I think anti-Americanism has much older roots. In the 18th and 19th century Europe was the center of the world and looked down on America and what it stood for - things like democracy and free enterprise. Then Europe's old political system imploded in the first World War and America emerged as the new world power. Europe has never recovered from the shock. Ever since Europe and "the left" have tried to come up with a political model for "modern mass societies" as an alternative to the succesful, but despised American model. It was a driving force behind not only socialism, but fascism, national socialism, the "one world/third way" idealism of the UN, "anti-globalism" etc.

So anti-Americanism started with the old European elite. Why did the American left pick up anti-Americanism? Many Americans seem to have an inferiority complex towards Europeans. This also goes way back to at least the 19th century. I notice in New York in advertisements "European" is still used as a badge of quality and taste. (the emergence of the term "Eurotrash" may signal this is coming to an end) When after 9-11 elitist, Europe-oriented Americans became aware of anti-Americanism in the world, they blamed it on the "ugly Americans". They are happy to denounce their fellow citizens in a vain attempt to win respect from Europeans. Same thing happened during Vietnam, when New Left hippies took their cues from European "philosophers" and student protests in Amsterdam, Paris and even Prague.

#39 Iron Fist

(((sure)))

Now teach me how to snap necks with one finger.

#39 Iron Fist

Hell, even I will give you a [Hug]

Get yourself a 10 lb sledge and go to a junkyard and take apart something.

Take care man.

...er for #27, that is "please explain:...

#34 RickZ 7/18/2004 10:40AM PST

. All the other Laws of Physics would fall into place
for the Loons, if they could only prove their Unified
Field Theory, namely that Jews = Nazis.

If they can state the theory publically without being contradicted, they feel that it's halfway to being proven.

#31 Iron Fist:

repeatedly broadcast as the work of Islamic terrorists that when people hear the connection they can't be open-minded

When it is repeatedly broadcast as???
So, in other words, it would be much better to not broadcast 'slim atrocities... or, 'slims are not really murdering people?
The agressor paints itself as a victim, again.

Oh, and
(((Iron Fist)))

-:)

the cameras captured her shaking fists, her contorted face and angry tears attesting more eloquently than words to a lifetime lost to misery and terror as, furiously, she shouted - in English! - “They should have tried it on animals first!”
***
That would make an AWESOME teeshirt! ;-)

#4 Stefania

"Black Bloc -- [wait for it, ed] For Dummies"

Self-defining revolutionary idiots.

"Perfecting the art of chaos and stupidity throughout human history."

"The guy who said 'what sabre-toothed cat?' somehow survived and had us."

Or, put simply, fire when you see the reds of their eyes.

48 Tumulus

All the other Laws of Physics would fall into place
for the Loons, if they could only prove their Unified
Field Theory, namely that Jews = Nazis.

If you really want to see a LLL turn red and start spitting, tell him that the Nazis were socialists. They just can't deal with that and you will hear some of the most amazing things as they try to prove that Hilter was not a socialist.

#40 RickZ

No wonder I gave up reading the Gray Dowager.

I'd no more read the NY Times to learn what's going on in the world then I'd have Twinkies for lunch. Unfortunately, the Times tells you something more important. It tells you what everybody is supposed to think is going on.

#42 a.k.a Will

>>>> …it [the American Revolution] was just the sweeping recognition that individual rights flowed from our creator…

The Founding Fathers of the USA surely believed that the Creator intended to grant rights only to WHITE MALES.

Many of the Founding Fathers of the USA were slave master before and after the revolution.

#4 Stefania

Funny, the ugly content seems to be vanishing.

Black blocs have been in the news often in recent years as militant protests grow against capitalism, the state, and war. This series of web pages attempts to explain what black blocs are, who does them, their history, and how to do organize one. There are also many misconceptions out there about black blocs, which we will try to address.

A black bloc is a collection of anarchists and anarchist affinity groups that organize together for a particular protest action.The flavor of the blackbloc changes from action to action, but the main goals are to provide solidarity in the face of a repressive police state and to convey an anarchist critique of whatever is being protested that day.

Black Block FAQ
What is a black bloc? Is the black bloc an organization? Why black blocs? Are black blocs just for anarchists? How did black blocs originate? Does the black bloc promote violence? Why do black blocs attack the police? What is "unarresting?" Why does everybody wear black? Do you have to wear black?

How do we organize a black bloc?
Coming soon.

Black Bloc Calls and Texts
N30 Black Bloc Communique (Seattle 1999)

Do you have more pictures?

Yes, click here.

What are some common anarchist criticisms of the black bloc?

For starters, check out Jim Bray's (Working)Start of Critique of Black Bloc Technique.

I'm a journalist who would like to talk to anarchists. Who can I contact?

Please send an e-mail to chuck@tao.ca

Further reading?

"The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life" by George Katsiaficas (Humanities International Press).

A few notes about the RACB
Anarchist Black Bloc Press Release
Anarchist! Get Organized!
Jim Bray replies to Chuck0
Further listening?

A16 - Interview with Black Bloc member Flint Jones
A16 - Interview with anarchist organizer Chuck0
Black blocs have been in the news often in recent years as militant protests grow against capitalism, the state, and war. This series of web pages attempts to explain what black blocs are, who does them, their history, and how to do organize one. There are also many misconceptions out there about black blocs, which we will try to address.

AKA: "moron, scumbag, loser"

OT But sooo funny:

www.rockpapersaddam.com

One must wonder where Israel would have been had the United States not almost continuously demanded less defense and less retaliation?

OT:

from AP "Gunmen Burn Palestinian Offices in Gaza"
[Link: story.news.yahoo.com...]

I guess when you start training kids to be violent right out of the cradle, that's all they learn well.

re #28

Leftism may be summed up as follows:

"If we attach more significance to feeling than thinking, we shall soon attach more significance to wanting than to deserving."

Richard Weaver

#55 GH:
Jefferson tried to stop the slave trade in his first draft of the Declaration, but Congress eliminated the clause.

TJ tried

#55 GH

Welcome to the Thunderdome.

The Founding Fathers of the USA surely believed that the Creator intended to grant rights only to WHITE MALES.

There was a debate. The smart, enlightened people lost. We've been paying for it ever since. Civil Rights Act(s), 13-15th Amendments, everything but reparations. Those won't help. All the plaintiffs are too distant. Sorry.

By the way, American history is available in book form or on the Internet free.

Foreign Devil wrote:

One might well ask what is it that drives one to WANT to be on the left; to WANT socialism as a way of life and to be so bitter when it fails.

Well, I think that Foot provides at least a partial answer to that question in his article:

When the Soviet Union fell, followed by its satellites, a dream fell with it. ,...,And, in fairness, it was a good dream and a golden light. It was a dream that somehow, somewhere, human beings could surely create a society where sharing was as important as having, where wealth was apportioned according to needs, not wants, where the economic machine could be configured against the imperatives of fairness and equity, not greed and acquisition, and where everyone could have some hold or claim upon the processes of political power, without fear of exclusion or discrimination. Any decent person could subscribe to such a dream, and millions did.

When I was a leftie, I was not motivated by anti-American hatred or love of gulags - I was a naive kid who bought into the whole "sharing, fairness, equity" thing.

Like I said in my earlier post, capitalism is not an ideology. A "good" capitalist might excel at selling computers, cosmetics, or kiddie prOn. Capitalism is not an all-encompassing doctrine, so it is up to other mechanisms in society - the law, the religious and ethical beliefs a society shares - to punish the kiddie pr0n seller. I didn't realize that in my younger years. Socialism not only takes over the economics of a Communist country,but the religious and ethical base as well. So "evil" becomes whatever is bad for the Party.

I also think that what motivates lefty elites like Chomsky, Vidal, Moore, etc. is the idea that they would be top dogs in that system - the ones imposing their will on us for our own good. It never seems to occur to lefty intellectuals that it is more likely that they would end their careers in a gulag, not as part of the Politboro.

Sorry for the disjointedness of this post - it rambles all over the place, but I don't have time to polish it up.

Iron Fist, here's a hug from me, sweetie! :-)

Iron Fist:

Hugs from me, but no Kumbyya.

OT Iron Fist,

What are the best weapons for home protection?

Cirby # 15
When I used to teach B school students I found that the fresh out of school and into college cohort were very anti-capitalism while the back to school to upgrade their qualifications lot had a more realistic attitude. I used to convert the anti-capitalist crowd by pointing out that most of them were themselves capitalists because they were selling their surplus time on the job market with their part time jobs and managed to convince them that almost all business transactions are win-win situations and not the fearsome stereotype of the oppressors socking it to the oppressed . If the former nonsense they'd had drummed into them by their Michael Mooreish teachers were true the whole world would have come to a grinding halt long, long ago.

65

IMHO

remington 870 shotgun with 20" bbl and #00 shot. A dog that barks is also a must..

Wow. Powerful writing.

#38 Maine's Michael

I caught just the opening image of the NY Times photo spread of people maimed in the Pal conflict. Yes, they draw a moral equivalence between victim and terrorist. But I think what they're really doing here is just showing the ugliest pictures they can find from Israel. The Times has two hobbies they enjoy concerning Israel. One is turn up the spotlight to the brightest notch. When Americans are constantly bombarded with every detail of the Pal/Israel conflict from a leftish perspective their opinion of Israel will eventually split 50-50. Since American are currently very favorably disposed towards Israel, reducing their opinion to a 50-50 split would be a huge victory for the left. The other pasttime the Times enjoys is ruining the Israeli tourist industry by only showing images of pain and burning cars.

