Almost Entirely Blank
The fine folks over at The Counterrorism Blog remind us that today is the 13th anniversary of the bombing of the World Trade Center with a link-filled post you really ought to take for a spin.

I was in college when the 1993 WTC Bombing occurred. I recall that our local newspaper (the Austin American-Statesman) ran some of the stock market pages the next day, leaving them almost entirely blank except for the one-line explanation ---dead center--- for why there was no stock activity to report. I tacked one of those pages up in my apartment for probably a year or more. A big, blank, and yellowing piece of newsprint that you had to walk up to and read to understand why it was up on my wall.

The clever people always cluck and chirp about the one little thing that starts these conflagrations; some minor offense that begat a generation of punishment that they would have known better than to have allowed.

And for many years, they had their way. And the punishment was postponed.

Until, well...yeah. It's always that date, isn't it?

Clever people know shit.

(Did you know that Sandy Berger never had to do any jail time? That's because he's clever and knows better than you.)

CLARIFICATION: I wrongly implied in the text above that the WTC Bombing of 1993 had halted trading on the stock exchanges. I don't believe this is true. But it is true that the stocks pages in our newspaper here could not be updated because of massive comm losses in Lower Manhattan that day.

Be Well
After work today, I went to a rehabilitation hospital and visited a co-worker who recently suffered a stroke.

It was a humbling experience.

Remember to be grateful to be alive. Be grateful for your good health and be involved when your health is bad.

None of us is guaranteed anything.

Make your way. Keep your peace. Leave something of yourself behind.

Damn the Iconoclasts
The destruction of the Mahdi's tomb in Samarra on Wednesday disgusts me greatly.

I do not want to see Islam destroyed ---contrary to my Catoesque demand that Islama delenda est--- but I do want to see it changed into something else. Really only destroyed, that is, by change.

The schism between the Shia and Sunnis is certainly deeper than anything going on in Christianity today. One might have hoped that the supposed brotherhood and universality of Islam would have made such an act of vandalism verboten, but it appears not.

But if I say it was Sunnis who did this thing today, you surely know I hope it was foreign Sunnis. The salafist or wahhabist or whatever-the-fuckist kind that steal into Iraq every hour of the day and sow discord right along with the Shiite Iranian agents. So I hope they can pin this crime against Zarqawi and those of his ilk. You know: real and strong evidence showing them in all their psychopathic zeal.

If ever there was a time for Sistani to come forward in a very public way, this would be it. Come on, dude: this is a grave offense, isn't it? To blast the golden tiles from the Twelfth Imam's sacred dome? Surely that warrants an appearance!

Just be sure to remind them to not worship your pixilated image.

Pony with a Shiny Coat
If the President were smart, he'd come out before the cameras in the Rose Garden tomorrow and say that he has heard the American People's concerns and that he is going to put those concerns ahead of his own informed opinion that there's nothing wrong with the United Arab Emirates' taking over the management of six major American ports. It would be a rare moment of the led leading their leader ---but that will never happen because he is just determined enough to make this a problem for no apparent fucking reason.

I just assumed that this [uproar] was a Democratic ploy (abetted, of course, by the usual Big Media organs) to make the Democratic Party look like it actually cares about our national security. You know: bare 'em a little fang; out-react the reactionaries; affect a feeling thou hast not.

But everybody's fuming over this one. Who knew? I'm getting a little emotional here, just thinking of how the Left and Right are coming together in defense of our ports against the tin-eared and tin-potted dictator.

(You're probably right, Rider: something about this story smells.)

Golden
I just saw Sasha Cohen's short program and it was fantastic. I was practically in tears. While that may sound nauseatingly gay, I can assure you I only got misty because I know what gold would mean to her and because she is too beautiful for mere words.

To my eyes, she owned her performance tonight outright, just like Sarah Hughes did in the long program back in 2002.

Good luck, Sasha.

(Thanks to Wikipedia for the image.)

olympicsdump
That Emily Hughes sure is cute. Dammit. Not as cute as Miss Cohen, though, but who is?

