China Still Practicing Forced Abortions

A 37 year-old former mother of two with one on the way died on October 12 in China for the horrific offense for trying to give birth to a third child. The GuardianUK reported that Ma Jihong was approached by a "Family Planning Unit" of ten employees, who indicated that she would have to accompany them to the hospital so that her late-term pregnancy could be terminated, apparently for the good of the state.

Since the woman had clearly already taken advantage of the government policy that generously allows rural families to have a second child if the first child is a girl (Well, they had to come up with some way to stop people from committing infanticide of female babies), local officials felt that this scofflaw had gone too far. According to the article, she had been aware that others in her neighborhood had gotten away with flouting Chinese Law and thought that she could do the same. Although the officials were officially constrained by current Chinese law that outlaws forced abortions, these courageous civil servants were left with no choice than to terminate the pregnancy in order to help meet local birth "targets" or quotas.

The offender was reported to have been refused oxygen, being told "Don't pretend to be sick, I have seen many of you behave like that". Her heart and breathing stopped while doctors were preparing to administer the drug that would induce the abortion. Efforts to revive her failed. The article did not specify if her death allowed hospital staff to save the drug dosage to be used on a future transgressor who would dare to become pregnant and thus cause a local district to report too many births.

Leftists view little or nothing to be beyond the pale of state control. I find that to be the primary motivator for them to decry the survival of Western Civilization. Leftist thinkers [sic] have noted that they hold that we would have been much better off had the Muslims succeeded in conquering Western Europe and consequently eliminated the individual from the picture entirely. Most Far Eastern societies do not recognize the concept of a free person, neither does the Left or Islam. People in these cultures are expected to dutifully go about their lives as directed by those in power, who of course know what's best for everyone. This sort of reasoning has no place in the West.

Khadhafi Declared Dead

The interim Prime Minister of Libya was reported to have declared that Moammar Khadhafi has been killed. The outcome was expected for some time now since rebel forces had gained ascendancy in the conflict months back.

Khadhafi was leader of Libya almost as long as I have been alive and certainly as long as I could have been aware of any political leader. His rule was known for many years as one that defined state-sponsored terrorism. From terrorist training camps to airline bombings, Libya seemed to always be involved at  some level. The punitive attacks/ attempted assassinations against him that were launched by the US during the Reagan administration were a source of a resurgence in US pride and communicated that the enervated days of the 70s US were over.

It is interesting that his decline occurred some time after he renounced terrorism and agreed to compensation for the families of the Lockerbie bombing.  It is also noteworthy that leftists were fond of speaking about him in the late 80s - early 90s as being good for his country and Libyan people. That opinion apparently was missed by the actual Libyan people.

The news articles, from several sources, also mentioned what many had expected - that the various groups that united to form the resistance will now be jockeying for their piece of the pie from this point.
Khadhafi's government was a product of the days of Arab nationalism that paid lip service to pan-Arabism but preferred in practice to stick with a Socialist-leaning economy and a refusal to surrender national sovereignty to any confederate body. With restrictions such as nationalism likely to be brushed aside as radical Islamic groups work with each other, it seems probable that these will find a way to keep any well-intentioned moderates from having any appreciable influence in the future affairs of Libya.

Once that is accomplished, how far way will be a unification, in part or total, of those countries that have overthrown the long-reigning autocracies that have been around since the 60s and 70s? Those who put Islam first literally have nothing to hold them back from enthusiastically embracing a united Arab-Islamic union.

Is this a step towards the restoration of the Caliphate?

And NATO of course helped.

Mexican Truck Drivers Now Allowed to Drive in US

A major provision of the 1994 NAFTA agreement is ready to be put into place. Mexican truck drivers will no longer be required to stop their trucks and transfer their trailers/loads to US drivers at the US/Mexican border. We have been assured that Mexican truck drivers will all undergo rigorous background checks and drug testing and that everything of course (as usual) will be fine. There had been significant opposition to this from trucking unions and those concerned with national security but they were for the most part quietly ignored.

Previous arguments in favor of bringing or allowing in large numbers of Mexican workers have been that they tend to obtain employment as farm laborers or groundskeepers and thus are not likely to compete with higher paying American jobs. Well, that argument does not apply in this case. Now we have a situation where a position that pays a decent wage is being directly competed with by a foreign employee inside the US.

