Friday, February 17, 2006

Churches burn, the left fiddles

Churches are burning and no one seems to care...

In the past two weeks, 10 Baptist churches have been burned in rural Alabama. Five churches in Bibb County -- Ashby Baptist, Rehobeth Baptist, Antioch Baptist, Old Union Baptist, and Pleasant Sabine -- were torched between midnight and 3 a.m. on Feb. 3. Four days later, arsonists destroyed or badly damaged Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Greene County, Dancy First Baptist Church in Pickens County, and two churches in Sumter County, Galilee Baptist and Spring Valley Baptist. On Saturday, Beaverton Freewill Baptist Church in northwest Alabama became the 10th house of worship to go up in flames.
Ten arson attacks against 10 churches -- all of them Baptist, all in small Alabama towns, all in the space of eight days: If anything deserves the label of "hate crime," obviously this does.
Or does it?
"We're looking to make sure this is not a hate crime and that we do everything that we need to do," FBI Special Agent Charles Regan told reporters in Birmingham. Make sure this is *not* a hate crime? If 10 Brooklyn synagogues went up in flames in a little over a week, wouldn't investigators start from the assumption that the arson was motivated by hatred of Jews? If 10 Cuban-American shops and restaurants in Miami were deliberately burned to the ground, wouldn't the obvious presumption be that anti-Cuban animus was involved?
Apparently Baptist churches are different.
"I don't see any evidence that these fires are hate crimes," Mark Potok, a director of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, told the Los Angeles Times. "Anti-Christian crimes are exceedingly rare in the South."
But are anti-Christian crimes really that rare? Or are they simply less interesting to the left, which prefers to cast Christians as victimizers, not victims?


Read the whole story here... there are other good points made.
By a columnist for the far-left Boston Globe.
(But don't fear -- Jeff Jacoby is the lone voice of center-right views there.)

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Infant of the week

This week's infant of the week is David Gregory of NBC News. His childish outburst at White House press secretary Scott McClellan over the Cheney shooting incident demonstrates the emotional maturity of a learning-disabled two-year-old.
Congratulations, David.

And friends, remember this...

What Dana Milbank was REALLY doing...

Snarky Washington Post "reporter" Dana Milbank is getting some heat for appearing in this costume whilst commenting on Vice President Cheney's hunting accident...
But the cracked research team here at either orr knows what Mr. Milbank was really doing... he was auditioning for his next gig...
What a hoser, eh?
---
Hat tips to Michelle Malkin and bobanddoug.com.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

