Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Ban the Burqa!!!
French President Sarkozy came out this week to rightfully condemn the burqa as the misogynist thing that it is, telling the world that it has no place in France.
It's about time one of the world's leaders has the balls to stand up to the Islamists on behalf of women who often have no choice but to walk around in those ridiculous prisons.
Here's a word from Mr. Condell on the matter:
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Going From Bad to Worse
With a BBC reporter given just hours to leave Iran, things are going to get ugly. Locked down internet access and no foreign reporters mean the theocracy is free to release whatever propaganda they wish while disposing of the protesters however they wish.
Where is President Obama during all of this? Where is the single word of support for freedom?
**crickets**
This is Krauthhammer's editorial on the situation and our President's impotence.
It is a bit lengthy for a blog post, but do read it, please:
WASHINGTON — Millions of Iranians take to the streets to defy a theocratic dictatorship that, among its other finer qualities, is a self-declared enemy of America and the tolerance and liberties it represents. The demonstrators are fighting on their own, but they await just a word that America is on their side.
And what do they hear from the president of the United States?
Silence. Then, worse. Three days in, the president makes clear his policy: continued "dialogue" with their clerical masters.
And what do they hear from the president of the United States?
Silence. Then, worse. Three days in, the president makes clear his policy: continued "dialogue" with their clerical masters.
Dialogue with a regime that is breaking heads, shooting demonstrators, expelling journalists, arresting activists. Engagement with — which inevitably confers legitimacy upon — leaders elected in a process that begins as a sham (only four handpicked candidates permitted out of 476) and ends in overt rigging.
Then, after treating this popular revolution as an inconvenience to the real business of Obama-Khamanei negotiations, the president speaks favorably of "some initial reaction from the Supreme Leader that indicates he understands the Iranian people have deep concerns about the election."
Where to begin? "Supreme Leader"? Note the abject solicitousness with which the American president confers this honorific on a clerical dictator who, even as his minions attack demonstrators, offers to examine some returns in some electoral districts — a farcical fix that will do nothing to alter the fraudulence of the election.
Moreover, this incipient revolution is no longer about the election.
Obama totally misses the point. The election allowed the political space and provided the spark for the eruption of anti-regime fervor that has been simmering for years and awaiting its moment. But people aren't dying in the street because they want a recount of hanging chads in suburban Isfahan.
They want to bring down the tyrannical, misogynist, corrupt theocracy that has imposed itself with the very baton-wielding goons that today attack the demonstrators.
This started out about election fraud. But like all revolutions, it has far outgrown its origins. What's at stake now is the very legitimacy of this regime — and the future of the entire Middle East.
This revolution will end either as a Tiananmen (a hot Tiananmen with massive and bloody repression or a cold Tiananmen with a finer mix of brutality and co-optation) or as a true revolution that brings down the Islamic Republic.
The latter is improbable but, for the first time in 30 years, not impossible. Imagine the repercussions. It would mark a decisive blow to Islamist radicalism, of which Iran today is not just standard-bearer and model, but financier and arms supplier. It would do to Islamism what the collapse of the Soviet Union did to communism — leave it forever spent and discredited.
In the region, it would launch a second Arab spring. The first in 2005 — the expulsion of Syria from Lebanon, first elections in Iraq and early liberalization in the Gulf states and Egypt — was aborted by a fierce counterattack from the forces of repression and reaction, led and funded by Iran.
Now, with Hezbollah having lost elections in Lebanon and with Iraq establishing the institutions of a young democracy, the fall of the Islamist dictatorship in Iran would have an electric and contagious effect.
The exception — Iraq and Lebanon — becomes the rule. Democracy becomes the wave. Syria becomes isolated; Hezbollah and Hamas, patronless. The entire trajectory of the region is reversed.
All hangs in the balance. The Khamenei regime is deciding whether to do a Tiananmen. And what side is the Obama administration taking? None.
Except for the desire that this "vigorous debate" (press secretary Robert Gibbs' disgraceful euphemism) over election "irregularities" not stand in the way of U.S.-Iranian engagement on nuclear weapons.
Even from the narrow perspective of the nuclear issue, the administration's geopolitical calculus is absurd. There is zero chance that any such talks will denuclearize Iran. On Monday, Ahmadinejad declared yet again that the nuclear "file is shut, forever." The only hope for a resolution of the nuclear question is regime change, which (if the successor regime were as moderate as pre-Khomeini Iran) might either stop the program, or make it manageable and nonthreatening.
That's our fundamental interest. And our fundamental values demand that America stand with demonstrators opposing a regime that is the antithesis of all we believe.
And where is our president? Afraid of "meddling." Afraid to take sides between the head-breaking, women-shackling exporters of terror — and the people in the street yearning to breathe free. This from a president who fancies himself the restorer of America's moral standing in the world.
Then, after treating this popular revolution as an inconvenience to the real business of Obama-Khamanei negotiations, the president speaks favorably of "some initial reaction from the Supreme Leader that indicates he understands the Iranian people have deep concerns about the election."
Where to begin? "Supreme Leader"? Note the abject solicitousness with which the American president confers this honorific on a clerical dictator who, even as his minions attack demonstrators, offers to examine some returns in some electoral districts — a farcical fix that will do nothing to alter the fraudulence of the election.
Moreover, this incipient revolution is no longer about the election.
Obama totally misses the point. The election allowed the political space and provided the spark for the eruption of anti-regime fervor that has been simmering for years and awaiting its moment. But people aren't dying in the street because they want a recount of hanging chads in suburban Isfahan.
