Jeremayakovka

Kafir Caveat Again

David Solway again on Tariq Ramadan, whose memoir could justly be titled Dreams From My Grandfather.

Paris Syndrome, Once Removed

Every new generation constitutes a wave of savages who must be civilized by their families, schools, and churches. 

-- "The Vertical Invasion of the Barbarians," from Robert Bork's
Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline

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Earlier this month Gates of Vienna posted video footage of the vicious assault of an unsuspecting white man by a mixed-race group of teenage boys on a Paris public bus. Gates also blogged a Figaro interview with the victim [French only], venturing to title it “Paris Syndrome” [with translation]. The man's attempt to explain away the incident and to defuse its media attention recalled to Gates the “Stockholm Syndrome” whereby hostages identify with their keepers. Here are related remarks based on a disturbing experience I had recently on a Montreal public bus.

It was between 10:00 and 11:00 P.M. on a very dark, very cold, but otherwise calm mid-winter Saturday night on the French-speaking, east side of town. The bus was about three-fourths full. As a group, we were tranquil, a bit subdued even, owing to the hour and the cold and our proper manners. At one stop six to eight teenage boys, aged 14-17, boarded in a tight group. Based on their visible traits, I guessed that they (or their parents) had been born in North Africa, in Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia (also known as the Maghreb). My Algerian-born companion confirmed this based on her recognition of their accents.

From start to finish, these boys' presence was a complete nuisance, perhaps a criminal one. They clustered at the front, just behind the driver's seat, verbally one-upping each other with cackles, shouts, and taunts. At one point, they belted out quasi-military chants, to the tune ofI ain't sure, but I been told/Navy wings are made of gold...., in Maghrebi-Jouale (Jouale: Quebec French). I don't dispute that teenage boys the world over have a real need to “strut their stuff,” including in groups and, as appropriate, in public. When I was their age, I too did nearly the same thing with male friends, including light-hearted variations on the same refrain from An Officer and a Gentleman (albeit within a track team's workout discipline).

But it got worse. Some boys accosted each other with pokes and slaps on the head. Most aggravatingly, one pounded on the wheel casing as if it were a drum. Another opened a window to stick his arm and head out (uncovered and in deep-freeze temperature, with no regard whatsoever for nearby passengers). One even separated himself from the group to take a seat, surprisingly capable of embarrassment. Or maybe just fatigue. After the longest 15 minutes in my recent memory, they tumbled, as one, off the bus at some stop.

Had their conduct been criminal? Possibly. If so, they had disturbed the peace and, perhaps, interfered with the driver's safe operation of the bus. I have no problem with letting “boys be boys." What I have a problem with is boys being boys in a way that will never lead them to becoming responsible men. One of these ways is when boys are a nuisance, a disturbance, and an endangerment to public transport – to the vehicle, the operator, the passengers, and of course to themselves.

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May all of the above be a point of departure, not some hand-wringing, irresponsible “conclusion.”

The point of departure is that for a quarter of an hour this Maghrebi mini-mob entirely dominated the environment of the bus, and no one made a peep or lifted a finger to intervene. Remarkably, sadly, the one with the most authority to do so – the driver – did nothing. In Oakland, California I have seen (African-American) drivers of public buses – men and women who know better than to tolerate such behavior – pull over, halt the bus, and announce that they won't budge until disrupting (African-American) teens either stop or get off. Guess what? It works. Oh, and did I say that the Montreal bus driver was white? If you had guessed that, you were right (not necessarily white, and certainly not racist).

As far as I could tell, none of these North African teens were drunk or high. Their deliberate behavior was as self-conscious as it was anti-social. “Root causes” are a total failure of family, school, civic, peer (and, if applicable, mosque or church) pressure on the boys to conduct themselves decently in public. I have to wonder, however, whether there is a solution? Because from the driver and the passengers (myself included) none was forthcoming.

Sitting at arm's length, I kept my eyes on them the whole time, prepared to stand up and encourage others to do so, should they have picked on anyone outside their group. (Half the passengers were middle-aged or older.) Admittedly, I shrank from doing what I believed, still believe, was right: to push past them and demand that the driver assert his authority (as some of his Oakland colleagues do). The fact is, these boys were intimidating. As we saw recently in Paris, anything can happen in such a situation. Or rather, as we saw recently reported in Paris – because this stuff goes on every day in European and North American cities that host North African immigrant populations.

The issue is one of authority, in its abstract sense and its real manifestations. Specifically, it is the failure by everyone concerned to instill, to assert, to abide by authority. That the situation didn't further break down or escalate this time was due to the whimsy of those teens only, not to any demonstrated capacity or virtue on the part of the mostly native-born, mostly-ethnically-white Montrealers. It is a situation of neglect and impotence on many levels that – for lack of unshakable assertions of authority – invites aggravation and aggression with no end in sight.

It's Paris Syndrome, once removed. And it's ongoing in a city near you.

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Related: "Is Paris Praying?"

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(This post has been revised since its first appearance.)

Obama's Election Heralds America's "Long, Slow Descent Into The Third World"

It's been going on for some time now. In any case, what he said:

[T]he US is just as segregated as it was before Martin Luther King – in schools, streets, neighbourhoods, holidays, even in its TV-watching habits and its choice of fast-food joint. The difference is that it is now done by unspoken agreement rather than by law.

If Mr Obama’s election had threatened any of that, his feel-good white supporters would have scuttled off and voted for John McCain, or practically anyone. But it doesn’t. Mr Obama, thanks mainly to the now-departed grandmother he alternately praised as a saint and denounced as a racial bigot, has the huge advantages of an expensive private education. He did not have to grow up in the badlands of useless schools, shattered families and gangs which are the lot of so many young black men of his generation.

If the nonsensical claims made for this election were true, then every positive discrimination programme aimed at helping black people into jobs they otherwise wouldn’t get should be abandoned forthwith. Nothing of the kind will happen. On the contrary, there will probably be more of them.

And if those who voted for Obama were all proving their anti-racist nobility, that presumably means that those many millions who didn’t vote for him were proving themselves to be hopeless bigots. This is obviously untrue....

The United States, having for the most part a deeply conservative people, had until now just about stood out against many of the mistakes which have ruined so much of the rest of the world. Suspicious of welfare addiction, feeble justice and high taxes, totally committed to preserving its own national sovereignty, unabashedly Christian in a world part secular and part Muslim, suspicious of the Great Global Warming panic, it was unique.

These strengths had been fading for some time, mainly due to poorly controlled mass immigration and to the march of political correctness. They had also been weakened by the failure of America’s conservative party – the Republicans – to fight on the cultural and moral fronts.

They preferred to posture on the world stage. Scared of confronting Left-wing teachers and sexual revolutionaries at home, they could order soldiers to be brave on their behalf in far-off deserts. And now the US, like Britain before it, has begun the long slow descent into the Third World. How sad. Where now is our last best hope on Earth?

Overheard In A Bar In Oakland CA, Election Night 2008

Southern California is known as "Northern Mexico." That's why Obama won California. We're here. Deal with it! (pause) Hey, we're Americans, too. (pause) Just kiddin'! April Fool's, bro!! HaHaHaHaHaHAAAAAAH!!!

