you are not trona so. "no troop for you"

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2008/01/31/army-ghiz.html

Environment Canada has "muzzled" its scientists, ordering them to refer all media queries to Ottawa where communications officers will help them respond with "approved lines."

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=277560

Looks like Stevie wants to nazify the civil service.

...must...not...contradict...Dear Fat Leader.

Rove - re: environment Canada's media rules: NO different than pretty well any organization anywhere.
Or, do YOU and all of the people you work with usually answer media questions about your company so your boss, shareholders, whoever only know what you are saying, your opinion which affects them all and may or may not be accurate when they read it in the press and then have to answer for what YOU said?
The world does not work that way - that is why there are company/government/organization spokespeople.
The fact that was NOT being followed in government depts. is really what should be disturbing to Canadians.

record cold
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s557.htm

This is so good that I can hardly contain myself: the federal NDP caucus, which persists in its belief that the CPC and Prime Minister Harper are racist bigots, is (I hope you're sitting down) 97 per cent (29/30) white.

Check out the photographic proof at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=460866&id=7960839407#pid=460866

Off topic, but as I watch the news of 5 semis smashing up at Lake Louise killing 3 and shutting the highway down for 20 hours, yes the trans Canada I can't help but wonder, how much hiway could have been twinned through the mountains with the stolen money of the Liberals and their sponsergate, or gun control or hrdc or...

Peter MacKay says that he was in the loop:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080131.wkandahar31/BNStory/Front/

Peter MacKay, lying in parliament:

"Mr. Speaker, first let me say that the Canadian military, in fact all Canadians in Afghanistan are certainly meeting all their international obligations.

There has not been one single, solitary proven allegation of abuse of detainees, let alone juvenile detainees in Afghanistan.

The member likes to extrapolate on evidence. He has not been able to produce one solitary example. Rather than producing hogwash and hornswoggle, maybe he can bring some cold, hard facts instead of this torqued rhetoric."

(Hansard, November 22*, 2007)

Bin Layton is showing his colors and spewing his bile yet again..

[quote]Environment Canada has "muzzled" its scientists,[/quote]

What Scientist thinks his PEER group is the public. Political scientist?

Why does Environment Canada have any scientists on "staff"?

Canada's Lady of NUANCE?
Our Lady of antisemitism.
Our Lady of resignation.
...-

[Canadian] Arbour should have known better

"she should have developed an ear for nuance"

"Her flip-flop this week on the new pan-Arab "human-rights charter" - a watery document at best - was an embarrassment for a woman who is now the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights." http://tinyurl.com/2jp9so (MonGazette)

Thor I just read that article on Gassy Jack and it leaves me in the mood for mass murder. That is why I will never put on a uniform and fight for the Canadian armed forces. We will never win any war we fight as long as leftists have a say in gov't. It is unfair of our country to allow liberals to send our boys to chitholes like Afghanistan, ask them to fight, die and bleed there - and then jerk the rug out from under them after they have spilled their blood and buried their squaddies there. This is not political dissent - this is friggin TREASON.

A plague on the swine of the NDP. Bast*rds. Bast*rds all.

[deleted. Take comments like that to your own blog, they aren't welcome here. ED]

Taliban Jack & Citoyen Dion: What a pair of socialists; "the paragon of animals*".
...-

What a piece of work is Dion*
John Ivison, National Post

"I hope I will convince him [Taliban Jack-NDP] to change his mind. Canada cannot pull out of Afghanistan all of a sudden, overnight," he [Citoyen Dion] said."

Mr. Layton could hardly contain himself after Question Period. "I would urge Stephane Dion not to take the direction that Mr. Harper wants to go. I would like Mr. Dion to join the New Democrats in pressing for a new direction," he beamed."
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=278447

* What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world - the paragon of animals!
Hamlet: William Shakespeare (Act II - Sc. II)

Don Martin describes the "full-court-press pile-on" in the escalating war against the government and their communications people. I guess they don't like the punishment handed out to Krista:

"Take the case of CBC reporter Krista Erickson, a friend of mine by the way. She flipped another person's questions to a Liberal MP who, being incapable of independent thought, put them to former prime minister Brian Mulroney during his Schreiber inquiry testimony."

So Krista is taking the fall for someone else at the CBC?

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=fd9c23d9-05a6-494b-ba72-04ce4c3e2db6&k=18623&p=1

Lte's hope that seperatism does not die and Quebec actually does leave. Bon debaras!

From the Underground: Maddass Hussein/leftists say it was all about the oil.

"In 2004, Canada replaced Saudi Arabia as the leading supplier of crude oil to the United States."
...-

Canada to become next OPEC
Pipeline into U.S. gets regulatory approval

"The United States' oil dependence on Canada, already America's largest supplier, is about to grow under a plan to build a new pipeline to transport oil from the tar sands of Alberta into the central part of the nation."
"According to the Energy Information Administration, the leading suppliers of U.S. oil in Nov. 2007 were: Canada, 2.431 million barrels per day; Saudi Arabia, 1.620 million barrels per day; Mexico, 1.581 million barrels per day; Venezuela, 1.381 million barrels per day; and Nigeria, 1.306 million barrels per day."

"According to Canada's Globe and Mail, by 2015 and the completion of the project, Canadian oil exports to the U.S. are expected to increase to three million barrels a day." http://tinyurl.com/2n46zm (wnd)

I beg to differ . .

al Libi vaporized!

Martin Navias, an analyst with Britain's Center for Defence Studies, says that the US has often said it would step up operations in Pakistan, but he was uncertain that this latest strike was an expression of this more aggressive stance against Al Qaeda in the region.

**It's the kind of operation that reflects good intelligence.... It's significant in the propaganda sense for the Americans, but it not going to have major operational effect.**
===============

No major effect? Baloney!

It strikes terror into the hearts of sneaky low life pushers of young martyr bombers.

Who is next? = TG

"Can't Beat Taliban, So lets Leave"
National NewsWatch
Ya lets put up the White Flag Jack.
Jack seems to think that this should be another Bosnia Mission, Which was nothing more then a Cluster F***. shoulder that Weapon Don't Shootback.
Stay in between the waring factions & Do, & Say Nothing, Regardless of what you see.
Lew(Gen.Lewis MacKenzie) called it right this is Not Bosnia & if turns to that then you better be ready to move quick.
My Son-in-law, his buddies & my best friend who was(MWO) are still reliving a nightmare.
Ya Jack Wave that White Flag, Gawd help Us if guys like this Ever lead this country.

Let the eastern bhjfrgks freeze in the dark? OK.
...-

McGuinty joins Earth Hour
Provincial, federal governments to turn off lights

"Insisting the planet can be saved an hour at a time," http://tinyurl.com/3x4ykf (TO Red Star)

"Lte's hope that seperatism does not die and Quebec actually does leave"

It's a wonderful thought, bob, but it'll never happen. Actually, i suspect separatism never existed except as a wet dream among the "intellectual" class who used it to extort power and money from gullible federal governments.

NDP Layton says Afghanistan military mission 'endless'.
"Can't beat Taliban so let's leave."

This is the same arsehole who marched with the Taliban flag only months ago.

The best friends the Afghani Taliban have in Canada is Jack Layton and the New Democrats.

Which begs the question - are all NDP supporters cowards and Taliban sympathizers or just Taliban Jack Layton, Libby Davies, Joe Comartin and Mulcair the mouthy communist ND MP from Quebec?

Now there is a internet poll worth running.