They want to bring down the tyrannical, misogynist, corrupt theocracy that has imposed itself with the very baton-wielding goons that today attack the demonstrators.
This started out about election fraud. But like all revolutions, it has far outgrown its origins. What's at stake now is the very legitimacy of this regime — and the future of the entire Middle East.
This revolution will end either as a Tiananmen (a hot Tiananmen with massive and bloody repression or a cold Tiananmen with a finer mix of brutality and co-optation) or as a true revolution that brings down the Islamic Republic.
The latter is improbable but, for the first time in 30 years, not impossible. Imagine the repercussions. It would mark a decisive blow to Islamist radicalism, of which Iran today is not just standard-bearer and model, but financier and arms supplier. It would do to Islamism what the collapse of the Soviet Union did to communism — leave it forever spent and discredited.
In the region, it would launch a second Arab spring. The first in 2005 — the expulsion of Syria from Lebanon, first elections in Iraq and early liberalization in the Gulf states and Egypt — was aborted by a fierce counterattack from the forces of repression and reaction, led and funded by Iran.
Now, with Hezbollah having lost elections in Lebanon and with Iraq establishing the institutions of a young democracy, the fall of the Islamist dictatorship in Iran would have an electric and contagious effect.
The exception — Iraq and Lebanon — becomes the rule. Democracy becomes the wave. Syria becomes isolated; Hezbollah and Hamas, patronless. The entire trajectory of the region is reversed.
All hangs in the balance. The Khamenei regime is deciding whether to do a Tiananmen. And what side is the Obama administration taking? None.
Except for the desire that this "vigorous debate" (press secretary Robert Gibbs' disgraceful euphemism) over election "irregularities" not stand in the way of U.S.-Iranian engagement on nuclear weapons.
Even from the narrow perspective of the nuclear issue, the administration's geopolitical calculus is absurd. There is zero chance that any such talks will denuclearize Iran. On Monday, Ahmadinejad declared yet again that the nuclear "file is shut, forever." The only hope for a resolution of the nuclear question is regime change, which (if the successor regime were as moderate as pre-Khomeini Iran) might either stop the program, or make it manageable and nonthreatening.
That's our fundamental interest. And our fundamental values demand that America stand with demonstrators opposing a regime that is the antithesis of all we believe.
And where is our president? Afraid of "meddling." Afraid to take sides between the head-breaking, women-shackling exporters of terror — and the people in the street yearning to breathe free. This from a president who fancies himself the restorer of America's moral standing in the world.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Stupid is as Stupid as Stupid Does.
While PeTA, (who as an organization cannot figure out that flies are insects and not animals) are offended by President Obama swatting a filthy fly, they seem to have no problem using the progeny of a murdering communist to advance their cause: This undated photo provided by PETA shows Lydia Guevara posing on the set of her PETA photo shoot. The granddaughter of Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto 'Che' Guevara is the face of a new PETA campaign touting 'the vegetarian revolution.' PETA spokesman Michael McGraw says the campaign will debut in Argentina in October and will be seen internationally. It's PETA's first vegetarianism campaign in South America.
Considering the picture above, and all of the bikini/naked woman protests that PeTA organizes, I find it incomprehensible that a group concerned with the life of a fly has no problem using institutionalized misogyny to advance their cause.
*sigh*
Monday, June 15, 2009
Mmm... Bacon
I've got the perfect congratulatory gift for the psuedo-stinians:
Yes, that's right... Bacon crusted chocolate cake.
Check out this site for a treasure trove of outrageous food creations.
One of my favorites is bacon Stonehenge:
Friday, June 12, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Leftist Logic
**Disclaimer: I did not make this up. It is entirely true.**
I was at work last night, ringing up customers shortly before the end of my shift.
A lady comes into my lane with a stack of reusable grocery bags, which I don't mind. To each his own.
(I like the plastic because I can reuse them during the daily scooping of my cat's litter box.)
So, there I am, ringing up her groceries when I noticed that she's buying a lot of styrofoam plates, bowls, and plastic utensils.
Most of the folks that bring reusable bags are environmentalist crusaders, all too happy to tell you about the evils of plastic bags, so after a few moments I just couldn't help myself:
"So, having a big picnic, are you?" I asked.
"No, I have teenagers and I just hate to do dishes."
"Ah."
"I feel bad about all that styrofoam going into the environment, so I figured I'd make up for it by not wasting plastic bags."
I'm cracking up inside at this point, trying like hell to keep a straight face!
"So," I ask, "How are you getting rid of these plates when you're done?"
She looks down a bit sheepishly.
"Ah, I throw them out."
I just cannot help myself and decide to be a smartass:
"I use mine as campfire kindling. It makes excellent kindling, you know."
"Ooh, it is kind of fun to watch it curl up and get all hot while it's in the fire!"
I swear, it must take a special kind of mindlessness to buy into all of that Al Gore 'save the earth' crap!
You just can't make this stuff up...
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
More Bedtime Reading for Obama
CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez says he has a new book for President Barack Obama: "What is to be Done?" by communist Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet state.
Chavez says he'll "give it to Obama at the next meeting."
"What is to be Done?" is Lenin's political treatise on the role of intellectuals and the proletariat in promoting revolution, written more than a decade before he led the Bolshevik takeover of Russia in 1917.
Chavez gave Obama a copy of "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" by Eduardo Galeano at an April summit.
The book jumped the next day to the No. 2 seller on Amazon.com.
Chavez spoke Friday on a marathon, anniversary edition of his "Hello President" television show.
Hugo's wasting his time... I think Obama's already read it.
Oh, and an aside to piss off liberals by illustrating their hypocrisy:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)