Multilingualism Yes, Multiculturalism No

It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; it is a curse for a society to be bilingual.
-- Richard Lamm

Vota Por Hillary In The Mexifornia Democratic Primary

A glowing (if recycled) portrait of Ms. Rodham Clinton dominates the cover of this month's TV Espanol, a Spanish-language only advertising circular distributed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Tucked deep inside among the many ads for beauty salons, personal injury lawyers, real estate brokers, and even Oriental massage parlors is a two-page profile of the candidate. Making the cover of TV Espanol is nothing to take lightly -- at 170 pages thick it outweighs every other freebie I've seen, from left-of-center rags to Jehovah's Witness mags. Ms. Rodham Clinton is a true estrella in the Mexifornia firmament.
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(Note: This image is not photoshopped.)

Update: "The Evita Factor"

As American Thanksgiving Approaches, Think About The Islamic Colonization of Europe

From "Fjordman's Farewell to Little Green Footballs":

The [European Union’s] policy of deliberately Islamizing the European continent represents one of the greatest betrayals in the history of Western civilization. There is no other continent on the planet today where the indigenous peoples are being systematically deprived of their heritage, displaced in their own cities and subject to violence and abuse with the active involvement of their own authorities, yet where this is celebrated as a good thing in the media....

Later in the same post:

Islam isn’t reformable. The only possible solution then, apart from a global war to the death which nobody wants, is to separate ourselves from the Islamic world as much as possible. And by “we” I mean non-Muslims in general, not just Westerners. This entails completely and permanently stopping Muslim immigration in any form. However, in the USA, Canada and Australia, and certainly in Europe, simply stopping Muslim immigration is no longer enough. Some of the Muslims who are already here need to be expelled. There is no way around this. No, I have never suggested expelling all of them, but the most hardcore ones who push for implementing sharia laws here need to be deported, yes.

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A related discussion underway across the Atlantic: In NYRB Ian Buruma critiques Norman Podhoretz and World War IV.

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And some Norweigian backbone:

As Europe’s Islamization proceeds apace, the gap widens between ordinary folks’ growing recognition of the outrages that are going on all around them and the movers and shakers’ cynical insistence on pretending that everything’s just hunky-dory....

Fortuyn’s murder should have put an end to the character assassinations of the advocates of freedom. Nope. Instead they’ve only grown more sophisticated.

While Other Candidates Talk Tough On Border Security (And Act Gently), Tom Tancredo Gets Tough (And Talks Gently)

* Updated (11/16) *

"Open borders" = Closed minds

Hopefully the recent Tom Tancredo presidential campaign ad will compel not just Republican presidential candidates, but all the presidential candidates, to take complete responsibility for American borders and for laws and policies that govern all entry points into the United States.

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Note how Wolf Sheep Blitzer plays the "fear" card -- tossing out a loose noose for Tancredo to trip upon -- rather than acknowledging that his stern response to plausible and documented terrorist threats is worthwhile on its merits.

All the candidates should be held responsible for their positions on immigration and border security, no matter how much responsibility they take (or refuse to take). When Giuliani made a San Francisco appearance last summer, that's along the lines of what I tried to ask him.

Related: What would "Ann of Arc" do?

What is Western Civilization all about? and, Are we willing to defend it?
-- Tom Tancredo
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* Update (11/16) *

Diana West, "Tancredo's Raw Truth":
Yes, there is something surreal about the commercial, but not because of the content. What is surreal is the hysteria that has greeted it. After 9/11, 3/11, 7/7, Amman, Amsterdam, Baghdad, Bali, Beslan, Davao, Hadera, Haifa, Jakarta, Jerusalem, Nairobi, New Dehli, Sharm al-Sheik, Tel Aviv, Tunisia and more, what dolt doesn't wonder if and when jihadist cowards will attack our own trains, markets, hotels and restaurants? Tom Tancredo has only taken the mature and responsible course -- not coincidentally, also the politically incorrect course -- by raising this deadly serious issue with the American people. But for this he is castigated as a "fear-monger."

Leftist Fascism Awareness During Islamo Fascism Awareness Week - Proud Danish Activists Targeted

There's the Left for you.

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Read the account posted at Stop the Islamization of Europe.

Click here for more info on Islamo Fascism Awareness Week.

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Related: Matthias Küntzel's Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism, and the Roots of 9/11 (click link to order), now available in English, beginning November 1. Review posted at Telos Press.

Cop Killings On The Rise, How Many Killed By Illegal Immigrants?

The Yahoo!/Time article, "A Surge in Cop Killings," won't ask that question. To wit:

There just seems to be that there's a greater willingness on the part of these bad guys to take out a police officer, Miami Police Chief John Timoney told TIME.

This indicates heightened contempt within the social (or asocial) fabric toward police officers and/or greater desperation generally on the part of criminals.

[S]ome gang initiations now include the express targeting of police - such as in April of 2004, when California Highway Patrol Officer Thomas Steiner was randomly shot outside a Pomona courthouse by a teen trying to prove himself to a local gang. Other experts and activists cite the desensitizing effect of popular culture, most notably violent video games, as a key reason that more young people have no compunction about opening fire on a man or woman in uniform.

What else could "desensitize" someone? Hmm, someone here illegally, maybe? Someone who ignores, resents, reviles (North) American authority? Who knows that a run-in with the law could be especially complicated? Nary a word from Yahoo!/Time on the subject, though. Yahoo!/Time preaches confusion, indecision, and complacency.

Other than giving them more firepower, police departments around the country don't think they have a lot of other bright ideas to combat the recent spike in cop killings.

Here are some ideas: clamp down on the southern border; deport without possibility of appeal all illegals convicted of  felonies; and study up on the illegal immigrant violent crime wave that we all live with (and some of us die from). Since most violent crimes are committed by men between the ages of 18 and 30, maybe allow men who are over 30 only into the U.S.? That might sound absurd or arbitrary, but something's got to change.

Pim Pied

In a follow-up to the gay radical assault on Anita Bryant post of August 28, here's a video of a 21st Century twist on that tactic: a shit-filled cream pie hurled at gay, Dutch politician and patriot Pim Fortuyn. Fortuyn, a firm opponent of Muslim immigration and the Islamicization of Europe, would eventually be assassinated by a fanatic leftist in 2002.
(H/T What Would Charles Martel Do?)

(If the video doesn't work properly, try this link on "The Myth of Liberal Tolerance." Am workin' on the vid....)

Romney on Immigration, Border Security

The GOP front-runner takes 20 minutes to respond to questions from Michelle Malkin on hot-button issues where the general welfare collides with the common defense:

It's very important for Republicans to communicate to the world that we value and welcome legal immigration ... but we do want to end and control illegal immigration, and sanctuary cities are sending the wrong message and are flaunting the policies of our nation.

A Tree Grows In Marin

Once in a while, the print media deserves acknowledgment for a story well told -- or at least for not bruising or burying an important story.

The top headline in Saturday's Marin Independent Journal reported the first ever organizational meeting -- in this swank, liberal, suburban San Francisco county -- of the nation's leading anti-illegal immigration organization. Paul Liberatore's (nice name, btw) "Minutemen Backers Come to Marin" only barely scratches the surface of the frustration and determination that fuels longtime local and legal residents. At least these concerned citizens are now on the map in the mostly plush, affluent area that is home to hordes of SUV-driving environmentalists (scroll down in link) and, before he skipped out the Middle East to pursue Islam, John Walker Lindh.

