The Case for an Unimportant Araby

Mark's Mailbox
January 21, 2020

https://www.steynonline.com/10003/the-case-for-an-unimportant-araby

As a follow-up to recent Clubland Q&As, Mark answers more questions from Mark Steyn Club members around the planet on sundry topics from the need to make the Middle East utterly inconsequential to Justin Trudeau's spectacular Beard of Gravitas via imperialist alternatives and cultural confidence. Click below to watch:

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61 Reader Comments

Perry Pattetic • Jan 22, 2020 at 22:58

What are the odds on Judge Roberts shouting "Order! Order!" during the show trial?
A real judge would have tgrown this disgraceful travesty out immediately.
#thumbsonthescales

Robert • Jan 22, 2020 at 22:31

I'd like to think I can take credit for Jolson's beard. I referred to him as Jolson here once, and Mark took it up (lest you think I'm getting above myself, Mark has about a hundred good ideas for every one of mine).

But for the past few years I've been telling people, in both English and French, that Jolson's only 24, and that he was a CÉGEP dropout.

The reaction has been "really???"

I reply "yeah".

Maybe this reached Jolson, and he grew some poils, and then dyed them with streaks, to counter the rumour ...

Meanwhile, Mark could do HP Lovecraft's The Thing on the Doorstep, as an allegory for Harry and "Asenath" Meghan .....

And notice that the CBC's réjigging the National. Perfect slot for Meghan.....

Tracy Mescha • Jan 22, 2020 at 21:50

An oft paraphrased Mark Steyn jewel is when you keep electing respectable politicians who continue to do nothing, eventually the people will elect unrespectable politicians. Hence Donald Trump, hence Brexit and Mr. Johnson, hence Marine LePen, et al.
Donald Trump is turning the global political scene on it's head. I mean how many times have you heard a politician say 'We've been working on this legislation for a year'? Who in the hell works on something for A YEAR with absolutely no results?? This is denizens of the sewer of Washington and they never went there to get anything accomplished despite all their rosy promises.
It's been that way for decades, and Mr. Trump got elected despite (or perhaps because of) his brash demeanor and ability to finally FINALLY get some things DONE!!!
This is why he is being impeached, plain and simple. Pelosi, Schiff, Schumer, and all the rest of them continue to beg 'you must elect me to work hard for working families to get health care and a living wage!' Well, Trump gave them that and more. You don't need these stupid blowhards, you go do for you and your family! Opportunity abounds! And *that* is the biggest threat to Democrat politicians EVER. A self sufficient populace.

George Pazin • Jan 22, 2020 at 20:08

I remember listening to Rush about ten years ago, while I was driving to meet with a client one afternoon. Some young ignorant lib called in and was whining about the US being 5% of the world's population, while it uses 20% of the world's energy. I remember thinking, but we pay for that, we don't just take it. And someday, some young genius (we'll call him John Galt

Walt Trimmer • Jan 22, 2020 at 19:45

I am pathetically trying to keep up with name dropping in the impeachment because Mark's experience in the Clinton impeachment is very impressive. Senator Corey Gardner (R-Colorado) is from my home town, population 2000. I don't know him because he was born 4 years after I left for college. His parents are a few years older than I am so I wasn't in their circle of friends. Senator Gardner and his family were Democrats. That should not be taken too badly as Colorado Democrats in those days were often more conservative than Republicans. Senator Corey graduated from my alma mater Colorado State University but then fell into bad company and went to law school. About that time Gardner became a Republican.

Senator Gardner shouldn't be considered a RINO but he is not a Trumper either. The reason for his current importance is that he is one of five Republican Senators up for reelection in Blue States. Colorado has been Californicated to the point that his reelection is an uphill battle. Mitch McConnell is going to do everything he can to keep those five Senators off the hook by having to make difficult votes on the impeachment. I don't think that playing a wallflower will win him any votes next November but that's the way it going to be played.

Perry Pattetic • Jan 22, 2020 at 12:53

Lead opinion in the once-great Daily Torygraph, by Philip Johnston:
"If it's a choice between Trump and Greta, I'm with the teenage zealot"
Idiocy.