How about it Kate?

dean - you're dead-on right. Quebec is stuck to the Canadian teat and there is no letting go.

"Can't beat Taliban so let's leave."

Nor can the NDP win an election. So why don't they slink away into the night, never to be heard from again?

Lorne Gunter has a nice column in the National Post, affirming The Right to be Loathsome:

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=278535

To quote Gunter:

"The tough thing about free speech is that the only true test of one's belief in it comes from defending those one most vehemently opposes -- not merely those one agrees with. The case of Salman Hossain, a Bangladeshi-Canadian university student from Mississauga, Ont., illustrates my point."

I fully agree.

Further details:

Abu Laith al-Libi, al-Qaeda chief in Afghanistan, killed in missile attack

The Taliban commander who owned the compound, 45-year-old Abdus Sattar, was loyal to one of Pakistan’s most wanted men, Islamist tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud, the sources said.

Pakistani and US officials have blamed Mehsud, who is based in neighbouring South Waziristan, for orchestrating the assassination of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in December...

A longtime jihadist, al-Libi was also leader of the now-defunct Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, opposed to the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi. He was named in al-Qaeda videos as a senior field commander in Afghanistan and linkman with Taliban insurgents.

According to the American authorities, he masterminded the suicide bombing that killed 23 people outside Bagram air base in Afghanistan during a visit by Mr Cheney in February 2007.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the United States, said Friday its fourth-quarter profit dropped 31 percent on a decline in broadcasting revenue and weak newspaper ad sales.

The adjusted results narrowly topped Wall Street's expectations.

The McLean, Va.-based publisher of USA Today said earningswas $1.2 billion, down 12 percent from $1.4 billion a year ago. The flagship USA Today newspaper saw advertising revenue fall 16.7 percent in the fourth quarter. Overall newspaper circulation revenue declined 7 percent to $313.2 million.

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/lower-broadcasting-revenue-hurts-gannett/n20080201092609990018

"architectural porn"
...-

The Worst Building in the History of Mankind

It's the Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea, where the world's 22nd largest skyscraper has been vacant for two decades and is likely to stay that way ... forever.
A picture doesn't lie -- the one-hundred-and-five-story Ryugyong Hotel is hideous, dominating the Pyongyang skyline like some twisted North Korean version of Cinderella's castle. Not that you would be able to tell from the official government photos of the North Korean capital -- the hotel is such an eyesore, the Communist regime routinely covers it up, airbrushing it to make it look like it's open -- or Photoshopping or cropping it out of pictures completely.

Even by Communist standards, the 3,000-room hotel is hideously ugly, a series of three gray 328-foot long concrete wings shaped into a steep pyramid. With 75 degree sides that rise to an apex of 1,083 feet, the Hotel of Doom (also known as the Phantom Hotel and the Phantom Pyramid) isn't the just the worst designed building in the world -- it's the worst-built building, too. In 1987, Baikdoosan Architects and Engineers put its first shovel into the ground and more than twenty years later, after North Korea poured more than two percent of its gross domestic product to building this monster, the hotel remains unoccupied, unopened, and unfinished. http://tinyurl.com/2awrnd (esquire)

Videos included: A bootleg video of the tower from YouTube. How the brazen videographer escaped without being arrested remains a mystery.

More: The Demolition S How video by the Italian architects Extraneo might not be as conceptual as Ryugyong.org, but this piece of architectural porn sure is fun to watch. The video (which you can watch above) was mounted as part of the exhibition Fiction Pyongyang, curated in part by Stefano Boeri, who also collected 120 speculative designs for the hotel in the June 2006 domus magazine. The designs, he says, "have forced it to reveal its icy nature, its irresistible fascination as a fragile alien meteorite." The worst building in the world is also, we now know, "the only built piece of science fiction in the contemporary world." And it's true. Demolition S How is all Blade Runner-style flying ads and soaring concrete, and the video reminds us that the worst building in the world is the closest humans have come to building a Death Star.

Mao Stlong say, herp. Things "snowsnow".
...-

SOS,Chenzhou City need help!
the city isolated from heavy snow need your help!

"my wife tells me that what she wish most is a warm-water bath,but now it is a mission impossible!", Huang, a local citizen, told the reporter.
Since snowsnow assaulted the city in 24th,January, all water and electricity supply to Chenzhou city has been off for 6 days and 6 nights. Some citizens here have ate up their food stock.
Even the electricity supply to hospitcal now is off. Most shops and bank are closed. All ATMs are not available anymore either.

　　 The price of all vegetables doubled. Candles are in urgent demand. " Now one candle even costs 50 yuan (8 USD) !" Huang said. http://tinyurl.com/2g87y9 (pakdefforum)

Having not been seen for a few days, it appears the moonbats have once again found the hole out of their cave to spread a little dung around like this:

"Let's hope that Conrad Black dies in jail."

The NDP doesn't have the honesty to figure out what Giulliani and Edwards realized. They'd rather continue eating into the taxpayer wallet and in return contribute a toxic anti-Canadian point-of-view. At least they steal votes from the darker side of the Liberals.

bryanr....They did the same thing to my brother and his comrades upon returning from Somalia.

These leftarded moonbats are real quick to send the troops to these 3rd world s@#$ holes, and then act all aghast when the troops have to kill some bad guys.

F#$%ing moronic dippers!

GO ARMY(77-85)

Endlessly divisible Canada
Raheel Raza

This year marks the 20th anniversary of my arrival in Canada. People who have been here for less time are busy trying to change the face of this wonderful country I call home.

Not to be left behind, I take this opportunity to look ahead another 20 years:

There will be a separate school at every corner....

Within the school system there will be division of language....

Schoolbooks will be printed in every language...

While separation of church and state is really not that important, we must separate vegetarian and non-vegetarian....

There will be separate laws for all religious groups....

Loyalty to Canada will not be a prerequisite to living here....

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/299337

See the National Post/Feb 1.

A nice recap/comment on the issues(s) of the AB HRC.

It also refers to a past statement from E. Stelmach in which he apparently suggested during the leadership campaign that any "changes" to the Act re freedom of speech as regards the HRC would not get to first base.

At something like 35% +- in the polls, perhaps he will have to deal with the HRC issue.

One of the interesting things about yesterday's killing of Abu Laith al-Libi is the press coverage. I've checked Fox, CNN, Times(London), BBC, and this Pakistani English newspaper

http://www.dawn.com/2008/02/01/top6.htm

There only seems to be mild mention of the fact that Pakistan does not want US forces operating in Pakistan and yet this drone took out the house. What gives? Is the MSM just quietly accepting that the GWOT has expanded into Pakistan? BTW, I think the Americans are making the correct moves here; I simply expected a different reaction from the MSM.

(Via CSP) Editorial support from The Wall Street Journal:

NATO's Afghan failure

We feel Stephen Harper's pique. Maybe France, Germany and other so-called NATO allies will as well and heed the Canadian Prime Minister's call to share the war-fighting burden in Afghanistan...

The plight of the Canadians ought to shame other allies. Mr. Harper warned that his country wouldn't extend its 2,500-strong mission in Afghanistan's unstable southern provinces unless Europe ponies up troops and equipment. His minority party will soon put the deployment to Parliament, where the opposition wants a withdrawal. "If NATO can't come through with that help, then I think, frankly, NATO's own reputation and future will be in jeopardy," he said this week. Canadians aren't known for hyperbole.

wsj.com/article/SB120182510813133677.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks

See also The NATO Emerging in Afghanistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/31/AR2008013102545.html
(registration required)

One of the interesting things about yesterday's killing of Abu Laith al-Libi is the press coverage. I've checked Fox, CNN, Times(London), BBC, and a Pakistani English newspaper.