The groundbreaking meeting of this "do-it-yourself border control" organization was met by a protest from strident, inarticulate illegal immigration activists who accused the lawful civil gathering of the politically correct, intellectually fallacious  pseudo-crime of "hate."

All this is far from the "tree of heaven" of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but admitting that one of America's dreamiest places to live ain't quite that heavenly is just the right way by which to introduce this contentious issue.

"Londonistan Calling" - Hitch Reports on Barbarians Inside the Gates

Christopher Hitchens in the current Vanity Fair:

For the British mainstream, multiculturalism has been the official civic religion for so long that any criticism of any minority group has become the equivalent of profanity. And Islamic extremists have long understood that they need only suggest a racial bias—or a hint of the newly invented and meaningless term "Islamophobia"—in order to make the British cough and shuffle with embarrassment....

Anyway, you can't be multicultural and preach murderous loathing of Jews, Britain's oldest and most successful (and most consistently anti-racist) minority. And you can't be multicultural and preach equally homicidal hatred of India, Britain's most important ally and friend after the United States....

It's impossible to exaggerate how far and how fast this situation has deteriorated....

(H/T Seraphic Secret)
Previous entries about or referencing Christopher Hitchens here, here, here. here, here.

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On the totalitarian (as opposed to any tolerant -- let alone libertarian -- aspect) to multiculturalism, see Fjordman's recent article, "A Communism for the 21st Century":

The Marxist "counter-culture" of the 1960s and 70s has been remarkably effective at attacking the pillars of Western civilization. It is, frankly, scary to notice how much damage just one single generation can inflict upon a society. Maybe it’s true that no chain is stronger than its weakest link. Our education system is now used to dismantle our culture, not to uphold it, and has moved from the Age of Reason to the Age of Deconstruction. Socialism has destroyed the very fabric of society. Our countries have become so damaged that people feel there is nothing left fighting for, which no doubt was the intention. Our children leave school as disoriented wrecks and ideological cripples with no sense of identity, and are met with a roar of outrage if they demonstrate the slightest inkling of a spine....

The extreme Left didn’t succeed in staging a violent revolution in the West, so they decided to go for a permanent, structural revolution instead. They now hope that immigrants can provide raw material for a violent rebellion, especially since many of them are Muslims who have displayed such a wonderful talent for violence and destruction. The Western Left are importing a new proletariat, since the previous one disappointed them.

(H/T FrontPage Magazine)

French Idol, Round 2 - Ségo's Dangerous Socialist Rhetoric

This is not a military war only, it is even more a spiritual, intellectual, and political debate.
-- Bat Ye'or, author of Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis
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This Sunday's French presidential election runoff between socialist Ségolène Royal and center-right Nicolas Sarkozy offers an opportunity to consider more closely the final candidates' stated principles in an election that will have ramifications not just for France but for all of Europe and the entire liberal West. Regardless of outgoing President Jacques Chirac's Just say NON! policy on American and Israeli military interventions against the Baath Party of Iraq, Hezbollah, potentially Iran, and most recently even the Taliban, France can no longer ignore its place on the frontline of Islam's jihad. Saturday's runoff  is the république's referendum on just what political will it's going to muster (or not muster) in order to confront (or not confront) its failed immigration and integration policies and, as a consequence, demographic threats to its viability as a free Western nation. So with the American presidential campaign already shaping up as a referendum on the Bush Doctrine, France once more has the opportunity to offer the world some enlightenment.

Socialist Party standard-bearer Ségolène Royal invites special scrutiny. A colonial colonel's daughter who inherited a strict Catholic upbringing, she has bucked traditional family structures while pursuing an ascendant public career on the Left. Should she manage to capture the presidency (Sarkozy has long been the front-runner, though not by much), she would upset not just electoral expectations, but long-held calculations about how, exactly, a woman might carry 20th Century "progressivism" into the 21st Century. Beginning Sunday morning, Down with Maggie and Angela! Up with Ségo and Hillary! could become the rallying cry for a post-60s Left that would have come full circle by finally conquering the center. (The presidential victories of Bill Clinton, the first major-power head of state to have come of age during the 60s, were each delivered by a plurality.) Comparisons with Democratic presidential front-runner Rodham Clinton -- the Goldwater Girl turned Saul Alinksy student, Watergate lawyer, and longtime marital ally of this generation's most scandalous adulterer -- are not just inevitable but irresistible. Everything is possible! insists one French socialist pol (also a woman), in a not so mild reprise of May '68. But is it?

Given these stakes, what can and should be resisted is Ségo's 21st Century socialism. Since she circulates in a French political culture which has long accommodated socialist and even explicitly communist platforms, it should come as no surprise that this former protegée of François Mitterand sets hers forth unapologetically, even elegantly. A Ségo victory would only sweeten the temptation to go down a socialist path, one from which even some Democrats, seeing nothing but strange, Big Brother-like fruit in the prospect of a Rodham Clinton presidency, already recoil.

Yesterday I found a YouTube video of a portion of a telling speech Ségo delivered back in February in which she outlined her future vision while making tall claims for France's socialist legacy. When I next have some time, I will comb through it, connect more dots, and report back....

Cho Seung-Hui - Not Beneficent And Not Merciful

* Update (Giovanni taught Seung-Hui poetry) *
* Update (Students feared Seung-Hui based on his plays) *
* Update (Screenwriter Robert Avrech deplores the media's attention to this mass murder) *
* Update (Seung-Hui inspires Muslims who rejoice in America's corruption, anticipate its destruction) *
* Update (Cho Seung-Hui and mental illness) *
* Final Update * (Muslim academic official forbids Muslim prayers for Seung-Hui's victims unless the prayers also are for the victims' conversion to Islam)
* Final Final Update * Pat Buchanan gets the last word (via Matt Sanchez): If there is a lesson to be taken away from this horror, it is that we, as a society, are becoming too tolerant of the aberrant.

Here are some comments on a recent AP wire article on Virginia Tech mass murderer Cho Seung-Hui. At this point I say we can eliminate the possibility that the killer was a devout Muslim at the time of the murders. That is, he did not commit his atrocity, as the saying goes, in the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.... In the name of what, then, did he commit his atrocity?

No one should overlook that Seung-Hui provided, strategically provided, ample evidence of what we can term pop jihad or copycat jihad or secular jihad or mental illness jihad [see the most recent update (below)]. The killer had a gradual and irreversible breakdown of Judeo-Christian ethics -- if he ever had them in the first place. He then adopted rhetoric, costume, gestures, and victimology that have much in common with jihadists' homegrown ones, ones that have enjoyed much currency since 9/11 in the MSM, the Arabic-language media, and (albeit with intense scrutiny) the blogosphere. In addition, his rage against inherited wealth -- but without any responsible awareness that, as a VT student, he was at the same time inter pares -- was loud and clear. We may also be seeing echoes of the emptiness of someone who, in his moral and cultural deformation, suffered from a breakdown of Korean or, more generally, East Asian social (even martial) values -- again, if he ever had them in the first place.

Call me a D'Souzian, but all this, imho, points to an indictment of contemporary American (so-called) culture (and perhaps contemporary Korean and East Asian cultures) at least as much as an indictment of Islam.