George Pazin

Perry Pattetic • Jan 22, 2020 at 20:10

Indeed, just when you think the Looney Left can't sink any lower, they find a way: worshipping a foolish child.

ed • Jan 21, 2020 at 22:12

The most common way to lose hair is to make androgens. That seems unlikely for Trudeau but one never knows. As a bald man I would prefer he remain amongst the more hirsut portion of the species.

Perry Pattetic

ed • Jan 22, 2020 at 00:46

Mein Gott! That took me down a rabbit hole, ed. I ended up at the dreaded wikipedia:

"An androgen is any natural or synthetic steroid hormone that regulates the development and maintenance of male characteristics in vertebrates by binding to androgen receptors. This includes the embryological development of the primary male sex organs, and the development of male secondary sex characteristics at puberty."
"Use: Hypogonadism, transgender men, performance enhancement, bodybuilding, others "

-> from there I was, natch, drawn to hypogonadism, which I imagined was having balls so big you get accused of man-spreading as you walk. But no: it means firing blanks in a weak little dribble. So - perhaps Trudeau has been getting him some hormones. Which leads to the joke: what is the difference between a vitamin and a hormone? You can't hear a vitamin.

Walt Trimmer

Perry Pattetic • Jan 22, 2020 at 14:23

Come for the cat videos, stay for the education.

Owen Morgan • Jan 21, 2020 at 18:57

One thing that always strikes me about the Western European attitude to Iran, the Middle East in general and, for that matter, to Russia is the willingness to accept energy blackmail. Europe is still sitting on oceans of fossil fuels, but, in the name of pseudo-science, our leaders are determined that we must leave the stuff in the ground - and get it from the Russians and the Saudis and the Iranians, instead. Fracking has, more or less, been blocked outright in the UK, through a cocktail of hysterical nonsense about carbon dioxide and earth tremors, so, entirely unnecessarily, we continue to import fuel from the Gulf, when it's right beneath our feet.

(I don't think that Britain imports anything much from Russia, but Russia could hold Germany to ransom, any day of the week.)

Segnes Schonken

Owen Morgan • Jan 21, 2020 at 21:34

You pose an interesting question, O. I hope you'll not mind my pitching in. In part at least the answer seems to lie in history: inability to reach the Caucasian oil-fields because the flank at Stalingrad could not be sustained during the war caused Germany (and its galaxy of allies and occupied territories) to rely on the insufficient production of the Ploesti oil-fields, and those were easily laid waste when the Allies diversified from bombing cities. The results were catastrophic, and not only for the war effort. It seems that Europe just doesn't have much in the way of energy reserves. Hard to get high-octane fuel from coal, for instance. The result is a considerable but fairly obvious gulf between European economic policy and that of the United States. Had the United States not recently expanded its domestic energy resourcing, there would assuredly not have been such a wide gulf, and Opec would still be ruling the roost.

But that is the obvious part of the equation. Much more interesting is the question of whether Opec's prosperity would have amplified or diminished the exporting of the long-standing pan-Arab civil war (or Islamism, if you prefer that perspective) to Europe. I can't find any coherent and substantial answer to that. There is a body of thought which argues that the pan-Arab civil war goes where Arabs go, another which argues that it has been subsumed by Islamism, which goes wherever Arabs go, and another which holds that economic prosperity led by Opec's prosperity would have prevented the current Arab diaspora. I don't know. All of those positions are supported by elaborate statistics, but none seems to answer every case.

On the other hand, there is nothing terribly mysterious about the tendency of social upheaval to cross borders. It is unfortunate for Europe that it is a boat- or bicycle-ride away from this one. I submit that the strategic big picture must include the pre-emption of unification of the Arab world (let alone the Islamic one). Maybe that has quite a lot to do with the current European strategy. Personally, I do hope so. Just imagine the emergence of an Islamic super-state! That would have the Russians quaking in their valenkis, for starters. They'd lose much of their energy resources. Oh well, one blackmailer less, I guess.

