Goodbye to the "Decade From Hell" and good riddance #leaveitinthe00s

Christmas has come and gone and soon New Years will come and go as well...taking with it the 2000's and all the misery they contained. I recently came across an article in Time Magazine entitled The '00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell, which I shared with my Twitter followers. What follows here were my stream-of-conscience thoughts on the article that I posted after reading it. I would definitely recommend reading the article before continuing.

Aside from the fact that I assumed people reading my twitter updates had read it when I posted them, I found it to be pretty eye-opening. It also confirmed much of what I had been saying about the 2000's for a long time. Specifically that such a constant, nightmare string of calamities could not have been created just within the span of 10 years. Nor were these calamities restricted to war and terrorism. This decade was the manifestation of a bill finally coming due for a previous 50 years of over-borrowing/spending.

Please excuse any typos or spelling mistakes as this was all written out in real-time and has not been edited except to add relevant links to past posts.

Here's to next year, next decade and hopefully some real changes, not just hollow political nonsense...

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Goodbye to the "Decade from Hell" http://tinyurl.com/yjqhqr8 #leaveitinthe00s 10:56 AM
  
One thing that article got absolutely right: the disasters of the 2000s were created by our own neglect in previous decades #leaveitinthe00s 10:57 AM
  
President #Bush has taken so much of the blame for what happened during his administration but if you pay attention... #leaveitinthe00s 10:58 AM
  
...you'll see how much of bad things that happened this decade were ticking time bombs long before he got in office #leaveitinthe00s 10:58 AM
  
I've said for years that we should have seen 9/11 coming...with all the terror acts of the 1990's, the intifadas etc #leaveitinthe00s 10:59 AM
  
We as a nation lulled ourselves to sleep and thought the end of the Cold War was the "end of history" - well we were wrong #leaveitinthe00s 11:00 AM
  
Every calamity of this decade had its roots in our laziness, our failure to act and the naivete that came out of the 90's #leaveitinthe00s 11:02 AM
  
Our desperate, pathetic attempts to convince ourselves that we "won" and would live happily ever after is what created this monster decade 11:02 AM
  
But there is no "happily ever after" life. It's a fairy tale. Even after you win something you have to continue to progress #leaveitinthe00s 11:03 AM
  
Otherwise someone else is going to just swoop in and eat your lunch. And before you know it your victory has turned into a crushing defeat. 11:04 AM
  
This is exactly what happened this decade. We were raised to think that the world would inevitably be come peacer, safer #leaveitinthe00s
  
But it's an illusion. There is always something evil out there waiting for you let your guard down. #leaveitinthe00s 11:05 AM
  
American society must heed this, must learn from this and must address it or this may be remember as the CENTURY from Hell 11:06 AM
  
We cannot just sit back and assume things will go well for us because we're "right" or think we're doing "the right thing" #leaveitinthe00s 11:07 AM
  
There are bad people out there and there are bad people in here. We were chewed up by external AND internal forces #leaveitinthe00s 11:07 AM
  
The only way is to act in advance. To look down the road and not ASSUME the 18-wheeler is going to swerve out of our way #leaveitinthe00s 11:08 AM
  
To heed warnings not just write them off as alarmist. To be open-minded to the fact that we might be wrong. #leaveitinthe00s 11:10 AM
  
To look at OURSELVES and realize that WE ALL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Our actions, no matter how small affect society. #leaveitinthe00s 11:13 AM
  
To realize we bury ourselves in Hollywood deaths and fad diets while a bunch of angry starving savages plot against us #leaveitinthe00s 11:14 AM


  
That we spend money on studying mating rituals of river trout in Louisiana while the New Orleans levees fall into disrepair #leaveitinthe00s 11:15 AM
  
And bridges collapse over the very Mississippi river we are studying #leaveitinthe00s 11:16 AM
  
We push banks to relax lending practices to inner cities while a bunch of crooks convince everyone to use their houses as credit cards 11:18 AM
  
We invest and invest and invest and invest and assume the stock market will always go higher and our home prices will to #leaveitinthe00s 11:19 AM
  
We pour thousands, millions, billions, TRILLIONS into industries that never turn a profit or when they do it's a house of cards 11:20 AM
  
We push the big evil corporations to make absurd deals with labor unions that foster laziness in designs and impossible-to-maintain costs 11:21 AM
  
Then we STOP BUYING THE CARS we made and instead buy cars produced by countries that do NOT force this fake morality on their corporations 11:23 AM
  
And we wonder why we are going out of business. We sit around and point fingers when news breaks of another bankruptcy. #leaveitinthe00s 11:23 AM
  
But we never look at ourselves. At our habits as Americans. At our pathetic, declining work ethic. #leaveitinthe00s 11:24 AM


  
At our stupid, naive world-view. We're a country that has the nerve to have over 50% of our citizens classified as "obese" #leaveitinthe00s 11:25 AM

While crying about world hunger. #leaveitinthe00s 11:25 AM
  
We want to cut down on illegal immigration but complain when a bottle of Tropicana goes up by 50 cents #leaveitinthe00s 11:26 AM
  
We want to embrace everyone as equals and treat them as friends, even as they hold knives to our throats...and our backs. #leaveitinthe00s 11:27 AM
  
We want faster, bigger, less efficient SUVs that clog up the highways but we shudder when the price of oil goes up #leaveitinthe00s 11:28 AM
  
