From Cox & Forkum:
Archive for January, 2006
Welcome Malkin readers!
Michelle Malkin has more on the extent of the Muslim outrage aimed at Denmark.
Zombietime has created the fantastic Mohammed Image Archive that displays many historical renderings of the prophet, by Westerners and Muslims alike. In the Middle Ages, Muslims avoided the prohibition of depicting their prophet by leaving his face or figure blank. Such iconoclasm, ostensibly for the purpose of avoiding idolatry, has occasionally extended to Christians, including many Protestants who destroyed Catholic symbols, relics, paintings, and sculptures during the Reformation.
This current prohibition, however, challenges Western notions of freedom of speech. According to the Muslims, this is a tolerance and sensitivity issue. They argue that since they images are offensive, they should immediately be taken down. That may work under Sharia, but not under freedom of speech guarantees that, if they are to be taken seriously, should apply to everyone, regardless of their material quality or ability to offend. Ward “Shitting Bull” Churchill (see, El Presidente couldn’t say that if there were no freedom of speech!) offends every decent American with his pro-terrorist rhetoric; but, being free, any American can criticize his writings, sayings, and beliefs. The free exchange of ideas, beyond any legal arguments, is the cornerstone of Western freedoms. China suppresses freedom, and Google submits. Throughout the Islamic world, blogs are discouraged (except, of course, those labeled alqaeda.blogspot.com) and dissent limited. If the right to not be offended actually existed, no one could say anything about anyone at anytime, without fear of condemnation or persecution. This is the essence of totalitarian regimes or religions. Nothing contradictory, counterrevolutionary, or blasphemous (as defined by the authorities) may be said, published, or thought. This is slavery, pure and simple: slavery of the mind.
El Presidente’s top pick:
In other words, if the shoe fits. . .
Martin Niemöller’s statement of Nazi oppression, updated for today:
When they came for the cartoonists,
I remained silent;
I was not a cartoonist.
When they locked up the bloggers,
I remained silent;
I was not a blogger.
When they came for the free press,
I did not speak out;
I was not a journalist.
When they came for the infidels,
I did not speak out;
I was not religious.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Or try this for “outrage”:
Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ
Or. . .
Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary (covered with elephant dung!)
Kennedy Shows His True Colors, Jumps Into Crowd In Mexico City
Published January 31, 2006 Uncategorized Leave a CommentWait, that was the other story about a bull. . .
Michelle Malkin has Kennedy Unhinged
Expose the Left (The Political Teen) has the video
Of course, it was of no avail, losing 72-25-3.
**Welcome Gateway Pundit readers!**
File under: ABOUT DAMN TIME!
While waiting a mere fifteen years to begin dealing with the horrors that Communism inflicted upon the European continent–not to mention China, Cambodia, etc–the Council of Europe voted to condemn the “evils of Communism”:
Thursday January 26, 2006
The Guardian
For some it was a vile capitalist plot aimed at rewriting the recent history of half of Europe, transforming wartime resistance heroes into villains, and denying the laudable ideals and legitimacy of a great political movement.
For others it was a long-overdue denunciation of a couple of dozen thoroughly evil regimes who wrecked their nations’ economies, tortured their citizens, and between them were responsible for up to 100 million deaths.
“Laudable ideals”–by which they mean equality (of misery) enforced at the barrel of a gun?
But, by a clear majority, the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe yesterday backed a controversial motion demanding that the continent’s 46-member human rights watchdog formally condemns “the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes”.
So the Euroweenies’ spines returned?
More than 60 members of the body’s 315-seat assembly, made up of MPs from Europe’s parliaments, were due to speak in a debate on a report by the conservative Swedish MP Goran Lindblad, which argued that 15 years after the collapse of the eastern bloc international condemnation of its governments’ activities was “urgently necessary”.
Mr Lindblad’s motion also called for an international conference on the issue and urged former communist states to “revise school books to reflect what happened, establish museums documenting these crimes, and introduce a memorial day for the victims of communism”.