Owen Morgan

Segnes Schonken • Jan 21, 2020 at 23:01

I don't think a unified Arab world is ever going to be possible. OK, I don't pretend to know anything about Arabic. I learnt the Arabic alphabet once and remembered it for about fifteen seconds. I do know, however, that there is a significant difference between Egyptian Arabic and Saudi, or between Moroccan and Omani. Even before you get to the vast political differences, there are linguistic and cultural ones to overcome. In all sorts of ways, the potential for unity just is not there.

The current wave of islamism actually depends on ignorance of Arabic. Your garden variety jihadi is not supposed to be fluent in Arabic. He is meant to be told what is in the koran - not to be able to read it for himself.

Nigel Sherratt

Segnes Schonken • Jan 22, 2020 at 03:09

Oil was an important issue in WW1 too as 'Greenmantle' and Baku showed us although probably more about filling the bunkers of battleships then rather than T34s and Chevrolet trucks.

Owen Morgan

Nigel Sherratt • Jan 22, 2020 at 03:24

Well, WWI battleships used coal, not oil. The Royal Navy's Queen Elizabeth-Class ships were converted to oil between the wars.

Nigel Sherratt

Owen Morgan • Jan 22, 2020 at 03:43

Not entirely (DuckDuckGo is one's friend) from Great War Forum:

'As far as capital ships are concerned, the "Queen Elizabeth" Class (completed 1915/16) were the first all-oil fired battleships built for the RN. They were followed by the "R" Class (completed 1916/17) which were originally designed to burn coal but were completed as oil burners. The battlecruiser TIGER (completed 1914) carried equal amounts of coal and oil fuel.

The first destroyers to burn oil were completed in 1907/9 and, with the exception of the following "Beagle" Class, all subsequent destroyers were oil-fired.

The "Arethusa" Class of cruisers, completed in 1914, was the first cruiser class designed to burn oil fuel. The only cruisers subsequently built to use coal were three ships of the "Cavendish" Class of 1918/21 which reverted to mixed firing with substantial coal bunkers. The surviving cruiser of these was converted to all oil in 1929.'

Owen Morgan

Nigel Sherratt • Jan 22, 2020 at 05:38

OK. I have to agree that I was wrong there. Thanks for correcting me.

Segnes Schonken

Owen Morgan • Jan 22, 2020 at 13:00

Thanks, O. I hope you're right, of course: I support the case for an unimportant Araby, beginning with a disunited one..

Nigel Sherratt

Owen Morgan • Jan 22, 2020 at 16:24

I learned a lot myself, one of the many advantages of TMSC membership. My grandfather fought in Mesopotamia and at Baku so I'm interested. Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty was involved in the early adoption of oil. RN also built the world's first multi-storey framed building (not relying on bracing or walls for stability but instead the moment-resisting connections between beams and columns) in 1860 at Sheerness (The Boat Store). Sadly neglected like most of the dockyard since RN left and it became a commercial port.

Walt Trimmer

Nigel Sherratt • Jan 22, 2020 at 18:25

Pros for Oil fired ships:
No stokers
Less smoke
Coal dust is explosive -- probably sank the Lusitania and the USS Maine in Havana Harbor.

Walt Trimmer

Owen Morgan • Jan 22, 2020 at 18:28

Be on the lookout for a new Ottoman Empire. Turkey is on the move.

As any good 19th Century Imperialist would say, "They are most unpleasant fellows."

Walt Trimmer

Nigel Sherratt • Jan 22, 2020 at 19:59

How could I forget? Another advantage of oil over coal is a smaller carbon footprint!

Segnes Schonken • Jan 21, 2020 at 17:06

Enjoyed this show even more vastly than usual. Thank you.

The opening analysis, in response to Natalie Olson's question, struck me as something of a highlight.