There only seems to be mild mention of the fact that Pakistan does not want US forces operating in Pakistan and yet this drone took out the house. What gives? Is the MSM just quietly accepting that the GWOT has expanded into Pakistan? BTW, I think the Americans are making the correct moves here; I simply expected a different reaction from the MSM.

UN vandals spray graffiti on Sahara’s prehistoric art

Spectacular prehistoric depictions of animal and human figures created up to 6,000 years ago on Western Saharan rocks have been vandalised by United Nations peacekeepers, The Times has learnt.

Archaeological sites boasting ancient paintings and engravings of giraffes, buffalo and elephants have been defaced within the past two years by personnel attached to the UN mission, known by its French acronym, Minurso...

ET: Thanks for the Lorne Gunter link. He's a terrific columnist. However, in this instance, as argued elsewhere, I think he's wrong.

There's free speech.
There's incitement.
Then there's plot/operations.

Here's where he's wrong: He hasn't actually plotted to commit any or have others commit some.
You don't have to actually plot to be guilty of incitement. This is assuredly not in the same category as the Steyn-Levant cases. Plus: we are AT WAR.

On an earlier thread about name calling:
Isn't your cloud-dwellers tag name calling?

Egyptian security forces in Sinai detain first mixed Palestinian-al Qaeda team for attacks on Israel

Detained Friday, Feb. 1, they were carrying explosives for attacks on Israelis in Sinai and across border. Ten were described as Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, two from “the Gulf." DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources identify these two as Saudi members of al Qaeda, eight as belonging to Hamas’ military arm and the remaining two as Jihad Islami. This is the first proof of operational links in the Gaza Strip and Middle East between the Palestinian Hamas and its allies, including Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah, and al Qaeda...

re: the Edmunds story - Here in Toronto, disgraced forensic examiner Charles Smith apologized to a man who was convicted of the murder of his infant daughter on Smith's inept and incorrect testimony. The man spent 12 years in jail, lost his job, his home, and his family because of Smith's errors.

This is as bad as the case of the day care workers in Washington state who were accused of child abuse on trumped up testimony from a psychiatrist with an ax to grind. How many more peoples' lives are going to be destroyed by these charlatans?

How long before this comes to Canada

No fat people allowed: Only the slim will be allowed to dine in public!

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/01/no-fat-people-allowed-only-slim-will-be.html

For your weekend reading pleasure:

Robert Irwin, Islamic science and the long siesta

Did scientific progress in the Islamic world really grind to a halt after the twelfth century?

How Orwellian, external speed control for your car:

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=f414bfa3-279a-4c40-8e4c-3ed7f16d4524

Gen.Hillier denies rift between him and PMSH..cbc DOESN'T disect this to death,just more or less buries it.No analysis by Julie Van Bad Hair,no picking to death by Susan Whatever,or the new Lawand/Erickson,Rosemary Barton.Hmm,must be favorable to PMSH,so we won't talk about it.

Tony Blair's Britian worthy item:

‘Don’t teach children patriotism’

According to an article that appeared at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article3285615.ece, teaching patriotism is a bad thing. The Institute of Education obviously hasn't any researchers who were around to hear Churchill's speach in '40.

Britian has become embarassing to anyone of English heritage. From Empire to milk toast.

Me No Dhimmi - well, we'll have to agree to disagree with regard to Lorne Gunter's perspective - and mine.

The fact that we are 'at war' in Afghanistan doesn't negate Hossein's right to express himself about these events and its agenda. He's not plotting or inciting.

No, Cloud Dweller's is not name-calling. I'm not mocking the name of their prophet, I'm not mocking their pronunciation (as does Maz2) etc. I'm providing a visual metaphor for a particular mental state, the utopian mental state, which is amorphous and untouchable.

Ezra Levant has some excellent comments up today, on the sheer illogicality of the Alberta HRC case against someone who wrote a letter against homosexuality to a local paper. The Commission's 'judge', Lori Andreachuk, reaches enormous heights of illogical conclusions:

357. 'Exposure of __ to hatred and contempt trumps the freedom of speech afforded in the Charter"

357. "It cannot be the case that any speech wrapped in the 'guise' of politics or religion is beyond reproach by any legislation but the Criminal Code'

341. It is my view nonsensical to enact broad an paramount remedial legislation such as human rights legislation to protect the dignity and human rights of Albertans, only to have it overriden by the expression of opinion in all forms".

Whew. Can you believe what she is saying? She is saying that IF someone feels 'exposed to hatred or contempt', that this feeling trumps another person's right to free speech. According to her, there is a basic human right NOT TO BE OFFENDED. And that this right trumps anyone's free speech.

This reduces speech to platitudes; you cannot offend. Anyone. Because not being offended, according to her, is a 'basic human right'.

This same case saw the AG of Alberta make such astonishing statements as

240: "It is the Attorney General’s position that there is no such thing as "discriminatory political and religious expression", speech is either legitimate or it is discriminatory."

That's an AG speaking. Notice what he has said. He doesn't contrast 'discriminatory' with 'non-discriminatory' and 'legitimate' with 'non-legitimate'. Instead, he jumps the logical hill, and asserts that 'discriminatory speech' is not legitimate'. BUT, this means that the only speech that is 'legitimate' is 'non-offensive speech' because 'offensive speech' ..discriminates.

And who makes the decision about what is discriminatory or not? Certainly, the AHRC doesn't think the citizen does. The State makes that decision. And, according to Ms Andreachuk, this right trumps our Charter and 800 years of free speech.

The NDP are ridiculous. A few thousand terrorists are an insurmountable obstacle - we'll never beat them, we should just go home, say sorry etc... But the very climate of the earth, a 3 billion year old biosphere - we can change that in 47 months - damn the Tories for not having done it already.

Unrelated: An Iranian student in newfoundland has been handed a two month sentence for shoving his face into a woman's cleavage on an elevator. His defence "You can’t expect all males to control themselves when the breasts are out"

(Via AEI) Joshua Muravchik and Charles P. Schrom, In Search of Moderate Muslims

Ever since his first post-9/11 speech summoning the nation to a war against terrorism, President Bush has stressed that “our war is against evil, not against Islam.” Indeed, his administration has branded the terrorists as “traitors to their own faith”—outlaws who are “trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself.”

There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of such pronouncements. But they also reflect a strategic imperative—namely, to prevent the jihadists from attracting wide support in the Muslim world. The goal of Bush’s policy is, rather, to call forth the Muslim majority against the acts and ideology of the terrorists. As the Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes has put it: “radical Islam is the problem and moderate Islam the solution.”

This is one facet of U.S. policy on which there has been virtually no dissent. But it begs the question: what exactly is moderate Islam, and where can we find it?

Go back to that link for the Justice of Settled....or click on this one ....

Canoe Poll bottom left of page!

There's a poll about election issues!
What do you think?

From the wikipedia page:

"Political correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

charles macdonald - there was a more moderate Islam, focused around diverse interpretations of the texts in pre-19th c. Islam. This was overtaken by the fundamentalism of Wahhabism that rejected diverse interpretations and insisted on a fascist, ie, 'essentialist' notion of Islam.