In other words, a conference to set the record straight on the vile history of Communism, rather than one intended to deny it (the Holocaust Denial party set for Iran)?
The MP adopted the 100 million victim figure arrived at by Stéphane Courtois in his 1997 Black Book of Communism. The count includes 65m in China, 20m in the Soviet Union, 2m in North Korea, 2m in Cambodia, 1.7m in Africa, 1.5m in Afghanistan, 1m in Vietnam, 1m in east Europe and 150,000 in Latin America. (Mr Courtois puts the number of deaths due to Nazism at about 25m.)
Mr Lindblad listed communist regimes’ crimes as “assassinations and executions, concentration camp deaths, starvation, deportation, torture, slave labour and other mass physical terror”, saying they should be condemned like Nazis’ crimes.
Exactly what anti-communists have been saying since, oh, 1917!
Council officials said 99 of the MPs present voted in favour of the motion, 42 opposed it and 12 abstained. Communist parties, mainly in western Europe, had reacted fiercely, saying the report deliberately failed to distinguish between the ideals of communism and its application by totalitarian regimes.
The old, “Communism has never been truly applied” canard that is the mental equivalent of saying that “Communism is great, except for all the Communists. . .” Of course this inflamed the passions of the unreconstructed Marxist wingnuts still festering in Europe:
The Belgian Communist party, the PCB, called the motion “a violent attack on history, present and future of communism”. The Greek KKE called it “a declaration of war and persecution against all communist parties”, and Germany’s PDS said it was “neo McCarthyism”.
There it is again, dang McCarthyism!
Mikis Theodorakis, the Greek composer, said: “In the name of our dead comrades, of those who passed through the hands of the Gestapo and the death camps … shame on those who want to turn victims into executioners, heroes into criminals and communists into Nazis.”
El Presidente agrees! Shame on those who fought nationalistic partisan actions on behalf of themselves (Poland, Ukraine, etc.) only to be “purged”, sent to the concentration camps in the Gulag Archipelago, or sent to “reeducation” camps to strip away “fascist taint”. Who cares about all those starved, shot, and worked to death in forced labor programs like collectivization, any number of “Five Year Plans”, or Cultural Revolutions! Fie upon those who taint the good name of Communism, the very same which helped to carve up Poland as part of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, produced the killing fields in Cambodia, or one of the most repressive post-WWII police states in the form of East Germany and the Stasi.
French communists said the motion “banalises the Holocaust” and “ignores the communist role in fighting fascism”.
Except when it didn’t. See example above.
André Guerin, a Lyon MP, told Le Figaro that the council’s idea was to “definitively bury the values of communism” and “make believe they are outmoded and that the only alternative is capitalism”.
Capitalism is everywhere, especially in China, where everyone with a piece of sidewalk attempts to sell everything from tourist kitsch to electronics. Even socialist extravaganzas like Chavez’s shindig down in Venezuela over the past week is characterized more by capitalism than any abiding commitment to an alternative to it–other than hating the United States. Communist/socialist regimes survive only if the population or the environment can be exploited to prop up the economy. Chavez has oil and is therefore successful. Castro has Castro and Cuba suffers, as Cuban refugees flee to the United States.
Protests were vigorous in Russia, where a survey found 50% of Russians felt Stalin had played a “positive role” in their history and 42% thought “somebody like him” would be helpful in Russia today.
Apparently, 74 years of Communist rule, NKVD and KGB oppression, famine, gulags and misery haven’t cured some Russians from all things Red. Perhaps they are too young to remember, or have attached nationalist aspirations to the memories of the Soviet state. Capitalism isn’t a panacea, but to paraphrase Winston Churchill, it is the worst economic system, except for all the others. El Presidente prefers the “invisible hand” of the market over the visible point of a gun. Liberals/leftists/socialists hate the monopolistic power of an “evil and greedy” corporation like Wal-Mart, and yet would have the government become a sort of nationalized Wal-Mart complete with military support. Yes, there should be no denunciation of Communism, where everyone is equal(ly miserable)!