A clash of visions

The latest "outrage" over cartoon depictions of Islam is little more than the latest skirmish in a battle of visions.
Not a battle of civilizations. Not a battle of cultures, even. A battle of visions.
The vision of the fascists who have, for all intents and purposes, hijacked the Islamic faith is a clear one -- world domination... the Caliphate resurrected, as it were, run by those who are calling the shots in the current war on the West. It is a long-term vision of the future.
What countervailing vision does the West have to offer, have to defend?
It's not clear, at least not to far too many in the Western world.
The Islamofascists bring an evangelical fervor to their quest, which is only fitting, since they claim to be preaching their faith to an unclean world. Yet they do it not through the powers of intellectual persuasion, but by violence... a stance virtually all other religions have abandoned as going against the tenets of their faiths.
The Islamofascists also have taken the stance that they and they alone determine what is and what is not offensive to the faith, and by so doing seek to inflame passions against the West. The cartoon kerfluffle was deliberately manipulated into the major cause celebre it has become by the Islamofascists, period, exclamation point.
They have played their cards quite well to this point, especially in the face of a West that has little confidence in itself, set up perfectly to play the role of the dhimmi to the dominant Islamofascists.
Too many in the Western world have no vision beyond their noses. This includes leaders of many nations now under siege by Islamofascism within their borders (France, anyone?). "Let's just get through the present with what we've got. It's pretty good, so just leave us alone," seems to be the guiding principle. There's no vision to pass to future generations, only an obsessive desire to preserve the here and now. This is not a recipe for success against a determined foe -- and make no mistake, the Islamofascists are determined.
The contemporary liberal mantra of tolerance is a feather in a hurricane to the Islamofascists. It has been extended beyond its logical conclusion. The Western liberal mind of today would rather serve in dhimmitude than be accused of being prejudiced against anything or of being intolerant.
Dammit, that's insane. It's a recipe for self-destruction.
Would you be tolerant of criminals hanging around your children? I would hope not. Would you be prejudiced against those who would murder you? I would certainly hope so.
It's also mind-boggling that many of those who are virtually volunteering for dhimmitude should be among the most vociferous of their denunciation of the Islamofascist movement. In many parts of the Islamofascist world, the only rights gays have is to hang at the end of a noose. Women don't even have that right in some sectors. Yet the politicized gay and women's movements are largely silent on these atrocities. Is it because the relatively few leaders who are standing up and willing to confront Islamofascism are their internal political foes? That's the only conclusion that can be drawn. That comes back to the lack of a clear vision of the future.
Islamofascism is applying tactics similar to those of the neighborhood bully, though on a much grander scale. Non-resistance does not and will not pacify the beast; it will only embolden it.
We are again in an age where we are being called on to stand up for our beliefs for the future, for our children's children's children (to borrow a title from a Moody Blues album). It is not so much our future that is at risk at the hands of the Islamofascists; it is theirs. How will they look at us 75 years from now? Will they be able to look at us in the same way we can look back at the "greatest generation," which expunged the evils of Nazism from the world? Will they be able to look at us with the same respect with which we can look back?
The choice is ours in the West -- all of us.
We cannot cop out on our responsibilities to defend our way of life against the Islamofascists.
That vision alone should be sufficient motivation.
Sadly, to too many, it is not.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Hillary's Valentine's Day list

Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign appears to be hitting a few snags. As Captain Ed reports, she's being found wanting in many respects, even by those who by predilection would back her.
Ed quotes Gerard Baker of the Times of London:
Few deny that Mrs Clinton is razor-sharp and politically savvy. But even supporters worry about her personal skills, at least before a large audience. She is a somewhat wooden speaker with a hectoring style at times more reminiscent of Al Gore than her husband. And unlike Bill, she projects a lofty, distant air that has been likened to the Queen of Sheba in a power suit.
Last weekend Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, homed in on Mrs Clinton’s personality, saying that she was too angry. His aim was both to pinpoint her weaknesses and to needle her, and it seems to have worked. ...
The hope in her camp is that people will believe that Mrs Clinton has her husband’s political strengths and none of his weaknesses. The growing fear is that she incites the same level of loathing and suspicion as her husband always did, but has none of the charm and personality to deflect it.

So, it would seem that Hillary is going to have to resort to other means to eliminate her rivals -- real and imagined -- for the nomination.
The cracked research team at either orr has uncovered a double-triple-secret list of Valentine's Day gifts prepared and acquired by Hillary herself to give to those who would deny her her coronation at the 2008 Democratic National Convention:
Howard Dean: A lifetime supply of sedatives.
John Kerry: A faulty pair of skis to use at Davos.
Al Gore: Amphetamines disguised as chocolate candy.
Russ Feingold: Nothing (he's not big enough to challenge her).
Bill Clinton: A permanent case of laryngitis and impotence.
Mark Warner: A hunting trip with Dick Cheney.

More truth about weather

The real force driving weather here in the northeastern U.S. is...
Canadian politics.
Think back to January, the warmest January in memory.
Canada was having an election. The hot air was flying. Hence, we were warmer than usual.
Now, with Prime Minister Harper's controversial Cabinet calls, things have blown quite chilly amongst Conservatives.
So what happens?
We got to dig out from 17 inches of snow on Sunday.
Blame Stephen Harper, eh?