Guillermo Perez, the Transport Manager of  Transportes Olympic in Apodaca, Mexico, is reported by the Associated Press to have stated that, among other things, "There's no way to avoid the law" and noted that he does not find it "weird" that US truckers and companies would want to put a stop to the program "because they now have to compete with us".

Aside from the fact that we have yet again watched jobs, this time better paying ones, being outsourced, I cannot but think that our border security has, yet again, been hamstrung. Even under the old system we had to deal with smuggling via trucking. Now we are told that these trucks will be electronically monitored and that there is nothing with which we need to be worried. The drug cartels in Mexico have created a situation where merchants are routinely approached and asked the question "Plomo o Plata"? meaning lead (bullets) or silver (bribe). The phrase is admittedly catchy and has a neat ring to it. It does not seem realistic to hold that those that those who desire to smuggle drugs, people, or weapons will not feel more comfortable plying their trade when the driver for the entire trip lives with his family in the same country as the bad guys and can be made aware that he can keep them safe by keeping quiet.

Teamsters President James Hoffa, who of late had been quite busy playing the part of a 1950s Argentine labor leader fanatically idolizing his country's version of Juan Peron, made an appearance at the San Diego border crossing with Democratic and Republican politicians to protest the crossing of the first truck. 
I wonder if he expended half the energy on this issue that he did last month. That event consisted of  screaming to Obama that he and his union were the President's personal "army" and stating that they were ready to "march" at his command. He continued with referring to others not on the President's side politically as "Sons of B-----s". What US President in the past would be considered to have an ego or personality that would not feel revulsion at such an horrific outburst? The nation has the appearance of dismantling itself from so many different angles.

Greek Protests, Strike, and Riots

The 48 hour general strike has seen its second day. While most of the demonstrators have been peaceful and voicing their concerns about recent austerity measures ( and probably the slipshod manner in which the nation was run prior to the crisis) many have again begun to attack police, government buildings, and even the sentry post at the country's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 14 police officers were hospitalized.

The strike included the collection of garbage, so refuse is lying in heaps in the streets, presenting a public health hazard.

There is no doubt that, as with many nations, the government could and should have ran things better. Corruption has been suspected to be, if not widespread, frequent in Greece. Tax evasion is a constant problem and the public sector is reported to employ as much as a third of the population. An entire article would probably not be anywhere near sufficient to treat this subject.

The most tragic part of the situation is the violence, particularly that of the anarchists. In a country that many would view to be the birthplace of the orderly civil society of free people, it is a terrible shame to see so much barbarism. Greek cities established societies where defense, the arts, teaching, public speaking and involvement in political affairs were at a level to be emulated. Their culture was the first where a free citizen was an integral part of a highly developed government. Their ideas provided inspiration to many other societies like Rome. Their culture was something to which the nations of Western Europe aspired and desired to, if not duplicate, return to time and again to at least draw from it the best elements, especially in the Renaissance. It is no secret that the Medieval West always saw itself as sort of a country bumpkin-type of society in comparison. The repeated accusations of writers from that period that refer to the Byzantines as soft and effeminate may very well have stemmed from a sense of inferiority. Today the West can gain little from the examples of this nation

Later added note - same day: Having endured the occupation of the Ottomans for four centuries (Greece fell prior to the siege of Constantinople) one wonders if the cultural state of that nation would have been significantly different today had they not had to undergo the depredations, forced removal of sons and daughters, corruption, and general humiliation of living under the rule of a Moslem Sultan and his provincial governors for such a extended period of time. No other nation that suffered under the Ottoman yoke has been able to produce a people that had the vitality, industry and personal accountability of a free society.
That sort of culture seems to impart a sort of 'Communist Block' mentality - people avoid individual responsibility and are much more likely to retreat inwards in order to get the best deal that they can obtain for their immediate families and generally forsake the common good.

Koran - Burning "Pastor" Terry Jones

Anyone who reads my posts will need about two and a half seconds to get a pretty good mental picture of my personal opinion of Islam and the sort of society that it creates.