We say we want peace and security and safety but ignore constant death threats and chaos for DECADES #leaveitinthe00s 11:30 AM
  
Then when we finally DO something about it we denigrate the effort and do everything we can to revert to our old ways! #leaveitinthe00s 11:31 AM
  
Do you want to know who to blame for the Decade from Hell? Look in the mirror. #leaveitinthe00s 11:31 AM
  
Do you know why #China, #Iran and #Russia (wait didn't we beat those guys in the 90's? ) are rising look in the mirror #leaveitinthe00s 11:32 AM
  
They rise and we fall because they WANT IT MORE BADLY then you do - they know the feeling of hunger you know the taste of Baby Ruths 11:33 AM
 

 
They know that actions have CONSEQUENCES. They know if they don't plant seeds in the Spring they'll have no food in the Winter. 11:35 AM
  
We Americans expect that something will always save us. The govt will bail us out. Stocks will rebound. Terrorists will learn to love us. 11:35 AM
  
Guess what! There are no guarantees in life. Something will not always save you. And often things that appear to only delay the inevitable. 11:37 AM
  
The only way to ensure that we never experience another decade like is by looking INTERNALLY at ourselves #leaveitinthe00s 11:37 AM
  
It's not GM's fault they went bankrupt - it's OUR SOCIETY'S fault for propping them up and supporting their stupid business model for years 11:38 AM
  
It's not the govt's fault that the economy collapsed it's OUR FAULT for electing ppl who were as naive as we were to make decisions for us! 11:39 AM
  
It's not the bankers' fault that we're defaulting on our loans - it's OUR fault for buying houses we could never afford! #leaveitinthe00s 11:39 AM
  
It's not #Bush's fault that a massive hurricane slammed into New Orleans, it's OUR FAULT for neglecting the city's defenses for YEARS! 11:41 AM
  
It's not the CIA and FBI'S fault they didn't see 9/11 coming it's OUR FAULT for foolishly thinking the world was safe... 11:41 AM
  
...and electing people who cut our defense and INTEL budgets and foolishly shared in our naivete! #leaveitinthe00s 11:42 AM
  
We must realize that world events do not happen in a vacuum, that our actions have CONSEQUENCES 11:43 AM
  
If our govt screws up it's because we ELECTED THEM to represent us and make our decisions for us - democracy means we're never off the hook 11:44 AM
  
You want freedom? You want input on national issues and decision-making? This is the price. You must take responsibility for yourselves. 11:44 AM
  
We MUST look inwardly to be critical of our own social norms and assumptions and make REAL CHANGES to our habits #leaveitinthe00s 11:46 AM
  
Only then will we have ANY HOPE of not repeating this, this awful, terrible, Decade from Hell that we created for ourselves #leaveitinthe00s 11:47 AM

____________________________________________________________________

Go ahead and ponder that, as you're drinking yourselves into oblivion next week and making resolutions that you'll abandon by February. I know I will...

Here's hoping the 10's will be remembered as the "Decade of self-responsibility" where we undo these mistakes and finally start acting like grown-ups.

Have a happy New Year everyone and be safe.

Who will retell the triumphs of Israel? Not Radio Hanukkah, that's for sure

Hanukkah is the festival of lights,
Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights.
--Adam Sandler, The "Hanukkah" Song


Over the past few days I have had the indescribable delight of listening to "Radio Hanukkah" on Sirius/XM satellite radio. After almost a week of listening to 500,000 different versions of "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel" and "Oh Chanuka, Oh Chanuka as well as nonsensical Hanukkah parodies of Christmas songs like "Feliz Hanukkah" and "The 8 Days of Hannukkah", reality hit me harder than a menorah to the forehead...

The holiday alternately known as Chanuka, Hannukkah, Hannuka or any of 10,000 other English spellings is a very different holiday in the United States than it is in Israel.

While both versions result in the same essential practices (lighting candles, eating fried potatoes, dairy foods and donuts, etc) the attitude toward these practices vary tremendously.

Everyone knows the story of this most important Jewish holiday of the year right? The dreidel-spinning Jewish hippies of ancient Palestine (actually JUDEA) needed to light their freedom-lamp but only had enough oil to last one day...lo and behold there was a miracle and it lasted for not one...but eight craaaaaazy nights! I think that reggae rabbi guy from Letterman - what's his name? Matty something right? - might have had something to do with it. And hey look at this, it happened right around that OTHER festival of lights...CHRISTMAS! What a wonderful coincidence! Let's all have a party and go shopping like our wreath-toting Christian brethren, it's perfect! Don't worry little Jakey, your friend Anthony may get a ton of presents on the 25th, but you'll get a new toy EIGHT NIGHTS IN A ROW! Oy vey? Fuhgetaboutit!

Or at least that's the American version of Chanuka.

First of all, if you read that version of the story and didn't find anything wrong with it, please click here immediately and read about the Maccabean revolt, the advent of guerrilla warfare in the Middle East and a potential screenplay for the most violent warrior movie since Braveheart.

They may take our lives, but they'll never take our...bagels...

But wait a minute. You're telling me that JEWS used to fight like William Wallace and the rest of those crazy Scotsmen? How can that be when today's Jews are caricatures of caricatures like Jon Stewart and Sarah Silverman? They're supposed to be docile and neurotic like Woody Allen, not brave and unpredictable like King Leonidas. I've never seen an accountant or investment banker impale a war elephant or lead an army of savages in brutal hand-to-hand combat! How can this be? This doesn't fit the stereotype of the American Jew by any stretch of anyone's imagination!

