Fourteen years ago, I wrote a column for The Wall Street Journal on "The Bike-Path Left":
There was a revealing moment on MSNBC the other night. Chris Matthews asked [Howard] Dean whether Osama bin Laden should be tried in an American court or at The Hague. "I don't think it makes a lot of difference," said the governor airily. Mr. Matthews pressed once more. "It doesn't make a lot of difference to me," he said again... So how about Saddam? The Hague "suits me fine," he said, the very model of ennui. Saddam? Osama? Whatever, dude.
So what does get the Dean juices going? A few days later, the governor was on CNN and Judy Woodruff asked him about his admission that he'd left the Episcopal Church and become a Congregationalist because "I had a big fight with a local Episcopal church over the bike path." I hasten to add that, in contrast to current Anglican controversies over gay marriage in British Columbia and gay bishops in New Hampshire, this does not appear to have been a gay bike path: its orientation was not an issue; it would seem to be a rare example of a non-gay controversy in the Anglican Communion. But nevertheless it provoked Howard into "a big fight." "I was fighting to have public access to the waterfront, and we were fighting very hard in the citizens group," he told Judy Woodruff. Fighting, fighting, fighting.
And that's our pugnacious little Democrat. On Osama bin Laden, he's Mister Insouciant. But he gets mad about bike paths. Destroy the World Trade Center and he's languid and laconic and blasé. Obstruct plans to convert the ravaged site into a memorial bike path and he'll hunt you down wherever you are.
The Hudson River Greenway is not, formally, a 9/11 "memorial bike path". But it does run within 300 feet or so of the World Trade Center as it begins its progress up the West Side Highway toward the Bronx. So close enough. Yet on the central point I was wrong. The "bike-path left" will surrender the bike path as they surrender everything else.
As I write, eight are dead - all men, five Argentines, one Belgian, all in the path of an Uzbek Muslim who decided to take a Home Depot pick-up truck down the bike path for 20 blocks mowing down bicycle after bicycle after bicycle before exiting the vehicle and yelling - go on, take a wild guess - "Allahu Akbar!" Well, I never! You could knock me over with a feather duster - which the Mohammedans will no doubt find a way of weaponizing any day now.
So two hours after the attack, Governor Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio and other New York bigwigs assembled for the usual press conference to give the usual passive shrug - this is the way we live now, nothing to be done about it, etc, etc. Every so often in New York, as in London as in Stockholm as in Berlin as in Nice as in Brussels as in Paris as in Manchester as in Orlando, your loved one will leave the home and never return because he went to a pop concert or a gay club or a restaurant or an airport, or just strolled the sidewalk or bicycled the bike path. "Allahu Akbar"? That's Arabic for "Nothing can be done". So Andrew Cuomo ended with some generic boilerplate about how they'll never change us:
We go forward together. And we go forward stronger than ever. We're not going to let them win...We'll go about our business. Be New Yorkers. Live your life. Don't let them change us.
But they are changing us. I've written before about what I've called the Bollardization of the Western World: the open, public areas of free cities are being fenced in by bollards, as, for example, German downtowns were after the Berlin Christmas attack, and London Bridge and Westminster Bridge were after two recent outbreaks of vehicular jihad. This is a huge windfall for bollard manufacturers - Big Bollard - and doubtless it's a huge boost for the economy, if your town's nimble enough to approve the new bollard plant on the edge of town, or if your broker is savvy enough to divest your tech stocks and go big on the bollard sector. As I write, Geraldo is on Fox demanding to know why this bike path wasn't blocked off with concrete barriers.
Why? Why does every public place have to get uglified up just because Geraldo doesn't want to address the insanity of western immigration policies that day by day advance the interests of an ideology explicitly hostile to our civilization? Instead Geraldo wants to tighten up vehicle rental. Why? Why should you have to lose an extra 15 minutes at an already sclerotic check-in counter because Hertz and Avis and UHaul have to run your name through the No-Rent list? Why should open, free societies become closed, monitored, ugly, cramped and cowering?
And Bollardization doesn't even solve the problem, does it? Last week I was tootling through Williston, Vermont, which has just reconfigured its highway system to run green-painted bike paths down the center of the streets. And the thought occurred to me that, once you've bollarded off every sidewalk, what's to stop jihadists mowing down cyclists? After all, if the eco-crowd are installing them in the middle of the roadway, they're kind of hard to bollard off. And then a second thought occurred: As inviting a target as bike paths are in enviro-poseur communities, they're even more inviting in genuine bicycling cultures such as the Netherlands or Scandinavia.
And now eight people are dead and dozens more injured - at the hands of a guy who came here in 2010 because he won a Green Card in the so-called "diversity lottery". Why was that stupid program not suspended on September 12th 2001?
Because even 3,000 dead cannot be allowed to question the virtues of "diversity". The other day, the Australian government lost its working majority because, thanks to the usual boneheaded jurists, an Aussie-born citizen who chances also to share, say, New Zealand citizenship is deemed to be ineligible to sit in Parliament. [UPDATE: See my note to our Oz commenter below.] Er, okay, whatever. But at the same time we're assured that an Uzbek or a Somali or a Yemeni becomes a fully functioning citizen of a free, pluralist society simply by setting foot on western soil. That's not so. And the price of maintaining the delusion is blood on the pavement.
And so, on a buckled, broken bicycle on the Hudson River Greenway, the wheel comes full circle. America and every other major western nation thought the appropriate response to 9/11 was to show how nice we are by dramatically increasing the rate of mass Muslim immigration. Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov was among the many beneficiaries of the west's suicide by virtue-signaling. "Sayfullo" is a Central Asian rendering of "Saifallah" - or "Sword of Allah". Hmm, what a fascinating name! Do you think whichever brain-dead bureaucrat who gave Sword of Allah's online Green Card application the once-over (assuming anyone did) so much as gave the name a second glance? And so, because we did not take an act of war seriously in 2001, we are relentlessly harassed and diminished by unending micro-jihad - in Copenhagen, in Toulouse, in San Bernadino, in Calgary, Barcelona, Parsons Green ...and now on a bike path 300 feet from where we came in sixteen years ago. Three months ago, on the anniversary of 9/11, I wrote:
In any war, you have to be able to prioritize: You can't win everything, so where would you rather win? Raqqa or Rotterdam? Kandahar or Cannes? Yet, whenever some guy goes Allahu Akbar on the streets of a western city, the telly pundits generally fall into one of two groups: The left say it's no big deal, and the right say this is why we need more boots on the ground in Syria or Afghanistan. Yesterday President Trump said he was committed to ensuring that terrorists "never again have a safe haven to launch attacks against our country".
By that he means "safe havens" in Afghanistan. But the reason the west's enemies are able to pile up a continuous corpse count in Paris, Nice, Berlin, Brussels, London, Manchester, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Orlando, San Bernadino, Ottawa, Sydney, Barcelona, [Your Town Here] is because they have "safe havens" in France, Germany, Britain, Scandinavia, North America, etc. Which "safe havens" are likely to prove more consequential for the developed world in the years ahead..? In Afghanistan, we're fighting for something not worth winning, and we're losing. In Europe, Islam is fighting for something very much worth winning, and they're advancing. And, according to all the official strategists in Washington and elsewhere, these two things are nothing to do with each other.
So now eight grieving families and dozens more who'll be living with horrific injuries for the rest of their lives are told by Cuomo and De Blasio and the rest of the gutless political class behind their security details that there's nothing to do except to get used to it.
I don't want to get used to it - and I reiterate my minimum demand of western politicians that I last made after the London Bridge attacks: How many more corpses need to pile up on our streets before you guys decide to stop importing more of it?
If your congressman or senator says that's not on his agenda, what he means is he's willing to sacrifice you and your loved ones in the suicide lottery of diversity.
~Mark will be talking about the latest developments in the Lower Manhattan terrorism attack with Tucker Carlson tomorrow, Wednesday, on Fox News, live at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. If you're a Mark Steyn Club member, feel free to weigh in in our comments section. We appreciate the Club is not to everyone's taste, but, if you're minded to give it a go, either for a full year or a three-month experimental period, we'd love to have you. You'll find more details here - and, if you've a loved one who'd like something a little different for a birthday or anniversary, don't forget our new gift membership.
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Life is often about making difficult choices. If its a choice between stopping my children from being executed by some Jihadist filth, and preening myself on how pure my principles are - I'm happy to take the former, and let the Cuomos and De Blasios and sneer down at me from their 'moral high ground'.
The Uzbek terrorist Saipov, did this attack without the slightest worry about what would happen to his wife and children. Imagine what would happen to them if this kind of terror was instigated by a Kuffar in Pakistan or Iran or Saudi Arabia! Collective guilt and collective punishment would be the order of the day. They wouldn't just punish his family, they'd also tear down his church (except in Saudi Arabia, where they've already done that to them all, LOL).
Now he wants to hang an ISIS flag in his luxurious hospital room. Instead, I want to him to be terrified of the consequences of making such a request. I don't care any more if you think I'm being 'unreasonable' and 'unfair'.
Of course, we're way ahead of you in the UK. Our prisons are run by the Muslims, so he could be comfortable in his fundamentalism, and practise Dawah there. Meanwhile, we would increase the payments to his wife and supply her with free accommodation, so that her children can grow up to hate us even more, not just with Islamic hate, but also because of being deprived of their father.
The West needs to stop flattering itself on its moral superiority, and start actually protecting its citizens more. I don't care if there's some collateral damage to our oh-so-lofty principles, along the way.
I'm a fifty-seven year old American, and I don't think I've ever been faced with a truly difficult choice. Perhaps life in toto is about them, but life in America certainly doesn't seem to be.
Perhaps you've lead a charmed existence, Carl :-)
But apart from those difficult personal decisions, there are whole classes of other problems which present difficult choices. Whether to buy Betamax or VHS. Whether to use USB or Firewire devices. Whether to make a tweet limit 140 characters or 280. Whether to build a building to last 50 years or 150 years. Whether to make the lift 1.9m high or 2.3m high. Whether to make foundations for a 10 storey building, or a 14 storey building. These kind of decisions come back to bite you in the bum, for years after. But then there are other, even more problematical decisions.