These Olympics haven't been especially interesting to me, but I think it's crap for Bryant Gumbel to suggest that they are games for whites only. Unless the IOOC actually has that written down somewhere, I think it's time for self-important dumbasses to shut up.

My bleg ---nay! My plea is that someone somewhere provide me with video of those pigeons shitting on Katie Couric's head. I beg of you! I will never not be watching that continuously, masturbatorily, unhingedly.

Anybody catch that Italian ice-dancing couple last night? After the haughty ice queen bore holes through her partner's soul with her eyes the night before because of a nasty fall he probably caused, she comes back on their second night's performance to give him a big ol' kiss and a headhug and The Pieta and the awwwwshucks that was nauseating! But extremely effective and the most brilliant demonstration of lemons being made into lemonade I have seen in a great while. There's no question why the Italian race is known for their melodrama. It's in the genes.

Or were those the Russians? You know, they can be rather dramatic, too.

CORRECTION: The International Olympic Committee is not, I am reliably informed, the same as the IOOC. Thanks.

"The growth of European-style anti-Semitism in the Arab world..."
Now Playing: lizardoid in transmission
Over at the History News Network, Judith Apter Klinghoffer reproduces Bernard Lewis' latest essay, "The New Anti-Semitism," first published in The American Scholar , Volume 75, No. 1 (Winter 2006). It's well worth the time to read the whole thing, but I take the following passage as the key one. On the topic of rejuvenating Judenhass in Palestine and the Middle East around the time of the Second World War:

It became much more important after the events of 1948, when the humiliated Arabs drew comfort from the doctrine of the Jews as a source of cosmic evil. This continued and grew with subsequent Arab defeats, particularly after the ultimate humiliation of the 1967 war, which Israel won in less than a week.

The growth of European-style anti-Semitism in the Arab world derived in the main from this feeling of humiliation and the need therefore to ascribe to the Jews a role very different from their traditional role in Arab folklore and much closer to that of the anti-Semitic prototypes. By now the familiar themes of European anti-Semitism—the blood libel, the protocols of Zion, the international Jewish conspiracy, and the rest—have become standard fare in much of the Arab world, in the schoolroom, the pulpit, the media, and even on the Internet. It is bitterly ironic that these themes have been adopted by previously immune Muslims precisely at a time when in Europe they have become an embarrassment even to anti-Semites.

The Nazis aren't dead, you know. In fact, they just got themselves elected as perpetual partners to the Israeli people.

What will we not think of next?

Backwards Telling
Daniel Pipes brings us this quote in regard to the displaying of posters featuring the image you see here of the Prophet as a porker:

The United States has given great thought to this over the last couple of days, and I mean at the very highest levels of our government. We condemn the outrageous, crude and sick portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed by an Israeli settler the other day. This woman is either sick or she is evil.... We are very pleased that she is going to be put on trial by the Israeli Government. She deserves to be put on trial for these outrageous attacks on Islam. We are grateful that President Weizman and Prime Minister Netanyahu have denounced her and her actions and her sick cartoon in very clear terms.

Those were the words of Ambassador Nicholas Burns, who was on Bill Clinton's National Security Council, and he spoke them back in July of 1997.

An Israeli settler had drawn this picture and posted copies of it in Arab areas of Hebron to express her contempt for Muslim extremists and terrorists. What did she get for her trouble?

In the judge's view she was guilty of incitement, racism and perhaps even endangering world peace! He even went so far as to compare her childish "pig poster" to the most evil anti-Semitic forgery ever conceived -- the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion!" And on January 8, 1998, twenty-six year-old Tatiana Soskin was sentenced by the Jerusalem District Court to two years in prison plus a one-year suspended sentence for ATTEMPTING to post drawings of a pig named "Mohamed." She was convicted of committing a racist act, supporting a terrorist organization, attempting to give religious offense and attempted vandalism.

I wonder whether the Israeli courts would do such a thing today.

Buy Danish
I bought Danish last week, but hadn't bothered to use any of it until just now: a six-pack of Carlsberg beer. Very tasty and rich. A good purchase.

Circus Acts
Charles Johnson points us to the AP's photos of today's graduation ceremony for a police academy in the Palestinian town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

That's right: Palestinian policemen are circus performers.