For whatever reasons you choose to subscribe to, in the United States any symbol of Jewish strength is regularly downplayed in favor of an image of a nebbishy weasel who would rather eat gefilte fish in peace and quiet than stand up and be proud of his multi-millennia-old culture. Whereas in Israel, Chanuka is celebrated essentially as a national (as well as religious) holiday commemorating an astonishing military triumph of impossible odds...in America we get Radio Hanukkah and light festivals. Take for example this Chanuka song - popular in Israel but almost unheard of in America:

מי ימלל גבורות ישראל
אותן מי ימנה
הן בכל דור יקום הגיבור
גואל העם
שמע
בימים ההם בזמן הזה
מכבי מושיע ופודה
ובימינו כל עם ישראל
יתאחד, יקום ויגאל

Who can retell the triumphs of Israel?
Who can count them?
In every generation will a arise a hero...
To save the nation
Listen!
In those days, during this time
A Maccabee brought salvation and redemption
And in our days the whole nation of Israel...
Will unite, arise and be saved!

In fact, we're so neutered in the United States that even when this song DOES appear, as it does in this Wikipedia entry or this absolutely absurd version on Youtube they REMOVE the references to triumph and strength and even Israel entirely. Why?!

And so, instead of songs about strength and valor and victory we get such mindless, asinine stupidity as this (heard today on Radio Hanukkah on my way to work):

On the eighth night of Hanukkah, my true love gave to me
8 Alka- Seltzer
7 noodle kugels
6 pickled herrings
5 bowls of chicken soup
4 potato latkes
3 pounds of corned beef
2 Kosher pickles and
Lox, bagels and some cream cheese

I swear to God, if I hear one more person try to define their "Jewishness" by referring to chicken soup and brisket and oy vey I may actually stuff a dreidel down their throat. The worst thing though, is that I've heard Jews listening to this garbage and laughing along with it - hell for almost two weeks every year there's an entire station on satellite radio dedicated to it!

This entire holiday's foundation was an open rebellion against quiet assimilation, where a small group of determined Jewish warriors who were proud enough of their culture and heritage to fight for it upended an empire! Of all of the Jewish holidays this is the ONLY one that actually celebrates a military victory. The ONLY one!

And what do we do with it? We turn it into nothing more than a politically correct, assimilated, muddled excuse to make ourselves feel like we're not missing out on Christmas presents. How materialistic. How shallow. How pathetic.

But it is this need to blend that is endemic in American Jewish culture and has been for decades as the Kahanists will (repeatedly) remind you. It only makes sense that we would turn a proud celebration of military strength (with God's help) and cultural preservation (through self-determination) into Radio Hanukkah. And we wonder why the rest of the world looks at us as nerdy sellouts with no pride who deserve to be mocked at every opportunity. We don't DESERVE to get upset when someone throws an anti-Jewish stereotype at us, because we perpetuate them EVERY CHANCE WE CAN. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

Eight crazy nights indeed.

So please...if you didn't know before what this holiday was really about...please...get the "Hanukkah bush" out of your house and throw out those clever little "Chrismukka" cards you thought you would dazzle your friends at work with. Light your candles tonight knowing that people fought and died so that you would have the freedom to eat your latkes and spin your dreidels and do whatever else it is that you choose to do to celebrate your heritage. How about next year, Radio Hanukkah actually plays some music that makes us feel PRIDE in our culture instead of this dreck they're force-feeding us 24/8?

And finally, if you aren't Jewish and reading this, PLEASE believe me when I tell you that there's more to us and our religion than latkes and Manishevitz.

Chag sameach everyone.

Not-so-strange bedfellows: Rutgers University and the Palestine Children's Relief Fund

Just in case you hadn't already gotten your fill of appeasers and terrorist enablers this year, we have a story right out of that bastion of tolerance known as the United States college campus.

The following post was contributed by Tali, a regular reader of this blog and Rutgers University student. It was submitted to the Rutgers daily newspaper, the Daily Targum and (SHOCKINGLY) subsequently denied publication.

To give you some background on the topic, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey has a semi-annual "Meal Sign Away" program...

...in which Rutgers students can donate the cost of their guests’ meals toward a prearranged charitable fundraiser.

This year, the "charitable fundraiser" that was chosen was the "Palestine Children's Relief Fund" - an organization that according to Rutgers (and themselves) is

a non-political, non-profit organization dedicated to fighting the medical and humanitarian crisis facing children in the Middle East.

To illustrate this, PCRF has loads of smiling children on their website to remind you of the beautiful work they do in "Palestine" and the rest of the Middle East.

Peace signs are cute and all...too bad in the Middle East this isn't a peace sign, it's a victory sign...

Now bear in mind, the mere fact that they refer to themselves as the Palestine Children's Relief Fund is in itself a pretty major political statement. Since there is no sovereign state of Palestine as of this printing, by referring to themselves in this fashion as opposed to, for example, the Palestinian Children's Relief fund, by default they are declaring their allegiance to a country that does not exist. Political and controversial, no doubt. But I can hardly say it as well as Tali did in her letter, which follows below:

_________________________________________________________


Recently, the Rutgers University Student Assembly made a controversial decision by granting its semi-annual Meal Sign Away fundraising program to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. When concerns were raised to the body regarding this decision, the body chose not to reconsider its original decision. Given the political nature of the PCRF, both the original decision and the decision not to reconsider it are ill-advised, and fail to serve the best interests of the Rutgers community.

