The Top 40

Possibly. But it would have to fed by a propaganda stream the likes of which has not been seen before on Earth. Feed the anger and confusion of The Arab Street® against the clerics and institutions who lied to them.

It would still be an obscene bloodbath before the smoke cleared. A man with nothing left to lose is a dangerous opponent. Millions of such men even more so.

Isn't this what the crazies want? They tried to blow up their own Kabaa once before. They want an all out apocalypse. At least the crazies in charge. The little people, probably not so much, since they have become quite used to being dispensable.
Interesting, and why you do not see no vast amount of conversions out of Islam is because the churches don't want any Muslims to convert. They are too afraid of further persecutions. Seems like a pointless waste. They ought to loudly embrace it, sword and all. The riotous sons of Allah and the prophet are coming for them anyway.

Ripley: “I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”

If we had nuked Mecca and Medina on 9/12/2001, we wouldn't have had this problem.

There is another way. We need not go insane ourselves. Sometimes passive-aggressive works.

Deny all incoming airplanes from crazy lands. Deny entry to all citizens of crazy lands. Revoke visas from all citizens of crazy lands, and put 'em on an all-expense paid flight to whoever will take 'em. Stop all aid payments, military, civil, and humanitarian to crazy lands. (Why the h*** any of American citizen's hard-earned wealth should go to crazy lands I'll never know. It's insane! Where the heck is Danneskjold when you need him?) Deny ports to all ships that have cargo from crazy lands. If they want to buy our stuff, they gotta pay in physical gold or oil, cash on the barrelhead, no banknotes accepted.

Wait and watch. So big deal, France and Russia will get rich (?) off selling (?) to the crazy lands, let 'em, there not a drop of the Hammer's blood left in the Franks. The Slavs like living on the razor's edge, and we haven't heard a peep from Chechnya since the Russkies trashed the place. The crazies have learned their lesson, the Russian capacity for vengeance and retribution is unlimited.

Finally, no better friend, no worse enemy. We live our code, to deal with us you must live up to ours, or we ignore you. And if you take action against us, or let your people do so, well, we're not Russians, we don't throw the snake in the meat-grinder tail-first, we'll just cut the head off and leave the rest for the coyotes.

I was a hostage, once, when I was 14. With my brother and sister. Feigning madness saved our lives.

Interesting, and why you do not see no vast amount of conversions out of Islam is because the churches don't want any Muslims to convert.

Here in Indonesia, where Sharia does not apply (except in Aceh) and conversion is not illegal, you see quite a few. Oh, they're done quietly enough, usually in one of the big cities away from the converts' native villages, or in Singapore, and you'll never see a word printed about it in the local newspapers, but the churches here are filled every Sunday, and not everyone attending services was born to Christianity. Maybe the number of converts isn't "vast", considering the size of the Muslim populace here, but as stealth conversions to Christianity go, they're still significant. The principal beneficiaries are Evangelical Protestant denominations, but Catholics and mainline Protestants also take in some. And there are very few conversions here from Christianity to Islam (there are a few more from Hinduism and Buddhism/Taoism). Even more interesting from my perspective is who converts: the educated, the socially connected, the upwardly-mobile. In one case I know of personally, the daughter of a village imam returned as a Christian from a job posting in Singapore. Another I know is the son of an official in an Islamic organization, and had studied an Islamic curriculum up through university level. I had always assumed he was Muslim, so I was quite surprised to see him at Mass one Sunday, and asked him about it. He said he had converted to Catholicism a year or so previously, after carefully comparing Christianity to Islam. So these are people who had skin in the game in Islam, and still chose another path.

We must not harm Mecca or the Arabs will get mad at us.

Seriously, no group has destroyed more Muslim shrines than the fanatical Muslims.

It is to GWB's eternal shame he didn't require all foreign nationals to register with their nearest police department within 7 days of Sept 11 or be subject to arrest. Even our "cowboys" are too timid, and we stand ready to elect another timid man just before the next war starts. Our leaders weren't dropped on us by Martians, we picked them. We have leaders in name only elected by citizens in name only.

Scott, George Bush was too busy planning the Patriot Act and the TSA to worry about foreign citizens. The Patriot Act and the TSA harass and restrict Americans and that is what is important.