I also appreciated the warning that "the American way of war does not work". When I am subjected to diatribes from sabre-rattling jingoists who hold that the United States will inevitably sweep all wartime opponents before it in triumphant procession, I bite my tongue and reflect on the unlearnt lessons in Ozymandias. The fact is that, post-1960, the United States has not been a crashing success as an occupying power, and it matters not a whit whether that is owed in part to domestic dissidence. Warfare as a game of "capture the flag", or "checkmate the king", or "let's bump off more foreigners than they can bump off our people" is the figment of some naive imagination: Military success seldom goes like that. As a justification for Mr Obama's foreign policy strategy of "droning" selected opponents, acceptance of the limitations of the war machine is controversial, but I too can go with that until a surer way of really winning is evolved. At least Mr Trump has not adopted the comprehensive two-handed Obama doctrine: drone with one hand and surrender with the other.

Which brings me to the boss-man's excellent analysis of U.S. policy with regard to China. Mr Trump has indeed been the first American president to hint at the slightest inkling that China's advent as an economic match represents a very substantial threat to a whole way of life with which I, for one, have grown comfortable. Personally, I am cheered by evidence of his willingness to treat China as an adversary and alarmed by any sign that he may strike deals which amount to the same kind of surrender that Mr Obama contrived in relation to Iran. We'll see how that goes: in the meantime, we're all richer for the discussion.

Congratulations also to the authors of the questions which provoked such stimulating discussion.

Perry Pattetic • Jan 21, 2020 at 13:42

Hi Mark. Just finished listening - very good. Slaphead Pajama Boy will be able to share tonsorial tips with rapidly-thinning Harold Sussex.
BTW, back to the Iranadians - Iran recognizes no dual citizenship, and takes particular pleasure in taking them hostage. For my money, any dual-citizen heading back and getting killed or taken hostage has forfeit their adopted citizenship out of stupidity. Ditto those refugees who head "home" for the winter.

Walt Trimmer • Jan 21, 2020 at 13:41

I like to think of myself as a Turn or the 20th Century Man, say, born in 1882 like my grandfather. Hence my love of movies such as The Wind & The Lion, 55 Days in Peking, and The Professionals (1966.) Think of living in the time of the Wright Brothers and Henry Ford! Don't think so much about healthcare with prescription heroin and no antibiotics.

But I digress. A lot of the Gulf oil now goes to Asia. The geopolitics of the region have changed since the Cold War. Think of how easy it is to block the Straight of Hormuz instead of keeping it open.

Perry Pattetic

Walt Trimmer • Jan 21, 2020 at 14:11

Good point Walt. Maybe just fill in the Suez Canal. But the other problem is that the Middle East now includes Londonistan in its radius.
Mass repatriation - with much woe and disruption - is going to be required.
Or perhaps Europeans do a swap - trade Europe for Africa and pull up the drawbridge. Lock, Stock and Barrel.

RAC

Walt Trimmer • Jan 21, 2020 at 16:14

Well that would be fine by me Walt - it's high time Europe and Asia take over protecting their middle east oil supplies. We don't need the oil unless our electorate turns the country over to AOC and her ilk which could happen of course. Trump needs to follow up on his promise to get us the hell out of there. I do understand the forces arrayed against this move. The MIC is more powerful then ever - congress is pretty much bought and payed for. Eleven years under two presidents with the same goal to disengage. Speaks to the corruption of both parties.

Fran Lavery

RAC • Jan 22, 2020 at 10:28

What is MIC, RAC?

Walt Trimmer

Fran Lavery • Jan 22, 2020 at 18:21

Acronym for Military Industrial Complex as warned about by President Eisenhower.

Fran Lavery

Walt Trimmer • Jan 22, 2020 at 18:27

Thanks, Walt. I didn't recognize it and my know-it-all husband didn't either. Now I can feel dumb for the two of us!

Perry Pattetic • Jan 21, 2020 at 13:11

The cash could not be wired without it being approved by Congress, as it was clearly illegal payment for an unconstitutional treaty. Plus Kerry's Son in Law's best man got a slice, and no doubt the various DNC "folks" also took a slice.
BTW, on this same topic, are the book deals that Obama and Hillary cut really money laundering?