The PCRF is a non-profit organization that claims to be non-political. Proponents of the PCRF have said that it is a strictly humanitarian organization and not a political one. When you consider the facts, however, claims that the organization is non-political couldn't be further from the truth. An examination of the organization’s activities reveals that political activism is a leading part of the PCRF’s mission.

Last year, the PCRF held a fundraising dinner dance right here in New Brunswick. Billed on the invitation as an "esteemed guest speaker" at the event was Stephen Walt, controversial co-author of a notoriously biased book entitled The Israel Lobby and American Foreign Policy. Walt's book demonizes Israel and rationalizes terrorism against it. It paints any lobbying effort on behalf of Israel as inimical and follows the mold of many historic instances of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories by painting Jews as having excessive power and influence. Regardless of your opinion on Walt or his book, it is undeniable that this issue is one of intense and heated political debate. How is this non-political?

Also last year, the PCRF co-sponsored a conference organized by the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center. Sabeel is a Palestinian Christian organization known for using theological arguments to generate hostility against Israel, often using thinly veiled analogies tying Jews to the crucifixion of Jesus. Their conferences, such as the one co-sponsored by the PCRF, are overtly political and known for their anti-Israel themes. How is this non-political?

Most appalling, however, is how the PCRF has used the very children it serves as props to fulfill its blatant political agenda.



The organization brought two of the children that came to the United States for medical care, Salam Safi and Badwan Abu-Mayaleh, to the "United for Al-Quds" conference in San Francisco. This event described the children as "victims of Israeli brutality," as described in an article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. A leading speaker at the event was Imam Amir Abdul Malik Ali, a man who has publicly blamed Israel for the September 11 attacks. Is this non-political?

RUSA has historically shied away from taking stances on issues that may be even slightly political. The very same body that wouldn't take a stance on the New Brunswick wards issue suddenly became willing to take sides in a highly sensitive international conflict. Something just doesn't add up.

While students "sign-away" their meals at their own discretion, at the end of the day, the check that the PCRF will receive for the aggregate sum collected will be signed by Rutgers and endorsed by its student governing body. Considering the nature of the organization, this is unacceptable. Regardless of where you stand on the issues involved, RUSA should not be endorsing an organization that promotes and advocates for any political agenda.

There are many organizations that help Palestinian children without any controversy or political agenda. Some even work with Israeli hospitals in a spirit of non-political, peaceful cooperation. RUSA's decision to select the PCRF and its refusal to reconsider their decision is yet another example of the organization's failure of leadership. Rutgers students, we deserve better than the PCRF and RUSA.

Tali R. is a Rutgers University undergrad working towards her degree in Economics and Political Science

_________________________________________________________

I don't know about you, but I was sold when I visited their homepage and saw that Jimmy Carter was a major proponent of theirs.

In any case, while Tali's well-written letter was rejected by the Targum, TWO letters in defense of the PCRF were not. One of them was penned by the chairman of the Rutgers University PCRF chapter and the other by a Rutgers alumnus and peace activist. Wow, what stunningly fair journalism! In fact the only Targum report on the topic that was critical of the decision came from a regular writer who would no doubt scream censorship (and justifiably so) if his article was denied.

So instead of having an honest debate we have a chorus of "liberal" activists who scream about diversity and understanding even as they shout down or shut out the opinions of those that disagree with them.

But it's nothing new and it isn't likely to change anytime in the near future. Luckily for the pro-Israel/Jewish/Zionist community at Rutgers there are voices like Tali's that are brave enough to rise above the rhetoric and ridiculous accusations and are willing to speak up for what's right. And we'll continue to give them a podium here when the mainstream refuses to.

Keep it going guys.

Indifference and Major Nidal Malik Hasan: Tolerance breeds intolerance Part II

"This was an individual who does not, obviously, represent the Muslim faith"
--Janet Nepolitano

"And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse."
--General George W. Casey

"Allah-u Akbar!!!!"
--Major Nidal Malik Hasan

"What we've got here is...failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men."
--The Captain, Cool Hand Luke


Is there any human action that is more intolerant than murder? Is there any freedom more basic than the right to be alive?

Taking another person's life is the ultimate communication breakdown, the ultimate failure to understand the other side of the debate. It is the final act of a desperate man or woman, either as the ultimate expression of extremism or as a defense against it.

In that regard there could be no one less tolerant or more extreme than Major Nidal Malik Hasan. A soldier that turned his gun on his fellow brothers and sisters in arms. A doctor that destroyed life instead of saving it. A psychiatrist who created mental anguish for his former patients. An American who considered himself a Palestinian first and professed his loyalty to sharia law ahead of Constitutional law. A Muslim extremist who took advantage of the freedom he swore to protect in order to spread his extremism and rob others of their freedom to live. And it was all made possible not by lax gun laws or "disgruntled war veterans" or any of the silly excuses the appeasers (yes Janet Nepolitano I'm talking to you) of the world use to distract us from the following simple fact:

Nidal Malik Hasan is an Islamic extremist who tried (and apparently managed for years) to control his murderous impulses until he finally snapped and killed a bunch of people in the name of his religion.



