Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, February 20, 2006 at about 11pm CST - Segment 1
Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, February 20, 2006 at about 11pm CST
Segment 1
As I have said before, very few people are listening to this program. I have been wondering why I am doing the program at all. The goals I set for the project are very high, but it doesn't seem to be working out. Most likely I am sitting here alone talking to myself. Ah, well, we shall assume someone is out there listening, even though I doubt it.
Let's look. The Cartoon Jihad has legs. It's continuing. It's claiming more victims as it goes along.
This Italian right wing ambassador to Lybia bought a t-shirt with one of the Danish cartoons on it. When he showed up on TV, the Italian embassy in Lybia was attacked. Over ten people were killed by the Libyan security service. The Italian ambassador initially refused to resign, because his party has always been against immigration. Finally he had to go. I've got to agree with that the government of the United States and all governments have got to keep themselves as far away from this craziness as possible. For any official of the government, any government to throw fuel on the fire is kind of stupid.
Having said that, I still think the newspapers in the United States should print the cartoons with calls for debate. Civilized people debate. They do not run out on the streets and burn buildings.
Flemming Rose, the editor at the Jutland Post who started all this, wrote an article in his own newspaper that was reprinted in the Washington Post explaining that he printed the cartoons to spark debate in his community. He wanted to open a dialogue with moderate Muslim voices in his country who wanted to integrate into Danish society. He wrote in his article, "When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy." I sent him email saying that I admired his stance. I doubt if he will read it.
I said last week that Flemming Rose got fired. I was mistaken. My source was a mainstream media report and it was incorrect. He was not.
We are in the midst of a test of wills. The Irreconcilables have studied Vietnam and are convinced that they can break the will of the American people. It has been said many times before that generals are always fight the last war. So it is with our enemies. They expect submission because in the past that is what they got.
Let me go over some things dealing with this conflict. They're kind of random thoughts.
As I've said before we are in a clash of cultures where the Irreconcilables are absolutely convinced that if they destroy us and establish the caliphate, they will be able to take over the world and erase all the shame of their past failures. They at once covet our success without understanding its source. The Muslims are absolutely convinced of their rectitude. The idea that we in the West are so successful is a source of confusion to them. I mean, the Qu'ran makes clear that only Muslims are supposed to be rich and powerful. They have been promised for over 1000 years that, if they adhere to the Qu'ran, they will have world domination. The problem that they are encountering is that too many of their young people are willing to be lured away from the One True Path. We in the West have tempted their young and we have to be punished for that.
I was reading an article by Bernard Lewis who is one of the great authorities on Islam in the West. Jews prior to 1948 were treated better by Islam than by the Christians in Europe. The Muslims viewed the Jews as cowards. The Jews had adopted a policy of appeasement throughout their history. Every once in a while the Muslims would have a fundamentalist revival and the Jews would get it in the neck, but they had figured out how to navigate things under the caliphates of the past. Because the Muslims held the Jews in such contempt, they could not think of them as people they had to fear.
When Israel was founded in founded in 1948, almost all the Islamic countries in the Middle East tried to destroy Israel. The first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 ended with the Arab forces totally defeated. The shock throughout the Muslim world was profound. The Muslims were absolutely horrified that 500000 Jews could resist the might of all of the Arab nations in the area. As near as I can tell, the Muslims had the reaction that you would have if your pet poodle attacked and killed your favorite pit bull dog. Oh, that's right, you don't have a pet poodle or a pet pit bull. Well, it was much worse for the psyche of the members of Islam.
The Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973 finished devastated their self-esteem. The Muslims of the Middle East were humiliated because they couldn't even beat the Jews in a standup fight. They felt that they as Muslims were unable to do much of anything right.
Throughout the last 400 years the Muslims have had a history of losing battles with the Christians starting in about 1620. The high water mark for Muslim expansion was September 11, 1683 outside the gates of Vienna, Austria. The Polish military came down from the heights and scattered the Muslim host. With a few exceptions, Muslims have lost against European powers ever since.
Osama bin Laden has many reasons for fighting the United States and the West, but they are religious reasons. The Irreconcilables have just had enough of being humiliated by the West. Basically the Muslims under Muslim rule cannot produce much of anything. They can't even produce the oil they export without foreign supervision of their drilling operations. The GDP of all the Muslim nations put together do not match Spain's GDP. Ummm, you did know that Spain is not known for its powerhouse economy?
