Ethnic outreach – sacrament or outrage. Depending.

Elizabeth Wright articulates the racial double standard abroad in the land:

Political analyst Paul Begala is right in his observation that his Democratic party cannot win the presidency "with just eggheads and African-Americans." However, in this uniquely American race circus, such indisputably true insights are forbidden. In this country, in every election, demographics are scrutinized, with emphasis often being placed on the importance of the "ethnic" vote. Politicians brazenly fall all over one another to reach out to blacks and Hispanics for support. To reach out in a similar way for white support, however, is to engage in the evil "southern strategy," for which Ronald Reagan has never been forgiven.

"Stung by the word 'white'." By Elizabeth Wright, Issues and Views, 5/13/08.

Viper in the bosom.

I've long marveled at the Shia view of kuffar as being on a par with urine, feces, semen, blood, pigs, dogs, and dead bodies. (See various entries in this blog under "najis.")

Enter Sheik Feiz Mohammad, "spiritual founder" of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Sydney (apparently), Australia, who thinks "(Kaffir (non-Muslim)) is the worst word ever written, a sign of infidelity, disbelief, filth, a sign of dirt."

This from a man who lives in Australia after having been accorded a gracious welcome by the people of that nation, which welcome he repays by espousing the kaffir-as-filth idea or, the Australian-as-filth idea, when you get right down to it.

The "spiritual founder" of a youth center also is in favor of teaching children about the upside of martyrdom:

We want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam. Teach them this: there is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid (holy warrior). Put in their soft, tender hearts the zeal of jihad and a love of martyrdom."

If I may indulge myself in a little carefree characterizing here, I think what we have here is a "viper in the bosom" situation, in which we have a Muslim who requests the privilege of living in a decent western country and is granted that privilege, but who harbors contempt for the citizens of his new host country and advocates martyrdom for Muslim youth there (and elsewhere) in the cause of jihad. Not the inner spiritual struggle kind of jihad, mind you, but the kind that kills a lot of innocent non-Muslims and leaves the child's head neatly severed from its body by the blast from the suicide belt.

There's no getting around it. As with all immigrants who step ashore in their new land, this guy's arrival is only something that enriches the host country.

No other view can be entertained.

"Education in hate for 'tender hearts'." By Joe Hildebrand and David Barrett, Daily Telegraph, 12/10/08.

H/t: Jihad Watch.

Americans and "change."

The only "change" that America really wants to hear about is evicting George Bush from the White House. . . . But beyond that, the American public is deathly afraid of the kind of changes we actually face -- such as, the end of consumer culture, the gross loss of value in suburban real estate (which forms the bulk of the middle class's private wealth), the prospect of food and fuel scarcities, . . . .

"Does Mr. O Know?." By Jim Kunstler, Clusterfuck Nation, 12/1/08.

Stupefying stupidity.

Ted Turner on the KGB:

We're not prejudiced against somebody [Vladimir Putin] who's worked at the FBI. It's an honorable place to work. And the KGB, I think, was an honorable place to work. And it gave people in the former Soviet Union, a communist country, an opportunity to do something important and worthwhile.

Well, now you CAN see what Hanoi Jane Fonda saw in the man. This was a man she could embrace. A soul mate.

Never mind that the Lubyanka cellars hosted many an execution with "nine grams" to the head. Never mind that the KGB was the enforcement arm of the 73-year murderous communist tyranny that blighted Russian lives and civilization. Never mind the vast network of Soviet concentration camps that dwarfed anything attempted by the Nazis. And never mind that it was one of the driving forces of espionage, assassination, and subversion in the U.S. from the 1930s until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

No. Never mind that. The urge to say something utterly ignorant and to expose a profound moral blindness was just too strong for this otherwise remarkable man.

Ted Turner. A man who stood astride a major part of the American data stream.

"Meet The Mess." By Investor's Business Daily, 12/2/08.