Seriously, for serious we shall some day become about this matter, what are we to do about these children of a younger god? For, looked at from any adult perspective, children is what these acolytes of Islam are, and children is what they will remain -- growing ever stronger and more dangerous in the absence of any effective discipline -- until such time as they are instructed, in no uncertain terms, to sit down, shut up, go to their rooms and sleep off the spiritual intoxication which has become a danger to others and, most of all, themselves.
And yet, no such intervention seems readily at hand from the "leaders" of Western Civilization. With numbing regularity, we are reminded daily that Islam is the youngest of the world's monotheisms and hence, I suppose, we all need to cut it a bit of slack. We are reminded of this much as clever lawyers for adolescent school serial killers remind the juries of their clients' tender years in hopes they will ignore the bodies, the collections of weapons, and the hand-crafted web sites promising death daily to all those who will not respect their deadly dementias.
Our elected "leaders" -- interested as always in preserving the status quo ante that elected them and a smooth ride through the always approaching next elections -- are tireless in their tepid promotion of Islam as merely a moderate grouping of one billion misunderstood kids. In this our leaders' dinner party guests, vacation partners, celebrity intellectuals, pundits and entertainers join them in the maudlin plaint "What's wrong with peace, love and understanding?" It is the kind of bromide that those Krazy Kolumbine Kidz would have dismissed as "lame" and go on shooting. But consequences matter little to the private jet elite. Once you've an assured seat on a G5 you cease to inhabit a country and exist only in your own private fantasy island. The consequences of your political philosophies seldom visit this island. You can just emit gaseous slogans and fly, fly away.
Wouldn't it be refreshing for those of us left at the commercial aviation security gates to hear, just once, a bit of straight talk about Islam, the MTV religion that is devoted to getting its latest Gangsta video played in heavy rotation on the news around the world?
Just once wouldn't it be immensely gratifying to get hit with just a jot of a smidgen of the truth about this lethal spiritual confection? Just one time wouldn't you listen with rapt attention to one political pundit stepping up to the microphone and keeping it real about Islam; bringing it out from behind the smoke machine of it's current greatest hit, "A Peaceful, Loving Religion," by Cool Allah and the Gang? "Peaceful" and "Loving" might be the refrain but what we see in the videos is quite a different story. An honest politician might narrate it thus:
"Hey, kick back, relax and chill. These Muslims are just the teenagers of faith. It's a phase. We all went through it. What's a few bombings, stonings, riots, wars, clitorectomies, mass murders, honor killings, kidnappings, subway slaughters, car burnings, skyscraper demolitions, the odd beheading here and there and the fooling about with nerve gas and weapons grade plutonium? They're kids. They'll grow out of it. Love is all they need."
Of course, this is like advising the proud parents of a teenager who is spraying a mall with automatic weapons fire to send him to the parking lot for a time out. He might listen to them and sullenly agree, but only to reload between keying all the cars and cell-phoning his friends to come on down and join the party.
As it is, sadly, with some teenagers so it is with some adolescent religious behavior. Not all experimental behaviors of youth allow the practitioners to survive until adulthood kicks in. Some experiments are so extreme -- running automobiles over mountain roads at 110 mph, consuming a quart of grain alcohol, taunting wild animals while inside their cages, leaving explosive devices along random stretches of public highways, strapping on a vest of dynamite and going out to the disco -- that the level of lethality exceeds 99.5%. As a civilization we seem to agree that these sorts of adolescent behavior are to be discouraged. Why we seek to explain them away when practiced by an adolescent religion is a question that has no good answers.
Perhaps, in the more mature religion of Christianity, the answer would be to "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Or perhaps even the simpler Christian answer of "Love" would apply. But if that is the case, when it comes to a petulant, narcissistic, and increasingly violent teenager named Islam, that "love" needs to be applied tougher and faster lest the only mode of discipline left to an adult civilization is to send Islam to a very dark room for a very long time-out.
Posted by Vanderleun at February 6, 2006 9:39 AM | TrackBackJeez, Gerard, we seem to be doing the telepathy thing again.
I hope all is well with you.
I would note that the "Love your neighbor" thing isn't really an attribute of a 'mature' Christianity, as it was there from the first. As the martyrs make clear, Christianity did not start as a 'conquering' religion, despite any the subsequent permutations.
Unlike Islam.