Knowing that Seung-Hui was an English major, and having spent half my undergraduate time in and around lit departments, I am intensely curious as to what constituted his course cirricula, assigned readings (esp. postmodern critical writing), chosen paper topics, and any other of his formative undergraduate influences and experiences, in and out of the classroom and in terms of professional preparation (club and team membership, counseling, grad school options, etc.).
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* Update * The New York Times depicts Nikki Giovanni as the front line of moral decency because she allowed Seung-Hui's violent "poetry" to intimidate over 60 students into dropping her exclusive writing workshop at Virginia Tech. Then she devoted time to work with him in a one-on-one setting. In terms of the consequences, this outdoes Norman Mailer's advocacy for Jack Henry Abbott (the convicted murderer Mailer helped spring from prison on the basis of his writing promise -- the murderer who immediately murderered again). "The Professor Who Said 'Not In My Class'," harrumphs the Gray Lady. "... 'Not in my class, but in my office hour'," it should read. Thus he pursued his preoccupations, there and elsewhere, and over 30 students -- none of whom Giovanni had devoted one-on-one time to -- are dead. And what a disgusting choice of photo by the Times (above, right), given the subject. The literary Left's fascination with, facilitation of, and refusal (or inability) to discriminate against evil is truly deadly. [Virginia Tech alumn Gabe at Social Foundations sets the pace for the heavy lifting that remains to be done regarding -- how should I phrase it? -- Giovanni's classroom. Read: "Nikki Giovanni's Violent 'Poetry'" and "Bad Poetry".]

* Update * A Virginia Tech student reports: When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of. Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter. Read "Richard McBeef" and "Mr. Brownstone" by Cho Seung-Hui (warning: graphic content).

* Update * From "The Killer and the Mainstream Media: A Love Story" (at Seraphic Secret): He is, of course, the ultimate, narcisisst, wallowing in too much self-esteem. Our sin? We did not recognize his greatness. NBC has done a great disservice by acting as the killer's PR machine.

* Update * Basharee Murtadd, a self-described "apostate of Islam" who testifies that "there is no deity but the Truth," provides a round-up of some internet-based Islamic reactions to Cho Seung-Hui's mass murder. The script on this image translates as: A Product of American [democracy + nationalism]. As Muslims, our real condolences to you is to help you absolutely destroy your criminal democracy. By the vulnerable people in the Earth.
That's not "closure" -- them's fightin' words.

* Update * It is widely suggested that Seung-Hui a) had some degree of severe mental illness and b) as this link indicates, had in the past received some attention from the (euphemistically termed) "mental health system." This brings into play numerous considerations as to the public and professional (mis)diagnoses and (mis)perceptions of mental illness, plus considerations as to the sufferer's (or rather, patient's) own responsibility in monitoring and managing his condition. In addition to the scrutiny I am trying to bring to bear on the cultural and political consequences and context of his mass murder, specific medical and legal issues seem to be germaine to understanding its cause. Keeping all these considerations in mind all the time is the best way to reflect -- with a surpassing beneficence and mercy -- on what came to pass on April 16. (Also, Sigmund, Carl and Alfred insists that the presence of mental illness does not obviate what should be regarded obviously as terrorism.)

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Now you can read for yourself what I originally read, and draw your own conclusions (emphases added):

Va. Tech gunman sent material to NBC
By MATT APUZZO, AP National Writer 1 hour, 56 minutes ago

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Midway through his murderous rampage, the Virginia Tech gunman went to the post office and mailed NBC a package containing photos and videos of him brandishing guns and delivering a snarling, profanity-laced tirade about rich "brats" and their "hedonistic needs.

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui says in a harsh monotone. "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

NBC said the package contained a rambling and often-incoherent, 1,800-word video manifesto, plus 43 photos, 11 of them showing him aiming handguns at the camera.

He repeatedly suggests he was picked on or otherwise hurt.

"You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience," he says, apparently reading from his manifesto. "You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people."

The package arrived at NBC's headquarters in New York two days after Cho killed 32 people and committed suicide in the deadliest one-man shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. It bore a Postal Service time stamp showing that it had been mailed at a Virginia post office at 9:01 a.m. Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after Cho first opened fire.

That would help explain one of the biggest mysteries about the massacre: where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second fusillade, at a classroom building.

"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats," says Cho, a South Korean immigrant whose parents work at a dry cleaners in surburban Washington. "Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything."

Some of the pictures show him smiling; others show him frowning and snarling. Some depict him brandishing two weapons at a time, one in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves, a black T-shirt, a backpack and a backwards, black baseball cap. Another photo shows him swinging a hammer two-fisted. Another shows an angry-looking Cho holding a gun to his temple.

He refers to "martyrs like Eric and Dylan" — a reference to the teenage killers in the Columbine High massacre.

The package was sent by overnight delivery but did not arrive at NBC until Wednesday morning. It had apparently been delayed because it had the wrong ZIP code, NBC said.

An alert postal employee brought the package to NBC's attention after noticing the Blacksburg return address and a name similar to the words reportedly found scrawled in red ink on Cho's arm after the bloodbath, "Ismail Ax," NBC said.

NBC News President Steve Capus said that the network received the package around noon and notified the FBI. He said the FBI asked NBC to hold off reporting on it so that the bureau could look at it first, and NBC complied, finally breaking the story just before a police announcement of the package at 4:30 p.m.

Capus said it was clear Cho videotaped himself, because he could be seen leaning in to shut off the camera.

State Police Spokeswoman Corinne Geller cautioned that, while the package was mailed between the two shootings, police have not inspected the footage and have yet to establish exactly when the images were made.

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Tancredo ... Announces?

Tom Tancredo is on the verge of running for president. The entry of the immigration tough guy would be  a vital addition to the Republican field, better in some ways than a prospective Gingrich candidacy.

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From the fundrasing pitch I received this morning in my email:

I am  Congressman Tom Tancredo. I'm going to run for the Republican nomination for President--if I can gain your support....

If I don't run, the Frightening Possibility is that BOTH the Democratic and the Republican nominees for President in 2008 may advocate a virtual abandonment of Border Security.        

Don't believe it? Think about a President John McCain. He co-sponsored a bill last year to DOUBLE legal immigration. McCain scorns the defenders of America's borders. He hates the border fence.

How about a President Sam Brownback? A good man, we all agree. But Brownback never met an amnesty he didn't like! He wants all illegal aliens to be made citizens.        

So maybe you think Mitt Romney is better? Romney REFUSED to support Ramos and Compean, those persecuted Border Patrol agents who were recently sent to prison for wounding an illegal alien drug dealer.

His official site is Team Tancredo which includes video of his recent appearance at CPAC.
Here's video of last year's appearance at the Wednesday Morning Club.

Some blogs for Tancredo:
Tancredo4prez
Tancredo for President

Read Joseph Farah on Tancredo's book In Mortal Danger and on why he believes, hands down, Tancredo's the best possible candidate for president.
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I don't know if we understand the nature of our enemy and I don't know if we understand who we are anymore. This will determine not just what kind of country we are in years to come, this will determine whether we are a country in years to come.
-- Tom Tancredo

Good Going, Virgil!

Congressman Virgil Goode (R-VA) lit up the media when he criticized Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) for swearing the oath of loyalty to the Constitution on a Koran. I read the news approvingly, although did not at the time read in depth about good Congressman Goode.