We are in a religious war. We have experience with them (Thirty Years War, et. al.). The only way to win is convince the believers their god does not exist. The only way to do that is to break their temporal power.

What the hell is a Christo-fascist? Leave the Muzzies alone? I don't think that's a good idea. Islamo-fascists have atomic weapons. So, somebody tell me what the hell a Christo-fascist is. Do they have nukes too? I may want to join.

The problem with this gentleman's argument is that it is premised on the idea that Muslims idolize The Black Stone, and that Islam is fundamentally a pagan religion

The problem here is that Islam explicitly rejects all forms of idolatry; it is the first principle of Islam. The history of Islam proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt, as it sprung up as a rejection of the pagan Meccan religion.

Muslims think and behave in a primitive way but that doesn't make them pagans; on the other hand, their conception of Allah is primitive -- basically it tracks the ancient Hebrew concept of Yahweh, a wrathful punishing force who recognizes no bounds to his conduct. He can be all merciful and he could destroy the Earth tomorrow and send all creation to a fiery eternal punishment

And if anyone were to destroy Mecca, Muslims would probably interpret this act as the opening act of their understanding of the Apocalypse -- they would see it as the start of the time of chaos and tumult before the appearance of the Mahdi. And one thing they would certainly do is destroy all the oil wells on their soil, which would, of course would cause the total collapse of the world economy. The hell, even a one month embargo would collapse the house of cards that is International Finance

And so, until we get ourselves weaned off of foreign oil and get our financial house in order, we couldn't win an all out war with Islam without destroying ourselves in the process.

I wrote about this idea in some detail nine years ago: Nuking Mecca.

Executive summary: bad idea.

Besides, it is not at all clear that Islam's endurance is as closely tied to Mecca as one might think. After all, Judaism survived and then thrived after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 66 CE, and again even more crushingly in the 140s. Has been no Temple since, but the Jews are still going strong.

Nukes…dead,rotting pigs…DVD’s of gay porn…crates of Jack Daniel’s…millions of crucifixes…all of the above…whatever it feeking takes.

"Besides, it is not at all clear that Islam's endurance is as closely tied to Mecca as one might think. "

Deal. Keep Mecca. Kill the Muslims.

...DVD’s of gay porn...
Actually, the muzzies would like these, especially if they had underage boys in them. They'd hide the DVDs from each other and never admit that they watched them, but I gua-ran-tee that these would be at the top of their playlist. "Down on the farm" videos would be a close competitor. And I am as serious as a freakin' heart attack about this. Ask anyone who served in Iraq or the 'Stan and had close contact with the locals.

The meaning of the word Islam is closely tied to the understanding that submission is the greatest virtue. In socialism, submission is also not optionable. That explains why the left instinctively views Islam as an ally.

As Tom Paine pointed out, evils, like poisons, have their uses, and sometimes no other remedy will work. But in our case Islam is the poison; the left is the evil. If our faces are not continually rubbed in it, we will continue to believe the left to be misguided idealist.

Being single minded or simple minded does not make Islam a formidable enemy, but the left has found it to be a useful ally in the destruction of what remains in the way of their greatness. Muslims are only dangerous insofar as they play their assigned role of servants to the left as Cicero's enemy within the gates.

Socialism everywhere is completely confident in its ability to make common cause with Islam and control them through a superior intelligence. It never occurs to them that they cannot control their own bladders when that dog turns on them. Libya did not even register. The Ambassador may well have died while telling his killers how well they were understood and how much they were appreciated.

Bill...If you read a 2011 article from worldcrunch you would know that Swiss muslims don't want muslim organizations as they are always headed by radicals. Swiss muslims describe 85-90% of muslims in Switzerland as non-religious. That surely does make a difference,heh?

Only one solution to the Islamic Question is proven to work: the Ferdinand and Isabella Solution.

"Spirit of 1492"!

On a brighter note, Dr. Vanderleun, I got my 3 a.m. phone call from Afghanistan just before my son boarded a helicopter to the rear. Combat operations for his Green Beret team have ended for this tour. He assured me that he expended hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ammo, and that a superior percentage found target. His final words, besides "I love you, Dad.", were "I'm lucky to be leaving this place with my legs.". He and I agree totally: nuke 'em from orbit.