Beagle: Another tidbit that gets forgotten about America's slaveholding past is that the initial decision to import African slaves to the colonies was made in London, not in Virginia or Boston.

(However, the British did abolish the slave trade - at least the slave trade to the New World in the 19th century, which makes it unique among history's great empires. Slavery still exists, but today's slaveholders are not white men - another little fact the LLL's tend to ignore.)

There was one of those whiny hero worshipping of nutcases LLL articles in my student newspaper a few months ago. It featured a young "Arab-American" woman who had been drummed out of a environmentalist group after she went to protest at a trade meeting, protested in the name of the group without the board's permission, was arrested for vandalism, assaulting a police officer, and arson, among other charges, and because she refused to stop carrying Israel=Nazi signs under their logo at their rallies. She complained how the group, made up largely of "fat middle class white American men and their fat white spoiled wives" had found her attitude distressing and tried to suppress her right to free speech by telling her to change her behavior or be removed from the group's membership list. They were, according to her, "racists nazis" for voting her out of their group and were not really interested in contributing to the true global protest movement.

"white"="racist". ???
"majority rule"=Nazis ???

Naturally the loon reporting on her made her out to be an oppressed heroine of the proletariat cause.

Donna V.

Socialism not only takes over the economics of a Communist country,but the religious and ethical base as well. So "evil" becomes whatever is bad for the Party.

I'd never thought of it like that before - that truly makes sense.

Anger is spreading over Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat's security force overhaul. On Sunday, gunmen burned down the offices of Arafat's Palestinian Authority in Gaza.

Unfortunately for the PPP he was not inside.

Careful - contains a picture of the fish

oh and (((Iron Fist)))

#71 Judith

"white"="racist". ???

"majority rule"=Nazis ???

Welcome to multiculturalism. You have seen the future, and you (or I) ain't in it. Except as the bad guys. Remembver one thing: You will never wash away your racist guilt.

I have reached the pinnacle of Hat Tips... 5 in 3 years!

"He's a maniac, maaaniac..."

GH #55

The Founding Fathers of the USA surely believed that the Creator intended to grant rights only to WHITE MALES.

So what? Throughout history, individual rights had not exactly been granted to all mankind by the assorted monarchs, chiefs, emperors, etc. First of all, the mere concept of individual rights had to be recognized, period. It was revolutionary that such rights were recognized for anyone in colonial America. They're still not recognized for more than half the world's population of today.

Your LLL tactic of trashing America and the founding fathers bacause of slavery is pretty lame. But once individual rights were recognized for part of a citizenry, it inevitably follows that the rest of a citizenry will seek such rights, as has happened. It could never have happened if those rights had never been recognized for ther even white males, the groups that mostly gave the world the concept in the first place.

Ideas must come before widespread implementation.

Medium OT -- My somewhat la cubettish, but perfect in every way, wife just returned from Libya with many interesting stories. Arabs are as hospitable as Americans (except perhaps southerners) are not. There is an Institute to study Khaddaffi's little green book and his picture on every corner. They are pumping huge amounts of water out of the desert aquifers and copying (without accrediting) Israeli-developed irrigation techniques.

One really horrifying story -- My wife and her companions were addressed by the Libyan head of their equivalent to the Center for Disease Control. Four Bulgarian nurses were just sentenced to death for deliberately giving AIDS to Libyan children at the Benghazi (Libya's 2nd largest city) Hospital. The Libyan doctor told them that they had found petri dishes of AIDS virus in the nurses' rooms. Further, the concentration of virus in the children's blood could only be generated by injection. For motivation, they mentioned that one of the nurses had a boyfriend in the Mossad. (This was where I lost it.) Apparently one of the nurses confessed. The sentence is currently on appeal.

Surfing the web, I found that all international AIDs experts are appalled. AIDS was being generated at Benghazi hospital by unsanitary needle use two years before the Bulgarian nurses arrived. The Mossad boyfriend schtick has actually been retracted by the Libyan government--but its a classic blood libel. The nurses were kept in solitary confinement for two years and regularly beaten. Its a wonder only one confessed.

But the most horrifying thing of all -- the head of their CDC repeats these lies. What sort of coercion, mental, physical, or financial is required to make such a highly educated and capable person talk such trash?

However, I take issue with the idea that capitalism and socialism are competing ideologies. Capitalism is not an ideology - it's an economic system. It has never pretended, as socialism has, to have all the answers to life's questions or to fix all of the world's inequities.

--Donna V., 15

The Prebyterians are just practicing liberalism. They probably believe that unless they seat the Islam at the table with an equal voice, then they're racists. Typical liberals, they make no distinction between the desire to hurt some other group, and legitimate self-defense.

--Luigi, 22
You guys are describing people who value abstract thought over real life.

GH

Oh Jaysus on a Pony. Can you be anymore PC, aroma-theraphy, crystal-licking, can't-use-Native-American-names-for-sports-teams, if-Iraq-didn't-turn-into-a-Methodist-covered-dish- event-immediately-it-is-a-failure, panties-on-head-proves-US-military-is-nothing-but- war-criminal, slimfast-is-fascist-for-dropping-Whoopee, we-blame-Ashcroft, LLL???

I have very little patience anymore on this subject for people who don't seem to have even the most rudimentary grasp of American history!!

[insert Dean scream here]

#63 Donna V.

capitalism is not an ideology. A "good" capitalist might excel at selling computers, cosmetics, or kiddie prOn. Capitalism is not an all-encompassing doctrine, so it is up to other mechanisms in society - the law, the religious and ethical beliefs a society shares - to punish the kiddie pr0n seller.

Capitalist is simply the natural state of man. If there are no laws at all on business, capitalism is what results. With a few laws to control the worse parts, it brings the most wealth to the greatest number of people. The problem the left has with it is that they don't control who gets that wealth, the market does.

#72 Smit -

From your link:

"I totally reject your resignation and consider it nonexistent," Arafat said to Qureia

Hmmm...will the ICHR try Arafat for Slavery?

Iron Fist -

Get the CD Opium Jukebox's "Bhangra Bloody Bhangra - A Tribute to Black Sabbath" - that will chill you out like nothing else. :)

BTW Iron Fist

Huge West Coast {{{hugs}}}

Plus...what's your favorite comfort food? I know my way around both a kitchen and a BBQ.

71 Judith

had been drummed out of a environmentalist group after she went to protest at a trade meeting, protested in the name of the group without the board's permission, was arrested for vandalism, assaulting a police officer, and arson, among other charges, and because she refused to stop carrying Israel=Nazi signs under their logo at their rallies. She complained how the group, made up largely of "fat middle class white American men and their fat white spoiled wives" had found her attitude distressing

This is exactly why I got out of the environmental movement. It was all being infiltrated and taken over by people like this. And that was over 10 years ago.

76 levi from queens:

But the most horrifying thing of all -- the head of their CDC repeats these lies. What sort of coercion, mental, physical, or financial is required to make such a highly educated and capable person talk such trash?

I'm assuming you mean the head of the Libyan CDC. In that case, it's not at all difficult to understand what sort of coercion could make a person tell lies. Do you think the man wants to end up in a Libyan prison, subject to the same sort of "questioning" the nurses had to endure?

Just because the Libyan leader has abandoned his WMD program (after seeing what became of his comrade Saddam) and dresses like a bargain-basement Liberace, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he was and is a brutal dictator.

#83 Rosh -

They're called "watermelons" -

Green on the outside

Red on the inside

It's weird that those advocating a highly centralised, government controlled society can't understand that a socialised regulated society is in complete opposition to what the LLL are supposed to stand for - individual freedom.

There has never been a socialist country that has worked. Has there?

===

OT - with all these developments in Gaza and the sucess of the security fence for some reason I'm feeling a lot more positive about Israel's future - I hope peace is in the air!

Conversly I'm feeling tremendously unsettled about the 'macro' WoT. We in Britain just held a huge terror response dry run today, with members of the Army & other services simulating a gas attack on a tourist attraction - It seems very much a case of when, not if.

Magnetic(((IRON FIST)))hugs

Iron Fist -

Absolute best weapon is a silenced 9mm submachine gun with a laser sight

Also with a flame suppresor and a net to catch the spent cartridges.

# 75 a.k.a. Will:

was revolutionary that such rights were recognized for anyone in colonial America.

What also made those rights revolutionary were that they were spelled out, in writing, for all to read and understand. The American Revolution may have begun by the efforts of the merchant class, and there was just a little self-interest with their motives, but it quickly spread to the basic issues of what type of government man should lived under, or allowed to be ruled by. That revolutionary thought process is still powerful, still alive, and still affecting mankind in ways the Founding Fathers (LLL = Old White Guys) could have truly never imagined. That the resultant ideas and ideals contained in the American Revolutiion have brought down more false -isms afflicting humanity in its 200 + years is a testimony to the Founding Fathers' historical greatness. To maintain the democratic ideals contained in the Republic hasn't always easy, or pretty, but the alternatives have proven their moral bankruptcy, with all the accompanying misery that they have sown, time and time again.

#87 Smit -

Same dilemma as with Gun Control - these idiots who totally despise the Police and the Military, want to give them a monopoly on firearms.

I wish the author had expanded on the subject of why Socialism didn't work - he doesn't mention as a rather large factor the implacable opposition and resistance of the richest country on the planet, which certainly distorted socialist economies and made it virtually impossible for them to succeed. Not that I'm in favor of what passed for "socialism" or the totalitarian regimes it spawned; overall, I think the world is well rid of them.

