Tuesday, February 28, 2006

World Trade Center anniversary/ Waco anniversary

Big hat tip to Atlas and Debbie Schlussel for remembering the anniversary of the first World Trade Center attack on February 26, 1993.

The MSM/DNC would like us to believe that terrorism started only after the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, just like hurricanes started only when George Bush became President.

The original WTC attack (1993) killed 6 people and injured 1,000 others. The story dominated the news for about one day and a half.

The reason this story dominated the news for only one day and a half can be found in the response of the Clinton administration. Two days after Islamic radicals began the attack that eventually killed 3,000 Americans and destroyed the 2 towers, the Clinton administration swung into action. The administration attacked some people in a compound near Waco, Texas. America would become bogged down in the Waco fiasco for the next two months until most of the compound residents would be burned alive and the WTC attackers would be forgotten. Two years later, Tim McVeigh destroyed the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City in retaliation. Lost in all of this unnecessary tragedy was the continued efforts of the Islamic terrorists to destroy the United States. 9-11-01 was the eventual result.

Thirteen years and two days ago.




Thirteen years ago today.

Labels: , , , ,

Classics of Conservatism - part XVI - Ayn Rand - Philosophy: Who Needs It

Click here for previous editions of "Classics of Conservatism."

This month's "Classic" is Ayn Rand's Philosophy: Who Needs It.

Philosophy is a compilation of articles that first appeared individually in the early to mid-1970's. Don't let the title fool you. Rand did not oppose the concept of "philosophy." In fact, the entire volume argues in support of philosophy's contribution to civilization, freedom and prosperity. Rand repeatedly stated throughout her life that true happiness was impossible without a firm grounding in philosophy. (Recall that most of the heroes of Rand's Atlas Shrugged were either students or professors of philosophy.)

But she did not dwell on the incomprehensible concepts that pass for philosphy in modern universities.

1982







Instead, she presented a simple, logical view of mankind that is attainable by each of us.

My favorite chapter is #6, "An Open Letter to Boris Spassky." Spassky was a world famous Russian chess champion. Rand's "letter" challenges Spassky - and the reader - to imagine chess if the rules of collectivism (whether one calls it socialism or western liberalism) governed the game. I first read this chapter (and the book) in 1989 and I have never forgotten it.

Some of the chapters also provide history lessons for those of us who are too young to remember the early 1970's (or who have heard only the MSM/DNC version of those years). Chapter 12 uses Allende's Chile as an example of the failures of collectivism. Rand's commentary is refreshing for those of us who are tired of hearing Allende referred to as a martyr.



While Ayn Rand is famous for her fiction works, the non-fiction compilations, such as Philosophy, provide entertaining, thought provoking, timeless insight into man's struggle against collectivism.

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Surely not all of the myriad charges made against Clinton can be true. But has anyone ever made a charge against him that left Mrs. Clinton looking surprised?

Joe Sobran

Labels: , , ,

Monday, February 27, 2006

Quote of the day - Ayn Rand

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.

Ayn Rand

Labels: ,

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Quote of the day - Peg Noonan

I don't think most of us get extra screening [at airports] because they think we are terrorists. I think we get it because they know we're not. They screen people who are not terrorists because it helps them pretend they are protecting us, in the same way doctors in the middle ages used to wear tall hats: because they couldn't cure you. It's all show.

Peg Noonan

Labels: , ,

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

Flattery makes the most effective chains. Hitler told the Germans that they were a master race -- and came very close to making them slaves.

Thomas Sowell

Labels: ,

Friday, February 24, 2006

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

Liberal soccer moms are precisely as likely to receive anthrax in the mail as to develop a capacity for linear thinking.

Ann Coulter

Labels: , ,

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Quote of the day - Eric Hoffer

Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America.

--Eric Hoffer

[H/T Thomas Sowell

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Hillary Clinton. the Dubai deal and the Panama Canal

Hillary Clinton has vowed to fight the sale of U.S. port management to Dubai.

While I agree that the deal must be stopped, Hillary's crocodile tears over this proposed deal are as phony as her marriage.

She raised no questions or objections when her husband's administration presided over the transfer of management of the Panama Canal to China (or to a Chinese "company" as those unfamiliar with communist countries might call it).

apparant reaction to transfer of Panama Canal to China












For those whose knowledge of the 1990's comes exclusively from the MSM/DNC, click on this link for a more detailed history of the Clinton/China relationship.


For those educated in public schools










--------------------------
update - former top level Democrats, including Madeleine Albright, have worked behind the scenes to promote the Dubai deal also. H/T American Thinker.

Labels: , ,

Quote of the day - Lao Tze

The more display there is of legislation, the more thieves and robbers there are.

Lao-Tze

Labels: ,

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Quote of the day - C.S. Lewis

An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason.