I remain uncomfortable with the direct action espoused here, crossing that rubicon leads to empire. I want no multitudes of ignorants' blood on my hands.

Let Nature deal with it. There are a lot of surplus people out there. Let Allah feed them, or not. Do not shield them from the consequences of their decisions and beliefs. We've got no business dealing with or helping those that oppose us. We are far away and hard to get to. Let's keep it that way.

Mr. Fleming, they didn't seem to have much trouble 'getting to' us on 9/11/2001. And with several other attempts afterward.

Victors never give up, losers do.

I talked to a Filipino nurse who had worked in Kuwait. He said they were arrogant. But he also said that a lot of them were converting to Christianity.

That's because we let them get to us. Opened our doors wide and said "all y'all come on in". I'm saying "throw the dogs out and shut the d*** door"

I add to my list above of things to do. Deny entry to all non-citizen crazies from anywhere, unless personally sponsored by a non-crazie citizen. That should stop the shoe bombers.

That's not a First Amendment violation. Securing the rights in our Constitution of foreign visitors is a discretionary choice. Foreign visitors are not guaranteed the privileges of U.S. citizens.

Turn the qaaba into a urinal for Hasidic tourists and syphilitic queers from San Francisco.

Rev. Sensing: the comment you linked and yours at 9:05 above are not your best work.

The linked comment asserts that: "simply inflicting destruction upon the enemy or the enemy’s people is never a just end in war"

This cannot be true. Retribution is a just part of domestic criminal punishment, and it is a just part of war. Only by raising the cost of a crime or an enemy attack can we hope to deter future criminals or enemies from the same actions.

Pearl Harbor cost Japan, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. It was a price the Japanese were unwilling to pay thereafter.

The World Trade Center should have borne a greater price than Pearl Harbor. The failure to extract it has left us vulnerable to an even more devastating attack.

You then made a long excursus into calling out Iran and North Korea if there were another attack. It was confused and totally irrelevant.

You finish with the little shop of horrors that would await us if we were to make an adequate retaliation against an attacker.

You said: "There is no act we could take that would isolate us more, enrage the entire world at us more, make more uncountable new enemies, and convince billions of ordinary people around the world, not just Muslims, that America must be destroyed."

About this you are completely wrong. When the Pit Bull bites off the head of the toy poodle, the other dogs do attack it, they crouch on their bellies, whimper, and widdle all over themselves to demonstrate their obeisance to the alpha dog.

So it is among men. A just retaliation will quiet the yapping and induce new respect. As the Romans said:

"Oderint dum metuant (Let them hate us, as long as they fear us.)"

As Machiavelli said:

"And here comes in the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both; but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved."

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527). The Prince. Ch. XVII. Of Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It Is Better To Be Loved or Feared

Finally you claim that Islam would survive the destruction of one of its pillars, by comparing it with Judaism after the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 C.E.

First, you should know as a Christian minister, that the destruction of the Temple was a hammer blow that shattered the Judaism of that era. The Rabbinic Judaism that you now see is the descendant of a remnant of that era. Historians believe that the total population of the Roman Empire of that time was about 60 million, and that anywhere from 5 to 15 million of them were Jews. (Rodney Stark). Few of them joined the new rabbinic religion, many, if not most of them became Christians.

Second, Islam is an intellectually impoverished and benighted institution. Anyone who has deviated from orthodoxy has been killed or driven away. They simply do not have the intellectual resources to come up with anything to replace their current set of beliefs.

Nothing you have said deflects me from my conclusion that the price of 9/11/2001 should have been Mecca and Medina. The next catastrophe should require an even higher price.

Nothing you have said deflects me from my conclusion that the price of 9/11/2001 should have been Mecca and Medina.

I would also throw Qom into the mix. Though the Shiites were not involved in 9/11, prior to those attacks, Iranian-backed Hizballah had inflicted more casualties on the U.S. than any other terrorist group. And following 9/11, many senior Al-Qaeda leaders were given refuge in Iran. And need I bring up the 444 days of humiliation that our embassy staff suffered in Tehran? Iran's and Hizballah's depredations continue to this day and have been unanswered for far too long. Turning their seat of "learning" into a radioactive cinder would not end the threat completely, but it would wipe out much of the next generation of budding Khomeinis and Ahmadinejads.