And then there is also the fact that the US is not a purely capitalist country, either, in the style of late-18th and 19th-century England. We have a well-developed safety net with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, laws against child labor, compulsory public education, occupational safety laws, environmental protections, and all sorts of other programs and legislation, which are all antithetical to pure, "laissez-faire" capitalism. These exceptions to what would otherwise be a pitiless Darwinian economic and social system (along with the existence of a middle class) act as a safety valve for the class warfare which would otherwise inevitably ensue.

Second, although the author links anti-Amerikanism with antisemitism, he really doesn't develop the idea, treating it as self-evident. But it isn't clear to me, despite all I've read on the subject, why the forces of antisemitism, including the Islamofascists, have made common cause with the anti-Amerika and anti-globalization yahoos.

In my opinion, the US's support for Israel is not, in and of itself, enough of a reason, especially since Israel isn't sitting on huge oil reserves (more's the pity), and the old Soviet labeling of Jews as "rootless cosmopolitans" no longer applies, since the Jews now do have a national homeland in Israel. The Jewish Diaspora is now entirely voluntary, with those who choose not to leave it tending to be very assimilated into the majority cultures and not in any immediate danger of physical annihilation or existence under the disabilities of second-class citizenship.

Perhaps it's the canard that Jews "control" the US government, foreign policy, economy and media, and thus control the world. It really amazes me that anyone could think that a population which comprises some 2 percent of the population of the US (if that - I haven't done the math of what percentage 5 million is of 300 million) could be thought to control the country.

Smit

Classical liberals are for the rights of the individual. The left never has been. Unfortunately, contemporary "liberals" are almost indistinguishable from the left. If you meet a self-confessed liberal these days to says s/he is not a leftist, ask them to name one contemporary "liberal" tenet that is also not a left one.

John F. Kennedy was a liberal, but he was no leftist. This is why people like Dennis Prager and David Horowitz say they didn't leave "liberalism", it left them.

Amazing, any talk in the US about attacks within the US and trying to portray them is met in the press with sarcasm and conspiracy mongering [cue nasal voice full of contempt]"Well, isn't this just an attempt by the Bush Administration to deflect from the dismal failure of Iraq? Abu Gharib? Lying about WMD?"

87 Smit:

It's weird that those advocating a highly centralised, government controlled society can't understand that a socialised regulated society is in complete opposition to what the LLL are supposed to stand for - individual freedom.

The one that has puzzled me for a long time is the idea that socialism is somehow inherently sexier than capitalism. Yeah, those Mao style unisex baggy pajamas and hats were really sexy, weren't they? Not to mention the Moscow rubber boots, babushka, and lumpy winter coat look. And I'm sure they were having wild orgies every night in pre-89 Warsaw and East Berlin.

Although I've read that Havana is filled with street-walkers turning tricks for vacationing Fidel fans from Europe and Canada. Prostitution seems to be the one business that thrives under Communism. Gee, sounds an awful lot like "capitalist exploitation" to me. So much for "free love."

#86 Frank IBC
It wasn't just socialism, it was feminism and a whole bunch of other isms.
You'd have a meeting about environmental issues and you'd get nothing done because you spent hours getting derailed over these abstract isms, and then the feminist female enviros would end up doing the dishes while the feminist male enviros would sit around bragging and drinking beer.
What a lot of bullshit.
Alll abstraction and when it came down to real life, same-old same-old.

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," i.e. individualism. The left will always hate America because the basic principles of each can not abide in the same society.

RickZ #90

That's all true. It really grates on me when people apply their 20/20 LLL hindsight to the founding fathers. They can't, or don't want to, grasp the fact that the concept of individual rights had to be formed, then put in writing as the consitution, before they existed for anyone.

In the broad historical context, so what if they didn't immidiately apply to everyone. Before that, they'd never applied to anyone in history to the extent recognized in the constitution and Bill of Rights.

#73 Luigi 7/18/2004 11:45AM PST

'Each person had to stand in front of the group, put his
picture on an easel, and explain how his childhood experience made him racist, while the others in the group, led by one of Riley's facilitators, interrogated the subject about his experience. If the subject could not identify a childhood racist experience, the group continued to probe until one was uncovered. Some of the female participants broke down weeping when they were placed in this position.'

. The Loons are turning us, one by one, into Pod People.
You could be next !
:)

Hi Frank IBC - yeah, I don't understand why the left doesn't fall apart - so many inconsistancies!

Amy #92 - Great post. - Why do you think that US opposition caused socialism to fail? Purely the economic unsustainability of the arms race?

Donna V. -

The one that has puzzled me for a long time is the idea that socialism is somehow inherently sexier than capitalism.

What, all those funky Che Guevarra posters don't do anything for you? :P

To Smit -- the only socialist societies which really worked were those of the Shakers -- which lasted for 7 generations of prosperity here in America (New Hampshire, Maine, MA, KY and IN)-- But they had to give up sex -- something which lots of us are not willing to do.

Like the Sufis, they danced their religion. They shared all. They worked hard and made incredibly beautiful stuff, without having any doctrinal respect for beauty.

They died out.

#97 a.k.a. Will

They can't, or don't want to, grasp the fact that the concept of individual rights had to be formed, then put in writing as the consitution, before they existed for anyone.

In school they had the concept handed to them whole, with no explanation of how it grew from seed to tree. Therefore they think the real world ought to live up to the abstract concepts they have learned and if it doesn't, it's the world that is broken, not their thinking.

# 97 a.k. Will:

History viewed through an anachronistic lens is one of the greatest faults underlying revisionist, irrational liberal, thinking.

the Shakers...had to give up sex

If I did that, I'd be Shaking, too.

#92 Amy

If I may add to your reading list, On Hating the Jews | The inextricable link between anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism

For centuries, a clear sign of the anti-Semitic impulse at work has been the use of the double standard: social behavior that in others passes without comment or with the mildest questioning becomes, when exhibited by Jews, a pretext for wholesale group denunciation. Such double standards are applied just as recklessly today to the Jewish state. It is democratic Israel, not any of the dozens of tyrannies represented in the United Nations General Assembly, that that body singles out for condemnation in over two dozen resolutions each year; it is against Israel--not Cuba, North Korea, China, or Iran--that the U.N. Human Rights Commission, chaired recently by a lily-pure Libya, directs nearly a third of its official ire; it is Israel whose alleged misbehavior provoked the only joint session ever held by the signatories to the Geneva Convention; it is Israel, alone among nations, that has lately been targeted by Western campaigns of divestment; it is Israel's Magen David Adom, alone among ambulance services in the world, that is denied membership in the International Red Cross; it is Israeli scholars, alone among academics in the world, who are denied grants and prevented from publishing articles in prestigious journals. The list goes on and on.

[ ... ]

Americans, too, have had numerous opportunities to see their nation in the dock of world opinion over recent years for the crime of rejecting the values of the so-called international community, and never more so than during the widespread hysteria that greeted President Bush's announced plan to dismantle the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein. In dozens of countries, protesters streamed into the streets to voice their fury at this refusal of the United States to conform to what "everybody" knew to be required of it. To judge from the placards on display at these rallies, President Bush, the leader of the free world, was a worse enemy of mankind than the butcher of Baghdad.

Despite the differences between them, however, anti-Americanism in the Islamic world and anti-Americanism in Europe are in fact linked, and both bear an uncanny resemblance to anti-Semitism. It is, after all, with some reason that the United States is loathed and feared by the despots and fundamentalists of the Islamic world as well as by many Europeans. Like Israel, but in a much more powerful way, America embodies a different--a nonconforming--idea of the good, and refuses to abandon its moral clarity about the objective worth of that idea or of the free habits and institutions to which it has given birth. To the contrary, in undertaking their war against the evil of terrorism, the American people have demonstrated their determination not only to fight to preserve the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity, but to carry them to regions of the world that have proved most resistant to their benign influence.

#78 Darleen

Oh Jaysus on a Pony. Can you be anymore PC, aroma-theraphy, crystal-licking, can't-use-Native-American-names-for-spor ts-teams, if-Iraq-didn't-turn-into-a-Methodist-cov ered-dish-event-immediately-it-is-a-fail ure, panties-on-head-proves-US-military-is-no thing-but-war-criminal, slimfast-is-fascist-for-dropping-Whoopee , we-blame-Ashcroft, LLL???

That's a good rant.

Amy: David Brooks tied anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism together in a great article he wrote for the Weekly Standard a few years ago. His basic argument - both are based on a hatred of success. No country has ever succeeded the way America has. And no people have ever succeeded the way the Jews have - despite all the sh*t that's rained down on their heads for the past 2000 years. Being a successful minority is a grave sin in the leftist book. As Elie Wiesel once pointed on, there are those who only like Jews when they're hanging on a cross.

(I would google the Brooks article for you and provide a link, but I am so hungry I'm ready to gnaw on my sandals, and the fridge is empty. I have to be a good capitalist and go load up a grocery cart soon. Hmmm, I think I'll buy me a filet mignon,...,)

bigel (#82)

In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry was clearly offended by Sharon's appeal.

"We have immediately made contact with Israeli authorities to ask them for explanations about these unacceptable statements," ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said.

LOL, are these people for real?

#89 & Iron Fist

Are you talking about this toy?

Why socialism doesn't work? Do a goggle search for:

"I Pencil" end of story.

#82 bigel

"Speaking of the OLD anti-semitism"

I agree that the old anti-Semitism in France and elsewhere in Europe, as Klarsfeld has suggested (at least in relation to France), is a problem that will only become worse, primarily because of ever-increasing Muslim numbers and the spineless response of the wider population and their governments to the anti-Semitism that they the Muslims, or at least very many of them, have promoted. However, I think a more immediate cause for concern is the new anti-Semitism, the primary target of which is the collective Jew represented by Israel; for, via a process of deligitimisation of Israel and financial and political sponsorship of the Palestinians, the Europeans are actively engaged in an attempt to destroy the Jewish State. That Europe is also in some ways supportive of Israel should be treated with the same contempt we Jews afford the old-style anti-Semite who attempts to disguise his Jew-hatred by invariably prefacing his remarks with the weasel expression, "some of my very dearest friends are Jews."