C. S. Lewis

Labels: ,

Monday, February 20, 2006

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Let's not overlook the media's role in pushing this
scandal [The Catholic Church child molestation scandal].
They are avoiding any reference to
homosexuality, preferring to call the problem
"pedophilia" -- though the great majority of the victims
have been teenaged boys. Church officials have allowed an
aggressive homosexual network to capture the seminaries
and infiltrate the priesthood. But as someone has well
said, this is a case where the media "love the sin and
hate the sinner."

Joe Sobran

Labels: , , ,

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

It's easy to be tough about nothing. The press corps that noisily champions "the public's right to know" about a minor hunting accident simultaneously assures the public that they've no need to see these Danish cartoons that have caused riots, arson and death around the world.

Mark Steyn

Labels: , , , ,

Friday, February 17, 2006

Quote of the day - Ayn Rand

Evil requires the sanction of the victim.

Ayn Rand

Labels: ,

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Quote of the day - Hamas

We Will Drink the Blood of the Jews.

Hamas video - H/T LGF

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Ragheads, Dhimmitude and the survival of Western Civilization

A "raghead" comment from Ann Coulter has generated controversy over the past few days, as even conservatives have distanced themselves from this word.



But before we take the safe road, we should remember the broader context of this statement and this struggle.

In the past few months, we have seen muslim rioters nearly bring Paris and other European cities to their knees. At the same time, western "journalists" would not identify the rioters' religion (even referring to them as "African-Americans" ).

We have seen Islamic mullahs create a controversy and spark riots over harmless Danish cartoons. For the most part, western governments condemned the cartoons while western "journalists" refused to show the cartoons for fear of offending the rioters and Islamists.

This fear was the object and goal of the riots. The Islamists have forced the west to submit to the will of Allah. The word for this submission is Dhimmitude, and it is a much more frightening word than "Raghead":
This is the lesson of Cartoon Rage 2006, a cultural nuke set off by an Islamic chain reaction to those 12 cartoons of Muhammad appearing in a Danish newspaper. We have watched the Muslim meltdown with shocked attention, but there is little recognition that its poisonous fallout is fear. Fear in the State Department, which, like Islam, called the cartoons unacceptable. Fear in Whitehall, which did the same. Fear in the Vatican, which did the same. And fear in the media, which have failed, with few, few exceptions, to reprint or show the images. With only a small roll of brave journals, mainly in Europe, to salute, we have seen the proud Western tradition of a free press bow its head and submit to an Islamic law against depictions of Muhammad. That's dhimmitude.
Read all of Diana West's column.

The terrorists become successful not merely by blowing up buildings or crashing airplanes or attacking internet sites. The terrorists win when we cower in fear. The terrorists win when Katie Couric's teleprompter refuses to identify the religion of those who burn Paris, much like frightened witnesses who refuse to talk to police for fear of gang reprisal.

Most importantly, the terrorists win when western newspapers and networks refuse to publish cartoons because they fear Islam.

The cowering of the MSM/DNC in recent days will only create more such attacks in the future. As the West runs in fear, Islam advances.

But the news is not all bad.

Victory has never been so easy, yet so elusive. We need only show the world that we do not fear the Islamist rioters or terrorists. Blogbursts such as this one can destroy the dhimmitude created by years of MSM/DNC cowering. By showing that we are not afraid, we rob Islam of its chief weapon.

That is where the word "raghead" comes into play. When an American uses such an unequivocal word as "raghead", it shows the world that we are not afraid. It shows the Islamists that we will not submit. We can thumb our nose at Muhammed and Allah and survive and prosper. The word itself disproves the myth of inevitability that the Islamists have worked so hard to create.

It may very well be that our own survival depends on our ability to use the word "raghead" with impunity. A society that says "raghead" will never cower before Islamic extremists.

Labels: , ,

Hypocrite of the day - Hillary Clinton, Vince Foster and the Cheney shooting

Hillary Clinton apparently thinks that the Bush administration's response to the Cheney shooting was not good enough. She is "troubled" by the White House' supposed delay in contacting the MSM/DNC about the shooting.

Did she really think we would forget about her own obstruction of the police investigation in the immediate aftermath of the death of Vince Foster?

The following is from CNN (1996):
The same day Hillary Clinton was scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention, newly released documents suggest she was behind the 30-hour delay in releasing late White House counsel Vincent Foster's suicide note to authorities.
H/T Michelle Malkin

















Michelle Malkin was under the mistaken impression that Hillary's role in the Foster obstruction would shame Hillary into silence. But Hillary's shamelessness exceeds even her adversaries' expectations.

It almost seems as if Hillary is challenging us to revisit the whole sordid Foster Arkancide affair. Let's take her up on the challenge.

-------------------------
runner up - Harry Reid.

Labels: , , ,

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

. . . given that the media's spent the last two weeks telling the public why they don't need to see these Danish cartoons, it's hard to take them seriously as sudden converts to the public's right to know every detail, if only when it comes to minor hunting accidents.