Let ME be the one proposing compromise, for once. While we weigh the moral and military implications of nuking Mecca, can we at least agree we should deport Muslims? Treat Muslims just like we would have treated Communist Party members. They have a political agenda requiring the destruction/enslavement of us and they are willing to use violence or elections to make that happen. Their support of the goal is all that is necessary to warrant them being deported.

Maybe keeping the Mecca meteorite intact serves our interest or not, I'm ambivalent. But, Muslims have no right to stay in a country they want destroyed. Overthrow of this country is reason enough to deport them. This was handled very well, back when we had leaders, with the Japanese and their Bushido. We have no obligation to prove we are tolerant of the intolerant. If the "nice" Muslims want to kill/fire their Imams and suddenly discover their Koran is a spiritual allegory, we can talk. Until you see that happen the "nice" Muslims are part of the problem and they should go also.

Obviously, I bigger problem is we have no leaders to implement this idea and the majority of "citizens" still persist in the idea that they, or someone smart, could reason with Muslims and come to an understanding where everybody's head stays attached to their neck. That's not the choice the Muslims leave us anymore. It's going to come down to they kill us or we kill them. Our best option before that day is to deport Muslims. Anyone suggesting Muslims remain here is making you a target for the Muslims when some of them receive word from their mullah it's time for you to die in the jihad.

IF our options are they kill us or we kill them, you better have your answer in mind before the time comes or the answer is they kill you. Muslims have shown themself uniquely volatile and violent if you don't live by their rulebook.

What the eff did we buy nuclear missiles for if we aren't going to use them? But, while they are warming up in the driveway how about we demand deportation.

I want Scott M to be appointed as Secretary of Defense in the Romney administration.

Scott M makes the case. All Muslims, even the "good" ones, are an existential threat. Detain them, seize their properties, sell these at a genuinely fair market price, reimburse the detainees, and then deport the living shit out of them.

Would this be a violation of the constitutional rights of those citizens and nationals who are Muslim? Yes, it would. We should do it anyway. Then we should amend our laws to bar Muslims from obtaining U.S. citizenship, residency, or owning property here. As it is, the Constitution has become a suicide pact.

Us or Them. US. OR. THEM. You must decide whose life and happiness means more to you. As the song says, "If you choose not to decide / you still have made a choice."

While I agree with you, B. Lewis, and think a good case can be made with “all enemies foreign and domestic” pertaining to Muslims I’m afraid that most Americans wouldn’t. Nor would our government, lead by any staunch conservative president you can imagine.

And besides, why must we as Americans, for ALL that should truly mean, wait for our government to do what “we” should have done years ago. I mean, why weren’t we in the streets en masse after 9/11/01 to show the Muslims world our solidarity against our enemy? Why weren’t we in front of every Mosque from LA to Oklahoma to NYC screaming our lungs to they bleed that we are on to your crap?

They storm our embassy in ‘79 and we go to concerts. They bomb our Marine barracks in Lebanon in ‘83 and we snort another line. They bring down a plane over Scotland and we buy more stocks. They slaughter 3,000 in NYC and we go shopping.

Oh sure the warrior class, as they always do, stepped up and volunteered to kick ass. But what do we do back home, watch American Idol?

I’m not talking about firebombing mosques or Muslim homes but I’d like to see a touch more animosity, or whatever word works for ya‘, towards them. Some suspicion, some jaundice eyes, some shunning. Anything except but the ridiculous status quo - “Islam is a religion of peace”, They’re not ALL like that” bull crap.

I know we’re the minority that gets it, that Islam is the problem, but that only makes my point. What will it take for the rest of us to realize it? Will they ever?

We have a president when questioned about the slaughter in Bengasi answers firstly with nonsense about a video. A Sec. of State who stands in front of the caskets and families of the murdered ambassador and the others and talks about the GD video! Even for liberal scum that’s reprehensible.

The violent jihad is happening and we yawn. The silent jihad, slowly creeps in as we’re asleep. In many ways I think it’s already over. The only thing left is to raise the flag of Islam over the White House.