We implement a governmental system by creating an ideological framework, for example, a constitution. Then at the very beginning, we put the base principles (kind of axioms) that the whole framework is going to be built on, just like laying the foundations for a building. When we've finished constructing a building, we can't just stick another 4 storeys on top, and its too late to make the foundations deeper. In the same way, when we have our beautiful ideological framework (constitution), its a massive problem to go back and tinker with the foundations we laid right back at the beginning, (about 200 years ago).
Just a couple of the foundation piles the founders drove deep into the ground, are Free Speech, and Individual Guilt (as opposed to Collective Guilt). Two hundred years ago, they looked just fine and dandy - in fact, we were proud of them. But now, they've come back to bite us in the bum.
It doesn't make sense to grant the Free Speech pillar to those who want to tear down the building, and in fact, actually want to pull up that Free Speech pillar and crush it so it can never be used again. Our ancestors hadn't quite thought this through, God bless 'em. (But as Mark pointed out, they had other things on their minds like no electricity, dysentery, polio, staph infections, etc).
The rejection of collective guilt seems very noble. After all, why should a wife and child suffer for the sins of the father, or why should his church suffer? But once again, our ancestors didn't have a crystal ball to perceive all possible ramifications. What if the father is intent on murdering as many people as possible, then kill himself, knowing that he'll go to paradise where 72 virgins await him? What purchase do you have on such a man?
The proper approach is to look for any measure which can be applied to reduce the frequency of these bloody attacks. What can make these acts less attractive (for they are attractive) to the terror thug?
Then the error is to use an ABSOLUTE moral construction which is debatable, instead of using a perfectly adequate RELATIVE moral construction which most people would agree with. (In the same way we can pontificate that cannibalism is absolutely wrong, until we find ourselves in a plane crash on the Andes in 1972).
Then the question is not "Is it immoral to make the wife and mosque suffer for the actions of the terrorist?". The question is: "Which is the LEAST immoral: to make the general population (who have no connection with Saipov at all) suffer from the actions of a man like him, or to make those strongly connected to him, who were able to monitor and influence him, suffer for his actions?"
At the moment we're obviously picking the more immoral option, the former one, whilst flattering ourselves somehow that we've picked the moral high ground.
Sweden may have the tools to rid themselves of this evil - by default. They don't have Bill of Rights, freedom of religion, speech or many of the protections our Constitution provides to our enemies.
So they can preen and signal their egalitarian nonsense even as they deport the demons - pay them to leave - or just round em up and send them to camps in Libya - absent an opposition press.
Sweden has had 7 bombings in 12 days. This news should have been above the fold in American news, to better inform us of what these growing minorities will do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GL2z_ykEtg
Haven't heard this, Carol. Must be a Swedish news blackout here. I remember that last major truck attack last February, I believe, it seemed that there was a major denial there was even a problem with Muslims attacking the Swedish population. How can one deny what's going on in front of you? I'll never get this.
Just viewed and posted your link on FB. Thanks, Carol.
Mark, you clearly have your finger on the pulse of political America. On Tuesday afternoon, 31 Oct, a brief bit on radio news told me that Montgomery County (Maryland) executive Ike Leggett was proposing to place defensive bollards along the bike paths in the county to prevent other bike-path attacks like NYC.
Isiah "Ike" Leggett was first elected to the County governing council in 1986, served until 2002. He chaired the state's Democratic Party until 2004, and was elected to the County executive in 2006, where he continues today. He is known as being a major driver in the county's public smoking ban and setting a minimum wage at USD 15 per hour. In 1992, he was accused by a former assistant of sexual harassment, but the charges were dismissed by a jury after the media coverage of the accuser's testimony was deemed to "have great elements of racism" -- quoted from the local NAACP president at the time. Anti-smoking, pro-wage escalation, and sexual harassment, and now wants to constrain free people who might use bike paths rather than truly address the problem - perfect resume for a Democrat.
Whatever happened to the two immigrants from Central America who allegedly raped the high school girl? I remember the story made it to The Tucker Carlson Show bit then I heard nothing more about it out here in Nuevo Messico.
I was going to paste in the hyperlink to the Washington Post article, but I see that would be a transgression of this site's rules. However, in short, prosecutors dropped the rape case because there was evidence that the 14-yr old girl had shared pictures of herself and salacious text messages from her not-too-smart phone with one of the accused the evening previous, and that school surveillance footage showed the two of them entering the school bathroom together with no apparent struggle taking place. The second accused male entering the bathroom to participate did not rise to the level of gang-rape, according to prosecutors. Attempts to make the case into one of "statutory" rape failed as Maryland law requires that a full 4 years of age difference exist, and neither of the male accused rapists was a full 4 years older than the putative victim. So, in the end, the State deemed this sex act between a 14 year old girl and her 17- and 18-year old "partners" as a consensual act. In it's article on the subject, the journalist wrote: "In an interview, Leggett called the circumstances 'a real tragedy and sad occasion'." Odd; if it was consensual as the State declared, why would that be sad and tragic? Isn't this the Brave New World where 17- and 18-year old undocumented immigrants are considered "children" and put into the *Ninth Grade* with 14-year old kids? LOL!
Thanks for the update, Bruce. I have no regrets about not moving our family to Montgomery County. The more tech savvy our youth get the more their lack of a moral compass is exposed. The politicians in Maryland are a disgrace for a gamut of reasons and I feel for the good parents there who are themselves disgusted.
When we left Maryland for New Mexico I would keep a sharp ear out for the news from Rockville and Gaithersburg where we used to shop and tag up with urban civilization. We lived in Frederick County (very rural back then) with our four children in the eighties minus one last year in Baltimore. I always had wished we left the boonies in Charles Co. the years prior to children popping out, for a more populated and culturally active area, but then we landed in more boonies, and just missed landing in Boonsboro, MD by twenty miles.
Happily we left just in the nick of time. With the recent truck massacre in Manhattan it was revealed that this Diversity Visa Program began just after the early nineties. I remember hearing news of these angry Muslim women storming into the faces of the school boards in Montgomery Co way back in the mid-nineties demanding changes to the lunch menus to suit the religious food requirements of their children. This started way before 9/11 that these immigrant ingrates were not to be deterred. We really had plenty of warnings I think back then what was coming. Today, what is interesting is people still pretend to be shocked. Government takes care of the newbies, not the tired and poor American tax-burdened citizens. We Americans must start pushing back and we must protect our own every step of the way. I should talk, I scrambled for the hills.
I remember when Mr. Steyn interviewed James Mitchell (truly a MUST see) and he recounted his conversations with KSM. KSM said that our political correctness, our strive for diversity, our meekness/weakness was a gift from Allah. We were our own worst enemies, not just letting the barbarians through the gate but giving them food stamps and free internet. Lest we be called Islamophobes or culturally insensitive...
I don't know if the West can butch up enough to recover from this, I'm officially a pessimist today...
We also have a Constitution ... as I said above, Sweden, France and Italy appear to be practicing extra constitutional remedies.... under the radar of course... all while they preen that they are superior to us in their egalitarian acceptance of diversity.
What a load of hog wash.... They are profiling, monitoring, exercising collective prosecution of Muslims, while extolling the virtues of leftist governance. With each event in Europe, Brussels nods with approval as governments and local police use ever more draconian methods to round up, deport and imprison the invading hordes from Africa and the ME.
Europe is employing tactics that would be condemned in America. It's social media there reporting the facts on the ground.
The interesting thing is, despite our beloved Constitution, I'd wager a month's salary you'd have more real freedom in France than in America.
"How many more corpses need to pile up on our streets before you guys decide to stop importing more of it?"
Isn't it long past time that we simply recognise that the moral imbecility of the West has become so pathological that they never will start importing it and Civil War is coming? Time to just savour the absurdity of such unparalleled stupidity. Didn't G K Chesterton once say that when people stop believing in God they'll believe in anything? Clinging to a death dealing diversity proves his point beyond measure.
While we savour the absurdity and prepare for what is next, be nice if Mr Steyn offered some Steyn Club branded MREs or canned food to help us get ready. Maybe Steyn's Own Double Chocolate High Protein Rich and Chewy Emergency Food Bars? Something to nosh on while in the bunker rereading After America while listening to the cat album
Carl, I'd be happier with a secret identifier so we'd recognize other Steynists. Maybe an S lapel pin. Or a Steyn University sticker for the car window.
I would go for any of these ideas. I've always liked secret codes, too. The Mark Steyn Show tote bag is also
very practical but soon it will not hold all of my Steyn stuff.
I'm OK with lapel pins, but would draw the line at tuchus tattoos, a la Judy Dench and Harvey Weinstein. Mark- you know I adore you, but a gal has to have some kind of standards...
Heh. It's not really secret if you have his name on it. But how purr-fect would be a Marvin cat sticker? The feline crowd would be charmed, most dog lovers would never stoop to keying cars of cat-lovers, and those in the know would know. ;)
As far as those parroting that "Allahu Akbar" is a perfectly innocuous, even reverent, phrase, one needs not to ignore context. "It's important to have your health" means one thing when your mother says it, but something quite different when said by Vinnie the Legbreaker.
Another translation is "Allah is greater." Meaning, greater than your deity, greater than your secularism, greater than your belief system. It is a purposely provocative/supremacist statement but the way the media translates it you'd think he is just some "God nut" who went crazy like a peripheral character in a bad 50s B sci-fi movie
It's not another translation, it is the translation: Allahu Akbar means Allah is greater. It doesn't now, and has never meant God is Great. It's always meant "Allah is greater" than your god. The battle cry of the religion of submission. See also excellent commentary from Laura Rosen Cohen and BallBounces in Toronto, among others below. Look it up on wikiIslam and if you doubt that source I can give you others.