What gets me about this is that were the Irreconcilables to gain power and actually establish the new Caliphate, their economies would collapse. The prime example of this is Iran. When you look at Iran under the Shah, the country was making an effort to modernize. The Shah was not a nice guy. His policies were bad and he deserved to be deposed. The problem is that the mullahs of Iran are not an improvement over the Shah. All the income that Iran gets from oil is spent by the mullahs on themselves, not on improving business. Investments in Iran are impossible because of the deep rooted corruption in the government.
The cartoon jihad is one front in a war that will span 30 to 50 years. The war will not be fought with armies. It will be fought mostly on the cultural front. Islamic armies are not capable of defeating our military. I use that word 'defeat' differently than you think. Defeat is in the mind, not the body.
The only way we can lose is if we attempt to appease the Irreconcilables. If we modify our behavior to suit their tastes, not our own, then we will have lost.
Too many people in this country do not believe that we are at war with an implacable foe. The thinking on the Left is that we can appease the Irreconcilables. I think that is a stupid idea.
People have made the comparison between the War on Terror and the Cold War or even the run up to World War II. Unfortunately it is not exactly the same. The destruction of the fascist causes in Europe, could be done by force of arms. The destruction of Communism was possible because Communism doesn't work as an economic system.
How do you get an entire religion to accept that portions of their holy book are incorrect? I mean, under the Qu'ran, there is adequate passage to support the position that the West is decadent and must be destroyed. People who come out and say that the Irreconcilables are a fringe group with little in the way to back up their position are silly.
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met with the ambassador of Lybia to Great Britain. The ambassador's reasons for attacking American ships in the Mediterranean were very similar to Osama bin Laden's reasons for attacking us today, except the representative of the Barbary pirates was more sure of his position than Osama bin Laden.
What we're seeing today in the terrorist attacks from the Irreconcilables is not a fringe position. It is mainstream Islamic thought. The cartoon jihad has proved that to any who wants to be convinced.
There are a huge number of people in this country who do NOT want to be convinced that the Irreconcilables mean what they say. I have heard various theories as to why the Left has adopted the position that the Irreconcilables can be placated, but the people who believe that are deluded. The Irreconcilables cannot appeased.
Osama bin Laden is at this moment calling for a long-term truce. Maybe you haven't heard about that. Yeah, yeah, he wants us to stop chasing him. If we stop messing with him, he promises to stop messing with us. Anyone who believes that,... well, I got this bridge in Brooklyn I'll sell you.
You see, the problem I am having is that there are two absolutely different pictures coming out of Iraq depending on who you want to believe. It all has to do with the filter you use to view the stories available. The mainstream media are selling Iraq as a total disaster. The blogosphere is making the point that the moving slowly ahead and gaining strength.
As far as I can see, we are at the same juncture as we were in 1987. Most of you do not remember that. Everyone and his dog was saying that the Soviet Union was solid. Everyone was saying that the Soviets would recover from their economic downturn and pull back from the brink.
Hmmm... That's a really stupid analogy, because the Soviet Union fell. I was trying to say that everyone knows that the Iraqis cannot make it on their own. yet I believe that in two years, everyone will be surprised how well they can handle their own affairs. You have to realize that Northern Ireland was a very violent place for a while. I expect that the level of violence in Iraq will be just as bad as Northern Ireland was for ten or so years. Despite the fact that I expect that much violence, I do not think it will be that bad except around Baghdad.
What I really think will happen is that Iran will fall in the next ten years. Iran will fall because of demographics. The Iranians killed off too many people in the Iran-Iraq War. Their young people are not going to put up with the mullahs forever. Most of you out there are not watching the blogs like I do. It looks like the Iranian people are beaten down. They by and large are not. It looks like that the weirdo in charge Amadingdong... is going to blow up the world with his nuclear weapons. I don't believe it. If we as Americans support the reformers as Bush says he will, then Iran's mullahs' time in power is limited.
Also... Syria has really and truly messed up by assassinating that guy in Lebanon. The reformers in Syria are few, but Asad is not really string in his own country. A big push and he could fall over.
Again, it's 1987. Everyone is seeing things a certain way. The instability in Iraq looks like it will go on and on forever. It won't. Amadingdong's posturing looks like a sign of strength. It isn't. Asad's defiance of the U.N. looks like he is firmly in control. He isn't.
Mark my words. The next two years will be interesting times. Wait... you have heard that Chinese curse have you not? Oh, well. It goes "May you live in interesting times." Well, dudes and dudettes, we are living in interesting times and that is our curse. Those that accept that interesting times are upon us are going to be able to cope with the changes.