I always thought of graduation ceremonies as sedate affairs where the speakers go on too long, but where everybody's happy. Is that what this shit is? It looks to me like retarded, psychotic behavior. Jesus!

Division of Labor = Hierarchization of Political and Moral Responsibility
Now Playing: arbeit macht frei
Societies where one is not allowed to advocate war if he has not served are fascistic. "What do those outside the warrior cult know of our sacrifices? They are puny subhumans, good for nothing but working in our textile mills. Only we have earned the right to call for war ---or not!"

"But, my liege, I hate the war because I never served. I only want peace. Can't we all just get along---?"

"Slave! What difference do you think your protests mean to us? We don't require your moral measure to act as we will. We don't even recognize your political rights. Let us make a stepping stone of your skull instead!"

Prop Down
Now Playing: "Lost Cause" by Beck
My man over at The Mudville Gazette has a post up about Iraqi War veteran ---and Democrat--- Paul Hackett, who has been forced out of the Senatorial race in Ohio so that the party big-shots can push Sherrod Brown instead.

Oh, and Greyhawk quotes Mother Jones. No, really:

Hackett was running against seven-term Akron Democrat Rep. Sherrod Brown in a May primary, with the winner going on to face two-term Republican Sen. Mike DeWine in November (assuming DeWine wins his own primary against a longshot Republican challenger). DeWine is considered one of the most vulnerable incumbent Republicans, and the national Democratic Party is pulling out the stops to defeat him.

But first, the Democrats had to get Hackett out of the way. The weapons used in the rubout included economic sabotage, whisper campaigns, and threats.

Apparently, Harry Reid was in on the rubout himself. He asked Hackett if the rumors were true that he had participated in war crimes while in Iraq. Hackett was appalled at this ---realizing then that the party bosses were trying to brush him off the plate.

Why is the Democratic Party shutting out one of its most justified voices in a year where they have the electoral momentum? The wrongness and the wastefulness and the bloodlustfulness of the War for Iraq is their constant refrain ---and they don't want to bring Hackett to the table to talk about it some more with the people of Ohio and America?

As a matter of fact, the high counsels of the Democratic Party have decided to not make the War for Iraq a point of contention for any Democratic candidate this cycle ---instead insisting that one's position on the war is a matter of individual conscience.

Whatever.

Maybe they have decided that the dissenting veteran gambit is a loser after Kerry went and failed in Ohio himself.

If you people don't want to see a one-party nation, how about trying sometimes? Even if you fail, at least have some balls to put up someone you believe in. It would make believing in you a lot more likely.

Switchgrass Man
There are surely billions of people on Earth who should be saying "We've just got to get over our dependence on hydrocarbons" before Bush the Younger does, right? Is there anything he is doing now or ever has done to make anyone believe that he could possibly mean that?

The Eyes of College Station Are Upon Me
Now Playing: twelfth man, inc.
All the live long day.

But it ain't nothin' but a thang, baby.

Nice to have y'all along for the ride. Maybe.

America the Beautiful
Now Playing: but this is
I hear the dollar's about to collapse. What does that even mean?

My ignorance of monetary policy and of economics, in general, is almost complete. I have no idea what most of that stuff means. That's no joke.

Hope some clever Jews and crackers get it figured out so I won't have to care.

Whitewashed Walls, a Riddle
Now Playing: "Sing This Song All Together" by the Rolling Stones
Where is America's great protest art? Are the kids giving us anything to remember these times by? Dammit.

I listen to music so seldom anymore that I don't know what's worth a damn. All my soundtrack is antique (albeit by preference).

Maybe I shouldn't try to find the protest art on the radio. Maybe the chief art form of these days is propaganda by cinema.

Breaking It Over
Now Playing: ridin' shotgun
How bad will the overreach be on this Cheney thing?

Enough to make the Democratic Party look like the estranged and incoherent spouse to the Government they are.

It's no surprise that the Vice President of the United States's shooting of a man this past weekend gives them lots of wood. The very phrases that would succinctly convey the fact of the incident are nearly erotic in their mouths: "The Vice President of the United States has shot a man in the face and chest."