I snorted out loud when I read this. LOL. CONTEXT, my friends, it's a beautiful word.
Yesterday, Jake Tapper when to great pains to translate "Allah Akbar" into "God is great". I don't suppose he bothered to translate "Sayfullo" into "Sword of Allah".
Again, Mark nails it! My two favorite sentences were, 'An ideology explicitly hostile to our civilization', and the 'unending micro jihad'. When will we in the west cease kowtowing to PC, and stand up and push back.
If we don't, our civilization, or at least the remnants of it that we leave to our grandchildren, will all be facing east preying to Allah five times a day! They won't even know or realize things were once very different, because once their ideology takes over, they will rewrite our history for us as well.
Once again - known to someone by someone for something Poor tourists pay the price. Who knows maybe someone may do something to avoid somebody getting killed sometime soon ... RIP the innocent
Many years ago I was visiting a London insurer and learned about an interesting contract modification it had done. It seems a client had an employee destined for a stint in some backward jungle in Her Majesty's dominions; where some indigenous tribe's idea of proper courtship was the prospective groom grabbing up some other male and relieving him of his manhood. The London insurer was amending its usual Accidental Death and Dismemberment policy to allow the client's employee to collect if the appendage cut off was other than the usual arm or leg. God knows, the PC appeasers would rather mandate special jihadi coverage under Obamacare than do anything serious about Muslim immigration.
I ride bikes occasionally, unmotorized as well as motorized. One thing motorcyclists learn is that awareness is essential for survival. Defensive driving, some call it. There seems to be a growing expectation that someone will protect us, whether on bike paths, reading Facebook, or defending ourselves. The calls to "see something, say something" first assumes we'll see something. Many don't. We need to learn to look out for threats. Don't assume that roaring truck behind you will stick to his own lane. The path to survival is diligence.
For now it seems walking backwards will help, or adding little side view mirrors like the cyclists do to our sunglasses. For pedestrians we can legislate the Jihadi Alert like Amber Alert or the Silver Alert. If they had more lenient gun laws in NYC some kids could have shot his windshield up with paint balls and obliterated his vision and possibly he could've driven into a tree before he traversed seventeen blocks. I'm not into the bollards either. Jihadis will find a way if they want to commit an atrocity.
Bollards also likely to prevent crowds from rapidly exiting a confined area. Imagine bollards everywhere in WTC vicinity 16 years ago.
Hi, Fran. We shouldn't encourage walking backward, and certainly don't want kids shooting paint balls at cars. Better to step aside and let him pass. Military tactics call for keeping one's "head on a swivel." It becomes second nature with practice. Also good to continually know where to hide or escape if necessary. The Marines have an expression to be polite and diplomatic, but to have a plan to kill everyone you meet. I think that's just a way to whip them into shape, but it must work since we never hear about Marines committing mass murder. The Scouts summarize it best with "Be Prepared."
Kate, exiting confined spaces mostly requires fitness. To paraphrase the bear metaphor, we don't need to be faster than the terrorist, just faster than the other victims. Many Americans these days are in poor enough condition that escape might not be an option.
Be smart, folks. And be tough. They really are out to get us.
Actually, I've become accustomed to being situationally aware. I spent many cross-country drives alone with just my deaf dog so I'm used to nobody having my back. I carry a small knife with me even when going to the markets because there have been a lot of creeps who approach the car in the parking lots looking for handouts. That's what the pretext is when they get up to the car.
One night in the neighborhood my deaf dog was run over by a spry old woman on a bike and she threatened to get the police after me for my dog assaulting her! I wasn't kidding about walking backwards. I did that for months after the incident.
Pretty soon they will be everywhere and with people like me walking backwards with laser eyeballs focused for oncoming trucks and vans we're going to be in for some serious bodily injuries and the lawsuits will coming pouring in and the lawyers will love it. I think soon they will have to wrap the bollards with 3" rubber cushions. Yes, it will be a Bollardy Christmas instead of a Marshmallow Christmas this year!
I am fed up to the gills with this "New York Strong - Boston Strong - London Strong - my you smell Strong" approach to the attacks by the barbarians-at-the-gates inflicted upon innocent passers-by.
As with the "Thank you for your service" offering, which makes the hairs on the back of my 32-year-active-duty-military neck bristle - this feel-good approach to a war against modern society by those who supposedly espouse the adoration of their prophet makes me want to head to the lee side . . . after that, wipe 'em from the face of the earth.
To hell with the politically correct, the bleeding hearts and all the rest who for whatever dim witted rationale believe civilized society can embrace, without fear or trepidation, those who have become so brain washed as to devote however many years left in their meaningless lives toward the extermination of any and all in opposition.
Time for a change - turn it about - rid the world of these beliefs and it would be a good start until the next crop comes along . . . .
September 11th 2001 was only the beginning for the U.S.A.; a bit of research will reveal that this hatred has been going on for centuries. And what do we do? Absorb. Even a sponge has a saturation point - I wonder what ours (civilized society) is?
Quite frankly, I could care less what the rest of the world thinks about a no-tolerance approach to terrorism. You exterminate the beast before it makes its approach to devour you; not whilst it gnaws at your bones.
Tom in Missouri
The "strong" proclamations are an admission of defeat actually. It's a really sinister and cowardly way of virtue-signalling to other cowards. And what could illustrate that even better than turning the lights down, or out on major world monuments?
I think actually that though the conflict with Islam began at the founding of Islam, the major modern milestone was actually "the Rushdie Affair", a nice euphemism for the moment that Western societies surrendered to nutcase, murderous Ayatollah rage and fatwas.
I don't think the will to defeat this beast exists in sufficient force or incarnation today. I'm not being defeatist, I just don't see it right now. At the moment, I think the 'best case' (and by that I mean the least terrible) scenario right now is containment. In WW2 there were specific armies with allegiance to specific national leaders and borders. The ideologies did not become international and as portable as now. Like you, I also couldn't care less about what other people think about a no-tolerance approach to terrorism. I think we can find examples of that done well in Israel, and Western countries that are at all serious about fighting and surviving will have to look to Israel as an example.
The demographics, coupled with leftist/multicultist policy-making have intentionally rendered this war impossible to fight as traditional wars have been fought to this day.
Laura,
Your eloquence with words, as with so many other participants in Mark's forum, is a tonic to these weary - but still somewhat salty - eyes. Thank you for responding to my rant.
Oh, how I hope surrender has not reached "fail safe." Sadly, it does appear that amongst the majority of "leaders" in Europe, this has indeed taken hold.
All one needs to do, aside that is from spending several months visiting the many and varied nations (as Mark did) is to read Douglas Murray's book "The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam" in order to understand what has and is going on in Europe. Thanks to Mark having Mr. Murray as a guest on his show, I was able to considerably broaden my knowledge base regarding the "surrender." The book is a "must read."
I concur with your thoughts regarding the "will to defeat this beast" and a lack of will to do so. Containment, my sweet patoot (sorry) - how does one go about "containing" an ideology?
Ah yes - Israel. How I admire the spunk and resolve of those hell-bent on kneeling to any oppressor. Reminds me of the United Kingdom - back in the day - as the sorry saying goes. Sir Winston would be gagging on his cigar if witness to the debacle of this day.
I suppose what irritates me most is to realize just how many will not see the forest for the trees - it is not that they cannot see, but will not. Everyone must take a pull on the oars in order to make headway - I am not seeing that happen amongst the nations making up the "western world."
To your last point: Then, perhaps we should quickly diminish and marginalize those within the power structure who hold to the course you outlined. I would recommend a harsher approach, however I must reign in my mean spirited side.
Tom in Missouri
So, by containment, I mean that we try to 'deal' as best as we can with the threats that are already on our shores, and do not allow any other risk onto our shores. So that means increased surveillance, more push back on lawfare and other attempts by belligerents to enforce sharia, more insistence and pride in our values and culture and less accommodating, more deportations, fewer refugees (unless Christian or other genuinely persecuted and peaceful minority) and more serious law enforcement, and zero tolerance of practices that are designed to undermine liberty, hurt us and destroy our culture. No 'nod nod, wink wink' when the local clitorectomy clinic sets up shop, no 'understanding' of quaint foreign customs of wife-beating, "honour" killings, etc, and saying Merry Christmas (damnit) and not "Happy Holidays". "Happy Holidays" is for submissive kill-joy wankers.
PS: You had me at "harsher approach". Don't ever reign in the "mean-spirited side". DON'T GO CHANGING!
Best regards, the Infidel Jewish Sweet Patooty.
I once thanked an officer on a plane for his service. He replied, "just keep paying your taxes so we can keep fighting." Sounds kind of mercenary though, had I said, "I'm paying a lot in taxes to keep you over there, so keep it up and I'll keep the taxman happy."
It was kind of funny thinking back on it, how President Bush said we had to bring the fight to the enemy rather than fight here. I guess the enemy was completely misunderstood. We're fighting in both places now, aren't we? The only difference is that here it's more like a guerilla and psychological war being played out. Only one side gets to attack and the other side is being tamed to not fight back.
I agree, don't let them in. But maybe we let them in precisely because of this:
> So that means increased surveillance
We will give up our rights one by one, as Europe is, to be "safe." That's why the surveillance state, and why anti-free speech laws are popping up in Europe. More power to the state. What state won't like that?
It's coming here too. What was it Loretta Lynch said? Oh yes:
""Obviously this is a country that is based on free speech," Lynch told the audience at the Muslim Advocates dinner in Arlington, VA. "But when that edges towards violence...we will take action."
And:
Since 9/11, Lynch says that the Department of Justice has investigated more than 11,000 acts of anti-Muslim rhetoric, which have led to 45 prosecutions. "I think sadly, that number is going to rise," said Lynch.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/department-justice-anti-muslim-hate-speech/story?id=35585946
How about, don't let people into this country who do not deeply share our freedoms, as expressed in the constitution?
The ones that are here? Unfortunately that's the price of freedom.