Ok? Can we say that without being crucified as ignorant or racist? He dressed in Islamic robes on the morning of his attack (planned as a suicide mission), consulted with an imam tied to al Qaeda and yelled the same thing other Islamic suicide attackers (including the 9/11 hijackers) yell as they blow up a bus or school or plane.

All of the pundits on TV over the past couple of weeks have been grinding and grinding and grinding Hasan's background to death. He was a loner. He didn't have a woman (because he couldn't find one Islamic-ly pious enough). He had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He had PRE Traumatic Stress Disorder. Grinding and grinding and grinding. He was depressed. He was sad. He was misunderstood. He was upset about his imminent deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq. And grinding and grinding and ENOUGH ALREADY. Those are all excuses. Here are some more facts:

Hasan's business card had the acronym "SoA" on it.



SoA, if you are unaware, stands for "Soldier of Allah". Hasan gave speeches on American foreign policy and his demand that Muslims be given the right to become conscientious objectors and opt out of military action in Muslim countries. Even more astonishing is new information emerging now that the FBI had the following information LAST WINTER:

[Hasan] sent a message to a radical imam in Yemen saying that he was looking forward to the discussions they would have over alcohol-free wine in the afterlife.

This is the same imam by the way that was visited by 3 of the 9/11 hijackers as well as several other terrorists and attempted terrorists. Some of these attempted massacre-ists that admired al-Alawki included a group of home-grown Canadian al-Qaeda as well as the group of lunatics that tried to attack the army base in Fort Dix, NJ. Please note the common thread between these groups and Hasan - all wannabe disciples of the same guy, all radical Muslim, all citizens or permanent residents of the countries they planned to attack.

The article continues:

[Other emails] included questions about when the imam considered jihad, or holy war, to be appropriate, and whether it justified the killing of innocents.

On my...but we're not done yet folks - hold on to your hijabs with this one:

One result is intense interest in the American-born Mr al-Awlaki, who has never been arrested in the US but served time in jail in Yemen in 2006 and is seen by some intelligence agencies as an al-Qaeda recruiter.

Three weeks before Major Hasan bought the guns he used at Fort Hood, Mr al-Awlaki posted on his website an endorsement of attacks by Muslims on “government armies in the Muslim world”. He stated: “Blessed are those who fight against them and blessed are those [martyrs] who are killed by them.” Since the Fort Hood rampage, Mr al-Awlaki has called Major Hasan a hero.

All right. So...this guy was becoming friendly with a possible al-Qaeda recruiter, the same guy that inspired at least TWENTY THREE HOME GROWN TERRORISTS to attempt to murder hundreds if not thousands of their own countrymen...and Casey and Nepolitano's top concern is DIVERSITY. Our leadership shouldn't be making excuses for the rest of the law-abiding Muslim Americans, they can do just fine in speaking up for themselves in this free country of theirs. Why do they need Nepolitano apologizing for them anyway? Does the Homeland Security Chief need to get onto a podium every time a serial killer chops up some drug addicts in Cleveland and remind us that these creeps do not "represent" the Christian faith? Ridiculous!

And excuse me, with all due respect to General Casey, this incident was NOT a tragedy. Tragedies are things like hurricanes or tornadoes. Earthquakes are tragedies. A cancer diagnosis is a tragedy. Tragedies are terrible events beyond our control. This event was absolutely under someone's control. Hasan's rampage wasn't a tragedy - it was a MASSACRE. It was a TRAVESTY. It was a bloodbath. And MOST IMPORTANTLY it could have been prevented if just one of two things happened:

1. If the FBI hadn't dropped the ball by not pursuing the very real possibility that this guy wasn't just "conducting research" and was behaving increasingly erratically.

OR

2. If someone that knew him had spoken up.

You've already read about Nidal Hasan's rantings on Muslims in the military. You already know by now that several doctors and others were very disturbed by his presentation but chose to treat him with "kid gloves" despite the fact that he was a poor psychiatrist with terrible evaluations. You already know by now that Hasan has been reported as saying: "I'm a Muslim first and I hold the Shariah, the Islamic Law, before the United States Constitution." You know all this because it was all in the same article I just linked to from Fox News that is now almost TWO WEEKS OLD. Why then, is he still not being referred to as a terrorist? Because he wasn't a card-carrying member of the jihad? Oh wait nevermind, he was.

Believe it or not, General Casey, Secretary Nepolitano and the rest of the diversity brigade are more interested in not offending Muslims than they are in performing their most basic duty...that being to defend the country from all threats, be they foreign or domestic. Instead of being concerned with how this happened, how it could have been prevented and how to prevent it from happening again they are sacrificing our safety on the altar of Political Correctness.

Their indifference, their apathy towards reality allows people like Hasan to succeed in their acts of passion, their acts of evil. Their tolerance allow the intolerant to succeed.

Because you see, it doesn't end with Hasan. Praise be to Allah, our good friends over revolutionmuslim.com have fixed their website and we can now present their original video on the Ft. Hood shooting:

In the video, the speaker (an American) explicitly states his support for the massacre as a legitimate attack on military targets during a declared war, using Holy Qur'anic verses to back his points. He is in effect supporting the enemy of his country during a time of war.

trea⋅son  [tree-zuhn]
–noun
1. the offense of acting to overthrow one's government or to harm or kill its sovereign.
2. a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state.
3. the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery.

se⋅di⋅tion  [si-dish-uhn]
–noun
1. incitement of discontent or rebellion against a government.
2. any action, esp. in speech or writing, promoting such discontent or rebellion.
3. Archaic. rebellious disorder.

