In the Netherlands:
Wilders said: “The people who threaten us are walking around free and we are the captives.”
…The wife of an Islamist militant who is in police custody told a local newspaper that Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim, would be slain by Muslim women. “The sisters are patient,” the woman said. They will wait, “even if it takes 10 years.”
The wasp of Islamic totalitarianism has planted its eggs into the receptive body of Europe, and they are starting to hatch.
Peggy Noonan has a provocative piece today, in which she wonders why those who want Terri’s tube pulled are so adamant and emotional about it. I think that she goes a little too Godwin at the end:
Once you “know” that–that human life is not so special after all–then everything is possible, and none of it is good. When a society comes to believe that human life is not inherently worth living, it is a slippery slope to the gas chamber. You wind up on a low road that twists past Columbine and leads toward Auschwitz. Today that road runs through Pinellas Park, Fla.
As I’ve noted before, I have a different definition of a “human life” than many. I think that a human life is always worth living, but there can be a point at which life has been so altered as to no longer be recognizably human. I don’t know if Mrs. Schiavo has reached that point, but apparently many people implicitly believe that to be the case.
While I do think that there’s something to what Peggy says, I also think that she’s somewhat misdiagnosing the problem. Look at the usual suspects that she cites:
…why do those who argue for Mrs. Schiavo’s death employ language and imagery that is so violent and aggressive? The chairman of the Democratic National Committee calls Republicans “brain dead.” Michael Schiavo, the husband, calls House Majority Leader Tom DeLay “a slithering snake.”
Everyone who has written in defense of Mrs. Schiavo’s right to live has received e-mail blasts full of attacks that appear to have been dictated by the unstable and typed by the unhinged. On Democratic Underground they crowed about having “kicked the sh– out of the fascists.” On Tuesday James Carville’s face was swept with a sneer so convulsive you could see his gums as he damned the Republicans trying to help Mrs. Schiavo. It would have seemed demonic if he weren’t a buffoon.
Why are they so committed to this woman’s death?
They seem to have fallen half in love with death.
I don’t think that it’s so much love of death, as blind, raging hatred of the Republicans and conservatives who they perceive to be in the vanguard of keeping her alive. Like many other issues, they have become polarized and emotionally against something simply because those they perceive to be the enemy are for it. If the president’s Vision for Space Exploration ultimately fails, this will be one of the biggest reasons–because he, rather than the sainted John F. Kennedy (or even Bill Clinton) proposed it.
I don’t see this as a partisan issue, though it’s sadly become one. I’ve already said that I’m quite conflicted about this myself. The tragedy of this is that we simply don’t have enough information to know what is the right thing to do. And that’s the case for everyone involved, though they don’t want to admit it.
And now for something completely different: elephant impressionists.
Researchers have recorded two African elephants (Loxodonta africana) that are adept mimics. One does a decent impression of an Asian elephant, and another is, remarkably, a dead ringer for a passing truck. The skilful impressions are far from the traditional grunts of an average African elephant.
Look for them to headline at the Sahara next year.
[Via Geek Press]
Can there be a jot without a tittle?
Wretchard has some interesting thoughts on what one might look like.
As he notes, the current organization is a corrupt relic of events of six decades past, and badly in need of a total restructuring. In its current form, it’s not just useless, it’s counterproductive to its stated ends.
Alan Boyle has an interesting report from Esther Dyson’s little space conference, on the state of the entrepreneurial space industry, and its invigorated prospects for investment.
…for those looking for bad news in Iraq. But good news for everyone else.
I’m sure that the Lancet will add this to the count of all the “innocent Iraqis” killed because we removed Saddam:
U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a suspected guerrilla training camp and killed 85 fighters, the single biggest one-day death toll for militants in months and the latest in a series of blows to the insurgency, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.
“Among the dead are Arab and foreign fighters, including Sudanese, Algerians and Moroccans, as well as other nationalities,” Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim told Reuters.
Isn’t that a shame? And they didn’t even get to murder children before they died. Maybe they’ll get their virgins anyway.
If they can keep things up at this pace, I suspect that they will be killing them faster than new ones are recruited, because news like this makes recruiting a lot harder.