Walt Trimmer

Perry Pattetic • Jan 21, 2020 at 14:01

Don't forget the five hostages that were being released by Iran and who were loaded on the outgoing airplane in plain sight of the palettes of cash being offloaded from the jet. Obama said critics such as you, Perry, were just manufacturing outrage.

Hey! The manifest says there are supposed to be ten palettes.

Perry Pattetic

Walt Trimmer • Jan 21, 2020 at 16:58

Walt - the CIA get everywhere! Obama knows that I have a little side operation where I boil up some outrageous concoctions and bottle them in my kitchen. Odd how Valerie and Kerry and Obama could not quite get the exFBI man released. Perhaps he knows too much.

Tom Gelsinon • Jan 21, 2020 at 12:29

The Beard of Gravitas somehow reminds me of The Healing Glove from the Richard Pryor vehicle "Which Way Is Up?".

Raymond Swenson

Tom Gelsinon • Jan 22, 2020 at 01:46

I love the "Beard of Gravitas" label. It might as well be a fake beard as he alters his appearance. Perhaps the beard will be seen to grow to Ayatollah proportions, since UnTrudeau likes to cosplay various persona, and it will then weigh 20 kilos of gravitas and give him a stooped posture to give the appearance of age and sagacity without the substance.

Tom Gelsinon

Raymond Swenson • Jan 22, 2020 at 10:59

Regarding his various persona — someone online a while back, after his dress-up tour of India, likened him to a one-man version of the Village People. A most entertaining fellow!

James Morphew • Jan 21, 2020 at 11:37

Image is always important. Prime Minister Trudeau is seeking a bit more respect, and a distinguished look is a good place to start, possibly one of his few options. Mark may or may not have been aware of a US product intended for just that: "Great Gray" (Grey?), introduced some 30 years ago, for exactly that effect. And if we are disparaging a major politician for intentional improvements in follicle appearance, I noticed that Mark's hair & beard were VERY UNIFORM in a non-gray hue in this video, and we suspect that Mark is somewhere over 30 (English units, not Metric). In days of old, before Political Correctness & Safe Spaces were fashionable, if a fellow came into the office with sudden color consistency in his coif, or some decrease in exposed shiny skin, we would stare at the new upper appearance with wonder, then sensitively ask "Mark, have you lost weight?" The only reasonable response was, of course, "It's the vertical stripes."

Walt Trimmer

James Morphew • Jan 21, 2020 at 13:31

Did Mark's forehead look smoother to you?

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 21, 2020 at 11:00

The beard bit! Dying!

Indeed, one day all will be revealed. The Beard of Gravitas has already been pretty effective, but enough about Sophie.

With all the soooooper dooooooooper smarter than all of us people around the PM you'd think at least one of them might have the sense to say "umm, sir, I think we need to match the rug to the scruff". Mind you, the bald Mammy singer can't even match his socks appropriately to an event (was it Ramadan socks at gay pride or gay socks at Ramadan, I can't remember now), so maybe my expectations remain too high.

Calvert Whitehurst

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 21, 2020 at 13:52

I realize we're all just having fun at Trudeau le petit's - or should that be de la visage noire? - expense. But as a general rule, men inherit their hair from their moms' side of the family. I did, for example, and boy was I lucky. One would need to unearth photos of Margaret Trudeau's dad or any uncles or brothers she might have had to determine if Justin is sporting his own hair or somebody else's. I wouldn't be surprised if he is graying the beard, 'tho.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Calvert Whitehurst • Jan 21, 2020 at 16:19

Margaret had and has a great head of hair. Check out her pics with Mick Jagger. Her late father James Sinclair, a one-time MP for the Liberals, didn't have great hair...

Fran Lavery

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 22, 2020 at 08:41

"Reverse for Men" has some interesting implications, too. Makes me wonder what kind of trajectory Trudeau is really on. I'm unable to get the photos of him playing in the sand at the beach out of my mind.