You make some good points, Tim. What it comes down to, I think, is that we demand too little of ourselves, expecting that somebody else (your "warrior class") will take care of our problems for us. But they won't. The soldiers, cops, and first responders will do what they can, but they only perform when called to do so. Taking care of the times between emergencies was up to us, and as a group, we have failed. We have gotten the government and country we deserve by wanting more goodies without wanting to pay for them, or even work for them. Along with this, we have failed to hold our politicians accountable for their shenanigans. How many times have you heard, "Yeah, throw the bums out. But not my Congressman. He's a good guy"? Maybe he is, but maybe he's part of the problem, too. If we're serious about turning this ocean liner around, we have to honestly examine what each of us has done to hold the line against those who would destroy us, and what we could do better. Looking in the mirror isn't always easy, but it's a helluva lot easier than living under Sharia, and absolutely necessary if we're going to defeat our Islamist enemies and their leftist allies. I still believe we can win.

You know, we don't really gotta nuke Mecca and Medina, right?

Not when we've got the 32,000 lb. MOAB uber-daisy-cutter available.

While I don't know the exact blast radious, I do think it's safe to say that the kabba, and the whole mosque surrounding it would be entirely wiped away. Blast radius on that thing is supposed to be about 1/8th mile, for a 1/4 mile diameter of wiped-flattness.

No fallout, no hue and cry about fallout, etc, etc. But, nothing left of the monkey-stone, but fine, black gravel, at best.

A bit riskier to deploy though, needing some tight fighter cover and anti-AA missle tools to protect the C-17 delivery plane.

Now if we can just get Slim Picken's to ride the thing in!

Yeeeeeehaaaaawwwww!!!

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Sorry Jim: 32,000 lbs 16 tons) of HE doesn't do the job that a 475 KT nuclear weapon will do.

First, the blast radius will be about 30 times larger. I.e. a wipe out circle of 4 miles intead of 625 feet.

Second. When HE blows up, construction can start on the next day. When you nuke it, it is a no go zone for years.

The Muslims, specifically al-Qaeda, have chosen to fight in a manner that targets civilians. They have decided to hide among civilians. They make themselves indistinguishable from civilians. All make them outside of the Geneva Conventions. The civilians they hide among do little to nothing to point out the AQ in their midst, either because they agree with AQ or they want us to resist AQ for them. That puts the civilians on the target list of legitimate war. There, we have now satisfied the Mayberry Imperative and we should do what is necessary to end this threat.

Anyone giving reasons why we can't fight this threat in the same means we fought the Japanese or Germans, or of The South, is ready to sacrifice you for their peace of mind. Better you are 343 firemen die than they have an unpleasant position or jeopardize their speaking time on TV.

People in responsible positions that won't fight this war today in a way that makes the threat shrink today are your mortal enemy. Just as Benedict Arnold was a mortal threat because he was inside the system and working for the other team, you must name and treat them as enemies. If you put party or personality above truth you are leaving our mortal enemy in place to threaten the rest of us. Citizens have responsibility. If leaders won't lead we still have our responsibility. For each of us that means something a little different but it at least means you cannot permit people to pretend the threat is "over there."

The only reason your local elementary school or hospital hasn't been captured and the inhabitants slaughtered is because the terrorists haven't decided to do it. They can do it any day they want and no school resource officer or text-alert system will stop them. They have no rules except you will submit. They recognize no "out of bounds."

What have your local Muslims done except have meetings on how you can make them feel comfortable. That is from the Islamist handbook and it works to their advantage. Stop trying to find the rules and live within them as the rules are manipulated against you. Think for yourself and act to put them on defense.

Protests at the homes of reporters and officials that promote are observe the dhimmi line might be wise so the traitors in our midst at least have to weigh our mob on their lawn and their mob on their lawn. Until they fear us there is no penalty for ignoring us. The media people will ride their ratings all the way down to the impact crater.

Like Radical Muslims, feral / wild hogs are a real problem in America, especially here in Texas. There are estimated to be 4 million wild pigs in the US. They cause lots of damage, just like the Muslims do. We don't need that many wild pigs anyway, so lets put some of the unemployed hunters to work and gather up a few. We could then carpet bomb Mecca with a few hundred thousand dead pigs and see if that changes their attitude. Kill two birds with one stone as they say.