84

FYI

9mm and buckshot actually have more penetrating capability than a round fired from a M4 or mini14 in an enclosed space. 5.56 usually fragments and flips when it hits a solid object (wall, person) and looses its ability to cause fatal injury, because it has lost its mass and kinetic energy. Some federal agencies are going to the M4 and dropping their MP5's for this reason. Except where they need noise suppression. 9mm, especially ball rounds, keep their mass after penetrating solid objects and can still kill background targets.

However any pump shotgun is the best you can get for home defense. Avoid the semi autos like the plague. More lead over a larger area is the goal. I was serious about the dog, they will give you the upper hand by taking away the crooks element of surprise.

Well, I don't do hugs, but I've got your back if you need it, Iron Fist.

Interesting points Donna V & Darleen - So it turns out I'm a Classical Liberal... I thought that a socially liberal, fiscally conservative (apart from my credit cards) hawkish person like me was a {cue scary music} ... 'neo-con'.

Donna V:

The one that has puzzled me for a long time is the idea that socialism is somehow inherently sexier than capitalism.

I don't know about sexier, but it's like totally cooler than capitalism. Capitalism is your Dad & his friends smoking cigars, socialism is your trendy lecturer who gives you intellectual justification to rebel.

"U.S. airstrike authorized by Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi hit purported trenches and fighting positions in Fallujah used by al-Qaida linked foreign fighters, killing 14 people early Sunday, Iraqi officials said."

Are we Iraq's puppets? Man bites dog!

OT

"semi-intentional murder"

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's hardline judiciary abruptly ended the trial on Sunday of an intelligence agent accused of killing a Canadian journalist, prompting angry lawyers to complain key evidence had been ignored or covered up.

...time is ticking...

OT: I don't know if anyone else saw this yet.
Protest Warrior makes national news
If only the Boston chapter of PW was larger. I'm getting sick of having to remove green ANSWER stickers (what is it with these droogs and putting stickers/posters/graffitti all over private property) from in front of my building. Some of those bastards even had the stupidity to muck up the displays on the just renovated Opera House (well not the real Opera House dead circa 1958, but close enough). Defacing public treasures for the good of the public...riiight

"'We have to be accountable to Iranian citizens about this case not to a foreign country,' said Hamid Reza Asefi. "

...cool, so when your citizens decide your time is up, we will be right to lend them a hand...

Thanks!

:D

Not much time to post today- kid is shipped off to grandparents', and husband and I are going out- but:

{{{IRON FIST}}} from your Tennessee neighbor. Be well, friend.

As I remember it, the cameras captured her shaking fists, her contorted face and angry tears attesting more eloquently than words to a lifetime lost to misery and terror as, furiously, she shouted - in English! - “They should have tried it on animals first!”

Animals would never have put up with it. Animals aren't that stupid.

Here is the internal seed of self-destruction for Socialism: "From each according to means; to each according to need."

Why Socialism always fails economically (not to mention every other way) is easily derived from this saying. In a Socialist nation, the most highly rewarded talent is the ability to demonstrate need. As it turns out, this talent never produces anything of interest; those most highly endowed with this talent tend to become government flunkies. Thus does wealth flow to the most non-productive portions of society; exactly the opposite direction that wealth (capital) flows in capitalism.

Thinking that this is a good thing is an idea so stupid that only an intellectual could believe it. A modern American example is our public schools. The current fad is to test students so that both successful and failing schools can be identified. Then reduce funding to successful schools (they already seem to have the means) and boost funding to failing ones (they obviously need more). If you want to hear local Socialists whine, try suggesting that failing schools ought to be closed (creative destruction).

Thank you, American Infidel, Darleen and Smit.

American Infidel #100 -
I'm going to order Rosenfeld's book; it looks like exactly what I'm looking for. :)

Darleen #107 -
I had read Sharansky's piece before, and although it is excellent, it doesn't explain why this explosion of anti-American feeling has happened now rather than at some other period. The US has held itself out as the secular version of the Jewish "light unto the nations" for a long, long time, and the rest of the world agreed and tried to emulate us. And the US used to engage in much more blatant interference with regimes it didn't like in Latin America and elsewhere. So why now? And what does it have to do with Israel, which Europe used to support? Maybe part of it is that both Israel and the US are now perceived as aggressors, where the US used to be seen as the rescuer of oppressed countries and Israel was seen as the underdog fighting for its life against the larger and richer Arab nations.

Smit #101 -
In answer to your question, our ability to outspend the USSR in the arms race, thereby forcing it to spend on guns and not butter (while we were able to do both) is only part of the answer, although it's a big part. We (rightly) agressively blocked the Soviets' attempts to "export socialism" to other parts of the world and increase its sphere of influence, particularly to Latin America on our own doorstep. We were successful in containing the USSR and in shutting socialist regimes out of world trade, thereby forcing the USSR to spend billions on propping up unviable regimes like Cuba. The collapse of Nasser's pan-Arab socialist idea was also a great blow to the USSR, essentially ending its ability to influence events in that oil-rich region of the world. The inability of the Soviet economy to be self-sufficient, along with the built-in inefficiencies of a socialist "planned" economy and forced spending on armaments, eventually exhausted the USSR.

OT: Man Hits Woman With Gator

Welcome to my world. ;-)

rosh #104

In school they had the concept handed to them whole, with no explanation of how it grew from seed to tree. Therefore they think the real world ought to live up to the abstract concepts they have learned and if it doesn't, it's the world that is broken, not their thinking.

Yep, I've actually heard a few LLL kids (and adults) come out with the inanity that they have a right to live however they want because, "freedom is a birthright." They don't do too well explaining what makes them so damned special since a minority of people alive today have that "birthright," and even fewer had it of all those who've lived on this earth.

America loathed 'cause of it's success and power, and it's perceived trampling on the environment and the rights of billions of third world people whose cultural value is a priori equal (or superior) to that of the 'rapacious' west, of which the US is the epitome.

Jews loathed 'cause of their success and a grossly exagerated/distorted sense of their power to control / influence key aspects of american life and policy. Perceived, therefore, as the most powerful group in the most powerful (evil) country, they become the archetypal evildoers, to which all sorts of agendas can be attributed. They therefore become the epitome of the evil human, and justifiably targeted.

America's seemingly impractical (in a geopolitical sense) friendship for Israel is viewed as a manifestation of that jewish influence.

Israel, as the nation/concept to which the jews are inordinately attached, is hated by association, and the fact that it is clearly so much superior to the sea of third world humanity that surrounds it, even though the surrounding peoples are supposed to be 'equal' in cultural value.

It's heady mix that that lends itself to villification by both failed people and failed states:

One part cognitive dissonance, two parts old fashioned judenhass, and 3 parts islamic jew hatred, and you have the left's current worldview.

#124 Dean Douthat

Where is funding for successful schools being cut while funding for failing schools is being increased? Under NCLB the "failing" districts are the ones who are facing cuts in funding. In virtually every state failing districts spend much less per student than successful districts. Obviously there is more to increasing student achievement than spending money. However, backed up seweage systems, lack of books, lack of desks, etc, is making it harder for students to achieve their full potential in failing districts. If failing schools were to be closed where would the students go? Other local schools don't have the capacity to absord hundreds or possibly thousands of additional students.

What forced the Soviets to expend money on arms? We're kicking the hell out of Canada in the arms race, but they don't seem forced to gut everything to try and keep up with us.

The Soviets wanted and needed their military to conquer other nations and to keep them (and the locals) under their yoke. And the Soviets also did quite a bit of exporting too, as their infantry weapons, tanks, helicopters, planes and missles didn't just fall off of trucks to land in nations all across the world.

Reagan's anti-Soviet moves hastened the collapse of the SU but it would have collapsed anyway of its own internal contradictions if left alone. The problem was that the American and European Left wouldn't leave it alone but rather would have kept trying to bail it out. Please note that the New York Times retains to this day Walter Durante's Pulitzer Prize. Thus Reagan saw the need to accelerate the collapse before it could be reversed by a subsequent administration's policies.

This increase in anti-Americanism since the end of World War III (Cold War) is well spelled out in the subject item. The rise in anti-semitism is, IMHO, explained by the same reason that it rose in Germany in the 1930's. Since the "wrong" side won in WWIII and the "right" side lost, this is not a normal outcome; there must have been treachery afoot. Well, who are the most treacherous folks around? Indeed, Jews -- so there it is.

Barco:

Sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear enough in my comment. I meant the remark to apply to approaches that local school districts use where a zero-sum aspect applies, not the attempt by NCLB to reverse that. Observe the fanatical opposition to NCLB by the education establishment.

# 131 Dean Douthat:

but [the USSR] would have collapsed anyway of its own internal contradictions if left alone.

That's a major false premise. Communism was based on the spread of its ideology (they didn't have the "Internationale" as it's anthem for nothing). It would never leave others alone. The only way for it to survive was outward expansion, gobbling up raw materials and expertise as they went.

One of the big factors that leads to LLL recruitment is that they decided that it is forbidden to teach children basic economics. Thus the class-warfare and other myths persist. Such as "wealth cannot be created," thus anyone who is successful must have stolen it from someone else.