Here's video footage, found at Pedestrian Infidel, of Goode's proud and rousing statement on the floor of the House condemning "for the troops, but against the surge" H. Con. Res. 63 and -- nay-sayers take note -- expressing his hope for  a fundamentally tolerant Iraq and America.

Dennis Miller - Comedian Pundit

* Update 2/18 * "I Got Hate Mail!"

Ever since he hit the bigtime on Saturday Night Live, I always thought Dennis Miller was ... ok. Consistent and punchy, if not riproaringly funny. There's an abrasive side to him, too, which doesn't really win me over and which, frankly, I chalked up to him being short. (Short guys who get ahead in life learn early on to fight for attention, turf, the limelight, etc.) So when he moved into football broadcasting I was surprised but also impressed. It showed he was curious and hungry, as well as multi-talented. What next? I wondered.

Since 9/11 Dennis Miller's become an outspoken celebrity supporter of a forward, aggressive, American posture toward engaging Islamic terror. It's completely changed the way I see him. Now I appreciate his abrasiveness and punchiness like never before. With those, he boils down his message to some of the shortest and funniest sound bites around. Here's a clip of his recent remarks on Bank of America, Rudy Giuliani, and Anna Nicole Smith.

Frances Fukuyama on Multiculturalism, Nationhood, and Grasping Radical Islam

From "Identity and Migration," in the February 2007 American Prospect:

The radical Islamist ideology that has motivated terror attacks over the past decade must be seen in large measure as a manifestation of modern identity politics rather than of traditional Muslim culture. As such, it is familiar to us from earlier political movements. The fact that it is modern does not make it less dangerous, but it helps to clarify the problem and its possible solutions.

Integrate When You Immigrate

A firm, five-minute news segment in which Victor Hanson makes clear some basic talking points about the illegal, illogical, impractical, and racist nature of the movement to coerce -- rather than earn -- the rights of American citizenship on behalf of millions of illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States.

There's a lot of blame to go around, but we don't want to go down the French route....

No, siree, we don't want to.

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Strongly related: From Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

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Also related: Cinnamon Stillwell's "America's Border War" (in which people, not just principles, are being killed):

U.S. Border Patrol agents, as well as civilians caught in the crossfire, have found themselves under attack by armed members of Mexican drug cartels, gangs, human traffickers and the Mexican military itself on a number of occasions. This conflict has been escalating for some time now and as this latest skirmish suggests, there is no end in sight.

Blogger Wins Asylum Case

Blogger Isaac Schrödinger, who offers one of the best free-thinking personalized perspectives on Muslim society, was recently awarded refugee status in Canada. Long known as an ex-Muslim, he now is one step closer to being an ex-Pakistani.

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Please read his four-part series on his chosen Muslim apostasy which was a direct consequence of 9/11. Congratulations, Isaac, on prevailing in your immigration case! Clearly this is Pakistan's loss and Canada's gain.

Previous:
"Keep Isaac Schrödinger Free! - Update"
"Help a Blogga!"
"Support an Ex-Muslim on 9/11"

Hispanic Families Valued?

Here's an alarming article by Heather MacDonald, "Hispanic Family Values?":

Unless the life chances of children raised by single mothers suddenly improve, the explosive growth of the U.S. Hispanic population over the next couple of decades does not bode well for American social stability. Hispanic immigrants bring near–Third World levels of fertility to America, coupled with what were once thought to be First World levels of illegitimacy. (In fact, family breakdown is higher in many Hispanic countries than here.) Nearly half of the children born to Hispanic mothers in the U.S. are born out of wedlock, a proportion that has been increasing rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Given what psychologists and sociologists now know about the much higher likelihood of social pathology among those who grow up in single-mother households, the Hispanic baby boom is certain to produce more juvenile delinquents, more school failure, more welfare use, and more teen pregnancy in the future....

The Clash - à la française

Remember those trendy reggae-rhythmic punked out Clash tunes you use to try to get "into" while probing for an anti-establishment cultural vein? You know, songs like "White Riot" and "Armagideon Time"? Maybe you didn't, but for a while during college I did.  Until I realized that there really is no great "voice of the people," or of "the revolution." This caused me great dismay, at first: I didn't/couldn't/wouldn't believe that were so. Now I know better. (ftr: Don't get me wrong, The Clash did have original power, thinking for example of "The Card Cheat"....)

I mention that band because this story of awful news from France shows just how dangerous is the Big Leftwing Radical Myth of "Urban Rebellion." The decrepit social reality of France's banlieues and their inevitable rebellions demonstrate not so much an ardent need for change from below but for change from above.

What will the French state do?

(I reproduce this article in full here because Yahoo! News pulls all its stories not long after publishing them.):

French Police The Target In Urban Guerilla War

By Jon Boyle
Mon Nov 27, 11:29 AM ET

Stoned, beaten and insulted, their vehicles torched by crowds of hostile youths, French police say they face an urban guerrilla war when they enter the run-down neighborhoods that ring the major cities.

"Our role is to guarantee the safety of people and property but the great difficulty today is that police are having problems ensuring their own safety," said Jerome Hanarte of the Alliance-Police Nationale union.

Bedside television interviews with officers hospitalized after beatings in "les banlieues," or suburbs, support statistics showing a 6.7 percent jump in violent crime in the 12 months to August.

Fourteen officers are hurt every day in the line of duty, unions estimate, and law and order is sure to feature prominently in next year's presidential election.

The head of the French crime statistics body told Reuters the rise in attacks on police was partly due to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's 2002 decision to order police back into tough areas, to disrupt the black economy that fuels crime.

Some residents complain the move spawned constant police harassment which has only exacerbated tensions with local youths, many of whom come from ethnic minorities.

"You can see discrimination in ID controls," complained Kader Latreche, 36, an Algerian with his own photo equipment repair shop in the La Courneuve suburb.

"Why is it always people from the Maghreb or black people who are being stopped and checked? If it happens over and over again, it gets to you. People are frustrated, that's obvious."

CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE

How much those frustrations are driving the violent reaction to police is hard to gauge but Nicolas Comte, general secretary of the Syndicat General de la Police (SGP), said officers now face guerrilla warfare in the suburbs.

"The simple presence of men in uniforms in some areas is no longer a provocation but a declaration of war in the minds of some louts," he told a recent police union rally.

The spike in violence has sharpened the political debate and the left is demanding a return to community policing, with more officers on the beat making contacts with local people.

Sarkozy, favorite to represent the mainstream right in next year's elections, says police are paid to detect crime, not play the social worker.

Dispirited officers complain they are caught in the middle.

"The latest insult I got was 'Sarko's suppo' (suppository) -- so I don't know if it's the police officer who is the target or our minister that's the cause of the problem," said a plain clothes officer in the tough Seine-Saint-Denis district.

Sarkozy is a hate figure for many suburban youths and his strong language about delinquents is blamed by many for fomenting last year's suburban riots in which some 8,000 vehicles were torched along with schools, creches and other public buildings.

Karine Guigon, a police officer and SGP union official in a suburb south of Paris, says the security forces have become society's nursemaids.

"We are there to apply the sticking plaster pretty much everywhere. But the follow-up work isn't done," she said.

Guigon joined the force 10 years ago, attracted by the contact with the public and the chance to make a difference on the street with wayward youngsters. In the intervening period, society at large has done little to improve matters.