However, what's your solution? As I see it, it will go on until it is too onerous to bear, as proactive action (see Iraq War), to deal with a potential threat doesn't seem to be anybody's cup of tea, as the saying goes.
Something catastrophic may happen, but then again, it may not. I can still remember the absolute certainty of some people that the USA and the USSR were going to get into a nuclear war with each other. That did not occur, so nothing is sure.
All that can be done is to watch, and be ready.
Posted by: Eric Blair at February 7, 2006 5:39 AM"All that can be done is to watch, and be ready."
That sounds like a prescription for US to go into the quiet dark room. No thanks. Hoping for the best isn't good enough. Nothing just happens; "it" always gets made to happen, and doing nothing is the same as choosing to let Islam determine the what and when of "it."
Fuuugggettaboudit. I say, they go to their room, now....next time it'll be forever.
Posted by: Rascalfair at February 7, 2006 9:37 AMAnd our cowardly OC Register refused to print the cartoons while the NY Press staff walks out after their cartoon issue was yanked. Let the teenagers rule the day.
http://thepoliticker.observer.com/2006/02/ny-press-kills-cartoons-staff-walks-out.html
So much for the freedom lovin' OCR!
Posted by: Patricia at February 7, 2006 7:37 PMDear Eric Blair:
Something catastrophic is already happening my naive friend. I wonder where you reside - probably some relatively safe place where religious violence is yet to reach. Tell that to the people being murdered every day by the newest wave of fascism. Study your history Eric, if you are interested. Read Mein Kampf first - Hitler laid it all out for everyone to see. Then proceed to the writings of Bin Laden and his myrmidons. Read the Iranian president's recent speeches and top it all off with the sweetness of the Hamas charter, and it is clear to anyone with any reasonable degree of intelligence what these fine people have in mind for us, IF WE LET THEM. No Eric, we do not "watch and be ready" as you so foolishly suggest, see: Chamberlain, Neville. No, rather, we agressively pursue the enemy and defeat this plague with every resource at our disposal. I grew up in the streets of New York which turned out to be an invaluable education in human nature. Where I came from when a bully says he's going to beat the crap out of you forget trying to "understand" him or reason with him. No, you do unto him before he does unto you. If not, you are going to get hurt. That's your homework assignment. I do not really mean to sound condescending but I am continually outraged by the complacency of half the population. Good luck.
Posted by: Chester at February 9, 2006 6:43 AMWell, Chester, be outraged. I have to ask, how many bullies did you kill growing up in NYC? And where do you live that religious violence has reached? I'm across the river in Jersey, and I watched the towers burn and fall.
As for 'agressively pursuing this plague with every resource at our disposal', when are you enlisting? Do you want the draft brought back? Ask Gerard about the last time the US had a draft for a war that lots of people didn't want to fight.
As I said, I think this will go on until it gets to a point when it it too onerous to bear.
Posted by: Eric Blair at February 10, 2006 12:49 PMWhat continually surprises me most is the LACK of response from 1/2 the population, the 1/2 that stands to lose EVERYTHING under Islam. That half is the female half of our population, who would lose all rights and privileges of a modern society and we'd wind up with something like this:
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5184
Dhimmitude is not something I'm willing to live under. I will fight for my freedom until I can fight no more. Part of what's keeping us so secure even while under the onslaught of media manipulation of the news, is our Bill of Rights, particularly the Second Amendment. It's the safegaurd that ensures all the others. It's already been proven the mainstream media doesn't accurately report the news.
How do you trust the media when they manipulate the news as much by what they publish as much as by what they DON'T publish? In Egypt the media reported there were 120 cartoons published, not 12. Can you trust the media to give you the truth? I don't.
The government can't protect you either. See Katrina, and the rising crime rates in Britain, Australia, and Canada after disarming their law-abiding citizens. These people can no loger fight back against criminals, much less terrorist thugs.
It's no wonder Islam is attractive to males and the amount of power it gives them over women. Women should be TERRIFIED at the prospect of Jewish and Christian societies being converted to Islam.
I, for one, will NOT stick my rear in the air five times a day. I suspect I'm not alone in how I feel either. I don't mind living in peace with other religions, but they must also live in peace with the rest of the world. You don't have a right to not be offended. If you don't like a cartoon, don't look at it, complain about it to the publisher, boycott their products, etc., all other manner of peaceful protest are encouraged, but you don't have a right to commit violence against people, esecially those not responsible for your outrage.