#129 barco: "Lack of books?" Do you really want to go there? If so, pick the school in the district you want and tally up all local, county, state and federal money that goes into it. Then give me the number of pupils it has to provide for. I'll be glad to show you how easily books can be provided, as well as teachers' salaries. You are going to have the unenvious task of explaining where all the money per student actually goes, and showing that it is more important than things like books, desks and teachers.

This ploy is so old it farts dust: Take what would be dearest to the taxpayers, and threaten (oops, excuse me, warn) that if a penny of spending is cut, it's going to come out of that necessity first. Meanwhile, kickbacks to the NEA (read Dem party) and other unjustifiable perks will be spared the budgetary axe. D.C. schools for example are among the most highly-funded in the nation, and among the poorest performing. You want to scare the hell out of any public school educator/administrator? Sweetly ask them to open up their books while you go through and itemize where the money goes. With the media in attendance.

Don't have much time to post, but outside chance at Florida Hurricane! party next weekend, maybe LA/MS/AL Hurricane! party mid-week. This from e-mail sent to my friends working offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, helping reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

European Community model shows well developed tropical wave axis entering extreme SE GOMEX next Saturday night. If anything, viewing [Link: www.ssd.noaa.gov...] I almost think the ECMWF might be underforecasting, as this wave has really improved today about 800 miles east of the islands. I wanted to give you all an early warning, as I am flying up to Tulsa tomorrow morning to visit the data room for our big potential Arkansas deal, and may not email again before Thursday! BTW, if it is dark in the western Atlantic, this IR2 channel shows low cloud patterns/movement best at night ( [Link: www.ssd.noaa.gov...] ) and the IR channel 4 shows cloud tops and hence thunderstorm intensity ( [Link: www.ssd.noaa.gov...] ). BTW, the Navy NOGAPS model has a tropical depression forming on the north end of the wave between Cuba and Miami Saturday evening, getting ready to enter the Gulf.
Now, the air north of the wave is relatively dry, having moved off the Sahara along with the wave, but thunderstorms are increasing, and the a weak high pressure developing at 250 mb over the wave is providing shear values around 5 m/s, which is fairly favorable for tropical cyclone development.


[Link: cimss.ssec.wisc.edu...]

Animals would never have put up with it. Animals aren't that stupid.

And certain insect groups (bees, ants) already have collectivism mastered to a degree that other species could never hope to match.

At least voluntarily.

GH:

American revolution, which, with all due respect, was just an abolition of the British rule in the colonies

I gotta jump in with those who disagree with you. (I'm a religious Jew. I'm as pro-Zionism as anyone on this site.)

The American Revolution was the singular creation of a nation built not around an ethnicity (i.e. we're Kurds so we should have our own state) or around a specific piece of land, but around an idea. That idea is that tyranny is a violation of the rights that Our Creator has given us, and that rebellion to tyrants is necessary to serve Him. It was the first country to give Jews equal rights. It, like almost all other societies at the time, allowed slavery, but it (unlike many societies) abolished it. There were lots of former British colonies that shook off colonial rule. There is only one America.

#125 Amy:

it doesn't explain why this explosion of anti-American feeling has happened now

In addition to what #128 Maine's Michael said...
The Bush Administration is hated, and obstructed by France and Germany, because an uncomfortable leap was made: By going into Iraq, a new precedent was set, IMHO. The world, seen through the eyes of the UN, felt that all of the "cultures" of the world have a right to exist, and be respected as legitimate.
The world had no problem with Afganistan, but poor Saddam!
The existence of Israel has been a fly in the ointment of Arab appeasement, but now America is intruding by an invasion of Iraq? How arrogant!
The world has a decision to make now.
Either expect the Arab/Islamic world to participate as a civilized member of the world community, or destroy it.
Confrontation is so, well, American.

Somebody may want to fact check me, but IIRC, the District of Columbia leads the nation in per capita spending on its students, and is dead last in academic achievement, while Utah is ~43rd in the nation in per capita spending, and is #1 in the nation.

Throwing money at school districts where the NEA looks out for the teachers and not the students isn't the answer.

#51 ANN

>>>> Jefferson tried to stop the slave trade in his first draft of the Declaration, but Congress eliminated the clause.

#62 Beagle

>>>> There was a debate. The smart, enlightened people lost.

>>>> By the way, American history is available in book form or on the Internet free.

#78 Darleen

>>>> I have very little patience anymore on this subject for people who don't seem to have even the most rudimentary grasp of American history!!

Please enlighten me:

1. Which book of American History describes how the evil Congress FORCED the Honorable Thomas Jefferson to keep his slaves in Monticello rather than set them free?

2. Which book of American History tells the tale of how the evil Congress FORCED Thomas Jefferson to take Sally Hemings?

3. Which book of American History refutes the fact that Thomas Jefferson was just a hypocrite who wrote beautiful documents but had no intention to implement any of his noble ideals in his personal life?

#75 a.k.a. Will

>>>> Your LLL tactic of trashing America and the founding fathers because of slavery is pretty lame.

#105 RickZ

>>>>> History viewed through an anachronistic lens is one of the greatest faults underlying revisionist, irrational liberal, thinking.

We are not discussing just history of the 18th century. The OFFICIAL segregation and discrimination of black Americans continued well into the 20th century. In WWII you had separate military units for black soldiers. In the 1950s you still had segregation in schools, busses and public facilities.

Reminding you some facts, however shameful, is not “LLL tactics”; it is not “revisionist, irrational liberal, thinking”.

I am VERY FAR from being a LLL, a “revisionist” or a “liberal”. I am not “trashing” America. I just think that FACTS are IMPORTANT.

For another example of stating historical facts, please see my entry #35.

Iron Fist:: (((Me Too! Hugs)))

Iron Fist: friendly pat on the back and sincere wishes for a happy resolution to your current woes.

#107 Darleen

It is, after all, with some reason that the United States is loathed and feared by the despots and fundamentalists of the Islamic world as well as by many Europeans. Like Israel, but in a much more powerful way, America embodies a different--a nonconforming--idea of the good, and refuses to abandon its moral clarity about the objective worth of that idea or of the free habits and institutions to which it has given birth.

Yes, that is a good answer to Amy.

Also, anti-American hate is like anti-Semitic hate is that they are not based on anything that the parties have done, just the fact that they exist.

Gordon's last name begin with an "H"?

This education sub-debate here just reminded me again how GWB, trying to recreate the Texas model,( where the Democratic Lt Governor (rare breed among D's now, put the public welfare above the party's welfare) helped Bush implement policies that helped Texas) worked with Teddy "Chappaquidick" Kennedy to implement a massive increase in Federal education spending. GWB gets no credit from the dhimmis/socialists, and Fat Teddy has insane rants about Iraq being cooked up in Texas for political reasons.

Ditto keeping on Clinton officials like Clarke, Wilson, Mineta, Tenet, etc.

All either incompetent or out-right saboteurs, cheerfully damaging national security to weaken Bush.

I think its a coin flip now in November, but if Bush wins I hope he purges any remaining dhimmis from anywhere critical in the govt (let them keep HUD or whatever), but Defense, State and Justice must be purged for the good of the nation.

GN #144

I am VERY FAR from being a LLL, a “revisionist” or a “liberal”. I am not “trashing” America. I just think that FACTS are IMPORTANT.

The FACTS are that freedom has been very much the exception for all who lived on this earth. And freedom has been won gradually and extended to others gradually over many centuries. Forming and putting into law the concept that men have individual rights was revolutionary, and the fact that it wasn't immedeately extended to every living soul is irrelevant.

Compare Amercan freedoms in the late 18th century to what existed in the rest of the world. What was the state of freedom in Africa where American slaves came from? What is it today?

For someone who's not an LLL, you sure do subscribe to one of their main tactics, that is to denigrate Amerca's history and present however one can while ignoring what existed, and exists, in the rest of the world.

#144 GH:

We are not discussing just history of the 18th century

continued well into the 20th century

In the 1950s

America has evolved, unlike some "cultures". I sense that you are upset about America today. What is so wrong, now?

# 144 GH:

We are not discussing just history of the 18th century. The OFFICIAL segregation and discrimination of black Americans continued well into the 20th century. In WWII you had separate military units for black soldiers. In the 1950s you still had segregation in schools, busses and public facilities.

I also said it's never easy, or pretty. A lot of blood was shed to get the 14th Amendment into law; there were also backsteps like Plessy v. Ferguson. Yet our noble experiment is ongoing, not a static thing; as society evolves, so the elastic built into the Constitution stretches. I do agree that things have not been as fast as you appear to wish. But the fact that the experiment is still moving forward, with all the burps and hiccups that have occurred, shows the true nobility of the American Revolution, just how great were the minds to create such a system of self-government unparalleled in human history. And why its impact is still felt today.

#133 Dean Douthat

The educational establishment takes issue with NCLB for valid reasons:

There are provisions in NCLB that are unreasonable.

Most special educational students are required to meet the same standards as other students. You can work all your life with some students with learning disabilities and/or physical/mental disabilities and they will never achieve the same standards as other students. Teachers and school districts should not be deemed failing when special education students do the best they can with the abilities that they have.

Many successful districts are now "failing" districts because NCLB calls for increases in student performance every year. Schools with 98%-100% passage rates on state tests are now deemed "failing" schools because they did not meet the improvement rates called for under NCLB.

All special education teachers are now "unqualified" because their degrees are in special education and not specific subjects. Never mind that for years the states said that special education teachers had to have degrees in special education. So under NCLB a special education teacher would need to get degrees in math, science, history, english, and foreign languages in order to stay with his/her special education students during the day when they attend classes taught by teachers with core subject degrees.

NCLB is trying to acheive a worthwhile goal. It just needs to be amended to make it actually work in the real world.