It's not just about Nidal Malik Hasan. There are movements right now in the United States, that are literally committing acts of treason/sedition like this one on American soil, using American companies and proudly displaying their work to the rest of the world. Would these people be allowed to speak like this about the countries they support IN the countries they support? Why are we tolerating this? Why do we allow these people to operate at will and poison uninformed minds on the internet?

They are using our own rules against us. And the media is ignoring them. Our politicians are ignoring them. How can we afford to ignore them? How can we afford to continue being indifferent to this evil while it plots against us and our families? Why do we refrain from calling it what it is? Why are we afraid to be honest with ourselves?

I'll tell you why. You see while Nidal Malik Hasan acted to kill those soldiers at Ft. Hood he did not act alone. Political correctness aided him. Indifference abetted him. Tolerance of evil gave him aid and comfort. And we are all accomplices.

In the end...WE as a society killed them. Our collective conscience silently screams in desperate horror for us to blank out this fact but we cannot do it anymore. Our future as a liberal democracy depends on it. Hasan needs to be punished for his act of war but it's time we as a society started taking responsibility for our own actions, or lack thereof.

Because if we don't, the next massacre will be on our conscience too.

Tolerance Breeds Intolerance

SOME say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
--Robert Frost, "Fire and Ice"


Fire and Ice.

Two ways for humanity to come to a tragic end. Generally "Fire" has been interpreted as a massive Armageddon-style war of passion between hotheaded, nationalist countries and "Ice" is the opposite.

While there are many possible explanations of Robert Frost's poem - inevitably they reach the same conclusion - he is referring to two possible ways that life (or civilization) can be extinguished. Growing up in the 1980's our greatest fear was always that the Earth would be incinerated in a massive fiery nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. With the end of the Cold War, this fear has subsided somewhat to the point that we reinterpret history today to convince ourselves that it was all just a big misunderstanding between great superpowers with different styles of government...

But there is another way to tragedy, one that doesn't require massive nuclear devastation.

It is ice. The opposite of fire. The opposite of passion.

I am talking of course about the ultimate sin of indifference. The sad sad spectacle of good men and women tolerating the evil actions of others and failing to rise up against them before it is too late.

Recently we observed the two November memorials of Kristallnacht and Veteran's Day. Kristallnacht commemorates the first state-sponsored act of violence of the Holocaust, a national pogrom against the Jews of Germany and Austria. Veteran's Day commemorates the end of World War I...and inevitable march to World War II and the Holocaust. Interestingly, the icy reception of the Versailles treaty by the United States and the failure of the Allies in enforcing it are in large part responsible for the fires of WWII. Had the West not been indifferent towards Hitler's rearming of Germany, a true nightmare may have been averted.

Passion and Indifference. Fire and Ice. And in the end, total destruction.

Over the past few decades as Americans we have been taught in schools and on television that tolerance is the cornerstone of a free and liberal society. In movies and on TV, the young protagonist or team of protagonists (often made up of one representative of every race) are often antagonized by an intolerant, usually older Caucasian individual, that sees the world as black and white as opposed to the glorious rainbow we have been taught it actually is. In the end we learn that all we need to do is get to know each others' cultures and we will see that humans are humans and we have much more in common than we have differences. If we are simply more TOLERANT of each other, we can all finally get along.

A beautiful message to say the least - and that's fine and well and good for TV and movies and ideals, but reality is a little different.

Because there is another side to tolerance. A darker side.

The issue with tolerance is that it often causes us to be indifferent to genuinely evil acts. Can there be any doubt that there were many good Germans in the 1930's that saw the Nuremberg Laws and simply TOLERATED them because going about their lives was more important than some Jews they didn't really care much about anyway? Could the Holocaust not have been averted if the entire Western world didn't sit idly by and TOLERATE Hitler's rise to power?

When hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were being brutally murdered, raped and pillaged in Rwanda - could this have happened without the de facto TOLERANCE of the Western democracies?

When the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia sacrificed 1.5 million of their own people to an insane ideology - could this have happened without the TOLERANCE of the Americans, Europeans and every other civilized nation that had the ability to stop it? In the end, it took an invasion by Vietnam...COMMUNIST Vietnam mind you...to put an end to the Killing Fields.

When Somalia collapsed into chaos and anarchy. When the Ayatollah Khomeini seized control of Iran. When the Congo plunged into civil war. When pogroms and purges raged all over Russia. When the Congo plunged into a second civil war. When the Taliban imposed sharia on Afghanistan. EVERY SINGLE DAY that the Darfur genocide continues.

All of which is made possible by our indifference. By our tolerance of evil.

"It's just their way" - "It's just their culture" - "Who are we to tell them how to live their lives"

How many times have we heard these phrases? How many times have we been told that it is not our place to get involved. That it is not our place to JUDGE other cultures no matter how brutal or repressive or anti-woman or anti-Jewish or anti-democracy or anti-gay they may be? And ironically, how often do we hear these phrases from women or Jews or gays or Democrats?

But it is specifically the fact that we allow these evil people to spew their ignorance and take steps towards achieving the backwards, anti-liberal, anti-tolerant societies that allows them to succeed! By TOLERATING these actions and giving these EXTREMELY INTOLERANT people carte blanche to operate we are fostering the greatest intolerance there can be.