Having established that, I can feel comfortable about stating some points on Florida "Pastor" Terry Jones and his sort of 'Christian" Church.

To be clear - The issue at stake is far more basic than free speech/First Amendment rights. No one in his right mind disputes the fact that our free speech rights are rightly very broad in the US. We have yet to be faced with laws as they exist in some European countries that define anti-Islamic statements as "hate speech" and subject the speaker or writer to criminal charges. People in the US will not stand for such legal restrictions so the probability of such a law being enacted is very low.

Also to be clear - Nor is the issue about the Koran itself. This book is incendiary, hateful, (especially of Jews- calling them apes), and promotes a socioeconomic system of subjugation and slavery of enemies throughout its pages. It takes the God of the Old and New Testaments and turns him into a slave master with the mentality of a pagan Arabian deity. Women are allowed to give testimony which is valued at half that of a man. Its restrictions and mandates appear designed to grind the cultural progress of a society to a halt. Particularly galling to me is how it takes accounts from the Old and New Testaments and twists them into bizarre versions that completely negate the whole point of the original account.

The point at hand is this -
When one is deciding whether or not to perform any act, he must take into account events that are likely to occur, either directly or indirectly, as a result.

The plight of Christians in Muslim-majority nations is well known. Even ignoring all that has happened up until the modern era, it does not take a scholar to know that the life of a Christian in these countries is indeed held very cheaply. They are subjected to murders, beatings, kidnapping and rapes, and Church burnings, often by rampaging mobs of Muslims. Even before the loosening of what little fetters held the Muslims back (by the US occupation of Iraq and the glorious Arab Spring) Christians could not live their lives free of fear. The removal of the autocracies removed the fear of heavy-handed police reprisals and opened up the floodgates, especially in Iraq and Egypt. Time and space prohibit me from going into detail on this, but details are not hard to find, especially if one avoids the leftist media.

Terry Jones (I will avoid the title 'Pastor' as the word connotes one who acts as a shepherd - one who protects) Had finally followed through with his widely publicized threats and burned a copy of the Koran in March of 2011.
(Note that technically a Koran must be in Arabic to in fact be a Koran - in any other language it is a commentary on the Koran)
 I will not entertain any protests of support of Mr. Jones or any of his cohorts in the commission of this act. Yes, it was of course legal and the Koran is still as dangerous as I described above.

Here is the main point- Mr. Jones' act essentially directly imperiled Christians in mainly Muslim countries by his act. Mr. Jones and his cronies did this act while nestled safely in the bosom that is the American infrastructure of Law Enforcement and military. I cannot believe that Mr. Jones was not aware that murders and rapes of Christians were committed in Muslim countries immediately following the publication of the Mohammed cartoons. At least in that case the publishers themselves were in much more danger than Mr. Jones and his followers as European nations like Denmark have much larger (proportionately) and more aggressive Muslim populations than does the US at the time of this writing.

Mr. Jones performed a tremendously inflammatory, albeit legal, act that he knew could well result in severe violence on Christians who live in a perpetual hostage status. They have trouble getting Visas to leave their countries, nations like the US will not recognize them as different, (The US recognizes ethnic but not religious differences) and they live with the specter of a rampaging mob or a close group of Muslim buddies who may cause grievous harm at any moment hanging over their heads. If Mr. Jones or one of his immediate family was currently a hostage of Muslim terrorists, would he have wanted someone to do something that would provoke them into even more hostile acts? I don't find that likely as Mr. Jones made sure that he himself was in a very safe place when he did this.

There is a word to describe a person who, from a safe and secure position, does something that he knows will provoke vicious and barbaric people to attack others when the original actor will not be able to even stand up and protect the innocent while the attacks occur. The word is coward.

Mr. Jones wanted to play-act the role of soldier. He could have flown to, say, Amman, Jordan, called up Al-Jazeera, waited for the arrival of the camera crew, and proceeded to burn a Koran in the middle of a market square in the city. He would  have been torn to pieces by the mob before the police got him into custody, but at least his act would have endangered himself and not others who would have to suffer in his place. In that case I would have considered him to be a  brave but reckless man. His actions are right in line with many of the Evangelical/Fundamentalist mindset, one that offers no empathy for others and concentrates solely on what I want. The physical and emotional pain that the Middle Eastern Christians and their families would suffer did not matter to him. I am going to do what I want and "oh, well" to those who may suffer as a result of my actions.