> and zero tolerance of practices that . . . destroy our culture
No thanks. Culture is fluid, and given the MC/PC culture we have nowadays, I would prefer the freedoms in the constitution. And who gets to decide what our culture is anyway? Mostly it seems like activists. No thanks.
Just keep them out. Yes, prosecute/the losers, put them in Guantanamo bay, but don't let them in.
Incidentally, Mark, if you are reading, I would very much appreciate any insights into where this Multi-Cultural idea came from. Wikipedia says some claim it's Canada:
> The Canadian government has often been described as the instigator of multicultural ideology because of its public emphasis on the social importance of immigration.
I have a hard time believing that, but maybe it's true. What a shame, if true. It would be easier to swallow if it came from Europe in response to the horrors of WW II. At least then I could think of it as having a rational and good basis, even though it's a terrible failure.
Tom, I am in full agreement with your disgust over the #___ strong, as it's just another excuse to avoid the truth. Here in Orlando, I have refused to participate in any of this nonsense, as their other big meme is "Love Conquers Hate!" To paraphrase Trotsky, you may not be interested in "hate," but "hate" is, apparently, interested in you. Moreover, if Hate is driving a truck and you are walking or riding a bike, Hate conquers - and crushes- Love every time.
I don't understand the comments in this thread. Where are the virtues being signaled? Where are the pleas for tolerance, the reminders that diversity is our strength, the stern warnings against Islamophobia? It's almost as if the people making these comments aren't... aren't nice.
For God's sake people, it's 2017. When you don't let people know how nice you are, you risk terrible things at the hands of those who are nice.
Get with the program.
Agree with you that immigration is the key concept. Culture is fluid, but it has been abandoned by the right. Our culture (and by that I mean Western, i.e civilized culture) does forbid mutilating children. So I would argue that is something that ought to be illegal and penalized. Normal people have surrendered the cultural battlespace and just shrug. That's wrong.
And with respect to surveillance, the problem is that political correctness/brainwashing has destroyed law enforcement forces and their ability to properly identify and name threats and act accordingly. Mosques with fire-breathing imams should be surveilled, as should anyone who takes a leisure vacation to ISIS infested lands. Those are perfectly rational and sensible things.
The Constitution is a glorious document, one of the most magnificent documents ever written by man, and the legacy of British Common Law is superior to sharia-period. But individuals who believe those two statements will have to fight, actively on behalf of liberty. It's just not enough to "prefer" them. Not nowadays anyway.
And Canadian multiculturalism as official dogma began in the Trudeau senior era, as official policy in 1971.
Laura,
Policy wonks need first to filter their better-mouse-traps through us (as in you 'n me).
As I view it, the sad reality supports the notion that one cannot go back; what is done is done - but, damnittohell, let us not make those same lame-brained mistakes again (and again). I concur with your thoughts - as ever.
Somehow, you make "infidel" appear delightful!
Tom in Missouri
France doesn't have a pesky constitution to prevent them from profiling, singling out Muslims for extra surveillance, or special treatment.
Americans don't understand that Europe doesn't have the constraints we have, nor the opposition press.
I was astonished on my last trip how Muslims are treated differently now. The French are being brutal with them. So are the Italians. Corsica is on the verge of house to house purges of Africans who are engaged in theft, rape, and drug dealing.
I think Europe may survive and we will perish. Hoisted on our own petard.
Mark replies:
In fairness, France does have a constitution - rather a lot of them, in fact. (See old Punch jokes: Library visitor: "Where can I find the French constitution?" Librarian: "They're filed under periodicals." Etc.)
Fran,
Hope my comment on that over-used-phrase did not oh-fend you.
First time I heard that used was aboard a plane - yup. I gave up my business class seat to a young soldier with a duffle bag on his shoulder. He thanked me for my service! And that was over a decade ago. I was not in uniform (long retired) - how did he know? I know the answer - just that "thing" between those of us who served and those who have not.
Today, the talking heads - especially on Fox - seem to throw that around along with "Our thoughts and prayers." Just makes me bristle; I just do not buy into the "sincerity," not one bit.
As for fighting the enemy there as opposed to here - not really the same enemy. Home grown's, wannabe's and the others may share the hatred, but I do not view them as the "same." We find ourselves in a fight with an ideology on the foreign side (middle east) and what I believe is nothing more than a branch of anarchy right here in river city (sorry 'bout that!) - here at home.
No doubt there are extremists espousing the same verbal garbage as their middle-east cousins, but it does not take much of an insight to realize what is also going on in our prisons, our inner cities and sorry to say - middle class subdivisions.
Anyway, you bring up a salient point in that we seem to be along the path of tolerance and conflict management in this sorry times.
Tom in Missouri
David,
I first heard the "New York strong" on Fox during a segment hosted by Shepard Smith; I believe the blood was still being removed from the bike path when he uttered it.
That is an interesting paraphrase - I have "logged" it into what is left of my aging memory banks.
Tom in Missouri
I mis spoke. Of course they have a constitution ... it's either in name only - or exempts them from the equal protection clauses or freedom of religion that we labor under.
Without having read it, I would hazard a guess that they make it up as they go along.
Tom, are you part fish? Although everytime I see the word "gills" I immediately think of the Kiwis we befriended in Baltimore and when the two families were together our two little daughters and their one got together, the "gills" had a grand time.
Frankly, I see your point about feeling like bristling at the overused comments, and I have stopped using the phrases myself, but there does seem to be a dearth of gratitude around lately, so, what's the best approach, because there are people around genuinely appreciative and who do pray and think about our armed forces? I guess for now, I've opted to give soldiers who I see in the airports their privacy and I stay quiet.
Btw, I'm enjoying reading your posts. I like the diversity of opinions here that I never get in the liberal world out there. Hoorah for you! Will that pass muster?
If I were easily offended I probably would never have joined the Mark Steyn Club. I think this may be the last place on earth where i can say nearly anything I want (even the kooky things that come out) without the threat of a billy club over my head. Who knows though, maybe the spooks are watching us! We already got comfy with the puddy cat watching us.
Fran,
Well, after 32 years a sailor, I suppose "part fish" is appropriate.
Baltimore brings back fond memories, but from a time long past in another part of my life. Kiwis in Baltimore?Hmmmmm. Were we "invaded" but unaware? Verrrrrrrrry interesting. Oh the things that are concealed within my memory banks . . . I recall an absolute "knock out" of a Kiwi-gal at the combined Aussie-NZ consulate in Los Angeles; but that is another story for another time and place!
I am hardly a proponent for or of the "word police." I do have an abruptness about my manner of expression (chalk that up to a NYCity upbringing); but - I try not to oh-fend the sincere-at-heart.
During the times I traveled in uniform, I cannot recall even one instance where someone "thanked me" for my service. However, there were many who engaged me in conversation about where I had been, where I was heading, etc. The "thank you" came out in a more sublime manner, I suppose; not that I was seeking it.
I vividly recall the times when morning and evening newspapers were home delivered. By the by, I go back to when NYCity had a "bunch" - NY Daily Mirror and Daily News, along with the "standards" of the day . . . In fact, I had a high school internship with the NYTimes over a summer period. Wow. That is when I realized my name was "kid."
Diversity of oh-pin-yuns are fine, just as long as those offering them can provide some facts to support 'em. Thanx for the "hoorah" - long time coming but most appreciated!
As with you, I too am enjoying the benefits of Club membership and in particular, this forum. Mark's topics engender all sorts of threads to where pulling on one leads to who-knows-where? Great fun.
Puddy cats - as a dog lover, I must admit to sorta-kinda enjoying those leanings as well.
Tom in Missouri
I thought you were a seaman, Tom!
No invasion of Kiwis but we moved to Towson/Baltimore area for our last year of family good-byes on the east coast before pushing off in the covered wagon with the four little ones and the lab to Nuevo Messico, (the Chesapeake Bay retriever dog not a meth lab) and the family of Kiwis moved in to the one side the same week. The next week a family of Aussies moved in on the opposite side. The elderly woman in between went from zero kids running across her lawn to eight and two crawling in under two weeks. It was an unforgettable year, the year of the San Francisco earthquake. Add a few more American kids up the block there were often ten little kids in our house making a ruckus as the other gals each had newborns and husbands who were sturgeons, I mean surgeons, doing their year-long fellowships at the two big hospitals. Must have been a year before the Diversity Visa Program kicked off.
You wed a fish?! Well, I cannot top that one . . .
I have lived in neighborhoods where the "long in the tooth" were in the majority; now I am one!
Hopefully the elderly woman enjoyed the sights 'n sounds of happy little ones.
In my travels I have spent a wee bit of time in Nuevo Messico; never the resident - just the visitor.
Declined a balloon adventure in Albuquerque due to some bureaucratic restriction on my off-duty activities. Another story for another time and forum.
Must admit to not being aware of our Diversity Visa Program until this week. Shame on me; but far more shame upon those who came up with this "better mousetrap."
Tom in Missouri
Tom, this is a good state to visit, for the scenery, climate, pueblo ruins, caving and hiking, and million-year-old mastodons but we have big problems here with liberals and "Progressives" running the show in every nook and cranny aiming to duplicate California. I think I heard a few times we long passed the 50% mark for those who depend on government assistance of some kind.
Richardson didn't help with his train to somewhere out there beneath the coyote howling moon, and with huge balloon payments due soon, we'll be sunken under debt like the mastodons that are now beginning to show their teeth above ground behind my neighborhood with the wind eroding the sands of the eons.
This is how long I believe it will take for New Mexicans to wake up to conservative priciples. I think the Heritage Foundation is working on things out here behind the scenes making headway on some big spending bills that are not urgent but they did not answer my email requests to be added to their volunteer list so I better not speak with pretense of authority.