There is now, however, a burgeoning re-emergence of the right-to-interpret (which means to debate and accept diversity of belief). You'll find this in various academic journals on Islam; the authors in them, are Muslims. For example, the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences.

Free Muslims Coalition, Muslim Canadian Congress, people like Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji, Salim Mansur (his columns are in the Toronto Sun), Tarek Fatah, and a lot of women.
It's there, it's fighting back against Wahhabism and fundamentalism.

Saudi Arabia, the centre of Wahhabism, is starting to 'crack' in its rigidity.

The ME states will, I think, move out of Islamic Fascism.
The real danger is in the non-Islamic states, that is, in the West. That's because the Islamic ideology in the West, because of multiculturalism, is isolated from the contextual constraints of the realities of the local economic, political and social environment.

The ideology is not forced to compromise because ofo the contextual effects of interaction with the local economy and political envt, ie, the existence of others who are not of the same religion and beliefs. It becomes 'unattached' to reality. It forms a Pure Ideal - that is seen by its followers as not amenable to interpretation or change. This becomes - a cult.

That's where the danger lies now. The West has to fight back; it must reject multiculturalism and insist on integration, assimilation and living a 'contextualized life'.

Watched the start of "The Hour" on CBC last night and saw Strombo talking about how environmental he is. It got me thinking, how many coal fired power plants does it take to run all of those million (or more) watt CBC transmitters all across Canada? I remember when they used to go off the air at night they showed a map of Ontario with a dot where every CBC transmitter is and it looked like a map of the milky way. This is something the media will probably never mention because they won't incriminate themselves but the environmental impact of just the CBC has to be HUGE.

No, Cloud Dweller's is not name-calling. I'm not mocking the name of their prophet, I'm not mocking their pronunciation (as does Maz2) etc. I'm providing a visual metaphor for a particular mental state, the utopian mental state,
Well, that's a neat self-serving rationalization, but it's still mockery, ET, and excellent mockery, if you'll forgive me for the compliment. :)

Yeah, "incitement" is a difficult concept to nail down. Let's just say, ala Sesame Stret, that one thing is not the same as another, to wit, this Muslim internet-nutter is not in the same category as Steyn and Levant. He repeatedly (not just in a single anger explosion) -- repeatedly -- calls for the murder of his own (?) country's soldiers who are at war. You are no doubt aware of the importance of the internet in the global jihad!

Sadly your kindness and consideration buys us nothing from these guys, only more contempt for our sucker-infidel, jizya-paying weakness.

winter arrives at the centre of the known universe

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/02/01/ontario-storm.html

"A Former Jihadist Validates Stephen Coughlin’s Thesis

The very courageous and forthright Dr. Tawfik Hamid has written a must read analysis in the Jerusalem Post, entitled “The development of a jihadist’s mind.” Although Dr. Hamid—a former member of the jihadist organization, al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya (Jamaah Islamiyah)— faces overwhelming obstacles—not the least of which will be the flimsy basis for his own albeit much needed re-interpretations of core Islamic theology/jurisprudence vis a vis the jihad, and its corollary institution, dhimmitude—he is possessed of unusual candor, and insight."

"Dr. Hamid has examined contemporary jihadist ideology by “immersion” in order to better comprehend the nexus between such teachings, and acts of violence. The conclusions of this former jihadist, turned introspective analyst, provide a remarkable validation of Major Coughlin’s own extensive independent findings (summarized earlier, here, and here). Hamid states plainly that,
These doctrines [of jihad] are not taken out of context, as many apologists for Islamism argue: They are central to the [Islamic] faith and ethics of millions of Muslims, and are currently being taught as part of the standard curriculum in many Islamic educational systems in the Middle East as well as in the West. Moreover, there is no single approved Islamic textbook that contradicts or provides an alternative to the [Qur’anic, and other sacred text] passages I have cited [advocating jihad violence, misogyny, Jew-hated, enslavement and rape of female war prisoners and the beating of women]. It has thus become clear to me that [jihadist] ideology is largely what is responsible for the so-called “clash of civilizations.”"

"Political scientist, lawyer, and jihad terrorism expert, Dr. Walid Phares recently expressed his puzzlement, at one level over the Coughlin affair: “I don’t understand why is there so much intellectual commotion about this matter in the West and in the US.” He added, “Muslim scholars and historians agree that the theological texts have also a military dimension. In Islamic studies there is no debate about that. So why is there one in non-Muslim research and political circles, particularly in America? Major Coughlin was studying the texts used by the Jihadists to call for military action.”"
http://tinyurl.com/2cr9j6 (AndrewBostomblog)

"The development of a jihadist's mind
TAWFIK HAMID , THE JERUSALEM POST

What occupies the mind of a jihad-driven Muslim?"
http://tinyurl.com/2wby3q

Remind me again why a little global warming would be bad?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080201/wl_nm/china_weather_dc_42;_ylt=AoGFRqDBFejVpR5lr3RUcbX0kPUI

kingstonlad: the Movie about Dallaire "Shake hands with the Devil" is released to dvd this week, I have not heard to much about this movie. I always thought it curious that Dallaire became a Senator.

Now using mentally handicapped women to do their dirty work. I guess the terrorists are all inclusive.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UHKP281&show_article=1&catnum=0

Plus... newspapers falling fast.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/earnings/2008-01-31-ny-times_N.htm?csp=34

Drunk Reserve Loser Freezes His Baby Girls

This just makes me sick! I hope there's a special place in hell with a space waiting just for him.

We (whitey) can't even adopt a native child because the damn tribes are "preventing loss of the children to non-native adopters".

http://www.adoption.ca/news/031001ytsa.htm

There's two little girls (read "human beings") that deserved much better but the First Nations "cultural protectors" are too racist to do the right things that ultimately could have saved those girls. Bastards.

I hope the Sask. govmnt finds some guts and lays charges. If Latimer has to sit in jail for killing his girl, this guy should do double.

"kandahar mission impossible without combat" --Hillier
CTV.ca 02/01/08
"Canadian soldiers cannot stay in kandahar and be expected to avoid combat"- Hillier

me no dhimmi - could you explain how banning this guy's free expression of his opinions would stop jihadism in the West? He can send it in code; he can send it via email; he can..whatever.

The way to stop jihadism in the West is by refusing to isolate it, either within the protectionism of multiculturalism, or, within the isolation of the Secret Cult.

I am, by the way, suggesting that Islamic fascism in the ME will be reduced to a peripheral ratio by exposing it to democracy, capitalism, the emergence of a middle class. Already we see that in the ME, the fights are amongst Muslims; that has to be dealt with by themselves.

It's the isolation of the ideology in the West that concerns me. Isolating an ideology from its political, economic and social realities transforms it rapidly into a Purist Ideal that is effectively frozen and kept from 'defamatory contact' with reality.

So, isolating this young man's opinions from derision by non-Muslims AND Muslims, will move it into that Purist zone rather than exposing it to dissipation from others.

Yes, I see your point about my 'Cloud Dwellers' and 'name-calling', but I think the metaphor has a legitimate descriptive connection with the people who think in a utopian manner. Calling the political cartoons 'Motune' has no such descriptive capacity. It's just making fun of their 'prophet'. Making fun of the way someone speaks, isn't descriptive of their thoughts.

Warren is at it again In an "open letter to the Liberal party" - national newswatch feb 01/08
Keith Martin is not adhearing to the parties beliefs.