"Ten years ago, when I worked in the education system, teachers were being told to educate youngsters because the parents couldn't manage to any more," Guigon said.

"Ten years later, I'm working in the police and we're being told to help youngsters because the education system and the parents aren't succeeding."

FALSE DEBATE

Guigon favors a return to the community policing approach abandoned by Sarkozy in 2002, but not all her colleagues agree.

"It's a false debate," said Hanarte, whose union is generally supportive of Sarkozy and wants judges to take a tougher stance against delinquents.

"Why put foot patrols in these districts if they will be systematically attacked by youngsters, who are repeatedly arrested and then systematically released by the justice system?

"Having police in these areas can only be a good idea if, beforehand ... police have arrested the delinquents in the suburbs. You have to start by that, restoring a certain calm."

Calm is a long way off.

The plain clothes officer in Seine-Saint-Denis said seven colleagues were attacked recently after chasing a driver who skipped a checkpoint. Their vehicle was torched and they narrowly escaped serious injury.

"The high number of officers hurt means that police themselves don't feel safe," he said.

"That's pretty serious, because if police don't feel safe, you can imagine what the ordinary citizen feels," added the officer who asked not to be identified.

To protect themselves, police often move in large groups -- a tactic youngsters say is heavy-handed and overly aggressive.

Comte says the threat to police is so great in some neighborhoods they should exercise their "right to withdraw." That means refusing to respond to emergency calls if they judge they cannot guarantee their own safety.

"Frankly, it's not worth getting your head kicked in for an end of year bonus of 200 euros ($256.8)," said the plain clothes officer.

(Additional reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich)

Islamic Russia

One of the most "advanced" European nations, which suffers from perhaps the very worst health and demographic trends (AIDS, heart disease, alcholism; miniscule birthrate), is ripe for Islamic takeover:

Russia is going through a religious transformation that will be of even greater consequence for the international community than the collapse of the Soviet Union....

A Roman Thought on Immigration

The nation of soldiers, magistrates, and legislators who composed the thirty-five tribes of the Roman people were dissolved into the common mass of mankind, and confounded with the millions of servile provincials who had received the name, without adopting the spirit, of Romans.

-- Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

French "Intifada" Planned, According to French Intelligence Sources

Pajamas Media's Richard Miniter interviews Paul Belien, Belgian lawyer and journalist and one of the West's most reliable European allies (from that most appropriately named blog, No Pasaran!):

Take note, take heed, take action!

Related:
* Bookmark Belien's online news source, The Brussels Journal, now.
* European authors urge young Europeans to emigrate. "We are watching the world of yesterday," says one. "I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it," says another. Read, swallow, and digest these lamentable truths at The Brussels Journal. 

* Update 10/28: Looks like a Dutch (or greater European) "intifada" as well.

Keep Isaac Schrödinger Free! - Update

As long as his asylum case remains pending, I will periodically link to updates regarding ex-Muslim blogger, self-described apostate and blasphemer Isaac Schrödinger (whom I originally mentioned here, then here).  Isaac recently posted a lengthy statement on his blog that delves into the nature of the dangers he faces back in his native Pakistan merely for exercising precious and endangered free, Western speech:

I was born in an Ahmadi Muslim family in Pakistan. I’m a Pakistani citizen. The attack on the United States on September 11, 2001 and the reactions of Muslims to it changed my mindset. I left Islam in January of 2002. I didn't share that information with anyone at the time. I was scared of the consequences....

Just a reminder:

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This is merely a mild version of the sort of fate that hangs over Isaac's head like the Sword of Damocles.

You can help by making a contribution to his legal fund, by appropriately publicizing  his case, and by offering strategic advice (should you have any).

No, freedom isn't free.

Update (9/28, 11:00 PM): Related, Michelle Malkin's "Critics of Islam under fire ... again". We're all at risk.

Riots Sprout in Brussels During Ramadan

“What should be noticed about the riots is that they start after sunset. Besides the fact that they start after dark, it also gives the rioters enough time to break their fast and enjoy the traditional family meal. Sunset is around 7:30pm.” Tuesday’s and Monday’s riots began around 8:30pm.

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The original article has many links for further reading.
So, too, does Michelle Malkin's post on the subject (where I found this article).
I salute Abdul at Freedom's Zone for his savory commentary.

Help a Blogga!

* Update within *

Blogger and ex-Muslim Isaac Schrödinger, whom I've mentioned recently, is seeking support in his struggle to maintain residency in Canada. Although I began reading his blog but last month, I consider him an ally in all freedom-loving people's struggles, first, to understand, then, to defeat Islamic terror and domination. With Isaac's permission, I am cross-posting an entry he recently put up at the Liberty and Justice blog, "Help The Little Blasphemer." (Update (9/13): Several blogs that have responded to Isaac's post are listed here.)

Having worked for a stint in the immigration law biz, I can attest that asylum cases are no mere formalities. There are several stages to the application process, all of which require a combination of finesse and bullheadedness in order that the claimant ultimately prevail. In so many words (literally, for there is usually a word- or page-limit on the amount of testimony he can submit), the claimant has to demonstrate to an impersonal panel the exact persecution that he or his immediate family have previously suffered, currently suffer, or expect to suffer upon his deportation. All the while there are forms, interviews, declarations, notarized signatures, and mailing deadlines to be managed. As with all matters of law, you want to do it once and do it right: one fuck-up can condemn an innocent to perdition. Fortunately, Isaac is in his own right a pretty articulate cat in English. Proper financial and professional support will help guarantee that his lawyer(s) will also be up to the task.

In the coming months I hope that not only blogs but other media sources stir up appropriate sympathy and support for Isaac. Let me be very clear about one thing: what he, or we, are seeking isn't charity. Rather, it's a giving of ourselves that is, in this day and age, very clearly a species of self-interest. Enlightened self-interest, if you will. At the same time, his cause is -- in the truest sense of solidarity -- our cause. Do read about Isaac's extraordinary situation and decide what you will do to help:
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Help the Little Blasphemer

I am a refugee claimant in Canada. My hearing will take place in early January 2007. I am a citizen of Pakistan, a nation which has a blasphemy law on the books--it's called Section 295-C:

Use of derogatory remarks, etc. in respect of the Holy Prophet. Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine."

I started blogging in December 2004. Since then I have written quite a bit that would over-qualify for blasphemy. For example, in January 2006, I supported the showcasing of the Muhammad cartoons:

If you're from Denmark, then know this:
Don't give in to the psychotic thugs and regimes of the Muslim world. These are the same people who keep half their population as slaves, hang homosexuals, behead alcohol consumers, treat kids with utter cruelty,"think" that Jews rule the world, and celebrate when Westerners are ruthlessly murdered. And yet they're offended by a few harmless cartoons.

It is you--the Danes--who should be appalled at the atrocious and wretched behaviour of such an odious section of humanity. Do not apologize for your exercises in freedom. Do not sacrifice your free speech at the altar of deplorable Muslim feelings.

Cherish your precious liberty and stand tall against these barbarians.
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Want to see Muhammed? Here you go:

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Another example from April 2006:

It is vitally important that the West not put Islam or any other religion off-limits to critical analysis. For only in the West can a person safely write that the obliteration of a Jewish tribe, the taking of sex-slaves, and the confiscation of non-Muslim property is something not to be celebrated and emulated.