The US made a decision to send troops to the Middle East twice in the last ten years. Those that went into combat were in peril as well and any Christians who would suffer attacks as a result. Mr. Jones and his followers did nothing but perform an act of theater that would endanger others far away but not him or his group. I also don't know of Mr. Jones or his group doing anything to help the Christians in the Middle East, either by political/financial support or by sponsoring families to come to the US. I also don't know of them petitioning the UN to take action on behalf of those Christians. The actions of Mr. Jones and his congregation are not indicative of people who subscribe to Christian beliefs or thought.

Muslims in Spain Suspected of Killing Neighborhood Dogs

Newspapers in the Town of Lerida, which is in the Catalonia region of Spain, have reported that authorities have found that over twelve dogs had been poisoned to death in September. Muslims in the area are suspected in the deaths. Muslim groups had been petitioning the local government to prohibit dogs on public transportation and of course areas frequented by Muslims.

I cannot imagine how arrogant one could be to think that your religion allows you to break a child's heart by killing his dog.

Unknown to many in the West, Islam considers dogs to be unclean. This does not only mean that dogs cannot be eaten, such as a Muslim or Jewish person being prohibited from eating pork, it means that dogs are not to be kept as pets. The tolerance of Muslims that is celebrated by the left unfortunately does not tend to include allowing people to mind their own business or to go about their lives without being bothered. Indeed non-Muslim locals have reported being harassed while taking their dogs for a walk when they happen to pass by a Moslem in the street. The presence of a dog offends Muslims and the fact that dog ownership has been part of the culture of the area since prehistoric times does not matter to them.

It is interesting that the Left is constantly leaving no stone unturned in trying to come up with facts to attempt to disprove Judaism or Christianity. The recent new findings of Denisnovian human DNA was one recent example of straw-grasping to try to claim that the creation account of mankind is wrong. Of course no one noted that the author of Genesis never stated that Adam and Eve were Homo Sapien Sapien. The first person could well have been an ancestor common to Homo Sapien- Neadndertal Variant, Denisovian, us, and any other yet-undiscovered DNA.(Or the Flores man)

What the Left ignores is the fact that Muslims,who claim to worship the same God as Jews and Christians, somehow are forced to conclude that Allah created a dog but, regardless of its attributes, we are not to have one around. Muslims get a pass from attacks of the Left. This creature that God made truly stands alone in not only liking to be with people, but actually is happier when people are pleased with its company or perfomance but God did want us to have one.
Muslims are faced with knowing that this animal exists, that their God made it, that it seems to be the perfect fit in a human-animal relationship, but they really aren't any good so keep them away and kill them if you can't.

If anything disproves Islam then I submit that its prohibtion against keeping dogs is the plainest and most obvious. A creator would not have made such an animal to be shunned.

This should not be a forum for all sports of speculation on whether or not people created the species from wolves, something to which many cling - as if early people had the time and resources to engage in breeding so selective to accomplish something that wolf and wolf-dog hybrid breeders cannot successfully do today.

Now I have to let my dog outside. Thankfully I don't have to fear if anyone on my block will try to hurt her.

Mexican Cartel Recruiting High School Students in the US

Numerous news sites have reported that the Texas Department of Public Safety has stated that Mexican drug cartels have been recruiting High School students in the US to assist them in their commercial endeavors, drug-running in particular. The cartels have already engaged in armed border crossings to facilitate their shipments on more than a few occasions. Now they appear to intend to turn our schools into centralized shipping hubs for their products.

The current presidential administration and the courts have not failed to do all that they can to prevent Law Enforcement officials from having even basic tools to check the immigration status of those that lead an officer to believe that an individual may be in this country illegally. Mexico, however, can check my status according to their laws if I am in their country and they do so routinely with immigrants to their paradise from Central America, complete with deportations and all.

Any more support for the Dream Act?