Charles Macdonald - just to continue about the moderate Islamic movement - here's a bit from the current issue of the American Journal of Islamic Social Studies:

Intra-Muslim Conflicts: A Linguistic Representation...and the journal says: "witness the negative effects that Islamo-facism has had on the Muslim world and the concomitant rise in anti-American/western sentiment." They admit to and reject Islamic fascism.

"Our next piece investigates how Shi`i jurists have interpreted the concept of bada (the idea that God alters His own decrees) over time. Cemil Hakyemez’s “Bada and Its Role in the Debates over Shi`i Doctrine” concludes that over time, jurists settled on an understanding of bada that gave precedence to a rational interpretation of the doctrine over other possible interpretations."

Note that they are open to 'rationalism' and 'interpretations'...

My point is only that this movement is there, it is public, it is becoming more public but it needs help from the West. That is, it needs to be ACCEPTED as possible by the West. If we in the West define Islam as unreformable, then we act as multiculturalists. We locked them into an isolate ghetto, and their ideology moves into a Purist Form.

Then, extremism needs to be REJECTED by the West. We do this by rejecting multiculturalism and its concomitant political correctness. We expose extremism by permitting free speech - and exposing that free speech to other's free speech in their rejecting it.

The agenda of the Human Rights Commissions, and such decision-makers as Lori Andreachuk of the Alberta HRC, actually enables extremism because it rejects the power of rejection! That is, it outlaws the right of people to reject an ideology, because it fears that such rejection will 'offend' someone's feelings.

Notice, of course, that the HRC has now gotten itself into a marvellous bind; how the Gods of Olympus must be laughing. IF, according to the AHRC, 357, "it cannot be the case that any speech wrapped in the guise of politics or religion is beyond reproach by any legislation but the Criminal Code', and, IF exposure of _ to hatred and contempt trumps the freedom of speech afforded in the Charter" - then, ALL speech, if it offends someone, is unacceptable.

One must indeed ask of the Commissioners of the HRC
"How did you find your way down to the dark, where the dimwitted dead are camped forever, the after images of used-up men"? (Homer, Odyssey)

Online Wheat board poll:

Should the federal government remove barley from under the control of the Canadian Wheat Board.

68% say yes as of right now.

Go vote at

http://www.swbooster.com:80/

"Major snowstorm rolls into Ontario
Globe and Mail, Canada - 3 hours ago
Wind-whipped snow and whiteout condit

...-

"If the Sun’s magnetic activity does not increase, and it goes dim for an extended period, it will get quite chilly.
In the meantime the Canada Space Agency, the Royal Observatory Greenwich and the US Air Force Solar Optical Observing Network are all keeping an eye on the Sun."

"Sun's low magnetic activity may portend an ice age

The Canadian Space Agency’s radio telescope has been reporting Flux Density Values so low they will mean a mini ice age if they continue."
http://www.britsattheirbest.com/001645.php

Igg y is in Edmonton today talking to the Liberal party faithful. He says in his blog that in order to be a truly national party they mneed seats in Edmonton.
THEN he says that some lady who is a nurse and a Liberal candidate drew great appluase for her impassioned plea for elder home care!!!!!

What part of provincial and even municipal jurisdiction do the Liberals NOT understand.

SHEEEESH!

Muslim Islamist murderers have been doing this for centuries.
...-

Al Qaeda Uses Handicapped Women in Mass Murder Attack

It’s an appalling and sickening story, but it’s also an indicator of great desperation on Al Qaeda’s part: Al Qaeda use two ‘Down’s syndrome’ women to blow up 73 people in Baghdad markets.

Two women who reportedly had Down’s syndrome may have been unwilling suicide bombers in twin blasts that killed up to 73 people at pet markets in Baghdad today.

A female bomber killed 45 people at a packed pet market in Baghdad this, police said, in the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital in six months.

A separate bombing shortly after killed 20 people and wounded scores at a bird market in southern Baghdad, police said. The death toll from the two bombings increased throughout the day to at least 73.

The chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brigadier General Qassim al-Moussawi, claimed the female bombers apparently had Down’s syndrome and the explosives were detonated by remote control, indicating the women may not have been willing attackers, according to his office.
http://tinyurl.com/2cwm25 (lgf)

ET, as the interpretation and practice of Islam varies through time, between sects and from place to place, plainly some degree of reform is possible. However, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan and others would unquestionably warn that hardline Wahhabi-style fundamentalism is the default position for Islam.

I personally do not question the bona fides of groups such as the Muslim Canadian Congress. I question how much influence they have in the Muslim community at present and how effective they can be in assisting us against extremism and terrorism. Nonetheless, I hope to see their membership and influence increase at the expense of groups such as the Canadian Islamic Congress.

True moderates may find themselves in a precarious position. They are "unarmed prophets", to borrow Machiavelli's phrase. They are always open to attack as apostates, and may find that the "Muslim street" regards them as too "modern" to be worthy of support. Conversely, Western society may not regard them as moderate enough, and therefore offer no assistance.

We should send Dion and Layton to negotiate "peace" with these people in person.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7221639.stm

Vile. Despicable. Vermin.

Why do the leftards excuse it?

charles macdonald - no, I disagree; Wahhabism is not the default position of Islam. That's because it's a recent 20th c phenomenon. So, it can hardly be the default.

I think that the Muslim community is starting to, and expanding, in its own fight against Wahhabism. We in the West have to assist them in this endeavour, by acknowledging that Islam CAN, (and must) reform and modernize. And by rejecting multicultural isolationism of Muslims within our western nations.

This fight against the recent fundamentalism of Islam (Wahhabism or Islamic fascism) is now an internal fight amongst Muslims. Of course, it is difficult; it's between the fundamentalists who are radical cultists - and those who opt for reason and compatibility with others. But, it's a fight that has to be carried out.

Within the Islamic world, Al Qaeda is becoming less idealistic and more depraved - eg, using two young girls with Downs syndrome as suicide bombers...against other Muslims in Iraq. That has moved the ideology into a pure pathological criminality and will be rejected by the local population.

As I keep saying, the worrisome area for this pathology to move to is the West, because multicultural isolation enables the ideology to move into its purely intellectual form, unrestrained by economic and social contextual realities. That's why the West has to reject multicultural isolation, insist on its own history and heritage of the rule of law, freedom of speech, and integration of people into a civic society.

ET: "...now an internal fight amongst Muslims..."

Unfortunately, the Wahhabis (and others of that ilk) too often hold the initiative. The Muslim Canadian Congress has repeatedly denounced the takeover of Canadian mosques by Saudi or Iranian operatives. I took careful note of Syed Soharwardy's initial response to the human rights complaints against him: the complainants are Wahhabi but trying to gain control of a Sufi mosque. (The complaints do seem tailored to extract the maximum sympathy from a Western audience, but perhaps I am unduly suspicious.)

As to the human rights commissions: If asked, Soharwardy would certainly affirm in the strongest terms that he is a "moderate Muslim" (and, in my preliminary assessment of the imam's teachings, he scores fairly well on the six-point test of moderation proposed by Muravchik and Schrom). But he is under a religious obligation to defend Islam, and recourse to the commission is part of the "second stage of jihad" (his terminology) in accordance with Canadian law. Despite this, his complaint against Ezra Levant sticks in the craw of many Canadians. This is one reason I point to the precarious position of the moderates (assuming arguendo that Soharwardy is genuinely one).

But Soharwardy isn't in actual fact, a moderate, so it's illogical to assume he is.