Except for Susanna Martinez who didn't do much these seven years to recommend more conservatives getting in, we're really outnumbered out here. Anglos are now about 40% in the Southern part and going down, not sure about the Central and North. We have probably fewer conservatives but I would have to add more Hispanics than would admit here are conservative. Anyway, it's depressing and it doesn't seem to be a pretty scenario on the horizon. I wish I could boast about the inroads conservatives make here but I think the ones that run businesses to keep alive, work their behinds off so as not to see their wealth erode. Doctors pay outrageous
malpractice insurance here so even though we have terrific doctors here, the state is doing itself a big disservice by not keeping pace with what's going on with our neighboring states, Texas, Arizona and Colorado.
No, I married a desert rat. It was the "gill" friends from Down Under who married the sturgeons. (Brilliant sturgeons. btw)
Fran,
Ahhhh, thanx for the clarification; hooked a desert rat - my omission.
First time through NM was back around 1948 when my merchant marine father put me aboard a train from LA bound for Chicago for a change of trains for NYCity - passed through much of NM on a northeasterly run into Colorado. Later on, it was a drive through en route my final assignment in Long Beach, CA - began the journey in Missouri and quite surprisingly was most impressed with the scenery along I-40.
Best of times were aboard passenger trains heading from Chicago to LA (and reverse) along with LA to Chicago via San Antonio, TX (and reverse). Some outstanding scenery - best is in the northeastern part of NM in my not-so-humble-oh-pin-yun.
Breaking a rule here: siberianmo.smugmug.com is my fast-fading website of travel fotos - you might enjoy some of my amateur shutter bugging.
Anyway, I do follow the demographics of our country and fully understand that little word "change." As with the changing of the tides, it goes on and on and on . . . extremely difficult to witness the wholesale change of a culture, eh?
I question aloud whether we have a baseline culture in the U.S. - hell, we cannot even agree to speak English without invoking some sort of feigned indigence.
It does hurt to see what once was pleasant and the "norm" turn to sour milk. I recall going back to one high school reunion - our 25th - in NYCity. "My" school had not one, not two, but three police check-points in order to get to the school office. Yup - and that was 1981. I have not been back since and have no plans to ever return.
Now, back to California: First time there was 1948 - then 1953 as an Explorer Scout for a Jamboree - then many times since. My last "hurrah" was a command of sorts in Long Beach. Long story for another place and time. Now my visits involve at least one arrival or departure by train . . . hardly resembles what my memory banks still retain. Change; there it is again.
Tom in Missouri
Many thanks, Tom! I didn't see that rule. If I don't see the rule then I guess I genuinely didn't mean to
break rules or take advantage.
I'm wildernessing it tonight so reception is spotty. Left my house of dogs to catch winks under the starry night. Will look forward to absorbing your photos manana. 81 d today in paradise! We're having the most splendid fall in a quarter century. Can't care too much about how screwed up things are in the world but probably will again by Monday morning.
I heard they're having mean and nasty wind storms on Venus. Did you hear bout the 220 mph winds and gaining there? Now there's a huge amount of global warming going on there. Big mystery for the real scientists. No warming here! All normal and balanced and just like the good old days a million years ago when mastodons played in the grassy plains out here in the southwest.
Fran,
My paradise on Earth is in Alaska . . . not everywhere in that huge chunk of terra firm, but anywhere the mountains seem to touch the heavens and the distant glow of activity from volcanoes compete with the northern lights for the greatest show above Earth. Yeah - that is my paradise. Glad you have found yours.
As for dogs - never shared my home with any I did not love nor receive reciprocity ten times over. Current pal is a rescue - Border Collie - Siberian Husky mix; one blue eye, one brown, "white socks" with black 'n white coat. Just a sweetheart we call Barney. He will be 3 on Nov 11th (our best guesstimate).
Sorry, but being sent here from planet Zorch in a galaxy far, far away where light years are measured quantum-fold, Venus is but a blip betwixt here and "home." What else do winds do but blow, I wonder?
Another aspect into my varied past involved law enforcement. "Ignorance is no excuse," I recall was the mantra. Then again, being subject to it (ignorance) myself, I was gentle of heart and mind to those who shed crocodile tears when "caught." Well, most times . . .
Closing this thread with a "thank you" for the exchanges! Another benefit - perhaps unintended - provided us all though membership in Mark's Club.
And oh yes, enjoy my foto galleries - I plan to discontinue that site in February '18.
Tom in Missouri
I won't link it here but Gateway Pundit reports a NYC anti-extremist imam has blasted the mayors of both NYC and London. Apparently he tried to warn De Blasio multiple times, and was ignored.
"De Blasio griefs about London and you grief about NYC. How about you both swap positions since you don't really care about your own people!?" - Imam Tawhidi
Ken, this quote needs to be disseminated broadly!
When someone with authority within the Islamic world states this it should not be ignored.
After reading "The Infidel's Guide to the Koran" and seeing that the ultimate goal of Islam is world peace brought about by 1) converting to Islam, 2) becoming a slave who pays "tithes" or 3) being killed then our culture needs to be protected by whatever means are necessary. As Tom, siberianmo's post above, states very bluntly, there needs to be more backbone demonstrated by those who actually have it.
He will be ignored, of course.
James,
Those three tenets you mentioned are indeed the goals you mentioned. I recall studying this subject in a university course I took on the subject of Islam; very sobering even to a 50-something "non traditional' student at the time.
As for the quote provided by Ken - I am all for rapid dissemination; then again - one must wonder wonder who really reads those days (daze)? Hand-held gizmos excepted.
Tom in Missouri
This obsession with diversity is akin to affirmative action in that merit has absolutely nothing to do with success. It's all about how profoundly progressive street cred is enhanced by ever more edgy policies that confuse rampant inclusivity with enhancing one's culture. Like Einstein postulated, insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly all the while expecting a different outcome. So now it's a proven fact that progressives are insane and the sooner they are removed from positions of influence the safer we will all be.
Hi Mark,
On the BBC this morning, 8:00, the BBC announcer gave a short description of Trump's order to start "extreme vetting" of all immigrants from Uzbekistan. She then cut to a former assistant secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama administration who went on for 30 seconds or so criticizing the President's decision. During her self-righteous denunciation of extreme vetting, she actually had the gall to describe it as "dangerous."
Here's what's dangerous--riding a bike in NYC when your government could care less about protecting you from Islamic terrorism.
This is similar to the house guest that steals from you. America needs to think about who is welcome, what we expect of residents and guests, and then what to do when they violate us. All these are new thoughts -- we were enamored with our "openness", proud of our "melting pot", and a bit fascinated with exotic foreigners. Now we must clean house, and throw out that guest ?!?! Tough discussion. And Congress will be the last to catch on. If it all causes us to re-evaluate our values and priorities, I am hoping we can discover, promote and enforce the values of liberty and personal responsibility in time, before we slide into chaos and anarchy.
Mark- you're correct, as always. Eight people will be shrugged off given that the "acceptable level of violence" in the cause of diversity was set at 3,000 sixteen years ago, just a short distance away. And given that voters cannot re-elect their representatives faster than the representatives import new voters.... and pay them (the new voters) for the privilege. Along with the success of the usual bullies-as-victims "Islamophobia" campaign-- aided and abetted by the Left's long march through the institutions-- there's not much to be optimistic about. On a practical level, all the bollards in the world won't stop jihadists intent on a Las Vegas style attack. Or drone attack. All the more tragic, seeing the photo of the Argentine school reunion group in their "Libre" t-shirts.
This is good, but the real problem is the GOP, which does NOTHING despite a popular mandate. I don't know if they are paid off, afraid, or just incompetent, but it is not the leadership the country needs to face an existential threat. FDR stopped immigration, set up internment camps for Japanese, and required Italians and German immigrants to report to the police regularly--and we won World War II. Anything short of that is a recipe for defeat. The formula is known, but the GOP fails to follow it, and innocent Argentine and Belgium tourists pay the price. Has no one realized this is economic warfare? That Islamic terrorism is BAD FOR BUSINESS? Not to mention bad for living? The GOP press, including the Wall Street Journal and others, are equally clueless...Instead of making excuses for terorism, they might declare a CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM--freedom to walk the streets without fear...and see what happens.
11:20am EDT. Live update from NY authorities: 1. Our response to this attack was first-rate. 2. We successfully stop a lot of these things before they even happen. 3. The attack killed 8 people, but the attack failed. It failed! How do we know? The beautiful Halloween parade that happened mere hours after. They will not win.
They are stressing the enhanced security for the upcoming NYC race. More sand trucks, double the observation teams, sniper teams, heavy weapons teams, plainclothes officers, K9s, aviation helicopters.
Won't change us, huh? If this is the response, the terrorists have already won. The authorities have no intention whatsoever of naming or addressing the root cause.
Of course they have changed us, or at least those of us who have situational awareness and now realize that danger levels in public places have gone up. Walking around as if nothing has happened is ostrich-like behavior and a refutation of reality. What we do have to do is resist the encroachment of Islamist ideas into our society (like the gradual adoption of tenets of Sharia) and try to limit the damage to our freedoms (especially the Second Amendment) in the name of resisting terror. Will things change? Did they change during the two World Wars? Of course they did and for teh same reason; we are at war. This war started in 632 AD and has only fairly recently come to American shores but it has been being waged for millennia in the Near East and Europe. Europe wants to think it's over and that a permanent peace has been established but they are learning (very slowly learning, some of them) that it continues on; it was only *hudna* (a temporary cease fire so their forces could regroup), not peace
Mark, one of my few disagreements with you. Why single out the diversity lottery? He could have just as easily been a Brit of Pakistani descent here on a Visa waiver. The problem isn't the expanding of the pool of possible immigration countries but the religion of too many applicants. Tightening eligibility is the answer not throwing out the baby.