GH-- its just that your facts are selectively chosen to make America look bad.

Pennsylvania in 1750 was the first jurisdiction on Earth in History to ever abolish slavery. To the extent that you say that Americans held slaves before 1750-- that is the exact same thing as saying that they were alive prior to 1750-- and phrasing it as you do is both pointless and pejorative.

There is no good evidence that TJ had sexual relations with Sally Hemmings-- but it was played that way to make WJC look normal. But maybe TJ did, its unprovable at this poiont. We know that both TJ and George Washington freed their slaves in their will-- in hopes of creating a wave of manumissions. This hope was not unreasonable, but did not prove out.

The belief of the founding fathers was that by allowing the banning of the slave trade in the Constitution by 1808 that they had ensured the end of slavery. And this was also a reasonable belief. America, post-1808, is the only time and place in all of history that slaves reproduced themselves. ( I leave it to your choice as to whether that makes America better or worse than all of the other nations on Earth prior to that time.)

OT: But certainly related. Did anyone post anything about this? Protestant Church votes to divest from Israel, harshest moves since anti-apartheid actions.

Not very encouraging :(

bigel, I know, I hear you ;-)

#120 Blue Falcon

Protest Warrior makes national news
If only the Boston chapter of PW was larger.

Don't know why, but the Dallas chapter of PW has doubled in size (from 40 odd to over 100) in the past month with about 25 of those in the last two days!
At the weekly Support Halliburton Operation this past Friday, we out numbered the LLL (25 to 20) for the first time. And more people is just not more bodies to carry signs, but more money to do more things.

By the way, I had a thought while out playing with the LLL Friday. There is an old saying "Possession is 9/10's of the law." Well, this is OUR country, not theirs, the left can bite me.

#115 Radian Yep, I agree and concur and all that.
Mossberg tactical shotgun and assorted info I ain't advocatin' the Mossberg; it just has some good general information on the website.

And a big agreement on the dog. Had a call at 1:15 a.m. to please come out and speak to a PD representative. They were standing apprehensively in the driveway, shining their flashlights in all directions as they looked doubtfully at the gate keepin' the doberman and rottweiler away from them who, if they were loose, would have gone and begged for dog biscuits. "Um, is this all your dogs, ma'am?" "Nah, I got a couple more. You don't have to worry about them two, the one in the kennel is the one that would bite your ass..." They were too scared to try the gate to knock on the door, though. Scared the um, well, right outta me since I figured somebody got killed in a car crash. (Nah, they weren't there to pick me up or tell me somebody was dead; just wanted to know since my light was still on if I had seen anything suspicious over at the neighbor house.) Neighbors ain't got no dogs and have a son datin' a girl in a rival town. Bad combination.

Concerning anti-Americanism. Maybe it's always existed to a greater extent than might have been apparent. Because the US formed alliances with European nations during WWI and WWII, and indeed helped save several nations from tyranny, there wasn't a great deal of time for Europeans to contemplate their feelings toward American in those times.

Then, the Cold War created alliances with even more European nations, alliances that lasted for almost fifty years. Now that those world war and Cold War alliances are no longer necessary, Europeans are freer to contemplate their feelings about their offspring, the world's lone superpower, that now dwarfs any one of them in importance in today's world.
I expect anti-Americanism has been lying dormant for decades, and the relative wealth and strength is the main source of it. There are other factors, but now the Euros are free to indulge what has probably been there for some time.

Re the slavery comments

Black and white folks been he'in and she'in since before this was America. What makes y'all think that all black folks were slaves? And what makes y'all think that black folks weren't slaveowners?

"In 1814, Zephaniah Kingsley moved to Fort George Island and what is known today as the Kingsley Plantation. He brought a wife and three children (a fourth would be born at Fort George). His wife, Anna Madgigine Jai, was from Senegal, West Africa, and was purchased by Kingsley as a slave. She actively participated in plantation management, acquiring her own land and slaves when freed by Kingsley in 1811. With an enslaved work force of about 60, the Fort George plantation produced Sea Island cotton, citrus, sugar cane and corn. Kingsley continued to acquire property in north Florida and eventually possessed more than 32,000 acres, including four major plantation complexes and more than 200 slaves. "

Anyway, he eventually sent his wife/children/some former slaves to Haiti to establish a colony there. I think some of his kids came back, though, haven't visited Kingsley Plantation/read the history for awhile.

There are no doubt many old lefties like Gore Vidal or Noam Chomsky who are letting their dismay at the triumph of capitalism morph into irrational anti-Americanism. And of course the animating force behind the anti-war and anti-globalization protests of the last couple of years has been the International Solidarity Movement, the leaders of whom are mostly unreconstructed Trotskyists.

But this doesn't fully explain the anti-Americanism in the world today. After all, anti-Americanism is rife among the young around the world, people who were probably too young to remember what it was like to have two competing ideologies in the world and whose own political consciousness was shaped after the fall of the Soviet Union.

To fully explain anti-Americanism, you need to layer in another factor: the failure of international institutions to keep the peace and effectively rein in the darker impulses of humans. If you talk to many people who hold anti-American views, the subject of "running roughshod over the UN comes up again and again. The idea that countries should first look to the UN to solve disputes and should obey UN demands is a core belief among the international left. The fact that the US and Israel routinely either ignore the UN or defy it drives people whose idealism is rooted in the promise of international institutions crazy.

The fact that the UN is an abject failure when it comes to either preventing or resolving conflict curiously seems to have the effect of making its defenders defend it ever more assiduously. Furthermore, every moral perversion at the UN, such as having a Chinese judge lecture Israel on treatment of minorites, doesn't seem to matter to these people. They have their own hopes and dreams invested in seeing it succeed and, like an earlier generation in its views of the Soviet Union, are blind to its failures. The US is seen as too powerful, too willing to put its own interests first and a reminder that nation states haven't disappeared as the key actors in world affairs.

a.k.a. Will

>>>> Compare American freedoms in the late 18th century to what existed in the rest of the world.
>>>> What is it today?

To the best of my knowledge:

* There was no slavery in Europe in the 18th century.
* No civilized country had separate military units for soldiers based on racial discrimination, as you had in WWII.
* There was no racial segregation in schools, busses and public facilities in any civilized country in the 1960s.

>>>> For someone who's not an LLL, you sure do subscribe to one of their main tactics, that is to denigrate America’s history and present however one can while ignoring what existed, and exists, in the rest of the world.

Do you keep insulting me because you have no inteligent response to any of the facts stated in my previous entries? This is surely a classical LLL method…

#153 Ann

>>>> America has evolved, unlike some "cultures".

Wonderful! I truly ADMIRE this evolution.

>>> I sense that you are upset about America today. What is so wrong, now?

Well, since you asked. There are too many LLLs, “Liberals” and people that attend and support events such as the “National Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement” (see latest entry on LGF.)

I will really be upset if Americans elect one of those “Liberals” in November. If this happens, I think that most LGF readers will share my disappointment.

Re Anti-Americanism -- there was a girl in my high school who was both incredibly smart ande absolutely goergeous. Both the nerds and the jocks rained contempt upon her. (and she was always both humble and sweet.)

#160 Engineer

Don't know why, but the Dallas chapter of PW has doubled in size (from 40 odd to over 100) in the past month with about 25 of those in the last two days!

Um, if I had to hazard a guess, people are gettin' pissed off at the L3 dumbasses.

If you talk to many people who hold anti-American views, the subject of "running roughshod over the UN comes up again and again. The idea that countries should first look to the UN to solve disputes and should obey UN demands is a core belief among the international left. The fact that the US and Israel routinely either ignore the UN or defy it drives people whose idealism is rooted in the promise of international institutions crazy.

Yep. The rest of the Western world lurves the U.N. Their support for the Iraqi war lived and died by not whether they thought it was moral or not but only by "UN mandate".

This is EXACTLY it.

RickZ:

I think we're saying the same thing. I mean "left alone" literally, that is, continuing the containment strategy initiated by Truman, Kennan and Marshall. These aimed precisely to thwart the exapansionism that you mention. This expansion by force was necessary to cover the inherent contradictions of Socialism; an ironic twist to Lenin's idea of imperialism as delaying immiseration. I believe Reagan saw this Truman strategy as ultimately working but that it required such a long-term commitment that it risked failure in future administrations that might seek short-term political gains or simply might become fatigued.

Thanks again, everyone, for the links and opinions.

BPP #165 -
Excellent post. I agree with you. The US is seen as an international "cowboy" which acts unilaterally in its own interests instead of having "evolved" to the higher state of multinational multilateralism (which translates to lots and lots of speechifying and circle jerks and little or no action), to which the UN and Europe have committed themselves. Everything from the abolition of national borders to citizens of the EU to the adoption of the Euro show this trend. And we're bucking it and have the power to tell the rest of them to shove it where the sun don't shine.

And we veto all of the idiotic anti-Israel resolutions in the Security Council, thereby frustrating the rest of the ass-kissing despot appeasers. Unfortunately, our vetoes also give the EUnuchs cover and "deniability" by letting us do their dirty work for them while they can appear as champions of the allegedly downtrodden to the Arabs and their fellow travelers. Bleccchh.

GH-- bullshit on there was no slaveryt in Europe in the 18th century. Your beloved frenchmen took in almost 10 times the3 number of slaves who came to America to their Haiti. The Russians had their serfs. There were African bondsmen serving as servants all over Europe.

166 GH

* There was no slavery in Europe in the 18th century.

Wrong. Besides Russian serfdom, which persisted into the late 19th century, other countries had slavery into the early 19th century.