Fast and Furious - LaPierre Speaks Out

The National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre was interviewed by Newsmax on his beliefs on the "Fast and Furious" operation where thousands of firearms were transported across the US/Mexican border and into the hands of drug cartels. The article was published on newsmax.com on 10/14. It entailed having Federal Agents browbeat licensed firearms dealers into making firearms sales with which they themselves either not comfortable or would refuse to do without a DEA agent telling him to make the sale.
The weapons were ostensibly allowed (under the eyes of federal agents) to be brought across the border for the purposes of investigating where the weapons would wind up. Surprise! - They wound up in the hands of drug cartels!

This is not the case of an agent setting up a sting-type sale of a fake missile, explosive, drugs, etc. to a criminal or terrorist for the purpose of making an arrest. We are asked to believe that it would be of benefit to investigating agents to see where real guns would go.

I find this entire thing to defy any rational attempts at explanation. For years, the American public was fed cooked statistics to lead us to believe that the less than third world - horror show of mass murders, shootouts with Mexican Police and military, and Mexico’s descent into narco-state status was the result of American gun dealers and their customers who were supposedly supplying the criminals with the tools to commit their atrocities. A favorite statistic was that 90% of guns recovered in Mexico and then traced were found to have originated in the US. The part of the story that was not put out was that a tiny fraction of recovered guns were in fact traced in the first place. Only guns that appeared to have been likely to have come from the US were put through the tracing process. The incredible result of that practice was the magic number that was used in an attempt to sway the American public to support more restrictive gun laws in the US.

One of the weapons sold in this operation was used in the Murder of US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December.

That's when the sloppily crafted web began to tear into pieces. A number of incredibly brave US Federal Agents stepped up and brought this story into the open. Thanks to Heaven for the Whistleblower Act.
Attorney General Eric Holder has been doing his best to try to keep himself from any blame, repeatedly insisting (in various versions of the story) that he did not know about it, or that he heard of the operation but did not know what it was.

The vast majority of evidence indicates that the cartels were obtaining their weapons in bulk shipment from Central America, (Wiki leaks) China, and other nations that manufacture AK-47 and similar firearms (The AK is copied throughout the world). Those that dreamt up this train wreck of an idea were apparently hoping that we would believe that someone could buy a weapon is the US for $400 to $500, then bring it to Mexico and sell it for the same price or a profit when the same weapons could be gotten for less than $100 apiece in bulk shipments from other countries.

Mexican President Calderon has been on this stump since shortly after assuming his office. The claim has been made over and over that if we in the US would just place greater restrictions on the sales of firearms such as AR-15s and AK-47s the situation in Mexico would not be what it is.

The leftist media has barely even given passing coverage to this travesty. In any other administration, the President and the Justice Department would be subject to Special Prosecutors, Senate Hearing, and hopefully criminal charges. I wait to see if this is even brought up as a political issue in the upcoming campaigns.

Later added note 10/21:

As reported by Neil Munro in The Daily Caller on this date, 40 of the 100 weapons recovered from a seizure of weapons from a high level "Enforcer" from the Sinaloa cartel were found to have arrived in Mexico via the "Fast and Furious" operation.

Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals

On a lighter note, I think that kudos are due to the St. Louis Cardinals, who looked like they were out of the running to even make the playoffs. They pulled themselves together in August and September, securing the wild-card berth at the end of the regular season. They then proceeded to eliminate in the playoffs the best record in baseball-Philadelphia Phillies and the powerhouse Milwaukee Brewers to advance to the World Series as National League Champions. I wish them well. They demonstrated what a team can do when they apply themselves to reach a goal, and their performance was indicative of a group that truly deserves to be where they are. They showed tremendous spirit and perseverance.

Possible DaVinci Art - Milanese Princess

According to a UK Daily Mall article, a number of art experts believe that a piece that sold for the grand price of $19,000 in a 1998 auction is actually the work of Leonardo DaVinci. A fingerprint on the work that appears to be that of the great thinker/scientist/artist/theoretician was found by a Paris laboratory. The subject is a 15th century Milanese Princess and the portrait is made of ink and chalks. As expected of a labor of DaVinci, we see amazing beauty, depth, and detail, both of the subject and her clothing.