"Did scientific progress in the Islamic world really grind to a halt after the twelfth century?" - Charles MacDonald

Reason is subordinate to revelation in Islam. Therefore, science is incompatible with fundamental Islam and has been erroneously attributed to it. One could say that scientific achievement occuring in Islamic countries wasn't because of Islam, rather it was despite Islam.

The Islamic scholar, Ibn Khaldun, summarized it this way, "one must be on guard by completely abandoning any speculation about (causes)...We have been commanded completely to abandon and suppress any speculation about [causes] and to direct ourselves to the Causer of all causes, so that the soul will be firmly coloured with the oneness of God. A man who stops at the causes is frustrated. He is rightly (said to be) unbeliever …Therefore we are forbidden by Muhammad to study causes."

----------------------

"there was a more moderate Islam, focused around diverse interpretations of the texts in pre-19th c. Islam. This was overtaken by the fundamentalism of Wahhabism that rejected diverse interpretations and insisted on a fascist, ie, 'essentialist' notion of Islam."

Apart from some sects, like the Mu‘tazilites, this statement, as a generalization, is false. There may have been moderate sects here and there, however fundamental Islam was the most practiced form of Islam thoughout history. Furthermore, there is only one Quran and it is not moderate.

It is also a blasphemy and a major sin punishable by death to mess with the 'unmitigated' word of allah - which remains for all Muslims, and not just "fundamentalists", the uncreated word of God Himself. Its ideas are, according to all Muslims, absolutely true and beyond any criticism, which is valid for all times and all places.

For example, Ibn Warraq states: "Many liberal Muslims (if that is not a contradiction in terms) get excited by ijma, sensing that somehow therein lies their only hope of modernising Islam. However, historically, the notion of consensus (ijma) has nothing democratic about it ; the masses are expressly excluded. It is the consensus of suitably qualified and learned authorities. The doctrine of the infallibility of the consensus, far from allowing some liberty of reasoning as one might have expected, worked in favour of a progressive narrowing and hardening of doctrine."

He further states: "Liberal Muslims think they are more liberated than their "fundamentalist" cousins because they (the Liberal Muslims) believe that by some creative re-interpretation of the Koran they will thereby bring the Koran, albeit screaming and kicking, into the 21st Century. First, it does not seem to strike these misguided liberal Muslims that they are still prisoners to an obscure, incoherent, bizarre mediaeval text, a curious amalgam of Talmudic Judaism, apocryphal Christianity and pagan superstitions."

"people like Hirsi Ali...fighting back against Wahhabism and fundamentalism." It is false to claim that Hirsi Ali is a proponent of Quranic reinterpretation. If you'd taken the time to actually read her, you'd find that she is against the foundationally violent ideology of Islam as clearly stated in the triology. And doesn't believe in so-called 'moderate' Islam.

For example, how do you reinterpret something like this? ix.29,30: "Declare war upon those to whom the Scriptures were revealed but believe neither in God nor the Last Day ,and who do not forbid that which God and His Apostle have forbidden, and who refuse to acknowledge the true religion [Islam] until they pay the poll-tax without reservation and are totally subjugated."

The answer is, for a reformed and civilized Islam, you have to remove it along with hundreds of other verses.

Mohammad would have to be rejected as the "most perfect example" and the one every Muslim is commanded to emulate, as well. There are some Islamic sects/movements such as the Quran only, 'Quraniyeen,' who can't reconcile the evil actions of Mohammad in the Hadith and Sira, with their faith, so they've rejected those books. Although, they're considered heretical by the Islamic mainstream.

What 'reformislam' and others are suggesting would require the rejection of quite a bit of the trilogy and Mohammad as the example to follow.

ET, let's examine his credentials as a moderate Muslim using the test proposed by Muravchik and Schrom:

• Does it both espouse democracy and practice democracy within its own structures?
• Does it eschew violence in pursuit of its goals?
• Does it condemn terrorism?
• Does it advocate equal rights for minorities?
• Does it advocate equal rights for women?
• Does it accept a pluralism of interpretations within Islam?

Democracy: Probably not within the mosque. However, he says that Canada allows Muslims to practise their religion more perfectly than in any nominally Islamic state, where dictatorship or one-party rule and corruption prevail.

Violence: Yes. He says that the first and second stages of jihad must be conducted in accordance with the civil law; only at the third stage (war between nations) is violence permitted.

Terrorism: Yes. He regularly condemns terrorism, and indeed founded Muslims Against Terrorism in the 1990s.

Minorities: Says the alleged horrors of dhimmitude are illusory.

Women: Not exactly. He teaches that, for example, the injunction to beat a disobedient wife allows only a symbolic expression of anger with a "toothbrush." Although wearing a hijab is a religious obligation for a woman, he teaches that she cannot be forced to do so. His own wife did not wear one when they came to Calgary.

Other interpretations: In his famous encounter with Irshad Manji, he was at least prepared to listen to her.

So, without concrete evidence of utterances or (preferably) actions inconsistent with his avowed views, he's a more moderate man than I am, Gunga Din. As I say, we may find even moderate Islam distinctly unpalatable.

ET,

"I am, by the way, suggesting that Islamic fascism in the ME will be reduced to a peripheral ratio by exposing it to democracy, capitalism, the emergence of a middle class. Already we see that in the ME, the fights are amongst Muslims; that has to be dealt with by themselves."

This is a false premise. The Shia and Sunni have been going at each other since the appointment of the first Caliphs.

"Wahhabism is not the default position of Islam. That's because it's a recent 20th c phenomenon. So, it can hardly be the default."

Other than the name, this statement is patently false. 19th century Wahhabism, like the later Khomeinism, etc., requires nothing more or less than following the exact interpretation of the Quran and Mohammad's sayings and actions as recorded in the aHadith and Sira. This is fundamental Islam which has been followed throughout history.

Citoyen/Citizen Dion/Dion: Mr. Dithers II, aka Hamlette.
To cut or to run; to run or to cut; zat ees da question; whether eets ignobler in da mind?
...-

By John Ivison, National Post

Stéphane Dion’s office took issue with this morning’s column* that depicted the Liberal leader as a Hamlet-type figure, dithering whether to be or not to be in favour of the recommendations in the Manley report on Canada’s future role in Afghanistan.

Dion has articulated a position -- which was in his submission to the Manley panel -- and that is a movement from combat to training, wrote Leslie Swartman, his genial director of communications. “The broad strokes of that opinion have not changed and he’s spoken several times in scrums of his opinion that the combat mission should be over in February, 2009 and that that date should mark the transition point into a training mission,” she wrote in an e-mail. “What continues to disturb him is the fact that no deadline was given for the mission and that the concept of rotation in NATO missions was dissed.”

We take Swartman at her word that a meeting with NDP leader Jack Layton next week does not signal a swing toward a unilateral withdrawal from Afghanistan, as is prescribed by Layton.

But the best that can be said about Dion’s position -- training not combat, and a rotation out of Kandahar -- is that if he’s consistent, he’s consistently unrealistic.
As General Rick Hillier, the chief of the defence staff, made clear when he talked to reporters this morning, there is no overnight transition from combat to training. “If your’re in Kandahar, you’re going to be in a combat operation. The Afghan army is not capable of handling security by itself at the moment. If it was we’d have completed our job,” he said.

When it comes to rotating outside Kandahar in the south of Afghanistan, Hillier was equally blunt. “There are no jobs outside the south where you need troops. President Hamid Karzai has said that Kandahar is his centre of gravity and there is not the same need in the north or the west.”