Mark Steyn

Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

The liberal account of history, taken literally, holds that the Dark Ages were a time, long long ago, when ignorant religious nuts ruled the world and you couldn’t even find a decent abortionist — oops, abortion provider — when you needed one.

Real historians discarded this caricature long long ago. The so-called “dark” ages were the centuries when the Christian faith converted Europe and either abolished or discredited such savage atavisms as infanticide, polygamy, slavery, and, yes, abortion.

Modern liberalism seems to regard the reintroduction of such evils as evidence of “progress.” I suppose it depends on how you define terms like “dark” and “enlightenment.” What liberals call “rights,” some of us still call sins.

Joe Sobran

Labels: , , , ,

Monday, February 13, 2006

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

I think our motto should be, post-9/11, 'Raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences'.

attributed to Ann Coulter

Labels: , , ,

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

In a world in which Danish cartoons insult the prophet and Disney Piglet mugs insult the prophet and Burger King chocolate ice-cream swirl designs insult the prophet, maybe it would just be easier to make a list of things that don't insult him.

Mark Steyn

Labels: , , ,

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Happy Blogiversary to Atlas Shrugs

Today is Atlas' one year blogiversary. Congratulations and we hope it is the first of many.

Labels: ,

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

I do not like to see the future mothers of America becoming soldiers. There are plenty of men who are capable of becoming soldiers and who are not capable of becoming mothers.

Thomas Sowell

Labels: , ,

Friday, February 10, 2006

Quote of the day - Peg Noonan

You wonder at the intemperance of angry young lefties and then think of the example set for them by exhausted old lefties.

Peg Noonan

Labels: ,

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

As my regular readers know, I've long been skeptical of the "Religion of Peace" moniker for Muslims — for at least 3,000 reasons right off the top of my head. I think the evidence is going my way this week.

Ann Coulter, February 8, 2006

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Quote of the day - Bat Ye'or

"I do not see serious signs of a Europeanization of Islam anywhere, a move that would be expressed in a relativization of religion, a self-critical view of the history of Islamic imperialism...we are light years away from such a development...On the contrary, I think that we are participating in the Islamization of Europe, reflected both in daily occurrences and in our way of thinking...All the racist fanaticism that permeates the Arab countries and Iran has been manifested in Europe in recent years..."

The historian Bat Ye'or (from a 1991 French interview, published in English translation in 1994)

H/T Altas Shrugs

Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Quote of the day - C.S. Lewis

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.

C. S. Lewis

Labels: ,

Monday, February 06, 2006

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

If John Kerry had a dollar for every time he bragged about serving in Vietnam - oh wait, he does.

Ann Coulter

Labels: , , ,

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

One day the British foreign secretary will wake up and discover that, in practice, there's very little difference between living under Exquisitely Refined Multicultural Sensitivity and Sharia.

Mark Steyn

Labels: , , ,

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Prayers for the Assassin, by Robert Ferrigno

Hat Tip to Junk Yard Blog for posting a review of what seems to be a timely book. Here is Junk Yard's excerpt:
The second half of the Super Bowl began right after midday prayers. The fans in Khomeini Stadium had performed their ablutions by rote, awkwardly prostrating themselves, heels splayed, foreheads not even touching the ground…The guard noticed Rakkim Epps watching him, stiffened, then spotted the Fedayeen ring on his finger and bowed, offered him a blessing, and Rakkim, who had not prayed in over three years, returned the blessing with the same sincerity. Not one in a thousand would have recognized the plain titanium band, but the guard was one of the early converts, the hard core who had risked everything and expected nothing other than Paradise in return. He wondered if the guard still thought the war was worth it.

I have not read the novel, but it appears to have promise, positing a futuristic America divided into Muslim and Christian partitions by the year 2040 as a result of nuclear attack by fanatical muslims and years of muslim infiltration and immigration.




As Junk Yard Writes:

But considering that we enter Super Bowl weekend with freedom of speech under assault across the entire world, with dhimmitude on the rise in the West, and with little details like the prayer room that was opened in the New Jersey Meadowlands last season, it sure seems timely.

Labels: , ,

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Sex is private, morality is a private thing, private conduct is nobody's business -- these are the bromides of the sexual revolution. So why is sex more public than ever before?

The real doctrine of the sexual revolution is that sex is public, not private. The zone of privacy has actually shrunk.

Joe Sobran

Labels: , ,

Friday, February 03, 2006

Quote of the day - Eric Hoffer

The intellectuals and the young, booted and spurred, feel themselves born to ride us.

Eric Hoffer

Labels: ,

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

Knowledge is one of the few things that can be given to others without reducing the amount you have left.

Labels: ,

  • People's Pottage - permalink
  • Economics in One Lesson - permalink
  • Why Johnny Can't Read- permalink
  • Locations of visitors to this page