Nicholas Strathy

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 23, 2020 at 12:08

In passing, why is it that the most virulent anti-Semites are Semites themselves? Persians don't have an anti-Semitic history: Cyrus the great and all. Persian antisemitism was imported by Arab invaders. I'm so fed up with the bitter, rebellious Ishmaelite spirit and would much rather discuss something more important:

Although PM Justin Trudeau appears to have inherited his father's love of dressing up, and has been known to fake his eyebrows, he may be head faking us on the baldness just to string us along. Due to the complex genetics of baldness, the father's baldness does not guarantee that the son will be bald. There I go adding fuel to the raging conflagration of speculation.

Josh Passell • Jan 21, 2020 at 05:56

Further to Ben Poser's point that radicalized Muslims "hate us cuz they ain't us" (a sports cliche), we Club members know that all too well. For it was in the plush armchairs herein that we learned that the seed of the Muslim Brotherhood, the mother of all blood(y) brotherhoods, was planted in the twisted mind of Sayyid Qutb at a church social in Greeley, Colorado, in 1949. The excitable Egyptian wrote: "The room convulsed with the feverish music from the gramophone. Dancing naked legs filled the hall, arms draped around the waists, chests met chests, lips met lips . . ." Irving Berlin described such a scene as heaven (in "Cheek to Cheek"), but if Qutb didn't like the cut of its jib, that's on him. The song he objected to? "Baby, It's Cold Outside". To which an equally excitable Steyn riposted: "I'm a reasonable fellow, and I'd be willing to meet the Muslim Brotherhood chaps halfway on a lot of the peripheral stuff like beheadings, stonings, clitoridectomies and whatnot. But you'll have to pry 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' from my cold dead hands and my dancing naked legs. A world without 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' would be very cold indeed." As Mark has noted more recently, the prying is proceeding and accelerating--and not by the MoBros. East meets Woke at the estate of Frank Loesser, who, if he were immortalized in sculpted form, his statue would have suffered the same upended fate as Stalin's and Saddam's. The song has been all but canceled, and worse, bowdlerized.
Radicalized Islam's assault on us on September 11, 2001 struck many out of the blue. Who's Osama? What's Al Qaeda? Most naive of all, many asked "Why do they hate us?" Some questions contain their own answers: they hate. They hate us for our naked legs in Greeley, CO, and for our booted feet in Araby. They hate us for killing Muslims, and for preventing the killing of Muslims. They hate us for Loesser and Berlin (two Jews, they would kvetch). They hate us for what we are (democratic, pluralistic, pornographic), and for what we are not (Mesozoic). We'll never win their hearts and minds. If we have to scatter said organs across the desert sands courtesy of a Hellfire missile (how apt the name) from time to time, that's on them. When they're done hating, they can give us a call. Till then, talk to the drone. The US may be a lousy friend, but it's a worse enemy (close though the call may be).

Fran Lavery

Josh Passell • Jan 21, 2020 at 16:09

"Talk to the drone" Oh that's really good.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Josh Passell • Jan 21, 2020 at 16:20

The correct response to "why do they hate us" is "who cares".

Raymond Swenson

Josh Passell • Jan 22, 2020 at 01:39

With the decolonializatoon of the British and European dominions in Africa, Mediterranean Africa, the former Ottoman domain, the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia and the American Philippines, vast regions dominated by Muslims were set free to be nations. Those nations had an inferiority complex because the Europeans and their American cousins were so much more prosperous and powerful than the Muslim states. One response by the more rational Muslims has been to seek Western education and Western business success. But there are other Muslims who want to revive the Muslim supremacy of the pre-Renaissance world by "retrenchment" returning to the religious and social discipline that led them to conquer Iberia, Greece and the Balkans. Those seeking a Revival of Classic Islam see America and Europe as dangerously seductive and threatening to the moral integrity of Muslims. They see us as a corrupting influence that undermines their hold on Muslim behavior. The more friendly and inviting we are, the Retro-Muslims see America and Europe as even more threatening. The multi-culturalist leftists think they can make Muslims more accepting of America by embracing them, even while the leftists insist on promoting sexual behavior that offends Muslims and reinforces their view of us as a poisonous aocial influence. The Multi-Culti Left has rejected religion as an influence on their lives, and thus have mo understanding of how any sincere Muslim of any affiliation is affected by his religious faith or culture. The Left is unable to say to Muslims that the shared heritage of Judaism, Christianity and Islam is violated by the Jihadists.

