Intellectual activism in defense of the American way of life.
Archive for March, 2004
Mar 12th
The state of abortions rights in America recently got bleaker:
A woman accused of murder because she allegedly refused a caesarean section that could have saved her unborn twin denied the charge today, rejecting claims she avoided the surgery because she feared scarring.
The implications of these charges are clear enough:
Critics of the charges say the case could affect abortion rights and open the door to the prosecution of mothers who smoke, fail to follow their obstetrician’s diet or take some other action that endangers a fetus.
Terrorists Bomb Madrid Trains
Mar 11th
I’m sure that you’ve all heard of the Madrid bombings this morning that killed 190 and injured over 1200 people. While the Spanish government initially blamed Basque separatists, new evidence implicates Islamic fundamentalists, possibly cooperating the separatists. I have two observations to make about this:
Unlike Islamic fundamentalists, the Basque separatists are not death-worshipping suicide bombers. They did this expecting not only to get away their act, but also to survive long enough to reap the political benefits. What policies of the Spanish government and the larger war on terrorism led them to that conclusion?
Aside from the lackluster and self-defeating American response to 9/11, the European response to terrorism has been to portray Islamic fundamentalists as victims and America as the aggressor. If the Basque separatists anticipated the same attitude to be extended to them, they now expect a wave of sympathy for their cause, an attack on the Spanish government as the “imperialist aggressors” and a military response designed to capture their “hearts and minds” rather their bloody hearts and splattered brains.
So how did the Spanish politicians react? Did they pledge to hunt down and kill every single terrorist behind this attack? Did they renew their dedication to destroying the global terrorist network that is almost certainly at least partially behind this atrocity?
Three days of national mourning were declared and thousands of people took part in spontaneous anti-terror rallies across the country Thursday. The government called for nationwide anti-ETA demonstrations on Friday evening, and millions were expected.
Not a single article I read mentions anything about the Spanish government’s attempt to hunt down those responsible for the attack. In fact, the only pledge to go after the terrorists was offered by the U.S.:
The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution expressing outrage and urging Bush to “provide all possible assistance to Spain” in pursuing the terrorists.
The Spanish response to today’s bombings is just another example of a larger lesson: terrorism cannot be defeated until we recognize whom it is that we are fighting – something that our enemies have been aware of from the start:
The Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi said it had received a claim of responsibility issued in the name of al-Qaida…. This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader, and America’s ally in its war against Islam,” the claim said.
Mar 11th
In the news: attack of the drive-by porn, Mecha Marines, and the latest DARPA project: AI-driven vehicle race.
Apologies to my readers for the lack of content, but I’ve been busy. Coders can find out what I’ve been up to at GotDotNet. I’m cooking up something original for the weekend 
Mar 8th
Alexander Marriott has written a good post about Martha Stewart: “Stewart Treated Badly Because She is Successful, Not Because She is A Woman.” Whatever her ideological faults, there is no excuse for the horrendous injustice inflicted on her by the government, or the treatment she is getting from the media. I’ve pondered about ways to show my support for her, and here is one of the simplest and most effective: go to MarthaStewart.com and buy something from her catalog.
Islam, the “Far-Right”
Mar 7th
I think the title says it all: “Iraqi women juggle freedom, ‘moral duty’”
And if you weren’t clear enough on what Islam is about:
It’s my moral duty to stay in the house,” Hassan says, describing the life of a traditional Shiite Muslim wife. “Going out and being seen outside the house is against tradition. People will criticize a woman who leaves her house. This will create trouble for a woman in the community and trouble with her husband.
In other news, I often wonder what the labels “far-right” and “moderate” mean when referring to foreign political movements. The NYT has some clues:
Jörg Haider, the far-right political leader, brought his party an unanticipated victory in his home province Sunday…
In final results, the Freedom Party had 42.4 percent of the vote, and the Socialists 38 percent.
This implies that “moderate” actually means “socialist” and “far-right” is capitalist. Then the article continues:
Many blame Mr. Haider for the party’s national demise. He has been notorious for past remarks that sounded sympathetic to the Nazis and contemptuous of Jews, a visit with Saddam Hussein on the eve of the Iraq war and a friendship with Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi.
So what does “far-right” really mean – “capitalist” or “national socialist?” I know that commie reporters think that the two are the same, but I hope that my readers will know better.
Martha Stewart convicted
Mar 5th
Martha Stewart has been convicted on all four counts. I have nothing else to add to the matter other than this: a country that destroys its best, most productive minds does not survive for very long. If 30 years from now, all that is left of America is a broken-down starving dictatorship, today will be the day that finally doomed it. With the media in a witch-hunting frenzy, politicians of all stripes trying to beat one another to the next socialist regulation, and the courts going along, the thugs at the DOJ have nothing left in their way.
Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat which it can blame for the nation’s troubles and use as a justification of its own demands for dictatorial powers. In Soviet Russia, the scapegoat was the bourgeoisie; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jewish people; in America, it is the businessmen. -Ayn Rand
Mar 5th
To top off a lousy week, my digital camera broke today 
I’m in the market for a new one if any readers have suggestions for me.
Who stands to benefit from civil unrest in Iraq?
Mar 2nd
AlJazeera Poll: “Who stands to benefit from civil unrest in Iraq?”
Neighbouring Arab country : 13%
Neighbouring non-Arab country : 3%
Israel and the US : 38%
Internal Iraqi groups : 19%
Combination of the above : 12%
Unsure : 15%
Not surprisingly, “terrorists,” “Baathist thugs,” and “Al Jazeera” were not in the list. The article further implicates the US:
There might be infiltrators attacking the Shia to make it appear they are being targeted by Sunnis and the other way round. It is in the interest of both (Iraqi) Sunnis and Shia to agree on putting out this fire and not to react to such provocations,” said Shaikh Salman al-Udah.
(Needless to say, the problem in Iraq is a bit more serious than “civil unrest.”)
Applied Death Worship 101
Mar 2nd
A wave of suicide bombings and mortar attacks on vast crowds of Shiite worshippers has killed at least 170 people in Baghdad and Karbala.
…
The near-simultaneous attacks ripped through an annual ritual, banned under Sunni Saddam Hussein, during which Shiites beat their heads and chests and cut their heads with swords to honour a revered figure killed in battle 1,324 years ago.
Should it be any suprise that a religion glorifying death leads to death-worship in practice? Only to someone who glorifies death himself. The main difference between most Christians and Muslims is that the former tend to be much more consistent.
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