It is the indifference of the decent majority that allows the passion of the indecent minority to catch fire and create the very destruction the majority claims to oppose.

Indifference creates passion. Tolerance breeds intolerance. Ice causes fire. All seemingly opposite - yet...indisputably connected and intertwined. And, perhaps ironically, they are consumed by that which they created.

Hitler would have been much easier to stop in 1933 than he was in 1939. Pol Pot would never have been able to massacre his own people if the world (or even just a few democratic nations) had united against him. The Rwandan genocide could have been extinguished had it not been tolerated by the outside world. Al Qaeda would never have been able to fly planes into the World Trade Center and kill thousands of innocent Americans had we not TOLERATED the Taliban overrunning Afghanistan and destroying thousands of years of culture in a hail of artillery fire. All in the name of insanity.

And furthermore if the citizenry of these countries themselves had risen up against these insane ideologies in their infancy - they could have been easily squashed. Instead they were tolerated and were allowed to grow until the decent people were overwhelmed by the lunatics. Once that happens the burden then falls to the free people of the world to unite and liberate them.

But tell a supposed liberal that you advocate taking action against this evil and you are immediately labeled intolerant, backwards, ignorant, war-monger, perhaps even racist.

Likewise if you speak out against an ideology that spews intolerance towards women, Jews, gays, democracy, Christians and literally every liberal ideal/achievement of the past half-century...you too will be labeled as intolerant. Somehow...we are somehow supposed to understand why Islamist ideology shows rampant discrimination and intolerance against several groups (which we often belong to) and dare not criticize it.

We are expected to protect their right to practice this rigid ideology...to tolerate their right to be intolerant, as they use our own rules against us to fill the internet, our streets and our college campuses with decidedly UNLIBERAL views, poisoning the minds of impressionable youths and leading to a scenario where they can eventually impose their beliefs on us whether we want them or not. Like the Nazis or the Khmer Rouge, the indifference of the decent majority is what allows the indecent minority to succeed.

Explain to me please, someone - how it can be that we TOLERATE movements like this one to operate on our soil:



NOTE: This article originally referenced a video clip from this group defending the actions of Major Nidal Malik Hasan as legitimate acts of war. That video has been apparently taken down in the past 24 hours.

Did you get all of that? Right now, there is a group operating in New York City that is literally denouncing the United States and its liberal ideals and verbally abusing and harassing Christians and moderate Muslim teenagers on the street. In another video the speaker implores a group of Muslims to "reject" the American military, wishes success insh'Allah on the Taliban and preaches an end to democracy.

And what's more they post videos of themselves on the internet and gloat about doing it! This is borderline treason and we are expected to TOLERATE it or be considered ignorant, uncultured or racist.

But if these people win - would they protect our rights to denounce them?

Would they allow us to voice our opinions and criticize their actions?

Or would they use your naive tolerance to smack you in the face (as the speaker encouraged the young boy to do to the Christian missionary in the video) the first chance they had the ability to overpower you? If only the people at the parade banded together to evict these extremists from their midst and get them off the street. But they didn't.

They tolerated them and allowed themselves to be abused. And so are the rest of us, every day...tolerating this abuse. It is this tolerance...this indifference of the decent many, towards the actions of an indecent few, that will allow them to rise up and destroy us.

If we don't take action now
We settle for nothing later
Settle for nothing now
And we'll settle for nothing later
--Rage Against the Machine, "Settle for Nothing"

We need to say no to these people. We need to draw the line of tolerance in the sand. Anyone is allowed to believe whatever they want - so long as they do not infringe on MY right to believe what I want. Or YOUR right to believe what you want. As soon as they cross that line...they give up their right to be tolerated.

Action always defeats inaction. Passion always defeats apathy. Fire always defeats ice...

If we don't get our act together soon we don't stand a chance.



Indifference towards Nidal Malik Hasan was the real culprit in the Ft. Hood shootings. Part II details how.

Throw the bums out

FACT:

If Corzine wins the NJ election today, no one in this state deserves the right to complain about ANYTHING for the rest of time.

What a corrupt, lying, disgraceful administration this guy has had. And apparently the DNC is robocalling people to stir up votes for the independent candidate Daggett - knowing it will take votes away from the Republican challenger Chris Christie.

In the words of Haynes from the Wire...

"That is some shameful $H!@$ right there."

If everyone is so mad about the status quo and they keep the status quo in power...they have NO RIGHT to complain.

Get 'em outta here!

UPDATE: Christie won! Beat it Corzine!!!!

What. The Hell. For.

Let's just get right into this because I'm sure you've heard enough about it already in the past 24 hours:

Barack Obama wins at life! Awarded Nobel Peace Prize in landslide victory!

Oslo, Norway -- "Obama! Obama! Obama!"

No, it's not a scene from the 2008 American presidential election. This is downtown Oslo and what you're hearing are the throngs of supporters for Barack Obama who gathered today to declare in one clear voice:

"You win at life, Mr. President!"



Since there is no official Nobel "Win at life" award, the committee settled instead for handing the American president the Nobel Peace Prize a mere 9 months months into his term. Despite Iran moving steadily closer to nuclear-ly destroying the only Jewish state in the entire universe and unemployment rates in the United States flying towards 10%, the Nobel selection committee felt that Obama was such an upgrade over "that jerk who came before him" that they decided for the first time to award the prize based on potential for change rather than actual accomplishments.