Articles such as this cannot fail to remind the viewer of the great and varied cultural treasures of Western Civilization. Today we find numerous writers from our own Western world (From the Left, not Muslims) who bemoan the fact that our civilization was not extinguished by the flood of Islam. These forward-thinking progressives look at the 8th century battle of Tours (also called Poitiers), where Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel defeated a major Moslem incursion, and feel disappointment. They hold that the Western world would be much better off in the "tolerant" atmosphere of a Muslim society. Apparently tolerance includes prohibitions on producing the likeness of any living creature (including people), leaving Islam, and women being allowed to leave their homes without express consent of a male family member. It must also include honor killings, forced marriages of underage girls, female genital mutilation, payment of taxes by non-Muslims, and so on. Let's not forget that a the testimony of a woman is half that of a man, so if a rape victim cannot produce a male witness or two (see below)  female witnesses to support her claims, she is then accused of adultery; with all that follows for punishment for that indiscretion under Sharia law.

Note that two female witnesses will actually not suffice  - the victim will need two females to provide testimony equal to that of a man to counter the testimony of the assailant, then two more to provide one man's worth of testimony to provide sufficient evidence to convict.

It boggles the mind to attempt to picture a society devoid of the arts, theater, music, opera, and literature of which we are the beneficiaries. Islamic nations have almost no depictions of people and those that do exist have none of the realism or subtle beauty common to Western art. Theirs is a culture programmed to stagnation. Modern history textbooks, true to form of those who wish to discredit the achievements of the West, fawn all over medieval Islamic cultures and cannot get enough of its "advances" in science, medicine, literature, mathematics, and architecture. What is glossed over is that fact that these were almost entirely taken lock, stock, and barrel from the people that they subjugated- math from the Indians, architecture from the Byzantines, science, literature and medicine from the early Greeks and Persians. Even this ignores that fact that the only period where these works flourished was when Muslim-ruled areas had sizeable non-Muslim populations that could contribute their skills and learning. Once these people either left or became Muslims themselves, Islam failed to even continue with pursing let alone improve on these fields.
Now, there of course nothing wrong with noting that others have useful skills and learning and taking advantage of such. It is not fair though, to the societies that gave birth to and disseminated these ideas in the first place when the cultural descendants of much of it decide to give undue credit to a society that briefly tinkered with it then effectively dropped it.

Islamic society can only "flourish" when it is constantly taking over new cultures and gleaning what it deems useful or of value for the moment. Once that is done or religious fundamentalism sets in, the stagnation begins. Even the massive influx of petrodollars has done little to produce great thinkers in modern Islamic society. Prior to this windfall, the Middle East was a backwater, even experiencing very little population growth. How much of Muslim societies today are backwaters?

The left is so hateful of the West and what it has accomplished that they would prefer to wish it away while they gladly take full advantage of its fruits.

Egypt's Christians Under Siege

The Arab Spring has begun to bear its first fruits.

Egypt's Coptic Christians, a group that could not consider itself safe in the days of Egyptian autocracy, has experienced unrelenting attacks since the overturning of Mubarak's rule. These people, who have been a part of Egypt since the earliest days of Christianity, were of course subjected to the "Dhimmi" state once Egypt fell to the Islamic invasions by 641. Dhimmi is a term from the Koran. It specifically is interpreted to mean "protected", but the connotations of the word imply that of living in subjection as non-citizens, payment of taxes due to their Moslem rulers, and a status that is supposed to instill a sense of humiliation.

Unlike Christian communities in other Islamic countries, the Copts have somehow maintained a population of close to 10% of the Egyptian population. Christian groups in such countries typically experience reductions of adherents year by year until few or none are left. Through the centuries, many can no longer afford to be subject to the "jizya" (the tax); their people may convert to but are not allowed to leave Islam under pain of death, and legal/ business practices are almost always made in the favor of Muslims vs. Christians.

The Copts would suffer periodic bursts of persecution by Muslim mobs or small groups during the days of Mubarak and his predecessors. This would include attacks/burnings of churches, kidnaps and repeated rapes of Coptic girls/young women (also being forced to utter Muslim prayers and the Islamic profession of faith, making them Moslems to their captors), and numerous other examples of persecution. The Arab Spring, however, has released a  Pandora’s box of attacks on the Copts without even the heavy hand of the autocracy to put a stop to the 'locker room beatings' once the bullied High School student has again learned his place for the moment.