Slitherin’ Salazar Denounces Clarence Thomas
Published January 30, 2006 Uncategorized Leave a CommentSen. Salazar: Clarence Thomas an ‘Abomination’
Sen. Ken Salazar has called U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas “an abomination” compared to the late Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Salazar’s comment came during a telephone news conference Wednesday in which the Colorado Democrat said he would not be part of any filibuster to stop a vote on Samuel Alito’s confirmation, the Rocky Mountain News reports.
He went on to say: “There are members of the U.S. Supreme Court that I very much disagree with. Clarence Thomas, for example, I think is an abomination when you contrast him to the leadership and principles of someone like Thurgood Marshall. I’ve been in front of the court and I know the justices.”
Clarence Thomas bucks expectations as a thoughtful, conservative justice who also happens to be black, and Democratic wingnuts like Salazar impugn his character. No outcry, barely a blip in the media. But if a conservative/Republican lambastes Ruth Bader Ginsburg. . .
Slitherin’ Salazar Denounces Clarence Thomas
Published January 30, 2006 Uncategorized Leave a CommentSen. Salazar: Clarence Thomas an ‘Abomination’
Sen. Ken Salazar has called U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas “an abomination” compared to the late Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Salazar’s comment came during a telephone news conference Wednesday in which the Colorado Democrat said he would not be part of any filibuster to stop a vote on Samuel Alito’s confirmation, the Rocky Mountain News reports.
He went on to say: “There are members of the U.S. Supreme Court that I very much disagree with. Clarence Thomas, for example, I think is an abomination when you contrast him to the leadership and principles of someone like Thurgood Marshall. I’ve been in front of the court and I know the justices.”
Clarence Thomas bucks expectations as a thoughtful, conservative justice who also happens to be black, and Democratic wingnuts like Salazar impugn his character. No outcry, barely a blip in the media. But if a conservative/Republican lambastes Ruth Bader Ginsburg. . .
World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela/Photo Roundup
Gateway Pundit has detailed coverage here.
The Political Teen has Sheehan To Run Against Feinstein If …
More from LGF.
Cindy Sheehan’s (ill advised? traitorous? ignorant?) visit to Hugo Chavez’s Carnival of Socialist Paradise, er, World Social Forum elicited the following exhibitions of Moonbattery:
Nothing says kissing up like. . .
Code Pink goes red. . .
Nothing says leftist protest like swastikas (even if they are backwards. . .)
Evil BusHitler makes his malevolent presence known. . .
Of course, Chimpy McHitlerBush could not be left out of the festivities. . .
Say “NO TO CAPITALISM!”
or, BUY OUR SHIRTS!
. . .or our, um, pins. . .
An activist listens to the sound of talking dolls of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at a street market during the third day of the 6th World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan, 26, 2006. In an ironic twist, delegates protesting the evils of capitalism at the World Social Forum are digging into their pockets to buy T-shirts embossed with the image of Argentine revolutionary hero Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and talking dolls of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
or this crap. . .Even the AP caption writer had the perspicacity to catch the irony:
Stop The ACLU Kissing A Commie
“Here, GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE! Here boy!”
Their logo says it all. No need for Photoshop.
Welcome Sunday Funnies readers!
The Kennedy-Kerry-Clinton Axis of Filibluster has declared war on Samuel Alito.
Looks familiar–
Apparatchiks, all.
blus·ter (blstr)
v. tr.
To force or bully with swaggering threats.
n.
A violent, gusty wind.
Turbulence or noisy confusion.
Loud, arrogant speech, often full of empty threats.
More at Stop The ACLU Clinton Joins In On Alito Filibuster Efforts
The Political Teen Why Does Hillary Clinton Want To Divide Our Country?
Challenger (1-28-86): The Day They "Slipped the Surly Bonds of Earth"
Published January 28, 2006 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Video and text of President Ronald Reagan’s eulogy, which preempted his scheduled State of the Union Address in January 1986. Fine oratory, delivered by the Great Communicator.
Stop The ACLU Remembering the Challenger: 7 New Stars In the Heavens
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