Hugh Hewitt writes, about the recent school shooting incident in northern Minnesota:
…[the] MSM is not distinguishing itself in this instance, and will again move past this terrible story without ever asking what has happened to youth culture in America that it turns out such killers.
Hugh is making a couple assumptions here for which he provides no basis. First, that these types of incidents are more prevalent today than they’ve been at various times in the past and, second, that they’re caused by something in “youth culture.”
Both may be true, but I’m not aware of any evidence for either. Does he have any data to indicate that mass shootings by young people are at some kind of all-time high, on a per capita basis, or are we just more aware of them, because of modern communications technology? If so, does he have any data to indicate that it’s caused by “youth culture,” as opposed to (for example) increases in psychoses due to environmental factors (e.g. Ritalin, or non-prescribed drugs), or increased availability of rapid-fire weaponry?
It’s not like this is a unique period in American history, after all. Remember Billy the Kid? And if this didn’t happen in the early nineteenth century, it wasn’t so much because it was discouraged by “youth culture” (to the limited degree that such a thing existed) so much as the fact that muzzle-loading muskets weren’t very handy tools for shooting and killing many people in a short period of time. It would actually be interesting to see how gang murder rates compare with, say, the range wars of the old west (which both have a lot of young shooters involved).
I’m not proposing gun control as a solution to this problem–Kliebold’s and Harris’ guns were “controlled” (which is to say illegal), after all. My point is that it’s very easy to simply say “O tempora, O mores!” when something like this happens, when the reality is that in a population of three hundred million people, sometimes a few of them out on the tail end of the bell curve are going to go nuts, pick up a gun, and shoot some folks. Short of a draconian reining in of our freedoms, there’s probably some irreduceable amount of this thing that we’ll have to accept. I’m in fact surprised that it happens as seldom as it does.
In my opinion, the solution is likely to not be fewer guns, or “gun-free zones” (which are basically the equivalent of a sign saying “Welcome, mass murderers! Unarmed victims in abundance here!”) but more guns, in the hands of trained teachers and other school authorities, to end such incidents as quickly as possible with a minimum loss of life.
What concerns me is the future, as technology evolves, and some demented kid gets a hold of something really nasty, that can create a great deal more havoc in an even shorter amount of time.
Apparently, he looks just like a turtle. Who knew? Was it foreseen that the dark angel would take terrapin form?
Here’s an interesting interview of the incoming Iraqi Prime Minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, by Der Spiegel:
SPIEGEL: The Sunnis, the second-largest ethnic group in Iraq, were in control of the country until recently, but now they feel forced into a secondary role by the Shiite majority. Many sympathize with the terrorists. A few Sunni religious leaders have even issued fatwas that justify the killing of occupation forces and alleged collaborators.
Jaafari: This is why I am doing everything within my power to convince our Sunni brothers to join us in developing the new constitution.
SPIEGEL: How successful have you been? 80 percent of Sunnis boycotted the elections.
Jaafari: My efforts have certainly been fruitful. More and more Sunni politicians, even religious dignitaries, are now willing to participate in developing our constitution. We want every Iraqi to support the new constitution.
SPIEGEL: What will the constitution look like? Do you envision an Iranian-style Islamic republic, or could Saudi Arabia be a model?
Jaafari: Iraq should become an Islamic state, but without Iran or Saudi Arabia as its godfather. Islam, not unlike Christianity, has many different faces.
SPIEGEL: Will you introduce sharia?
Jaafari: Yes, but only as one of several sources of jurisprudence. That is only natural in a country that is populated mainly by Muslims.
SPIEGEL: Will Christians, for example, be given religious freedoms?
Jaafari: Everyone will have the same rights, even the members of our many smaller religious communities.
SPIEGEL: How do you plan to deal with the many Iraqis who are in favor of a secular state and the separation of religion and the state?
Jaafari: Iraqis are tolerant by nature. No one should be concerned about losing his freedom of expression. I will fight to ensure that every citizen is able to express his opinion, even if I don’t agree with it.
SPIEGEL: Will women be required to wear veils in the new Iraq?
Jaafari: Never. They will be free to choose for themselves.
Read the whole thing. He sounds like a savvy politician. And the civil war, and Islamic Republic so long predicted (and probably, on the part of many, fervently desired) by war opponents seems to continue to be delayed in arriving. Of course, that’s true for almost all of their dire predictions.