Muslims in Egypt have stepped up their attacks on Copts with essentially no fear of punishment from the military government. All that is needed is a rumor or a proclamation that a rumor exists for the mob to assemble and lash out. A recent example is an accusation that a Copt has kidnapped one of their own who has converted to Islam. This of course is standard practice with Muslims with Family members who become Christian and looks very much like the psychological meaning of the word 'projection'. There of course was no evidence that any of these women had opted at any time for the incredibly liberating status of being a Muslim woman.

Churches and individual Copts are attacked, with ancient Churches destroyed and Copts injured and killed. Rapes of Coptic women have increased in frequency and barbarity (if that is possible).

Recent protests of Copts demanding protection from their government have been met with attacks on the supplicants by the Egyptians military itself. The results were scores of dead and injured and hundreds of arrests of Copts. This has been portrayed by the Western Media, especially MSNBC, as events where the Copts rose up to attack the military and Muslims. When the media is in a generous mood they ascribe it to clashes between Christians and Muslims.

The facts of these events were bravely stated by Ezra Levant of the Sun News Network. Videos of the military attacking the Copts can be found there as well as on the blog site "Gates of Vienna", a site to which I am much in debt. On the site today can be found video coverage along with an interview with a Copt intimately familiar with the situation of his co-religionists in Egypt. The videos and photos are terribly shocking.

Prisoner Exchange for Israeli Sergeant Gilead Schalit

After five years of captivity, Sgt. Schalit is to be released. The price was high - the current number is 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli soldier. I cannot find fault with the Israeli government for making this move. The pressure to get him back was enormous, especially and understandably from Sgt. Schalit's family.
I cannot imagine the grief that they experienced during this period.

[Later added note  10/17/2011- I am not happy with my choice of words when I stated that I could not find fault with the decision of the Israeli government, especially as the details and identities of some of the Palestinians have surfaced. I should have stated that I could not find fault for doing all that it could to secure Sgt. Schalit's release as long as the results would not further endanger the Israeli state as a whole. The amount of prisoners being released and the sorts of crimes many of them have commited make it likely that the nation will be more at risk once the release is complete. In particular, one of the soon-to-be released was the subject of the infamous and utterly barbaric scene of one of the murderers of Israeli soldiers in 2000, where the actor showed himself at a second story window and displayed his hands, covered with his victim's blood, in an air of triumph.]

The obvious concern at this point will be what sort of precedent is being set. It can be assumed that the IDF will have to continue to take all sorts of measures to prevent further abductions of their troops. Even if the current ratio of Palestinians for Israelis is reduced by 90%, further exchanges will not be sustainable as the result will be that any Palestinian will, prior to contemplating a criminal act, know that his chances of obtaining an early release will be pretty good.

Hamas has repeatedly engaged in the building of tunnels to enter Israel, either to smuggle in weapons and explosives or to capture IDF personnel. I find it highly unlikely that this deal will result in Hamas backing off with their methods. They will be emboldened by this move.

Occupying wall Street

Those who have taken up semi-permanent residence in New York City ostensibly to protest abuses, probably both real and perceived, of financial institutions and major corporations, have been of late showing their true colors. After being repeatedly lied to by their handlers in the halls of American academia, these souls have taken what they have been told to expect to be their due and promptly began to make demands for satisfaction.

It is the fault of the American system that those who choose to attend college consequently have the burden of debt for the student loans. These debts must be done away with. From now on, the US taxpayer must not only shoulder its current burden but must add to its task list having to pay to get rid of carbon emissions, new social programs, and of course Jonnie Doe's college bill.

There was never a thought of working for an employer such as, say United Parcel Service, which offers tuition assistance even to part-time employees. Performing a few hours of physical labor five days a week is apparently way too much to ask of these prima donnas who learned from their multicultural classes how horrible the West and particularly the United States are. The taxpayer is supposed to pay for them to sit in class and listen to professors bad-mouth the very system that put them in those seats in the first place.