Mark replies:
I'm in favor of tightening immigration generally, but the diversity lottery is a good place to start because:
a) by definition, it is for people who do not meet the criteria for America's bazillion other immigration programs - and thus are even less likely to be of benefit to the existing population of Americans, which is who immigration is supposed to benefit;
b) a "lottery" is a near parodic example of how America has lost control of who it admits;
c) the LAX shooter 15 years ago was a Diversity Lottery beneficiary, so terrorist-gaming of the racket isn't new. As noted in The Clubbable Steyn, he was America's first "known wolf";
d) like almost all federal laws, it was crappily written and has morphed into something other than was intended. Thirty years ago, it was supposed to correct some of the post-1965 distortions of US immigration policy, and was aimed at (not to put too fine a point upon it) white people. That's why Ted Kennedy and the other Irish-Americans made sure that Ireland got a disproportionate share of the visas - and by "Ireland" I mean not just south of the border, but Northern Ireland, too: So the usual corrupt fed legislators so finely calibrated an immigration program that it discriminated against one region of the UK (Wales, say) in favor of another.
That was then, this is now. I met a fellow Irishman who gave me a shoeshine at a US airport a few weeks ago: he'd got in on the Diversity Lottery, and good luck to him, but he's an exception. Today it's a crapshoot in which extraordinary proportions of the most dysfunctional societies on earth apply online, and in which the wilier strategists of the jihad consciously use the lottery to facilitate their goals.
And citizens of almost all the biggest terror-exporting nations remain eligible for the lottery - to take only the most obvious example, Saudi Arabia.
Is there any difference between a good Muslim and a bad Muslim?
I met some lovely Muslims in Saudi Arabia, and have met some lovely ones here in Canada. Decent people can transcend deficient ideologies. There is enough judeo-christian truth mixed into the Koran mash-up that a decent person can work their way through it. It's like eating a very bony fish.
True. Though 2/3rds in the UK unwilling to contact authorities in the event of knowledge of an impending terrorist attack. The people you describe sound closer to apostates.
There are a large number of loopholes where a Jihadist can drive a semitrailer through it. Driver licenses are forged so before renting trucks everyone has to be finger printed and his finger print sent to FBI to check if he is not on the banned list. Then even this can be circumvented someone that is not on the banned list can rent the truck and give the keys to the jihadist. All vehicles will need to be equipped with finger print and voice recognition monitors to verify that they are driven by the approved renter and stops the vehicle when the response is negative. As usual those monitors will frequently malfunction stop the truck causing traffic jam. As someone mentioned each vehicle needs a GPS tracker that stops the truck when it goes out of the declared boundary.
The same need to be done for anyone buying a pressure cooker and any other device that enterprising jihadists come up with how to kill us all.
Of course, Mark is right. Our loved ones are expendable 'collatoral damage' to the politicians who insist on doubling down on destroying us and our Western culture. We have also been conditioned to be embarrased aboutt not wanting to 'get use to it'. As if we are the pathetic, simplistic, uppity peasants who refuse to understand that sacrificing our loved ones is the proper thing to do.
Language is a huge part of the problem. The language controls the debate. In the same way as there are repeated obfuscations of the translation of "Allahu Akbar", as has been pointed out, there is a similar Big Lie about "defiance" which is equally stomach turning and corrupt.
It is not "defiant" to go to work, or to go to a damned parade. It is not defiant to shrug and suck up another murderous attack. It is pathetic and to borrow a Steyn phrase: decadent. Even FOX News thinks going to a Halloween parade is "defiance" which it is clearly not: http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/10/31/new-york-city-halloween-parade-marches-despite-terror-attack-lower-manhattan
Thanks Mark also for your observation that the Sword of Allah didn't set off any dumbass, infidel alarm bells among our betters in the public service. Reminds me of the Ft. Hood Jihadist and how he brazenly had "Soldier of Allah" on his business cards.
These people are telling us who they are, what they are and what they are going to do to us. They are perfectly honest 100% of the time. That's why I believe them, and not our disgusting, supine, traitorous politicians.
I was disgusted with Geraldo on Hannity show last night. He demonstrated a typical leftist conduct that believes that he is right and anyone that has different opinion is wrong not only wrong but he should not be allowed to express it. He did not end his diatribe when asked by Sean let other to speak, he shouted down and did not let Pamela Geller say a word. It is beyond my understanding why Sean has not cut off his microphone when Geraldo did not let other participants including Sean himself to speak.
I agree and also note Geraldo is paid by Fox, while Spencer and Geller are not--he should not have been interviewed, period. Why doesn't Fox let Spencer, Geller and others speak without Islamic Fundamentalist apologists to contradict them? They might try and see what happens to their ratings...bet they would go up.
But Fox is now run by Rupert Murdoch's sons who are leftists. They don't want high ratings if they have to let undiluted hate speech be broadcast on *their network*. What would all their confreres think? We sadly apparently need another conservative network or, should I say, truthful network that will report facts, not speculation and let the facts speak for themselves rather than spinning, spinning, spinning.
If I hear one more sanctimonious reporter or politician say "Islam is a religion of peace. This is just an extremist that has perverted the beautiful, peaceful religion of Islam. Why...99.9% of all muslims are peac-loving and want to live and let live" I'm going to scream at the sky. (No not really). Westerners will never get it - how long are they going to continue to apologize for the Crusades??? Islam is fundamentally a violent, imperialist ideology that continues to brutalize the Christian world around it. The exception is the reformists, not the jihadists. In Western terms - and there-in is the problem - the West romanticized Imperialist Japan, they romanticize Islam, and they romanticize facism, socialism, communism, and secular-progressive-ism. Islam will simply bide it's time, and ism by ism dominate the world unless we wake up and recognize it for what if fundamentally is.
As a native New Yorker, Brooklynite if you please, I am puzzled and upset that upon seeing this murderer emerge from the van, no one thought to beat the life out of him. What has happened to my home town? Where is a true New Yorker when you need them?
In the White House.
You are right! Let's just pray that he can cut through the B.S. and begin the process of stopping all Islamist's from entering our country. We all ready have too many of them now.
"Geraldo is on Fox demanding to know why this bike path wasn't blocked off with concrete barriers."
Bollocks to your bollards. Forcing me to use a plastic knife to cut through my crummy steak at Terminal B and making my ten year old go through a metal detector to watch a baseball game is not working
Apologies for the multiple comments this morning, but I'm nursing a bit of a post trick or treat hangover and my thoughts are more scattered than usual. Needed the beers because, thank you very much Al Gore, Halloween was freezing once again
It needs to be said in public, over and over again: diversity is NOT a strength for a society, it is a seed of destruction. It comes (I believe) from the same Latin root as divide, and that's what it does. You cannot have a well-functioning society when there are no common, agreed-upon social mores of conduct. There are societies on this planet that intentional reject everything Western, and Islamic society is one of them, and probably the most dangerous, since they openly advocate violent overthrow of non-Islamic peoples and non-Islamic institutions.
Every time some progressive talks about how great diversity is, someone needs to stand up and say, "No, it weakens us rather than strengthens us." Bad enough that we have enemies from without; we should not be creating enemies from within by willingly allowing these people to invade us.
I agree, and have for a long time. To have diversity as a goal is nuts. To treat each individual with respect and dignity is not nuts. Well written, Faith.
It would be interesting to research where this "diversity" term popped up. You wouldn't know from the US educational system there is much I nterest in diversity. The new NGSS educational standards won't embrace it. They want to teach the students how to model their data so that it will teach them future solutions. Yes, indeed, the solutions that they want our children to arrive at. Out with the scientific method because that's old school, part of the conservative right's thought process.
I must recall, too, diversity refers to skin color, cultures and sexual orientation, not about opinions. You also wouldn't know about diversity of opinion when it comes to climate research. The whole idea that we were sold this idea that the earth and the gasses we earthlings emit is just like a greenhouse is ludicrous. My little greenhouse out back has a roof, walls and a door. It's a closed system in there. The earth and the atmosphere is anything but a closed system. It's a big wide open and very complicated system and every day there are brilliant minds trying to prove that all those alarmists' claims are wrong and they are being pummeled and their work and characters are being maligned.
How can you prove that something is false if the very complex problem is an unsolvable problem? You can't and so their claims can't be proven either to be true, except by them changing the data and the predictions. This is not the case with jihadis killing and maiming innocent people. This is a solveable problem.
The obvious "common-sense" solution is to close The Flatbed Truck Rental loophole.
Good one David from Florida, that gave me a real chuckle. The real loophole is the gigantic idiocy of letting these 'peaceful people' slowly invade our countries. Lock and load brother. Western Canada still has some stalwarts ready to do what ever is needed, Of course, ahem, within the boundaries of a free society!
Thanks. After the Orlando jihad attack, I had to deal with some relatives who jumped on the Gun Control/Gun Show Loophole train. First, I told them that if they think the Orlando massacre was about gun control, then the Boston bombing must be about pressure-cooker control, just as this atrocity must be about truck control. I then tried to tell them that THERE IS NO GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE, and that if they thought you could go to a gun show, buy a Sig Sauer automatic and take it home, they should actually go to one with me and try to do so. Naturally, they declined.
Mark, of all your recurring points I believe your juxtaposition of "safe havens" in the Middle East with the West's gateway cities is probably the most ingenious because not even our best military leaders seem to even grasp the critical point. We are fighting over worthless territory in the middle of nowhere while voluntarily conceding de facto control of the most valuable real estate on Earth. The Romans would think us insane. Or as you would likely prefer, the Colonialists would think us insane.
PS - I'm hanging onto my Mark Steyn Club receipt so that when the kids want to throw me to the curb in forty years over the mess they have inherited I have some proof I thought this was all nuts
We're printing up the "This Is Nuts" tee shirts now.
"How many more corpses need to pile up on our streets before you guys decide to stop importing more of it?"
Not trying to be cute, but based on the last twenty years of history, I think the correct question is "will it take a five or six figure body count to change things?" Anything less appears to be considered an "acceptable level of violence" to steal a phrase Mark deftly uses
Hey! Just a thought (the peculiarities of weaponizing of feather dusters aside): perhaps NOT having driverless vehicles might be a good idea? A car or truck without a driver, going fast down a road or rat-patrolling it across a field, is just a missile, possibly ballistic on impact, loosed at ground level to destroy who- or whatever is in its path . . . Oh, and it isn't just bike paths. Sidewalks are on the other side of those bollards, and little open park spaces, and, and, and . . ..