Religion of peace - RIGHT! If you don't respect my religion of peace, I'll saw off your head or stone you to death. (/sarcasm)
Posted by: Mike at February 10, 2006 12:59 PMdid it occur to you to ask yourself what do the palistinian have to do with the holocaust?how can you remember what the Romans did to the jews and forget what the zionists(helped by the west) did to the palistinians?we moslems belive in justuce you agree that the one who pays taxes and ellect an aggressive goverment is an aggressor and should be punished.all what hamas is doing by the means they could get is figting for justice, unlike sionists who have the might of the us at hand.thank of it and dont be selfesh or biased.
Posted by: simo at February 11, 2006 1:21 AMTo Eric Blair:
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "when it is too onerous to bear." You mean, being under attack by Islamic violence since the Iranian takeover of our embassy (1978) and culminating with September 11th (2001) is NOT too onerous to bear? What exactly does "too onerous to bear" look like before we really get in gear and do the things necessary to protect ourselves? Subway bombings like London and Spain, or suicide bombers in malls, or something worse? Would flushing the First Amendment (see: European journalism) and instituting sharia law in the US do it for you? Would a nuclear bomb set off in Times Square reach the bar? Please explain, Eric. I'd like to understand your mind. Why does your half have no fight left in you? Do you think you can pursuade the fascists to leave us alone? Europe has been infiltrated and colonized. Could that happen here? I believe the infiltration part has already been achieved.
Posted by: Chester at February 11, 2006 6:28 AMEric Blair - Go to your room and come out when you decide to act like a grown up. By the time it is "too onerous to bear" you and your ilk will be dead, the first to be put against the wall and shot. Go find out what a 'useful idiot' is....
The Hobo
Chester:
You still haven't told me how many bullies you did away with on the mean streets of NYC.
As to what would be too onerous to bear: Yes, a nuke used as part of a terrorsist act would probably do it. Especially against the Continental US. I'm not even sure the odd subway boming would do it. Doesn't seem to have done it in Europe. I could be mistaken though.
Obviously, the bombing of embassies, other bombings, attacks on Naval ships, and random kidnappings of US nationals wasn't too onerous to bear in the 1990's.
The attacks on 9/11/2001 obviously got everyone's attention. It was the scale and success of the events more than anything else. And the current administration had enough spine to go and try to do something about it, and looked beyond simple retaliation. Largely, that seems to have been successful so far. Afghanistan transformed, Hussein deposed, a possibly working democracy installed in his place, and all the fighting is being done by volunteers, with the rest of the US population barely inconvienenced by it all. If one paid no attention to the new media, you'd never know that there was much going on at all.
As to infiltration; Where? Who? I'm sure the FBI would like to know. Have you turned anyone in yet? Please share the information.
Also, don't presume to assign me to a 'side', or state what capacity for direct action I may have. I know what it is, as the line from the movie goes 'to pick up a weapon and stand a post'. Do you?
Do you even know what actions your words mean and imply?
Posted by: Eric Blair at February 11, 2006 1:39 PMEric : "'to pick up a weapon and stand a post'"
I think the line is "... stand opposed".
Robohobo: "By the time it is "too onerous to bear" you and your ilk will be dead, the first to be put against the wall and shot. Go find out what a 'useful idiot' is...."
ad hominem attacks do not advance the discussion; I cannot see anything that Eric wrote that would suggest that he meant "too onerous" to himself. It could well be that his personal threshold has already been reached. The theshold for the country as a whole must be reached before we as a country will do something about it (assuming that Soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq do not constitute "doing something).
As far as anybody getting put up against the wall and being shot is concerned, a couple of points:
1. They have to come here to do that.
2. A hell of a lot of us are well armed and our personal threshold has already been crossed; we just need an identifiable target -- one that we can reach from where we are.
As to "something catastrophic", I personally do not think anything catastrophic has occurred in the u.S. I am sure that some people in Iraq and Afghanistan think something catastrophic has happened in their little corner of the world. If the "peaceful" followers of Islam don't "do something" about the nutjobs before they do something that most of us in the u.S. do consider to be a catastrophy then something truly catastrophic will probably befall the followers of Islam.
Posted by: Bob Reynolds at February 17, 2006 4:19 PM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.