Noticeable too were the demands that the US government, which these educated individuals have learned (in college) apparently has the authority to demand anything of anybody or any organization, require that employers hire people who have Liberal arts degrees. It doesn't matter that employers need engineers, chemists, IT people, business majors, etc. Employers should be required to hire me because I took classes in Colonialism, basic anthropology, history of minorities and women, and whatever else provided a forum for a leftist professor who couldn't earn a living otherwise to bash the very system (and those who created it) that provides him with a decent job. What can I offer the employer? Well, I'm educated, isn't that enough?

The concept of work does not apply to these types, nor does the concept of punching one's card. They want what you have and they want it right now. They would not dream of living frugally and buying a fixer-upper house when they are ready to take that step.

The fantasy world that is presented in colleges today has produced probably a generation's worth of people with few skills and broad ideas of entitlement. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Last note on 300

As one of those historical purists, I can't hold back from noting the fact that the final scene of the battle of Platea which occurred one year later and drove the Persians out of Greece was an absolute train wreck. The whole army breaks ranks and charges as a group of individuals. It completely lost the whole idea of a hoplite phalanxe - the solid wall of bronze, iron and men movng as one to smash and grind down the lighter-armored and less disciplined Persians

Movie "300"

An old memory popped back into thought today about the reaction of the Iranian government to the 2006 movie "300" which offered a highly stylized comic book-type depiction of the battle of Thermopylae and the events leading up to that historical event.

Historical purists of course needed to accept that considerable license would be taken with this movie. The scenes are purposely made to be outlandish, fighting styles of the hoplites range from reasonably accurate to one-on-one fights more suited to martial arts scenes, and the only other Greek state mentioned as a Spartan ally are the Arcadians. There were in fact several contingents. ( Note that the Thespians stayed with the Spartans until the end and the Athenian fleet was slugging it out too). Also, no notice is taken of the aspects of Spartan society of which a westerner would have less of a reason to be proud i.e. the treatment of non-Spartan Helots.

Nevertheless, the movie is motivating, entertaining, and does a more than fair job of evincing strong feelings for a people who were willing to risk enslavement or total annihilation of their state, people, and culture as they stood against odds for which overwhelming would be a gross understatement.

Allen West was recently eviscerated by the political left for his speech in which he noted the better attributes of Spartan society and challenged American mothers to follow the model of that state by rearing their sons to be future defenders of the US. The left, of course, did their best to mock the Congressman by noting only the practices of the Spartans that we would be sure to avoid. They entirely ignored the best of that culture, such as restrictions on greed and jealousy, the continuous pursuit of excellence, and the knowledge that to be truly free is to recognize that every individual has apart to play in defense of the state.

The most confusing event that occurred in response to this movie was the reaction of the Iranian government. They immediately condemned the immoral and sensual manner in which the Persians were depicted. Muslim thought is replete with an absolute unwillingness to look at any cultural aspect of a Muslim nations pre-Islamic past with any admiration. This applies to the Pagan Arabs as well as Persians. It may glean from its scientific. architectural, or administrative achievements, but it will not allow anything that existed in the pre-Islam days to be something of which one should be proud. If it concerns a prophet of that county from the past that the Koran declares to have been one of the original Muslims (like Zoroaster) then it is OK to speak of him as long as it is under Muslim terms, but the rest is ignored until it is forgotten. Unfortunately, Evangelical/Fundamentalist Christians too tend to fall into this pattern. Little or nothing of pre-Christian Europe is admired in their world. Even the cultural achievements of Europe by Catholics and mainline Protestants are given little or no consideration  unless, again, a particular individual can be presented (against all historical evidence) as some type of fictional early Baptist hammering away against the Church and the culture that game birth to the arts, music, literature and more of the West.

Ultimately, I find the protests of the Iranian government to be a classic example of the knee-jerk reactions common to both Islam and Fundamentalist Christianity. No effort to given even to thinking "Hey, those guys have a point. Thank God we became Muslims and don't have to be like those immoral Persians" (Which of course is exactly what they would say as long as they get to say it first) No, since the movie comes from the West, they have to be angry about it even though they logically would have to agree that their position would be that the pre-Islamic Persians were quite immoral. So the Iranians find themselves in the unenviable position of defending a people that they are required to, if not abhor, at least pity because they were not Muslim.