I have put a donation button on my blog:

The money will go towards paying for a professional lawyer. (Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna kindly offered the image.)

You can also help by publicizing my blog and my case. In the coming days, I'll publish a more detailed account. Your criticism and/or suggestions are welcome.

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See also Isaac's "My Journey After 9/11" which he recently posted in honor of the fifth anniversary of the attacks.

Support an Ex-Muslim on 9/11

With his lucid, free-thinking posts on the world-historic 9/11 tragedy atrocity, ex-Muslim Isaac Schrödinger has taken an important step forward, earning mine and almost all other Western bloggers' respect.  They are worth reading now and forever at his eponymous blog, Isaac Schrödinger.

But Isaac is facing a giant test in his desire to live and blog in the free West: possible deportation from Canada, where he currently resides, back to his native Pakistan. And Pakistan, you should know, is not hospitable to ex-Muslims.

Isaac can use, chiefly, your contributions and, if you have it to offer, your advocacy. Infidel Bloggers Alliance, Gates of Vienna, and Liberty and Justice among others will fill you in with more.

Taqiyya or Dialogue?

An intriguing exchange of open letters is underway between the blogs Gates of Vienna and Eteraz. GoV's Baron and Dymphna, of basic European-American stock, are "Islamophobic and Proud of It" whereas Muslim blogger Eteraz asserts, "The only jihad I do is in the marketplace of ideas" (which, come to think of it, could be an Islamic reiteration of Lenin's subversive enjoinment to "bore from within"). This isn't the first time they have openly communicated, although their styles when doing so are more often frank than cordial.

Baron says he suspects Eteraz's entire blog may be nothing more than an exercise in Taqiyya (deliberate Muslim dissimulation against infidels). Eteraz spells out his dissatisfaction with the standard of "moderate Muslim" and urges Baron, basically, to get out more -- to interact with other Muslims here in the West.

Here are: Baron's "An Open Letter to Eteraz"; and Eteraz's "Hit With Baron Open Letter."

I'm not going to take sides, not for the moment.

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Update 9/5: On defectors from Islam, click here.

Update 9/6: Baron pays a visit! (see Comments).

"If a Muslim-American Tries to Kill Over A Dozen Americans in a Significantly Jewish Neighborhood and No One Calls Him a Jihadi, is He Still a Jihadi?" or, The Threat and the Promise

*Updated 12/20/06*: Convicted of murder in the first degree (of a Jew), Mujtaba Rabbani Jabbar is sentenced to serve time in . . . a psychiatric facility.

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Michelle Malkin has combed through the coverage of Tuesday's killing rampage by Omeed Aziz Popal, the disturbed Muslim-American who two days ago killed one and injured 14.  Most of his mayhem occurred near and terminated in the most significantly Jewish section of San Francisco -- which makes his deeds an obvious cause of concern to those of us concerned with preventing terrorist attacks, and antisemitic attacks in particular.  As a journalist, some of whose best work has been in documenting and exposing jihadist threats within the United States, Ms. Malkin weighs many aggravating factors -- the strains of an intercontinental arranged marriage, a stifling family environment, and severe mental illness -- and concludes:

I will call Popal ... many names. But for the moment, "jihadi" isn't one of them.

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To her careful commentary I respectfully add the following:

Might we also maintain that there are jihadis "with a little-j" (the Westernized Muslim Walter Mittys, the smallest-time losers) who, alongside the Jihadis "with a big-J", will choose as their victims -- as Mr. Popal did -- predominantly (or exclusively) non-Muslims from among members of their adopted dynamic, secular Western society?  For which Mexican and Latin American or Sikh or East African Christian or Israeli immigrants -- all of whom reside throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and most of whom face Muslim persecution in their countries or regions of origin -- go on killing rampages here? I can't think of any.

And if Islam is in any way a source of spiritual strength for Mr. Popal, shouldn't we assume that Islam's dual principles of jihad ("spiritual struggle") -- the Greater ("inner") and the Lesser ("military") -- may co-exist in his troubled soul?  Can't jihad reside dormantly in his mind, the way, say, "Am I my brother's keeper?" can occur to a non-churchgoing Christian or a Jew when passing a destitute person on the street? And might a spiritual condition (or "precondition" or temperament) containing some sense of jihad have led him, in the end, to direct his rampage exactly where he did: at San Francisco's Jewish Community Center and Temple Emanu-El, which, as I wrote in my original comments on this subject (within here), are absolutely San Francisco's emblems of liberal, affluent and socially productive Jews?

Clearly the magnitude of this tragedy is moving Ms. Malkin, as it is many of us, to sincere pity for the criminal as well as for his victims. Yet the pity of this or of any tragedy, properly experienced, does not diminish us. The pity of tragedy -- one of our proudest Western cultural institutions -- properly experienced, elevates us. It elevates us to aspire to strive for what is best in our ideals with all our capacities, even in the face of death.

When Omeed Aziz Popal set out on his killing rampage what died was the possibility of Muslim-American assimilation. For despite his many cultural, familial, and medical complications, the cliche nevertheless held true: he had everything to live for.  Truer still is that he had everything to live for right here in the USA -- his income-earning potential (as landlord and also auto mechanic), the challenge of integrating a foreign-born bride, and the accessibility of cutting-edge treatment for his mental illness.

That's why "they" hate us.  That may also be why Mr. Popal, torn between many contending realities -- of Afghanistan and America, of Islam and secular freedom, and of reason and insanity -- for some very distinct moments, hated others. And perhaps also, lost in such a terrible shuffle, hated himself.

To grasp this tragedy we must confront two contending realities of our own: the threat of jihad and the promise of Muslim-American assimilation. Certainly they are difficult to consider at the same time.  Blogging not from fear, however, but from vigilance and diligence, I insist that we consider both realities at once. History proves thus far that the threat of jihad is far greater than the promise of Muslim-American assimilation.  Yet the more we succeed at confronting the former the more we will be able to facilitate the latter.

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I offer these comments out of earnest respect for, and address them to, all of JMK's Gentle Readers who strive to uphold the very best American ideals, whether you are native or foreign born, whether at home in America or abroad in the world.

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Some further blog-commentary:

Certain additional bloggers' comments on Ms. Malkin's comments at: Outside the Beltway, Riehl World View, The Heretik, The Anchoress, Occidentality.

For harder-hitting commentary see also: Debbie Schlussel and (Updated 9/2) Jeff Bargholz.

(Update 9/3): Isaac Schrodinger, self-described "pakistani-born, ex-muslim, refugee-claimant, pro-usa," was kind enough to answer my invitation; his speculations are up today at his own blog, under "Popal the Enigma."  They offer inklings of light in addition to the heat that the other linked commentaries provide (despite the post's title!).

Note: This post has been modified slightly since August 31 (merely for word choice, not for emphasis).

(Update 9/6): Marooned in Marin is doing his/her homework and looking out for public safety. Anyone who wants to get to the bottom of the Popal case should read MiM's post, "Did Omeed Popal Really Yell 'Allah Akbar' When Taken Into Custody...?"

The Light of a Black Sun

Sultan Knish (another blogger at home in a black background!) posits his take on the declining West.  My short response: I agree. 