Hillier gave a virtuoso performance, in which he said he would judge any future course of action by the yardstick of whether he could tell military families that the loss of their loved ones was not in vain.

And on the suggestion that he had called Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a fury over the reported comments of Harper’s director of communications, Sandra Buckler, on the detainees issue, he was candid: “I was on a beach in the Dominican Republic on my third rum and coke and, frankly, didn’t give a damn.”
http://tinyurl.com/2vy4ne (natpost)

*What a piece of work is Dion
John Ivison, National Post
http://tinyurl.com/2ucjrh

Syed Soharwardy is organizing Calgary's first ever Muslim women's convention. Here’s the 411 on the conference from Sun Media.

"Muslim women are equal participants in our affairs, are equally respected in the Muslim community," said Soharwardy.

For the past three years, a similar convention has been held in Mississauga, Ont., said Soharwardy.

He said another goal of the meet is to encourage women to bring their domestic problems to the fore, while encouraging participants to spread a message of enlightenment to their home countries.

"They'll go back to the countries of their birth and challenge those people who are still abusing women," said Soharwardy.

It's hoped the gathering will also help women overcome the cultural shock felt by some immigrants unaccustomed to playing an active role in the community, he said.

But, but, isn't Soharwardy facing human rights complaints for discrimination against women? Hissing snake speak with forked tongue.

Well, irwin daisy, as usual, we'll have to agree to disagree. I do wish, however, that you would preface your statements with some phrase such as 'I think that' or 'I suggest that'. You provide your statements in a fundamentalist manner, ie, as if they were the ultimate truth. I happen to disagree with your statements.

I disagree with your insistence that the only 'true' Islam is the fundamentalist version.

I disagree with your rejection of the viability of 'interpretation' of the Islamic texts by Muslim scholars.

There are more people thinking about Islam than Ibn Warraq.

Provide some proof that I haven't read Hirsi Ali.

What's your point about the difficulty of reforming Islam? Are you saying that it is impossible? That it shouldn't be attempted?

With regard to your view that I am wrong about the internal confrontation within the Muslim world leading to a beneficial result - that's your opinion. I happen to stand by my opinion, based on an understanding of the demographic changes and subsequent economic and political changes in the area since WWII.

I also disagree with your view that fundamentalist Islam has been the default position.

So- we'll have to 'agree to disagree'. We have very little, intellectually, in common.

Charles Macdonald -
Democracy - if he can't allow 'local' democracy, then, he's not a follower of democracy.

Violence - since his view is an essentialist history, ie, a linear movt of history, aka Marxism, then, violence (akin to the struggle between classes) is a requirement.

Terrorism - what's the definition? What's the difference between it and 'violence'?

Minorities - since he considers minorities as subservient, regardless of 'horrors', then, he's obviously against equal rights.

Women - heh, a toothbrush. Sure. The hijab is not a religious obligation.

Allowing multiple interpretations of Islam?

No- using your list of attributes, he's NOT a moderate, but quite extreme. On a scale of one to ten, I'd say he's at least an eight.

Da judge: Federal Court Justice Eleanor Dawson, appointed by Liberal AdScam Chretien.
...-

Court frees terror suspect Harkat from jail, confines him to house arrest
OTTAWA - Suspected al-Qaida collaborator Mohamed Harkat is being freed from jail, but will remain under house arrest until his next hearing.
http://www.680news.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n020126A

"In War against Islamism, We Must Listen to the Words of Our Enemies"

M. Zuhdi Jasser, chairman of American Islamic Forum for Democracy asks some very important questions for the American Presidential candidates:

President Bush has stated in his SOTU address that, “We are engaged in the defining ideological struggle of the 21st Century. The terrorists oppose every principle of humanity and decency that we hold dear. Yet in this war on terror, there is one thing we and our enemies agree on: In the long run, men and women who are free to determine their own destinies will reject terror and refuse to live in tyranny. And that is why the terrorists are fighting to deny this choice to the people in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Palestinian Territories. And that is why, for the security of America and the peace of the world, we are spreading the hope of freedom.”

1. How would you seek to spread the hope of freedom?

2. Why hasn’t the Bush administration succeeded in this pursuit of spreading the hope of freedom? Will your administration identify the incompatibility of political Islam with true freedom? Can we spread the hope of freedom without identifying the great obstacles within political Islam and its theocratic ideology which impedes freedom?

3. The Public Diplomacy program for all intents and purposes has failed to both spread the ideas of freedom and improve the image of America in the West. How would you execute a more effective PD program?

4. Have al-Hurra TV and Radio SAWA been effective in their mission? Why not? Would it not be more effective to take on the Islamists in their own media and challenge their ideas on their turf rather than our own media which none of them watch?

5. Is the War on Terror appropriately named? If not, what should it be named?

6. What is the relationship between secular dictatorship and monarchies in the Muslim world and radical Islamism? Shouldn’t both heads of the snake be equally condemned in this war of ideas?

7. What will you do to defend anti-Islamist Muslims in the Muslim world? Will you make a promise now to unwaveringly defend the rights of liberty-minded dissidents in the Muslim world? For example, how would you have responded to the jailing of Egyptian blogger Abdelkarim Soliman by the Mubarak regime in February 2007?

8. Will you support liberty-minded Muslims in Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or Iran? Or will your administration continue to appear to lift up the Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood?

9. Will you remain silent about the global scourge of Wahhabism and its source – Saudi Arabia – while performing photo-ops with the Kingdom? Will we allow oil supply to dictate our ideological confrontation (or lack thereof) with the Islamists, Salafists, and Jihadists.

10. On the domestic front, how will you hold American Muslim organizations accountable for their stances on Islamism and their dangerously vague and non-specific condemnations of terrorism and terrorist organizations? Where does political correctness end and the security of our nation begin? Will you challenge American Muslims to join our nation in this ideological battle and take on the responsibility of leading an anti-Islamist movement from within the Muslim consciousness?

11. International Islamist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood are now conveniently condemning terrorism in order to mainstream themselves and fit into the Western construct of anti-terrorism. Is anti-terrorism enough? Shouldn’t anti-Islamism be a more defining litmus test for the organizations and networks we positively engage?

12. Should we remain dangerously silent under the false guise of political correctness? Why would you not critically engage countries which enforce medieval laws against their populations in the name of Islam? Sudan tried to enforce medieval blasphemy laws against a British teacher. A Saudi court turned a rape victim into a criminal and an Afghani court tried a citizen for apostasy laws after he left Islam. At what point is it incumbent upon the President of the United States to set the stage for the contest of ideas between the west and our United Nations Declaration of Human rights and the Islamist world?

rove, you just don't get it because you believe all the lies and propaganda. Why would anybody let some second-rate lackey at Environment Canada say something as stupid as "this recent cold spell is a direct result of man-made Global Warming" when it cannot be proven?

If only they could muzzle the CBC.

ET: Have you read any Ibn Warraq? BTW, he's got a new book out Defending the West which is intended as a Edward Said antidote. Might be worth a try.

Taking deep breath, resolving to not get on the "moderate muslim" merry-go-round except to repeat that the folks who really, really, really know the subject say there's no moderate or extremist or militant or fascist or fundamentalist Islam, only Islam.

me no dhimmi - yes, I've read Ibn Warraq, and I'm aware of his new book. He's not the only one to confront the idealist postmodernism of Said, thank goodness.

Don't agree with you about the 'only Islam' without the contextual adjectives. I'm always cautious of decontactualized ideologies - heh - I'm against Plato.