"You see, Mr. Obama has worked so hard to apologize for the vile crimes of that jerk who came before him that he's made us all feel so much better about ourselves," committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland said in a statement today.

"George Bush the warlord never apologized for creating Hurricane Katrina and infecting us with swine flu. President Obama has worked so hard to do the right thing for South Park and set the record straight by placing the blame where it belongs! On those sneaky Israeli Zionist settlers! I used to love that show [referring to South Park] and lately they've just been so full of themselves. Kind of like the Jews."

He later added: "And did you hear his delightful speech in Cairo? Mesmerizing. Add to the fact that he's the very first Black American President? He wins at life brother, no doubt yo!"

Obama joins other prominent terrorism/genocide enablers such as former president James Carter and such esteemed world leaders as Yasir Arafat in receiving the prestigious award which will be officially renamed as the "Nobel Obama Win At Life Award" beginning in 2010.

President Obama is the first sitting American president since Woodrow Wilson to receive the award. Mr. Wilson could not be reached for comment as he has been dead for several decades, but reports from his family are that noises that are consistent with the sound of a body turning over in its grave have been heard from his burial site.

Ok so that's not exactly what the article said...but it might as well have.

Let me get this straight...Obama, who in 9 months has not actually followed through on a single one of his major...



(and we do mean MAJOR)

...campaign promises gets an award for........what exactly?

Here's what the Nobel Prize committee actually said:

"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples"

The statement continues:

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play.

And further:

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future.

See? I wasn't really that far off...I was just more direct. I mean honestly, a peace prize for "capturing the world's attention" and "giving people hope" - is this for real? Put him up there with people who signed historic peace treaties and actually fought to stop the spread of totalitarianism. People like Martin Luther King Jr or the guy that established the Red Cross. Are they serious? We're getting rewards based on POTENTIAL for success now?

But none of this would spark the kind of outrage we're seeing if it was actually legitimate. That would just make it a farcical mockery and nothing more. Yes, giving a million dollar prize and prestige of a Nobel award to someone based on what they might, possibly, hopefully do in the future would be a complete joke - but it could be swallowed if not for the obvious political implications of the move. And worse, what those political implications are doing for the future of freedom, democracy and of Western Civilization in particular.

Because you see, a major component of the prize wasn't just based on the hope and change fantasy-land that has surrounded Obama since he was running for Senate. They think he's actually ACCOMPLISHING GOOD. Witnesseth the following:

The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

EXCUSE ME?

There is RIGHT NOW a BRUTAL, theocratic, military dictatorship in the Middle East that is furiously pursuing nuclear weapons while being run by genocidal maniacs with a massive suicidal death wish, that Obama has allowed to continue their action for over nine months - and you call that working for a world without nuclear weapons?

How DARE you.

How DARE these people set this precedent.

THIS is why the award is a problem. It would be bad enough if Obama had just "done nothing" to earn it...but because of some misguided obsession with attacking George W. Bush, the "Peace Prize" committee is actually PROMOTING being passive in the face of nuclear proliferation as if it was the same as working against it! How DARE they!

By setting this precedent, instead of encouraging the work of people who are ACTUALLY trying to stop nuclear proliferation and preventing what is apparently becoming an inevitable nuclear confrontation - they are encouraging ineffective methods and are ensuring that the proliferators succeed! Remember, under these circumstances intentions are irrelevant...only the results matter. If Iran actually achieves nuclear capabilities we will have Obama and his naive approach to the Middle East to thank for it. And his Nobel committee cheerleaders will share in the blame and responsibility for the fruits of their naive labor.

It's NOT about left and right, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican. This isn't an Olympic embarrassment being spun for partisan politics! Nor is its criticism reserved only for "right-wing extremists". This is the REAL DEAL. A Nobel prize is the peak of achievement in the democratic West. This is a nightmare - an absolute nightmare. It is the latest example of the very manifestation of an apparently self-immolating, suicidal West embracing its own demise.

How are we doing this to ourselves? How are we taking these people - who are putting forth the very policies that will lead to our children fighting our wars for us - and lifting them up as heroes? Obama and Mohammed El Baradei are working towards preventing nuclear devastation? By allowing Iran to continue its not-so-clandestine quest to vaporize my Israeli friends and relatives? This is insanity!

But so it goes. And so it goes. I can already see the headlines for the 2010 winner:

Ladies and gentlemen, for his tireless work in preventing genocide and apartheid in occupied Palestine by creating a deterrent to unchecked Israeli military aggression. For his numerous attempts to reach out to former American Warlord George W. Bush to have dialogue instead of violence. For his efforts to maintain a stable and safe environment for his citizens at home and promote the culture of peace and tolerance. For his ability to remain open-minded and question cultural norms even when taboo.

Ladies and gentlemen...you've heard his message of hope and peace at such prestigious institutions as Columbia University, the Durban Peace Conference and the United Nations.

Ladies and gentlemen...will you please welcome YOUR 2010 Nobel "Obama Win at Life" Award winner:



Mahmoud Ahmedinjad!



"Mahmoud! Mahmoud! Mahmoud! Mahmoud! Allah-u Akbar! Allah-u Akbar! Allah-u Akbar! Allah-u Akbar!"
And why not? We are clearly on an already slippery slope and we keep dropping more and more ice cubes on ourselves.

Don't think it can't happen.



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