Very few minds are capable of thinking civilizationally, that is, with a perfect moral, philosophic, cultural, and historical pitch -- with an ability to stare into the light of a black sun.  Holderlin, Nietzsche, Artaud, Wittgenstein, Chambers come to mind.  Such train of thought is perhaps a holdover from those fruitless years, both wild and meandering, when I pondered certain shooting stars of the academic Left -- Adorno, Derrida, Said (for starters), none of whom, during my flirtation with the Academy, their critiques' seductions notwithstanding, completely purged my melancholy, interrogative temperament.

So, grasping ever tightly the dagger within my mind's cloaking folds, I refer you, Gentle Reader, to SK's "The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization":

Neither the right nor the left is actually offering a vision of a future for America, all they're doing is wrangling over the terms of its dismantling....
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Who Are the Terrorist Sympathizers in Your Neighborhood?

Study the map, watch the clips, listen to the comments, and the skanky chants.  It only takes 3-minutes to watch, "The Jihadis In Your Neighborhood."

And some of them do live in my area.

Israel's War is America's War

As per my recent post, Hezbollah is operating in the United States and targets American interests worldwide.

From "Hezbollah is Already Here":

In May, the New York Post reported on Hezbollah's plans to activate sleeper cells in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Detroit as the nuclear showdown with Iran heats up. One focal point: "the Iranian Mission to the United Nations, where there have already been three episodes in the last four years in which diplomats and security guards have been expelled for casing and photographing New York City subways and other potential targets."

Hezbollah - Livin' in the USA, Comin' into Los Angeles

Two heads-ups re Hezbollah:
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First, the mighty Michelle Malkin informs that she's got an upcoming article on Hezbollah's threats to the United States.  In the meantime, she rounds-up chilling links (click and read) to the foothold this MADE IN IRAN jihadist organization has gained on American shores.  My favorite is the one castigating gullible American girls gone gaga so terrorists can gain green cards:

[Jessica Yolanda] Fortune wrote to [the Lebanese-born terrorist she married, Chawki Youssef] Hammoud: "What is it about me you hate?" Gee, maybe it had something to do with those "Death to America" videos found in Hammoud's brother's home? Even after Chawki Hammoud's arrest, Fortune refused to consider any plea bargains because she didn't want to testify against him.

For trenchant infotainment in which she takes a journalistic stand alongside Israel, catch her new Vent vlog, "The Media and Israel's Survival."

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Further, Protein Wisdom's prosemeister Jeff Goldstein warns that, according to proposed Canadian governmental regulations, membership in any ol' fly-by-night terrorist organization won't mean automatic denial of access to any ol' 200-passenger potential missile (i.e., airplane):

You [potentially] cannot be put on [Canada's no-fly] list -- the article in question states -- on the sole basis that you’re a member of a ‘terrorist group.... In addition, you have to be a demonstrable threat to aviation safety.

In an oblique and metaphorical glimpse of the worst possible outcome, the news item causes Jeff's linguistic integrity to be momentarily overrun -- like Israel's northern border by a band of Hezbollah jihadists, perhaps -- with the "F" word popping up twice in ALL CAPS in his post.  But he swiftly reasserts sovereignty over the American English language by identifying "Canadian" as intrinsically an insult (the way "Polish" used to be).

Thanks, Jeff, for keeping the English language secure!  We know it ain't it's not easy.

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Update 7/19: FBI investigates Detroit Shi'ite Muslims' connections to Lebanon-based Hezbollah leader Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah. From Atlas Shrugs, because someone's got to be for truth, justice, and the American way.

Update 7/20: A painstaking accumulation of Hezbollah activities in the United States, from Counterterrorism Blog.

"Offended" is a Buzzword for the Muslim Cultural Offensive

Augean Stables conducts a precision intellectual strike into The Economist's cover story, "Eurabia: The Myth and Reality of Islam in Europe," making the magazine look like a wan and spiritless dentist's office read.  You know the kind.   Those deceptively innocuous glossies left out to dull your thinking before you submit to some invasive, messy, bloody, and costly procedure. Such is what Europe faced with becoming "Maghreb North" has to look forward to.

Here's a very practical point from article.  Keep it in mind for the downhome confrontations with Muslim groups for which we need to prepare:

Why, many Muslims ask, should they have to speak out against, or apologize for, actions of radicals who do not represent them — people they do not even regard as true Muslims?  

Many find the very idea of being asked or expected to denounce such acts “extremely offensive and insulting,” said Khurshid Drabu, a senior member of the Muslim Council of Britain.

As long as attitudes like this remain the norm, there will be no compatibility between Islam and the West.

Weekend Reading

Charles Krauthammer loves Australia: "Where Americans today sue, Australians slash and skewer."

Independent author Bat Ye'or distills the consequences of two generations of European dealmaking with the Muslim world: "Ultimately, it is Europe that created Yasser Arafat and the Hamas government."

Joe Noory of No Pasaran! catches former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters defacing Israel's separation wall: "Much like Hamas, Waters made a living helping adolescents channel their darkest, most suicidal thoughts."

A Legal Immigrant's Reflections on Memorial Day

Almost missed Chris Hitchens's appraisal of our and certain other countries' imperfect recognitions of our war dead.  The "insoluble problem," he says, is "how to estimate the value of those whose lives were cruelly cut off before victory was in sight."

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And further:

Memorial Day transcends the specific, and collectivizes all disparate recollections into one single reflection upon the losses inflicted by war itself. The summa of this style, and one that transcends Pericles, is of course the Gettysburg Address, in which one cannot distinguish which side's graves are actually being honored. It was always Mr. Lincoln's way to insist that he was the elected president of every state, not just the "Northern" ones, and this speech still has the power to stir us because it was the most strenuous possible test of that essential proposition.

Read the rest.

The Christian-themed World Magazine profiles the "anti-theist" pundit who would be -- and is about to be -- an American citizen.

Ms. Ali, Dutch M.P., Goes to Cambridge

Will she meet as much opposition as Mr. Smith did in Washington?

In a way, she already has.

I think of her as sort of a one-woman case for legal immigration.

(via Little Green Footballs)

Remember May 6th, not May 5th

In a tragic but simple twist of fate today, May 6th, is and should forever be a day of remembrance in our brave, new, neoconservative 21st Century.

On this day in 2002 Dutch politician and prime ministerial candidate Pim Fortuyn was gunned down for having the civic courage to insist that for its survival the Netherlands must curtail immigration, specifically Muslim immigration. Fortuyn called Muslim immigration  a "Trojan horse of intolerance the Dutch are inviting into their society in the name of multiculturalism." But this didn't jibe with a vegan "animal rights" sympathizer who -- though he recoiled at the thought of running a worm down a fishing hook -- had no qualms about unloading six bullets into a human being and one of his fellow citizens, and turning a public sidewalk into a killing floor (scroll down w/in link).

I admit, I didn't follow this story closely back in 2002, but Infidel Bloggers Alliance ran a post on it today, and it made me think. For more to think about, see all the valuable links at Limits to Growth.

Let May 6th be a fitting and somber riposte to the Fifth-O of May-O reconquista movement.

 .... Proud ...  American?

Pim Fortuyn, Dutch patriot

Saturday afternoon new blog surfing Update (5/13): For further reading, see Center for Sanity's "Is Brown the New Black?"  This is guy is smart.