Nigel Sherratt

Fran Lavery • Jan 22, 2020 at 03:02

Well-targeted drones seem a good plan. The 'Ninja' Hellfire is particularly appropriate. No explosive warhead just six blades and pinpoint accuracy meaning no damage beyond the vehicle. Appropriately medieval with a reminder to the new capo that the US knows who he is and in which SUV seat he'll be sitting.

Josh Passell

Raymond Swenson • Jan 22, 2020 at 06:26

Very thoughtful, Raymond, and spot on. Like many Americans, I came from a place of complete ignorance about Islam. What I have learned has been taught to me almost by the teachings and practices of Muslims themselves. My wife and I went to India in 1992. It could not escape our notice that many (if not all) of the Mughal temples we saw were built on the razed foundations of earlier Hindu temples. That fits a pattern of pre-urban renewal across the Caliphate (not least the Temple Mount in Jerusalem). At the same time, our guide, a Muslim observing Ramadan at the time, was a proud Indian. He overruled our preset agenda to take us to a Jain temple (Ranakpur) far from our appointed rounds. It was--apart from our intestinal distress and the unrivaled Chinese food of our Mumbai hotel--the most memorable stop on our tour. A few years later, we were in Turkey, and again our guide put pride of country before precepts of faith. (I've since come to wonder how he's fared since Erdogan the Goon came to power.) It really feels like the entire globe is on the periphery of an ongoing (eternal?) Islamic civil war. Not just between Sunni and Shia, but between the benighted and the enlightened. Who's who is up for debate.

Fran Lavery

Nigel Sherratt • Jan 22, 2020 at 10:04

Nothing quite like a personalized delivery system and better yet, Made in America.

Brian from Minneapolis • Jan 21, 2020 at 05:55

Regarding your comment on America's way of fighting Islamic terror isn't working. America and the western world got used to the idea of the enemy being obvious like Nazi's wearing their military garb supporting Hilter. But I think that warfare took a turn in Vietnam when you got not only uniform wearing combatants but those who looked like civilians who supported the Vietcong regime. The war on terror can't be fought with Americans sticking out like a sore thumb in a nation that isn't theirs. It can only be won when we fight them on their terms using their people, making friend and foe indistinguishable to the naked eye like we do now in our current fight against terror.

Carl

Brian from Minneapolis • Jan 21, 2020 at 10:06

"fight them on their terms using their people" Brian, I think one of the challenges is significant numbers of "their people" support the goals if not the tactics of what the West would call terrorists. Short of a Reformation type event, I don't see that changing, and not sure that can happen until the oil is either gone or worthless

Brian from Minneapolis

Carl • Jan 21, 2020 at 11:14

I'm sure the liberals and globalists will find a way to keep the Middle East important at our expense when the oil is gone but by that time the majority of their people will be in the West rather than in their native lands.

Fran Lavery

Brian from Minneapolis • Jan 21, 2020 at 16:18

Yes, and they'll have come for the jobs Americans don't want, as Mark likes to say, like self-detonating themselves in the public places when someone in political office doesn't do their bidding or simply if they wake up one day and want to wander into our gun-free zones they'll just be able to take out more of us infidels at work, worship or play.

Brian from Minneapolis

Fran Lavery • Jan 22, 2020 at 02:49

Just what is freedom mean anymore? You'd think that it'd be a universal concept but each has it's own view of what freedom is. Not everyone views freedom in the same way as conservatives. Some view freedom as the state taking care of them and controlling every action they take as if they're children. Some view it as described in their religion and are ordained it by their god and the non believers have the choice of appeasing them or be destroyed. We need to stop believing that the west's view of freedom is universal around the globe. Freedom is a blessing until someone you don't like has it as well.