Segment 1
As I have said before, very few people are listening to this program. I have been wondering why I am doing the program at all. The goals I set for the project are very high, but it doesn't seem to be working out. Most likely I am sitting here alone talking to myself. Ah, well, we shall assume someone is out there listening, even though I doubt it.
Let's look. The Cartoon Jihad has legs. It's continuing. It's claiming more victims as it goes along.
This Italian right wing ambassador to Lybia bought a t-shirt with one of the Danish cartoons on it. When he showed up on TV, the Italian embassy in Lybia was attacked. Over ten people were killed by the Libyan security service. The Italian ambassador initially refused to resign, because his party has always been against immigration. Finally he had to go. I've got to agree with that the government of the United States and all governments have got to keep themselves as far away from this craziness as possible. For any official of the government, any government to throw fuel on the fire is kind of stupid.
Having said that, I still think the newspapers in the United States should print the cartoons with calls for debate. Civilized people debate. They do not run out on the streets and burn buildings.
Flemming Rose, the editor at the Jutland Post who started all this, wrote an article in his own newspaper that was reprinted in the Washington Post explaining that he printed the cartoons to spark debate in his community. He wanted to open a dialogue with moderate Muslim voices in his country who wanted to integrate into Danish society. He wrote in his article, "When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy." I sent him email saying that I admired his stance. I doubt if he will read it.
I said last week that Flemming Rose got fired. I was mistaken. My source was a mainstream media report and it was incorrect. He was not.
We are in the midst of a test of wills. The Irreconcilables have studied Vietnam and are convinced that they can break the will of the American people. It has been said many times before that generals are always fight the last war. So it is with our enemies. They expect submission because in the past that is what they got.
Let me go over some things dealing with this conflict. They're kind of random thoughts.
As I've said before we are in a clash of cultures where the Irreconcilables are absolutely convinced that if they destroy us and establish the caliphate, they will be able to take over the world and erase all the shame of their past failures. They at once covet our success without understanding its source. The Muslims are absolutely convinced of their rectitude. The idea that we in the West are so successful is a source of confusion to them. I mean, the Qu'ran makes clear that only Muslims are supposed to be rich and powerful. They have been promised for over 1000 years that, if they adhere to the Qu'ran, they will have world domination. The problem that they are encountering is that too many of their young people are willing to be lured away from the One True Path. We in the West have tempted their young and we have to be punished for that.
I was reading an article by Bernard Lewis who is one of the great authorities on Islam in the West. Jews prior to 1948 were treated better by Islam than by the Christians in Europe. The Muslims viewed the Jews as cowards. The Jews had adopted a policy of appeasement throughout their history. Every once in a while the Muslims would have a fundamentalist revival and the Jews would get it in the neck, but they had figured out how to navigate things under the caliphates of the past. Because the Muslims held the Jews in such contempt, they could not think of them as people they had to fear.
When Israel was founded in founded in 1948, almost all the Islamic countries in the Middle East tried to destroy Israel. The first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 ended with the Arab forces totally defeated. The shock throughout the Muslim world was profound. The Muslims were absolutely horrified that 500000 Jews could resist the might of all of the Arab nations in the area. As near as I can tell, the Muslims had the reaction that you would have if your pet poodle attacked and killed your favorite pit bull dog. Oh, that's right, you don't have a pet poodle or a pet pit bull. Well, it was much worse for the psyche of the members of Islam.
The Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973 finished devastated their self-esteem. The Muslims of the Middle East were humiliated because they couldn't even beat the Jews in a standup fight. They felt that they as Muslims were unable to do much of anything right.
Throughout the last 400 years the Muslims have had a history of losing battles with the Christians starting in about 1620. The high water mark for Muslim expansion was September 11, 1683 outside the gates of Vienna, Austria. The Polish military came down from the heights and scattered the Muslim host. With a few exceptions, Muslims have lost against European powers ever since.
Osama bin Laden has many reasons for fighting the United States and the West, but they are religious reasons. The Irreconcilables have just had enough of being humiliated by the West. Basically the Muslims under Muslim rule cannot produce much of anything. They can't even produce the oil they export without foreign supervision of their drilling operations. The GDP of all the Muslim nations put together do not match Spain's GDP. Ummm, you did know that Spain is not known for its powerhouse economy?