Yes, indeed! A driverless car or truck is merely an earthbound drone that can probably carry a lot more armament than your average airborne one.
More and more, Canadians are deciding to only have one or two kids, instead of five of six. The response, as it is in Europe, is to increase immigration, but no one explains why. If we are having fewer babies, then maybe that's how we like it. So what if the population doesn't increase as quickly as it used to? Japan has a drastically lower birth rate, and they have 0 immigration. They also have 0 murders by immigrants who hate their society.
Mike, have you read Mark Steyn's book America Alone? In it he explains it perfectly.
Of course! I read my signed, first-edition copy years ago. I understand that civilizations below the replacement birth rate will eventually die out. Is that what you are referring to? I will clarify my question: Why should we do anything about our low birth rate? Why should Canada have immigration?
Yes, the social welfare state is dependent on population growth to maintain financial solvency.
Sure enough, an "analyst" on MSNBC hastens to assure us that this is not Islam in any way whatsoever. The man's name is Malcolm Nance. Nance, indeed. Can't blame someone for the name he has, but it seems especially appropriate.
Anyone one who says this needs to be asked if they have read the Koran. If they say yes to that, then they need to be asked if they have considered the history of Islam's origins and growth -- which were entirely militaristic. The "peace" part of Islam comes after you have been conquered. Correct me if I'm wrong.
A big start to defeating these jihadis is to know them. I guess not many are inclined to want to know them.
I think many of the Islamic world don't want to know them themselves. I've only heard a handful speak out. When they do, they get the Fatwas heaped upon them. I think the closed off ones live in denial, a lot of them. I'll bet there are good Muslims around the world who themsleves are jittery about what the jihadis are up to. They certainly put them in a dismal position.
Islam needs a revival like Christianity had a Reformation. It needs to come from within. We can only tackle the symptoms of the radical element until that happens: close the borders, interview the millions plus in the countries already to find out if they are on a path to radicalization. If they are, they need to be deported. I would start with the ones who own trucking companies and are Uber drivers. Seeing patterns is a good thing. Maybe it's a good thing this guy wasn't killed. Maybe he can get the James Mitchell treatment.
I often wonder how many non-Muslims have read the Koran. I couldn't get past the second page. I heard from someone who read it that it had no miracles in it like the Bible. Isn't this the draw for adhering to tenets of a faith, that there are some miracles to point to, to inspire folks.
For that matter, how many non-Muslims have read the Bible? I mean to say, we're increasingly becoming a society of secular people and even the Wiccan numbers are growing, I heard recently.
When I heard the experts calling for more bollards, I immediately thought about Mark's article 'the Bollardization of the Western World" and the general idea about (paraphrased) why not secure the borders of the country first rather than every bike path, street, concert venue etc in the country.
I thought Geraldo's intolerant, excitable head was going to explode with anger. His ludicrous hissy fit was directed entirely at the reasonable opinions of Pamela Geller and not at the deadly actions of the latest Jihadii murderer. I've been wondering why Mark no longer appears on Hannity. He is however fortunately on most or all the other Fox shows occasionally. I hope he takes over every Geraldo time slot for the next few years.
Yes, agreed! Steyn Club alert to FOX CEO's: get Mark Steyn in for Geraldo for a real diversity of opinion. The segments are too short with Tucker, btw. The can ditch the game show type segment at the end of the week. All the world's a critic!
Just this past week John McCain bragged to The Hill that he'd never bothered to read the 70 point immigration plan from the Trump administration. Called it a "non-starter." I'm sure it's still a non-starter to McCain and his pasl Schumer et al but, perhaps, maybe someone will gently ask the Lions of the Senate just why that is so.
The RAISE act, sponsored by Sens. Cotton and Perdue and endorsed by the POTUS, would put an end to the 50,000 / year "diversity lottery" that brought this Sword of Allah guy to our shores. It languishes in a federal legislature that spends most of its time trying to not do what the people want.
The public is way past sick of this situation. Elected officials who block common sense immigration reform are swimming in blood already. How much money from the cheap labor lobby do is it take to wash off that blood and call sensible reform a "non-starter" I wonder? Primary every last one of them on this issue. It is the essential issue for the nation.
It certainly is the essential issue for the nation. This from a local radio host this morning (Kelly O'Connell from Toronto, Ireland, VA Beach, & Eugene, who airs via blogtalk radio because he and other conservative talk guys were shut down on radio here three months ago in our very "Progressive" border town) who heard it from WABC NY news (wow, we really depend on our news from other news' sources! What really is the truth?), but he said they reported the Diversity Visa Program is how 1.83 million green card Muslims entered our country since whenever it was conceived. I'll check that year and see if it comes up. Not by ISIS, not by our USAF, not by paddle boats across from Cuba to Florida, but through our US Immigration front door policy!
"The other day, the Australian government lost its majority because, thanks to the usual boneheaded jurists, an Aussie-born citizen who chances also to share, say, New Zealand citizenship is deemed to be ineligible to sit in Parliament."
They didn't lose their majority; they are still the government because they get the speaker's vote. But more importantly, this wasn't a bone headed jurist vote, it was 7 -zip in our equivalent of the Supreme Court, and for once it was the black letter of the law. The Australian constitution clearly states you cannot be elected to parliament if you hold allegiance to any other country. So these people who had dual citizenship had no right to be in parliament, and they were correctly kicked out. It was the exact opposite of judicial activism. The kicked out parliamentarians will now go to a fresh election - they have now renounced their other citizenship. The system, for once, actually worked well. The question is of course, how many others are duals, and how many others in the decades past also have been, and have voted on legislation when they shouldn't have even been in parliament.
Mark replies:
Sorry, I disagree. As a practical matter, in a Westminster system, a party that depends on the vote of the Speaker has no working majority.
That aside, re the relevant passage of the Australian constitution, it is not about "dual citizenship" but "allegiance to a foreign power". Indeed, at the time of passage of the Oz constitution, there was no such thing as Australian "citizenship". So it is fair to say that the drafters of the act had a different view of what it meant than did those seven judges. The idea that a second, notional New Zealand citizenship or UK citizenship (neither of which existed at the time the section was written) represents "foreign allegiance" is a jurisprudential fancy, quite idiotic, and makes parliamentary eligibility dependent on the whims of non-Australian laws. I'll have more to say about this later.
Very true, Mark. Idiotic indeed. If only there was as much concern about other Australian citizens with demonstrable "allegiance to a foreign power" of the transnational variety you outlined many years ago.
Virtually impossible to prevent "Australian" dual nationals who have fought with ISIS from re-entering, despite counter-terrorism laws in place to that effect since 2015. The only successful case so far is Khaled Sharrouf (father of severed-head-brandishing young boy) whose AU citizenship was stripped-- posthumously.
PS. You might be interested in Tony Abbott's speech, to be delivered in NYC today. He may yet replace Turnbull as this year's PM!
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/same-sex-marriage-debate-creates-new-breed-of-activists/news-story/bfb3375313c23291de58a5c6f10d0d0e
Mark, you could be like that legal scholar professor at George Washington U Law School,
Jonathan Turley, who often appears on FOX, only you're knowledgeble about a lot of other legal systems as well. How did Greg Gutfeld introduce you a few weeks ago that night you appeared on his show (somehow it was accidentally deleted but not by me)? Gutfeld said: Mark Steyn, the writer and political opinion maker so smart Mensa won't take him? Oh, wait, you're already on FOX, even more than Jonathan Turley.
Can you break that comment down more slowly for people like me who Mensa won't take from the other direction? Hey, trivia bit! Did you know that Anwar al-Awlaki was in Falls Church, VA a couple years ('01 -'02) and had a stint as Muslim chaplain at George Washington U. I never learned that through their alumni magazine but possibly I missed it.
Well I accept your reasoning on original intent. However, there is such a thing as Australian citizenship now, and if you hold dual citizenship, then you clearly have the ability to show allegiance to a foreign power, whether or not you do is not the point. The mechanism via dual nationality to do so is there. Also, to their credit, our High Court always takes a conservative approach to matters of elections and electoral legitimacy - when in doubt, they toss the result out. That's a good thing. It ultimately gives power back to the people. In this case, the House of Representatives members will go to fresh elections; the senators will be replaced by another person from the party that won the seat, so in either case, the will of the people will be respected
I'll take Abbott over Turnbull, and certainly over Shorten any day, but Abbott has a history of making red meat speeches to the conservative base and then betraying in office - case in point on freedom of speech he made all the right noises before being elected PM, but then betrayed us on 18c, a double betrayal since he used the need to appease Muslims as the reason.
Mark replies:
It is true that the Abbott/Brandis reversal on 18C was a very dark day.
... especially after all your efforts on the 18C front here, Mark.
re. next PM: Andrew Bolt's vox pop showed near-unanimous support for Andrew Hastie; 35 yr old ex-SAS true conservative MP who's fought the Taliban... just the kind of leader we need.
Mark replies:
I had the pleasure of dining with Mr Hastie in Canberra last year. He's a fine man.
Look forward to your next tour, Mark.
Steyn, Bolt, Latham, Jones (A- not T.... forget Q&A next time), along with Hastie, Bernadi etc. Sadly, many others have gone soft.
Mark, you're the best writer in the English language.
I agree.
Have you noticed that every time there is a response, (and its usually the same response) to these attacks its always couched in the negative? So: "We are not going to let them win." or This will not change things for us" I would be more reassured if someone at least once said. "We are going to win. We are going to stop this happening." The other side has a far more positive mindset but in a negative way of course.
That's a good point. When it comes down to it, they are on the same side as the allahu akbarers, because Western Civilization stands in they way of what they both want.
