How to spot a gay terrorist.
Notes
posted 3 / 20 / 2008
(via bereasonable)
Misleading title, but awesome.
I can’t think of a single awesome thing about this.
Wow. If I was needing a great reason to vote for Obama, sticking a thumb in the eye of the radical Islamists would rank pretty high.
The risk of an American dying of a terrorist attack is smaller than the risk of being hit by lightning. So why did we spend almost a trillion dollars over the last eight years on the war on terror, and not people getting hit by lightning?—
James Hughes, Trinity College
(via superhamburgeramerica)
Because statistics alone do not explain the threat that terrorism poses. Lightning is random, unplanned, impersonal and distinctly amoral. Terrorism is intentional, hostile, ideological, emotional and definitely moral. We draw distinctions between manslaughter and outright murder for some of the same reasons.
—In the months after the Afghan campaign, France’s foreign minister, Hubert Védrine, was deploring American “simplisme” on a daily basis, and Saddam understood from the get-go that the French veto was his best shot at torpedoing any meaningful UN action on Iraq. Yet the jihadists still blew up a French oil tanker. If you were to pick only one Western nation not to blow up the oil tankers of, the French would surely be it.
But they got blown up anyway. And afterwards a spokesman for the Islamic Army of Aden said, “We would have preferred to hit a U.S. frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels.”
No problem. They are all infidels.
When people make certain statements and their acts conform to those statements I tend to take them at their word. As Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah, neatly put it, “We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.
Mark Steyn, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It
(via craytonc)
(via complicatedshoes)
(via squashed)
“What we need is a political strategy to combat, contest and weaken the appeal of these groups or to marginalize their violent factions. Such a policy would naturally involve some contact with their leaders, but as part of a much broader effort to engage all groups in these societies politically.”
It’s clear that Hezbollah’s relationship to the Lebanese is completely different than, say, Al Qaeda’s relationship with the Iraqis—probably because the former provides social services, the latter torture chambers and strict enforcement of Shariah law. It seems clear that the solution to the Hezbollah problem will require more than just the military.
I have two questions. First, why does Bush think it’s a good idea to lump Iran and Al Qaeda into the same group? Secondly, (and this is a serious question for anybody who disagrees with me), how would an unpreconditioned meeting with Iranian leaders be bad idea? It doesn’t have to be a full state visit with all the pomp—but why not have some people with authority to talk with eachother get together in Egypt or somewhere? Iran is no more eager to give up its nuclear program than we are to give up ours—so why are we refusing to discuss issues that we could make some headway on until they do something we already know they’re not going to do?
I believe the U.S. should not meet with the Iranians because it would legitimize and lend respect to a crazed regime unworthy of respect or direct communication. Author and student of Middle Eastern politics Joel Rosenberg describes best why Iran cannot be deterred or reasoned with:
No one who truly understands Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s eschatology — or end times theology — could honestly believe that Ahmadinejad can be deterred. Ahmadinejad believes it is his God-given mission to annihilate the U.S., Israel and Judeo-Christian civilization as we know. To what end? To create the conditions that will bring the Islamic Messiah known as the Mahdi or the “12th Imam” to earth. Ahmadinejad is not just another power-hungry dictator in the mold of the Soviet or Chinese leaders of yore. He is a Shia Islamic fascist. He believes his life destiny is to kill millions of Jews and Christians and usher in an Islamic caliphate. He believes he is a John-the-Baptist, a forerunner, of the Islamic Messiah. If he dies, he believes he will spend eternity in paradise with 72 virgins. But he doesn’t really believe he’s going to die. He believes he has been chosen for a divine appointment, and that nothing can stop him. That is what makes him so dangerous. Unfortunately, too many Washington politicians — Sens. Clinton and Obama included — do not understand this.
I’m unsure if McCain explicitly understands this either, but at least he’s willing to unequivocally condemn terrorist’s jihad against us as a “transcendent evil.”
TIA Passenger Had Box Cutter In Hollowed-Out Book
Baines told officers he was moving to Las Vegas and forgot the cutter was in the book. Officers found books in the backpack titled “Muhammad in the Bible,” “The Prophet’s Prayer” and “The Noble Qur’an.” He also had a copy of the Quran and the Bible.
Several sheets of paper in the backpack included rap lyrics that referred to police, narcotics, weapons and killing. Baines told officers he is a rapper who writes his own lyrics and that rap music writers need to “play the part,” the report states.
Try to tell me that today’s rap music doesn’t objectify women, sexualize everything in our culture, take obscenity lightly, explicitly endorse violent activity, and directly contribute to delinquency (especially among blacks)—and I’ll laugh in your face.
— James TarantoRead that again: The head of a mental hospital (allegedly) provided women under his care to al Qaeda to use as human bombs, for the purpose of murdering as many innocent people as possible. We are at a loss for words to characterize the depth of this evil.
It makes you wonder about the folks who condemn America with such self-righteous zeal over morally ambiguous practices like “waterboarding” terrorists or even generally accepted practices such as holding enemy combatants for the duration of wartime. One suspects that they do so primarily out of fear—in order to close their minds to the contemplation of true evil.
Dang. How did I miss this story?