What gets me about this is that were the Irreconcilables to gain power and actually establish the new Caliphate, their economies would collapse. The prime example of this is Iran. When you look at Iran under the Shah, the country was making an effort to modernize. The Shah was not a nice guy. His policies were bad and he deserved to be deposed. The problem is that the mullahs of Iran are not an improvement over the Shah. All the income that Iran gets from oil is spent by the mullahs on themselves, not on improving business. Investments in Iran are impossible because of the deep rooted corruption in the government.
The cartoon jihad is one front in a war that will span 30 to 50 years. The war will not be fought with armies. It will be fought mostly on the cultural front. Islamic armies are not capable of defeating our military. I use that word 'defeat' differently than you think. Defeat is in the mind, not the body.
The only way we can lose is if we attempt to appease the Irreconcilables. If we modify our behavior to suit their tastes, not our own, then we will have lost.
Too many people in this country do not believe that we are at war with an implacable foe. The thinking on the Left is that we can appease the Irreconcilables. I think that is a stupid idea.
People have made the comparison between the War on Terror and the Cold War or even the run up to World War II. Unfortunately it is not exactly the same. The destruction of the fascist causes in Europe, could be done by force of arms. The destruction of Communism was possible because Communism doesn't work as an economic system.
How do you get an entire religion to accept that portions of their holy book are incorrect? I mean, under the Qu'ran, there is adequate passage to support the position that the West is decadent and must be destroyed. People who come out and say that the Irreconcilables are a fringe group with little in the way to back up their position are silly.
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met with the ambassador of Lybia to Great Britain. The ambassador's reasons for attacking American ships in the Mediterranean were very similar to Osama bin Laden's reasons for attacking us today, except the representative of the Barbary pirates was more sure of his position than Osama bin Laden.
What we're seeing today in the terrorist attacks from the Irreconcilables is not a fringe position. It is mainstream Islamic thought. The cartoon jihad has proved that to any who wants to be convinced.
There are a huge number of people in this country who do NOT want to be convinced that the Irreconcilables mean what they say. I have heard various theories as to why the Left has adopted the position that the Irreconcilables can be placated, but the people who believe that are deluded. The Irreconcilables cannot appeased.
Osama bin Laden is at this moment calling for a long-term truce. Maybe you haven't heard about that. Yeah, yeah, he wants us to stop chasing him. If we stop messing with him, he promises to stop messing with us. Anyone who believes that,... well, I got this bridge in Brooklyn I'll sell you.
You see, the problem I am having is that there are two absolutely different pictures coming out of Iraq depending on who you want to believe. It all has to do with the filter you use to view the stories available. The mainstream media are selling Iraq as a total disaster. The blogosphere is making the point that the moving slowly ahead and gaining strength.
As far as I can see, we are at the same juncture as we were in 1987. Most of you do not remember that. Everyone and his dog was saying that the Soviet Union was solid. Everyone was saying that the Soviets would recover from their economic downturn and pull back from the brink.
Hmmm... That's a really stupid analogy, because the Soviet Union fell. I was trying to say that everyone knows that the Iraqis cannot make it on their own. yet I believe that in two years, everyone will be surprised how well they can handle their own affairs. You have to realize that Northern Ireland was a very violent place for a while. I expect that the level of violence in Iraq will be just as bad as Northern Ireland was for ten or so years. Despite the fact that I expect that much violence, I do not think it will be that bad except around Baghdad.
What I really think will happen is that Iran will fall in the next ten years. Iran will fall because of demographics. The Iranians killed off too many people in the Iran-Iraq War. Their young people are not going to put up with the mullahs forever. Most of you out there are not watching the blogs like I do. It looks like the Iranian people are beaten down. They by and large are not. It looks like that the weirdo in charge Amadingdong... is going to blow up the world with his nuclear weapons. I don't believe it. If we as Americans support the reformers as Bush says he will, then Iran's mullahs' time in power is limited.
Also... Syria has really and truly messed up by assassinating that guy in Lebanon. The reformers in Syria are few, but Asad is not really string in his own country. A big push and he could fall over.
Again, it's 1987. Everyone is seeing things a certain way. The instability in Iraq looks like it will go on and on forever. It won't. Amadingdong's posturing looks like a sign of strength. It isn't. Asad's defiance of the U.N. looks like he is firmly in control. He isn't.
Mark my words. The next two years will be interesting times. Wait... you have heard that Chinese curse have you not? Oh, well. It goes "May you live in interesting times." Well, dudes and dudettes, we are living in interesting times and that is our curse. Those that accept that interesting times are upon us are going to be able to cope with the changes.
posted by aRandomTexan at
1:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home