Fran Lavery

Brian from Minneapolis • Jan 22, 2020 at 08:54

Good question, Brian. For starters, I'm going with the freedom to protect my physical self, family and my property with a firearm. As for freedom of religion, I'm presently open to listening to anyone of any religion, except Islam, who can show me what a sense of community really means and one filled with grace, virtue, strength and charity for ones less fortunate and, not least of all, unequivocal respect for life. As for freedom of speech, that is something that needs to be kept safe from the tyrannical whose wet dreams are to have total power and control over the common man.

Brian from Minneapolis

Fran Lavery • Jan 23, 2020 at 06:00

When it comes to freedom as a whole, I view it as the same as in the wild. Survival of the fittest and it's unfair but in the end it balances itself out by weeding out the week and punishing the greedy like grasshoppers who ate themselves to extinction.

In terms of human freedoms: I believe in protecting my self with a firearm if the government won't provide me the 24 hour protection they would give an elected official. Freedom of religion as long as they don't enforce the idea that respecting one's religious beliefs means allowing them to judge and kill people with no regard for the common law of the land. That one we see in Europe, allowing Muslims to kill anyone and their leaders say "That's how they handle things in their faith."

When it comes to abortions: I don't want people to think they can just dispose of life whenever it's viewed and an inconvenience to them but at the same time I don't want to see orphanages filled up with children waiting to be picked up like they're a dog waiting for an owner at a pet store. Abortions should be rare. I personally would have everyone born be fixed and if they want children, go to a lab and be inseminated that way and be on record as willing to go through the pregnancy and to give birth.

Brian from Minneapolis

Fran Lavery • Jan 23, 2020 at 06:07

Oh I forgot. When it comes to freedom of speech, as long as it's not asking or implying someone to do something bad to someone else or that you're going to do something illegal to someone but who determines what is a threat to society with such things is a touchy subject. A double edged sword if you will that can't be avoided.

Fran Lavery

Brian from Minneapolis • Jan 23, 2020 at 10:27

Thanks for the feedback, Brian. I meant to add that exception to the religion which gives the permission to kill another with no regard for law of the land. This is the problem with Islam. Their law, Sharia, is built into their religion and their law can't coexist with the civilized world's modern laws which aren't so perfect themselves in a lot of cases but we have the possibility to change them if we put the effort into it. Islam doesn't have that mechanism, I suspect. So that brings us back to how do we solve a problem like Sharia. It means that when radicalized Islamic terrorists live among us and they kill our citizens indiscriminately and groom our youth habitually with impunity for decades and they procreate at rates greater than us then we have to ask ourselves, who are the fittest? Who will be the survivors? This is reason enough why the West better start rethinking what is it doing aborting so many precious lives and why we seem to not want to address the pernicious methods of Islam.

Brian from Minneapolis

Fran Lavery • Jan 24, 2020 at 05:23

Modern day religions adapt to the times or try to but no Islam. They may give their women certain liberties that we have but you won't ever see the next ruler of Saudi Arabia being a woman or a transgender. Their religion best served them in a more primitive age but now is held on to as a means of power and control.

My guess the biggest fear Islam has is their own extinction. Much like how no one worships the mythical Roman, Greek, or Egyptian gods like they used to anymore, religions live and die when its people stop believing in them. The west fears of wiping out Islam the same way the Mayans, Incan, and Aztecs were wiped out by introducing Christianity to their peoples. No one in our current age would ever dream of being held responsible for erasing Islam from the face of the Earth but the followers of Islam wouldn't have any problem erasing every other religion. I'd much rather have people that are taught to hate me do their best to avoid me and let it be known they don't like me rather than having that hate boil over till it's their time to kill in the name of their god.

Fran Lavery

Brian from Minneapolis • Jan 24, 2020 at 09:06

The hate-boil-over thing, isn't that what we're witnessing today, though? If they would avoid us and we take seriously Mark's suggestion by making them irrelevant that would be a good start. If only it were possible.