GH

* No civilized country had separate military units for soldiers based on racial discrimination, as you had in WWII.

Does Brazil count as civilized?

166 GH

* There was no racial segregation in schools, busses and public facilities in any civilized country in the 1960s

Do you have an list of countries you're using as "civilized" - because South Africa and various Portuguese overseas provinces come to mind.

Thomas Sowell on slavery.

...When slavery is mentioned, too many people automatically think of whites enslaving blacks. That is not even one-tenth of the story of slavery, which existed on every inhabited continent. The very word "slave" derives from the word for some white people who were enslaved on a mass scale -- the Slavs -- for more centuries than blacks were enslaved in the Western Hemisphere.

Moreover, slavery existed in the Western Hemisphere before the first black or white person ever set foot on these shores. The indigenous peoples of this hemisphere enslaved one another, just as Asians enslaved Asians, Europeans enslaved Europeans, and Africans enslaved Africans. Attempts to limit the discussion of slavery to slavery in the United States or in Western civilization make sense only as a strategy to get money or political concessions.
...

The United Nations of Reparations Hypocrisy

GH #166

* There was no slavery in Europe in the 18th century. * No civilized country had separate military units for soldiers based on racial discrimination, as you had in WWII. * There was no racial segregation in schools, busses and public facilities in any civilized country in the 1960s.

But one hell of a lot of slavery on Caribbean sugar plantations, and they were just getting started good in their worldwide colonial enterprises.

What 18th century European nation had enough minorities to even think about segregation in schools, public facilities or the military?

#165 BPP: That sounds really good on the surface, but it seems to be putting the cart before the horse. The UN is used as a vehicle to attack the US and Israel when those nations (and only those nations) don't agree to roll over and die. Other than that, when does flouting the UN cause anyone any bother?

Otherwise, explain why there was no outrage among the left at repeated Iraqi violations of UN resolutions. Were your theory accurate, the left would have been livid with the Hussein regime years ago, not springing to defend it. Explain why Iran and N. Korea's cheating on promises of non-proliferation were repeatedly broken, to be met with shrugs and snores by the left. Explain why America is hated for not instituting the measures in the Kyoto protocols, yet European nations are given a free pass for not doing it either, after they promised they would. Explain why America is scolded for not giving enough to fight AIDS, though it gives more than all other countries on Earth combined.

The list of examples goes on and on and on. Pre-existing anti-Americanism is the motive, the UN just a tool to put it into motion.

In early colonial times slavery was used as a method of dealing with the Native American problem. I believe more Indians were enslaved than Africans at first.

Get one tribe to enslave another and sell the slaves to the land owners. Then get yet another tribe to do the same to them.

Are we going to offer reparations to every group that has ever gotten a raw deal?

How about the Israelis? Didn't they get screwed by the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Macedonians and Romans? And then there was that lovely era called the Dark Ages, where European aristocracy played their deadly bait and switch routine on the Jews.

I think giving Israel back their land was a good start. Now if they just had all of it back, it would be peachy. So when are the Joryptians going to fuck off back to where they came from?

35 GH

1. ISRAEL WAS ESTABLISHED DESPITE THE FIERCE OBJECTION OF THE US STATE DEPARTMENT.

So what? President Truman recognized it, and his was the opinion that counted.

4. THERE WAS NO FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM THE USA IN THE FIRST TWO DECADES.

Wrong.

A BIG KAMEL HUG TO IRON FIST!

{{{ :>) }}}

162

Like comparing ford and chevy. Both will get the job done, well.

143

a 3030 is a more than capable weapon. Great deer gun as well..

35 GH

2. THE USA IMPOSED A FULL EMBARGO ON WEAPONS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ISRAEL.

An embargo not just against Israel, but against the whole region. And we seem to have done all right by you since then, militarily.

My #178

What 18th century European nation had enough minorities to even think about segregation in schools, public facilities or the military?

GH, you were referring to 1960s Europe. But the same response applies. Mass immigration to Europe began about that time.

And your #166, I'm not trying to insult you. You're just providing an ongoing litany of LLL bash America bits that dwell on the negatives. Why is that what you choose to present to the group here?

Reminders and hints:

1) Your points are EVER SO MUCH MORE CONVINCING when you use ALL CAPS. If it's really important, BOLD CAPS are best.

2) If your point is very, very important, you should plan on taking the full 8,000-word limit. Try NOT to use paragraph marks (the "Enter" key) to separate thoughts, because it's much easier to read a long, long section of text, especially if you use hint #1.

3) If you are in any way opposed by someone who points out that your facts are opinions, the best thing to do is to both lose your temper and change the subject. Smart people like this, and they respect your opinions more.

4) Always assume the worst about someone who corrects you. Imagine them typing with a sneer, drinking adult beverages, and wearing only underwear: only such an environment could explain their inability to see your brilliant command of the facts. When you compose your retort, slash them as harshly as possible. No one who breaches the line of common sense deserves the least amount of understanding. The Internet is all about bright, clear truth with no shades of gray, and whatever you think at first sight is what is exactly true.

5) Charles likes it best if you can both compose long answers and steal long passages from other sites: no one here knows how to click links, so it's useless to summarize and then give a link. Besides, copying 5,000 words from a copyrighted article is just good sense.

6) You must immediately respond to any troll. Even though you know it is useless, everyone admires the Man of La Mancha-like tilting at windmills.

I love how a smug little Euro-weenie like GH looks down on the USA because of slavery. The vast majority of the slaves were brought here before 1776, ie, they were brought by the English.

Who brought slavery to what would be Cuba and Puerto Rico. Spaniards, ie, Europeans.

Who brought slavery to Brazil?

The Portuguese, ie, Europeans.

Who brought slavery to Haiti?

The French, ie, Europeans.

Lets not forget all the glorious "-isms", like Nazism, Communism, Facism brought to us courtesy of the Europeans.

I have a theory. Most of the smart Europeans left for the Americas or Australia.

The non quite so bright ones stayed behind to breed. When an unlikely smart European is born, they get out as quickly as they can.

Always assume the worst about someone who corrects you. Imagine them typing with a sneer, drinking adult beverages, and wearing only underwear

/clicks webcam to "off"

(great post!)

Model4, LOL!!

steve miller, awesome :-)

Actually, I recall that a few years ago, DNA tests were conducted on one of Sally Henning's descendents and the remains of members of the Jefferson family. The DNA evidence pointed to one of Jefferson's male relatives, but not to Jefferson himself. Of course, to say he didn't father Sally Henning's children is not proof that he never slept with her, but I have never seen good evidence that he did.

Swampwoman: regarding black slaveowners - they were extremely few in number and mostly concentrated in Louisiana. Louisiana, probably because of it's French background, became the part of the South which came closest to developing a three caste group of whites, mixed race Creoles, and blacks, as was common in the Carribean.

The black slaveholders made white slaveholders very, very nervous and well they should have, since slavery in America was built on the assumption of black inferiority. Blacks owning blacks kinda cut the legs out of that particular line of reasoning. Another thing: many black slaveowners (not all, there were a few blackholders who were SOBs) bought their spouses, children, friends, etc, and set them free - another reason they were viewed with great suspicion by the whites. If black slaveholders had been less rare, laws certainly would have been passed prohibiting black ownership of slaves. As it was, it became more and more difficult as the 19th century progressed for owners to free slaves.

American Infidel #174 -

The Bat Yeor articles you linked to were excellent. I never knew about the "European-Arab Dialogue" - did you? Her perspective actually makes it all make sense, although it's depressing as hell.

Oriana Fallaci has been saying much the same thing about Europe's capitulation, though in much less polite terms.

And, meanwhile, the Pope sits in his ivory Vatican tower and doesn't say a word about the fact that Europe has sold its birthright for a mess of pottage, so to speak. In fact, the Church seems to be part of the same appeasement strategy.

Bat Yeor says that Europe is waking up to its folly and peril, but I'm not so sure. I think that Europe (mainly Frawnce) still intends to take positions diametrically opposed to that of the US in order to situate itself as a counterbalance to American "hegemony." I think that the EUros still think that they can control the situation by deflecting Muslim terrorism to the US and Israel.

This is a sometimes inadequate and sometimes brilliant article about a complex topic, so it merits a lot more commentary than this. One thing that watchers of Leftist anti-Semitism have long noticed, however, is the irony embodied in an incorrect assertion of Foot's:

Yet nowhere did socialism fail to fail. Nowhere was it tried - and I mean real socialism, not welfare statism - where tyranny, misery, poverty, fear and oppression failed to follow.

Putting aside whether Social Democracy is actually socialism, and acknowledging that all other socialist experiments have indeed failed, one must note that in not every case did socialism bring about tyranny, misery, fear and oppression. In the case of the kibbutz movement of Israel, socialism died (or is dying), but entirely outside of the context of Stalinist or Hitlerian or Khmer Rouge insanity to which Foot alludes.

This is more than an academic point. Why? Because where Foot is brilliantly on target is in illustrating the complimentarity of Jew-hatred and anti-Americanism in modern Leftism. Socialist anti-Americanism is a relatively new phenomenon, but revolutionary or utopian anti-Semitism spans centuries. If one studies the history of revolutionary anti-Semitism, one sees that invariably it conflates things like modernity, progress, paper money, the city, and increasing isolation from God with Jews and Judaism. Indeed, in a sick inverse of Catholicism, it can be said that revolutionary anti-Semites revile a triune demon: modernity, capitalism, Jews/Judaism.

So, to Foot's point that Leftists loathe America and its compliment, an empowered and international Jewry, our correction produces a vital irony: The one historical flirtation with socialism that produced a measure of success in a pacific environment was conducted by Jews as an integral component of their nationalist experiment.