"To all the Operators here today I give you this charge: Rid the world of those savages. I'll say it again, RID THE WORLD OF THOSE SAVAGES!" Those are the words of Dorothy Woods, widow of Tyrone Woods, former Navy SEAL, who was killed by the mob in Libya that also killed Ambassador Stevens. Ty Woods was not assigned to protect Stevens, but rushed to his aid when the attack began.
I offer my sincere condolences to Mrs. Woods on the loss of her husband, who was a courageous and stalwart American. To her words I would add: and salt the earth.

Scott M., you're on the right track. We are trying to follow rules, conventions, and "lawfare." They cannot defeat us on the field of battle, so they use cunning, subterfuge, false flags, and our own rules against us. And our Politically Correct leaders can't seem to accept that we have to change the rules of engagement.

First of all, how many times do we have to see signs saying, "DEATH TO THE USA," "DEATH TO INFIDELS," "DEATH TO UNBELIEVERS," "CUT THEIR HEADS OFF," and such before we get the message that they intend to convert, enslave, or kill us.

It is high time for our leadership to start taking them seriously. The reason they don't is because they know we are much stronger militarily and because we have "rules and principles." They see it like a prize fight and don't want to violate the rules. Well, it's time we changed some of the rules. To start with we need to openly proclaim that we're on to them. That we understand that they intend to convert, enslave, or kill us. That all the attacks since 1979 have finally convinced us of their intentions. We should then note that we believe there are some Muslims don't want war, but that they are allowing those who do to shelter in their midst. We need to proclaim that we are tolerant and do not seek conflict with anyone, but it is now time for them to chose. Because we are no longer going to be tolerant of being attacked. AS G. W, Bush said, "You are either with us or against us."

Without going into any details, just mention that any attacks will be responded to with overwhelming force and we will be sorry that moderate Muslims may die, but they must choose to shun and eject the radicals or suffer the attendant collateral damage.

Putting them on notice would be step one. What happened beyond that might start with the total destruction from the air (airplanes, missiles, drones, etc.) of a major city in the home country of any attackers. It goes without saying that we need to cut off all foreign aid to any country that didn't eject their radicals or bring them under control. We would also need to declare that Islam is not a religion but a tyrannical political movement. As such it would not qualify for protections of the Constitution unless American Muslims decided to reform their faith and drop all the political and violent tenets. (Not likely to happen.)

I don't suggest these steps thinking that the way would be easy or even lead to certain victory. But we need to quit acting as if these people don't mean business.

This war is Armageddon.
This is the apocalypse.
The Creation did not take place in seven 24 hour days.
The apocalypse will not unfold in one dramatic afternoon.
We are fighting a holy war for the future of the human race.
It doesn't matter if you don't believe in apocalyptic holy war for the future of the human race; they do. And they are busy fighting that war against us as we sit here at our PC's. And they will continue fighting that war until they win or they are utterly and totally destroyed. No third option. If you think nuking their major cities into oblivion is unthinkable, then consider the alternative:
their continued fighting of this war the way that moslems fight war: by committing the filthiest crimes imaginable against us until we submit.
Cut the head off the snake. Wipe Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran off the face of the earth. Smash the dome of the rock.
It will be islam, or the West- no third option.

JWM

Egypt is nearly out of money and gold. I think half of the population depends on bread, rice, fuel for survival and it's subsidized by the national government. We could start by turning off the foreign aid to Egypt and letting them starve. While the Straits of Horomuz see 20% of the world's oil supply pass by, the countries of the Middle East import vast amounts of their food.

Now, if one side has to do without 20% of their normal oil and the other side will begin starving soon without ready access to imported food, what do you suppose that suggests as a solution?

Wanted: one national leader that can make the obvious decision and is willing to be hailed as a tactical genius and worse than Genghis Khan, all at the same time. Our problems are not about money, oil, nukes. Our problem is inaction with fear. It just manifests itself in various ways that show up as money, oil, nukes, etc. Even our most courageous warrior hero, David Petraeus, formulated a plan that only works if the people that have ignored the last 1400 years help us to give them a new country.

"Paging Curtis LeMay, paging General Curtis LeMay. Please pick up the red courtesy phone."