This is a great point. The implication is that we will simply endure these attacks ad infinitum without being diminished by their cumulative effects, which is patently absurd.
It's even worse. You're giving them too much credit. They don't for a second believe any of what they're saying. The public hasn't caught on yet. As long as the majority goes on blissfully cocooned in ignorance, vapid leftists will go on supplying them empty and worthless sentiments.
Excellent point. Very telling.
Very good point. In stark contrast to ".... We shall fight on the beaches."
No matter what paper you read or news show you listen to, you can't escape the incredibly cynical evasion that Allahu Akbar means God is Great. Fox's lead story on their website says it right now, 4th paragraph in. It does not mean God is Great, it means Allah is Greater. In other words, Allah is Greater than your God. It was originated, and is still used today, as a battle cry.
Mark's interview with Dr. James Mitchell elucidates this murder mentality and battle cry very well.
Here's a juicy bit from The Sun: The phrase was allegedly first used by the Prophet Muhammad [who] used it as a rallying cry before the Battle of Badr in what is now modern day Saudi Arabia on March 13 624. In this context the call would mean "God is greater than the enemy". Why is it shouted by terrorists? [It] has been co-opted by jihadi extremists, much to the distress of moderate Muslims."
It sounds like jihadi "extremists" are following in you-know-who's footsteps...
I believe also we've been incorrectly pronouncing the word "imam." The correct pronunciation is "I maim."
Indeed. If this had been done on any boulevard in New Delhi, Kabul, Karachi, Dhaka, Jakarta, Jaipur, Islamabad, Cairo, Khartoum, Mogadishu, Nouakchott, Ndjamena, Bamako, Dakar... the retaliatory riots would be in full swing right now. By that modern standard with plenty of recent examples to point to as precedent, declaring it terrorism, capturing, arresting to head to sedate courtly procedures is practically puff-ball pacifism in civilized restraint. Any public attempts to mealy-mouth it as something else reeks of corrosive enabling agendas. Just sayin.'
It used to be "better dead than red". Now it's "better dead than rude" -- with a good chance America will get red as well.
Now it comes down to better dead AND red. Blood red, that is.
I walked alongside that path to and from work everyday while living in NYC for a particular project. Not my world anymore - it has been surrendered to the barbarians by those who want the barbarians to win, just to signal their own non allegiance to the civilization that raised and protects them. Civilization, after all, is privilege, and privilege is injustice, so being murdered by barbarians is just a deserved come uppance. That is at bottom what passes for thought on the left. You can dress it up with Marx and Adorno and Fanon all you like, all they are really saying is we deserve to die because we are better, and being better is a crime.
I'm off it. I've been off it since university, when I already saw through all this crap as the empty sophistry it always was. Why can't any of our so called leaders get it? Why are they all so stupid and so evil, and above all such vile unmanly cowards?
I'll take a crack at answering your question using some logic that I believe Mark has pointed out before. I think it's because if you're Bill de Blasio or Andrew Cuomo or some other government big shot and you run into an Uzbek it is most likely the Uzbek ambassador to the UN or some such. This means that your experience of Uzbeks is that they are educated and well-spoken. Even if they believe that you're an infidel who can be killed at will, they are smart enough not to bring that up in polite conversation at the cocktail party where you likely met them. Being limited in your Worldview you automatically assume that all Uzbeks are as educated, tolerant and affable as the fellow you ran into at the UN sponsored cocktail party. Your opinion of Pakistanis, Iraqis, Somalis, etc. was probably formed in the same way. So, you think to yourself "well these folks are just like me, so why not let them in wholesale." And because you think this and are also predisposed to see average people as racist and xenophobic, you automatically assume that any desire to exclude Uzbeks, etc. is based purely on racism or xenophobia.
The problem is that the Uzbeks that the average person is likely to run into are quite a bit different from your UN ambassador acquaintance. But you never see this, because in the unlikely event that you actually step out into the space where average people live the entire area is cordoned off and you're surrounded by a thirty SUV motorcade with a security detail the size of a small army.
So when something like the atrocity of yesterday happens you don't connect it with any one type of immigrant or even any one type of person. It's always a lone wolf who could have come from any background.
Jason, thank you for cutting through the bullshit with such a concise explanation of why the left is driving western civilization into the ground. "Civilization is privilege, and privilege is injustice." That captures the entirety of their current ideology. The scary thing is that I could see them adopting this as a slogan inside of ten years. What you and I see as an indictment, they may well come to see as a battle cry.
The answer lies within themselves. Western Civilization developed under God. They don't want to submit to either. Freed of those constraints, who in a decadent West is going to stop them from creating a new order, at which they think they will be at the top? Human nature contains bad elements like selfishness, greed, lust and without constraint those things easily lead to evil. So it's Me! Me! Me! It's a lust for power. You and I are happy with Western Civ. They are not. The jihadists are not.
I have a different take on it:
1. The left suffers from delusional wishful thinking concerning cultures, human nature, etc.
2. The left suffers guilt for the massive over-achieving success of white-based cultures and societies.
3. The left thinks that, all things being equal, all things would be equal. Since they are not, and western white societies are far more successful and wealthy, it must be due to oppression, not cultural differences, legal constructs, virtues, etc.
The result is progressive initiatives to clear-cut all that is decent, good and great about western civilization. Correct me if I'm wrong.
A lot of people say it's about all of those things, and on lower strata where people are most susceptible to clever deception, surely it is, but at the top, I don't know. I suspect it's more something they're using because it does appeal to masses of followers. Communism purported to be about correcting these inequities, but in the end was about killing, stealing, starvation, and spreading misery equally.
Well, my comment above was limited specifically to the political/cultural elite. Since those people by and large live sheltered lives they cannot have a true grasp of everyday reality as experienced by average people.
When speaking about the Left generally I most agree with your points. However, I think there is an additional element associated with your point (1). Most conservatives (I would hope) start from the belief in an objective immutable reality that we experience. We make observations of that reality and form conclusions and opinions based on the application of reason to those observations. At bottom I think most hardcore Leftists do not believe in objective reality. Instead, they first form an opinion of what they think should be then try to mold the World to fit those preconceived notions. That is why so many of their beliefs, from the viability of socialism to transgenderism seem to fly in the face of objective reality. I believe that a lot of the anger on the Left stems from two things. First, they are frustrated that their attempts to apply their preconceived notions to the World inevitably fail. Second, but more importantly, they clash with Conservatives on the most basic level because our view of the World totally negates theirs.
If # 3 is true, why then is the Left all-embracing of these jihadists fighting for the religion of oppression, or, if not embracing, just sitting on their hands doing nothing and offering no solutions to stopping the carnage?
I concur with your first two points, however.
"Civilization, after all, is privilege, and privilege is injustice.."! Wayne Lanham thought you captured the essence of the Left's ideology. Were you thinking more of the jihadis? The slogan could be a future battle cry for either as Wayne predicts it could.
You ask why are all our so-called leaders so stupid and evil, vile and unmanly cowards. I think everyone wants to be liked and accepted (and re-elected, except sometimes they miscalculate like the Flakey politician in Arizona) so they act according to how the winds of popular opinion, however ill-informed they are blow; and to stick one's nose out to be in the public and serve in a public office is like offering oneself up to be sacrificed to a slaughter.
David Gooden commented about patriots not running for office, that we're left with a cumulative effect of a corrupted bureaucracy and the deep state is the residual effect. There must be a sea change in what average citizens want to see happen in their governments. Keep your eye on the real honorable leaders, however few they are, to see which way the wind needs to be redirected. I'm keeping an eye on Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas). I think this man is presidential material.
Hi, Fran. Because of #1 - Islam can't really be bad, and #2 - the rapacious west (themselves excluded) can't ever be good. However, if they show Islamists and Muslims in general how nice and tolerant they are, all of this will stop. It's conservatives' fault that Islamists attack us. It's a macabre, upside-down morality tale.
There's no price the left isn't willing for you to pay in their quest for a utopia of radical egalitarianism. Every time secular mankind tries to create heaven on Earth, it ends in hell on Earth.
Alas, even if we stop importing them, there are already enough of them here. I mean those who, while not declaring that they themselves will be perpetrators still think that the perpetrators are at least partly justified. The statistics on this -- at least in the UK -- is frightening.
Ceasing the importation will not solve the problem completely, it is true. But will it improve things? Absolutely. If you have some holes in your roof, then you should fix them somehow. Maybe today we don't know how to fix holes in roofs, but surely we can all agree to stop making more holes.
Abso-darn-lutely, Mark. And the so-called athletes have the nerve to protest their silly straw man image of America's lack of social justice? Where is the justice for the innocent who fall between the two camps of those self-important idiots on the left and right?
The problem Mark is that our politicians are in on it. They know the best way to overturn Western civilisation is to simply replace the people that made Western civilisation.
In Australia, Brian wilshire on 2gb used to say of our politicians that 'they have been taken out to lunch'. I agreed then, but it's most obvious now. Most are simply ignorant and so greedy that they will game the system to get their share - nation be damned.
However I don't think there can be any doubt that the hard core true believers want this to happen. It's not a bug but a feature. They would no doubt prefer less casualties, and just higher birthrates for non whites, but the fallback line of 'just part of living in a big city' as you say is their boilerplate response.
If you replace said politicians, another gutless drone takes their place. If you do get genuine patriots in office, the bureaucracy and deep state remains. If you attempt to clear them out, you need to also deal with the education system and media too. They are dug in. There is no readily available way for free citizens to change course here via the mechanisms of our systems
"There is no readily available way for free citizens to change course here via the mechanisms of our systems"
Indeed and where does an extension of that logic take us?
Mark might say "united they fall, but divided some of them may stand a chance."
This is sort of off topic, I have gotten half way through Mark Helpren's new book "Paris in the Present Tense". It is a novel of the future ala Mark Steyn. Everything he has forecasted comes true (at least at the half way point in the book). Recommend it. Helprin has a wonderful gift with the pen, much like our Canadian scribe lurking in New Hampshire.