Romney has a tv ad http://www.mittromney.com/Downloads/index which I just saw on Fox News. He says something to the effect that it's ridiculous for Hillary to claim that her time as first lady prepares her for being president. Except he used the term 'internship' to describe her time as first lady. That's gotta hurt.

ET: Yeah, what little I know, I don't like Plato either. One of my daughters has a MA in Philosophy (started but quit her PhD)
and is a Plato fan. I thought he was a fascist! My other daughter who lives safely in NYC thinks Giuliani is a fascist. So that'll give you some insight into my general confusion.

BTW, Ayn Rand, like yourself, is a great Aristotle fan -- uses Aristotilean (sp?) references as Part titles in Atlas Shrugged.

And oh, I ordered Popper's The Open Society at amazon.ca. Thanks.

"I disagree with your insistence that the only 'true' Islam is the fundamentalist version."

I have never said this. However, there is only one version of the Quran, aHadith and Sira - and if the texts are taken fundamentally and followed exactly, the resulting actions are what we are seeing in terror, misogyny, racism, bigotry, supremacism and fascism throughout history to this day.

"I disagree with your rejection of the viability of 'interpretation' of the Islamic texts by Muslim scholars."

Some Muslim scholars. Do you want to put yours up against mine? In fact, attempt to reinterpret the Quranic verse I provided as an example.

"There are more people thinking about Islam than Ibn Warraq."

Yes there are. But he's pretty smart, extremely informed and very credible. I could have quoted many others.

"Provide some proof that I haven't read Hirsi Ali."

Your inclusion of her name in your statement.

"What's your point about the difficulty of reforming Islam? Are you saying that it is impossible? That it shouldn't be attempted?"

Read their texts. Listen to what is preached. Pay attention to what most scholars say (rather than apologists). Read what credible eyewitnesses have said throughout history. And, most importantly, understand that Islamic belief is based on the premise that the Quran is the unmitigated and uncreated word of Allah, beyond criticism, for now and forever.

However, having said that, I don't believe it's impossible, but it is difficult. For example, the NT and Christ's life example did not have to be edited, revised, or changed in any way to allow the enlightenment and modern thought, because it is not incompatible with rational reason, human rights, democracy and accepted civility. The reform was in the extraneous dogma of various Christian institutions such as the Catholic Church.

"With regard to your view that I am wrong about the internal confrontation within the Muslim world leading to a beneficial result - that's your opinion. I happen to stand by my opinion, based on an understanding of the demographic changes and subsequent economic and political changes in the area since WWII."

That wasn't what I said. I said that it was false for you to use internal Islamic confrontation to prove your point.

"I also disagree with your view that fundamentalist Islam has been the default position."

So. Prove it. I have proven the fundamentalist, or correct interpretation of the trilogy in action throughout history in numerous posts.

"So- we'll have to 'agree to disagree'. We have very little, intellectually, in common."

Agreed. On this issue, "cloud dweller" comes to mind.

Will Shakespeare: "To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come* ...-

One eye open

The recent attacks on crowds at the pet market in Baghdad by two retarded women wired up as bombs by al-Qaeda are reminders that we are in an era of "persistent" conflict. Unlike wars between nations (like the Second World War) which are sharply defined, conflicts between communities and subnational groups drag on for a long time. There will probably never be a V-Terror Day. Participants at a recent Symposium at Fort Leavenworth examined the issue of how the Armed Forces should be structured to fight a "persistent conflict" -- one which literally doesn't go away.

One of the major bones of contention was whether the Armed Forces should have two separate components: one to fight regular kinetic wars and another geared toward stability and security force missions. [...]

The Armed Forces are invaluable in confronting the spasms of violence. The hard part now lies in putting society, not on a permanent 'war footing' -- that term has probably gone out with the Second World War -- but in a continuing state of wariness, where even in sleep part of it remains awake. That's a change no armed force can effect. It's a task that a society must willingly undertake for itself. ...-
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2008/02/one-eye-open.html
*Hamlet

Because we have a a "persistent conflict -- one which literally doesn't go away," Jack Layton and Dizzy Mayday want us to run away - right now.

That's their idea of leadership.

It's an ideological battle, veiled by religion and propelled by leftist anarchy, multiculturalism and historical revisionism. It's also a language battle, in terms of definitions.

I think. (hat tip to ET).

"language sets the boundaries of our world."

me no dhimmi - very glad you ordered Popper's The Open Society. Wait til you read how he describes Plato as totalitarian, and takes him right apart. Really excellent.

[I don't discuss politics with my kids, though they certainly aren't leftists!.. but one knows far more of Aristotle and the scholastics, as well as Indian logic than I ever will.Parental pride remark..]

Let me know what you think of Popper!

Hydropower engineer Likes move to clean power.

Anonymous has left a new comment on the post *House Passes 15% Renewable Energy by 2020*:USA

I think that if we develop the renewable energy business this will help not only the environment but also the western countries economies.

Instead of giving enormous amounts of money to the arabic countries we will invest in our companies and technicians.

Being a hydropower engineer (www.pietrangeli.it) I have seen thousands of people who lost their jobs because of the low oil prices. Eventually some jobs are being recovered in these days.
=================== [Italian]

Big beautiful Photo group...
The Ethiopia II Plant is similar to Beauharnios Quebec Plant I worked on when I was a kid in my late teens. [Seaway-BIG]
Good times ahead for many. = TG

Trusty CBC said E$$onMobile had profits of 11 point something $Billion? . . .

Not true!

Ask yourself: what could possibly be better for Exxon Mobil than posting a record profit of $39.5 billion in 2006? Tough one, huh?

How about beating that record-setting profit number with a new record of $40.6 billion the following year. Yeah, that'd do it! We've been covering the on-going record prices that a barrel of crude has been garnering over the last few months, and you can bet that Exxon has been tracking that same thing.
==================== AutoblogGreen.com

Worlds largest corporate profit.
Guess they meant just Canada and failed to say so. = TG

Tony - who is this guy Exxon Mobil? .. and why can't you share in the profits by buying some shares?

Welcome to my killfile again.

Because I*m heavily invested in Lithium ..

Well not really. Just a case of wishing we were better able to function when the inevitable refined petroleum cut-off emergency occurs.= TG

General Rick Hillier spoke brilliantly this morning and made me proud I once served.

**As General Rick Hillier, the chief of the defence staff, made clear when he talked to reporters this morning, there is no overnight transition from combat to training. **If your’re in Kandahar, you’re going to be in a combat operation. The Afghan army is not capable of handling security by itself at the moment. If it was we’d have completed our job,** he said.

When it comes to rotating outside Kandahar in the south of Afghanistan, Hillier was equally blunt.

**There are no jobs outside the south where you need troops. President Hamid Karzai has said that Kandahar is his centre of gravity and there is not the same need in the north or the west.**

================== Text, thanks Maz2

There was some Liberal theorist idiot making a long, windy and very elegant speech about rotating troops around Afghanistan.

I stated that was a stupid idea. Seems Hillier thinks so too. = TG

Sperm Made From Female Bone Marrow, Men Obsolete?

"British scientists have discovered a way to turn female bone marrow into sperm, allowing women to reproduce without the need of male companionship..." read more

Sperm Made From Female Bone Marrow, Men Obsolete?

"British scientists have discovered a way to turn female bone marrow into sperm, allowing women to reproduce without the need of male companionship..." read more

(link fixed)