Now imagine some of the Indymedia kids chewing on that, if any of them were vaguely capable figuring any of this out. I don't think the irony escapes people like Chomsky, though.

John-Paul Pagano #192 -

Great post.

The Jews got it in the neck from both sides. They were hated by Socialists for the reasons you cite. And they were hated by the anti-Communists like the Church and the Nazis, who labeled them Communists and "internationalists" who threatened the then xenophobic nationalism of the European states.

BTW, "GH" is suspiciously akin to "Gordon Howard."

Just sayin'.

179 Model4

I agree partly with what you are saying. There is no doubt that for some people, the US can do no right and that the US's actions vis-a-vis the UN are just an excuse. This is where the parallel with the Jews and anti-Semitism is probably strongest. The hatred precedes any rational excuse.

Otherwise, explain why there was no outrage among the left at repeated Iraqi violations of UN resolutions. Were your theory accurate, the left would have been livid with the Hussein regime years ago, not springing to defend it. Explain why Iran and N. Korea's cheating on promises of non-proliferation were repeatedly broken, to be met with shrugs and snores by the left. Explain why America is hated for not instituting the measures in the Kyoto protocols, yet European nations are given a free pass for not doing it either, after they promised they would. Explain why America is scolded for not giving enough to fight AIDS, though it gives more than all other countries on Earth combined.

I disagree that there was no concern on the left about Iraqi violations. Plus it's a canard of the right that the left was "springing to defend the Hussein regime." That's nonsense. What they are springing to defend is the role of the UN as the primary locus of decision making for Iraq. The sanctions through the 90's, as well as the weapons inspections all had broad support on the left. Don't confuse the fact that the French and the Russians, who had economic interests tied to the Hussein regime, were trying to weaken the sanctions with the concerns of the international left.

I would argue that we're seeing history repeat itself with Iran and North Korea. It's not that these countries' nuclear ambitions are of no concern to the left. It's just that they think that the UN is the proper forum to address it. Like I said, the toothlessness of the UN inspection regime, as well as the obvious deceitfulness of both Iran and N. Korea seems to be not that important. It's more important to prevent the US from acting unilaterally.

As for the environmental issue, sure the Europeans and the third worlders are utter hypocrites about it, but it was the US who unilaterally told the rest of the world to go piss off. This more than anything else set in motion the fury of the left, which takes it as a given that environmental concerns should be front and center in every right-thinking person's consciousness. I actually think the way the Bushies handled that issue was utterly disgraceful, but that's another topic. The point it that, again, the idea of "running roughshod" was what infuriated the left.

#195 BPP: Actually, during the first Gulf War under UN sanction, the left still sought to defend him (though it was more toward the fringe edges of the left). Even with the "broad daylight" invasion and rape of Kuwait, Congressional approval to expel him wasn't unanimous, even though the vast majority of the world supported the goal. Who were those that voted "against?" Our Democrats. The answer the left posed to Iraqi violations of UN resolutions and cease-fire terms after the war? "Lift the sanctions!"

As for the environmental issue, sure the Europeans and the third worlders are utter hypocrites about it, but it was the US who unilaterally told the rest of the world to go piss off

Actually, that's not my recollection at all. Every country had to decide if they'd support it or not, and every country made that decision unilaterally. You could just as well say that France told the world to "piss off" by unilaterally deciding whether to ratify the Kyoto Protocols or not.

It's not that these countries' nuclear ambitions are of no concern to the left. It's just that they think that the UN is the proper forum to address it.

Nope, sorry. Those problems have been addressed in the UN. Following your attempt to explain their logic, they'd be at least as furious at Iran and N. Korea for working on their nuclear weaponry programs without the approval of the UN. And we both know that should action be deemed warranted, UN blessing or no, it will primarily be the leftists shouting "No!"

However, I should have said earlier that there's merit that the "US bucks the UN" argument is used to rope in some people to anti-Americanism, even though I believe the deeper story shows that to be false. And I do understand that you're largely trying to explain their thinking, not saying that you subscribe to it in all cases. While I stand by the belief that the vast majority of those in the West who try to run interference to protect dictators are leftists/liberals, that's not to say that the majority of leftists/liberals act and feel this way. It is something that has and will continue to hurt folks of that particular persuasion until they exile the dictator-coddlers from their midst.

OT This hatred of the US is part of a group of 3 themes of the European Marxist-Islamist alliance, according to Amir Taheri

[Link: www.frontpagemag.com...]

In his article Taheri wrote that the European Marxist-Islamist alliance has an ideology built around 3 themes:
(1) hatred of the United States,
(2) the dream of wiping Israel off the map, and
(3) the hoped-for collapse of the global economic system.

The hatred of the United States has assumed all of the ferocity of anti-semitism. And the dream of wiping the Jewish state off the map is not unrelated to anti-semitism.

For their own individual reasons seeking the success of a Marxist revolution and an Islamist revolution, neither the Marxists nor the Islamists like the global economic system.

BPP:

I agree that Bush handled Kyoto badly; he committed the unpardonable diplomatic sin of telling the truth. He should have followed Clinton's example with ICC, sign and then get the Senate to vote it down. Unfortunately, the Constitution prohibits using the Euopean approach -- sign, ratify and ignore.

An LLL I know (just got back from Montreal: "so nice to be in a CIVILIZED place for a CHANGE," she gushed afterwards)--has a serious case of Toxic Leftism.

She's a (white) teacher. In the hallway one day, she heard an 8th-grader mouthing off to the black teacher who was frog's-marching him to the principal's office, calling the man a n___r. Rightly furious, she stopped the kid to dress him down.

But what did she say? That's right--"You know what you sound like??? you sound like a stinking racist little white kid!!!" And ranted on about it.

She recounted this exchange with venom and pride. Not for a second did it enter her alleged mind that she was being as racist as the kid was, and with far less excuse, being the teacher.

Sigh.

Wasn't Hungary that opened its borders to Austria?

Sorry, I'm arriving late here.
But I was there during the summer of 89.
Actually it wasn't the Czech/Austrian border that was opened, since Czechoslovakia had one of the most hadrline governments of the Soviet block. The first
communist country to open its borders with the West was Hungary, in the first half of 89.
Now, there's in Hungary a big lake called Balaton which used to be to East Germans the what Ibiza was to the West Germans. Around August 89, after having spent the summer around Balaton, instead of going back to East Germany, the East Germans who were in Hungary decided to cross the border and go to Austria in order to get to West Germany. The East German government tried to force the Hungarians to send their citizens back, but Gorbatchev gave Hungary the green light and that's when the revolution of 89 began. The Czech hardline government was overthrown only by the end of the year, slightly before the bloody Romanian revolution which overthrew Ceausescu.

Really enjoyed Rob Foot's. Just used it in another post to our site:

FREEDOM - Thx to The Greatest Generation for Preserving It (Must Read)

[Link: www.hspig.org...]

To my HSPIG and other friends,

OK, I've refrained from spamming mailboxes lately. I've been adding a number of different arts to the HSPIG forums site. I will try to post another digest shortly.

THE FOLLOWING IS A MUST READ. I believe all Americans should read or hear this information. Please share this with all those who will listen. This applies to the blog site trolls, we need their support too.

I received an email from a relative re Judge Young's sentencing remarks to the "Shoe Bomber."

I've posted the reply to a BBC story on him, followed by the CNN transpscript of the Judge's remarks.

Not surprisingly his eloquent remarks did not receive much coverage by the media. May be it's just too trite and un-PC anymore to speak freely of FREEDOM whether under God or not. But if you dig deeply enough you will find this is the very reason why so many in the world nowadays hate Americans and especially the Islamofascists. Go figure!

Well to our enemy, here's to ya, you murdering SOBs!

May the underware of those innocents you have murdered and their blood mutliple one-hundred fold and rain down on your miserable, enlightened, silly little asses and wash you from the face of this earth.

WE DECLARE IT - So beit from the home of the free and home of the brave.

The American people and the US Military the finest fighting force in the world

FREEDOM! FREEDOM! FREEDOM! FREEDOM!

In my reply I "bloviate" that the world is facing a clear and present danger by a spreading cancer, Islamofascism.

Ron Wright, Moderator
rwright@hspig.org
[Link: www.hspig.org...]

The link got kind of squirrely in the last post:

[Link: www.hspig.org...]

Model4,

The average UN supporter isn't that nuanced. It is more about feelings. We should be part of the world community and not try to be the big dog because that would make other people feel bad. Consensus is good and we should all sing kumbayah holding hands together. Iraq may flaut the UN but only the UN itself should decide what to do about it.

Nothing to add that hasn't already been said brilliantly by others. Just to say what a privelege and pleasure it is to be the beneficiary of so much intelligent, rational and witty discourse.

Just finished the Potok novel, Davita's Harp, in which the protagonist's mother, a devoted '30's Communist, literally has a complete breakdown over the betrayal of the Soviet/Nazi non-agression pact and gives up Communism to return to the orthodox Judaism of her youth.

Charles, the work you do here is invaluable. Many thanks.

Anti-Americanism is anti-Semitism. America, you see, is a culture dominated by a Jewish sect, the sect of the Nazarenes. Pope Pius XI brought this out in his encyclical against the Nazis, "Spritually," he wrote, "we are all Semites." The Nazis themselves understood this, and their writings, such as Rosenberg's Mythus of the Twentieth Century, attack Christianity, particularly Catholicism, more than Judaism. Their quarrel was with the Jewish G-d-concept, which they felt was an alien infuence, grafted upon Europe by the Roman Church, and which held back the Aryan race from its destiny.