It's a stunning idea, isn't it?

But are the public going to countenance this coming tide of chickenshit remarks when Cheney has shown as much personal contrition in his words to Brit Hume this afternoon as he has ever shown in public before?

It was an accident, after all. People do make them.

What can I say? You got lucky, Dick. Extremely lucky. If the worst that comes of this is giving History and Comedy a little piece of your dignity, it will be a blessing. But, for now, accept that those who hate and fear you are having their time of it and love their new metaphor for you. Don't fight it. Let it break over you.

Sieg Heil!
Now Playing: vanishing for want of motion
Hamas and the moral mutants who elected them to lead the Palestinian government are turning out some mighty unstable product.

How are these fucking things supposed to work once the batteries go dead?

More Cartoon Violence (and Some Sort of Sex)
Now Playing: some motorhead on blown-out woofers
Robert Spencer writes in FrontPage Magazine (my emphasis):

A disgraceful art exhibit in Milan has illustrated once again the deep affinity between the Left and the forces of the global jihad. In these days of Muslims the world over calling for the deaths of those who have “insulted Islam,” anyone who wants to see Oriana Fallaci beheaded need look no further than the Galleria Luciano Inga-Pin in Milan, which is exhibiting Giuseppe Veneziano’s “American Beauty” from January 19 through March 18. This is a series of paintings designed to highlight the “weakness and perversity of the ‘American way of life.’” It accordingly features straightforward, if somewhat lurid, portraits of Michael Jackson and Ronald McDonald, along with the distinctly non-American Harry Potter. Then comes a bizarre depiction of a nude man having sexual intercourse with the Pink Panther, five artistic renditions of the Abu Ghraib prison photos (each with “American Beauty” scrawled across the top), and — Oriana Fallaci’s decapitated head.

Although I find the picture of Fallaci decapitated deeply offensive, I have no plans to attack the Italian embassy, boycott Italian wine, phone in a bomb threat to the Galleria Luciano Inga-Pin, kill innocent people who had nothing to with the painting, or threaten to kill those who are actually responsible for it. Veneziano’s painting is the sort of obnoxiousness that has become commonplace on the Left, and is one of the prices of freedom of speech.

Is this painting, as my old friend from New York once taught me to suspect of other pictures, a "visual pun"? I don't know. It's funny, though.

But the painting of Fallaci is not. It is, instead, a demonstration that the Left and Islamofascism are useful to each other. The former wants to bring down the existing order; the latter ---oh, yeah...

They are natural allies, aren't they?

Totalitarians at heart; desegregators, but really homogenizers; and secret ---but not so secret--- haters of Christians, Jews, and Rome herself, my N-words. Rome herself.

(With a shout-out to LGF.)

Well, at Least They're Not Idolizing a Calf or Something Stupid Like That!
Now Playing: "Make a Move On Me" by Olivia Newton-John
Charles Johnson tells us about today's demonstration of Islamist psychopathy. The report comes from The Australian (emphasis mine):

THOUSANDS of people flocked to southern Egypt today to seek blessing from a calf they believe was born as God's reply to the publication in Europe of cartoons depicting the prophet, police said.

Some 20,000 thousand people had gathered in front of Mohammed Abu Dif's house in the village of Tunis to see the holy mammal, whose skin folds when he was born reportedly formed the words "There is no God but Allah", a police official said on condition of anonymity.

He said the villagers flocked from all over the southern governorate of Sohag to the farmer's house and had to be dispersed by police, who feared the gathering could get out of control.

Witnesses said they believed the calf was "Allah's response to current attacks against Islam", the official said.

These people are absolutely mad. Sure, we have our share of Jesus Tortillas and Virgin Mary Oil Slicks here in the West, but only the heat-addled brains of goat-pokers could come up with some horseshit like that.

As far as I know of these madmen, Allah made Mohammed the messenger with the Last Word on whatever forever. And now come along the folds of a calf's skin to spell out a slogan?

What the fuck? At long last, what the fuck?

Is this not, too, idolatry? A "holy mammal"?

How the hell do these heathens even walk upright?